Eras

The Enlightenment

Also Known As Age of Reason

Citation Formats

General Reference

History Atlas. "The Enlightenment." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://history.interactiveatlas.org/eras/the-enlightenment.

APA Style

History Atlas. (n.d.). The Enlightenment. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://history.interactiveatlas.org/eras/the-enlightenment

BibTeX

@misc{historyatlas-the-enlightenment,
  author = {History Atlas},
  title = {The Enlightenment},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://history.interactiveatlas.org/eras/the-enlightenment},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, was an intellectual and philosophical movement centered on Europe, traditionally dated from the death of Louis XIV in 1715 to the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, though its roots reach into the late seventeenth century and some historians extend it into the early nineteenth. It was characterized by an emphasis on reason, empirical evidence and the scientific method, and it promoted ideals of individual liberty, religious tolerance, progress and natural rights that directly shaped the political revolutions, in France and in the Americas, that closed the eighteenth century.

Facts

Disputed

Start Year

1715 1

Traditionally dated from the death of Louis XIV in 1715, though the movement's intellectual roots reach back into the late seventeenth century and some historians extend the period into the early nineteenth century.

End Year

1789 1

Conventionally closed with the French Revolution in 1789, though this boundary is not universally accepted.

Geographic Scope

Centered on Europe, especially France, Britain, the German lands and Scotland, with direct influence on Enlightenment-inspired political movements in Britain's American colonies. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections