history test flash cards
Democratic Revolutions Study Guide (1750–1900)
Vocabulary
Tyrant: A ruler who uses power harshly and unjustly, often ignoring laws or rights.
Divine Right: The idea that kings receive authority from God and are accountable only to God.
Liberty: Freedom from oppressive restrictions; the ability to act, think, or speak freely.
Absolutism: A political system where a monarch holds total power with no checks by laws or other institutions.
Natural rights: Basic rights all humans are born with (such as life, liberty, and property).
Philosophe: Enlightenment thinkers in France who promoted reason, reform, and criticism of absolute monarchy.
Abdicate: To give up a throne or position of power voluntarily.
Nationalism: Strong pride in and loyalty to one’s nation or cultural identity.
Bourgeoisie: Middle class—merchants, professionals, and business owners—who often pushed for political reform.
Anti-Semitic: Prejudice or discrimination against Jewish people.
Grievances: Complaints or issues people want changed, often listed during revolutions.
Abolition: The movement to end slavery and the slave trade.
Identifications
Louis XVI: King of France whose weak leadership and financial problems helped spark the French Revolution; he was later executed.
Henry VIII: English king who broke with the Catholic Church, increasing monarchal power; influenced later debates about authority and rights.
Nicholas Copernicus: Scientist who proposed the heliocentric theory, challenging traditional authority and encouraging scientific thinking.
Isaac Newton: Scientist who developed laws of motion and gravity; fueled Enlightenment ideas about reason and natural laws.
Galileo: Scientist who supported Copernicus and improved telescopes; symbol of conflict between science and traditional authority.
Thomas Hobbes: Enlightenment thinker who believed humans are naturally selfish and need a strong government for order.
John Locke: Enlightenment thinker who argued that people have natural rights and can overthrow governments that violate them; influenced democratic revolutions.
Jean Jacques Rousseau: Enlightenment thinker who believed government should follow the “general will” of the people.
Baron Charles Louis Montesquieu: Proposed separation of powers; influenced modern democratic government structures.
Social Contract: The idea that people give up some freedoms to a government in return for protection of rights.
Toussaint Louverture: Leader of the Haitian Revolution; formerly enslaved person who helped win independence from France.
7 Years War: Global conflict (1756–1763) that left European powers in debt, encouraging taxation and sparking colonial revolutions.
U.S. Declaration of Independence: Document declaring American colonies’ independence from Britain, based on Enlightenment ideas.
The Estates General: French representative assembly of three social classes; its unfair structure helped trigger the French Revolution.
Storming of the Bastille: Attack on a Paris prison in 1789; symbolized the people’s uprising and the start of the French Revolution.
Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen: French document stating natural rights and equality under the law.
Maximilien Robespierre: Radical Jacobin leader during the French Revolution; associated with the Reign of Terror.
Napoleon Bonaparte: Military leader who took control of France, expanded empire, and spread revolutionary ideas across Europe.
Napoleonic Code: Law code created by Napoleon; promoted equality before the law but limited some rights.
St. Domingue: French Caribbean colony (now Haiti) that was the wealthiest in the Americas due to enslaved labor.
Haitian Revolution: Successful slave rebellion leading to Haiti’s independence; inspired by Enlightenment ideas and the French Revolution.
Mexican Independence: Movement led by figures like Father Hidalgo and later creoles who sought independence from Spain.
Simon Bolivar: South American independence leader who helped liberate nations from Spanish rule; inspired by Enlightenment ideas.
Abolition Movement: Movement to end slavery; influenced by Enlightenment values and growing humanitarian ideas.
Congress of Vienna: Meeting after Napoleon’s defeat to restore European monarchies and maintain balance of power.
Multiple Choice Concepts (Explained)
1. Who benefited most from the democratic/Atlantic revolutions?
➡ Middle-class men (the bourgeoisie).
They gained political power, voting rights, and economic opportunity.
2. What political goal did all democratic/nationalist revolutions share?
➡ Self-government based on the consent of the people.
(Representative government, ending absolute monarchy.)
3. What made the French Revolution different from the American Revolution?
➡ The French Revolution was far more radical and aimed to completely remake society.
It involved terror, class conflict, and sweeping social change.
4. How were European developments linked to the Haitian Revolution?
➡ The French Revolution weakened French control and spread ideas of equality, which encouraged enslaved people in Haiti to rebel.
1. What ideas most significantly influenced the Atlantic (Democratic) Revolutions?
Enlightenment ideas—especially natural rights, social contract theory, popular sovereignty, separation of powers, liberty, and equality.
Revolutionaries were inspired by thinkers like Locke, Rousseau, and Montesquieu and by new beliefs that government should be based on consent of the governed, not divine-right monarchy.
2. Based on the image and your knowledge of world history, which best represents a social change in Europe after the French Revolution?
(A typical correct answer for this type of question):
The rise of the middle class (bourgeoisie) and the decline of aristocratic privilege.
The French Revolution weakened the power of nobles, promoted legal equality, and opened more opportunities for the middle class.
3. What were the most distinctive features of the Haitian Revolution?
It was the only successful revolution led by enslaved people in world history.
It abolished slavery permanently in Haiti.
It resulted in the first Black-led independent nation in the Western Hemisphere.
It challenged racial hierarchy more directly than any other Atlantic revolution.
It was influenced by Enlightenment and French Revolutionary ideas but went farther by demanding racial equality and full emancipation.
4. Which group of people most likely influenced the authors of Sources 1 and 2?
Enlightenment philosophes and French abolitionists.
The authors’ arguments about equality, natural rights, and the universal humanity of Black people clearly reflect Enlightenment ideas and anti-slavery activism.
5. What people in society were not interested in allowing Black inhabitants of St. Domingue to become full French citizens?
White plantation owners (the grands blancs).
They depended on slavery and feared losing political and economic power.
**6. According to Martin Luther passage:
A historian would likely explain that Luther’s views were most influenced by Protestant desires to commit what Christian beliefs?**
To return Christianity to what Protestants saw as the original teachings of the Bible.
Specifically:
Christians should follow Scripture, not the pope.
Violence and war should not be commanded by church leaders.
Priests should not act like political or military authorities.
7. A historian could best explain Luther’s arguments about the pope and clergy in the context of Protestant claims that the Catholic Church had changed how?
Protestants argued the Catholic Church had become corrupt, too involved in politics, focused on power and wealth, and had strayed from early Christian teachings.
Luther criticizes clergy for engaging in worldly affairs (like wars) instead of spiritual duties.
8. What did Napoleon claim about religion in the document al-Jabarti quotes?
Napoleon claimed to respect Islam, saying the French had not come to attack the Egyptian religion.
He presented the French as allies of Muslims and emphasized equality and rational leadership.
9. What claims does al-Jabarti make about the French?
He says the French are not truly religious and actually oppose Christianity and Islam.
He describes them as materialists who deny an afterlife and reject prophets.
He also says they lack a single ruler and do not follow a unified religious or political structure.