His 122 - Glossary
flashcards
Chronological Ordering Exercises
Glossary of the French Revolution
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.
agricultural revolution the period from the mid-seventeenth century
on in Europe during which great agricultural progress was made and the
fallow was gradually eliminated.
Richard Arkwright the inventor of the water frame, powered
by horse or water, which turned out yarn much faster than cottage spinning
wheels.
Mary Astell argued that women needed to become better educated
and that they should be equal partners in their marriage.
Atlantic slave trade forced migration of millions of Africans
to work in servitude during the eighteenth century.
B
Francis Bacon - (1561-1626) one of the great philosophers
of the Scientific Revolution. His thoughts on logic and ethics in science
and his ideas on the cooperation and interaction of the various fields
of science, presented in his work Novum Organum, have remained influential
in the scientific world to this day.
Michael Bakunin a Russian anarchist who believed that small
groups of well-trained, fanatical revolutionaries could perpetrate so much
violence that the state and all its institutions would disintegrate, thus
ushering in the anarchist golden age.
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.
Cesare Beccaria an Italian philosophe whose essay, On Crimes
and Punishments, sought to create a new approach to justice. He argued that
punishments should serve only as deterrents, not as exercises in brutality.
Eduard Bernstein the most prominent of the revisionists, his
1899 book titled Evolutionary Socialism argued that some of Marx's ideas
had turned out to be quite wrong. He believed that evolution by democratic
means, not revolution, would achieve the desired goal of socialism.
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.
Prince Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck
Black Hand an ultranationalist Serbian society whose members assassinated
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian and Hungarian thrones,
and his wife, Sophie, starting the "Third Balkan War."
Bloody Sunday massacre of peaceful protesters at Winter’s Square
in St. Petersberg in 1905 that turned ordinary workers against the tsar and
produced a wave of general indignation.
Bolsheviks "majority group," Lenin’s camp of the Russian party
of Marxian socialism.
Bossuet - One of the chief theorists of divine-right monarchy
was the French theologian Bishop Jacques Bossuet (1627-1704), who expressed
his ideas in a book entitled Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy
Scripture. Bossuet argued that govemment was divinely ordained so that
humans could live in an organized society. Of all forms of gov ernment, monarchy
was the most ancient and the best since God established kings and through
them reigned over all the peoples of the world. Since kings received their
power from God, their authority was absolute. They were re sponsible to
no one (including parliaments) except God. However, although a king's authority
was absolute, his power was not since he was limited by the law of God.
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.
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was a great astronomical observer, and
made accurate and long-term records of his observations, from which he derived
his view of the structure of the solar system, in which the moon and sun
orbited the Earth and the remaining planets orbited the sun. While incorrect,
his scheme was as viable by the knowledge of the time as was that of Nicolas
Copernicus. / Danish nobleman who made astronomical observations
from an island given to him by the king of Denmark.
C
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.
John Cabot (Caboto) a Venetian seamen who explored the New
England coastline of the Americas under a license from King Henry VII of England.
Carlsbad Decrees issued in 1819, these decrees required the 38
German member states to root out subversive idea in their universities and
newspapers.
Edmund Cartwright the inventor of the power loom, which allowed
the weaving of cloth to catch up with the spinning of yarn.
Viscount Castlereagh was the british representative at the Congress
of Vienna. The viscount's main objective at the Congress of Vienna, was to
keep Russia from gaining too much control, and to strengthen a weak Germany
and Italy.
Count Camillo di Cavour a liberal-minded nobleman who became
the prime minister of Piedmont in 1852. He struck a deal with Napoleon III
that would enlist France's aid in driving the Austrians out of Italy in
exchange for Nice and Savoy. Piedmont, under his guidance, became the nucleus
for Italian unification.
Edwin Chadwick an urban reformer who advocated a system of
modern sanitary reforms consisting of efficient sewers and a supply of piped
water.
Samuel de Champlain a Frenchman who established a settlement
at Quebec in 1608.
Cheka the Red secret police who instituted the Red Terror,
which aimed to destroy all those who opposed the new Communist regime.
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.
Georges Clemenceau the French premier who, following the German
defeat in World War I, sought a demilitarized German military, vast German
reparations to pay for the cost of the war, and a separate Rhineland as
a buffer state between France and Germany.
