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Name __________________________
THE AGE OF REASON
LIST OF TERMS AND IMPORTANT PEOPLE
AGE OF REASON: Period of history from the mid 1600s to around 1800 that grew largely out of the scientific work of Isaac Newton.
This was a time of a growing belief in the supreme goodness and power of reason as a means of realizing human potential, as well as
a period of rapid growth in science.
CIVIL WAR OF ENGLAND: 1642-49. The overthrow of the English monarchy by a force of mostly Puritan Parliamentarians led by
Oliver Cromwell.
COLONY: A territory distant from the state having control over it.
COPERNICUS, NICOLAS: 1473-1543. The Renaissance Polish astronomer who developed what has come to be known as the
Copernican System. This system states that the sun is the center of the solar system and that the planets revolve around it in
definite periodic orbits. This idea ran counter to the existing religious and scientific beliefs that the earth was the center of the
universe.
CROMWELL, OLIVER: 1599-1658. A puritan who ruled England under the title of “Lord Protector” from 1649-58.
DIDEROT, DENIS: 1713-84. An important French writer who published the first encylopedias during the mid 1700s.
DEISM: A popular 18th century philosophy that rejects traditional religions in favor of a view in which God is thought of as a sort
of “cosmic clockmaker” who builds a complex mechanical universe, sets it in motion, and then does not interfere with its actions. Ben
Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine were all strong supporters of Deism.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT: Loosely refers to the latter half of the 18th century; the last part of the Age of Reason.
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN: 1706-1790. American printer, diplomat, inventor, scientist, and statesman. He invented bifocals, the
Franklin Stove, the harmonica and proved that lightning is a form of electricity. Franklin also served in the Continental Congress,
served as ambassador to France during the Revolutionary War, and was on the committee that helped write the Declaration of
Independence.
GALLILEI, GALILEO: 1564-1642. Late Renaissance Italian mathematician, scientist, and astronomer. His work in astronomy
helped prove the Copernican system; however, he was forced to recant his views by the Roman Catholic Church during the Inquisition
of 1633. (The Church publicly apologized for its treatment of Galileo late in the 20th century.) Galileo also invented the thermometer.
GOETHE, JOHANN: 1749-1832. Great German poet, scientist, and public official during the Age of Reason.
HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY: A vast fur-trapping and trading company chartered by King Charles II of England in 1670 to Prince
Rupert of the Rhine and a group of merchants and court followers. This company was granted sole trading rights in much of what is
today the country of Canada as well as in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. The Hudson's Bay Company is still a successful business
today.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS: 1743-1826. A major figure of the Age of Reason who championed the cause of the perfectability of mankind
through education and science. Jefferson was a Deist and the principle author of the Declaration of Independence. He became the
third president of the U.S.
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Name __________________________
THE AGE OF REASON
LIST OF TERMS AND IMPORTANT PEOPLE (Continued)
JOHNSON, DR. SAMUEL: 1709-84. Compiled the first comprehensive English dictionary in 1775. Johnson’s dictionary was used
well into the 19th century.
LINNAEUS, CAROLUS (KARL VON LINNE): 1707-78. Swedish botanist who developed the first successful system for classifying
living things into similar groups, a system that is still in use today.
NEWTON, SIR ISAAC: 1642-1727. English scientist and mathematician considered to be the greatest figure in the history of
science. Newton’s work became the inspiration for The Age of Reason.
ORRERY: A popular 18th century scientific toy made of pulleys and spheres that could be cranked to mimmick the way the heavenly
bodies move around the sun.
PILGRIMS: A band of English Puritans who founded the Plymouth colony in 1620.
PURITANS: A religious group who wanted even greater reform of the Church of England than had been established by Queen
Elizabeth I. The Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England of the ceremonies and rich ornamentation that they believed
linked it too closely to the Catholicism they despised.
“PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA”: Isaac Newton’s most famous scientific book of 1686-87: “The
Mathematical Principles of Natural Science.”
QUAKERS: A religious group, also known as the “Society of Friends,” founded in England by George Fox in the 1600s. The friends
used silence in worship and rejected ritual; they also refused to sanction violence and supported humanitarian causes. William Penn
and Ben Franklin were Quakers.
