Syllabus                     Study Guide  Ch. 18 - 19

Ch 18

 Louis XVI
Junkers 
War of the Austrian Succession
infanticide 
Jethro Tull
cottage industry 
Catherine the Great
Catherine and Pugachev
the triangular trade 
serfs 
Frederick the Great
Seven Years' War
Treaty of Paris balance of power
Robert Walpole
Ch 19

Common Sense
Abbe Sieyes
Edmund Burke
Estates General
National Assembly
Jacobins
Girondists
Louis XVI
Marie Antoinette
sans culottes
The Oath of the Tennis Court
Bastille
Committee of Public Safety
Reign of Terror

Radical Revolution  
Danton
Robespierre   
Fall of Robespierre
The Guillotine
The Directory
Napoleon
Continental System
Civil Code
Tralfagar
Lord Nelson
Elba
Waterloo

History Page
How to Study
Intro to Graphic Organizers
Writing in class Essays
Sample Essay Questions  
Answering ID Questions

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        Glossary of the French Revolution  


A,B, C,
absolutism --  form of government in which sovereignty is vested in a single person, the king or queen; absolute monarchs in the 16th and 17th centuries based their authority on the theory of the divine right of king - i.e. that they had received their authority from God and were responsible only to Him.

 system of ruling were monarchs reduced the political power of the landlord nobility as they gained and monopolized their own political power.

Absolute monarchy or absolutism meant that the sovereign power or ultimate authority in the state rested in the hands of a king who claimed to rule by divine right. But what did sovereignty mean? Late sixteenth century political theorists believed that sovereign power consisted of the authority to make laws, tax, administer justice, control the state's administrative system, and determine foreign policy. These powers made a ruler sovereign.

Bastille  a royal armory and state prison. Its fall on July 14, 1789, quickly became a popular symbol of the triumph of liberty over despotism.  /  A medieval fortress-prison in Paris. Frequently used for the subjects/victims of arbitrary royal authority, it held only seven prisoners in 1789. The Bastille was a potent symbol of royal power. It was seized by the Paris crowd on 14 July 1789; this event marked the end of the absolute monarchy and the beginning of a new era.

Bill of Rights  passed in 1689, it affirmed Parliament's right to make laws and levy taxes and made it impossible for kings to oppose or do without Parliament by stipulating that standing armies could only be raised with the consent of Parliament. 

bourgeoisie well-educated, prosperous, middle-class groups /  the middle class, a group that included the merchants, industrialists, bankers and professionals such as lawyers, holders of public offices, doctors, and writers.  / Under the old regime, anyone who lived in an urban area was a bourgeois or member of the bourgeoisie, but the term was usually applied only to wealthier people who did no manual labor. Bourgeois were also those who lived from their invested income or property, constituting a distinct social category that had its own representation in municipal politics. After the Revolution, the term “bourgeoisie” became associated with the concept of a capitalist social class. In the nineteenth century, most notably in the work of Karl Marx and other socialist writers, the French Revolution was described as a bourgeois revolution in which a capitalist bourgeoisie overthrew the feudal aristocracy in order to remake society according to capitalist interests and values, thereby paving the way for the Industrial Revolution.

 cabinet system political system where heads of governmental administrative departments serve as a group to advise the head of state (Prime Minister). All these ministers are drawn from the majority party in the legislature (in Britain the House of Commons) and are responsible to it.

Carlsbad Decrees
issued in 1819, these decrees required the 38 German member states to root out subversive idea in their universities and newspapers.

checks and balances the idea that in government the executive, legislative and judicial branches would systematically balance each other and that the government would be checked by the power of the individual states.

Code Napoleon  Napoleon's Civil Code, which recognized the equality of all citizens before the law, the right of individuals to choose their professions, religious toleration, and the abolition of serfdom and feudalism. 

Committee on Public Safety
  a governmental body that sought to centralize the administration of France more effectively and to exercise greater control in order to check the excesses of the Reign of Terror.  Faced with war abroad and economic and peasant problems at home, in 1793 the National Convention handed dictatorial powers to this 12-man body, chaired by Maximilien Robespierre to restore order.

The Commune --  the Paris Commune emerged as a center of radical thought and action. In command of the National Guard of the city, the Commune came to be dominated by the sans-culottes. The Commune precipitated most of the revolutionary journées (days), most notably 10 August 1792, which overthrew the monarchy, and 31 May–2 June 1793, which led to the expulsion of the Girondins from the National Convention. The Paris Commune was a major factor in pushing the central government toward a policy of Terror.

constitutional monarchy a monarchy were the king remains head of state but all lawmaking power goes to the hands of another governing body such as the National Assembly.

D, E, F, G
Declaration of Pillnitz
 - August 1791; declaration from Prussia and Austria announcing that they would intervene militarily in France as long as they received the support of Spain, England, Holland, and Russia; they never expected to gain unanimous support, but hoped the declaration would frighten French radicals. Instead, the prospect of foreign intervention encouraged French nationalism and fear of foreign aggression. 