John Cockerill an aggressive British businessman who established
a highly profitable industrial plant in southern Belgium in 1817.
Christopher Columbus an Italian explorer who worked for the queen
of Spain. He was convinced that one could reach Asia simply by sailing west,
but in the process began the invasion of the New World in 1492.
Combination Acts passed in 1799, these acts outlawed unions and strikes.
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.
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.
Concordat an agreement that Napoleon arranged with the pope
in 1801. Just by signing it, the pope acknowledged the accomplishments of
the revolution and the Catholic church was no longer an enemy of the French
government.
Congress of Vienna a meeting of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Great
Britain to fashion a peace settlement having defeated France. / The Congress
of Vienna was an international conference called in order to remake Europe
after the defeat of Napoleon I. Territorial decisions were made in the conference
that was held in Vienna, Austria, from September 1814 to June 1815. The goals
of the conference were to create a balance of power that would preserve the
peace, re-establish legitimate governments, and re-establish a conservative
order that would block the liberal ideas of the Revolution..
constitutionalism implies a balance between authority and power
of the government on the one hand, and on the other hand the rights and
liberties of the subject or citizen; also the limitation of government by
law and the rule of law; a constitution may be unwritten (British and Canadian)
or written (American).
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.
Copernican hypothesis the idea that the sun, not the earth, was the center
of the universe; this had enormous scientific and religious implications.
Copernicus (1473-1543) was an avid student of astronomy, and in
1543 published De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. In this treatise, he
presented the heliocentric theory, which rested on the revolutionary notion
that the Earth orbited the sun. / a mathematician who felt that Ptolemy's
geocentric system was too complicated and failed to accord with the observed
motions of the heavenly bodies. He hoped that his heliocentric conception
would offer a simpler and more accurate explanation.
Corn Laws laws revised in 1815 that prohibited the importation
of foreign grain trade unless the price at home rose to improbable levels.
/ A device to keep the cost of wheat and other grain artificially
high in Britain. The law, passed in 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars,
allowed the importation of grain free of duty only when the domestic price
reached 80s a quarter. This brought tremendous suffering for the poor, but
the laws were not repealed until 1846, following a long and bitter battle
led by the Anti-Corn Law League.
cottage industry "domestic industry," a stage of rural industrial
development with wage workers and hand tools that necessarily preceded
the emergence of large-scale factory industry. / a system of textile
manufacturing in which spinners and weavers worked at home in their cottages
using raw materials supplied to them by capitalist entrepreneurs.
Samuel Crompton the inventor of the so-called mule, which
combined aspects of the water frame and the spinning jenny to increase the
production of yarn.
Oliver Cromwell the creator of the New Model Army, which was
crucial to the success of the revolution during the English Civil War. Unable
to work with Parliament, he came to rely on military force to rule England.
Crystal Palace the location of the Great Exposition in 1851 in
London, an architectural masterpiece made entirely of glass and iron, both
of which were now cheap and abundance. / housed the world's first industrial
fair in 1851.
D
Vasco da Gama the commander of the Portuguese fleet that rounded
the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Arabian Sean and reached the port of
Calcutta on May 18, 1498.
Decembrist Revolt the rebellion by the military leaders of
the Northern Union against the accession of Nicholas to the Russian throne
in December 1825.
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.
Deism belief in God as the creator of the universe who, after
setting it in motion, ceased to have any direct involvement in it and allowed
it to run according to its own natural laws.
Denis Diderot a writer who edited the Encyclopedia, or Classified
Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Trades, which became a major weapon
of the philosophes' crusade against the old French society. The contributors
attacked religious superstition and advocated tolerance and social, legal
and political improvements that would lead to a more humane society.
Directory / This five-member group functioned as the executive
for the governmental system created by the Constitution of 1795. As its most
visible component, the Directory gave its name to the entire government. It
existed from October 1795 to November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoléon
Bonaparte with the assistance of one of the directors, Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès.
Benjamin Disraeli the Tory leader in Parliament who passed the
Reform Act of 1867, which lowered the monetary requirements for voting and
thus enfranchised many male workers.
