The Enlightenment Influence on Revolutions Quick Check
Which statement explains the impact that the disbanding of American legislatures had on the American colonies?
American colonists had to pay heavy taxes.
Many American colonists, such as merchants, lost their jobs.
American colonists were forced to quarter troops in their homes.
American colonists had no say in the creation of laws. ✅
Which statement best identifies the impact of the Enlightenment on the American Revolution?
The social contract belief that the government should have total power motivated the colonists to rebel.
Rousseau’s creation of social contract theory influenced American ideas on government.
Thomas Jefferson’s idea that governments should not violate the natural rights of people was used to criticize the British.
Ideas such as democracy, natural rights, and fair government inspired colonists to revolt against the British. ✅
Which statement correctly analyzes how Enlightenment thinker Thomas Hobbes’s ideas impacted the American Revolution?
Thomas Hobbes rewrote the founding document of the revolution to include women, emphasizing equality.
Colonists revolted when their rights to life, liberty, and property were ignored by the king.
Colonists felt that their agreement with the king had been broken when he violated their rights. ✅
Thomas Hobbes’s ideas on liberty, equality, and fraternity became the rallying cry of the American Revolution.
Which statement correctly analyzes how Voltaire’s Enlightenment ideas led to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century revolutions?
Voltaire believed that when the agreement between a ruler and their subjects was violated, revolt was justified.
Voltaire believed that all people deserved the rights of life and liberty, but only the elites enjoyed these rights.
Voltaire believed that all people were born with natural rights. Monarchs who violated them could and should be overthrown.
Voltaire thought rulers who were cruel and tyrannical did not deserve to rule, leading to revolt in France. ✅
How did shifting social structures lead to revolution in Spanish colonies?
White people born in Spain were refused privileges, ignoring their increasing wealth and influence.
Enslaved people sought to better their social status, leading to revolt in Haiti.
Middle-class business owners turned to piracy, a form of resistance to the British, when they became lower class due to government restrictions.
The status of lower-class people in the caste system did not change as their wealth increased, leading to frustrations. ✅
Which statement correctly describes the impact of enlightenment thinker John Locke's ideas on the American Revolution?
John Locke's idea that government should protect natural rights and that people have the right to rebel against unjust rulers influenced the American colonists to seek independence. ✅