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What was the Enlightenment?

The Enlightenment, also called the Age of Reason or the Age of Rationalism, was a period during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when European philosophers stressed the use of reason as the best method for learning the truth. Such philosophers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and Voltaire (1694–1778) in France and John Locke (1632–1704) in England pondered aspects of education, law, social theory, superstition, and ignorance. Hallmarks of the Enlightenment include the idea that the universe is systematic though vast and complex; the belief that men and women are capable of understanding the universe; and the philosophy of Deism. According to Deism, God created the world and natural laws, then withdrew from involvement in the workings of the universe. During the Enlightenment extensive intellectual activity took place, including the publication of several encyclopedias and numerous...

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1. Early Ages
   1. When did history begin?
   2. When did humans first walk on the face of the Earth?
   3. Who were the Neanderthals?
   4. What was the prehistoric era?
   5. What was the Stone Age?
   6. How did the Bronze Age advance technology?
   7. Why has iron been called the "democratic metal"?
2. Ancient Civilizations
   1. What were the achievements of the ancient Egyptians?
   2. What was the first advanced civilization in Europe?
   3. What are the Seven Wonders of the World?
   4. What was the Myceneaen Age?
   5. What were the Dark Ages of ancient Greece?
   6. Which classical Greeks influenced Western civilization?
   7. What government ruled Rome before the Roman Empire?
   8. What was the Pax Romana?
   9. How did the Roman Empire differ from the Holy Roman Empire?
   10. Who were the Celts and what happened to them?
3. Middle Ages And Renaissance
   1. Were the Dark Ages the same as the Middle Ages ?
   2. Who were the Huns?
   3. Who were the Visigoths and Ostrogoths?
   4. Who were the first warriors to fight on horseback?
   5. Who started the fall of the Roman Empire?
   6. Who were the Vandals?
   7. Who were the Franks?
   8. Who were the Gauls, and what happened to them?
   9. Who were the Lombards, Saxons, and Angles?
   10. Who were the Vikings?
   11. What is feudalism?
   12. What was a lord?
   13. What was a serf?
   14. What were vassals?
   15. What was a knight?
   16. Who were the samurai?
   17. What was a papal state?
   18. What was the role of the Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages?
   19. What was the Investiture Struggle?
   20. What were the three great kingdoms of western Africa?
   21. What was the Holy Roman Empire?
   22. What was the Renaissance, and where did it begin?
   23. Who were the great Renaissance artists, writers, and thinkers?
   24. What was the northern Renaissance?
   25. When did European colonialism begin?
4. The Modern Age
   1. What was the Enlightenment?
   2. What was the scientific revolution?
   3. What were the effects of the Industrial Revolution?
   4. What was the impact of World War I?
   5. Was the cold war really a war?
   6. When did the cold war start?
   7. What led to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe?
   8. How did the Soviet Union fall apart?

1. Industrial Revolution