Chapter 28

Revolutions and National States in the Atlantic World

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. The author of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen was
a. Marie Antoinette.
b. Olympe de Gouges.
c. Maximilien Robespierre.
d. Simone de Beauvoir.
e. Mary Wollstonecraft.
Answer: b
Page: 621

2. In response to the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen,
a. the French revolutionary leaders called for complete equality for women.
b. its author, Olympe de Gouges, became a leading force in the French revolution.
c. it was, in fact, the English who offered complete equality for women.
d. French women achieved political but not economic equality.
e. the French revolutionary leaders refused to put women’s rights on their political agenda.
Answer: e
Page: 621

3. The revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century helped to spread
Enlightenment ideals and
a. encouraged the consolidation of national states.
b. strengthened European control over South America.
c. repudiated socialist and communist philosophies.
d. resulted in the weakening of national states because of the growing emphasis on the
individual.
e. gave complete freedom and equality to women.
Answer: a
Page: 622

4. Revolutionaries of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century

a. were able to destroy all vestiges of the ancien régime.
b. were mainly influenced by Marxist ideology.
c. focused on the necessity of popular sovereignty.
d. accepted the legitimacy of the divine right of kings.
e. always stressed the inherent equality between men and women.
Answer: c
Page: 622
5. The author of the Second Treatise of Civil Government was
a. Voltaire.
b. Rousseau.
c. Locke.
d. Hobbes.
e. Robespierre.
Answer: c
Page: 623

6. Which of the following was NOT one of John Locke’s main ideas?
a. that governments were a result of a social contract between rulers and ruled
b. that subjects had the right to remove their ruler
c. that rulers derived their authority from the consent of those they governed
d. that individuals retained personal rights to life, liberty, and property
e. that although kings did have divine sanction, their subjects maintained personal rights
Answer: e
Page: 623

7. Which of the following was NOT one of the basic ideals of the Enlightenment thinkers?
a. popular sovereignty
b. social contract
c. political equality
d. equality for women
e. individual freedom
Answer: d
Page: 623-624

8. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his The Social Contract, argued that in every country the
sovereign voice of government
a. was the members of society acting collectively.
b. was the king because, despite his faults, he was still of divine appointment.
c. should be the nobles instead of the king because of their control of the land.
d. should be the bishops and archbishops because of their special relationship to God.
e. resided in the army.
Answer: a
Page: 623

9. After the end of the Seven Years’ War,

a. the British lost complete control of their North American colonies.
b. the French proved to be much better for the colonies after the British left.
c. the British were forced to hand all of North America over to the French.
d. the colonists grew much closer to the British in appreciation for the British sacrifices in the
war.
e. the colonists grew increasingly frustrated with British control and taxes.
Answer: e
 Page: 624

10. The main slogan for the colonies in the years leading up to the American revolution was
a. “liberty, equality, fraternity.”
b. “equal rights for women.”
c. “self-government now.”
d. “free and independent states.”
e. “no taxation without representation.”
Answer: e
Page: 624

11. The Declaration of Independence’s contractual view of political structure in which the
government drew its authority from “the consent of the governed” was influenced by
a. Edmund Burke.
b. John Locke.
c. John Stuart Mill.
d. William Wilberforce.
e. Voltaire.
Answer: b
Page: 625

12. Which of the following was NOT one of the principles built into the government of the
newly formed American state?
a. the equality of all inhabitants
b. freedom from British control
c. a written constitution that guaranteed personal freedoms
d. a responsible government based on popular sovereignty
e. the creation of a federal republic
Answer: a
Page: 627

13. The leaders of the French revolution

a. were much more conservative than the leaders of the American revolution.
b. accepted the fact that France would always have to have a king.
c. called for a complete reorganizing of French political, social, and cultural structures.
d. created concepts and documents that would later influence the American revolution.
e. placed unlimited faith in the potential of the peasants.
Answer: c
Page: 627

14. The ancien régime was the

a. estate that comprised the clergy in pre-revolutionary France.
b. term for the first democracies in Greece and Rome.
c. traditional, European-born ruling class in South America.
d. term Metternich used to describe the dangerous and growing class of urban
revolutionaries.
 e. old order in France that revolutionary leaders wanted to replace.
Answer: e
Page: 627

