What s been more important over the last 500 years great men or great movements I believe great movements have had a bigger impact over the last 500 years than great men The Reformation The Glorious Revolution The Enlightenment and The French Revolution are four great movements that have shaped society into what it is today During the Reformation Martin Luther brought about the idea of a new religion which started a great movement In the early 1500s Luther became angry with the church s corruptness He believed in salvation by faith alone while the church was selling indulgences that claimed to lessen people s time in purgatory and keeping the money for the church Luther finally spoke up and posted his 95 Thesis on the church door in Saxony that highlighted the corruptness of the church Because of the printing press more and more people got word of Luther s ideas agreed with them and rallied behind them Luther himself didn t do much to spread his beliefs but The Reformation made a huge impact in Germany During The Glorious Revolution which brought forth the idea of constitutionalism Catholics were chased out of England and replaced with Protestants Parliament and the idea that government should have a governing body was first heard here The Habeas Corpus Act which said one could be arrested and held without evidence The Bill of Rights which limited the king s power and The Toleration Act which granted freedom to all Protestants all played a role in shaping our definition of a free society William and Mary were technically behind the Glorious Revolution but they weren t the reason for these dramatic changes With the Enlightenment came modern free thinking The philosophers were trying to spread the ideas of the Scientific Revolution to regular people Rulers tried to put the Enlightenment down because it challenged world order but it spread quickly People began to question authority government science and life in general They wanted to find the truth behind everything The Enlightenment thinkers were all great men but their ideas are what impacted people The French Revolution brought about the ideas of Liberty Equality and Fraternity People who weren t privileged by birth could now get ahead based on their accomplishments Napoleon Bonaparte fulfilled the revolution and spread his revolutionary ideas everywhere he conquered He provided opportunities for his followers such as scholarships to school He used this new idea of equality to become a great military leader He is still considered one of the greatest figures in all of history However Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo This only put a stop to the man not the movement Napoleon s ideas continued to grow long after he was gone and formed the basis for our country and many others Conclusively great men are simply the vehicles for great movements It typically takes a great man to initiate the movement but once the ideas catch on it s impossible to stop them These four great movements led to the society we live in today