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The Spirit of Laws was written by Montesquieu, a French judge. It was a treatise on political theory. One was that forms of government varied due to climate and circumstances, stating that despotism suited large empires in hot climates, while democracy only worked in small city-states. The other main idea developed in this book was that powers in the government must be separated. Montesquieu was anti-absolutism and believed in the separation and balance of powers.
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This book was published in 17 different volumes. The Encyclopedie compounded scientific, technical and historical knowledge into several comprehensive volumes. Almost all the French enlightenment philosophers contributed to the book, making it a collection of all their ideas. The book was widely read and bought across France. Around 25,000 volumes were sold across France before the Revolution.
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Adam Smith was a Scottish philosopher and economist who was considered the father of modern economics and his principle called the invisible hand. The invisible hand is a metaphor for the unseen forces that move the free market economy. He is best known for his book, the Wealth of Nations. Essentially, this book argued that a country's wealth lay in the productivity of its people, not its physical assets.
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On July 14th, 1789, an angry mob of Parisians stormed the Bastille, a prison for the influential. The governor had placed cannons inside the tower, and refused to remove them. This led to the crowd turning into a mob and assaulting the tower, forcing the governor to surrender. The mob, which was enraged by the death of 98 of the people among them, killed 6 soldiers. Several government officials, including the governor, were beheaded, and their heads were paraded around the city on pikes.