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The Enlightenment ideal that was in direct conflict with the authoritarian rule of Europe's ancient regimes is popular sovereignty. This principle asserts that the authority of a government is created and sustained by the consent of its people, contrasting with the idea of absolute power held by a monarch.
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The document that represents the first time citizens used a "contract" to place limits on the power of a king is the Magna Carta. Signed in 1215, it established the principle that everyone, including the king, is subject to the law.
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The aspect of the government created by the United States that was designed to prevent one person or group from gaining too much power is a system of checks and balances. This system ensures that no single branch of government becomes too powerful, as each branch can check the powers of the others.
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Some members of the nobility resisted the movement toward constitutionalism because constitutions gave common people as much political and legal power as people born into the noble class. This shift threatened their traditional privileges and status in society.
1. Europe’s ancient regimes, or old governments, used a heavy-handed, authoritarian style of rule based on the belief that kings and queens deserved absolute power over the people in their kingdoms. Which Enlightenment ideal was in direct conflict with this approach to government?
popular sovereignty
fraternity
Magna Carta
divine right of kings
2. Which document signed long before the Age of Enlightenment represents the first time that citizens used a "contract" to place limits on the power of a king?
the English Bill of Rights
Declaration of Independence
The Rights of Man and Citizens
Magna Carta
3.
Which aspect of the government created by the new nation, the United States of America, was designed to prevent one person or group from gaining too much power?
a system giving citizens the right to revolt
a system of checks and balances
a system of high finance and low labor
a system based on constitutionalism
4. During the Age of Enlightenment, constitutionalism was adopted in many European and American nations. Why did some members of the nobility, or upper classes, resist the movement toward constitutionalism?
Many of the people in the upper (noble) class misunderstood the concept and therefore distrusted it.
Constitutions gave common people as much political and legal power as people born into the noble class.
The members of the noble classes all hoped for a chance to become king, and wanted absolute power.
Many in the upper class feared that the lower classes might try to oppress them if they had absolute power.
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