In 1658, "Lord Protector" Cromwell died. In 1660, the Parliament declared newly elected Prince Charles II the heir to his father's throne. The people rejoiced with the reinstatement of the king after the oppression of Cromwell's military dictatorship.
However, the restoration of Charles II in the hopes of freedom, rights and progress would simply take England "on another trip around the same circle." The issue of totalitarian rule remained, and the Parliament's authority was still severely limited. In 1685, Charles II's brother James II succeeded to the throne, openly expressing contempt over the Parliament and expanding his own power. With fears of being locked down by the chains of the Catholic church and autocrats yet again, Britain experienced yet another revolution. A revolution free of bloodshed, it is honored by history as the Glorious Revolution.
In 1688, the son-in-law of James II joined the Parliament, and Protestant Dutch ruler William arrived in Britain. William's army took London without battle, and James II fled to France in seek of asylum. The Parliament announced that William of Ockham (together with Mary, daughter of James II) would be king of the new empire. The Congress of England passed several important bills in 1689 to protect the rights of civilians and security of Parliament. The first of these bills restricted the king's funding to a payment of once per annum, in order to control and reduce the national burden of the royal family's expenditure. This was followed by a bill guaranteeing religious freedom, and then, on December 16, followed by a bill guaranteeing religious freedom of Christians; and finally, Bill of Rights, guaranteeing that the king shall not have a veto over any law, levy taxes without the consent of the Parliament, or intervene in the affairs of the Parliament. The Parliament would be elected freely, and its members would have freedom of speech and opinion. This bill became a foundation stone of the British constitution, removing absolute power from the royal family. From then on, Britain became a constitutional monarchy. The monarch became a symbolic head of state, rather than an absolute ruler. The Glorious Revolution set Britain of the 18th century on its path to success. Rights equality and freedom were the essential ingredients. Her success proved to the world that a strong, prosperous, and harmonious nation cannot be achieved under autocratic rule. Britain, after numerous attempts, had finally transformed a medieval political system into the essential foundations of a modern nation. This was a feat to be marveled at. Using the model of British Parliament, nations around the world followed suit, one after another walking into a modern era of government.
The ideology of the Enlightenment spread throughout the seas to Europe and the Americas. France's Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau; America's Franklin, Paine and Jefferson—these ideologists became defining representatives of the Western Enlightenment.
On July 4, 1776, the Unite States declared its independence. This date later became National Day. This influential declaration drew upon and developed the social contract philosophy, declaring that the God-given right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness were the equal and undeniable rights of all men. If a government should harm these rights, the people have the freedom to depose it, and form a new government. The Declaration of Independence for the first time, as a political agenda, established human rights principles, and would become a precedent sparking later revolutions in Europe—in particular, the French Revolution.
In 1789, France passed its own Declaration of Human Rights and Citizenship. It drew upon both the British Human Rights Convention and the American Declaration of Independence, as well as Locke and Rousseau's natural law and social contract theories, declaring that people are born and remain free, have equal rights; freedom of liberty, property, security and the freedom to revolt against oppression; sovereignty, the right to participate in legislation; equality as the basis of law; protection from unlawful detention; freedom of speech and property rights protection.
To this very day, the Enlightenment is something people prize as a breakthrough and pivotal turning point in the course of human civilization. It inspired independent human character, freedom of thought and the pursuit of knowledge, and after the Industrial Revolution, the human body was also liberated. Human civilization entered a new era.
The Enlightenment was the prelude to industrialisation. After the British Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution began in the United Kingdom. In 1781, James Watt designed the modern steam engine. With this, he inspired an unprecedented push toward industrialization. In 1807, American engineer Robert Fulton became the first to make use of the English steam engine in a ship called Clermont. In 1814, British inventor George Stephenson invented the steam locomotive, and in 1825, the technology was used for goods transport. With these breakthroughs, humankind had conquered the land and the sea.
German philosopher Immanuel Kant in his What is Enlightenment? states: "Enlightenment is the separation of mankind from the immature and primitive state he has drowned himself in…Having the courage to use your own intelligence—this is the key to enlightenment."
The West left behind this "immature" state, but China remained the crawling infant it had always been.
VOLTAIRE OF THE French Enlightenment wrote to his opponents: "I do not agree with every word you say, but I would defend to the death your right to say it." These simple words were the essence of freedom, a declaration of equality and tolerance. At the same time, Manchu rulers in China undertook a literary inquisition, devastating the positive spirit of the Chinese people.