Dutch East India Company (1602-1798) a joint stock company chartered
by the States-General of the Netherlands to expand trade and promote relations
between the Xdutch government and its colonial ventures. It established
a colony at the Cape of Good Hope (1652), and in the 1630s it paid a return
of 35% on investments.
E
Edict of Fontainebleau an edict issued in 1685 by Louis XIV
that revoked the Edict of Nantes and provided for the destruction of Huguenot
churches and the closing of Protestant schools.
Edict of Nantes (1598) document issued by Henry IV of France granting
liberty of conscience and of public worship to Calvinists in 150 towns;
it helped restore peace in France.
ÉMIGRÉ
Those people who chose to or were forced to live outside France between
1789 and 1814. The fall of the Bastille prompted the first wave, led by the
King’s brother, the Count of Artois. Over 150,000 nobles, clergy, and commoners
became émigrés during the revolutionary era. The King’s brothers
established a royalist center at Coblentz, just across the German border,
and set up a military force commanded by the Prince of Condé that existed
until 1801 with British, Austrian, and Russian support. However, the émigrés
spread far and wide in Europe and the Americas. Upon Louis XVI’s execution,
the Count of Provence recognized Louis XVI’s son as Louis XVII with himself
as regent. When Louis XVII died in 1795, Provence proclaimed himself King
as Louis XVIII with financial support from other European powers. The existence
of the émigrés was a major cause of the war that began in the
spring of 1792. The property of the émigrés was seized and
later sold. Under the Directory, a huge number of émigrés returned
to France. Bonaparte promulgated a partial amnesty in October 1800, and in
April 1802 all but a thousand émigrés were allowed to return.
Later, under the Restoration, Louis XVIII paid compensation of 1 billion
francs to émigrés who lost property.
empiricism theory of inductive reasoning where you should go beyond
speculation and begin to compare and analyze the subject.
enclosure the idea to enclose individual share of the pastures
as a way of farming more effectively. / in the 18thcentury, the fencing in
of the old open fields, combining many small holdings into large units that
could be farmed more efficiently.
encomienda a system that permitted the conquering Spaniards
to collect tribute from the natives and use them as laborers.
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.
Enlightenment a world-view has played a large role in shaping
the modern mind. The three central concepts of the Enlightenment were the
use of reason, the scientific method, and progress. / an eighteenth-century
intellectual movement, led by the philosophes, that stressed the application
of reason and the scientific method to all aspects of life.
estates orders, the way in which France’s inhabitants were legally
divided - the clergy, the nobility, and everyone else.
experimental method Galileo’s greatest achievement; rather than
speculate about what might or should happen in an experiment, he conducted
controlled experiments to find out what actually did happen.
F
Factory Act of 1833 this act limited the factory workday for children
between nice and thirteen to eight hours and that of adolescents between
fourteen and eighteen to twelve hours.
Gustave Flaubert the leading novelist of the 1850s and 1860s
who perfected the Realist novel in Madame Bovary.
Charles Fourier an early socialist who proposed the creation
of small model communities called phalansteries, self-contained cooperatives
consisting ideally of 1,620 people who would be communally housed, living
and working together for their mutual benefit.
Francis Joseph the Austrian emperor who, after the Compromise
of 1867, became the emperor of Austria and the king of Hungary.
Fronde series of violent uprisings during the minority of Louis
XIV triggered by oppressive taxation of the common people, ambitions of the
nobles, and efforts of the parlement of Paris (highest French judicial body)
to check the authority of the crown; the last attempt of the French nobility
to resist the king by arms. / a French revolt against Mazarin that
consisted of two parts. The first Fronde of 1648-1649 was led by the nobles
of the robe and was ended by compromise. The second Fronde was led by the
nobles of the sword. It began in 1650 and was crushed by 1652.
G
Galileo (1564-1642) studied physics, specifically the laws of
gravity and motion, and invented the telescope and microscope. Galileo
eventually combined his laws of physics with the observations he made with
his telescope to defend the heliocentric Copernican view of the universe
and refute the Aristotelian system in his 1630 masterwork, Dialogue
on the Two Chief Systems of the World. Upon its publication, he was
censored by the Catholic Church and sentenced to house arrest in 1633,
where he remained until his death in 1642. The Starry Messenger
the book in which Galileo Galilei published his revelations, revealing himself
as a firm proponent of Copernicus' heliocentric system.
general will is sacred and absolute, reflecting the common interests
of all the people who have displeased the monarch as the holder of sovereign
power, it is not necessarily the will of the majority.
