The Enlightenment and
French Revolution Study
Guide
Essential Question
How did Enlightenment ideas affect the development of democracy in the 18th through 21st Centuries?
Readings
Prentice Hall - Chapters Review Chapter, Chapter 1, Chapter 2
Sources of Western Tradition Handout - The Rise AND Fall of the Great Powers - Chapter 1 The Rise of the Western World
Objectives
Students will:
• review concepts and terms learned last year;
• memorize important terms, individuals, ideas and events of the Enlightenment and French Revolution;
• synthesize Enlightenment ideas in essay form;
• explain the who, what where, when, and why of the French Revolution in preliminary research and in a
final assessment;
• know the major changes in philosophic thought from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries;
• develop outside reference sources for investigating future world history assignments;
• expand academic investigation beyond the history textbook and sources given by the teacher.
Study Questions
Enlightenment
A. Define each of the following terms and give their significance to the unit of study:
1. Scientific Method 7. Social Contract Theory
2. Natural Law
8. Laissez-faire
3. Salons
9. Popular sovereignty
4. Rationalism
10. General will
5. Separation of powers
6. Natural rights
B. Identify each of the following persons and relate to the unit of study. Give their basic idea(s) and or
contribution(s) to the Scientific and Intellectual Revolutions and their major written work.
1. Newton
5. Locke
2. Galileo
6. Rousseau
3. Montesquieu
7. Voltaire
4. Hobbes
C. Answer each of the following questions:
1. What new ways or habits of thinking developed during the 17th century?
2. How did they differ from Medieval thinking? Why did the Catholic Church try to prevent
these ideas from being spread?
3. What new scientific contributions were made in the 17th century?
4. How did science lay the foundation for the Intellectual Revolution of the 18th century?
5. By what two other names is the Intellectual Revolution of the 18th century known?
6. Who were the philosophes and what were their basic beliefs?
7. What segment of the French population found the ideas of the physiocrats of great interest?
Why?
8. What was the concept of “Natural Rights”? How did it conflict with the institutions of the Old
Regime?
9. Describe the government favored by each of the following (a) Hobbes (b) Locke
10. After reading John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government and Jean - Jacques Rousseau: The
Social Contract (p. 628 and 629 Prentice Hall), complete the following questions.
a) What group has the final authority of government in Locke’s opinion?
b) Why do people establish governments? What rights do people have?
c) According to Locke, what do people give up when they enter into a society? Why do you
think people do this?
d) What form of government does the “social contract” provide?
e) What s the Republic or body politic defined as?
f) Why does Rousseau believe that people are safe putting themselves under the direction of
the “general will”
French Revolution
This is a mini- unit concerned with the events associated with the French Revolution of 1789. It will deal
with the immediate causes of the Revolution, the course of the Revolution from 1789 through 1799, and
the reaction to and the results of the Revolution. At the conclusion of the unit of study you should be able
to:
A. Define each of the following terms, relating them to the unit and be able to tell their importance.
1. Women’s march on Versailles
11. Committee of Public Safety
2. Cahiers
12. Reign of Terror
3. Tennis Court Oath
13. Thermidorian Reaction
4. “Voting by Order”
14. The Directory
5. National Assembly
15. Declaration of Independence
6. National Convention
16. Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen
7. Reactionary
17. Left, Right, Center
8. Bastille
18. Liberal, Conservative
9. Jacobins/Girondins
19. Radical
10. Emigres
20. bourgeoisie
B. Be able to identify each of the following and relate their importance to the unit of study.
1. Louis XVI
3. Robespierre
2. Marie Antoinette 4. Napoleon Bonaparte
C. Be able to answer each of the following in short, specific essays supported by facts.
1. What were the fundamental causes of the French Revolution? What was the immediate cause of the
French Revolution?
2. How did the royal court (nobles) and the Third Estate differ as to the purpose of the Estates General?
What did the Cahiers contain? (Give specific examples of ideas.)
3. What action taken by the Third Estate was the first sign of their determination to change the system?
How was the National Assembly formed? What was the reaction of the king and the first two estates to
it?
4. What reforms were made by the National Assembly regarding:: A. popular rights; B. the Catholic
Church; C economic problems; D. Divine Right absolutism.
5. What caused the Revolution to take a more radical turn?
6. What was the Committee of Public Safety? What programs did it undertake to strengthen France,
with what results? Do you feel the Terror was necessary? Explain your answer.
7. Who was Robespierre and what were his aspirations?
8. What were the chief developments under The Directory? Who were the leaders of The Directory, what
were their interests, and what was the basis of their power? How did The Directory pave the way for its
own downfall? What brought an end to The Directory? Who was involved?