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CLEP Western Civilization II study materials
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CLEP Western Civilization II practice questions

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Question 1Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Which treaty ended the Thirty Years' War and is conventionally taken as the starting point for the era of absolutism and constitutionalism?

  1. The Peace of Westphalia Correct answer.
  2. The Peace of Utrecht
  3. The Treaty of the Pyrenees
  4. The Treaty of Nijmegen

Explanation

The Peace of Westphalia of 1648 closed the Thirty Years' War and reconfigured the Holy Roman Empire into a body of sovereign territorial states. Historians treat it as the conventional dividing line opening the age of absolutism and constitutionalism, so it fits the domain's start date.

Question 2Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

In the system associated with Louis XIV, what was the principal function of the intendants?

  1. To represent the nobility in the Estates General
  2. To adjudicate appeals in the parlements
  3. To collect taxes and supervise royal administration in the provinces Correct answer.
  4. To command provincial regiments in wartime

Explanation

Intendants were royal commissioners dispatched from the center to supervise taxation, justice, and policing in the généralités, giving the crown a counterweight to entrenched provincial officials. They were agents of centralization rather than military commanders or spokesmen for the nobility.

Question 3Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Which policy did Jean-Baptiste Colbert pursue as Louis XIV's controller general of finances?

  1. Abolishing internal customs boundaries without any compensating tariff structure
  2. Dismantling royal manufactures to free capital for agriculture
  3. Selling off colonial trading companies to private foreign investors
  4. Promoting exports and self-sufficiency through state-supported manufactures and tariffs Correct answer.

Explanation

Colbert practiced a mercantilist program: state subsidies for luxury manufactures, high tariffs on imports, and colonial trade directed through French companies, all intended to maximize exports and bullion inflow. His goal was a favorable balance of trade achieved through active state direction of the economy.

Question 4Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 had which immediate consequence for France?

  1. The reconciliation of the crown with the Huguenot nobility
  2. The restoration of Protestant worship in fortified southern towns
  3. The emigration of a large Protestant minority, including many skilled artisans and merchants Correct answer.
  4. The transfer of church property to the parlements

Explanation

Louis XIV's revocation withdrew toleration and forced Huguenots to convert or leave, driving tens of thousands abroad and costing France commercial and craft expertise. The measure was intended to secure religious unity but weakened the economy and strengthened rival states that received the refugees.

Question 5Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

The palace and gardens of Versailles served Louis XIV primarily as

  1. A fortified refuge against noble rebellion
  2. A monastic center for reformed Catholic orders
  3. A commercial entrepôt for Atlantic trade
  4. A stage for court ritual that tied the nobility to royal favor Correct answer.

Explanation

Versailles functioned as a theater of etiquette and patronage in which nobles competed for access to the king, diverting them from independent provincial power. Court ceremonial, offices, and pensions bound the aristocracy to the crown's favor rather than to fortresses or commerce.

Question 6Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Which English document of 1689 conditioned the monarchy on parliamentary consent and prohibited standing armies in peacetime without parliamentary approval?

  1. The Petition of Right
  2. The Bill of Rights Correct answer.
  3. The Act of Settlement
  4. The Instrument of Government

Explanation

The Bill of Rights of 1689 declared illegal the suspending and dispensing powers, guaranteed free elections and parliamentary free speech, and barred a standing army in peacetime without consent. It is the foundational statutory statement of the post-Revolution constitutional settlement.

Question 7Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

In the political thought of Thomas Hobbes, why do individuals transfer their natural rights to a sovereign?

  1. To guarantee the right of subjects to depose a tyrant
  2. To escape the insecurity of the state of nature, where every person has a right to everything Correct answer.
  3. To restore a mixed constitution balancing king and Parliament
  4. To preserve the liberty of conscience against established churches

Explanation

Hobbes argues that the natural condition is a war of all against all in which life is insecure, so rational persons covenant to authorize a sovereign to secure peace. The sovereign's authority derives from that authorization, and Hobbes denies subjects a general right of resistance.

Question 8Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Which argument is central to John Locke's Two Treatises of Government?

  1. Government rests on a trust that can be dissolved when rulers violate natural rights Correct answer.
  2. Political authority descends by hereditary divine right
  3. Sovereignty must be indivisible and absolute to prevent faction
  4. Property should be held in common under a single legislator

Explanation

Locke describes government as a fiduciary trust established to protect life, liberty, and estate, and holds that a ruler who breaches that trust may be resisted. His theory of consent and natural rights underpins the constitutionalist case made in 1688-1689.

