Full Name: Montesquieu (Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu) | Profession: Philosopher, Political Theorist, Judge, and Writer | Nationality: French | Born: January 18, 1689 | Birthplace: La Brède, Kingdom of France | Generation: Enlightenment Era | Chinese Zodiac: Earth Dragon | Zodiac Sign: Capricorn | Age in 2026: 337 (deceased) | Marital Status: Married to Jeanne de Lartigue | Children: 3 | Description: Montesquieu was one of the most profound architects of modern political thought, whose ideas reshaped the structure of governments across the world and laid the intellectual foundations for constitutional democracy, most famously through his theory of the separation of powers, which argued that liberty could only be preserved when legislative, executive, and judicial authority were divided among independent institutions, a revolutionary concept that directly influenced the United States Constitution, the French political system, and countless democratic governments thereafter, and beyond politics he was also a cultural philosopher and social analyst who examined the relationship between laws, geography, customs, religion, and human behavior, offering one of the earliest systematic attempts to understand societies scientifically, while his masterwork, The Spirit of the Laws, became one of the most widely read and debated books of the eighteenth century, studied by lawmakers, monarchs, and revolutionaries alike, and despite his aristocratic background he was a sharp critic of absolutism, tyranny, and religious intolerance, advocating moderation, balance, and rational governance as the keys to political stability, and his enduring legacy remains embedded in legal systems, constitutional theory, and political science curricula worldwide, making him not only a philosopher of his time but a permanent pillar of modern civilization; Cause of Death: Fever and complications of illness on February 10, 1755.