Front Page Authors (by Period) The Early Modern Period

Period: The Early Modern Period

The Early Modern Period lasted from the late 16th century through to the early 18th century. The major historical events and intellectual movements of that time, which influenced the development of liberty, include the following:

• Wars of Religion in France which raised the issues of religious intoleration, the proper limits of the power of the crown, and the duty of magistrates to resist a tyrant
• the Thirty Years War which devastated parts of northern and central Europe and stimulated thinkers like Hugo Grotius to consider the legal limits to the war-making powers of the state
• the English Revolution or Civil War which saw the overthrow and execution of a king, the creation of a Republic, and the beginnings of modern classical liberal thought in England
• the Glorius Revolution of 1688 in Britain which saw the creation of modern constitutional monarchy
• the beginnings of the Enlightenment with the writings of Newton on science and many authors on ideas of natural law
• the beginnings of modern economic thought prior to the writings of Adam Smith

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