The Declaration of IndependenceStudy Guide

Directions: On a separate sheet of paper, answer the following questions in short form.

  1. What was the Enlightenment?
  2. What did the Enlightenment emphasize?
  3. What new ideas developed in Europe during the Enlightenment period of the 17th and 18th centuries?
  4. Who was John Locke?
  5. Whose ideas influenced the American colonists’ belief in self-government?
  6. What “natural rights” did Locke believe all people possessed?
  7. What did Locke mean by the term “social contract”?
  8. According to Locke, how were the government’s powers limited?
  9. According to Locke, whenever government becomes a threat to the people’s natural rights, what right do the people have?
  10. How were John Locke’s ideas radical or extreme?
  11. When did colonial resistance against British rule reach a climax?
  12. What types of ideas inspired the American Revolution?
  13. What pamphlet did Thomas Paine publish in 1776?
  14. What did Common Sense challenge?
  15. What was the effect of the publication of Common Sense?
  16. When did the Continental Congress adopt The Declaration of Independence?
  17. Who wrote the final draft of The Declaration of Independence?
  18. Whose ideas did Thomas Jefferson borrow, when he wrote The Declaration of Independence?
  19. Who wrote that all men have the right to “life, liberty, and property”?
  20. Who wrote that all men have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”?
  21. What ideas did Thomas Jefferson borrow from Thomas Paine?
  22. What two realities of American life in 1776 conflicted with the promise of equality contained in The Declaration of Independence?
  23. Over time what have the key principles contained in The Declaration of Independence become?
  24. Through what right has the United States expressed its search for equality since 1776?
  25. What has been a major theme in American history since the signing of The Declaration of Independence?
  26. What term means the right to vote?
  27. How has the United States expanded the right to vote since 1776?
  28. What two constitutional amendments guarantee due process of law?
  29. What two things does the right of due process guarantee?
  30. As part of America’s search for equality, what right do all fifty states guarantee to America’s children?
  31. In what two ways have the key principles of The Declaration of Independence increased liberty for American minorities?
  32. What did “the pursuit of happiness” mean for the Revolutionary generation?
  33. With what belief of John Locke did Jefferson equate “the pursuit of happiness”?
  34. In the area of economics what three things has the federal government done over time?
  35. What are all Americans supposed to possess a chance to achieve?
  36. What principles have grown in importance over time to become unifying ideas of American democracy?
  37. In what three ways has the United States government followed the principles ofThe Declaration of Independence as a road map for the American republic?

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