Editing Suffrage (section)

==== Early history ====
The short-lived [[Corsican Republic]] (1755–1769) was the first country to grant limited universal suffrage to all citizens over the age of 25.

In 1819, 60–80,000 women and men from 30 miles around Manchester assembled in the city's [[St Peter's Square, Manchester|St. Peter's Square]] to protest their lack of any representation in the Houses of Parliament. Historian [[Robert Poole (historian)|Robert Poole]] has called the [[Peterloo Massacre]] one of the defining moments of its age.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Poole |first1=Robert |author-link=Robert Poole (historian) |title='By the Law or the Sword': Peterloo Revisited |journal=History |volume=2 |issue=302 |date=April 2006 |pages=254–276 |jstor=24427836 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.2006.00366.x}}</ref> (The eponymous ''[[Peterloo (film)|Peterloo]]'' film featured a scene of women suffragists planning their contribution to the protest.) At that time Manchester had a population of around 140,000 and the population totals of [[Demographics of Greater Manchester|Greater Manchester]] were around 490,000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_table_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TPop&u_id=10056925&c_id=10001043&add=N |title=Greater Manchester Met.C: Total Population |author=A Vision of Britain through time |access-date=6 April 2007}}</ref>

This was followed by other experiments in the [[Paris Commune]] of 1871 and the island republic of [[Franceville, New Hebrides|Franceville]] (1889). From 1840 to 1852, the [[Kingdom of Hawai'i]] granted universal suffrage without mention of sex. In 1893, when the Kingdom of Hawai'i was [[Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom|overthrown in a coup]], [[New Zealand]] was the only independent country to practice universal (active) suffrage, and the [[Freedom in the World]] index lists New Zealand as the only free country in the world in 1893.<ref>Nohlen, Dieter, e al. (2001). ''Elections in Asia and the Pacific: South East Asia, East Asia, and the South Pacific''. p.&nbsp;14. Oxford University Press, 2001</ref><ref>A. Kulinski, K. Pawlowski. ''The Atlantic Community – The Titanic of the XXI Century''. p.&nbsp;96. WSB-NLU. 2010</ref>