15. On June 17th, 1789, members of the third estate seceded from the Estates General and
declared themselves to be the
a. House of Commons.
b. Convention.
c. National Assembly.
d. Directory.
e. House of Representatives.
Answer: c
Page: 627-628

16. In August 1789, the National Assembly expressed the guiding principles of the French
revolution by issuing
a. the Declaration of Independence.
b. the French Constitution of 1789.
c. the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.
d. the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.
e. The Social Contract.
Answer: c
Page: 628

17. The guiding principles of the French revolution are summed up in the phrase
a. “no taxation without representation.”
b. “peace, bread, land.”
c. “let them eat cake.”
d. “all men are created equal.”
e. “liberty, equality, fraternity.”
Answer: e
Page: 628

18. The leaders of the Convention hoped to hold off invading counterrevolutionary forces by
a. calling for the levée en masse.
b. forming a military alliance with the new American republic.
c. restoring the power and position of the French monarchy and thus placating the other
nations.
d. handing over their most radical leaders for public trial.
e. using new military technology purchased from the Ottomans.
Answer: a
Page: 629
19. The most radical period of the French revolution was reached during the leadership of
a. Louis XVI.
b. Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
c. Maximilien Robespierre.
d. Napoleon Bonaparte.
e. Simón Bolívar.
Answer: c
Page: 629

20. Maximilien Robespierre was known as

a. “the Son of Heaven.”
b. the “French Jefferson.”
c. the “Lion of Paris.”
d. “First Among Equals.”
e. “the Incorruptible.”
Answer: e
Page: 629

21. During the rule of the Directory,

a. the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was written.
b. the French revolution reached its most radical stage.
c. the French monarchy was abolished and Louis XVI was executed.
d. France was finally defeated by a combined British, Prussian, Austrian, and Russian army.
e. the French revolution moved in a more pragmatic direction.
Answer: e
Page: 629

22. Napoleon’s Civil Code

a. gave absolute free speech to French newspapers.
b. was a modern restatement of Justinian’s Corpus iuris civilis.
c. affirmed the political and legal equality of all adult men.
d. had at its core the radical measures of the Convention.
e. reduced patriarchal authority and gave more equality to women.
Answer: c
Page: 630

23. The turning point in Napoleon’s career was his disastrous 1812 invasion of
a. England.
b. Austria.
c. Russia.
d. Spain.
e. Italy.
Answer: c
 Page: 631

24. Napoleon’s final defeat occurred at

a. Waterloo.
b. Leipzig.
c. Elba.
d. Moscow.
e. St. Helena.
Answer: a
Page: 631

25. The only successful slave revolt in history took place in

a. Brazil.
b. Saint-Domingue.
c. Cuba.
d. Virginia.
e. Mexico.
Answer: b
Page: 631

26. The leader who was responsible for the success of the Saint-Domingue uprising was
a. Simón Bolívar.
b. Boukman.
c. Miguel de Hidalgo.
d. Louverture.
e. José de San Martín.
Answer: d
Page: 633-634

27. The creoles of Latin America were influenced by the ideals of the Enlightenment
a. and hoped for the establishment of an egalitarian society like that of Haiti.
b. but only wanted to displace the peninsulares and still retain their privileged positions.
c. but wanted to turn the tables and deny all rights to the peninsulares.
d. and hoped for tremendous social reform like that promoted by the French revolutionary
Robespierre.
e. but wanted to carry these notions to their logical conclusion and grant equality to women.
Answer: b
Page: 634

28. Colonial rule in Mexico ended in 1821 when the capital was seized by
a. Augustín de Iturbide.
b. Miguel de Hidalgo.
c. Simón Bolívar.
d. Bernardo O’Higgins.
e. José de San Martín.
 Answer: a
Page: 636

29. The goal of Simón Bolívar was to

a. form stable, smaller South American states centered around distinct tribal or linguistic
groups.
b. have the colonies of South America remain linked to Spain but attain a measure of self-
government.
c. bring the former Spanish colonies of South America into union with the United States.
d. weld the former Spanish colonies of South America into a confederation like the United
States.
e. bring about unification through a strict authoritarian form of government.
Answer: d
Page: 636

30. Which of the following revolutionary leaders is NOT correctly linked with his country?
a. Bernardo O’Higgins and Chile
b. Toussaint Louverture and Haiti
c. José de San Martín and Argentina
d. Augustín de Iturbide and Mexico
e. Miguel de Hidalgo and Peru
Answer: e
Page: 636

