The Age of Reason Essay -- history

The Age of ReasonThe Age of Reason was a period in time that took place from the Peace of Utrecht (1713), to the French conversion of 1789. It was a period when reason basically replaced religion as the manoeuver principle in art, thought, and the governance of men. Unquestioned acceptance of the old enounce of society and the old ways of statecraft yielded to a new nature of critical inquiry which demanded some rational justification for the existing kindly system. People thought that the general application of reason would free europium from the artificialities, restrictions, injustices, and superstitions which that was transmissible from the Dark Ages. Reason would create a society of equity and order. The traditions, customs, and autonomous rights of the nobility and the church were essentially alien to the spirit of freethinking and operated to block the establishment of centralized, well ordered states. In central and east Europe and many minor states of the continent, the main contenders against the powers of the nobility and the clergy were the dynastic sovereigns. contest between the great states was ruthless and the monarchy which failed to overhaul its internal administration, faced dismemberment. desire to focus on their own authority, the crowned heads struggled with the separatism of provinces, which their royal houses had inherited through medieval and 17th century wars and marriages. They tried to introduce amity in law and administration th...