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Known as the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment was a movement in which people moved away from blind acceptance and focused more on the emphasis of reason and logic during the late 17th century to the early 19th century. This movement brought on many ideals and innovations in science, philosophy, politics, and sociology. The Enlightenment pushed Europe away from absolute monarchies and focused on separating religion from politics. This made European states move away from mercantilism and it also brought on the ideas for new economic systems of free-market capitalism, communism, and socialism. These ideas would soon greatly influence the industrial revolution, which would cause a complete change in how the world operates and develops.

In addition to the changes in politics and economy, many of the Enlightened ideals directly influenced independence and abolition revolutions and helped the creation of new nations. For example, the American revolution was a result because of the ideas like the social contract, natural laws and natural rights, and separation of powers. The French Revolution, the Haitian Revolt, the Latin American Revolutions—all of these were, in some way, influenced by enlightened ideas and in turn either created new states or dramatically changed their governments.

All these examples are proof that the Enlightenment was one of the most influential events in history because it pushed man to think freely and take the steps necessary towards a more uniform, thoughtful world. And without the Enlightened ideals, many of the other notable events in history would not have occurred.

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In the early to mid-20th century, after the first World War, Germany became economically devastated because of the treaty of Versailles and were overall struggling. Adolf Hitler had been a soldier in WWI, and like many other Germans at this time, he was not pleased with the outcome of the war. This was what made Hitler join politics, He joined the Nazi party and soon became the leader. This was the start of Hitler dictatorship. World War II was caused because of Hitler's invasion in Poland. He blamed Germany's weakness in on the Jewish population and other minorities in Germany, which only increased his vitriolic distain for Jews.

As the war progressed, Hitler established ghettos, concentration, labor, and extermination camps across Europe for Jews, Roma, Slavs, homosexuals, and anyone else he deemed inferior to the Germans. Conditions in the camps were horrid, the prisoners were starved, beat, and humiliated. Medical attention was rarely given, and sickness was quite common. Hitler was responsible for the death over 11 million people during the Holocaust, over 6 million of which were Jews. Hitler’s ethnic cleansing exterminated over half of the entire Jewish population. Once World War one had ended, The United Nations was almost immediately created so that global conflicts could be peacefully sorted out. Also, the UN was established because no nation wanted to see the travesties of the holocaust happen again.

Adolf Hitler was one of the most influential people in history because not only did start World War II and cause an entire peace organization to be made after the war, but his actions also resulted in the death over 50 million individuals. These facts have given the title of one of the evilest men in history.

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In the height of the Enlightenment, where people sought out reason rather than blind acceptance, John Locke, a British philosopher, and theorist, was reared as one of the most influential people regarding enlightened theories and ideologies. Known for his thoughts on religious toleration, natural rights, social contracts, and the right to revolution, he not only pushed Europeans to move away from baseless acceptance like you would have normally seen due to the substantial influence religion had on people’s thoughts, but his ideas also were the fundamental in the reforms of law and forms of governing. On top of this, he was also the deemed the founder of British Empiricism which states that the only knowledge humans can have is derived from individual experiences.

Being one of the people who strove for a strict separation of church and state, many people agreed with his ideas and that caused the influence of religion and the church to be less prevalent. This would lead to the church having a less vital role in European government and would force people to think about how much power or influence the government should have over the people (social contract). Locke’s Ideals also played an essential role in revolutions, the most important being the American Revolution and the signing of the Declaration of Independence of 1776. Not only was Locke’s idea of the right to revolution against a government that acted against the interest of the citizens, but his thoughts the undeniable rights—life, liberty, and property—formed the basic laws and regulations for the newly established state, The United States of America.

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During the period circa 1450-1750, a Spanish explorer, Christopher Columbus, made the discovery of the Americas. This spurred on the first transcontinental trading system, and it was coined the term The Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange is defined as the biological diffusion of plants, animals, disease, and people between the Old World (Afro-Eurasia) and the New world (The Americas). Due to this exchange, civilizations worldwide changed dramatically.