Question 9Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

What did the Act of Settlement of 1701 accomplish?

  1. It created the office of prime minister
  2. It united the crowns of England and Scotland
  3. It excluded Catholics from the succession and secured judicial independence Correct answer.
  4. It abolished the royal veto over legislation

Explanation

The Act of Settlement fixed the succession in the Protestant Hanoverian line after Anne and provided that judges hold office during good behavior rather than at royal pleasure. It entrenched Protestant constitutional monarchy and judicial independence without creating a premiership or abolishing the veto.

Question 10Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Which practice allowed the English crown to raise revenue without a fresh parliamentary grant and was a recurring grievance before 1688?

  1. The collection of the excise by county sheriffs
  2. The levying of ship money on inland counties Correct answer.
  3. The sale of judicial offices to the highest bidder
  4. The imposition of feudal wardship on freeholders

Explanation

Charles I's extension of ship money from coastal towns to inland counties, upheld in 1637 but later condemned, exemplified non-parliamentary taxation that fueled opposition. Grievances over such levies shaped the settlement that made parliamentary consent essential to taxation.

Question 11Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia, is best known for

  1. Dismantling the privy council in favor of provincial diets
  2. Abolishing serfdom throughout his territories
  3. Establishing a standing army and extracting taxation from the Estates to fund it Correct answer.
  4. Granting the nobility exemption from all military service in perpetuity

Explanation

The Great Elector built a permanent army and used it to pressure the provincial Estates into granting regular taxation, the fiscal foundation of Hohenzollern absolutism. His commissariat and war chest bypassed the older corporate administration and strengthened central authority.

Question 12Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

The Pragmatic Sanction promulgated by Charles VI in 1713 was designed to

  1. Guarantee the indivisibility of the Habsburg lands and the succession of his daughter Maria Theresa Correct answer.
  2. Grant religious toleration to Protestants in Bohemia
  3. Establish a standing army financed by the imperial diet
  4. Create a customs union among the Austrian hereditary lands

Explanation

Charles VI sought recognition from the European powers for a single, indivisible Habsburg inheritance passing to his daughter in default of male heirs. The arrangement failed in practice when Frederick II of Prussia invaded Silesia in 1740, but its purpose was dynastic succession.

Question 13Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

The outcome of the War of the Spanish Succession, as settled at Utrecht in 1713, included which arrangement?

  1. The cession of Gibraltar and Minorca to France
  2. The transfer of the Spanish Netherlands to the Dutch Republic
  3. A Bourbon prince on the Spanish throne with the promise that the French and Spanish crowns remain separate Correct answer.
  4. The union of France and Spain under a single Bourbon monarch

Explanation

Philip V retained Spain and its overseas empire, but the settlement stipulated that the French and Spanish crowns never be united and distributed Habsburg and Dutch gains elsewhere. This preserved the balance of power while conceding the dynastic change in Madrid.

Question 14Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Which feature distinguishes the Dutch Republic's constitution from contemporary French government?

  1. The Republic abolished provincial autonomy in favor of a unitary bureaucracy
  2. Sovereignty resided in provincial Estates and the States General rather than in a hereditary monarch Correct answer.
  3. The Republic maintained a single established church funded by the state
  4. Executive authority was vested in a hereditary stadholder with absolute legislative power

Explanation

The Republic was a confederation in which sovereignty lay with the seven provincial Estates, and the States General handled common affairs, with the stadholder's authority limited and often contested. This decentralized, oligarchic arrangement contrasts sharply with French royal absolutism.

Question 15Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Cardinal Richelieu's intendants and his campaign against fortified noble castles and Huguenot strongholds are best understood as

  1. Concessions designed to strengthen the provincial Estates
  2. Steps toward royal centralization at the expense of provincial and noble autonomy Correct answer.
  3. Measures to devolve royal justice to local magistrates
  4. Efforts to ally the crown with the Habsburgs against Protestants

Explanation

Richelieu's commissioners and the destruction of private fortifications reduced independent centers of noble and Protestant power, extending royal authority. His diplomacy, by contrast, allied France with Protestant states against the Habsburgs, which separates foreign policy from his domestic centralization.

