At the turn of the century, the content and support for absolutism slowly declined throughout

European countries. Through the increasing skepticism of Europeans for the world around them and the
authority that led them, the Enlightenment movement of influential and radical ideas was born.
Although one may believe that the Enlightenment encouraged more gradual reforms, it is evident that
through the advocation to large changes to the government and the ideas of society, the Enlightenment
more pushed for radical reforms.

The Enlightenment encouraged some minor changes in the government. In Moses

Mendelssohn’s Jerusalem; a Treatise on Ecclesiastical Authority and Judaism, he expresses his belief that
whoever is in power, should also be obliged to follow the laws. (Doc 4) This is an example of how the
Enlightenment also encouraged smaller changes to the government in hopes of gradual, nonradical
changes. However, the Enlightenment still largely encouraged more radical changes as it greatly
contributed to the rise of nationalism, liberalism, and republicanism, changing the scene of society and
the government in and after the Enlightenment.

In the Enlightenment, the Liberalism movement also quickly became more widespread in
Europe, with some changes to its general idea. In Peter Forsskal’s “Thoughts on Civil Liberty”, he laid the
idea that liberty is good for the people, however, certain limits should be used to prevent the abuse of
freedom. (Doc 2) This idea of limited liberalism was also expressed by Thomas Hobbes in his social
contract. Hobbes believed that people are evil by nature, and a strict rule must be imposed on them to
keep peace. The idea of limited liberalism grew in the Enlightenment as an example of the advocation of
large, radical changes.

Emerging ideas that the monarchy should not hold as much power as they did influenced the
ideals that showed up in the Enlightenment. In the English Civil War, the question of whether the
monarch or the parliament should hold more power was settled violently. Samuel von Pufendorf’s Of
the Law of Nature of Nations, states the idea that the Council of Commons, or the representation of
common people, should have more power in the affairs of government, and that the Prince should have
appropriate bounds to his powers through the Fundamental laws. (Doc 1) The emergence of similar
ideas that the authority should be weaker represented the push for radical changes in the
Enlightenment. In Pierre Charles Baquoy’s King Frederick II (the great) of Prussia visiting Voltaire, the
idea that some monarchs, later known as Enlightened despots, were influenced by the ideas of the
Enlightenment to change how they ruled. (Doc 5) Frederick II would eventually allow press freedom and
other radical changes to the government because of Enlightenment influence, as well as even openly
praising the works of Voltaire, an influential Enlightenment philosophe. These radical changes to the
thoughts of government would eventually lead to large changes to how monarchial governments
functioned and even anti-Monarchial movements and revolutions in the 18 th and 19th century.

Although the Enlightenment, at some parts, advocated for gradual and minor changes, the
movement is largely marked by the many radical reforms it led to; including but not limited to the
downfall of absolutism and the rise and support of liberalism. The Enlightenment movement will later
lead to the further fall of the church’s power in government affairs, as well as large radical movements
like the French Revolution, dramatically changing the political and social scene of Europe and destroying
the conservative status quo in many European countries.