With the plants and animals brought from the Americas, Afro-Eurasia was introduced to crops like potatoes, maize, beans, tomatoes, cocoa, tobacco, etc. This completely transformed the diets of Old World and encouraged the farming of these new crops. As a result of the transformed diets, the human population had a huge increase. Also, the crops allowed farmers to plant in formerly unproductive areas which produced a greater amount of food and helped make food less of a scarcity in Afro-Eurasia. While the Old World populations benefited from this exchange, the native populations of the Americas however did not. Since the American people had been cut off from the rest of the world for so long, they had yet to be introduced to the diseases that the people of Afro-Eurasia have lived with for centuries. Lacking the immunity necessary to survive these disease—smallpox being the most influential—an estimated 90% of the native American population died. Finally, to keep up with the increasing labor demands, the invention of chattel slavery was introduced. This not only changed demographics in Africa, where there were more women than men because many of the men had been sold, but also dehumanized the African peoples and caused them to be seen as lesser than Europeans.

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In the period 1900-present, after the travesties of World War II, many colonized states sought to gain independence from there colonizers. Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian lawyer, and advocate for India’s independence against the British, is revered across the world because of his non-violent civil disobedience that helped paved the road for India’s independence. Gandhi held and led numerous peaceful campaigns that would aid India in protesting British rule. Gandhi was an extremely influential Individual because he was one of the main reasons India gained their independence and became a nation, he helped India resolve some of the underlying problems which led to the improvement of the nations, and Gandhi’s policy of non-violent protest influenced other groups to adopt his ideas and gain independence/equality peacefully.

One of Gandhi’s most memorable peaceful movements was the salt march that started in March of 1930 and ended in April of that same year. Gandhi walked around 240 miles from Sabarmati to the coast of the Arabian sea in protest of the salt tax the British had enforced for many years prior. While this movement did not end in the outcome of India’s independence it was one that was recognized by the British and was a necessary step for their fight to independence. Gandhi also held campaigns that sought to limit poverty, correct the injustices of the Caste system, build more religious toleration, and increase the rights of women. While he did receive some critics from loyal Hindus, he helped the Indian nation in becoming a more powerful, unified state. Finally, and probably most importantly, Gandhi’s peaceful, non-violent way of revolt inspired advocates like Martin Luther King Jr. and his fight for the equality of African Americans in the USA, as well as Nelson Mandela and his fight in South Africa regarding the fight for equality for all.

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Starting July 28th, 1914, and ending November 11th, 1918, World War I was the first global war that involved numerous nations fighting in one huge conflict. While it was caused by a multitude of reasons some of the most notable are--one, militarism where nations believed they needed a strong military and should use that military to benefit the country. Two, alliances, nations during this time would create secret alliances with one another that stated that they would protect one another if threatened or attacked. Three, imperialism, the idea that one nation was the greatest and should give them the right to control as much land as possible. Four, nationalism, people felt a powerful sense of connection to individuals who shared the same state, language, or culture. This war was such an important part of history because it was the first war after the industrial revolution which caused many new war-tech inventions, it was fought in a completely different manner than many of the other wars studied previously, and the aftermath of WWI was one of the leading causes of both the Great Depression and World War II.

World War I was one of the most influential events regarding the invention of new and improved war technology. The inventions of tanks, machine guns, poison gas, explosives, submarines, airplanes etc. made far more deadly and brutal for both civilians and soldiers than in previous time periods, and they only got deadlier as time progressed. This is also the first time where we see a total war, or a war in which all the nation is involved (including civilians and civilian resources). In previous wars all efforts were only targeted towards the military and infrastructure, and this was the first time we saw war fought to decimate an entire government. World War I was also one of the most influential events in history because the war's outcome was one of the leading causes of the Great Depression and World War II. After so many funds were put into the wars many nations' economies were not good after the war. The inflations of food and goods also went up which many people could not afford. Also, after the war, the treaty of Versailles was signed however, this treaty humiliated Germany but didn't stop the main problems that caused the war. Over the next couple of years, Germany's resentment for the treaty and economic problems caused the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, and World War II.