Global II French Revolution Review

The ideas of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire are most closely associated with the:

• Congress of Vienna

• Scientific Revolution

• Enlightenment

• unification of Italy

Answer explanation

All three of these writers were part of the Enlightenment, which was a movement that challenged existing political, educational, and religious structures. Montesquieu attacked absolutism; Rousseau argued in favor of student-driven curriculum; and Voltaire condemned the practices of the Catholic Church.

Which writer is credited with the idea that the powers of government should be separated into three branches with each branch keeping the others in check?

• René Descartes

• Maximilien Robespierre

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Answer explanation

In his Enlightenment writings, Baron de Montesquieu promoted a division of governmental powers. He advocated a three branch style government that would keep any one branch from becoming too strong. This system was designed to prevent the rule of a single person or group.

One way in which the writings of John Locke and of Baron de Montesquieu are similar is that they:

• supported the idea of governments having limited powers

• resulted in the development of mercantile economic systems

• promoted the ideas of the Protestant Reformation

• strengthened the divine right claims of European monarchs

Answer explanation

Both Locke and Montesquieu were Enlightenment writers who stressed the role of the individual in government.  Locke believed that the role of government was to protect the rights and property of individuals. He taught that when a government no longer performed that role, individuals had a right or duty to change the government.  Montesquieu focused on the division of power within government.  He wanted to see a separation of powers among government branches to ensure democratic practices.

Maximilien Robespierre is best known in French history for:

• rallying French support for the American Revolution

• trying to eliminate enemies of the French Revolution

• attempting to preserve the monarchy of Louis XVI

• enforcing the principles of the Napoleonic Code

Answer explanation

Maximilien Robespierre was the leader of the most radical phase of the French Revolution.  In order to carry out the goals of the Revolution, he eliminated anyone who opposed his mission.  He instituted a reign of terror that resulted in thousands of deaths in his quest to "protect" the country from foreign invaders and domestic threats.

Locke and Rousseau, as writers during the Enlightenment, expanded the concept of:

• total war

• self-sufficiency

• natural law

• divine right

Answer explanation

Both writers wrote about natural law,which included rights guaranteed with a person’s birth or existence.  These natural rights, according to Locke, include life, liberty, and property. 

The French Revolution was a reaction to the:

• defeat in and humiliation of the Franco-Prussian War

• influence of and privileges granted to the First and Second Estates

• increasing confrontations between Catholics and Protestants

• conflict between competing branches of the French royal family

Answer explanation

The inequalities in opportunity that were represented by the Three Estate System lay at the heart of the causes of the French Revolution.  Disparity in wealth, taxation, education, and careers based on this social/political system led to widespread unrest.  The First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) made up less than 3% of the population, yet they controlled 100% of the government, held a great deal of wealth, and paid little in taxes.

The idea that all people are born with the natural rights of life, liberty, and property is most directly associated with the writings of:

• Baron de Montesquieu

• Thomas Hobbes

• Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

• John Locke

Answer explanation

These are John Locke’s ideas which he presented in his writing Two Treatises on Government.  Locke’s ideas are found in the US Declaration of Independence and were also used to stir the French and South American political revolutions.

Which individual suggested the idea that if a government fails to protect its people’s natural rights of life, liberty, and property, the people have the right to overthrow it?

• Karl Marx

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

• Niccolò Machiavelli

Answer explanation

John Locke was part of the Enlightenment, a late 17th and 18^th century intellectual movement that stressed the use of reason in examining traditional ideas about government and society. His beliefs in natural rights and in the right to overthrow a government which did not protect these rights were stimuli for both the American and French Revolutions.

In the late 1700s, which situation in France is considered a cause of the other three?

• meeting of the Estates General

• unfair policies of taxation

• execution of the king

• storming of the Bastille

Answer explanation

At the root of the French Revolution was inequality. The unfair policies of taxation were especially offensive. The Third Estate (non-noble and non-clergy), who made up 97% of the population, paid most of the taxes and lacked any real say in government.

Based on this passage, what did the Third Estate want?

• independence from France

• more influence in the political system

• removal of the monarchy

• freedom of religion in France

Answer explanation

The Third Estate made up 97% of France yet under the Old Regime it was blocked out of government and opportunity for advancement.  Abbe Sieyes’ pamphlet asks that this majority be given “something”—that is, more influence in the political system.