Directions: Use the chart below to help you answer the following questions.
1. Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote that the relationship
between citizens and their government was a social contract.
Which statement describes the impact of the idea of government as a social contract on the French
Revolution in 1789?
a)
b)
c)
d)
The king granted women the right to vote.
French citizens claimed their natural rights
The king raised taxes to pay off the public debt.
French citizens supported the king against the nobles.
2. What was one idea that the leaders of the American Revolution shared with Enlightenment thinkers?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Colonies exist to provide raw materials and markets for mother countries.
The people have the right to overthrow their government if it abuses its powers.
Governments may restrict freedom of speech and of the press during times of crisis.
Factories and businesses should be owned by the government rather than by individuals.
3. What action by the leaders of the French Revolution demonstrates that they were influenced by
Enlightenment ideas?
a) They called for the fall of the absolute monarchy.
b) They encouraged the conquests of Napoleon.
c) They fought to maintain France’s colonial empire.
d) They supported the combination of church and state.
4.
In exploring the relationship between governments and people, Thomas Hobbes argued that governments
resulted from a social contract to maintain an orderly society. John Locke, another philosopher of the
Enlightenment, inspired American revolutionaries by arguing that a new social contract could be instituted
under what circumstance?
a)
b)
c)
d)
if a government failed to compel obedience
if a government violated people’s natural rights
if a government failed to protect people from economic inequality
if a government entered into alliances with foreign governments
5. Many Latin American nations gained their independence early in the 19th century. The relationship between
the people and their government changed. Slavery existed under colonial governments, but some of the
new nations, such as Haiti, did not permit slavery. The abolition of slavery was based on Enlightenment
ideas of
a)
b)
c)
d)
6.
liberty as a natural right of man.
separation of governmental powers.
personal rights as less important than civil order.
the authority of absolute monarchs.
Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau challenged the idea of the
divine right of kings. They wrote about a government’s obligations to uphold people’s rights and how the
government should be based on the consent of the governed.
These new ideas encouraged people to
a)
b)
c)
d)
7.
remain firm in their support of absolute monarchs.
look for leaders who would exercise dictatorial powers.
engage in revolutions to establish democratic governments.
call for church leaders to create theocracies and replace the monarchies.
Natural law was a fundamental idea of the Enlightenment.
Which concept is an application of natural law to the government’s role in the economic lives of its citizens?
a) free markets based on supply and demand
b) government control to achieve a favorable balance of trade
c) agriculture based on tenant farming and serfdom
d) lower taxes on the most privileged groups in society
8. During the Enlightenment, a number of writers explored the relationship between governments and the
people they governed. For example, Rousseau wrote The Social Contract, in which he examined ideas about
majority will and the common good.
How did these ideas influence the American and French Revolutions?
a)
b)
c)
d)
They encouraged loyalty to established governments.
They supported movements for social and political change.
They encouraged the formation of American and French constitutional monarchies.
They supported the efforts of governments to maintain control over their subjects.
Ideas of the Enlightenment
Major Enlightenment
Enlightenment Ideas
Thinkers
Locke
 People have the natural rights of life, liberty, and property
 Citizens enter into a social contract with their government, in which people
give power to the government in order to have their natural rights protected
 Governments can be overthrown if the natural rights of citizens are not
protected
Montesquieu
 Governments should be divided into 3 branches (legislative, executive, and
judicial)
 Governments should utilize the checks and balances system to make sure
that one branch cannot become all powerful (like in absolutism)
Rousseau
 Citizens enter into a social contract
 Governments should govern based on the principal of popular sovereignty
(the will of the majority)
 Citizens should have the right to freedom of speech (no censorship) and
Voltaire
freedom of religion (no religious persecution)
Changes in the relationship between citizens & government:
Main Idea: Citizens began to demand more of a voice in their government, as well as an end to the
absolutist regimes that controlled their countries and limited the rights of citizens. Enlightenment
ideas also inspired independence movements, as colonies sought to create their own country and
remove their European colonizers. Governments also began to adopt ideas like natural rights, popular
sovereignty, the election of government officials, and the protection of civil liberties. Examples:
United States
 British colonies are upset with their lack of representation in Parliament, oppressive taxes 

 British colonies rebel against their mother country, resulting in the American Revolution 

 Connection to Enlightenment: 
o Declaration of Independence - Right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness; all men
are created equal; right to overthrow government
o Constitution - Based on popular sovereignty, created a new 3 branch government,
used checks and balances
o
Bill of Rights - Protected the rights of free speech, religion, press, assembly
France
 French citizens are upset with the absolute monarchy of the Bourbon family, lack of taxation
st
nd
of the 1 and 2 estates 

 French citizens, motivated in part by the American Revolution, rebel against Louis XVI,
which starts the French Revolution 

 Connection to Enlightenment: 
o Declaration of the Rights of Man – proclaimed rights to life, liberty, equality;
equality of all citizens, right to resist oppression
Latin America
 Revolutionaries like Simon Bolivar led independence movements against the
European
colonizers
of
the
region