Giuseppe Garibaldi a determined Italian patriot who led the
invasion of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Geocentric - The term geocentric describes the theory on the organization
of the universe presented by Ptolemy of ancient Greece, and incorporated
into the Aristotelian system, which claims that the earth is the center
of the solar system and that the sun and other planets orbit around it.
Girondists a group contesting control of the National Convention
in France named after a department in southwestern France. / a 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.
Great Famine the result of four years of crop failure in Ireland,
a country that had grown dependent of potatoes as a dietary staple. /
a natural catastrophe occurring in Ireland between 1845 and 1851 after the
Irish potato crop was struck by blight due to a fungus that turned the potatoes
black. Over one million died of starvation and disease, and almost two million
emigrated to the United States and Britain.
H
William Harvey a doctor whose work demonstrated that the heart,
and not the liver, was the beginning point of circulation in the body, that
the same blood flows in both the veins and the arteries, and that blood
makes a complete circuit as it passes through the body.
Heliocentric - The term heliocentric describes the correct theory,
first posed by Nicolas Copernicus, that the Earth is simply one of several
planets which orbit the sun.
Henry the Navigator the Portuguese prince who sponsored the
exploration of the coast of Africa.
Paul von Hindenburg the commanding general of the Germany
army who won decisive battles against the Russians during World War I. By
1916 he came to control the government and virtually became a military dictator
of Germany.
Thomas Hobbes an English political thinker whose major treatise,
Leviathan, validated the state's claim to absolute authority over its subjects.
Hugenots originally a pejorative term for French Calvinists,
later the official title for members of the ‘Reformed religion", Calvinists.
I
Impressionism an artistic movement that originated in France
in the 1870s when a group of artists rejected the studios and museums and
went out into the countryside to paint nature directly. They sought to paint
not according to rules and principles, but by expressing their observations
and feelings.
Industrial Revolution a term used to describe the burst of major
inventions and technical changes they had witnessed in certain industries.
Industrial
Revolution
in Great Britain - /
Eighteenth Century
Industrial Revolution
iron law of wages because of the pressure of population growth,
wages would always sink to subsistence level, meaning that wages would
be just high enough to keep workers from starving.
J
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.
Jamestown the first permanent English settlement in America.
It was founded in 1607 in modern-day Virginia.
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.
July Revolution a rebellion that started after Charles X issued
the July Ordinances on July 26, 1830. The edicts imposed rigid censorship
on the press, dissolved the legislative assembly and reduced the electorate
in preparation for new elections.
Junkers the nobility and landowning classes of the Estates of Brandenburg
and Prussia / the Prussian nobility or landed aristocracy; held
a complete monopoly over the officer corps of the Prussian army.
K
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) studied the orbits of the planets
and sought to discern some grand scheme that defined the structure of the
universe according to simple geometry. Though he was unable to do accomplish
his goal, he did come up with the laws of planetary motion, which explained
the orbital properties of planets, and factored extensively into Isaac
Newton's later work. / mathematician and astronomer who
discovered the three laws of planetary motion that both confirmed and modified
the Copernican theory. They also eliminated the Ptolemaic-Aristotelian ideas
of uniform circular motion and crystalline spheres moving in circular orbits.
Kulturkampf "struggle for civilization," Bismark’s attack on the
Catholic church resulting from Pius IX’s declaration of papal infallibility
in 1870.
L
laissez faire economic liberalism that believes in unrestricted
private enterprise and no government interference in the economy.
Bartolome de Las Casas a Dominican friar who championed the Indians
and whose publications had much to do with the Spanish government's abolishment
of the encomienda system and increased protection for the natives.
law of inertia a law formulated by Galileo that stated that rest
was not the natural state of object. Rather, an object continues in motion
forever unless stopped by some external force.
law of universal gravitation every body in the universe attracts
every body in the universe in a precise mathematical relationship, whereby
the force of attraction is proportional to the quantity of matter of the
objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
League of Nations a permanent international organization established
during the peace conference in Paris in January 1919, designed to protect
member states from aggression and avert future wars.
