How Enlightenment ideas shaped the American and French revolutions

Grade 10 Social Studies Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Card A. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1689), text of Project Gutenberg eBook 7370, chapter VIII, section 95: “Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.” Card B. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1689), text of Project Gutenberg eBook 7370, chapter IX, sections 123 and 124: people unite “for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estates, which I call by the general name, property.” Then: “The great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property.” Card C. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762), G. D. H. Cole’s translation, Everyman’s Library, 1913, Book I, chapter 1: “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.” and “But the social order is a sacred right which is the basis of all other rights. Nevertheless, this right does not come from nature, and must therefore be founded on conventions.” Card D. Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (1748), Nugent’s translation, Colonial Press, 1900, Book XI, chapter 4: “To prevent this abuse, it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.” Card E. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26, 1789), as printed by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translator not named), Article 2: “The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.”

2. 1.

   Article 2 of the 1789 Declaration names the aim of political association. Which thinker’s ground for authority does it follow most closely, Ari asks?

   • Montesquieu, since power checking power protects liberty, the first right the clause lists, as his account of liberty describes
   • Locke and Rousseau equally, since both begin from people being born free, so the clause cannot choose between them
   • Rousseau, since his social order is a “sacred right” that underlies the other rights, as the clause protects rights
   • Locke: government exists to protect rights people already had by nature, while Rousseau says social rights rest on conventions

3. Use this

   Card A. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1689), text of Project Gutenberg eBook 7370, chapter XII, section 143: “…it may be too great a temptation to human frailty, apt to grasp at power, for the same persons, who have the power of making laws, to have also in their hands the power to execute them…” In well-ordered commonwealths, he adds, the lawmaking power is put into the hands of several persons. Card B. Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (1748), Nugent’s translation, Colonial Press, 1900, Book XI, chapter 6, titled “Of the Constitution of England”: “When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty…” and “Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive.” Card C. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26, 1789), as printed by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translator not named), Article 16: “A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.”

4. 2.

   Locke and Montesquieu both want powers separated. Article 16 says a society without “the separation of powers” has no constitution. Which text does it match better, Bo asks?

   • Both match equally, since Locke also wants lawmakers and executors to be different people, so the clause favors neither
   • Neither, since Article 16 names no powers and Montesquieu’s second quotation is about the judiciary
   • Locke, since his book of 1689 is older, and an older text is the likelier source for a clause written in 1789
   • Montesquieu: he makes separation a condition of liberty, as Article 16 makes it a condition of having a constitution

5. Use this

   Card A. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1689), text of Project Gutenberg eBook 7370, chapter VIII, section 95: “Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.” Card B. Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (1748), Nugent’s translation, Colonial Press, 1900, Book XI, chapter 3: “Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit…” Card C. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762), G. D. H. Cole’s translation, Everyman’s Library, 1913, Book I, chapter 6: “Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.” Card D. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26, 1789), as printed by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translator not named), Article 6: “Law is the expression of the general will.” (The article goes on to say that every citizen may take part in making it, in person or through a representative, and that it “must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes.”)

6. 3.

   Article 6 says “Law is the expression of the general will.” Which thinker’s account of why law binds does this follow, and not another’s, Esme asks?

   • Locke: law binds because it protects people’s property, and Article 6 says law “protects or punishes” in the same way for citizens
   • Locke and Rousseau equally, since both say the people must agree to the laws that bind them
   • Montesquieu: law marks the limit of liberty, which is “a right of doing whatever the laws permit”, and Article 6 makes law the measure
   • Rousseau: law binds because it comes from the shared will of the whole body of citizens, not from each person’s separate consent

7. Use this

   Card A. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26, 1789), as printed by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translator not named), Article 1: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.” Card B. Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen (September 1791), Article 1, our translation of the French: “Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights.” Card C. France, in our words: an ordinance of April 21, 1944 gave women the vote, and they first voted in the municipal elections of April 29, 1945. Until then women had been denied political rights.

8. 4.

   Olympe de Gouges rewrote Article 1 for women in September 1791. What does the gap to the 1944 ordinance show about rights language, Kira asks?

