Throughout history, revolutions have started due to new ideas that change ways of thinking and disrupt what was considered normal. During the 1700s, the American, French, and Haitian revolutions were no exception. The Enlightenment ideas that were spreading in this period led the people of these three nations to question their ruling elites and begin to consider the possibility of liberation. Of these three, however, none of the revolts can be seen as more radical than the other two. Each of them was faced with the arduous task of successfully separating themselves from the oppression that had been imposed upon them by powerful empires and monarchies that had lost sight of what the American, French, and Haitian people considered important, as well as being part of the first revolts to use radical ideas of the Enlightenment to justify each of their rebellions. They considered these rebellions the only chance to free themselves. Throughout the 1700s, the Enlightenment had brought an increasing amount of new ideas about how government should operate in relation to the people of their communities. It was these Enlightenment thinkers of this time who brought drastic new ideas to light. It was men like Denis Diderot who discussed ideas about “natural law” and questioned the authority supposedly given to kings by God. He wrote that “[people] have the most sacred natural right to everything that is not contested by the rest of the species." Or there was Abbot Raynal, who communicated that "natural freedom is a right granted by nature to every man." Thinkers like these two men were leaders of the Age of Enlightenment, who would eventually influence not only people across Europe but also those in colonies such as America and Saint-Domingue... middle of paper... d Revolutions Haitians all believed that if they did not seize the opportunity to succeed with their various rulers, they might lose all hope of doing so. It was this desperation for freedom, and the single act of rebellion, that made the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolutions radial. They can be seen as some of the first major uprisings to not only challenge those in control, but to incorporate Enlightenment ideas as part of their justification. In short, the American colonists, the French, and the enslaved Haitians can all be considered equally radical, given their circumstances. They all used some of the most basic ideas of the Enlightenment era to rise up against powerful empires and monarchies that would be quick to punish them, and they all believed that if they didn't act, the consequences would be harmful..