During the Age of Enlightenment, what was believed about progress?

• A. It applied only to Europe
• B. It could not be advanced by science
• C. It had universal application and could spread across the world from Europe
• D. It depended on religious authority

Answer: (C)

The age’s idea about progress is that it is universal and can spread beyond Europe due to the power of reason, science, and enlightened institutions. Thinkers of the Enlightenment believed that the laws of nature and human improvement were not confined to one place; with rational inquiry, education, and reforms in government, societies everywhere could advance in the same way. This optimistic, universal view underneath Enlightenment confidence supported the notion that progress could be shared globally, not restricted to Europe. At the same time, this perspective sometimes carried Eurocentric assumptions about diffusion, but the core belief was that progress was applicable to all humanity and capable of spreading from Europe outward.