When was Freedom Achieved?

Examples of episodes in history where significant milestones for freedom under public institutions were achieved, in the Western context, include:

Twelve Tables (~450 BCE) The first written legal code of ancient Rome which afforded common people a certain, prescribed, outline of their rights (rather than purely arbitrarily creation and implementation of rules).

Magna Carta (1215) The King of England placed the monarchy under a written code, formalizing the concept of the rule of law, and an important step towards property rights under public law.

The English Levellers (1640s) Soldiers and merchants claiming that everyone, equally, possess innate and inalienable rights. This gave way to the ideas developed upon by Locke, Jefferson and many others.

The Glorious Revolution (1688) John Locke’s writings served as the basis for the Parliament’s frameworks upon replacing the King as the primary rule-maker. This established England’s constitutional monarchy and implemented parliamentary supremacy.

Beginning of Slavery Prohibition (1772) The English court case of Somerset v Stewart (98 ER 466) ruled that slavery was illegal on English land. This set a precent for outlawing humans as possessions in Europe. The first outlawing of slavery in the United States was in Vermont with it’s constitution banning the act in 1777.

The American Revolution (1776) Thirteen British colonies in north America formed the first sovereign state which was expressly founded on inalienable individual rights, placing the Leveller and Locke concepts into a founding document, the Declaration of Independence.

Civil Rights Movement (1960s) A series of events, comprising a non-violent campaign which forced the United States government to implement a formal rights framework to African-Americans in the United States, who were previously legally discriminated against.

Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) This marked the public sentiment of rejecting communism. The Soviet Union (USSR), the world’s super power state implementing communism, was formally dissolved in 1991.

World Wide Web released to the public (1993) Although developed in 1991, the first genuinely decentralized global communication infrastructure was made publicly available in 1993, enabling voluntary association, open information sharing (including media), and economic exchange on a global level, reducing the degree of power from state monopolized institutions.

Blockchain (2009) Bitcoin introduced the first monetary system which did not rely on trust or the state. Bitcoin’s underlying framework, the blockchain enabled voluntary transactions and governance experiments beyond the reach of any monopolized institution.

This is not an exhaustive list and does not consider all the many, many, achievements by individuals and organizations outside of these more “major” events.

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See, also Live and Let Live’s Lineage for the intellectual history underpinning the movement.