AP®︎ European History: Topic 4.3 Practice Test
Prepare for your quiz, test, or the AP exam with focused practice questions on Topic 4.3 of AP European History – The Enlightenment.
Questions List
Topic 4.3
Question 1 Easy
This question tests the following: KC-2.3.I
What intellectual movement focused on reason, science, and individualism?
What You’re Being Tested On:
Explore the learning objectives taken directly from the College Board’s AP® European History Curriculum. Ensure you’re prepared for the exact topics covered on the AP® exam, in-class tests, and quizzes, and gain confidence in your mastery of the material.
Topic 4.3: The Enlightenment
Thematic Focus: Social Organization and DevelopmentSCD
Economic, political, and cultural factors have influenced the form and status of family, class, and social groups in European history, which has, in turn, affected both the individual and society.
Learning Objective: Unit 4: Learning Objective C
Explain the causes and consequences of Enlightenment thought on European society from 1648 to 1815.
Historical Developments: KC-2.3.I.A
Intellectuals, including Voltaire and Diderot, began to apply the principles of the Scientific Revolution to society and human institutions.
Historical Developments: KC-2.3.I.B
Locke and Rousseau developed new political models based on the concept of natural rights and the social contract.
Historical Developments: KC-2.3.I.C
Despite the principles of equality espoused by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, intellectuals such as Rousseau offered controversial arguments for the exclusion of women from political life.
Thematic Focus: Cultural and Intellectual DevelopmentsCID
The creation and transmission of knowledge, including the relationship between traditional sources of authority and the development of differing world views, had significant political, intellectual, economic, cultural, and social effects on European and world societies.
Learning Objective: Unit 4: Learning Objective D
Explain the influence of Enlightenment thought on European intellectual development from 1648 to 1815.
Historical Developments: KC-2.3.II.A
A variety of institutions, including salons, explored and disseminated Enlightenment culture.
Historical Developments: KC-2.3.III.A
Political theories, including John Locke’s, conceived of society as composed of individuals driven by self-interest and argued that the state originated in the consent of the governed (i.e., a social contract) rather than in divine right or tradition.
Historical Developments: KC-2.3.III.B
Mercantilist theory and practice were challenged by new economic ideas, including Adam Smith’s, which espoused free trade and a free market.
Historical Developments: KC-2.3.I
Enlightenment thought, which focused on concepts such as empiricism, skepticism, human reason, rationalism, and classical sources of knowledge, challenged the prevailing patterns of thought with respect to social order, institutions of government, and the role of faith.
Historical Developments: KC-2.3.IV.A
Intellectuals, including Voltaire and Diderot, developed new philosophies of deism, skepticism, and atheism.
Historical Developments: KC-2.3.IV.B
Religion was viewed increasingly as a matter of private rather than public concern.
Illustrative Examples specific knowledge students should know & demonstrate
- Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws
- Cesare Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments
- Mary Wollstonecraft
- Marquis de Condorcet
- Coffeehouses
- Academies
- Lending libraries
- Masonic lodges
- Physiocrats
- Francois Quesnay
- Anne Robert Jacques Turgot
- David Hume
- Baron d’Holbach
- Revival of German Pietism
