DOCUMENTBASED ESSAY

1
DOCUMENT-BASED ESSAY This task is based on the
accompanying documents (1-9). Some of the
documents have been edited for the purposes of
this task. This task is designed to test your
ability to work with historical documents. As
you analyze the documents, take into account both
the source of each document and the authors
point of view. Directions Read the documents
in Part A and answer the questions after each
document. Then read the directions for Part B
and write your essay. Historical
Context Throughout history, political
revolutions brought far-reaching changes to
societies. While each revolution has unique
features, there have been common elements in all
of them.
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• Task
• Using information from the documents and your
  knowledge of global history and geography, write
  an essay in which you compare and contrast the
  causes of the POLITICAL revolutions in 17th
  century England with 18th century France.
• Describe ONE political, economic AND social cause
  for each revolution in England and France.
• Discuss ONE similarity AND ONE difference
  between the causes of the English and French
  revolutions.

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Document 1
England
1215 King John signs the Magna Carta l295
Edward I summons Model Parliament 1642 Civil War
erupts between Parliament and Stuart Charles
I 1649 Charles I is executed 1649 Oliver
Cromwell heads the Commonwealth 1660 Charles
IIs rule restores the Stuart monarchy 1685
James II rules as a Catholic monarch 1689
William and Mary sign the Bill of Rights
restoring a Protestant monarchy 1690
John Locke publishes Two Treatises of
Government 1701 Act of Settlement gives
Parliament legislative supremacy 1788 Louis XVI
calls the Estates-General in France 1789 What is
the Third Estate? By Abbe Sieyes urges major
reforms Third Estate forms the
National Assembly Parisians storm the
Bastille National Assembly abolishes
feudalism and adopts the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and Citizen
France
What conclusions can be made from the time chart
showing similarities and differences between
English and French events?
4
Document 2
Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away
and destroy the property of the people,or to
reduce them to slavery they put themselves into
a state of war with the people, who are thereupon
absolved from any further obedience.
John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government
What right of the people regarding government is
implied in this document?
5
Document 4
Document 3
Based on documents 3 and 4 of French society,
what might have motivated the couple on the
left to take up arms?
6
Document 5
that levying money for or to the use of the
crown grant of without grant of parliament is
illegal that is is the right of all subjects
to petition the king, and all commitments and
prosecutions for such petitioning are
illegal that election of members of parliament
ought to be free that the freedom of speech and
debates or proceedings in parliament ought not to
be impeached (discredited) or questioned in any
court that excessive bail ought not be
required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel
and unusual punishment inflicted
Bill of Rights,
l689
What previous actions of the English king did
Parliament want to change in the Bill of Rights?
7
Document 6
From this French motto, what conditions of the
Old Regime brought about the feeling behind this
slogan?
liberté liberty egalité equality fraternité
brotherhood
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Document 7
The poor people seem poor indeed the children
terribly ragged, -- if possible, worse clad than
if with no clothes at all as to shoes and
stockings, they are luxuries. A beautiful girl
of six or seven years playing with a stick, and
smiling under such a bundle of rags as made my
heart ache to see her Everything conspires to
render the present period in France critical.
The want of bread is terrible accounts arrive
every moment from the provinces of riots and
disturbances. Arthur Young, an English
traveler
What issue is presented in these two passages
that would have brought Frenchmen to revolt?
9
Document 8
The States General, having no control over
taxation, was easily dispensed with, and was not
called again after its presentation of grievances
in 1614. The Crown,the State, and the Nation
were but three words for the same thing (under
Louis XIV). The interests and the will of the
Monarch were those of the State...
From this passage, what powers did the monarchy
have in France in the early l700s?
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Document 9
Using both the pictures and the text, what is the
message of this document?