A Bookseller's Route, 1765: Enlightenment Ideas Across Europe

Follow a described map and a book agent's journey from London to Berlin.

Answer Key

The map and the journey

Read the map description and the journey of Hendrik Vos, a made-up agent for an Amsterdam bookshop. Then answer the questions.

A Map of Europe in 1765 (described in words)
1. London is a port on the River Thames in Britain.
2. Amsterdam, in the Dutch Republic, lies east of London across the North Sea.
3. Paris, in France, lies south of Amsterdam and southeast of London.
4. Geneva, a small city-republic, lies southeast of Paris at the end of a long lake near the Alps.
5. Milan, in northern Italy, lies east of Geneva on the far side of the Alps.
6. Berlin, capital of the kingdom of Prussia, lies far to the northeast of Milan.

The Journey of Hendrik Vos, 1765

1London. Hendrik buys copies of a new book by William Blackstone, an English law professor. Blackstone wrote that every English person has rights to personal security, personal liberty and property, and that the law exists to protect them. In Britain, Parliament made the laws, the king's ministers carried them out, and since 1701 judges could not be removed just because the king disliked their rulings. The French writer Montesquieu had praised this kind of divided power.

2Amsterdam. The Dutch Republic had no king. Councils of wealthy townsmen ran much of its government, and printers faced fewer limits than in France. Many books banned in France were printed here and carried south in secret. Hendrik loads crates of French books printed in Amsterdam.

3Paris. Louis XV ruled France as an absolute monarch. Royal censors had to approve books before they were printed. A sealed letter from the king could send a person to prison with no trial. In 1759 the government banned the Encyclopédie, a huge set of volumes edited by Denis Diderot that aimed to gather all knowledge and often questioned the authority of kings and church leaders. Its writers kept working, and the last ten volumes of articles came out in 1765. In private homes called salons, often hosted by women, educated people met to discuss such books.

4Geneva. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in this small republic in 1712. His book The Social Contract (1762) begins, "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." Rousseau argued that the people as a whole hold the highest power and that laws are fair only when they express the general will of the people. In 1762 Geneva's council ordered the book burned, and it was banned in Paris as well.

5Milan. Milan was then ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs. In 1764 a young writer there, Cesare Beccaria, published On Crimes and Punishments. He argued that torture should end, that laws should be clear and written so everyone could know them, and that punishments should fit the crime. The book was soon translated into French and English.

6Berlin. King Frederick II of Prussia read the new books and wrote letters to French thinkers. He ended most use of torture and called himself "the first servant of the state." Yet he alone made the laws, led the army and named the judges, and no elected assembly could check him.

Hendrik travels from Geneva to Milan. Using the map, which description of this part of the trip is correct?

A. East over the Alps
B. Northeast across Prussia
C. West along the long lake
D. North across the North Sea

French books that were banned in Paris were printed in Amsterdam. Using the map and the journey, why did this route work for the books' sellers?

A. Paris lay east of London, so British books came first.
B. The Alps blocked the roads between Amsterdam and Paris.
C. Its printers faced fewer limits, and Paris lay to the south.
D. Amsterdam was in France, so its books skipped the censors.

Underline the sentence from the Paris stop that best shows a person in France could lose their freedom without a trial.

Royal censors had to approve books before they were printed.A sealed letter from the king could send a person to prison with no trial.In 1759 the government banned the Encyclopédie, a huge set of volumes edited by Denis Diderot that aimed to gather all knowledge and often questioned the authority of kings and church leaders.In private homes called salons, often hosted by women, educated people met to discuss such books.

Use the Paris stop.

The last volumes of the Encyclopédie came out 6 years after the government banned it.

Sort each government Hendrik passes through in 1765.

BritainThe Dutch RepublicFrance under Louis XVGenevaPrussia under Frederick II

One ruler holds power with no assembly to check him	Power is shared or limited
France under Louis XV Prussia under Frederick II	Britain The Dutch Republic Geneva

Weigh the ideas

Use the map and the journey to answer.

Match each new proposal to the writer or book on Hendrik's route who would most likely support it.

A law forbids using pain to force a suspect to confess.B
A town lets all its citizens vote on a law before it takes effect.A
A court rules that an officer may not take a farmer's land without a lawful reason.C
A printer sells volumes on trades and sciences that question church authority.D

A. Rousseau
B. Beccaria
C. Blackstone
D. The Encyclopédie

A judge in Berlin rules against a friend of King Frederick. A judge in London rules against a friend of the British king. Based on the journey, what risk does the Berlin judge face that the London judge does not?

A. He may be sent to Geneva to be tried by its council.
B. He may lose his post because the king named him.
C. He may have to ask Parliament to approve his ruling.
D. He may have his ruling burned by royal censors.

Why would the rulers of both Geneva and Paris most likely ban The Social Contract?

A. It said the people, not rulers, hold the highest power.
B. It praised Louis XV as the first servant of the state.
C. It said torture was the best way to keep order.
D. It argued that judges should be named by the king.

Frederick II read Enlightenment books and ended most use of torture. Which statement best describes his rule?

A. He shared power with an elected assembly, as Britain did.
B. He let the people's general will decide the laws.
C. He banned the new books, as the Paris censors did.
D. He made reforms but kept full power for himself.

10.

Which stop on Hendrik's route shows the strongest challenge to absolute rule? State your claim, give two details from the map or the journey, and explain your reasoning. Compare your stop with Paris or Berlin.

London shows the strongest challenge. There, Parliament made the laws, the king's ministers carried them out, and since 1701 judges could not be removed just because the king disliked their rulings, so power was divided in practice, not just in a book. Blackstone also wrote that the law protects each person's security, liberty and property. In Paris, by contrast, Louis XV could jail a person with a sealed letter and no trial, and in Berlin Frederick alone made the laws and named the judges. Ideas such as Rousseau's were banned, but in Britain the limits were already part of how the government worked.