In his most influential work, , Thomas Hobbes wrote, "Nothing the sovereign representative can do to a subject, on what pretence soever, can properly be called injustice or injury."

Polish astronomer (last name) was commissioned by Pope Paul III to devise a new calendar that would correct the errors of the Julian calendar.

The breakthrough that enshrined the sun-centered universe was made by (last name) who determined that planets revolved around the sun in elliptical orbits at varying speeds.

The French leaders of the Enlightenment were called , and their ideas helped inspire both the American and French revolutions.

Not a supporter of democracy, Voltaire preferred benevolent and enlightened to badly administered self-rule.

The wealth that Louis XVI wished to tap to enhance government revenues was concentrated in the first two estates and the , or leading urban professional and commercial classes, of the third.

Divided into a moderate faction called the Girondins and a more radical group called the Montagnards, the were the leaders of the Convention which emerged to lead France in September, 1792.

Outside the Assembly, the Paris Commune (the government of Paris) represented the , workers, merchants and artisans of the city who were generally more radical than the Convention.

After Robespierre was executed and the Reign of Terror ended, a new government, the , took control of France and conferred good title to the lands acquired by the new peasant and commercial landowners.

For decades, the slaves of Haiti had escaped psychologically and culturally through the practice of , a religion that blended the Catholicism of their masters with religious practices brought from Africa.