The restoration is a very interesting time in history. People were moving to America from all over the world, especially Europe. America was a new nation full of oppertunity. It was during this time that the colonies rebeled and soon became their own nation. At the beginning of this period England had just ended a twenty year civil war and was just at the end of a devestating plague. In 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne. Along with Charles II came literature characterized by reason, moderation, good taste, and simplicity. .
In the resrotation period a lot of things were changing in Europe and especially England. With Charles II came a new era in culture. There were major cultural and political upheaval. When Charles II was back in charge on of the first things he did was to reopen theaters that were closed down some time before. Forty-seven years later England and Scotland united into Great Britain. During this time the literature was drastically changed because of the change in politics and culture. Great Britain became a much more industrialized nation. The readers were also changing. Reading was no longer just for the high society, common folk had also became literate. .
Along with literature changing old styles of writing also changed. Lyrical poetry went to the backround, sonnets became old fashioned, and the popular thing came to be novels. When the restoration was starting most authors still modeled everything they did on the classics, such as, Greek and Roman. Now people were starting to gain an understanding of the work and they were becoming less superstitiouis. With science came new reasons for things. This is the time when smaller minorites of the society were becoming mroe represed and were beginning to be ignored. When the puritans fell out of power this is when the theaters re-opened, satire appeared, and journalism was formed. .
Religion was also changing rapidly.
