Unit 18: Paper 3 (HL) — History of Europe
Topic 18.7: Absolutism and Enlightenment (1650–1800) Questions
Practice 20 exam-style questions for IB History Topic 18.7. Review the question stems below, then unlock the full Question Bank to access markschemes, model answers, and AI grading.
1Discuss15 marks
2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q8
Discuss the view that the Enlightenment in Britain represented continuity rather than revolutionary change.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q11
In which year did Nicolaus Copernicus publish his heliocentric model of the universe?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.2 - Q13
Which pair of thinkers most directly influenced Catherine the Great's Nakaz (1767)?
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Unlock Question4Compare and contrast15 marks
2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q3
Compare and contrast the political impact of Enlightenment ideas in France and in England/Scotland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q12
Which event forced Galileo Galilei to recant his support for the heliocentric model?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q15
What was the main purpose of Diderot's Encyclopedie (1751-1772)?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q7
Evaluate the significance of Montesquieu's theory of the separation of powers for eighteenth-century European political thought.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.2 - Q14
Which artistic style is most closely associated with projecting the political power of absolutist monarchs between roughly 1600 and 1750?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q10
Examine the contribution of the Scottish Enlightenment to eighteenth-century economic and political thought.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.2 - Q11
Which event most directly caused Catherine the Great to reverse her reforming policies and strengthen noble control over serfs?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q14
The Bill of Rights, which limited royal power over taxation and strengthened Parliament, followed which event?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q1
Examine the impact of the Scientific Revolution on the origins of Enlightenment thought.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q4
To what extent were Enlightenment ideas responsible for political change in France before 1789?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q2
Evaluate the extent to which John Locke's political ideas shaped constitutional developments in England.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.2 - Q12
What did Frederick the Great mean when he described the monarch as "the first servant of the state"?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q5
Discuss the reasons why Enlightenment ideas were absorbed peacefully into the constitutional system of England and Scotland rather than provoking revolution, as they did in France.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q6
Analyse the methods used by philosophes to spread Enlightenment ideas in France despite royal censorship.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q9
To what extent did Rousseau's political ideas differ from those of Locke and Montesquieu?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.1 - Q13
Which Enlightenment thinker argued in The Spirit of the Laws (1748) for the separation of powers between legislative, executive, and judicial institutions?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.7.2 - Q15
Approximately how did London's population change between 1650 and 1800, according to the syllabus content on urbanisation?
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