Liberalism the principle ideas of which are equality and liberty,
demanded representative government and equality before the law as well
as individual freedoms such as freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom
of assembly and freedom from arbitrary arrest.
Joseph Lister discovered that the use of carbolic acid eliminated
surgical infections, which in turn transformed surgical wards as patients
no longer succumbed regularly to hospital gangrene.
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-Philippe a cousin of Charles X who became the constitutional
king of France in the wake of the July Revolution.
Luddites handicraft workers who attacked whole factories in northern
England in 1812 and after - smashing the new machines that they believed
were putting them out of work. / Machine breakers who wrecked looms
and fired mills in protest at mechanisation and high food prices in 1812.
Lusitania a British passenger liner sunk by the Germans on
May 7, 1915. More than one hundred Americans lost their lives.
M
Ferdinand Magellan the Spanish explorer whose expedition was
the first to circumnavigate the earth.
Thomas Malthus the author of Essay on the Principles of Population,
in which he argued that misery and poverty were simply the inevitable result
of the law of nature and that no government or individual should interfere
with its operation.
Guglielmo Marconi sent the first radio waves across the Atlantic in
1901.
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.
Cardinal Mazarin an Italian who dominated the French government
while Louis XIV was still a child.
Giuseppe Mazzini a dedicated Italian nationalist who in 1831
founded the Young Italy organization, which set as its goal the creation
of a united Italian republic.
mercantilism prevailing economic theory of European nations in
16th and 17th centuries. It rested on the premise that a nation’s power and
wealth were determined by its supply of precious metal which were to be
acquired by increasing exports (paid for with gold) and reducing imports
to achieve domestic self-sufficiency; mercantilism remained the dominant
theory until the Industrial Revelation and articulation of theory of laissez
faire.
the economic health of a nation could be measured by the amount of precious
metal, gold, or silver, which it possessed
mercantilism dictated a favorable balance of trade
each nation tried to achieve economic self-sufficiency
regulated commerce could produce a favorable balance of trade
sea power was necessary to control foreign markets
colonies could provide markets for manufactured goods and sources of raw
material
Adapted from <http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/%7Egrempel/courses/wc2/lectures/mercantilism.html>
Prince Klemens von Metternich was the Austrian representative at the
Congress of Vienna and the Austrian minister of foreign affairs form 1809
to 1848. Metternich was a proponent of conservatism. Metternich wanted to
achieve order in Europe. Metternich's focus was to restore conservative governments
Monroe Doctrine a guarantee of the independence of new Latin
American nations and a warning against any further European intervention
in the New World.
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. 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.
N
Napoleon III - Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon
I) Elected President of France. Established himself as dictator.
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.
nationalism French nationalism exploded with a common language
and tradition reinforced by the idea of popular sovereignty and democracy
as the French were stirred by a common loyalty. / nationalism the idea
that each people had its own genius and its own cultural unity - this cultural
unity was self-evident, manifesting itself especially in a common language,
history and territory.
Naturalism a literary movement that dominated the late nineteenth
century. Naturalists accepted the material world and felt that literature
should be realistic, yet their work lacked the underlying note of liberal
optimism about people and society that had been prevalent in the 1850s.
The Naturalists were pessimistic about Europe's future and often portrayed
characters caught in the grip of forces beyond their control.
Navigation Acts the result of the English desire to increase both
military power and private wealth, required that goods imported from Europe
into England and Scotland be carried on British-owned ships with British
crews or on ships of the country producing the article etc.
Thomas Newcomen the inventor of the steam pump or atmospheric
engine, in which power was derived from air pressure.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) took the current theories on astronomy
a step further and formulated an accurate comprehensive model of the workings
of the universe based on the law of universal gravitation. Newton explained
his theories in the 1687 revolutionary work Philosophia Naturalis Principia
Mathematica, often called simply the Principia. / the scientist
who invented calculus and spelled out the mathematical proofs demonstrating
his universal law of gravitation.
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.
O
Robert Owen a well-known cotton magnate and social reformer
who helped lead the creation of national unions.
