Editing History of France (section)

=== French Enlightenment ===
{{Main|Age of Enlightenment}}
[[File:Encyclopedie de D'Alembert et Diderot - Premiere Page - ENC 1-NA5.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Cover of the [[Encyclopédie]]]]

The "[[Philosophes]]" were 18th-century French intellectuals who dominated the [[French Enlightenment]] and were influential across Europe.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Reill |first1=Peter Hanns |title=Encyclopædia of the Enlightenment |last2=Wilson |first2=Ellen Judy |date=2004 |edition=2nd}}</ref> The philosopher [[Denis Diderot]] was [[editor-in-chief]] of the famous Enlightenment accomplishment, the 72,000-article ''[[Encyclopédie]]'' (1751–72).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Comsa |first=Maria Teodora |display-authors=et al |date=2016 |title=The French Enlightenment Network |journal=[[Journal of Modern History]] |volume=88 |issue=3 |pages=495–534 |doi=10.1086/687927 |s2cid=151445740}}</ref> It sparked a revolution in learning throughout the enlightened world.{{Sfnp|Wilson|1972}}

In the early part of the 18th century the movement was dominated by [[Voltaire]] and [[Montesquieu]]. Around 1750 the Philosophes reached their most influential period, as [[Montesquieu]] published ''Spirit of Laws'' (1748) and [[Jean Jacques Rousseau]] published ''Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences'' (1750). The leader of the French Enlightenment and a writer of enormous influence across Europe, was [[Voltaire]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire |date=2009 |editor-last=Cronk |editor-first=Nicholas}}</ref>

Astronomy, chemistry, mathematics and technology flourished. French chemists such as [[Antoine Lavoisier]] worked to replace the archaic units of weights and measures by a coherent scientific system. Lavoisier also formulated the law of [[Conservation of mass]] and discovered oxygen and hydrogen.{{Sfnp|Roche|1998|loc=Ch. 15}}