Enlightenment Spreads and Enlightened Despots

Practice flashcards covering the spread of Enlightenment ideas, new artistic and literary styles, and the reforms of enlightened despots.

What were the regular social gatherings in Parisian mansions where philosophers, writers, and artists discussed Enlightenment ideas?

Salons

Who was the leading philosophe that created the influential multi-volume work called Encyclopedia?

Denis Diderot

What artistic style, characterized by grand, ornate design, dominated European art in the 1600s and early 1700s?

Baroque

What new artistic style of the late 1700s borrowed ideas and themes from classical Greece and Rome?

Neoclassical

Name two of the three most famous composers of the classical music period during the Enlightenment.

Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven

What new literary form, characterized by lengthy prose fiction with carefully crafted plots, became popular with the middle class in the 18th century?

Novels

What term describes absolute monarchs who embraced Enlightenment ideas and made reforms, but had no intention of giving up their power?

Enlightened despots

Which enlightened despot of Prussia called himself 'the first servant of the state' and introduced reforms like religious freedoms and the abolition of torture?

Frederick II (Frederick the Great)

Who was the most radical royal reformer among the enlightened despots, ruling Austria and attempting to abolish serfdom?

Joseph II

Which Russian empress, admired by philosophes, expanded her empire and proposed reforms, but ultimately gave nobles absolute power over serfs?

Catherine the Great (Catherine II)