The Age of Reason

The 18th century was a time of major change in Europe. With the start of the scientific revolution in the 17th century, a time of drastic change began in western Europe. During this time period, people became more concerned with experimentation and concrete evidence than they did religion. During this time, the glorious revolution happened in England and in France, absolutism was being strongly challenged. Also being challenged were the widely accepted principles of inequality and justice. During the 17th and into the 18th century, the common belief was of inequality- one was born into a certain class and remained there for the rest of their lives. However, philosophes of the time began to challenge this, and the movement for equality gained support. Also, the justice system (if you can call it that) began to be challenged. The justice system was a very corrupt one, proven by France's justice system, where these positions were bought, not earned. Therefore, officials would take bribes from criminals, and let the criminals off to roam the streets. As you can imagine, this did not bode well for crime rates of the time, and the philosophes were right in thinking the system needed reform. Jumping forward a few years, these rights that people of the 17th century thought up are still held as the basis of American and European society today. I guess i can relate to the 1600's in a way.