The Age of Enlightenment & The Freedom Documents

Vocabulary

California State Standards:

10.1.3, 10.2, 10.2.1, 10.2.2, 10.2.3

1.) right • A moral or legal entitlement

to have or obtain something or to act in a certain way.

• synonyms: entitlement, prerogative, privilege, advantage, due, birthright, liberty, authority, power, license, permission, dispensation, leave, sanction, freedom

2.) natural law

• A rule or laws that governs human nature

3.) Social contract

• Agreement by which the people give up their freedom to a powerful government in order to avoid chaos.

4.) natural right

• Right that belongs to all humans from birth

5.) Constitutional government

• Government whose power is defined and limited by law.

6.) Popular sovereignty

• The belief that all government power should come from the people

7.) Revolution

The overthrow of one government and its replacement with another.

8.) Liberty

• Freedom from unjust governmental control.

9.) Censorship

• Restriction on access to ideas and information

10.) Oligarchy

• Government in which ruling power belongs to a few people.

11.) Federal republic

• Government in which powers are divided between a strong central government and local governments

12.) reason

• Good judgment; sound sense.

13.) Logic

• Valid reasoning

14.) Magna Carta • The charter of English political and civil

liberties granted by King John in June 1215 & limited the power of the monarch.

15.) English Bill of Rights

• The document that followed the Glorious Revolution in which England became a limited monarchy, a system in which the monarchs shared their power with Parliament.

16.) U.S. Declaration of Independence

• is a statement adopted on July 4, 1776, announcing that the thirteen American colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire.

17.) French Declaration of the Rights of Man

• is a document of the French Revolution, defining the individual and collective rights of all men as universal.

18.) U.S. Constitution

• is the supreme law of the United States. It provides the framework for the organization of the United States Government and defines the three main branches of the government.

19.) U.S. Bill of Rights

• the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution and guarantees liberty by law.