The book The Social Contract, which argued that sovereignty rests with the people, was written by whom?
- A.Montesquieu
- B.Voltaire
- C.Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- D.John Locke
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His book The Social Contract, published in 1762, argued that legitimate political authority comes from the general will of the people and not from the divine right of a king, and it became the intellectual charter of the French Revolution. Option A, Montesquieu, wrote The Spirit of the Laws, in which he proposed the separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Option B, Voltaire, attacked the privileges of the church and argued for freedom of thought, but he wrote no book of that title. Option D, John Locke, wrote Two Treatises of Government and did develop an earlier version of social contract theory, which is why he is a plausible distractor, but the book named in the question is Rousseau work.
Read the full article: World History: Revolutions and World Wars Notes
Practice Questions
View allThe storming of the Bastille, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution, took place on which date?
- A.4 July 1776
- B.14 July 1789
- C.26 August 1789
- D.21 January 1793
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On that day a Paris crowd attacked the Bastille, a royal fortress used as a prison, which stood for the arbitrary authority of the monarchy; the date is celebrated in France as the national day.
Read the full explanation →The American Declaration of Independence was adopted on 4 July 1776 and was drafted mainly by whom?
- A.George Washington
- B.Thomas Jefferson
- C.Benjamin Franklin
- D.Abraham Lincoln
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He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Continental Congress on 4 July 1776, and he later became the third President of the United States.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following improved the steam engine and patented the separate condenser in 1769?
- A.James Hargreaves
- B.Richard Arkwright
- C.James Watt
- D.John Kay
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Watt added a separate condenser to the earlier Newcomen engine, patenting it in 1769, which made the steam engine efficient enough to drive factories, mines, railways and ships, and the unit of power is named after him.
Read the full explanation →The October Revolution of 1917 in Russia was led by which party and leader?
- A.The Mensheviks under Kerensky
- B.The Bolsheviks under Lenin
- C.The Social Revolutionaries under Trotsky
- D.The Cadets under Nicholas II
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In the October Revolution, which took place on 7 November 1917 by the Western calendar, the Bolshevik party led by Lenin overthrew the provisional government and took power in Petrograd, with Leon Trotsky organising the Red Guards.
Read the full explanation →The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the immediate cause of the First World War, took place at which city?
- A.Vienna
- B.Sarajevo
- C.Belgrade
- D.Munich
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The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was shot at Sarajevo in Bosnia on 28 June 1914 by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, and Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia a month later, after which the alliance system drew in the other powers.
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