REASON: To think coherently and logically; to draw conclusions from the facts.
THE RESTORATION: The return of the institution of the Monarchy in England in 1660. The period of the reign of King Charles II
(1660-85).
ROUSSEAU, JEAN-JACQUES: 1712-78. An important French philosopher of the Age of Reason. He believed that mankind was
basically good and he extolled the power and beauty of the emotions.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD: An approach to scientific research developed by Isaac Newton based on three essential points: 1. Observation
2. Generalization and 3. Experimentation. This method replaced the more mystical approach to science that had existed during the
Middle Ages and Renaissance and resulted in a spectacular growth in scientific research.
STUART, CHARLES: King Charles I of England, executed in 1649 by the Parliamentarians at the end of the English Civil War.
VOLTAIRE, FRANCOIS: 1694-1778. A foremost French writer and philosopher of the Age of Reason. He was a Deist, champion of
rationality, and was very much against absolute monarchy.
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Name __________________________
THE AGE OF REASON
TIMELINE
1642 Isaac Newton is born. Galileo dies. English Civil War begins.
1649 Execution of King Charles I of England. The Puritan Oliver Cromwell
rules England as “Lord Protector.”
1658 Oliver Cromwell dies; his son rules England.
1660 The Monarchy is restored in England. King Charles II ascends to
the throne.
1665 Black Plague ravages England. Newton begins an intense 18-month
period of scientific work which results in the invention of calculus, the
discovery of the laws of motion and gravitation, the development of the
mathematical method called the binomial expansion, as well as important
discoveries in optics, in the measurement of the masses of the sun and
planets, and in the motion of comets. Robert Hooke publishes his book
“Micrographia” and describes the first living cells.
1670 King Charles II establishes the Hudson's Bay Company.
1680 Clocks are equipped with minute hands for the first time.
1681 King Charles II grants the lands of Pennsylvania to the Quaker
William Penn, making Penn its absolute lord for an annual royal rent of
two beaver skins.
1685 The great composer Johann Sebastian Bach is born.
1686-87 Newton publishes what many consider to be the greatest book
in the history of science called “Philosiphiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica” which outlines his scientific insights.
1687 is used by many historians to be the date of the beginning of the
Age of Reason.
1688 “The Glorious Revolution” establishes the supremacy of the
Parliament over the Monarch in England.
1689 Isaac Newton becomes a member of Parliament in the House of
Commons for Cambridge.
1694 The great French writer Voltaire is born.
1696 The English Deist John Toland publishes his influential book
“Christianity Not Mysterious.”
1699-1702 Chatsworth House is remodeled to look like a Roman temple
with over 1000 acres of geometric gardens around it.
1704 Isaac Newton publishes his book called “Opticks.”
1706 Benjamin Franklin is born.
1707 Carolus Linnaeus is born.
1714 Gabriel Fahrenheit invents a mercury thermometer.
1719 Daniel Defoe’s book “Robinson Crusoe” is published.
1727 The earliest steam engines are in use.
1732 George Washington is born in Virginia.
1735 Carolus Linnaeus publishes his great book on the classification of
living things called “Systema Naturae.”
1743 Thomas Jefferson is born.
1744 Benjamin Franklin invents the Franklin Stove.
1751 Diderot’s encyclopedia begins appearing in installment volumes.
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1755 Dr. Samuel Johnson publishes the first real English dictionary.
1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Austria.
1760 King George III of England begins his 60-year reign.
1762 The fourth Duke of Devonshire has the course of the river changed
through his estate of Chatsworth and has the servants' village of Edensor
pulled down so that it doesn’t interfere with his view. James Bradley
publishes a star catalog that contains the measured position of 60,000
stars.
1765 James Watt invents a highly-improved steam engine.
1766 Henry Cavendish, grandson of the second Duke of Devonshire,
discovers the element hydrogen, which he calls inflammable air.
1769 Joseph Cugnot of France builds a steam-powered vehicle that can
carry four people at the speed of two and one-quarter miles per hour.
1770 Ludwig Von Beethoven is born.
1771 Luigi Galvani discovers the action of electricity in causing muscular
contraction.
1775 The English novelist Jane Austen is born.
1776 Americans declare their independence from England. Thomas Paine
publishes “Common Sense." Adam Smith publishes “The Wealth of
Nations."
