American Revolution
This phrase expressed the colonists' belief that they should not be taxed without having a voice in government.
Answer: What is “No Taxation Without Representation”?
This was the name for French society before the Revolution, which was divided into three social classes.
Answer: What is the Old Regime?
These are the basic rights that Enlightenment thinkers argued people are naturally entitled to.
Answer: What are natural rights?
On July 14, 1789, French revolutionaries stormed this prison while searching for weapons and ammunition.
Answer: What is the Bastille?
When historians examine how the same event can be described differently by two groups, they are examining this historical concept.
Answer: What is perspective?
This 1773 protest involved colonists dumping British tea into Boston Harbor.
Answer: What is the Boston Tea Party?
This estate made up approximately 97% of the French population and paid the majority of the taxes.
Answer: What is the Third Estate?
John Locke argued that people agree to a government that is responsible for protecting their rights.
Answer: What is the social contract?
This wave of panic spread through the French countryside after the Bastille was stormed.
Answer: What is the Great Fear?
A British soldier and an American colonist give different accounts of the Boston Massacre. Why might their accounts be different?
Answer: Their different positions and experiences could influence how they interpreted and described the event.
This event involved British soldiers firing on colonists in Boston and became an important symbol of growing colonial resistance.
Answer: What is the Boston Massacre?
After being locked out of their meeting place, members of this group gathered at an indoor tennis court and pledged to create a new constitution.
Answer: What is the Tennis Court Oath?
What could people do if a government violated the social contract and became oppressive?
Answer: They could rebel against the government.
Parisian women marched to Versailles because of the high price of this basic food.
Answer: What is bread?
Both the American and French Revolutions were influenced by Enlightenment ideas. What major similarity can historians identify between the two revolutions?
Answer: Both involved challenges to existing political systems based partly on ideas about rights, representation, and government.
This document broke up with the British.
Answer: What is the Declaration of Independence?
This document declared that people had the rights to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
Answer: What is the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen?
Identify TWO ways Enlightenment ideas influenced both the American and French Revolutions.
Answer: Possible answers include:
This group of radical revolutionaries launched the Reign of Terror and sought to eliminate enemies of the Revolution.
Answer: Who were the Jacobins?
A historian argues that economic problems can contribute to political revolutions. Give ONE example from the French Revolution that supports this argument.
Answer: Possible answers include:
The American Revolution was influenced by the belief that governments have responsibilities to protect people's rights. According to the materials, which Enlightenment thinker most directly influenced this idea?
Answer: Who is John Locke?
Explain why the structure of the Three Estates contributed to revolutionary tensions in France.
Answer: The Third Estate represented most of the population but carried most of the tax burden, while the First and Second Estates had greater privileges and paid fewer taxes. This inequality contributed to resentment and demands for change.
A government claims that the king has unlimited authority. Citizens argue that government exists to protect their rights and that they can resist an oppressive government. Which Enlightenment concept most directly supports the citizens' argument?
Answer: What is the social contract?
Put these events in chronological order:
Reign of Terror — Tennis Court Oath — Storming of the Bastille — Women's March
Answer:
The American and French Revolutions both drew on Enlightenment ideas about rights and government. However, the French Revolution eventually entered the Reign of Terror. What does this comparison suggest about the relationship between revolutionary ideas and revolutionary outcomes?
Answer: Similar revolutionary ideas do not necessarily produce identical outcomes. Political, economic, and social circumstances can influence how a revolution develops. The French Revolution became increasingly radical, eventually leading to the Jacobins and the Reign of Terror.