Back in the day of fluffy dresses and tea parties, there were eight people with great ideas on how to change the world.

Most of them had big and funny names, such as Diderot and Montesquieu.

Each of them had an idea and want others to hear. But they all had different ways of doing so.

Thomas Hobbes wrote a book called the Leviathan. He said that people were naturally mean, and without rules they would forever be nasty and rude.

John Locke believed that people were much happier and kinder. He believed everyone had natural rights things that everyone deserves.

He thought that if a government did not protect these rights then the people can remove and fix the government.

Next was the Baron de Montesquieu. He studied and wrote about all the different types of Governments that he saw around Europe and Asia. He admired, but misunderstood Britain's government, not realizing how the citizens had very little say in the law making. He created his own idea of government that has more than one group, and where all of them keep each-other in check.

Next we have Voltaire. He used his writing to fight corruption in Government and Church. He wanted everyone to know that the people they looked up to were not as good as they seemed. He wanted others to speak their mind as well. These mean people found out and exiled him, but he continued to spread the word.

Diderot was another writer who spent 25 years to write 28 encyclopedias about the world in ways no one has heard before. This upset others who didn't like change saying his books would affect everyone's good morals. They tried to ban the books, but failed.