Unit 13: Paper 3 — History of Europe (HL)
Topic 13.3: Enlightenment and Absolutism (1600-1800) Questions
Practice 20 exam-style questions for IB History (2028) Topic 13.3. Review the question stems below, then unlock the full Question Bank to access markschemes, model answers, and AI grading.
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In which year did Isaac Newton publish the Principia Mathematica, proving that mathematics and observation could reveal universal laws of nature?
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How did Frederick gain West Prussia in 1772?
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Which Enlightenment thinker proposed dividing government power into separate legislative, executive and judicial branches?
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What document did Catherine the Great present to the Legislative Commission in 1767, borrowing Enlightenment language on law and equality?
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Evaluate the claim that political grievance against absolutist rule, rather than intellectual developments, was the primary driver behind the emergence of Enlightenment ideas.
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Discuss the view that the Reformation's legacy of religious dissent was more important than the Scientific Revolution in preparing Europe for Enlightenment ideas.
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To what extent was the social and economic transformation of 18th-century Europe, including urban growth and the rise of a literate bourgeoisie, more important than the ideas of individual thinkers in spreading the Enlightenment?
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Evaluate the claim that Enlightenment ideas reached only a narrow educated elite and had little genuine impact on the wider population of 18th-century Europe.
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Which agricultural innovation, used especially in Britain, rotated turnips, barley, clover and wheat to keep soil fertile without leaving fields fallow?
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In what year did Catherine the Great seize the Russian throne by overthrowing her husband, Peter III?
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The Peace of Westphalia, which gave European intellectuals greater stability and leisure to debate new ideas, was signed in which year?
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Which Enlightenment thinker argued that legitimate government rests on a social contract with the people, who may resist rulers who break it?
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Which crop did Frederick the Great actively promote to make Prussian agriculture more famine-proof?
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In what year did Frederick II become King of Prussia and invade Silesia, starting the War of the Austrian Succession?
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Who led the major peasant rebellion of 1773-1775 that Catherine the Great crushed with military force?
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To what extent do you agree with the claim that the Scientific Revolution was the most important influence on the emergence of Enlightenment ideas?
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Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman used Enlightenment logic to argue that:
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Which social group's control over serfs did Frederick leave largely untouched, even while abolishing serfdom on his own royal estates?
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What was the Allgemeines Landrecht, finally completed in 1794?
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Which publication, edited by Diderot and d'Alembert from 1751, spread scientific and Enlightenment ideas to a much wider audience than before?
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