Free WACE Year 11 Modern History Flashcard Review
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Name three causes of the Enlightenment named in the syllabus.
Declining authority of the Church and absolute monarchy; the Scientific Revolution; the spread of ideas across Europe through print, salons and academies.
What did Newton's Principia (1687) show that inspired Enlightenment thinkers?
That nature obeys universal laws discoverable through observation and mathematics, suggesting reason could also reform society.
What were Locke's three natural rights?
Life, liberty and property; government rests on consent and may be resisted if it violates them.
What does tabula rasa mean and why did it matter?
A ‘blank slate’: Locke's idea that knowledge comes from experience, implying education and environment shape people.
What was the Calas affair?
The 1762 execution of Protestant Jean Calas in Toulouse; Voltaire's campaign and Treatise on Tolerance (1763) led to his clearing in 1765.
What is Rousseau's ‘general will’?
The collective will of the whole community for the common good; for Rousseau it is the source of legitimate sovereignty.
What did Montesquieu argue in The Spirit of the Laws (1748)?
That liberty is protected by separating legislative, executive and judicial powers.
Define enlightened absolutism with an example.
Absolute rulers adopting Enlightenment reforms to strengthen the state, e.g. Joseph II's Patent of Toleration (1781).
How did the Catholic Church respond to many Enlightenment works?
By condemning or banning them, e.g. the Index of Prohibited Books and the 1762 condemnation of Rousseau's Émile.
Give two humanitarian reforms linked to the Enlightenment.
Beccaria's campaign against torture and capital punishment (Tuscany abolished the death penalty in 1786); the 1787 London Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
How does Jonathan Israel's interpretation differ from Peter Gay's?
Gay (1966–69) saw the Enlightenment as a movement that brought political modernisation to the West; Israel divides a radical Enlightenment, inspired by Spinoza, from a moderate mainstream.
Name one limitation of Enlightenment ideas of equality.
Many philosophes excluded women (e.g. Rousseau's Émile) and some, like Hume, expressed racist views.
How did the Seven Years War contribute to the Revolution?
It roughly doubled Britain's debt, leading to colonial taxes, and removed the French threat that had made colonists depend on Britain.
What was the Stamp Act (1765) and why did it matter?
A direct tax on printed documents; it prompted the Stamp Act Congress and the claim that only colonial assemblies could tax colonists.
What were the Coercive Acts (1774)?
Repressive laws after the Boston Tea Party that closed Boston's port and curtailed Massachusetts' government.
Why was Saratoga (October 1777) a turning point?
Burgoyne's surrender persuaded France to ally with the United States in February 1778.
What happened in the Philadelphia campaign of 1777?
Howe beat Washington at Brandywine and took Philadelphia; the Continental Army wintered at Valley Forge.
What did Dunmore's Proclamation (1775) offer?
Freedom to enslaved people of rebel owners who fought for Britain.
How did most Native nations respond to the war?
Most sided with Britain to limit settlement; the Haudenosaunee split, with Brant's Mohawk for Britain and many Oneida for the Patriots.
What was the fate of many loyalists?
Harassment, test oaths, confiscated property and exile; tens of thousands left for Canada, Britain or the Caribbean.