Just two centuries ago most of the world was ruled by monarch, and voting was a rare privilege. Even in the United Estates, the first modern democracy, voting was generally restricted to the white men who owned property. French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville, though, was convinced an "irresistible revolution" toward equality was under way.
he believed it had progressed the furthest in the U.S., which he visited un the 1830s to see the future of humankind. Yet by the close of the 19th century, universal suffrage- the right for each person to vote- was far from becoming a reality.
enter the 20th century. Following World War I, as monarch and empires fell and women's suffrage gained momentum, people across the Northern Hemisphere were granted the vote. in the southern Hemisphere independence came to european colonies after World War II; with nationhood came, gradually, the right to vote.
