What area of the world did the enlightenment period have its start

The Enlightenment had its start in EUROPE.

Details/explanation:

The period known as the Enlightenment began with thinkers in the 17th century like René Descartes (in France) and Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes (in England) ... but was especially an 18th century phenomenon.  The publication of English philosopher John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1690 is often hailed as the beginning point of the Age of Enlightenment, an era that led up to and culminated in the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century.

The watchword of the Enlightenment was reason.  In 1784, Immanuel Kant, the most prominent German philosopher of the period (residing in the Kingdom of Prussia), expressed the Enlightenment's key idea in this motto:  “Dare to know!  Have the courage to use your own intelligence!”   The Enlightenment established a foundation of secularism in Western culture that has dominated society ever since.  While religion continues to play an important role in society, ever since the Enlightenment religion has been more and more pushed to the sidelines and public life has been more of a secular affair.

Other key names in Enlightenment thinking (in addition to those mentioned above) were Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu, and Rousseau in France and  Adam Smith and David Hume in Scotland.

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