Deck 8: The Age of Enlightenment

Question 1

The eighteenth century, commonly known in European history as the Age of Enlightenment, was marked by:

A) the teachings of Aristotle and Ptolemy, which replaced tyranny and superstition.
B) a feeling everywhere in Europe that Europeans had at last emerged from a long cultural twilight.
C) the rediscovery of the brilliant reasoning of Thomas Aquinas and the other medieval scholastics.
D) a time in which European people knew little about the laws of nature and the value of rational analysis.

Answer 1

a feeling everywhere in Europe that Europeans had at last emerged from a long cultural twilight.

Question 2

Which of the following is true of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment?

A) It condemned the ideas of Locke and Newton.
B) It remained skeptical toward the powers of human reason and of science.
C) It was a time in which Europeans were firmly convinced of the regularity and harmony of nature.
D) It was a time in which European people knew little about the value of rational analysis.

Answer 2

It was a time in which Europeans were firmly convinced of the regularity and harmony of nature.

Question 3

During the eighteenth century, people with a scientific view typically imagined God as:

A) a divine being, on the Cross, who had suffered in human form.
B) a force that dwells within us.
C) an inconceivably intelligent Being.
D) more of a Father than as the First Cause of the physical universe.

Answer 3

an inconceivably intelligent Being.

Question 4

The eighteenth-century Pietists and Methodists stressed:

A) the application of reason to religion.
B) the individual's inner spiritual consciousness.
C) adherence to tradition.
D) a return to theological orthodoxy.

Question 5

All of the following are true about eighteenth-century freemasonry except:

A) Masons believed in reason and progress.
B) Masons championed toleration and humane reforms.
C) Masons were respectful toward God as the architect of the universe.
D) Masons attributed little importance to mysterious rituals and the occult.

Question 6

The eighteenth-century philosophes were a group of writers who:

A) treated the ultimate questions of existence.
B) were popularizers and publicists.
C) were originators of a new philosophy.
D) were a group of learned Christian clerics.

Question 7

Which of the following is true of the great French Encyclopédie, which was completed between 1751 and 1772?

A) It was the first encyclopedia ever written.
B) It was the first encyclopedia to be conceived as a positive force for social progress.
C) It criticized the skeptical, rational, and scientific spirit of the age.
D) It epitomized existing society and institutions at the time.

Question 8

Montesquieu's influential doctrine of the separation and balance of powers suggested that good government could be obtained by:

A) separating the functions of the executive, the legislative, and the judicial powers.
B) following the English example and mixing monarchical, aristocratic, and democratic elements of government.
C) dividing power between the king and a great many intermediate bodies like the organized nobility.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 9

Which of the following is true of the differences between Voltaire and Montesquieu?

A) Unlike Montesquieu, Voltaire was an admirer of England.
B) Unlike Voltaire, Montesquieu viewed Louis XIV as a hero.
C) Political liberty concerned Voltaire much less than it did Montesquieu.
D) Freedom of thought was not as important to Voltaire as it was for Montesquieu.

Question 10

Rousseau's ideas included all of the following except:

A) a social contract exists among the people themselves.
B) in the social contract, all individuals fuse their wills into a combined general will.
C) the true and only possible expression of the general will is a democracy.
D) in an ideal society, every person could feel that he or she belonged because each would possess a sense of membership and participation.

Question 11

Rousseau's most direct contribution to the French Revolution was to:

A) estrange the upper classes from their own mode of life.
B) call for a violent revolution against an oppressive monarchy.
C) undermine religion.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 12

All of the following characterize Enlightenment thought except:

A) equality of rights for persons of different religions.
B) tolerance of intellectual differences.
C) reduction of privileges enjoyed by nobles but not by commoners.
D) opposition of scientific thought and rational analysis.

Question 13

Enlightenment thinkers generally believed in progress, reason, science, and civilization, but they took divergent and inconsistent positions on many issues. Which of the following is true?

