Sparks Commentary

Note: The “War of the Austrian Succession” included several different conflicts within it. Thus, many of my blog’s mentions of these related...

“The free exercise of the roman religion [in Canada] is granted, likewise safe guards to all religious persons, as well as to the Bishop, w...

The eighteenth century was a crucial period for the  British Empire . It saw the birth of the “Kingdom of Great Britain” itself , in the 17...

“We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the great Legislator of the universe, in a...

“ L’état, c’est moi. ” (“I am the State.”) – A line attributed to King Louis XIV of France – a line that he may or may not have actually sa...

“If War should break out between France and Great Britain, during the continuance of the present War between the United States and England...

“Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they. H...

Japan's initial contact with the West in 1543 In the year 1543, a Portuguese trading ship arrived in the Japanese island of Tanegash...

“The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, 'This is mine,' and found people simple eno...

Warning: This post contains some mature themes in it. Although I have tried to cover them tastefully, there's no way to take them out ...

When the Founding Fathers wrote the original Constitution in 1787, they were creating a document that would change everything in America, ...

“That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights , of which, when they enter into a state of...

"It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to ...

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them wi...

"The ratification of the conventions of  nine states , shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the sta...

" Qu'ils mangent de la brioche ." ("Let them eat cakes.") - The infamous Marie Antoinette line that Marie Antoinette...

"There is therefore a purely civil profession of faith of which the Sovereign should fix the articles, not exactly as religious dogma...

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the ...

"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union , establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide...

" ... every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neit...