   • French women did not ask for rights until 1944, since no earlier demand is dated on the cards
   • The 1789 wording caused the 1944 vote, slowly, since the vote came later and rests on the same principle of equal rights
   • Rights language has no effect on law, since the text of 1791 led to nothing for women until 1944
   • Equal wording for women existed in 1791, yet 153 years passed before the vote, so wording alone did not change who held rights

9. Use this

   Card A. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26, 1789), as printed by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translator not named), Article 1: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.” Card B. Rights in practice, in our words (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity site): Protestants were given civil rights in 1787. Jews gained full rights on September 27, 1791. Women continued to be denied political rights. In May 1791 rights were granted to some free Black men and men of mixed descent in the colony of Saint-Domingue, then taken back. The Convention abolished slavery in all French colonies on February 4, 1794. Card C. Saint-Domingue and after, in our words (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity site; US Department of State, Office of the Historian): Enslaved people of Saint-Domingue rose up on August 22, 1791. French agents abolished slavery in the colony in August to October 1793, and the Convention abolished it in all French colonies on February 4, 1794. In 1802 Napoleon reestablished slavery in colonies still under French control, and his forces captured Toussaint L’Ouverture, once enslaved and now the leading general, and sent him to prison in France. In 1804 the former slaves established the independent republic of Haiti, the second independent country in the Americas. US leaders, many of them slaveowners, reacted with ambivalence; the United States did not recognize Haiti until 1862.

10. 5.

    The Convention abolished slavery in all French colonies on February 4, 1794. Using the dated cards, what is the better account of how that came about, Luz asks?

    • After the uprising of 1791, agents ended slavery in the colony in 1793, and the Convention then did so for all colonies in 1794
    • The uprising of August 1791 ended slavery by itself, since the Convention merely recorded what the colony had already done
    • The Declaration of 1789 started it: Article 1 came first, so the Convention acted in 1794 and the colony then followed its lead
    • The grant of rights to some free Black men on May 15, 1791 led directly to abolition, since it set the whole process moving

11. Use this

    Card A. Timeline, in our words: Locke’s Two Treatises of Government appeared in 1689, Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws in 1748 and Rousseau’s Social Contract in 1762. Fighting between colonists and British troops began at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, 1776, and the Constitution of 1787 divided power among three branches. In France the Estates-General opened on May 5, 1789; on June 17, 1789 the Third Estate declared that it alone represented the nation; the Declaration of the Rights of Man was approved on August 26, 1789. Card B. Fiscal crisis, in our words (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity site, George Mason University and CUNY): Long wars in the 1700s meant France spent more than its yearly revenue and usually borrowed the difference. Reform proposals on taxes in 1787 drew objections that called for the Estates-General, which had not met since 1614. Facing imminent bankruptcy, Louis XVI called it in the fall of 1788. Bread prices were the highest of the century, and many saw the nobles’ privileges as unfair.

12. 6.

    Montesquieu’s book appeared in 1748 and Rousseau’s in 1762, yet the Estates-General was called only in 1788. What do the cards suggest about why it met, Milo asks?

    • The objections to the tax proposals of 1787 explain it by themselves, since they were the ones that called for the Estates-General
    • Bread prices, the highest of the century, forced the king to call it, since hungry crowds in 1788 could not be ignored
    • The ideas caused the call, since Rousseau’s book of 1762 and Montesquieu’s of 1748 came before it and were read by then
    • Ideas had circulated for decades with no summons; the bankruptcy that forced the king in 1788 better explains the call

13. Use this

    Card A. Timeline, in our words: Locke’s Two Treatises of Government appeared in 1689, Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws in 1748 and Rousseau’s Social Contract in 1762. Fighting between colonists and British troops began at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, 1776, and the Constitution of 1787 divided power among three branches. In France the Estates-General opened on May 5, 1789; on June 17, 1789 the Third Estate declared that it alone represented the nation; the Declaration of the Rights of Man was approved on August 26, 1789. Card B. Fiscal crisis, in our words (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity site, George Mason University and CUNY): Long wars in the 1700s meant France spent more than its yearly revenue and usually borrowed the difference. Reform proposals on taxes in 1787 drew objections that called for the Estates-General, which had not met since 1614. Facing imminent bankruptcy, Louis XVI called it in the fall of 1788. Bread prices were the highest of the century, and many saw the nobles’ privileges as unfair. Card C. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26, 1789), as printed by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translator not named), Article 3: “The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.” Card D. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762), G. D. H. Cole’s translation, Everyman’s Library, 1913, Book I, chapter 6: “Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.”

