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Montesquieu publishes the book called On the Spirit of Laws
This book was a key part of the Enlightenment. In it, Montesquieu discussed the idea of checks and balances, and seperation of powers in a government. The U.S. constituion was created off this propostion, and so there are three branches of government, each one "checking" the deeds of the other branches. -
America Declares Independence
The American colonists rights' had not been protected, as they had been "taxed without representation." Therefore the American wanted to break away from Britain. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. In it he explained all the ways that the king of England had been a tryant, and that it was therfore justified for the colonists to break away from Great Britain. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress signed the document, and thus this day became known as Indepence Day. -
The French Revolution
For many years, France had been run with a monarchy. The first two estates had privlages, like having to pay little taxes, but the third estate was not privladged and they had to pay girant taxes. Because of this inequality, the peasants in the third estate became angry, and they started a rebellion. This rebellion lasted many years, and in it there was a "Reign of Terror" in which anyone suspected of supporting a monarchy was killed. At last the Directory was established, and there was peace. -
Napoleon Overthrows the Directory Via a Coup D'etat
Napoleon, who was a strong military leader, became very popular in France after conquering Sardinia. To make himself look like a decent guy, he held an election for whether he should be in power, and of course the citizens overwhelmingly voted in favor of him. He them dissolved the Directory, and instead crreated a system of Three Consuls. However, ultimatley, it became a system of one consul, and he was the one. -
Napoleon Crowns Himself Emperor and Starts to Create a Giant European Empire
Being power hungry, Napoleon made a deal with the Pope that would give Napoleon all political power, and the Pope all religous power. When the Pope was going to crown Napoleon, Napolean took the crown from the Pope and put it on his head himself. This symbolized to the people that he had more authority than the Pope, and more than God. He then set out to create an Empire throughout Europe, which he did through aliances, conquering countries, or putting in puppet rulers who would obey Napoleon. -
Haiti Wins Freedom from France
This was the first Latin American colony to break away, and the first revolution done by slaves. The slaves in Hait, then Saint Domingue, rebelled against the French people there enslaving them. Toussaint L'Ouverture lead the revolution at first, but then he was captured and Jean-Jaques Dessalines took over and won the revolution for the slaves. -
Padre Hidalgo Calls for Mexican Independence
Padre Hidalgo was a poor but very smart priest, and he knew of the ideas of the Enlightenment. He gathered up a lot of Indians and mestizos, and in his town Dolores and marched toward Mexico City, but the rich creols were scared of losing their lives and property, so they defeated him. Eventually however, when Spain got taken over by liberals, and the creols became concerned that this would mean loss of privlages, they declared independence from Spain, and thus Mexico was inependent. -
Napoleon Is Defeated at the Battle of Waterloo
This was Napoleon's final battle. He had come back from Elba, and taken over as emperor again. But he failed in this battle, and the British beat him, captured him, and sent him to Saint Helena.
