The Carlsbad Decrees were issued in 1819, shortly after the Congress of Vienna. They may be understood as part of the wider political climate in Europe at the time whereby the powers were trying to suppress the radicals, liberals, and nationalists who were emerging all over Europe. The Carlsbad Decrees were an attempt to suppress liberalism and nationalism in the various German princely states. In the short term, they were wildly successful; however, they were not as successful in the long term.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 is so-called because it was largely devoid of bloodshed. The reigning monarch, James II, had challenged the autonomy of Parliament and worried the country with his Catholic sympathies. So, Parliament invited the Dutch monarch William to come over and seize the throne, which he then did. As a condition of his coronation, William had to promise that the constitution and Parliament would have supremacy over the crown. And thus, the Glorious Revolution ensured the supremacy of constitutionalism in Britain.

In the wake of the Revolutions of 1848, Louis Napoleon (taking advantage of his famous heritage) took over power from Louis Philippe. He instituted the Second French Republic, which he was later (in 1851) able to peacefully transition into the Second French Empire with himself as Emperor.

The Enclosure Movement began in England in the fourteenth century and really took off in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was a very slow and gradual movement away from feudal landholding and towards private property. It involved peasants being forcibly removed from the lands of the aristocracy and had dramatic effects on the economic, political, and social structure of England and, later, Britain.

The Chartist movement emerged in the early 1830s and continued to be influential up until the early 1850s. The Chartists were working-class activists who sought to extend voting rights to all the adult men in Britain. They also demanded a series of other reforms designed to liberate the working classes from the shackles of the Industrial Revolution and reform Britain’s requirements for voting and holding office that excluded the majority of the population.

Thomas More was a statesman, lawyer, and politician who was also a devout Catholic during the reign of the Tudors in England. More served in a variety of political offices, including Speaker of the House of Commons, and became a close advisor of Henry VIII. More eventually succeeded Cardinal Wolsey as chancellor in 1529 after Henry and Wolsey began to disagree on many significant issues. More served Henry loyally until Henry’s marriage issues began to lead to a schism between him and the Catholic Church. Eventually, Henry wanted to separate from the church even though More was against it, and More resigned his chancellorship over this issue. More was later tried and executed for refusing to recognize Henry’s authority as the head of the Church of England.

The primary disagreement between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, two revolutionary factions, lay in their divergence on the issue of a "vanguard" of the proletariat. The Bolsheviks supported the idea; the Mensheviks believed that it ran counter to the communist ideal.

The French people did not argue that the monarchy was not dedicated to the Catholic cause. Rather, they saw the regime as wasteful, oppressive of the poor, and too attached to the clergy.

Chartists, although they did have some socialist inspiration, primarily sought to reorganize the British state to render it more equitable. Among the reforms envisioned in their massive, multi-million signature petitions were universal male suffrage, the secret ballot, salaries for parliamentary representatives and annual elections, but not popular initiatives.

Martin Luther believed that merit alone should be the sole judge of who could get into heaven. Monetary indulgences were essentially free passes into heaven for those who could afford it, meaning that, in essence, the Catholic church was perpetuating the idea that the rich could get into heaven with money alone. Luther also believed that full and equal access to scripture was paramount, and therefore translated the Bible from Latin into German, even after being excommunicated and exiled.