Forms of Government
This type of government has citizens elect people to speak and make decisions on their behalf.
What is a republic?
This Enlightenment thinker developed the concept of natural rights and stated that all human beings have the right to "life, liberty, and property."
Who is John Locke?
This terms refers to rights that people are just born with as human beings.
What are natural (or unalienable) rights?
Lack of knowledge about this led Indigenous peoples to be conquered by explorers.
What are firearms?
This type of government has all citizens participate to make decisions.
What is democracy?
This is Montesquieu’s political theory that political power should be split between different branches to prevent one from becoming too powerful.
What is the Separation of Powers Theory (Checks and Balances)?
This Enlightenment thinker was a Federalist who believed that the federal government should have more power than the states.
Who is James Madison?
This part of pre-colonial Americas consisted of smaller tribes and civilizations instead of large empires.
What is North America?
The type of government run by a small number of people.
What is an oligarchy?
This term, coined by Swiss philosopher Rousseau, describes when the members of a society agree to sacrifice some of their individual freedoms in exchange for state protection.
What is the social contract?
This Enlightenment thinker was an Anti-Federalist who, in the Declaration of Independence, wrote that all men have the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Who is Thomas Jefferson?
This religious text helped shape political systems and future legal codes.
What are the Ten Commandments?
This type of government has the monarch as just a symbol--their power is shared with a parliament and is limited by a constitution.
What is limited (or constitutional) monarchy?
This Enlightenment thinker argued that people and incapable of ruling themselves and thus require to be led by a monarch.
Who is Thomas Hobbes?
This Enlightenment thinker advocated for independence for Latin American from the Spanish Empire and a strong union between these countries.
Who is Simón Bolívar?
The ideas from Ancient Greece were preserved and spread by this empire.
This is a structured system for managing carrying out government policies, using a hierarchy of officials and formal rules.
What is a bureaucracy?
This term describes a government in which a single ruler has absolute power and often rules abusively and without regard for the people.
What is tyranny?
During the Enlightenment, many societies began to transition from absolute monarchy to this form of government that made monarchs share power with Parliament.
What is limited (constitutional) monarchy?
This term describes the extended family units within larger communities that were the basic units in Early African society.
What are lineage groups?