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Thomas Hobbes was one of the Enlightenment thinkers. He believed that absolute monarchy was the best form os government. John Locke was another Enlightenment thinker who believed that constitutional monarchy was the best form of government. Jean-Jacques Rousseau preferred communism for government. Charles Montesquieu was another Enlightenment thinker who preferred democracy. Voltaire believed that government should be limited. Mary Wollstonecraft also believed that government should be limited.
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Leviathan or The Matter, Form and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil—commonly referred to as Leviathan—is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_(Hobbes_book) -
John Locke's most famous works are An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), in which he developed his theory of ideas and his account of the origins of human knowledge in experience, and Two Treatises of Government.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Two-Treatises-of-Government -
The Spirit of the Laws is a treatise on political theory that was first published anonymously by Montesquieu in 1748. Montesquieu covered many topics, including the law, social life, and the study of anthropology, and provided more than 3,000 commendations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_the_Laws -
The Social Contract, originally published as On the Social Contract, or, Principles of Political Rights by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau theorized about the best way to establish a political community in the face of the problems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Contract -
Candide is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/01/candide-voltaire-rereading-julian-barnes -
The opening of the Estates General, on 5 May 1789 in Versailles, also marked the start of the French Revolution. On 4 May 1789 the last grand ceremony of the Ancien Régime was held in Versailles: the procession of the Estates General. From all over France, 1,200 deputies had arrived for the event.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-beginning-of-revolution/ -
The French Revolution began on July 14, 1789 when revolutionaries stormed a prison called the Bastille. It sought to completely change the relationship between the rulers and those they governed and to redefine the nature of political power. Napoleon Bonaparte won the war and took power. There was no more absolute monarchy.
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On 20 June 1789, the members of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath, voting "not to separate and to reassemble wherever necessary, until the Constitution of the kingdom is established". It was a pivotal event in the French Revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_Court_Oath -
On 14 July 1789, a state prison on the east side of Paris, known as the Bastille, was attacked by an angry and aggressive mob. The prison had become a symbol of the monarchy's dictatorial rule, and the event became one of the defining moments in the Revolution that followed.
http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item106472.html -
On 26 August 1789, the French National Constituent Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen which defined individual and collective rights at the time of the French Revolution.
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-declaration-of-the-rights-of-man-and-of-the-citizen -
The cause of the start of the revolution was from a general slave revolt. The Haitian Revolution outlasted the French Revolution. In May 1791 Paris granted French citizenship to landowners which included some affranchis and excluded some whites, leading to civil war. With the aid of the British, the rebels scored a major victory against the French force there, and on November 9, 1803, colonial authorities surrendered.
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Raynal's prediction came true on the night of 21 August 1791, when the slaves of Saint-Domingue rose in revolt; thousands of slaves attended a secret vodou ceremony as a tropical storm came in the lighting and the thunder was taken as auspicious omens and later that night, the slaves began to kill their masters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution -
Ultimately unwilling to cede his royal power to the Revolutionary government, Louis XVI was found guilty of treason and condemned to death. He was guillotined on January 21, 1793.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/king-louis-xvi-executed -
The Directory was the governing five-member committee in the French First Republic from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and replaced by the Consulate.
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On June 16, 1799, Rigaud commenced the war of knives. Rigaud would flee Saint Domingue into France in 1800 but would return two years later in 1802 to assist with Napoleons invasion. Napoleon would send Charles Leclerc, a general for the French army, in 1802 to attempt to regain control of Haiti.
https://blog.uwgb.edu/revolutionary-connections/misery/ -
The French constitution adopted on December 15, 1799, that established the form of government known as the Consulate. The constitution tailor-made the position of First Consul to give Napoleon most of the powers of a dictator.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Constitution-of-1791-French-history -
This day in Caribbean history, June 8, 1801, Toussaint Louverture proclaimed the new constitution in Saint-Domingue and is declared Governor General for life. The constitution attempts to establish Saint-Domingue as equal to France, asserting the colony's autonomy while still trying to receive benefits from France.
https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/this-day-in-history/haitian-revolution-toussaint-louverture/ -
They expelled the French from Saint-Domingue, and on January 1, 1804, Dessalines, as governor-general, proclaimed the entire island of Hispaniola an independent country under the Arawak-derived name Haiti. The following September he adopted the title of emperor as Jacques I.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Jacques-Dessalines -
The Latin American Wars of Independence, which took place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, were deeply influenced by the American and French Revolutions and resulted in the creation of a number of independent countries in Latin America.
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On September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla, a Catholic priest, launched the Mexican War of Independence with the issuing of his Grito de Dolores, or “Cry of Dolores.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_War_of_Independence -
On May 24, 1813, South American independence leader Simon Bolivar entered the city of Santiago de los Caballeros de Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Liberator.
https://stampaday.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/simon-bolivar-el-libertador-de-venezuela/ -
On entering Lima, the Argentinian commander, Jose San Martin declared the independence of Peru on July 28th 1821. However, it wasn't until 1824, following the decisive victory came at the Battle of Ayacucho, under the leadership of Simon Bolivar and Jose San Martin, that independence was achieved.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Peru/Achievement-of-independence -
A victory at Boyaca in 1819 added Colombia to the territories free of Spanish control, and in September 7, 1821 Gran Colombia, a federation covering much of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador, was created, with Bolivar as president and Francisco de Paula Santander as vice president.
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/civilization-west-and-rest/killer-apps/property/map-american-expansion-u-s-a-and-gran-colombia/
