illuminatie

Illuminatie, in Dutch, refers primarily to the Illuminati, a name used by several secret societies. The most famous was the Bavarian Illuminati, founded in 1776 in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, by Adam Weishaupt. The group aimed to promote Enlightenment ideals—reason, secular governance, and moral reform—through a clandestine network of like-minded individuals. It recruited from educated circles, including lawyers, academics, and Freemasons, and operated with secrecy to avoid opposition from church and state.

The organization pursued reformist goals by influencing political and religious institutions from within and by spreading Enlightenment ideas among its members. It faced opposition from conservative and religious authorities and was banned by the Bavarian government in 1785. After the ban, the group dissolved, and historical records indicate that it never achieved wide political dominance. Nonetheless, letters and notes from the period reveal a structured, ideologically driven network rather than a monolithic political power.

In modern discourse, the term Illuminati has entered popular culture as a shorthand for a supposed clandestine global elite. Widely cited conspiracy theories claim that a single secret organization guides world events, often without credible evidence. Most historians and scholars treat these theories as unfounded. Today, the term is sometimes used by fringe groups or in entertainment, but it does not correspond to a verifiable, ongoing organization rooted in the original Bavarian Illuminati. The name itself derives from Latin illuminatus, “enlightened.”