Now, add to these historical facts, the fact that the 18th century (the 1700s) was the Age of Reason or the Age of the European Enlightenment. Look at the chart below. Do you remember these Enlightenment thinkers?

John Locke

1-Believed governments obtain their authority from the consent of the people they govern

2-Opposed to Divine Right of Kings

Natural Rights: Life, Liberty, Property

Baron de Montesquieu

1-Separation of powers

2-Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch of Government

3-To prevent tyranny

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1-Popular sovereignty

2-a doctrine in political theory that government is created by and subject to the will of the people

Voltaire

1-Religious Freedom

2-Freedom of Speech

“During the European Enlightenment, thinkers were setting forth the idea that governments should be structured on a foundation of law and that a contract existed between the government and the governed. It was not too great a step from that idea to the belief that revolution against those who abused the existing contract was justified. The makers of the American revolution and later the founders of the American constitutional system of government were guided in their actions and beliefs by the theory of natural rights and the idea of representative government, as advocated by the Enlightenment thinkers.”

Now, write a reflective paragraph on how many forces came together to create a desire for a new type of government; a new society.