The political map of the world as we know it today began to take shape during the Age of Revolutions. Let’s see if we can identify some of the sparks that ignited these global conflagrations.

The Enlightenment, which began in the late seventeenth-century, was a European movement emphasizing reason, science, individualism, and skepticism of traditional authority. Thinkers applied rational principles to government, philosophy, science, and religion, inspiring revolutions based on equality, reason, and freedom.

Between 1750 and 1825, revolutions swept across the Atlantic Ocean, challenging the power of empires and monarchs and launching new ideas about rights, sovereignty, and freedom.

It might seem like we’ve always had nation-states, and people who believe that their own nation-state is the best. But the concepts of nations and nationalism have only been around for about 200 years. Although not very old, nations and nationalism have had dramatic effects on how we view the world and each other.

Nationalism spread quickly during the long nineteenth century. Across the globe, nationalists took to the streets, uniting people in new nations and rejecting the authority of old empires.