Over two hundred years ago, Europe was a very different place. To the modern eye, 18th century Europe would be unrecognizable from its current state. However, the path to this new Europe was not strewn with pitfalls, but rather a journey strewn with pitfalls. Due to the introduction of new ways of thinking, the emergence of multiple revolutions, changes in style of government and leadership, which led to the creation and extinction of many countries as well as the rearrangement of borders and the formation of a European Union, the Europe of today is hardly comparable to the Europe of our history books. The transformation that Europe has undergone has spanned a period of more than two hundred years and has made it the most unified power of the 21st century that we know today. One of the new ways of thinking introduced to Europe that changed the course of history was the idea of ​​Enlightenment. As Immanuel Kant defines it, “Awakening is the emergence of man from his immaturity which he himself generated. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without the help of another” (Reader p. 33). For Enlightenment philosophers like Kant, John Locke, Olympe de Gouges and Voltaire, life was about reason, individualism and human rights, not the state or a king who believed that he was the State. The Enlightenment encouraged individuals to think for themselves; and many people took advantage of this opportunistic thinking. In France, the Third Estate pushed for equal rights by presenting its own books of grievances at the General Assembly of the Estates in 1789. John Locke, an Englishman, proposed the idea that human nature is inherently good, that human nature is shaped by education, that everyone's education is a...... middle of paper...... a partner that can compete with the United States in making the world more stable, supporting a thesis popular in Europe known as the “counterbalance thesis” (Reid 3). This union is a far cry from the warring and conflicting countries of past centuries. Comparing the modern European Union to 18th century Europe is a task that requires a lot of thought. Europe has a huge history that spans many countries, not just one. With the events of the French Revolution, the Age of Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the multiple revolutions across Europe in the 19th century, and the numerous rulers and wars, Europe has experienced extreme transformation over the past two hundred years. Europe today is unrecognizable from that of the 18th century, but without its trying history, it would not be the power it is today..