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Front Page  Authors (by Period) The 18th Century
Period: The 18th CenturyThe 18th century was extremely important both for the development of ideas about liberty and for the creation of institutions which made liberty possible. The major historical events and intellectual movements of that time, which influenced the development of liberty, include the following:
- the Enlightenment, a movement of criticism and reform which had a profound impact in Europe and North America. Abuses in the Church and in the Old regime were exposed, criticised, and reformed (in some cases overthrown)
- the American Revolution, which in many respects was an attempt to put enlightened ideas into practice, especially with the new form of republican government with its separation of powers, written constitution and bill of rights
- the French Revolution, which began like the American, to create a government limited by a constitution and bill of rights, but which quickly degenerated into the Terror, war, and imperial expansion and conquest
- the beginnings of modern economic thought with the Physiocrats and work of Adam Smith
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