Question 16Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

The Fronde of 1648-1653 is significant in the history of French absolutism because it

  1. Ended the sale of offices in the French bureaucracy
  2. Established a permanent representative assembly to share taxation authority
  3. Secured a charter of noble liberties that limited royal taxation
  4. Convinced Louis XIV to distrust aristocratic and judicial independence and to build a court-centered monarchy Correct answer.

Explanation

The upheavals of the Fronde, involving magistrates and great nobles, left Louis XIV determined to subordinate both parlements and aristocracy, a resolve expressed in his personal rule and the Versailles court. The rebellion did not create representative institutions but reinforced the case for centralized royal authority.

Question 17Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Which statement best describes the practical limits of Louis XIV's absolutism?

  1. Royal power operated through purchased offices, provincial privileges, and corporate bodies that constrained enforcement Correct answer.
  2. The parlements possessed the power to veto royal taxation permanently
  3. The nobility retained independent military forces that the crown never challenged
  4. The king governed without any intermediate bodies or officeholders

Explanation

Absolutism in practice depended on venal officers, provincial estates, guilds, and clergy whose cooperation and privileges limited what the crown could impose. The theory of untrammeled royal will coexisted with a society of corporate exemptions that shaped how policy was executed.

Question 18Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

The English Test Act of 1673 required holders of public office to

  1. Take Anglican communion and deny transubstantiation Correct answer.
  2. Submit their accounts to Parliament annually
  3. Renounce all foreign titles and pensions
  4. Swear allegiance to the Stuart line in perpetuity

Explanation

The Test Act excluded Catholics from civil and military office by requiring an oath against transubstantiation and Anglican sacramental participation. It reflected the anti-Catholic anxiety that shaped the exclusion crisis and later the Revolution settlement.

Question 19Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet's Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture provided which justification?

  1. Popular sovereignty as the origin of all legitimate government
  2. The separation of church and state as a scriptural principle
  3. A contractual right of subjects to depose ungodly kings
  4. Royal authority as divinely ordained and answerable to God alone Correct answer.

Explanation

Bossuet defended divine-right monarchy, arguing that the king rules as God's representative and is accountable to God rather than to subjects. This supplied theological support for Louis XIV's personal rule while stopping short of making the king's person sacred in a way that licensed tyranny.

Question 20Absolutism and Constitutionalism, c. 1648–1715

Which provision of the English Bill of Rights most directly addressed a grievance from James II's reign?

  1. The prohibition on suspending laws without parliamentary consent Correct answer.
  2. The establishment of a standing army in peacetime
  3. The exclusion of Catholics from the succession
  4. The requirement that judges hold office during good behavior

Explanation

James II had used the suspending and dispensing powers to set aside statutes, notably in the Declaration of Indulgence, and the Bill of Rights declared such suspension illegal without parliamentary consent. Judicial tenure and the Catholic exclusion came with the Act of Settlement, and a standing army was prohibited rather than established.

Question 21Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

Which treaty, signed in 1713, ended the War of the Spanish Succession and recognized Philip V as king of Spain while barring a union of the French and Spanish crowns?

  1. The Treaty of Utrecht Correct answer.
  2. The Peace of Westphalia
  3. The Treaty of Paris
  4. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

Explanation

The Treaty of Utrecht closed the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713, confirming Bourbon Philip V on the Spanish throne while separating the French and Spanish crowns and transferring colonial and European territories to Britain and Austria.

Question 22Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

Under the asiento granted at Utrecht, Britain obtained the right to do what in Spanish America?

  1. Supply enslaved Africans to Spanish colonies Correct answer.
  2. Establish permanent free ports on the mainland
  3. Station warships in Havana harbor
  4. Collect customs duties on behalf of Spain

Explanation

The asiento was a contract to supply enslaved African laborers to Spain's American colonies, and Britain's acquisition of it in 1713 gave British merchants a legal foothold in Spanish colonial trade.

Question 23Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The War of Jenkins' Ear, which began in 1739, was fought primarily between Britain and which power?

  1. France
  2. Portugal
  3. The Dutch Republic
  4. Spain Correct answer.

Explanation

The conflict grew out of Anglo-Spanish friction over smuggling and search rights in the Caribbean, dramatized in Parliament by the tale of Robert Jenkins' severed ear, and it was fought against Spain before merging into the wider War of the Austrian Succession.

