The Holy Alliance was created in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. The Napoleonic Wars and the preceding revolution in France offered a powerful challenge to the status quo in Europe. Much of the next fifty years of European history revolves around the various European powers’ efforts to reinforce stability and uphold the monarchies. The Holy Alliance was signed by Prussia, Russia, and Austria, and its primary goal was to work against democratic and nationalistic reform in Europe. In this regard, it was very successful for a long time. 

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 occurred in Beijing, China. The protests were primarily lead by students and other pro-democracy groups. The event is often called the Tiananmen Square Massacre because of the nature of the response of the Chinese government; troops were ordered to fire on unarmed civilians and many hundreds (possibly thousands) of people were slaughtered. The protests exemplified the major divide in China between communist loyalists and democratic sympathizers, a divide that remains largely unresolved to this day.

The Reform Bill of 1832 was passed in the British parliament to “amend the representation of the people of England and Wales.” Prior to the Reform Bill, only a very small percentage of the population was able to vote, roughly five hundred thousand out of a population of thirteen million. The Reform Bill extended voting rights to an additional few hundred thousand men from the emerging industrial middle class. Although the percentage of the British population who could participate in government was still lower than ten percent, the Reform Bill represents the first step in Britain towards truly representative democracy.

Legalism first arose during the Warring States period of Chinese history in approximately 240 BCE. It was subsequently entrenched during the reign of Qin Shi Huang and the Qin Dynasty. Legalism was a strictly pragmatic philosophy that encouraged strict obedience to customs and legal systems.

The Storming of the Bastille took place on July 14^th, 1789. In the months and years building up to this incident, anger at the abuses of the French government, particularly the monarchy, had been building in intensity. The Bastille was a medieval prison and castle that represented, to many Parisians, the height of royal abuse and extravagance. The Storming of the Bastille was the flashpoint that many historians consider to be the beginning of the French Revolution.

The first of these countries to formally abolish slavery was Russia, in 1723; however, it is extremely important to note that Russia’s economy had little use for slavery and retained the institution of serfdom far into the nineteenth century. The United States abolished slavery in 1865, at the end of the Civil War; Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, at the end of the reign of Pedro II; Haiti declared independence from France and immediately abolished slavery in 1804; and the Ethiopian empire abolished slavery in 1902 (and then again in 1942).

The Feminist movement in the Western world began to pick up steam toward the end of the Enlightenment era, highlighted by Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 essay titled A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In the nineteenth century, the movement progressed slowly but steadily and was almost exclusively dominated by upper class elites (highlighted by the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention). It was almost constantly opposed by the federal governments of the United States and Britain, which of course were dominated exclusively by men. In the twentieth century, the expansion of the role of women during World War One greatly encouraged the movement towards female equality—a movement that is still ongoing.

Legalism is a Chinese philosophy that rose to prominence during the Qin Dynasty of Chinese history. It demanded complete obedience to social customs and the legal codes of the era. It openly distrusted human nature, believing that people required strict laws in order to keep their nature from being detrimental to the state. 

Russia’s parliament is called the Duma. It was first created in the Renaissance Era and functioned as an advisory committee for the Tsars; however, it was discontinued by Peter the Great and was not reinstituted until 1906 under Tsar Nicholas. Nowadays, the Duma is the lower house of the Russian legislative assembly. 

Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, at the end of the reign of their last emperor - Pedro II. Russia abolished slavery as early as 1723, but it is worth noting that Russia continued to persevere with serfdom until well into the nineteenth century. The United States abolished slavery in 1865, at the end of the Civil War. Argentina abolished slavery in 1853. Saudi Arabia did not abolish slavery until 1962, making it by far the last country to abolish slavery out of these options. The last country in the world to abolish slavery was Mauritania in 1981.