31. The leader who helped lead Brazil to independence was

a. Simón Bolívar.
b. Bernardo O’Higgins.
c. José de San Martín.
d. Miguel de Hidalgo.
e. Emperor Pedro I.
Answer: e
Page: 636

32. Among the leading proponents of conservatism in the eighteenth century was
a. Giuseppe Mazzini.
b. John Stuart Mill.
c. Edmund Burke.
d. Simón Bolívar.
e. Maximilien Robespierre.
Answer: c
Page: 637

33. William Wilberforce

a. wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.
b. pushed a bill through Parliament that ended the slave trade.
c. was the chief proponent of conservatism in the eighteenth century.
 d. focused his efforts on gaining complete equality for women.
e. was the leader of the British forces that surrendered at Yorktown.
Answer: b
Page: 638

34. What nineteenth-century English thinker promoted individual freedom, universal suffrage,
taxation of high personal income, and an extension of the rights of freedom and equality to
women?
a. Edmund Burke
b. John Locke
c. Jean Jacques Rousseau
d. Cecil Rhodes
e. John Stuart Mill
Answer: e
Page: 637

35. The author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was

a. Mary Astell.
b. John Stuart Mill.
c. Mary Wollstonecraft.
d. Olympe de Gouges.
e. Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Answer: c
Page: 639

36. The organizer of the Seneca Falls conference was

a. Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
b. Thomas Jefferson.
c. William Wilberforce.
d. John Stuart Mill.
e. Olympe de Gouges.
Answer: a
Page: 639-640

37. Theodore Herzl was the founder of

a. German nationalism.
b. modern conservatism.
c. the Seneca Falls conference.
d. modern anti-Semitism.
e. Zionism.
Answer: e
Page: 642

38. The leading conservative politician at the Congress of Vienna was

a. Napoleon.
b. Otto von Bismarck.
 c. Edmund Burke.
d. Klemens von Metternich.
e. Theodore Herzl.
Answer: d
Page: 643

39. The German leader Otto von Bismarck believed that the great issues of his day would be
determined by
a. “class struggle.”
b. “liberty, equality, fraternity.”
c. “the resurgence of the ancien régime.”
d. “blood and iron.”
e. “the realization of freedom.”
Answer: d
Page: 645

TRUE/FALSE

40. The English philosopher John Locke formulated one of the most influential theories of
contractual government, the idea of popular sovereignty.
Answer: True
Page: 623

41. Many thinkers of the Enlightenment affirmed the legal and social privileges enjoyed by the
aristocrats of the seventeenth and eighteenth century.
Answer: False
Page: 623

42. Victory in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) ensured that Britain world dominate global
trade and that British colonies would prosper.
Answer: True
Page: 624

43. The Declaration of Independence drew deep inspiration from Enlightenment political thought
in justifying the colonies’ quest for independence.
Answer: True
Page: 625

44. In the Constitution of the United States, American leaders based the federal government on
popular sovereignty, and they agreed to follow this written constitution that guaranteed
individual liberties.
Answer: True
Page: 626-627
45. French revolutionaries also drew inspiration from the Enlightenment; however, it was a less
radical affair than the American revolution.
Answer: False
Page: 627

46. Napoleon Bonaparte was a brilliant military leader; he became a general at age twenty-four.
Answer: True
Page: 629

47. Simón Bolívar was inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte and took up arms against Spanish rule;
his goal was to create a great confederation from former Spanish colonies.
Answer: False
Page: 636

48. One of the most influential concepts of modern political thought is the idea of the nation.
Answer: True
Page: 641

49. The French revolution and the wars that followed it heightened feelings of national identity
throughout Europe.
Answer: True
Page: 647

ESSAY

50. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen says that “the principle of all
sovereignty resides essentially in the nation.” What point is being made here? What were the
main inspirations of the writers of this document? How did this document—and its
philosophy—influence other movements?

51. Read the excerpts from The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (see Textbook:
Sources from the Past: Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen). What ideals of the
Enlightenment are expressed? How revolutionary was this document? How can the influence
of Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence be seen?

