THE AUGUSTAN AGE

When Queen Anne died without any heirs, the English throne was offered to her nearest Protestant relative, George of Hanover, who thus became George I of England. Throughout the long reign of George, his son, and grandson, all named George, the very nature of English society and the political face of the realm changed. 

In part this was because the first two Georges took little interest in the politics of rule, and were quite content to let ministers rule on their behalf. These ministers, representatives of the king, or Prime Ministers, rather enjoyed ruling, and throughout this "Georgian period" the foundations of English political party system was solidified into something resembling what we have today.

But more than politics changed; English society underwent a revolution in art and architecture. This was the age of the grand country house, when many of the magnificent  homes that we can visit today were built.

Abroad, the English acquired more and more territory overseas through conquest and settlement, lands that would eventually make up an Empire stretching to every corner of the globe.  Read here.

1714 - 1727

Queen Anne  was succeeded by George I of the House of Hanover, who was a descendant of the Stuarts through his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth, daughter of James I. He was an unpopular king partly because of his attachment to Germany, he didn't speak English  and had no knowledge of British customs. During George's reign, the powers of the monarchy diminished and Britain began a transition to the modern system of cabinet government led by a Prime Minister.  This laid the foundations for that form of Parliamentary monarchy which has been in existence  in England  ever since. During his reign, real power was held by the Whigs’ leader,  Sir Robert Walpole,  Britain's first Prime Minister.

1727- 1760

George II  exercised little control over British domestic policy, which was largely controlled by Great Britain's parliament. During the last years of  his reign, William Pitt the Elder of the Whigs, was appointed Prime Minister. He became famous  as the wartime political leader of Britain in the Seven Years' War, especially for his single-minded devotion to victory over France. Victory made Britain dominant in world affairs.  He was also known for his wide popular appeal, his opposition to corruption in government, his advocacy of British greatness, expansionism and colonialism, and his antagonism toward Britain's chief enemies and rivals for colonial power, Spain and France.

The 18th century in English literature has been called the Augustan Age, the Neoclassical Age  and the Age of Reason. 

The Augustan Age  took its name from the Roman Emperor Augustus,  whose reign was characterised  by great political and social stability. Indeed,  during the Augustan Age  England  enjoyed  internal civil peace and  prosperity after the wars and conflicts of the previous century. 
Moreover, the middle classes expanded considerably  in commercial, agricultural and industrial  ventures.  Middle class people began to frequent clubs and  coffee-houses, where they met to exchange ideas and opinions  and read newspapers. It was  in this period   that journalism  began to flourish.

The literature of this period was distinguished by its striving for harmony and precision, its urbanity, and its imitation of classical models such as Homer, Cicero, Virgil, and Horace. 
The Augustan Age  was  also characterised  by the spirit of  the Enlightenment which was spreading throughout Europe. The Enlightenment contrasted with the darkness of irrationality and superstition which characterised the Middle Ages. Immanuel Kant, one of the greatest of Enlightenment thinkers,  said that "the watchward  of  the Enlightenment is:  sapere aude!  Have the courage to use one's  own reason!"   The Enlightenment  implied a new  way of thinking characterised by a philosophical, scientific and rational spirit, a general scepticism and freedom from superstition.  Belief in progress and  in the power of reason increased  and was a distinctive trait of the  period, which is also known as  the Age of Reason.

The literature of the Augustan Age was undoubtedly dominated by the rise of the novel. The Chambers 20th Century  Dictionary defines a novel as "a fictitious prose narrative or tale presenting  a picture of real life". In this sense, the idea we have of  the novel comes from the 18th century. Before that time there were plenty of forms of prose fiction,  but these certainly didn't  present a picture of real life. 
The rise of the novel was influenced by the growth of the increasingly  affluent middle classes, whose outlook was  mainly practical and  realistic.  They were beginning to  buy and read more books  and  many of these new readers were women.  The new reading public were not interested in stories of chivalry or  romance,  or in fantastic tales;  they wanted to read stories which reflected their own interests and problems  with characters they could more or less identify with.
The father of the English novel is generally considered to be Daniel Defoe. His three great novels Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders and Roxana were all published before 1730.
As to Robinson Crusoe, the protagonist belongs to the middle class, he is full of enterprise and commercial wisdom;  faith in God's favour was also a distinguishing  feature  of the Puritan middle class, and this is reflected in Defoe's novels.

The novels by Samuel Richardson present the respectable, pious side of the middle class. They praise virtues like temperance, economy, sobriety and modesty, all typically bourgeois. Women were often the heroines of novels and were also avid readers of them.

Here   you can download a mind map of the Augustan Age. I hope you will find it useful!