The Age of Enlightment was a time of progress, on many scientific areas. Sir Isaac Newton postulated his Laws of Universal Gravitation, linking celestial and earthy mechanics, and his three Laws of Motion. Enlighted philosophers and writers as Voltaire and Rousseau discussed their ideas in chique French salons, while even several monarchs (including Jozef II of Austria, Frederick II of Prussia, and Catherina II of Russia) adopted some of their theories in politics.

Already in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, there was an interest in the capabilities of the human mind. An influential philosophical tendency during the Age of Enlightment was Rationalism. The most important Rationalist was Descartes, by some called the father of modern philosophy, who challenged the blind acceptance of Aristotle's ideas. Other well known Rationalists were Spinoza, Malebranche and Leibniz.

In 1776, the United States of America was declared by the hand of Thomas Jefferson, whom in that year wrote the American Declaration of Independence - the 13 former British colonies in North America had separated themselves during the American Revolution fought from 1775 to 1783. A Constitution was drawn by the four Founding Fathers, and the nation was to become a republic. Revolution leader George Washington was elected first president.

In 1783, following military defeat, the United Kingdom acknowledged the United States as an independent state. In 1787, the 13 states sent their representatives to Philadelphia, where the Constitution for the new nation was to be written. The United States became a republic, with an elected parliament and president, adopting Montesquieu's Trias Politica.

The events in North America enlightened the French bourgeoisie to rebel against the Bourbon crown, eventually leading to the citizens of Paris to storm the Bastille prison on the 4th of July, 1789. In 1791, the new French Constitution was written, which gave the middle class of France more saying in the government.

However, a year later, radical revolutionaries established a republic, murdering King Louis XVI by the guillotine. Their leader, Robespierre, installed the Terreure. In the name of freedom, equality, and brotherhood, thousands of people from France's higher classes were murdered; palaces and churches devastated. In 1974, Robespierre himself was killed, and the Directoire government was installed one year later. In the midst of political chaos, the young army general Napoleon Bonaparta saw his chance to rise to power, installing himself as absolute ruler on the verge of the 19th century, in 1799.

18th century philosophy was mainly inspired by the French Revolution's principles of freedom, equality, and brotherhood. The new French constitutional was based upon the theories and ideas of the French philosopher Rousseau. Locke, Hume, and Berkely were three other influential British Empiricism philosophers of the time.