A) Montesquieu thought the church useful but did not believe in religion.
B) Rousseau believed in religion but saw no need for any church.
C) Voltaire would surrender political liberty in return for guarantees of intellectual freedom.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 14

Enlightened despotism that grew out of earlier forms of absolutism, represented by the likes of Louis XIV and Peter the Great, differed from absolutism by:

A) claiming responsibility to God and the church.
B) emphasizing the monarch's hereditary or dynastic family right.
C) justifying the monarch's authority on grounds of usefulness to society.
D) appealing for public support through holding elections.

Question 15

Enlightened despotism had the least success in reforming society in _____.

A) France
B) Austria
C) Prussia
D) Spain

Question 16

The practical difficulties of the French monarchy could be attributed to its:

A) dependence on the support of the church.
B) inadequate methods of raising revenue.
C) failure to modernize the French army.
D) exclusion of the bourgeois from policy-making positions.

Question 17

At the end of Louis XV's reign, the "Maupeou parlements" newly created by the king's chief minister:

A) were staffed with judges who purchased their positions at high prices.
B) were condemned as forms of despotism by Voltaire.
C) were staffed with judges who were forbidden to reject government edicts.
D) lasted until the French Revolution.

Question 18

Maria Theresa undertook a program of internal consolidation of her empire in which she broke the power of local governments and guild monopolies except in _____.

A) Bohemia
B) Moravia
C) Austria
D) Hungary

Question 19

In the context of foreign affairs, which of the following was the supreme plan of Catherine the Great?

A) To replace Greeks as the dominant element throughout the Middle East
B) To annex Poland with Austria and Prussia
C) To bring Poland into a war of conquest against the Ottoman Empire
D) To penetrate the Polish and Ottoman territories

Question 20

In order to watch over the whole structure of his enlightened reform, Joseph II created:

A) a central diet or parliament.
B) an elected cabinet of ministers.
C) a secret police.
D) a citizen militia.

Question 21

In Russia, all of the following occurred as a result of the Enlightenment except:

A) the popularity of Russian thinkers spread through Europe.
B) the Russian upper classes adopted French as their language.
C) the Russian upper classes became more estranged from their own people.
D) the Empress Catherine called a great but fruitless consultative assembly to reform the country.

Question 22

Under Catherine the Great, serfdom in Russia:

A) was abolished.
B) was significantly reduced in size.
C) increased and became more burdensome.
D) became less severe with the implementation of enlightened reforms.

Question 23

In foreign affairs, Catherine's achievements included all of the following except:

A) the territorial expansion and consolidation of Russia.
B) conquests that included a port on the Black Sea.
C) the annexation of an enormous section of Poland.
D) conquests that included a port on the Baltic Sea.

Question 24

In assessing Catherine's achievements, one could conclude that:

A) her reforms served as a model for western Europe.
B) she demonstrated contempt and disregard for Enlightenment ideals.
C) she was one of the most ineffective Russian rulers.
D) domestically, probably no ruler could have corrected the social evils of eighteenth-century Russia.

Question 25

All of the following are true of enlightened despotism except:

A) it pushed aside customary and common law by enacting new legal codes.
B) it opposed the special powers of the church.
C) it was the culmination of the institution of monarchy as a progressive force in history.
D) it emphasized that the monarchy was on the whole nostalgic and backward-looking.

Question 26

By the end of the era of enlightened despotism, prior to the French Revolution:

A) the despots had reached a point at which they could not accomplish more without encountering massive opposition.
B) there was a general aristocratic revival bordering on feudalism.
C) there was a revival of religion.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 27

The partitions of Poland symbolized all of the following except:

A) the demise of the old international order.
B) the triumph of Polish nationalism and reform efforts.
C) the dangers of not establishing a strong sovereignty.
D) a shift in Europe's balance of power.

Question 28

Characteristic of the demands of the age of "Democratic Revolution" between 1760 and the French Revolution were:

A) demands for a welfare state.
B) demands for universal suffrage.
C) demands for liberty and equality.
D) demands for confiscation of noble property.

Question 29

The democratic revolutions rejected:

A) the special representation set aside for special groups.
B) the separation between religion and civil rights.
C) the declaration of rights and written constitutions.
D) the idea of national citizenship.

