PEACETOPIAN MILESTONES

A holistic movement for a better world
has been evolving throughout history...

 

1650-1799 -
Age of Enlightenment / Age of Reason

In the 17th and 18th centuries, a movement called the Age of Reason or Age of Enlightenment swept across Europe and the American colonies, changing the existing paradigm by providing a new perspective on the nature of the universe and humanity's place in it. Philosophers, scientists, playwrights and other intellectuals challenged the pervading mindset of the time that was grounded in religious faith and tradition, and instead argued that reason - logical knowledge obtained through a method of scientific inquiry -- should guide one's individual behavior and be the foundation of society's laws and institutions. The ideas of philosophers like John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant and Voltaire, and scientists like Isaac Newton, helped pave the way for the movement in Europe.

An important milestone presented by many of the Enlightenment philosophers was the concept of 'natural law' and 'natural rights.' Natural rights are universal rights that apply to everyone, such as equality of all people and the right to life and liberty. Natural rights are not subject to the beliefs, customs or laws of any particular government or society. Over time, these natural rights that all people possess have come to be known as human rights. After the publication of a 35-volume encyclopedia that included articles by hundreds of visionary intellectuals of the Enlightenment, the movement's influence spread across the Atlantic. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and other American founding fathers were greatly inspired by the revolutionary ideas, and these ideals played an important role in the development of the American Revolution, as well as the creation of the American Declaration of Independence and the United States Bill of Rights.


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MILESTONES

c.380 BC
"Republic"

1215
Magna Carta

1516
"Utopia"

1528
"On Civil Power"

1625
"On The Law
of War and Peace"

1648
Peace of Westphalia

1650-1799
Enlightenment

1689
"Two Treatises of Government"

1762
"Social Contract"

July 4, 1776
US Declaration of Independence

September 17, 1787
US Constitution

August 26, 1789
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

September 25, 1789
US Bill of Rights

1793
Department of Peace

1795
"Perpetual Peace"

May 18, 1899
Hague Peace Conference

1901
Nobel Peace Prize

January 8, 1918
14 Points

June 28, 1919
League of Nations

1933
The New Deal

January 6, 1941
The Four Freedoms

October 24, 1945
The United Nations

August, 1947
World Federalist Movement

December 10, 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights

1955
"Let There Be
Peace On Earth"

1956
The Beloved Community

1960-1963
The New Frontier

1963-1969
The Great Society

1970
Earth Day

October 11, 1971
"Imagine"

1981
International Day of Peace

1985
77 Theses on the Care of the Earth

1988
Global Cooperation for a Better World

1991
Earth Constitution

1992
UNESCO
Culture of Peace Programme

1992
"4000 Ideas & Dreams for a Better World"

1995
Earth Magna Charta

1995
"When Corporations Rule The World"

1996
"Peace On Earth Millennium"

1997
Appeal of the Nobel Laureates

1998
"Conscious Evolution"

May 11-15, 1999
Hague Appeal for Peace

January 1, 2000
One Day In Peace

June 29, 2000
The Earth Charter

September, 2000
Millennium Development Goals

January 25-30, 2001
World Social Forum

October, 2001
"Better World Handbook"

2005
Clinton Global Initiative

July 18, 2007
The Elders

September 17, 2011
Occupy Wall Street