Basic English to Spanish Vocabulary

Sovereignty

The supreme authority of a state to make laws and maintain a monopoly on justice and physical force within defined borders.

Absolutism

A political system where a monarch holds total governing power without legal or parliamentary restrictions.

Totalitarianism

A modern political system seeking total control over all public and private life, contrasting with historical absolute monarchies that lacked modern control infrastructure.

Raison d'état

The doctrine formulated by Cardinal Richelieu stating that state interests and survival justify actions that would otherwise be considered immoral. Translates to "Reason of state"

Cardinal Richelieu

The chief minister to Louis XIII who built the foundations of French absolute monarchy by weakening noble influence and centralizing administration.

The Fronde

A series of violent civil revolts by French nobles and judges against royal taxation and centralizing power during Louis XIV's childhood.

French Classicism

The official artistic and literary style under Louis XIV that emulated ancient Greco-Roman standards of discipline, balance, and order to glorify the monarch.

Louis XIV

The Bourbon monarch of France whose reign represented the absolute peak of royal power through personal rule and court life at Versailles.

Colbert's Mercantilism

An economic program led by Jean-Baptiste Colbert to maximize state wealth by promoting domestic manufacturing, high tariffs, and export trade.

Revocation of edict of nantes

Louis XIV's 1685 decree that outlawed Protestantism in France and forced hundreds of thousands of Huguenots into exile.

War of the Spanish Succession

A major European conflict fought to prevent Louis XIV from uniting the French and Spanish crowns under his grandson.

Peace of Utrecht

The 1713 peace treaty that concluded the War of the Spanish Succession and preserved the European balance of power.

Don Quixote

A landmark Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes that satirized chivalric idealism while capturing Spain's 17th-century economic and political decline.

Constitutionalism

A form of government where state power is limited by law and balanced with the rights and liberties of citizens.

James I:

The Stuart king of England who repeatedly clashed with Parliament over his firm belief in the divine right of kings.

Puritans:

English Calvinists who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic-style rituals, vestments, and episcopal hierarchy.

Long Parliament

The English legislative body convened in 1640 that sat for twenty years and enacted statutory limits on royal authority.

English Civil War:

The armed struggle between Royalists and Parliamentary forces that resulted in the execution of Charles I and the temporary end of the monarchy.

Thomas Hobbes

The English philosopher who argued in Leviathan that human nature requires an absolute sovereign to maintain social order and peace.

Oliver Cromwel

The Puritan military commander who defeated Charles I and ruled England as Lord Protector during its military dictatorship.

The Commonwealth:

The republican government established in England following the execution of Charles I in 1649.

The Restoration

The return of the English monarchy under King Charles II in 1660 after the collapse of Cromwell's military dictatorship.

Glorious Revolution

The almost bloodless overthrow of King James II in 1688 that permanently established parliamentary supremacy in England.

Glorious RevolutionEnglish Bill of Rights:

The 1689 constitutional statute accepted by William and Mary that limited royal power and guaranteed key civil and parliamentary rights.

John Locke:

The political philosopher who argued in Second Treatise of Civil Government that government exists to protect natural rights to life, liberty, and property.

Cabinet System

A system of governance where top executive ministers are chosen from the majority party in Parliament and led by a Prime Minister.

States General:

The federal assembly of the Dutch Republic that managed foreign policy and defense while local provinces retained domestic authority.

Dutch East India Company:

A chartered joint-stock corporation established in 1602 that dominated Asian spice trade and generated immense wealth for Dutch investors.

Henry IV

The French king who brought stability after the Wars of Religion by issuing the Edict of Nantes and laying early foundations for royal power.

Duke of Sully:

The chief minister to Henry IV who restored state finances, lowered peasant taxes, and built national infrastructure.

Intendants

Royal commissioners deployed across French provinces by Richelieu to collect taxes, enforce laws, and weaken local aristocratic control.

Charles I:

The Stuart King of England whose insistence on divine right, non-parliamentary taxation, and religious reforms triggered the English Civil War and led to his execution.

Palace of Versailles

The lavish royal court built by Louis XIV to centralize French administration and keep the high nobility distracted and submissive.

Edict of Nantes:

The 1598 decree issued by Henry IV granting religious tolerance to French Protestants (Huguenots), which Louis XIV revoked in 1685.

Test Act

A 1673 English law requiring all public officials to conform to the Church of England, effectively barring Roman Catholics from office.

Navigation Acts

Mercantilist trade laws passed under Cromwell and Parliament requiring all imports into England to travel on English ships to undercut Dutch shipping.

William and Mary

The Protestant co-monarchs invited by Parliament during the Glorious Revolution to replace James II under the constitutional rules of the English Bill of Rights.

Cardinal Mazarin

: The chief minister who succeeded Richelieu and managed French royal authority during Louis XIV's childhood through the Fronde revolts.

Noblesse de Robe (Nobility of the Robe)

The newer French judicial aristocracy who acquired noble status and titles by purchasing royal administrative offices.

Roundheads vs. Cavaliers:

The two sides of the English Civil War—the Roundheads (Parliamentarians and Puritans led by Cromwell) versus the Cavaliers (Royalists supporting King Charles I).

Changing role of serfdom

Legal expansion of peasant servitude to secure noble support for absolute monarchs

Ottoman Turks and Austria

• Conflict over Central Europe ending in Ottoman defeat at the 1683 Siege of Vienna.

Pragmatic Sanction

• 1713 Habsburg agreement guaranteeing undivided territories and Maria Theresa's inheritance.

Hohenzollern

•  Ruling royal dynasty that built Brandenburg-Prussia into a major military power.

Fredrick William the great elector

• Unified Prussian lands by granting nobles total power over serfs in exchange for permanent taxes.

Junkers

• Prussian landowning nobles who dominated the army officer corps and supported the monarchy.

Frederick William I ("The Soldier’s King"):

• : Autocratic Prussian king who militarized state society and built Europe’s fourth-largest army.

Chinggis Khan

Mongol conqueror whose 13th-century victories subjected Russian lands to centuries of Asian rule

Mongol yoke

• Two-century period of Mongol domination that isolated Russia from Western European developments.

Ivan III

• Moscow prince who ended Mongol rule in 1480 and established a centralized autocracy.

Boyars

Traditional Russian landowning nobles whose political independence was dismantled by the Tsars

Ivan the Terrible

• : First Russian Tsar who used secret police terror to crush nobles and bind peasants to the land.

Cossacks

• Free warrior communities of runaway serfs along the southern steppes who frequently staged anti-Tsarist revolts.

Micheal Romanov

 Tsar elected in 1613 to end the Time of Troubles, founding a 300-year ruling dynasty

Peter the Great

• Autocratic Tsar who forcibly Westernized Russia, conquered Baltic ports, and built St. Petersburg.