Montesquieu
1689 – 1755 · France · Politics, Law
Separation of powers, copied into nearly every written constitution since.
Index entry
Montesquieu is currently a short index entry. The research desk can draft the full profile — achievements, works, living legacy and what is documented about the family line.
Expand this profileContinuity of ideas
Who shaped Montesquieu, and who they shaped
Inherited from1
- John Locke
1632 – 1704 · Politics, Philosophy
Locke's separation of powers becomes Montesquieu's tripartite constitution.
Passed the work to2
- Alexander Hamilton
1755 – 1804 · Politics, Economics
The Federalist cites Montesquieu directly for the design of separated powers.
- Simón Bolívar
1783 – 1830 · Politics
Bolívar's Angostura Address builds Spanish American constitutions on Montesquieu's frame.
Sources and references
Numbered markers in the text above point to the entries below. Each links to a primary document, archival collection or scholarly reference where the claim about Montesquieu can be checked.
- 1.Primary texts and first editions by or about Montesquieu
Internet Archive · Primary source
- 2.Catalogued holdings and archival finding aids for Montesquieu
WorldCat (OCLC) · Archive
Nearby in the annals
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106 BCE – 43 BCERepublican theory and oratory that still frame constitutional argument.
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1469 – 1527The Prince separated political analysis from moral instruction.
Thomas Hobbes
1588 – 1679Leviathan founded the modern theory of sovereignty and the social contract.