Question 24Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

Which commodity dominated the Atlantic trade of the British and French Caribbean colonies in the eighteenth century?

  1. Cod
  2. Sugar Correct answer.
  3. Furs
  4. Grain

Explanation

Sugar produced by enslaved labor on Caribbean plantations was the most valuable Atlantic colonial export, generating enormous profits for British and French planters and merchants and driving the transatlantic slave trade.

Question 25Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The War of the Austrian Succession began in 1740 when Frederick II of Prussia seized which territory from Maria Theresa?

  1. Bohemia
  2. Hungary
  3. Lombardy
  4. Silesia Correct answer.

Explanation

Frederick II invaded Silesia, a wealthy Habsburg province, upon the accession of Maria Theresa, using a disputed succession as cover for territorial aggrandizement and sparking the general European war.

Question 26Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 refers to which reversal of alliances?

  1. Spain replacing France as Britain's ally
  2. Britain and France uniting against Austria
  3. Prussia and Austria joining to attack Russia
  4. Austria and France aligning against Prussia and Britain Correct answer.

Explanation

In 1756 Austria and France set aside centuries of rivalry to ally against the rising power of Prussia, while Britain drew closer to Prussia; this reshuffling of the European alliance system is known as the Diplomatic Revolution.

Question 27Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

Which Prussian ruler's military reforms and disciplined infantry made Prussia a first-rank power during this period?

  1. Frederick William II
  2. Charles VI
  3. George I
  4. Frederick William I Correct answer.

Explanation

Frederick William I, the 'Soldier King,' built up the Prussian army and treasury, creating the instrument his son Frederick the Great later used to challenge Austria and become a major power.

Question 28Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

Maria Theresa secured recognition of her right to inherit the Habsburg lands through which 1713 agreement, guaranteed by the powers with varying reliability?

  1. The Barrier Treaty
  2. The Act of Settlement
  3. The Pragmatic Sanction Correct answer.
  4. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle

Explanation

The Pragmatic Sanction was the Habsburg dynastic law providing that the family's lands could pass to a female heir, and Charles VI spent years seeking foreign guarantees of it before Maria Theresa's accession in 1740.

Question 29Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The Seven Years' War is often described as the first 'world war' chiefly because

  1. it involved only European armies on European soil
  2. it was the first war fought with firearms
  3. fighting spread across Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and India Correct answer.
  4. it was settled by a single decisive battle

Explanation

The war's theaters spanned Europe, North America, the Caribbean, West Africa, and India, with naval and colonial operations intertwined, which is why historians call it the first genuinely global conflict.

Question 30Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

In the Seven Years' War, Britain's principal European ally was

  1. Austria
  2. Prussia Correct answer.
  3. Spain
  4. Russia

Explanation

Britain subsidized and allied with Prussia, using Frederick the Great's army to tie down French forces in Europe while Britain concentrated on colonial and naval warfare.

Question 31Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The British victory at the Battle of Quebec in 1759, in which both commanding generals died, was won by forces under

  1. James Wolfe Correct answer.
  2. Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
  3. Jeffery Amherst
  4. Edward Braddock

Explanation

General James Wolfe led the British assault on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec; he and the French commander Montcalm both died of wounds, and the fall of Quebec effectively decided the fate of New France.

Question 32Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

By the Treaty of Paris of 1763, France ceded which territory to Britain?

  1. Cuba and the Philippines
  2. Canada and most of its North American claims east of the Mississippi Correct answer.
  3. Florida and the Louisiana territory
  4. Silesia and Bohemia

Explanation

France surrendered Canada and its claims east of the Mississippi to Britain in 1763, while Spain ceded Florida to Britain and received Louisiana from France as compensation.

Question 33Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

Which European power emerged from the Seven Years' War as the dominant naval and colonial force?

  1. Britain Correct answer.
  2. Spain
  3. The Netherlands
  4. France

Explanation

Britain's naval superiority and colonial victories left it holding Canada, Florida, and influence in India, confirming its position as the leading maritime and overseas empire after 1763.

Question 34Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The British East India Company's victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 established its dominance over which Indian region?

  1. Bengal Correct answer.
  2. The Deccan
  3. Punjab
  4. Ceylon

Explanation

Robert Clive's victory at Plassey over the Nawab of Bengal gave the East India Company effective political control of Bengal's revenues, a turning point in the Company's transformation from trader to territorial ruler.

