“During the European Enlightenment, thinkers were setting forth the idea that governments should be structured on a foundation of law and that a contract existed
between the government and the governed. It was not too great a step from that idea to the
belief that revolution against those who abused the existing contract was justified. The
makers of the American revolution and later the founders of the American constitutional
system of government were guided in their actions and beliefs by the theory of natural
rights and the idea of representative government, as advocated by the Enlightenment
thinkers.”
Now, write a reflective paragraph on how many forces came together to create a desire for
a new type of government; a new society.