The Enlightened Reforms of Frederick the Great

After the end of the reign of Louis XIV in France and the following wars of the Spanish succession, the age of enlightenment slowly began to spread all over Europe by the words of writers and philosophers of the time such as Locke, Rousseau, Diderot, Hume, Leibniz and Montesquieu. The New Ideals included religious freedom, education, freedom of speech and political opinion. The monumental work that captured the essence of the enlightenment was Diderot's Encyclopedie, taking 25 years for its completion and in the end totaling a collection of no less than 35 volumes of 1000 pages each describing everything from how to knit a sock to methods of improving the manufacturing of artillery pieces. Of the monarchs of Europe none was a stronger believer of these ideas than the Prussian King, Friedrich II, also known as Frederick the Great.