Appetizer

Early Enlightenment figures such as John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, David Hume, and Francis Bacon, in dialogue or debate with the religious movements of the day, set the stage for the intellectual developments of the late 1700s. However, two major political events of the day provided the impetus for an intense development of political thought during these decades.

The first was the American War for Independence, officially inaugurated with the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776, culminating in the Treaty of Paris recognizing American independence in 1783. The process of the American colonies arguing for and claiming their independence provided a great opportunity for rethinking the purpose and legitimacy of government. Even more dramatically, the new nation had the ability to form its own government according to any model it chose. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the subsequent ratification process provided an opportunity for extensive debate on what a national government should do, how it should be structured, and what guarantees of rights it must offer its citizens. The Federalist Papers stand today as the pre-eminent example of that debate.

The second significant event of the last half of the eighteenth century was the French Revolution. Like the American Revolution, it was preceded and accompanied by pamphlets, declarations, and speeches arguing for and against it. The actual upheaval began in 1789, and continued until the 1799 coup by Napoleon Bonaparte. In addition to the documents created by the revolutionaries and their opponents, the French Revolution was debated vigorously in Britain, and Edmund Burke's essay on it became a classic of conservative thought.