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The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment is mankind‘s final coming of age, the emancipation of the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance and error.

-Immanuel Kant

The Enlightenment usually refers to a period between the early 18th century and the French Revolution in1789, in which new thougts were emerging . The Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to use the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in Church and state.

Evolution

The enlightenment originated in England in 17th century，it was sparked by philosophers such as John Locke (1632-1704), mathematician Newton (1643-1727) and others. The Enlightenment flourished in late 18th century. The enlightenment met its climax in France. After that, it extended to Germany, the Netherland and North America.

1. Feudalism suppressed the bourgeois political rights, so they carry out anti-feudal and antichurch propaganda ideologically, to prepare for the struggle for power.

2.

With the Capitalist economic development, the bourgeoisie‘s economic s trength surges ，so they required their own interests ideologically.

3. ①The Renaissance and religious reform promoted the people's ideological emancipation;

②With the development of modern science, rationalism, as an asset Anti-feudal class provides the ideological and theoretical weapon.

Representative figures

Denis Diderot

He was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of the Encyclopedie.

Encyclopedie

The first Encyclopedia is considered to be the pinnacle of the Enlightenment period. It was compiled by Denis Diderot in 1751-1772.

Voltaire

He was famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties , including freedom of religion, free trade, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poetry, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets.

He was an outspoken supporter of social reform, despite strict censorship laws and harsh penalties for those who broke them. As a satirical polemicist , he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma and the French institutions of his day. His most famous work is Candide.

Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy heavily influenced the Fench Revolution,as well as the overall development of modern political,sociological,and educational thought.

The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain

The ground was prepared by the voyages of discovery from Western Europe in the 15th and 16th cent., which led to a vast influx of precious metals from the New World, raising prices, stimulating industry, and fostering a money economy. Expansion of trade an d the money economy stimulated the development of new institutions of finance and credi t (see commercial revolution). In the 17th cent. the Dutch were in the forefront financially, but with the establishment (1694) of the Bank of England, their supremacy was effectivel y challenged. Capitalism appeared on a large scale, and a new type of commercial entrepr eneur developed from the old class of merchant adventurers. Many machines were already known, and there were sizable factories using them, but these were the exceptions rather than the rule. Wood was the only fuel, water and wind the power of these early factorie s. As the 18th cent. began, an expanding and wealthier population demanded more and be tter goods. In the productive process, coal came to replace wood. Early-model steam engin es were introduced to drain water and raise coal from the mines. The crucial development of the Industrial Revolution was the use of steam for power, and the greatly improved e ngine (1769) of James Watt marked the high point in this development. Cotton textiles w as the key industry early in the Industrial Revolution. John Kay's fly shuttle (1733), Jame s Hargreaves's spinning jenny (patented 1770), Richard Arkwright's water frame (1769), Sa muel Crompton's mule (1779), which combined the features of the jenny and the frame, a nd Edmund Cartwright's power loom (patented 1783) facilitated a tremendous increase in output. The presence of large quantities of coal and iron in close proximity in Britain was a decisive factor in its rapid industrial growth. The use of coke in iron production had f ar-reaching effects. The coal mines from the early 1700s had become paramount in import ance, and the Black Country appeared in England at the same time that Lancashire and Y orkshire were being transformed into the greatest textile centers of the world. Factories an d industrial towns sprang up. Canals and roads were built, and the advent of the railroad and the steamship widened the market for manufactured goods. The Bessemer process mad e a gigantic contribution, for it was largely responsible for the extension of the use of ste am and steel that were the two chief features of industry in the middle of the 19th cent. Chemical innovations and, most important of all, perhaps, machines for making machines

played an important part in the vast changes. The Industrial Revolution did not in fact en d in Britain in the mid-1800s. New periods came in with electricity and the gasoline engi ne. By 1850, however, the transformation wrought by the revolution was accomplished, in that industry had become a dominant factor in the nation's life.