Question 35Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The system of 'free trade' within the Spanish empire reformed in the eighteenth century under the Bourbons primarily aimed to

  1. channel colonial trade through licensed Spanish ports under tighter royal control Correct answer.
  2. abolish the Spanish colonial empire entirely
  3. open Spanish America to unrestricted trade with all foreign nations
  4. transfer Spanish colonies to British administration

Explanation

Bourbon reformers loosened some restrictions among Spanish ports to curb smuggling and increase revenue, but the intent was to strengthen royal control and direct colonial commerce through Spanish channels, not to admit foreign trade freely.

Question 36Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The French and Indian War in North America was the North American theater of which larger conflict?

  1. The War of Jenkins' Ear
  2. The War of the Spanish Succession
  3. The Seven Years' War Correct answer.
  4. The War of the Austrian Succession

Explanation

The fighting in North America between Britain and France from 1754 became part of the Seven Years' War when it widened in Europe in 1756, and the term 'French and Indian War' refers to that colonial theater.

Question 37Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The Ohio Company's land claims and French fort-building in the Ohio Valley contributed to the outbreak of war in 1754 because

  1. Spain claimed exclusive rights to the entire valley
  2. both Britain and France sought control of the strategic river routes and fur trade Correct answer.
  3. the region was already densely settled by British colonists
  4. the Native American population had requested European partition

Explanation

The Ohio Valley offered access to the fur trade and the Mississippi watershed, so competing British colonial land grants and French forts to secure the region made it a flashpoint that produced the first clashes of the war.

Question 38Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

Which best describes the role of Native American peoples in the imperial rivalry of this period?

  1. They had no influence on the outcomes of colonial wars
  2. They allied with European powers or played them against each other to preserve autonomy Correct answer.
  3. They uniformly supported the French against all Europeans
  4. They remained wholly uninvolved in European conflicts

Explanation

Native nations such as the Iroquois, Huron, and Cherokee made strategic alliances and shifted allegiances to protect their lands and independence, and their choices materially shaped the course of colonial warfare.

Question 39Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The British policy of mercantilism toward its colonies held that

  1. colonial manufacturing should be encouraged to rival Britain's
  2. colonies should be free to trade with any nation without restriction
  3. colonies should be taxed only by their own assemblies
  4. colonial trade should serve the mother country's wealth and power Correct answer.

Explanation

Mercantilism held that national power depended on a favorable balance of trade, so colonies were valued as sources of raw materials and markets whose commerce should be regulated to benefit the mother country.

Question 40Competition for Empire and Expansion of Europe, c. 1715–1763

The War of the Austrian Succession was concluded in 1748 by which treaty, which largely restored the prewar territorial arrangements?

  1. The Treaty of Paris
  2. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle Correct answer.
  3. The Treaty of Hubertusburg
  4. The Treaty of Utrecht

Explanation

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 ended the War of the Austrian Succession, returning most conquests to their previous owners, though Prussia retained Silesia, leaving unresolved rivalries that soon produced the Seven Years' War.

Question 41The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, c. 1543–1789

Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543) is best described as arguing that

  1. celestial bodies are made of a fifth, unchanging element
  2. the Moon is a perfect sphere without surface features
  3. the Sun, not Earth, sits at the center of the planetary system Correct answer.
  4. planets move on ellipses with the Sun at one focus

Explanation

Copernicus displaced Earth from the center of the cosmos and put the Sun there, while retaining circular orbits and epicycles. This heliocentric claim is the defining argument of the 1543 work. Elliptical orbits and the imperfection of the Moon came later with Kepler and Galileo.

Question 42The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, c. 1543–1789

Tycho Brahe's most important contribution to the astronomy that followed him was

  1. a mathematical proof that Earth rotates daily
  2. the discovery of the moons of Jupiter
  3. the law of universal gravitation
  4. decades of precise naked-eye positional measurements Correct answer.

Explanation

Brahe built sophisticated instruments and recorded planetary positions to unprecedented accuracy over many years. Kepler inherited these data and used them to derive his laws of planetary motion. The observations, not a theory, were his decisive legacy.

