Documents: Document C, Document C, and Document H The Enlightenment was a period of time during the course of the years 1685 to 1815, where European politics, philosophy, science and communications were thoroughly remade. Thinkers question traditional rule and welcomed the concept that humankind could be enhanced through rational thinking. The period of 1685 to 1815 could be called the Enlightenment due to the ideas that originated from the era that were revolutionary. Examples of these can be seen from the ideas of the natural rights of man, the proper structure of government, and the cruelty of irregular criminal punishment. The first logic that verifies that the concepts were effective in changing the form of government is because …show more content…
Baron de Montesquieu wrote in the book “The Spirit of the Laws”, he mentions a system of government which is similar to the system we have today. For oth: Legislative, executive, executive. It should be understood that Natural Rights are not rights that have been determined to have actually been recognized or exercised at some early stage in the development of mankind, neither do they necessarily represent actual conditions that existed when man was in his prehistoric "natural" or uncivilized state. Rather, they are rights that are the heritage of man as can be reasonably determined by examining his nature and his potential for optimum existence in this world. They are his birthright regardless of whether mankind actually has enjoyed these rights at any previous stage of development, and it is that inherent entitlement that makes them "natural." Of course, every person born into this world can be said to be "born free," and mankind did possess these natural rights as an entitlement at every stage of his development, including the earliest; but primitive (and later) societies inevitably prevented the full enjoyment of these rights. It is only in the later stages of his development, in a highly developed civilization based on principles and laws, that mankind has had the opportunity for actually establishing and enjoying these rights in their fullness, and the story of mankind is the story of the struggle to establish government that recognized these natural