52. In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, Olympe de Gouges
wrote, “Woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights.” Why did she choose this
exact wording? What was the foundation for her argument? What were her main points?
Compare her document to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. Did the fact
that she was forced to produce her document prove that the French revolution had failed?
How was her life representative of the role of women in the French revolution? What role did
women play in those events? (Both documents are presented as Sources from the Past
features in the text.)
53. Why did the French revolution turn against itself when the American revolution didn’t? In
what ways was the French revolution more radical than its American predecessor? How
radical did the French revolution become? Could it be argued that the American revolution
did turn against its roots? Were there limits to the social and political change in the American
revolution?

54. Was Napoleon a child of the French revolution or the absolute antithesis of it? What were
Napoleon’s goals? Why was he successful, and why did he eventually fail? Was he a
reformer or just a dictator? Was he a child of the Enlightenment?

55. Examine Locke’s notion of the social contract. How does it relate to the “divine right” theory
of kingship? How does it relate to these revolutions? What important Enlightenment ideas
played a key role in these revolutions?

56. Discuss the origins of the American revolution. How did the American colonies go from
happy British citizens to conscious revolutionaries? How did the American colonies win their
freedom? How did the American revolution inspire other revolutionary movements?

57. Discuss the significance of the Declaration of Independence. What were Jefferson’s main
influences? What were his main arguments? How influential was the Declaration of
Independence? Compare it to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

58. Discuss the Haitian uprising. In what ways is this event an expression of the ideals of the
Enlightenment? In what ways did Haiti go further than the American or French revolutions?
Look at the picture of the slave revolt in Saint-Dominique on page 634. Why would the artist
portray this image? Compare the Haitian revolution to the other revolutionary movements in
Latin America. Who were the leading figures? What were their main goals?

59. Compare and contrast the philosophies of Metternich and Bismarck. What ideals drove
them? Why would Metternich view nationalism as such a threat?

60. Otto von Bismarck proposed that “the great questions of the day will not be settled by
speeches or majority votes . . . but by blood and iron.” What did Bismarck mean by this
statement? Were his words proven true by the actions of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries? Discuss the philosophy and actions of Otto von Bismarck.

61. Examine the rise of theories of conservatism and liberalism. Who were the leading thinkers?
How could they both have taken the French revolution as a starting point for the expression
of their ideals? Did these groups have different political goals in mind?

62. Examine the movements for the abolition of slavery and for the advancement of women’s
rights. Who were the leading figures? How were these thinkers influenced by the
Enlightenment as well as by the French and American revolutions?
63. Examine the rise of nationalism in nineteenth-century Europe. Was there a transformation of
nationalist thought? How would Europe be changed by the evolution of a more xenophobic
nationalism?

64. Discuss the complexities and inconsistencies of democracy. How do these nuances show up
in revolutions? Montesquieu believed that democracy worked best in a small, homogeneous
population. Why? Relate Montesquieu’s notion to this revolutionary age.

65. Examine the American revolutionary slogan “no taxation without representation.” What does
this phrase really mean? How does it relate to the ideas of Locke, Rousseau, and Jefferson?
Relate these ideas to the French slogan “liberty, equality, fraternity.”

66. Why did Simón Bolívar lament that “those who have served the revolution have plowed the
sea”? What was his dream for Latin America? Why was he so disappointed? Could similar
arguments be made about the other revolutions discussed in the chapter? Did these
revolutions turn out to be something very different from what their founders envisioned?
Look at Map 28.3, Latin America in 1830. How was Latin America transformed by
revolution?

67. In what specific ways did the ideals of the Enlightenment challenge long-held assumptions
about government and social order?

68. What were the principal causes of the French revolution of 1789? Were these concerns
addressed by the revolution?

69. How was French society restructured during the most radical phase of the revolution (1793-
94)? Were these permanent changes, or short-lived ones?

70. Conventional wisdom holds that Napoleon ended the revolution when he proclaimed himself
emperor in 1804. In what ways did he continue the ideals of the revolution? In what ways did
he reverse the revolution?

71. What events led to the slave revolt of Saint-Domingue (Haiti)? Why was this rebellion
successful when so many other slave revolts failed?

72. Describe the basic social structure of Latin American society in 1800. What factors led to the
revolutions that followed?

73. What kind of states emerged in Mexico, Gran Colombia, and Brazil after the revolutions?

74. What factors led the western powers to abolish the slave trade and then slavery in the
nineteenth century?

75. Compare the unification of Italy with the unification of Germany.