AP European History Study Guide Chapter 17

Review Questions
Formative Influences on the Enlightenment
1) Which two individuals had the biggest influence on Enlightenment ideals?
Locke and Newton
a. Why?
Newton’s physics and Locke’s psychology provided the theoretical basis for a reformist
approach to society.
2) After 1688 (the Glorious Revolution), how progressive was England?
England was very progressive, freedoms expanded, religious toleration increased, relative freedom of
press and speech was present.
a. Who were they not tolerant to?
Utilitarians and Roman Catholics
b. How did England compare to other European countries?
England had less economic regulation than other countries and their commerce thrived. They
embraced liberal polices—this created a politically stable state and promoted economic
prosperity.
3) How did the print culture change in the 18th century?
The volume of printed material increased throughout Europe—especially in Great Britain, literature
became more popular as literacy rates rose.
4) How did literacy rates change in the 18th century?
Literacy rates skyrocketed
a. What did people read?
People read books, journals, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, novels, and religious texts.
5) Explain the new force of public opinion.
Expanding literate public and the increase of secular printed materials created new public opinion
which effected political and social life. Center of leisure became the major areas to discuss the
circulated prints.
The Philosophes
6) Who were the philosophes?
Writers and critics who flourished in expanding print culture and took the lead in forging new
attitudes favoring change, reform, and toleration.
a. How did they differ from formal philosophers of the past?
Literary figures, economists, historians, who sought to apply rules of reason, criticism, and
common sense to institutions.
b. What did they all have in common?
They sought to apply these principles to institutions, economic practices, and religious
policies of the day.
7) Who was Voltaire (1694-1778)?
A philosophe/ questioner.
a. Where was he from?
France
b. What country did he most admire?
England
c. What books did he write? (describe them)
Letters on the English, Candide, Elements of the Philosophy of Newton
d. What were his beliefs?
He believed that human society could and should be improved but reform was never certain
or permanent.
e. Famous quotes?
 “Crush the infamous thing”
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities”
The Enlightenment and Religion
8) Why did the philosophes criticize the Christian church?
Christian churches hindered the pursuit of rational life and the scientific study of humanity and
nature.
9) What were the beliefs of the deists?
They believed that life of religion and of reason could be combined, they promoted religion as natural
and rational versus supernatural and mystical. They regarded god as s divine watch maker who had
created the mechanism of nature, set it in motion and then departed. (no such thing as miracles)
a. What did they hope for?
They hoped wide acceptance of their faith would end rivalry among the various Christian
sects and with it religious fanaticism, conflict, and persecution.
Who was David Hume (1711-1776)? \
A Scottish philosopher
b. What did he write?
Inquiry into human nature
c. What did he believe?
The greatest miracle was that people believed in miracles.
10) Who was Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)?
Major Jewish writer who debated religion and the place of Jews in European life
a. What did he write?
Ethics, Theologico-Political Treatise (1670)
b. What did he believe?
He closely identified God and nature (spiritual and material world). He believed the Hebrew
bible provided Jews with divine legislation but not with specifically revealed theological
knowledge. He argued that religious institutions of Christianity and Judaism led people away
from the original teaching of scripture and encouraged them to persecute those who disagreed
with leaders of their respective churches.
11) Who was Moses Mendelsohn (1729-1786)?
A leading Jewish Philosopher of the enlightenment century
a. What did he believe?
He believed that religious diversity within a nation didn’t harm loyalty to the government.
Government should be religiously neutral and Jews should enjoy the same civil rights as
others.
b. What was his nickname?
Jewish Socrates
12) How did Christians view Islam in the 18th century?
The Christians viewed Islam as a rivalry; Islam was portrayed as a false religion (Muhammad
attacked). They were also attacked for their sexually promiscuous religion. They referred that Islam
was Muhammadanism which implied that Muhammad was divine rather than a person.
The Enlightenment and Society
13) What was the Encyclopedia?
The most monumental undertaking in the realm of print culture
a. Who published it?
Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert
b. What information did it contain?
It included critical ideas of the time on religion, government and philosophy. It also included
numerous important articles and illustrations on manufacturing, canal building, ship
construction, and improved agriculture.
c. What did it do for learning?
 It secularized learning and undermined intellectual assumptions the lingered during the
middle ages and the reformation.
14) Who was Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)?
An Italian aristocrat and philosophe
a. What did he write?
On Crimes and Punishments
b. What did he believe?
He thought that the laws of the monarchs should conform to that of the rational laws of nature
and that punishment should be both effective and just. He didn’t believe in the practice of
torture and capitol punishment, but instead believed the criminal justice system should ensure
a speedy trial and certain punishment and intent of punishment should be to stop crime. Laws
were meant not to impose the will of god or ideal of perfection but to secure the greatest good
or happiness of the greatest number of people/beings.
15) Who were the physiocrats?
French economic reformers, economic philosophes
a. What did they believe?
Believed mercantilism threatened the expansion of trade, manufacture, and agriculture.
Believed the primary role of the government was to protect property and to permit its owners
to use it freely. Agriculture was the basis of which all economic production depended. They
favored consolidation of small peasant holdings into larger, more efficient farms.
16) Who was Adam Smith (1723-1790)?
An important economic thinker of the enlightenment
a. What did he write?
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Wealth of Nations
b. What did he argue?
Believed economic liberty was the foundation of a natural economic system. This being said
he urged that the mercantile system of England (navigation acts governing colonial trade, the
bounties the government gave to favored merchants and industries, tariffs, trading
monopolies, and the domestic regulation of labor and manufacture) be abolished. These
methods hindered the expansion of wealth and production. He believed that economic growth
should be encouraged by unleashing individuals to pursue their own selfish economic
interests.
c. What is he the founder of?
Laissez- faire
17) What was Adam Smith’s four-stage theory?
Stage 1: Hunting and gathering
- had little or no settled life
Stage 2: Pastoral or herding
- these societies are groups of nomads who tend to their herbs and develop some private property
Stage 3: Agricultural
- these societies settled and have clear-cut property arrangements
Stage 4: Commercial state
- Advanced cities, manufacture of numerous items from wide consumption, extensive trade, elaborate
forms of property and financial arrangements
Political Thought of the Philosophes
18) Where did the most important political thought occur?
France
a. Why?
French Philosophes were especially discontented with the corruption around the royal court,
the bureaucracy, the wars, and the power of the church.
19) Who was Montesquieu (1689-1755)?
 A lawyer, a noble of the robe, a member of a provincial parlement, and a member of the Bordeaux
Academt of Science.
a. Where was he from and what did he write?
France and The Persian Letters, Spirit of the Laws
b. What were his political beliefs?
Favored monarchial government limited by institutions, like the aristocracy, towns, and
corporate bodies that exercised liberties which monarchs respected.
c. Why did he admire Great Britain?
He believed that executive power resided in the three branches (E, L, J), he thought they had
checks and balances.
20) Who was Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)?

