Baron de Montesquieu Andrea Ricca, Andi Wilkinson, Brendan Lewis, and Dean Rago

Biography January 18 th, 1989 in Bordeaux France Parents: Jacques de Secondat and Marie Fracoise Received his childhood education at College de Juilly Returned to Bordeaux and studied law, by request of uncle Married the wealthy Jeanne de Lartigue in 1715 Had three kids

Biography (cont.) Used wife’s wealth to his advantage; traveled to Paris frequently Uncle died in 1716, leaving him his fortune and estates Took time to study geology, biology, and physics at the Academy of Bordeaux Published Lettres persanes (Persian Letters) in 1721  satire on Parisian civilization; made him famous Began a long trip in 1728; documented trip and studied worldly ideas and thoughts on religion, art, and politics

Biography (cont.) Decided to commit to literature when he returned to France Published Considerations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romans et de leur decadence (Reflections on the Causes of the Grandeur and Declension of the Romans) in 1734 Began to study law, history, economics, geography, and political theory In 1750, he published The Spirit of Laws, his book on political theory; he gained extreme fame from it – 1740: developed idea – 1743: first draft written and began two revisions – 1746: press prepared for the release – 1750: published Died five years later on February 10 th, 1755, in Bordeaux

Philosophical Ideas The Spirit of Laws Montesquieu wrote the philosophical book, The Spirit of Laws, to explain human laws and social institutions The book explained how one person decided everything (despotism): – Made laws – Created war or peace – Judged cases and determined fate of criminals Despotism- one person entirely rules everything with absolute power Montesquieu wanted to break the gov’t up into three branches – Legislative- Congress: create laws – Executive- President, VP: enforce laws – Judicial- Court system: meaning of laws, how they are applied, and whether they break the rules of the Constitution

Philosophical Ideas (cont.) The Spirit of Laws Living under a non-despotic gov’t that left its citizens to live mostly free should not have be meddled with Montesquieu’s fear was a monarchy transforming into despotism (one person in power = fear) – Montesquieu believed despotism is abhorrent & unstable – The transformation would have been caused by the belief that if the nobility was weakening, automatically more power given to the monarch

Philosophical Ideas (cont.) The Spirit of Laws Montesquieu believed that the laws of multiple countries could have been more liberal and more humane – Religious persecution and slavery could have been abolished – Business could have been encouraged These reforms would have generally empowered monarchial governments, since they strengthened the freedom and dignity of citizens Montesquieu believed the relations between laws plus conditions of countries and principles of gov’t equaled better reforms without disabling gov’ts that needed improving

Beliefs in Government Best form of Government: Montesquieu believed that the best form of government was one separated into branches. It was Montesquieu's philosophy that "government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another" that prompted the creators of the Constitution to divide the U.S. government into three separate branches.

Beliefs in Government Best form of Government: Montesquieu believed that the best form of government was one separated into branches. It was Montesquieu's philosophy that "government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another" that prompted the creators of the Constitution to divide the U.S. government into three separate branches.

Opinion Three Branches of Government: 1.Colonists didn’t like the idea of a monarchy controlling their lives 2.Montesquieu popularized the idea of a separated government that didn’t have one person or a small group of people in control 3.His idea was formally “Separation of Powers” and inspired colonists to rid of England's power over them 4.They wanted to remove the King as their one ruler because he held far too much power