Grade 9 · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 8
Enlightenment & Revolutions
Ideas that changed governments
What your child practises
Enlightenment ideas about reason and rights, why the American, French and Haitian revolutions happened, and who was and wasn't included in the rights they promised.
BC Curriculum learning standard: Emerging ideas and ideologies: the Enlightenment and the American, French and Haitian revolutions
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Who led the Haitian Revolution against French colonial rule and slavery?
- Thomas Jefferson
- Toussaint Louverture
- George Washington
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Show answer
Toussaint Louverture
Hint: Enslaved and free people of colour won independence, and Haiti became the first free Black republic in 1804.
Question 2
Which Enlightenment thinker argued that government power should be divided among separate branches?
- Robespierre
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Montesquieu
- King Louis XIV
Show answer
Montesquieu
Hint: Montesquieu's ideas about separating powers influenced many constitutions.
Question 3
Who seized power in France in 1799 and later crowned himself emperor?
- Voltaire
- Louis XVI
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Robespierre
Show answer
Napoleon Bonaparte
Hint: After the Revolution, Napoleon rose from army general to emperor of France.
Question 4
Who wrote The Social Contract (1762), arguing that a government's power comes from the agreement of the people?
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Montesquieu
- Napoleon
- John Locke
Show answer
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Hint: Rousseau argued that people give up some freedoms in return for protection and fairness.
Question 5
In France, who made up the Third Estate?
- The nobility
- The clergy
- Ordinary people such as peasants, workers and merchants, who were most of the population
- The royal family
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Ordinary people such as peasants, workers and merchants, who were most of the population
Hint: The First Estate was the clergy and the Second the nobility.
Question 6
Put these events in order, earliest first.
- 🏰Storming of the Bastille (1789)
- 🗽American Declaration of Independence (1776)
- 🇭🇹Haiti declares independence (1804)
- ⚔️King Louis XVI is executed (1793)
Show answer
American Declaration of Independence (1776) → Storming of the Bastille (1789) → King Louis XVI is executed (1793) → Haiti declares independence (1804)
Hint: The Declaration of Independence was in 1776, the storming of the Bastille in 1789, the execution of Louis XVI in 1793, and Haitian independence in 1804.