Question 43The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, c. 1543–1789

Kepler's second law states that a line joining a planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times. This law implies that a planet

  1. traces a perfect circle around the Sun
  2. completes each orbit in exactly the same period
  3. moves fastest when nearest the Sun Correct answer.
  4. maintains a constant speed along its orbit

Explanation

Equal areas in equal times means the planet covers more arc when it is close to the Sun, so its orbital speed is greatest at perihelion and least at aphelion. The law thus describes a varying speed, not a constant one. Circular orbits and identical periods for all planets are both contrary to Kepler's findings.

Question 44The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, c. 1543–1789

Galileo's telescopic observations of the phases of Venus were significant because they

  1. confirmed that Venus orbits the Sun and so supported heliocentrism Correct answer.
  2. demonstrated that Venus rotates on its axis
  3. showed that Venus reflects light rather than emitting it
  4. proved that Venus has a thick atmosphere

Explanation

A full set of Venusian phases, including a gibbous phase, is impossible under a geocentric model in which Venus circles the Sun inside Earth's orbit only if Venus stays between Earth and Sun. The observed phases fit a heliocentric arrangement. Galileo used this as physical evidence for Copernicanism.

Question 45The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, c. 1543–1789

In the Principia (1687), Newton argued that the same force governing falling bodies on Earth also governs the Moon's orbit. This unification was powerful because it

  1. eliminated the need for any mathematics in natural philosophy
  2. explained terrestrial and celestial motion with one physical principle Correct answer.
  3. restored Aristotelian distinction between earthly and heavenly realms
  4. demonstrated that the Moon has no gravitational effect on Earth

Explanation

Newton's inverse-square gravitation applied to apples and planets alike, collapsing the traditional split between sublunar and celestial physics. This single law accounted for both falling bodies and orbital motion. The move depended on mathematics rather than dispensing with it.

Question 46The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, c. 1543–1789

Francis Bacon's New Organon advocated a method of natural philosophy based on

  1. interpreting scripture as the sole source of natural knowledge
  2. careful observation, experiment, and inductive generalization Correct answer.
  3. relying on the authority of ancient philosophers
  4. deducing consequences from self-evident first principles

Explanation

Bacon criticized syllogistic deduction from received authorities and urged the systematic collection of observations leading to general conclusions. He also warned of the idols of the mind that distort inquiry. Induction and experiment are the core of his program.

Question 47The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, c. 1543–1789

René Descartes's approach to natural philosophy rested on

  1. the direct authority of Church councils
  2. methodical doubt leading to clear and distinct ideas Correct answer.
  3. rejection of mathematics as a model for knowledge
  4. trusting sensory experience as the foundation of certainty

Explanation

Descartes began by doubting everything that could be doubted and sought indubitable foundations, arriving at the cogito. From clear and distinct ideas he attempted to rebuild knowledge, treating mathematics as the model of certainty. Sensory experience alone he regarded as unreliable.

Question 48The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, c. 1543–1789

A central feature of the mechanical philosophy associated with Boyle and Descartes was the claim that natural phenomena should be explained by

  1. the motion and collision of particles of matter Correct answer.
  2. the influence of celestial intelligences
  3. the purposes or ends inherent in natural things
  4. the balance of the four humors

Explanation

Mechanical philosophers explained qualities and changes by the size, shape, and motion of corpuscles, rejecting explanations in terms of purposes or occult qualities. Boyle's corpuscular chemistry and Descartes's vortices are examples. Final causes were set aside as explanatory tools in physics.

Question 49The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, c. 1543–1789

William Harvey's De motu cordis (1628) established that

  1. the liver manufactures blood anew to replace losses
  2. blood circulates continuously through the body, driven by the heart Correct answer.
  3. arteries carry only air, while veins carry blood
  4. the heart's motion is a passive response to lung movement

Explanation

Harvey combined dissection, vivisection, and quantitative reasoning to show that the heart pumps blood in a closed circuit through arteries and veins. His calculation of blood volume demonstrated that the liver could not continuously produce it. This overturned Galenic physiology.

Question 50The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, c. 1543–1789

Antoine Lavoisier's role in the chemical revolution is best summarized by his

  1. discovery that atoms are indivisible particles
  2. demonstration that combustion involves combination with a gas from the air Correct answer.
  3. invention of the periodic table of the elements
  4. defense of phlogiston as a material substance released in combustion

Explanation

Lavoisier showed that combustion and calcination involve combining with a component of air, which he named oxygen, and he used careful weighing to support conservation of mass. This displaced phlogiston theory. The periodic table and atomic theory belong to the nineteenth century.