PEACETOPIAN MILESTONES

A holistic movement for a better world
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August 26, 1789 -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

The French Revolution is an unfortunate example of the difficulty of manifesting lofty ideals as practical reality. In 18th century French society, the aristocracy had everything, including rights and possessions, but the majority of the population had barely enough to survive. Influenced by the writings of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, many different groups in France, with very different interests, joined together to wage a "revolution of equality." Women, for example, played a major role in the revolution, fighting side by side with men. Historically, throughout Europe women had little rights and freedoms, but the writers of the Enlightenment put forth the revolutionary idea that all people are created equal and should enjoy equal rights - men and women! This was the spirit of the Revolution, but when the aristocracy was overthrown and the new government was being formed, various groups vied for control, and the outcome, although a significant milestone forward, was not what many expected.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was the first step in writing a new constitution, and it codified the ideals of the Enlightenment by enumerating the specific natural rights to which all men, who are born free, are entitled. However, the rights pointed out in this document, adopted in 1789 (the same year as the similar American Bill of Rights), were meant only for free men, not slaves and not women. The women leaders of the Revolution were naturally outraged. Olympe de Gouges, one of the most outspoken of these, drafted a mirror document, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, and fought to have women's rights included in the new constitution. She and others were executed, and it would be more than a century before the lofty ideals of the Enlightenment were realized, and French women were granted equal rights with men.


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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