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen  the charter of basic liberties that reflected the ideas of the French Enlightenment and also owed much to the American Declaration of Independence and American state constitutions. 

<>Issued August 26, 1789; the document included liberal ideas from Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke and the Baron de Montesquieu. Noting that liberty is a natural right of man and that "men are born and remain free and equal in rights," the document exemplified the idealistic intentions of the liberal leaders of the revolution.

Directory  - As created by the new constitution written during the moderate 1795 Thermidorian Reaction, the Directory was the executive branch appointed by the legislative assembly. After 1797 elections were unfavorable to elements in the Directory, it orchestrated an overthrow of the assembly and ruled dictatorially until overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte.

enlightened absolutism the adaptation, albeit varied of "enlightened" governing into the rule of absolute monarchs often at the insistence of philosophes.

enlightened absolutism the adaptation, albeit varied of "enlightened" governing into the rule of absolute monarchs often at the insistence of philosophes. / an absolute monarchy where the ruler follows the principles of the Enlightenment by introducing reforms for the improvement of society, allowing freedom of speech and the press, permitting religious toleration, expanding education, and ruling in accordance with reason.

estates orders, the way in which France’s inhabitants were legally divided - the clergy, the nobility, and everyone else.
Estates-General  - A medieval representative institution, not called since 1614, convened by Louis XVI in 1789 to deal with the financial crisis. The king had to call the Estates-General into being when the parlements made recording his tax decree contingent upon a compromise vote in the Estates-General. The Estates- General consisted of the First Estate--the clergy; the Second Estate--the nobility; and the Third Estate--the commoners, ranging from the poorest peasant to the wealthiest businessman. Voting was one vote per estate, with the first two Estates usually outvoting the Third Estate. By the eighteenth century, the Estates-General ceased to adequately reflect French society.

Girondists a group contesting control of the National Convention in France named after a department in southwestern France. /  a moderate faction of the National Convention primarily representing the provinces. They came to fear the radical mobs in Paris and were disposed to keep the king alive as a hedge against future eventualities. 

H, I, J, K, L

Jacobins in Revolutionary France, a political club whose members were a radical republican group. / members of a nation-wide network of political clubs that offered radical solutions to France's problems during the French Revolution. 

Joseph II  the successor to Maria Theresa, he instituted a far-reaching reform program, including the abolishment of serfdom, the abandonment of economic restraints, a new penal code, and complete religious toleration. 

John Locke - Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government and other works set forth the theory that men form governments, compromising a degree of their liberty, in order that the government might protect their lives and property. Locke (1632-1704) argued that a representative government was the best type because it was bound to the will of the people. /   an 18th century English political thinker who, while hardly an advocate of political democracy, had ideas that proved important to both the Americans and the French and were used to support demands for a constitutional government, the rule of law, and the protection of rights. 

Louis XV  - 1715-1774; great grandson of Louis XIV,  took France into a disastrous defeat in the Seven Years' War (1756- 1763) and drained the French treasury; attempted to raise money through the sale of offices and lands, but could not raise taxes against the nobles.

Louis XVI  - 1774-1792; inherited debt problem cause by Louis XV, his grandfather, and added to the crisis through the expense in the War for American Independence (1775-1783), and appointed minister after minister to deal with the financial crisis. Since the problem overwhelmed all who tried to tame it, Louis was forced to give in to the demands of the Parlement of Paris and convene the Estates-General, an action that led directly to the outbreak of the revolution. Executed in 1793.

 M, N, O, P, Q
Maria Theresa  the Austrian empress whose changes made the empire more centralized and bureaucratic for the purpose of strengthening the Habsburg state. She also enlarged and modernized the armed forces. 

The Baron de Montesquieu an Enlightenment writer whose most well known work was done in the realm of political theory. Montequieu sought to classify types of government by the geography and climate to which they were best suited. His theories on the separation of powers within a republic were important throughout the next century, as monarchies were overthrown and republics established throughout Europe. /  wrote of the importance of governmental checks and balances created by a means of separation of powers. Much of the program of the French Enlightenment is contained in his work. 

The Mountain. - radical Jacobins - Name of a political faction during the Terror. The Mountain, or Montagnards, competed during the Terror against the Girondins, with both trying to attract the Plain. The Mountain was a group of deputies from Paris to the National Convention who sat together on the high benches to the left of the chair’s podium. During the fall of 1792 and particularly during the trial of the King, this group emerged as a faction allied with the Commune of Paris and the popular movement that demanded radical measures, among them the death of the King.

