From the late 1700s to the late 1800s, there was a period of intellectual change that became known as the Enlightenment. Thinkers, writers, artists, political leaders, and others drove this movement. They believed they were shining the “light” of reason on the world.

The Enlightenment impacted the entire world. Enlightenment ideas emerged from ongoing discussions among many people. These thinkers, writers, and artists were particularly active in Europe and European colonies. They were connected to networks that moved around the globe. This allowed Enlightenment ideas to inspire major change..

What was so enlightening about the Enlightenment?

The Enlightenment started as a scientific movement and soon became a political movement. Enlightenment thinkers were devoted to studying and talking about topics that had been ignored for centuries. They did not always agree with each other.

The Enlightenment had roots in the Scientific Revolution. In 1687, Isaac Newton presented new laws in astronomy and mathematics. Following Newton, Enlightenment thinkers believed that a “natural law” could be discovered for all aspects of the world. However, they did not think that people could discover these laws through religion. Truth could only be found by examining the world.

Enlightenment politics can be traced to the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 in the British Isles. A constitutional monarchy was established in Britain.

This was a new form of government. Although Britain still had a king and queen, it also had a Parliament to represent the people. The English philosopher John Locke argued that government should be formed through a contract between people and their ruler.

For many Enlightenment thinkers and artists, slavery became not only an ethical issue, but also a metaphor for different sorts of oppression and liberation. Radical artist William Blake used the theme frequently in his work.

The Enlightenment impacted people’s views on economics and morals. Locke owned stock in the Royal African Company, which profited from trading slaves. He argued that slavery was acceptable under some conditions. Yet Locke rejected the idea that there were underlying differences people of different races. Most Enlightenment thinkers took Locke’s lead. They emphasized that all people had value as humans.

Even so, slavery kept growing and its profits helped many Europeans become wealthy. Enlightenment thinkers struggled with the fact that “progress” depended on slavery. Locke’s position became harder to maintain. Some religious groups and Enlightenment thinkers called for the abolition of slavery.

The Enlightenment and historical “progress”

Not everyone had an equal voice in the Enlightenment. Many thinkers believed that women, children, working people, and non-European people were less developed than white European men.

Almost no Enlightenment thinkers believed women should have political rights. Jean-Jacques Rousseau thought the goal of women’s education should be to please men. The English intellectual Mary Wollstonecraft challenged Rousseau’s ideas. Yet even though Wollstonecraft supported women’s education, she did not go so far as to say that men and women should have the same. She argued that educated women made better mothers. 

Ideas about human development were also popular at the time. Scottish Enlightenment philosophers William Robertson and Adam Smith believed that societies moved through stages of development. The final stage of human development was a society based in business and trade. This society looked much like Western Europe. Smith’s ideas became the foundation for modern capitalism.

So was the Enlightenment really that revolutionary?

Historians disagree about whether the Enlightenment was truly revolutionary. It provided new tools for examining the world and radical ideas, but inequality remained. European Enlightenment thinkers were typically white, male, and well-off. They did not usually want to completely change social institutions. Other people had less to lose. Calls for more revolutionary change grew louder as more people saw the gap between Enlightenment ideas and the world’s problems.

Who were the rebels pushing the Enlightenment to go further? Historians say they were multi-racial, multi-national, and working class. One example was Olaudah Equiano, an enslaved man and a sailor who became a leading voice in the abolitionist movement.

French playwright Olympe de Gouges was also an abolitionist. She wrote about women’s rights in 1791. She criticized women’s exclusion from the government formed during the French Revolution.

Latin America also had Enlightenment thinkers. People like José Antonio de Alzate criticized European Enlightenment ideas. He was especially concerned with European ideas about Native Americans. He said that local scholars understood native societies better than Europeans.

However, social elites continued to hold power. In some ways, modern states actually gained more power over people’s everyday lives. “Citizenship” was a powerful rallying cry for political participation, but it left people out.

The Enlightenment left a complicated legacy. Although it was liberating, changes had limits. Perhaps it is best to think of the Enlightenment as a process, not a single thing. When you use a microscope, write a novel, or carry a protest sign in the street today, you are engaging in a process of “enlightenment.”