Baron De Montesquieu During The Enlightenment

Baron de Montesquieu was born on January 19, 1689, at La Brède, in southwest France to a wealthy family. He was educated at Oratorian Collège de Juilly and received a law degree from the University of Bordeaux in 1708. When his father died in 1713 he went back to La Brède to manage his estates and money. That was the main source of Montesquieu’s wealth. Montesquieu died during 1755 of a fever in Paris, France (Bok). Baron de Montesquieu was an Enlightenment thinker during the Enlightenment because of his progressive ideas on government which eventually were used by the American governement in 1787. Baron de Montesquieu was a very accomplished writer because of his controversial and advanced ideas on setting up a government. His first book, …show more content…
founding fathers used a few of Montesquieu’s ideas while creating the U.S. Constitution in 1778. Montesquieu's vision of a perfectly set up government is three branches of government; a legislative branch dealing with passing laws, executive branch signing laws making them official, and the judicial branch which makes sure laws are sensible. He thinks this form of government is ideal because no one has more power than another, avoiding the possibility of a dictatorship or one branch taking over another (“Seperation of Powers”). The opening sentences of the first three articles in the U.S. Constitution describes the branches and their powers. Article I decrees, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States,” (Madison). Article II states “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States,” (Madison). Article III declares “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court” (Madison). The seperation of powers in the U.S. Constitution are nearly the same as Montesquieu’s vision of a government. Montesquieu’s idea of separation of powers among branches along with a few other minor ideas were incorperated in the U.S.