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Developing more or less simultaneously in Germany, France, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and buoyed by the North American colonists' successful rebellion against Great Britain in the American War of Independence, the culmination of the movement spread through much of Europe, including the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia and Scandinavia, along with Latin America and instigating the Haitian Revolution. It has been argued that the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence, the United States Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and the Polish-Lithuanian Constitution of May 3, 1791, were motivated by "Enlightenment" principles.

Developing more or less simultaneously in Germany, France, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and buoyed by the North American colonists' successful rebellion against Great Britain in the American War of Independence, the culmination of the movement spread through much of Europe, including the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia and Scandinavia, along with Latin America and instigating the Haitian Revolution. It has been argued that the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence, the United States Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and the Polish-Lithuanian Constitution of May 3, 1791, were motivated by "Enlightenment" principles.

===Definitions==

==Definitions==

*1. The [[action]] of enlightening; the [[state]] of [[being]] [[enlighten]]ed. Only in fig. sense The imparting or receiving [[mental]] or [[spiritual]] light.

*1. The [[action]] of enlightening; the [[state]] of [[being]] [[enlighten]]ed. Only in fig. sense The imparting or receiving [[mental]] or [[spiritual]] light.

*2. Sometimes used [after Ger. Aufklärung, Aufklärerei] to designate the spirit and aims of the French [[philosopher]]s of the 18th c., or of others whom it is intended to associate with them in the implied charge of shallow and pretentious i[[Intellectual|ntellectualism]], unreasonable contempt for [[tradition]] and authority, etc.

*2. Sometimes used [after Ger. Aufklärung, Aufklärerei] to designate the spirit and aims of the French [[philosopher]]s of the 18th c., or of others whom it is intended to associate with them in the implied charge of shallow and pretentious i[[Intellectual|ntellectualism]], unreasonable contempt for [[tradition]] and authority, etc.

==Use of the term==

==Use of the term==

The term "Enlightenment" came into use in [[English]] during the mid-nineteenth century,[2] with particular reference to French [[philosophy]], as the equivalent of a term then in use by German writers, Zeitalter der Aufklärung (Age of the clarification), signifying generally the philosophical outlook of the eighteenth century. However, the German term Aufklärung was not merely applied retrospectively; it was already the common term by 1784, when [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant Immanuel Kant] published the influential essay "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_is_Enlightenment%3F Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?]"

The term "Enlightenment" came into use in [[English]] during the mid-nineteenth century,[2] with particular reference to French [[philosophy]], as the equivalent of a term then in use by German writers, Zeitalter der Aufklärung (Age of the clarification), signifying generally the philosophical outlook of the eighteenth century. However, the German term Aufklärung was not merely applied retrospectively; it was already the common term by 1784, when [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant Immanuel Kant] published the influential essay "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_is_Enlightenment%3F Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?]"