P
Paracelsus a physician who hoped to replace the traditional
system with a new chemical philosophy that was closely connected to a view
of the universe in which a human being was a small replica (microcosm) of
the larger world (macrocosm). Disease was caused not by an imbalance of
the four humors, but by chemical imbalances that were localized in specific
organs and could be treated by chemical remedies.
Louis Pasteur a chemist whose experiments proved that various
microorganisms were responsible for the process of fermentation, thus launching
the science of bacteriology.
Peace of Utrecht (1713) series of treaties that ended the War
of the Spanish Succession, ended French expansion in Europe, and marked
the rise of the British Empire.
Peace of Westphalia (1648) general name of a series of treaties
that concluded the Thirty Years War; recognized the sovereign authority
of 300+ German princes (and thereby the end of the Holy roman Empire as
a viable state); acknowledged the independence of the United Provinces of
the Netherlands; made Calvinism a permissible creed within Germany; and,
by implication, reduced the role of the Roman Catholic Church in European
politics.
Peterloo Massacre a protest that took place at Saint Peter’s Fields
in Manchester that was broken up by armed cavalry in reaction to the revision
of the Corn Laws / the name given by government detractors
to the deaths of eleven people after a squadron of cavalry attacked a crowd
of sixty thousand demonstrators at Saint Peter's Fields in Manchester in
1819.
philosophes intellectuals in France who proclaimed that they were
bringing the light of knowledge to their ignorant fellow creatures in the
Age of Enlightenment. The philosophes were the group of French Enlightenment
philosophers who publicized and popularized the ideals of the Enlightenment
during the eighteenth century. Notable philosophes include Voltaire, the
Baron de Montesquieu, and Denis Diderot.
Francisco Pizarro the Spanish conquistador who conquered the Incan
empire.
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.
progress the idea that with the proper method of discovering the
laws of human existence, it was possible for humans to create better societies
and better people.
Emelyan Pugachev an illiterate Cossack who welded the disparate
elements of Russian discontent into a mass revolt in 1773.
Puritans members of a 18th century reform movement within the Church
of England that advocated "purifying" it of Roman Catholic elements, such
as bishops, elaborate ceremonial, the wedding ring. Calvinist in theology,
Puritanism had broad social, ethical and political implications.
putting-out system term used to describe the 18th century rural
industry.
R
Rasputin a Siberian peasant believed by Alexandra, wife of
Tsar Nicholas II, to be a holy man. His influence made him a power behind
the throne, and he did not hesitate to intervene in government affairs. In
December 1916, he was assassinated by conservative aristocrats who had become
disenchanted with the monarchy.
rationalism nothing was to be accepted on faith, everything was
to be submitted to the rational, critical, scientific way of thinking.
Perhaps the most important of the founding theories of the Enlightenment,
rationalism was the conviction that using the power of reason, humans could
arrive at truth and make progress toward improving human life.
realism literary movement which stressed that literature should
depict life exactly as it was.
realpolitik politics of reality. Politics based on practical
concerns rather than theory or ethics.
Red Shirts guerrilla army of Guiseppe Girabaldi who invaded Sicily
in 1860 in an attempt to "liberate" it and won the hearts of the Sicilian
peasantry. / the name given to the volunteer army led by Giuseppe Garibaldi.
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.
Cecil Rhodes champion of British expansion, he founded diamond and
gold companies that in the 1880s monopolized South African production of
these precious commodities and enabled him to gain control of a territory
that he named Rhodesia after himself. One of his goals was to create a series
of British colonies from the Cape to Cairo, all linked by a railroad.
David Ricardo the author of Principles of Political Economy,
in which he developed his famous iron law of wages.
Cardinal Richelieu Louis XIII's chief minister from 1624 to 1642,
he initiated policies that eventually strengthened the power of the monarchy.
He eliminated the political and military rights of the Huguenots while retaining
their religious ones, making them more reliable subjects. He crushed conspiracies
among the nobility and sent royal officials to the provinces to execute
the orders of the central government.
