The term "Enlightenment," rooted in an intellectual skepticism to traditional beliefs and dogmas, denotes an "illumined" contrast to the supposed dark and superstitious character of the Middle Ages.

Hailed as the first global conflict, Britain secures control of huge colonial territories in the Americas. Video: A history of Scotland: The Price of Progress.

Adam Smith, a rising figure of the new Scottish Enlightenment, studies the economics and morals that drive this new trade. Video: A history of Scotland: The Price of Progress.

American luminaries such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were profoundly influenced by Scottish Enlightenment thinkers in very personal ways. Franklin counted David Hume as one of the great ...