Question 30

George III sought to increase the influence of the crown and therefore:

A) outlawed the Tories.
B) stood above the various factions.
C) created a new faction, the "king's friends."
D) ended the practice of granting pensions and favors to politicians.

Question 31

Which of the following is true of the Parliament in Britain during the Age of Enlightenment?

A) It remained more feudalistic in England than on the Continent.
B) It did not tax colonials in America as they were not represented in it.
C) It was as supreme as the monarchs in most Continental countries.
D) It was less sovereign than any European ruler.

Question 32

Edmund Burke, an influential founder of philosophical conservatism, favored:

A) the landowning interest to govern the Parliament.
B) annual parliaments like other reformers.
C) universal male suffrage.
D) the dissolution of rotten boroughs.

Question 33

A major trend in eighteenth-century British politics was:

A) for the Parliament to extend its powers in a general centralization of the empire.
B) for the king to extend his powers on the model of enlightened despotism.
C) for the decentralization of the empire through granting more local autonomy.
D) for the restriction of the government's authority to levy taxes.

Question 34

The rise of the United Irish in 1798 against British rule:

A) achieved brief independence for Ireland.
B) united Catholics and Presbyterians against English rule.
C) was led by Catholics and opposed by the Presbyterians in Ireland.
D) was aided by the landing of a French army.

Question 35

The British countered the American argument that Parliament had no authority to tax them because Americans were not represented by replying that:

A) taxation was a royal prerogative.
B) no one was represented in Parliament.
C) Americans enjoyed "virtual representation" through other members of Parliament.
D) new elections were planned to elect Americans to Parliament.

Question 36

During the War of American Independence, all of the following countries went to war against Britain except:

A) France.
B) Prussia.
C) Spain.
D) Austria.

Question 37

For Europeans, the success of the American Revolution was a powerful factor in promoting:

A) the French Revolution.
B) a rising confidence in self-government.
C) constitutionalism.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 38

In what sense was the eighteenth century an age of faith as well as an age of reason?

Question 39

Compare and contrast the political ideas of two of the following: Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau. Whose ideas do you think were the most influential?

Question 40

Compare and contrast Joseph II and Frederick the Great as enlightened despots.

Question 41

Was Catherine the Great an enlightened despot? Explain your answer.

Question 42

In what sense is the period after 1760 rightly characterized as the era of "democratic" or "Atlantic" revolutions? What are the difficulties in analyzing the era on such a basis rather than on a national one (e.g., "the American Revolution")?

Question 43

Discuss the impact of the wars of the mid-eighteenth century on the internal governmental policies of France and the Habsburg Empire. Which country found the better solution for its problems?

Question 44

Discuss the response of Great Britain to the ideas of the Enlightenment.

Question 45

How did the various outlying areas of the British Empire react to policies of centralization? What were the long-term consequences of those reactions?

Question 46

Select what you believe are two of the central ideas or attitudes of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Explain why you believe these ideas are so important and what impact they had on social and political life in the eighteenth century.

Question 47

What was the greatest defect of the pre-1795 Polish state? Using another seventeenth- or eighteenth-century European state as a model, explain how this defect could have been remedied (or explain why it was irremediable).

Question 48

The outlines of most of the major European states had emerged by 1740. How did the rulers of those political entities pursue the goals of enlightened despotism in the eighteenth century?

Question 49

How did the ethnic composition of Poland present an obstacle to reform efforts and the establishment of an effective Polish movement?

Question 50

How did religious movements like Pietism and Methodism illustrate the divide between popular and elite cultures?

Question 51

How and why did "public opinion" emerge in the eighteenth century? To whom did the "public" refer?

Question 52

What were the main ideas of the Physiocrats? Why was the phrase laissez-faire used to describe many of their ideas?

Question 53

What were the practical motivations behind the attempts of monarchs to pursue the goals of enlightened despotism in the eighteenth century?

Question 54

How did the American Revolution become another international struggle for power?

Question 55

On the heels of the American Revolution, what gains had been made in terms of democracy? What were the limitations of the revolution's promise of liberty and equality?

Question 56

In what ways did the establishment of the new United States vindicate Enlightenment ideals?