The Enlightenment and Democratic Revolutions

Enlightenment Intellectual Foundations

The Enlightenment applied scientific methods and reason to human society, building on ancient Greek natural law, Christian concepts of human equality, and Renaissance individualism. Isaac Newton's discovery of universal physical laws inspired thinkers to seek natural laws governing human affairs. Thomas Hobbes argued in Leviathan (1651) that humans are naturally selfish, advocating an absolute monarchy supported by a social contract where citizens submit to authority to prevent chaos. John Locke countered in Two Treatises of Government (1690) that government power derives from the people to protect natural rights to life, liberty, and property, justifying the overthrow of King James II and rejecting the divine right of kings.

Enlightenment Political Theorists

Voltaire championed religious tolerance, free speech, and freedom of religion while criticizing Christianity and the French monarchy. Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued in The Social Contract (1762) that legitimate government rests on the consent of the governed through an agreement among free individuals responding to the general will. Baron de Montesquieu proposed in The Spirit of the Laws (1748) that liberty is best safeguarded through a separation of powers across three distinct branches: a legislature to make laws, an executive to enforce them, and courts to interpret them.

American Revolution and Constitutional Government

Following the French and Indian War, which ended in 1763 and was fought in Europe as the Seven Years' War, Great Britain imposed taxes like the Stamp Act in 1765 on its 13 North American colonies. Lacking parliamentary representation and barred from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains, colonists revolted starting with the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. On July 4, 1776, Americans issued the Declaration of Independence to King George III, drawing on Locke's theory of consent. After Britain surrendered in 1781, the initial Articles of Confederation proved too weak, leading delegates to convene in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. Shaped by James Madison, the resulting Constitution of the United States created a representative government, a federal system, and a separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches with checks and balances.

The French Revolution

In France, the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV, who ruled from 1643 to 1715, created mounting debt and unrest that passed to Louis XV and Louis XVI, who took the throne at age 19 in 1774 with his wife Marie Antoinette. Social inequality deepened because only commoners paid taxes, and poor harvests in the late 1780s caused severe hunger. Facing bankruptcy in 1789, Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General, which had not met since 1614. Frustrated by unfair representation, commoners broke away to form the National Assembly, initiating the French Revolution.