The ideas expressed by Locke in his Second Treatise helped inspire which major event?

The ideas expressed by Locke in his Second Treatise helped inspire which major event?

• A. Theory of Divine Right
• B. Separation of church and state
• C. American Revolution
• D. Industrial Revolution

Answer: (C)

Locke argued that government exists by the consent of the governed to protect natural rights—life, liberty, and property—and that when rulers violate those rights, the people may alter or remove the government. This idea of a social contract and government limited by the people’s rights provided a powerful justification for challenging unjust rule and forming a new political order. In the American Revolution, these arguments helped shape the movement toward independence and the framing of a new nation, most clearly echoed in the Declaration of Independence, which holds that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed and that individuals possess unalienable rights. Divine right would support monarchical authority rather than challenge it; the separation of church and state as a formal principle or the Industrial Revolution as a broad economic shift are not directly tied to Locke’s political theory in the way the American Revolution is.

Locke argued that government exists by the consent of the governed to protect natural rights—life, liberty, and property—and that when rulers violate those rights, the people may alter or remove the government. This idea of a social contract and government limited by the people’s rights provided a powerful justification for challenging unjust rule and forming a new political order. In the American Revolution, these arguments helped shape the movement toward independence and the framing of a new nation, most clearly echoed in the Declaration of Independence, which holds that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed and that individuals possess unalienable rights.

Divine right would support monarchical authority rather than challenge it; the separation of church and state as a formal principle or the Industrial Revolution as a broad economic shift are not directly tied to Locke’s political theory in the way the American Revolution is.