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These thinkers valued reason, science, religious tolerance, and what they called “natural rights” (life, liberty, and property). https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/enlightenment
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Author Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan in 1651. To protect us from inevitable anarchy, Thomas Hobbes argued, we need a leader and protector, whose position is governed by a contract with the people. A "social contract" https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/hobbess-leviathan#
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Author John Locke, published in 1689
Locke rejects the idea of the divine right of kings. He supports the idea of natural rights (especially of property), and argues for a limited constitutional government which would protect individual rights. https://oll.libertyfund.org/page/john-locke-two-treatises-1689 -
Author Montesquieu
Published: 1748 Montesquieu arguments in The Spirit of Laws were the classification of governments as republics, monarchies, or despotisms. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Montesquieu -
Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1758) The Social Contract argued against the idea that monarchs were divinely empowered to legislate. Rousseau states that only the people, who are sovereign, have that all-powerful right. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-social-contract-by-jean-jacques-rousseau -
Author: Voltaire (1759) Voltaire's Candide has many themes, but its most central is the inadequacy of optimistic thinking. Certain philosophers from Voltaire's time actively preached that the world was in its best possible state, created in perfect balance and order. https://www.owleyes.org/text/candide/analysis/themes -
King Louis XVI gave great support to the American independence effort, and France's backing was instrumental in the US victory. In 1778, he backed the Treaty of Alliance, which stated that France would ally with the US if Britain declared war.
Louis XVI was the only king of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy. https://www.biography.com/royalty/louis-xvi -
The Estates-General of 1789 was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm summoned by Louis XVI to propose solutions to France's financial problems. It ended with the French Revolution. https://www.ducksters.com/history/french_revolution/estates_general.php
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The French Revolution was a period of major social upheaval that began in 1787 and ended in 1799. It sought to completely change the relationship between the rulers and those they governed and to redefine the nature of political power. https://www.britannica.com/event/French-Revolution
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Took place at the beginning of the French Revolution during the meeting of the Estates-General. It was the dramatic act of defiance by representatives of the nonprivileged classes of the French nation. https://www.britannica.com/event/Tennis-Court-Oath
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On 14 July 1789, the Bastille (state prison) located on the east side of Paris, was attacked by an angry and aggressive mob. The prison had become a symbol of the monarchy's dictatorial rule. The event became one of the defining moments in the Revolution that followed.
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The Great Fear took place during the French Revolution. A time period of panic and riot by peasants and others about rumours of an “aristocratic conspiracy” by the king and the privileged to overthrow the Third Estate. https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Fear
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On 26 August 1789, the French National Constituent Assembly issued the Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen (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
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The Haitian Revolution has often been described as the largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western Hemisphere. Slaves initiated the rebellion in 1791 and by 1803 they had succeeded in ending not just slavery but French control over the colony. https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/haitian-revolution-1791-1804/
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The most successful slave rebellion in history created an independent Haiti and secured the Louisiana Purchase and the expansion of North American Slavery. https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/08/the-most-successful-slave-rebellion-in-history-created-an-independent-haiti-and-secured-the-louisiana-purchase-and-the-expansion-of-north-american-slavery.html -
Mary Wollstonecraft focuses on women's rights, arguing that women should be allowed to have the same educational opportunities as men and that denying them this opportunity inhibits their "usefulness" to society as well as making them unhappy. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/mary-wollstonecraft-a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-woman
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The execution of Louis XVI by guillotine, a major event of the French Revolution, took place on January 21, 1793 at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/king-louis-xvi-executed
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Reign of Terror lasted from September 1793 until the fall of Robespierre in 1794. Its purpose was to purge France of enemies of the Revolution and protect the country from foreign invaders. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255/kat_anna/terror.html
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In February 1794, the French republic outlawed slavery in its colonies. Revolutionaries in Saint-Domingue secured not only their own freedom, but that of their French colonial counterparts, too. France finally prohibited slave trafficking in 1817, but maintained the legal structures of slavery until 1848. http://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0065
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The Directory stopped the mass executions of the Reign of Terror and tried to relax some of the more radical views of the time. The Directory was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte following his return from a successful battle in Egypt. https://www.historycrunch.com/the-directory-of-the-french-revolution.html
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From 1791 through 1804, enslaved people and their allies in Saint-Domingue fought a protracted revolution to win their independence from France. Under the new leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the rebellion finally defeated French forces in late 1803. http://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0111
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Constitution of 1791, French constitution created by the National Assembly during the French Revolution. It retained the monarchy, but sovereignty effectively resided in the Legislative Assembly, which was elected by a system of indirect voting. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Constitution-of-1791-French-history
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This day in Caribbean history, June 8, 1801, Toussaint Louverture proclaimed the new constitution in Saint-Domingue and is declared Governor General for life. https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/this-day-in-history/haitian-revolution-toussaint-louverture/
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Two months after his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s colonial forces, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims the independence of Saint-Domingue, renaming it Haiti after its original Arawak name. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/haitian-independence-proclaimed
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The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict and political process, lasting from 1808 to 1821, resulting in Mexico's independence from Spain. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/spain-accepts-mexican-independence
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On May 24, 1813, South American independence leader Simón Bolívar entered the city of Santiago de los Caballeros de Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”). https://stampaday.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/simon-bolivar-el-libertador-de-venezuela/
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José de San Martín and his forces liberated Peru and proclaimed its independence from Spain on 28 July 1821. http://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/liberation-peru
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Gran Colombia was a country formed after New Granada declared independence in 1819. The rebels, led by Simon Bolivar, defeated the Spanish Empire but then fought among themselves. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Colombia