1778 Antoine Lavosier, considered to be the father of modern chemistry,
announces that air consists of two different gases: one that can be used
in respiration that he called oxygen and another called nitrogen that
cannot. France joins America as an ally in the War of Independence; The
great French philosophers Voltaire and Rousseau both die.
1779 The first bicycles, called velocipedes, appear in Paris.
1783 The Treaty of Paris recognizes an independent United States of
America.
1785 The power loom is invented for weaving thread into cloth. The first
balloon crossing over the English Channel.
1789 The French Revolution begins. The first steam-powered cotton
factory opens in Manchester, England. William Hershel completes his
great reflecting telescope.
1791 Mozart dies a pauper at the age of 36. The metric system of
measurement is proposed.
1793 King Louis XVI is executed. The world's first professional society of
chemists is established in Philadelphia. Jean Batiste Lamarck argues
that fossils are the remains of organisms that at one time were alive.
1794 The famous chemist Lavosier is executed in France by a radical
faction of the French Revolution.
1796 Edward Jenner performs the first innoculation for smallpox.
1799 George Washington dies at Mount Vernon, Virginia. The Rosetta
stone is discovered in Egypt which turns out to be the key to unlocking
the mystery of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
1800 Chlorine is used to purify water.
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THE AGE OF REASON
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
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ACROSS
1. The historical period during which the great Polish
astronomer Copernicus was born is called the
___________________.
2. The historical period from roughly 1642-1800 is called
The Age of _______.
3. The Swedish botanist Carl __________ developed a
system for classifying living things into separate groups
which is still in use today.
4. A machine developed in the latter half of the 18th century
called the Spinning _______ revolutionized thread making.
5. A territory distant from the state having control over it
is called a____________.
6. The French writer Denis ________ published the first
encyclopedias in the mid 1700s.
7. The invention in the 1780s of power _______
revolutionized the way that thread is woven into cloth.
8. Mechanical devices called ____________________ were
in use by the end of the 18th century as sources of power
for various machines used in manufacturing. They began
to replace the use of water power.
©1995 Chariot Productions
DOWN
1. The ___________________expedition of 1804-1806 kept
detailed scientific records of the plants, animals, and
minerals of the American Pacific Northwest.
2. The ___________ Bay Company was formed in 1670 by
King Charles I.
3. A new form of mathematics called ____________ was
developed in the mid 1660s.
4. A man considered by many to be the greatest scientist
of all time is named Sir Isaac _________.
5. The scientific method consists of three parts: first,
observation, second, generalization and third
__________________.
6. The great statesman and amateur scientist who became
the third president of the United States has the last name
of_____________.
7. The great scientist who proved the theories of Nicholas
Copernicus, invented the thermometer, and died in 1642
is named __________ Gallilei.
8. Benjamin Franklin is well known not only for his
accomplishments as a statesman but also for his
experiments with the form of energy called______________.
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Name __________________________
THE AGE OF REASON
QUIZ
1. The Age of Reason was inspired in large part by the work of Sir Isaac Newton who not only
developed a new form of mathematics called _____________________ but also developed
a new approach to science we now call the scientific ________________________.
2. Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, developed a method for ___________________ living things
that is still in use today.
3. Denis Diderot began publishing the first ___________________________ in the mid 1700s.
4. In the year that Isaac Newton was born, 1642, the great Renaissance scientist Galileo died, and
in England the backers of the King found themselves involved in a _________________________
with the Parliamentarians.
5. In the year 1665, the people of England were terrified by the reappearance of __________________.
6. Oliver Cromwell was a member of a religious group called the __________________________.
7. The popular interest in science that swept the 1700s resulted in the invention of many
______________________ that eventually resulted in an Industrial Revolution.
8. During the 1700s, a substantial amount of world trade was in the hands of certain great companies
formed under Royal Charter. Among these companies were the East India Company, the Africa
Company, and the _______________ Company, which had the exclusive rights to trap and trade
in a large portion of North America.
9. The third president of the United States was a devoted amateur scientist. His name was
____________________.
10.The American printer well known for his statesmanship and investigations into the properties
of electricitywasnamed________________________.
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