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The impact of the Enlightenment
The impact of the Enlightenment went far beyond France and America, however, affecting virtually every country in Europe and all levels of society.
Some European monarchs even embraced the Enlightenment (or at least some parts of it) and used its principles to introduce reforms; these “enlightened despots” included Frederick the Great in Prussia, Catherine the Great in Russia, and Maria Theresa in Austria. In Holland and Britain, liberals within the political establishment used Enlightenment ideas to effect change. In Spain and Italy, as in France, intellectuals used them to criticize and prod the old regime.
Enlightenment ideas provided inspiration for political ideologies emerging in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from liberalism to socialism and communism. The emphasis on reason, experimentation, observation, and empiricism laid the foundation for modern social science and the way we study and understand human society today. But most importantly, the whole tenor of the Enlightenment laid the foundation for human rights, popular sovereignty, tolerance, and respect for law, values that lie at the core of modern European society.
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