Which thinker influenced colonial ideas about government and natural rights?

• A. John Locke
• B. Voltaire
• C. Rousseau
• D. Hobbes

Answer: (A)

This question tests understanding of Enlightenment ideas about government and natural rights and how those ideas influenced colonial thinking. John Locke argued that individuals possess natural rights to life, liberty, and property, and that governments exist by the consent of the governed to protect those rights. If a government fails to protect rights, the people have the right to alter or remove it. Colonial leaders adopted this view to justify self-government, limited authority, and written charters, laying groundwork for the principles in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Other thinkers contributed to political philosophy in different ways—Hobbes supported an absolute sovereign to maintain order, Voltaire championed civil liberties and religious tolerance, and Rousseau wrote about the general will—but Locke's natural-rights and consent-based framework most directly shaped colonial ideas about government and rights.