Rocket the name given to George Stephenson’s effective locomotive
that was first tested in 1830 on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway at
16 miles per hour.
romanticism a movement that was revolting against classicism and
the Enlightenment, it was characterized by a belief in emotional exuberance,
unrestrained imagination, and spontaneity in both art and personal life.
Romanticism was separate from mainstream Enlightenment thought in that it
placed more emphasis on the emotional side of human beings, on the virtues
of nature, and on the perfectibility of nature.
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.
S
salons elegant private drawing rooms where talented and rich Parisian
women held regular social gatherings to discuss literature, science and
philosophy.
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.
Walter Scott the author of Ivanhoe, which tried to evoke the
clash between Saxon and Norman knights in medieval England.
Second Treatise on Civil Government (1690) by English political
philosopher John Locke, a justification of the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89
and of the people’s right of revolution; a defense of the rights of property;
it supported a system of checks and balances as (later) embodied in the
U.S. Constitution.
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.
Social Darwinists group of thinkers popular with the upper middle
class who saw the human race as driven forward to ever-greater specialization
and progress by the unending economic struggle which would determine "the
survival of the fittest."
socialism a backlash against the emergence of individualism and
fragmentation of society it was a move towards cooperation and a sense
of community, the key ideas were panning, greater economic equality and
state regulation of property.
Spanish Armada (1588) fleet sent by Philip II of Spain against England,
In his mind a religious crusade against Protestantism. Weather and the
English fleet defeated it.
Herbert Spencer a British philosopher who used Darwin's terminology
to argue that societies were organisms that evolved through time through
a struggle with their environment. Progress came from the struggle for survival,
as the fit advanced while the weak declined. The state should not intervene
in this natural process.
spinning jenny a spinning machine by James Hargreaves in 1765
that used six to twenty-four spindles mounted on a sliding carriage to
spin a fine thread.
steam engine a breakthrough invention by Thomas Savery in 1698
and Thomas Newcomen in 1705 that both burned coal to produce steam which
was then used to operate a pump, although inefficient they were still used
successfully in English and Scottish mines. / Machine for turning heat
into power by means of steam. Heat applied to a boiler expands water into
steam, which is directed into a cylinder where it acts upon a piston. Newcomen
(1712) produced the first practical engine for draining mines, Watt (1769)
introduced major improvements, including a separate condenser and rotary
motion, while Trevithick (1801) introduced the high pressure engine that
led to the locomotive.
George Stephenson built the Rocket, the locomotive used on
the first public railway line.
T
tabula rasa a blank tablet, incorporated into Locke’s belief that
all ideas are derived from experience, and that the human mind at birth
is like a blank tablet on which the environment writes the individual’s
understanding and beliefs.
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.
Trafalgar the site of a decisive defeat of a combined French-Spanish
fleet by the British navy in 1805.
Treaty of Tordesillas an agreement made in 1494 that divided
the newly discovered world between Portugal and Spain.
Triple Entente Alliance of Great Britain, and France, and Russia
in the First World War.
Jethro Tull an Englishman who discovered that using a hoe
to keep the soil loose allowed air and moisture to reach plants and enabled
them to grow better. He also used a drill to plant seeds in rows instead
of scattering them by hand, a method that had lost much seed to the birds.
V
Voltaire - (1694-1778) rejected all that was based on intolerance,
tyranny, and superstition. He criticized religious tradition and beliefs
based on anything other than reason, presenting his views wittily in a series
of short stories and novels, the most famous of which is Candide.
W
Robert Walpole the chief or prime minister to George I and
George II.
water frame a spinning machine by Richard Arkwright that had a
capacity of several hundred spindles and used water power thereby required
a larger and more specialized mill but the thread it spun was thicker, generally
the thread was then spun on a Spinning Jenny to achieve the desired thickness.
James Watt a Scottish engineer who transformed Newcomen's engine
into a genuine steam engine. / While working at the Univ. of
Glasgow as an instrument maker, Watt was asked to repair a model of Thomas
Newcomen's steam engine. He devised improvements that resulted in a new type
of engine (patented 1769) with a separate condensing chamber, an air pump
to bring steam into the chamber, and parts of the engine insulated. He also
perfected a rotary engine. Matthew Boulton financed Watt's work and was his
partner (1775–80) in manufacturing the engines. Watt coined the term horsepower.