The Enlightened Despots: Catherine The Great, And Joseph II

“The Age of Enlightenment” was a period during the 18th Century that was committed to the rise of human intellect and rationality in evaluating society (Waters and Crook, 1993). Enlightenment emerged out of the scientific revolution, it challenged traditions, more specifically Christianity and started building a new framework that separated religion from politics.

The Enlightenment period, also known as The Age of Reason, was a period of social, religious, and political revolution throughout the 18th century which changed the thoughts of man during this “awakening” time. It was a liberation of ignorant thoughts, ideas, and actions that had broken away from the ignorant perception of how society was to be kept and obeyed thus giving little room for new ideas about the world. Puritan society found these new ideas of thought to be extremely radical in comparison to what they believed which was a belief of strong rational religion and morality. Enlightened society believed that the use of reason would be a catalyst of social change and had a demand of political representation thus resulting in a

The Enlightenment was a time of change in Europe. There were many new ideas, and various influential thinkers that inspired new invention and also inspired revolutions. All of these thinkers had different views on people and government and different views of people and how they act. Many of these authoritative individuals thoughts still influence us even today. Many of their ideas are used in government and also as guidelines for people to live their lives by.

The Age of Enlightenment, a movement during the 17th and 18th century started from the Europeans, later moving into American colonies. The point of this movement was for the society to reform on a new base such as emphasizing reason and individualism over tradition. Enlightenment thinkers, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Beccaria, Locke, and Voltaire helped launched this project amongst Europeans. John Locke, for example, criticized absolute monarchy and favored self-government. Voltaire also believed that people should be able to speak their minds without the fear they may be punished. Through these philosophy influence, this eventually leads to European rulers ruling with a sense of equality, democratic governance, and abolition.

Enlightenment: The Enlightenment was an eighteenth-century movement in Western philosophy. It was an age of optimism; the movement was the idea that believed reason and knowledge could lead to progress and advancements in a society. At its core was a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals as well as questioning government especially the monarch. The significance of the Enlightenment was that it became the idea and thought that we, the people have all right to question the government and have the right to overthrow the leader if the leader is corrupt. Many people of the Enlightenment were John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Thomas Paine all these men help construct the ideas the United States would construct onto their Constitution. The ideas

The Enlightenment era was a new intellectual movement that stressed reason and thought and the power of individuals to solve problems. Even though different philosophers approached their goal differently, they achieved it none the less. They all approached their goal differently due to their different upbringings, their different backgrounds, and most importantly their different environments. A few among the many enlightened thinkers were Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Baron Do Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. While some of their idea’s are not used in modern society, they were all instrumental to the modern society we live in today.

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement that sparked a new way of thinking. In the 18th century, people were questioning whether the church should have the excessive amount of power it had. Since the British had the power in America, colonials were beginning to be enlightened similarly to Europeans. One of

During the Enlightenment period, Monarchy was one of the most common forms of government. In a Monarchy, the king or queen had complete control of their entire kingdom and its people. Many people including philosophers

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. The French Revolution gave rise to Enlightenment ideas as for it gave people a language to articulate injustices. During the time of the French Revolution, there were many social conflicts that cause individuals to question the ideas of the Enlightenment and present their views and thoughts of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was initially seen as positive effect; however, the social conflicts and the amount of violence and events that occurred within the French Revolution resulted in people challenging the Enlightenment views of society, politics, and human nature. Documents two, three, four, five, six, ten, and eleven are representations of how the social conflicts caused people to seek freedom and better privileges, and uses their view of Enlightenment to achieve their goal.

The Enlightenment was an eighteenth-century movement within Western philosophy. This movement was not necessarily about ideas, but more about recognizing problems of human conditions of the state and the need of reforms. It also strongly supported the questioning of different traditions such as institutions, customs, and morals. The Enlightenment influenced many different events in history, one example being the colonial independence movement.

Humanism, exploration, and modern ideas of science all contributed to the beginning of the Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, a time of perfecting society. In the 1600s and 1700s, some monarchs ruled as enlightened despots, which minorly influenced the society. Some philosophers wanted to make bigger chances as they began developing secular views, ultimately seeking democracy. When seeking this goal, they found the many flaws with society and government. As natural laws took shape in the 18th century, it revolutionized government and changed the nature of society.

The Enlightenment is intriguing period lasted from 1600 to1800.French historians traditionally place the period between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution. The Enlightenment is known in French as the ‘’Siècle des Lumières’’ (Century of Enlightenment) was a philosophical and architectural movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the18th century.

Enlightened despotism is defined as "a form of government in the 18th century in which absolute monarchs pursued legal, social, and educational reforms inspired by the Enlightenment" (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica). The magnitude of the philosophy movement known as the Enlightenment sent ripples throughout Western society. The philosophers believed that in order to improve society they had to "enlighten" the monarchs. The views of the Enlightenment did to find their way inside the palaces of Europe's leaders; however, the monarchs retained their great power of absolute rule. Among these enlightened despots of the age were Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Joseph II of Austria. These leaders all attempted to bring their respective countries into a new age. The basis of enlightened despotism was the idea of improving the lives of a country's citizens. This concept of leadership during this time was ultimately a good idea, but it was not successfully exercised to its fullest extent.

An enlightened despot is a ruler who has embraced enlightenment ideas. The original enlightened despot was Frederick the Great of Prussia who was a self proclaimed servant of the state. Frederick believed that the king’s purpose was to serve his country, this was a revolutionary idea for a king in the 18th century. Enlightenment ideas extended to other rulers in Russia such as Catherine the Great. Catherine was able to reform the Russian military and even give more freedoms to the serfs when she could.

Hi Alana, I like how you touched on the fact that the Enlightenment was built on the foundation of accepting the new and abandoning the old. The world, especially Europe during the eighteenth century was certainly abandoning the once relgious aspects of ruling and were going towards a more secular and scientific way built on reasoning rather than religious tradition. I don’t necessarily think any ruler could be considered completely enlightened because many rulers may have claimed to be enlightened rulers, but in reality only wanted to appease their people and make it seem as if they were giving full rights. They did not give way to full democracy in which people could seek full happiness because in actuality they were really just looking