14. 7.

    On June 17, 1789 the Third Estate declared that it alone represented the nation. Which evidence would best test whether ideas, and not only the money crisis, shaped that claim, Noah asks?

    • More figures on the royal debt, since a larger deficit would show how badly the king needed the Estates-General to meet
    • The price of bread in the spring of 1789, since high prices show why Third Estate deputies were angry and ready to claim power at once
    • The text of Article 3, which says sovereignty “resides essentially in the nation”, since the June claim must have come straight from it
    • The deputies’ own speeches and instructions of 1789, to see if they argue from the nation’s sovereignty or from taxes and prices

15. Use this

    Card A. Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (1748), Nugent’s translation, Colonial Press, 1900, Book II, chapter 4: “The most natural, intermediate, and subordinate power is that of the nobility.” Also: “This in some measure seems to be essential to a monarchy, whose fundamental maxim is, no monarch, no nobility; no nobility, no monarch…” Card B. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26, 1789), as printed by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translator not named), Article 3: “The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.” Card C. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762), G. D. H. Cole’s translation, Everyman’s Library, 1913, Book I, chapter 6: “Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.” Card D. Fiscal crisis, in our words (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity site, George Mason University and CUNY): Long wars in the 1700s meant France spent more than its yearly revenue and usually borrowed the difference. Reform proposals on taxes in 1787 drew objections that called for the Estates-General, which had not met since 1614. Facing imminent bankruptcy, Louis XVI called it in the fall of 1788. Bread prices were the highest of the century, and many saw the nobles’ privileges as unfair.

16. 8.

    Montesquieu named the nobility the natural intermediate power of a monarchy, while the Third Estate claimed to represent the nation. What does that suggest about calling “the Enlightenment” one cause, Pia asks?

    • It shows the nobles, not the Third Estate, carried Enlightenment ideas, since Montesquieu names the nobility as the natural intermediate power
    • It confirms the Enlightenment as the single cause, since thinkers on opposite sides of the quarrel fed the same Revolution
    • It shows Montesquieu would have opposed the Revolution, since he defended the nobles’ role in a monarchy against royal power
    • It gave arguments to rival groups, a role for nobles to one and the nation’s sovereignty to another, so a cause must name which writer

17. Use this

    Card A. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1689), text of Project Gutenberg eBook 7370, chapter XIX, section 222: “…whenever the legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience…” Card B. Declaration of Independence (approved July 4, 1776), National Archives transcript: “…it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…” (a government that becomes destructive of the rights it exists to secure). Card C. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26, 1789), as printed by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School (translator not named), Article 2: “The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.”

18. 9.

    Locke says a legislature that destroys property frees the people from obedience. 1776 says the people may “alter or abolish” a destructive government. What do these and Article 2’s “resistance to oppression” share, Tala asks?

    • A right set out in the same words, since each text lists property as the right put at risk by rulers
    • A right to take up arms, since each text names a remedy for rulers who break their trust with the people
    • Nothing new in Article 2, since resistance to oppression adds no right beyond what the other two texts already say
    • People may resist rulers who violate rights: Locke names property, 1776 the ends of government, 1789 oppression

19. Use this

    Card A. Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (1748), Nugent’s translation, Colonial Press, 1900, Book XI, chapter 6, titled “Of the Constitution of England”: “When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty…” and “Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive.” Card B. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762), G. D. H. Cole’s translation, Everyman’s Library, 1913, Book III, chapter 15: “The people of England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing.”

20. 10.

    Montesquieu’s chapter is titled “Of the Constitution of England.” Rousseau also writes about England. What do the two passages show about how each judges, Zee asks?

    • Rousseau answers Montesquieu, since his book came later, in 1762, and judges the same country in reply
    • Different tests: Montesquieu asks whether powers check each other, Rousseau whether the people make the laws themselves
    • They disagree about facts, since Montesquieu describes England’s powers as a check and Rousseau says its people is not truly free
    • Rousseau rejects separation of powers, since he says England’s people is free at elections and not between them