Answer to Question #311600 in History for Sam

Question

Paragraph question

Explain the impact of the Enlightenment on European societies and the rest of the world by outlining the main ideas of Locke, Montesquieu and Wollstonecraft.

Answer 1

Enlightenment thinkers in Britain, France, and throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change. The Enlightenment produced numerous books, essays, inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, wars, and revolutions.

The Enlightenment helped combat the excesses of the church, establish science as a source of knowledge, and defend human rights against tyranny. It also gave us modern schooling, medicine, republics, representative democracy, and much more.  It provided the intellectual spark for the American and French Revolutions.