ABSTRACT
The seventeenth to nineteenth centuries were a period of dramatic change and progress in the world. The profound movement inspired several important thinkers in the final decades of the eighteenth century to put forth new peace plans for Europe and world organization. The two main schools of thought that emerged in the seventeenth century—realists and rationalists—were to encounter a third in the eighteenth century, namely revolutionists. The revolutionary fervor that was exhibited at the beginning of the French Revolution did overturn the political order of the nation-state and gave impetus to the ideas of democratic rule and the democratic peace. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's political thought reflects the strong influence of Calvinist doctrine, which spelled out the duty of resistance to tyrants and the right of deposing kings. The thinker of greatest consequence for the liberal tradition is Adam Smith, whose famous work Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations introduced economics into the lexicon of political theory.
