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The Glorious Revolution lead to the Bill of Rights 1689, which clearly enumerated the rights and responsibilities of the sovereign, and also of parliament. This was a major event that lead to the end of Absolutism.
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French philosopher who argued that private property was essential to a functioning society, and his philosophy was cited in the French Revolution.
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In The Wealth of Nations, Scottish economist Adam Smith argues for a laissez-faire form of capitalism, in which the government has only a minimal role in a market-based economy.
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The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was a fundamental document that lead to the development of the concept of human rights, and it was a byproduct of the uprising in the French Revolution.
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The Industrial Revolution, which started in Britain in the 1780s but did picked up a significant amount of momentum after 1830, lead to specialization and automation in the means of production, which was the result of innovations, such as the sewing machine.
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In the trough of The Great Depression, British statesman John Maynard Keynes public The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, in which he challenged the laissez-faire orthodoxy and showed why market economies are prone to occasional bouts of decline.