Baron de Montesquieu & John Locke

• The Enlightenment was a time of change in Europe. There were many new ideas, and various influential thinkers that inspired new invention.

John Locke had the idea that people were born with the three natural rights: life, liberty, and property. He also believed that people could learn from their mistakes and improve themselves. He thought that people had a natural ability to govern their own affairs, that they could keep themselves in line and that they didn't need a government to be checking on them, this was self government. He publicly criticized monarchies. He believed that the purpose of a government was to protect the people and if a government failed to do that then the people had the right to overthrow it.

The Baron de Montesquieu said that the government's power comes from the people. The Baron also had the idea to divide power in the government amongst three branches, this will keep the branches equally powered.