A strange, isolated genius, an enlightenment thinker and a philosophe.

a. What did he write (2)?

Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences, Discourse on the Origin of
Inequality, The Social Contract.

b. What did he believe and what were his quotes?

He believed that people of his time couldn’t achieve moral, virtuous, or sincere lives. He
believed that most of the evil in the world resides in the distribution of property, in nature
humans are good, but when they form social relations and institutions they are no longer
good. Society= human evil.

“All men are born free, but everywhere they are in chains.”

c. What was “the general will”?

The will of the majority of the voting citizens

Women in the Thought and Practice of the Enlightenment

21) What role did salons play during the Enlightenment?
Organized by women, salons provided the philosophes with a useful way to access social and political
contact as well as an environment where they could cultivate their ideas.
22) Generally, how did the philosophes feel about women, and their roles in society?
Although they urged stronger and better education for women, yet they weren’t strong feminists.
They argued that the education of women was overly religious and gave an ascetic view on sex.
However they did not urge radical changes in light of their social condition
23) Who was Mary Wollstonecraft?
British writer and philosopher who advocated women’s rights
a. What did she write?
A Vindication of the right of women
b. Who did she oppose and why?
She opposed policies during the French Revolution which accompanied Rousseau’s ideas.
These ideas confined women to a certain sphere.
Rococco and Neoclassical Styles in 18th Century Art
24) Briefly describe Rococco and Neoclassical styles.
Rococco: style embraced lavish, often lighthearted decoration with an emphasis on pastel colors an
 play of light.
Neoclassical: embodied a return to figurative architectural models drawn from the Renaissance

and the ancient world.

Enlightened Absolutism
25) How did the philosophes (especially Voltaire) feel about monarchies?
They did not want to limit the power of the monarchs, instead they indented to utilize their power to
rationalize both economic and political structures as well as liberate intellectual life. If the philsophes
could find to use the power of the monarchs or in some way gain something from their power, they
did not oppose monarchs.
26) Who was Frederick the Great of Prussia?
Embodied many enlightened ideas, more so than any other enlightened depots. Was know for his
highly functioning military society.
a. What phrase did he use to describe himself?
“the first servant of the state”
b. What policies did he enact that qualified him as being “enlightened”?
Increased education, ennobled for merit, incanted policies of religious toleration, and
administrative and economic reform.
27) Who was Joseph II of Austria?
The Emperor of Austria, and the son of Maria Teresa.
a. What “enlightened” policies did he enact?
Centralized authority, ecclesiastical policies, economic/agrarian reform, abolished serfdom,
28) Who was Catherine the Great of Russia?
The Empress of Russia.
a. What “enlightened” policies did she enact?
Economic growth, limited administrative reform, and expanded territory.
29) Why was Poland partitioned in 1772?
Russia overtook Poland and crushed its future as a state.
Possible Essay Topics:
Here is how this is going to work: not all of these topics will appear but, three WILL appear of the four.
You must brainstorm for them – give definitions, terms that are related, and possible questions I might
ask in relation to the topic.

Religion and Science in the Enlightenment

The Philosophes
Women in the Enlightenment
Enlightened Absolutism (despotism)