The last period period laid the foundations for the changes you are about to see in this period. The people in the image/banner above don’t look very modern. They’re not. The Enlightenment was a movement in the 18th Century (1700s) that led to the changes in government that brought you such governments as The United States, the French Republic, Haiti, and the 5+ countries that Bolivar freed. Most of the influential writings in the Enlightenment happened in the last period or at the VERY beginning of this period (c. 1750). But, if you don’t understand the Enlightenment, you can’t understand the Revolutions. Think of the Scientific Revolution; but instead of blood circulation or astronomy; apply that logic and reasoning to government… Why do we have a King again? Because God said so? Nah… that can’t be right… This is the Enlightenment:

1. ENLIGHTENMENT
2. REASON
3. PHILOSOPHES
4. LEVIATHAN
5. NATURAL RIGHTS

1. LEVIATHAN, 1651, Thomas Hobbes (ENGLAND)
2. TWO TREATISES ON GOVERNMENT, 1689, John Locke (ENGLAND)
3. THE SPIRIT OF LAWS, 1748, Montesquieu (FRANCE)
4. THE SOCIAL CONTRACT, 1762, Jean-Jacques Roussau (FRANCE)
5. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 1776, Thomas Jefferson, (USA)

1. LEVIATHAN FRONTISPIECE, Abraham Bosse, 1651 (Notice how the King is huge, like a Leviathan and made up of the people?)

2. IN THE SALON OF MADAME GEOFFRIN IN 1755, Lemonnier, 1812 (This is kind of like the School of Athens, but for the Enlightenment. These are all Philosophes… The bust? It’s Voltaire)

3. IF THERE IS SOMETHING YOU KNOW, COMMUNICATE IT, IF THERE IS SOMETHING YOU DON’T KNOW, SEARCH FOR IT. Engraving, Encyclopedie, 1772 (Truth is the lady in the middle at the top and she is being unveiled by Philosophy & Reason)

4. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, John Trumball, 1818

1. All these Scientists in the last era were talking about looking at the world logically and using reason to determine science stuff… The Philosophes (political philopher thinker types) decided to use this way of thinking and apply it to the Government and Society.
2. They all use the same way of thinking about people: In a “state of nature” how do humans act? So, like if we all lived in post-apocalyptic times a la Walking Dead… How would people behave?
3. Hobbes thought we were all super mean and evil and needed a strong central government to keep us in line.
4. Locke and Rousseau thought the opposite and that laws should be made to protect us and our stuff.
5. Jefferson put the whole thing together into one package called the Declaration of Independence which sparked this whole Revolutions trend that took place from 1776 into the 1800s.