National Assembly    came into being on 17 June 1789, with the renaming of the Estates-General on the motion of the abbé Sieyès. The renaming was effectively a claim that this new body was now sovereign. Initially, it comprised the members of the Third Estate and a few liberal nobles and clergy. When Louis XVI rejected the use of violence and ordered recalcitrant deputies to meet with the National Assembly on 27 June, the National Assembly became legal without resorting to violence. This body was to function as the legislative branch of government until the end of September 1791 and charged itself with writing a constitution. To reflect that mission, it called itself the National Constituent Assembly.

nobility of the robe  the faction of the French nobility that derived their status from officeholding, a pathway that often enabled commoners to attain noble rank. 
nobility of the sword   French nobility that claimed to be descendants of the original medieval nobility. 

Oath of the Tennis Court  - 20 July 1789; the Third Estate, locked out of the meeting of the Estates-General, met at a nearby indoor tennis court and pledged to remain together until they had drafted and passed a new constitution guaranteeing a limited monarchy. Following the Tennis Court Oath, the Third Estate formed the National Assembly.

Pragmatic Sanction proclaimed by Charles VI in 1713, it stated that the Habsburg possessions were never to be divided and were always to be passed intact to a single heir, who might be female.

Emelyan Pugachev  an illiterate Cossack who welded the disparate elements of Russian discontent into a mass revolt in 1773.

putting-out system term used to describe the 18th century rural industry.

R, S T,
Reign of Terror (1793-1794) Robespierre used revolutionary terror to solidify the home front, in special courts rebels and "enemies of the nation" were tried for political crimes.

Maximilien Robespierre  -  leader of the radical Mountain wing of the leftist Jacobins. He chaired the Committee of Public Safety and pursued a planned economy and vigorous mobilization for war. Through the Reign of Terror, he attempted to silence all enemies of the revolution in an effort to save France from invasion. Once the moderates regained power after the Thermidorian Reaction, he was executed on July 28, 1794.

Jean Jacques Rousseau - (1712-1778), set forth his ideas on government in his Contrat Social, which depicted a direct democracy in a small state, governed by the will of the people. / The Social Contract  published in 1762, the work in which Rousseau tried to harmonize individual liberty with governmental authority. The social contract was basically an agreement on the part of an entire society to be governed by its general will. 

sans-culottes the name for the laboring poor and the petty traders. Based primarily in the working class areas of Paris, the sans- culottes, composed of a wide range of artisans from masters to journeymen, opposed themselves to the educated, well-to-do. Their name, literally without breeches, indicates the commitment to trousers worn by the lower classes. Beyond this oppositional stance, these groups opted for controlled bread prices, small business, and revolutionary justice if necessary. By 1792 they were a powerful force on the Parisian scene and politicians required their support.

Second Treatise of Government - 1688 - John Locke called for man's equality and argued for the legal overthrow of a despotic king. It became a foundation for the goals of the moderate elements in the French Revolution.

separation of powers the idea that despotism could be avoided when political power was divided and shared by a variety of classes and legal estates holding unequal rights and privileges.

serfdom system used by nobles and rulers where peasants were bound first to the land they worked and then, by degrading obligations to the lords they served.

Seven Years' War  - 1756-1763;  the first world war, the Seven Years War involved a struggle mainly between Britain and France in Europe and through the colonial world. In America, the French and Indian War was a part of the Seven Year's War. Led by Louis XV, the French ultimately lost to the British, resulting in enormous debts for the French. These expenses made worse an already shaky financial structure in France, thus contributing to the crisis of debt that eventually ended in Louis XVI call for the Estates-General in 1789.

The Social Contract -  1762 - Jean Jacques Rousseau  organized society around a contract between the rulers and the ruled, where the former are answerable to the latter based on the contract. The book's arguments were a key influence in Maximilien Robespierre's willingness to take every action in order to secure French society.

Taille
 - A direct tax in place under the Old Regime that was intended to raise money to solve the financial crisis of the government; since, in almost all cases, nobles were exempt from paying direct taxes, this burden fell mainly on the poor peasants in the countryside and the working poor in the cities

Charles Talleyrand was the French representative at the Congress of Vienna. Talleyrand established an alliance with Britain and Austria and managed to divide the Allies and prevent the destruction of France.

Thermidorian Reaction a reaction to the Reign of Terror where middle class professionals reasserted their authority.

Third Estate - A class in the Estates-General, which held one group vote. The Third Estate comprised the commoners of France, whether rich merchants or poor peasants. On June 17, 1789 the Third Estate broke from the Estates-General and declared itself the National Assembly.

Trafalgar  the site of a decisive defeat of a combined French-Spanish fleet by the British navy in 1805. 
   Glossary   

Practice Tests: These are for other texts, but they cover similar information. 
     Civilization in the West Online    Ch. 1summary, sample tests, glossary

    A History of Western Society

    Western Civilization : Ideas, Politics, and Society

    Western Civilization : The Continuing Experiment

          The Western Heritage     Vol. 2

         Shaping of the Modern World

         HyperHistory      Timeline 

      The European Enlightenment    Learning Module by Richard Hooker  



      
The Radical Stage

     Seven Years' War

      Frederick the Great

      Catherine and Pugachev

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