Thoughts and Reflections on The Human Story Chapter 13

     Prior to the late 18th century, the idea of granting any political influence to the proletariat was unthinkable. Yet the political paradigm shift brought about by the Age of Enlightenment sparked several revolutions which did just that. In France, the working and rising middle classes were discontent to allow the nobility and clergy to continue squandering the treasury and living lives of luxury. This, coupled with a particularly bad harvest in 1789, led to the bloody French Revolution during which the monarchy was deposed and a constitution was instated to ensure the equality of all men, an ideal which had only been voiced in the recent Enlightenment. The Spanish American revolutions of the same time seem to have been sparked by similar ideals, with peasants being granted land and some revolutionists pushing for equality among whites and Indians.