Enlightenment & French Revolution

Absolute monarchs

A king or queen who has unlimited power an seeks to control all aspects of society

Democratic

Referring to a government that is controlled by citizens, either directly or through representatives

Enlightenment

An 18th-century European movement in which thinkers attempted to apply the principles of reason and the scientific method to all aspects of society

Philosophe

One of a group of social thinkers in France during the Enlightenment

Thomas Hobbes

Believed humans were naturally selfish and wicked and rulers should have total power to keep control

John Locke

Believed in self-government. Believed all people were born free and equal with natural rights (life, liberty, and property)

Voltaire

A writer who believed that in tolerance, reason, and freedom of religious belief, and freedom of speech

Montesquieu

Believed in division of power within a government (a single person or group should not have unlimited power)

Rousseau

Believed that civilization corrupted people's natural goodness. Believed that a "general will" of society - a direct democracy is the only acceptable form but all titles of nobility should be abolished in order to achieve this

Adam Smith

Believed that the people should control the economy of a country rather than a monarch. Individuals would create a stable economy through the laws of supply and demand (capitalism)

Mary Wollstonecraft

Believed that the education of women and men should be equal. Believed women could be useful and virtuous and should enter fields like medicine and politics.

Enlightened despot

One of the 18th-century European monarchs who was inspired by Enlightenment ideas to rule justly and respect the rights of subjects

Estate

One of the three social classes in France before the French Revolution

First Estate

Social class of France consisting of the clergy

Second Estate

Social class of France consisting of the nobility

Third Estate

Social class of France consisting of the common people

Louis XVI

King of France in the 1770s and 17780s who engaged in extravagant spending and increased the debt of France. He was a weak leader and chose to raise taxes to get France out of debt.

Marie Antoinette

Queen of France in the 1770s and 1780s who was unpopular with the French because of her spending and controversial court affairs.

Estates-General

An assembly of representatives from all three of the estates, or social classes, in France

National Assembly

A French congress established by representatives of the Third Estate on June 17, 1789, to enact laws and reforms in the name of the French people

Tennis Court Oath

A pledge made by members of France's National Assembly in 1789, in which they vowed to continue meeting until they had drawn up a new constitution

Great Fear

A wave of senseless panic that spread through the French countryside after the storming of the Bastille in 1789

Legislative Assembly

A French congress with the power to create laws and approve declarations of war, established by the Constitution of 1791

Sans-culotte

In the French Revolution, a radical group made up of Parisian wage-earners and small shopkeepers who wanted a greater voice in the government, lower prices, and an end to food shortages

Jacobin

The most radical and ruthless of the political groups formed in the wake of the French Revolution, and in association with Robespierre they instituted the Terror of 1793-4.

Guillotine

A machine for beheading people, used as a means of execution during the French Revolution

Maximilen Robespierre

The leader of the Committee of Public Safety who tried to wipe out all traces of France's past in order to protect the Revolution from its "enemies" through the Reign of Terror.

Reign of Terror

The period, from mid-1793 to mid-1794, when Maximilien Robespierre ruled France nearly as a dictator and thousands of political figures and ordinary citizens were executed

Napoleon Bonaparte

A French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and again in 1815. He dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the wars.

Coup de' etat

A sudden seizure of political power in a nation

Napoleonic Code

A comprehensive and uniform system of laws established for France by Napoleon

Continental System

Napoleon's policy of preventing trade between Great Britain and continental Europe, intended to destroy Great Britain's economy

Scorched-earth policy

The practice of burning crops and killing livestock during wartime so that the enemy cannot live off the land

Battle of Waterloo

Napoleon's last attempt to secure power where he failed.

Fall of the Bastille

The political and symbolic start to the revolution.

Limited Constitutional Monarchy

The type of government that was created under the National Assembly. It required the king to have some checks and balances on his power.

Committee of Public Safety

The group that imposed the Reign of Terror.

Great Britain

One of the only places in Europe Napoleon could not successfully conquer.

Nationalism

One of the main causes of the Spanish rebellion against the French in 1808.

Hundred Days

The time in which Napoleon came back to power in France after being exiled.