Modern Europe Midterm

Giorgia Meloni

Italy’s first female prime minister and leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party (2022–present).

Friedrich Merz

German conservative politician and leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2022.

Parliamentary Democracy

A system where the government is led by a prime minister accountable to parliament.

Peter Gay

Historian who viewed the Enlightenment as a movement based on reason, humanism, and secularism.

Jonathan Israel

Historian who distinguished the Radical Enlightenment from the Moderate Enlightenment.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Enlightenment philosopher who developed popular sovereignty and the concept of the “general will.”

Baruch Spinoza

Dutch-Jewish philosopher considered a founder of the Radical Enlightenment.

Calas Affair

A case of wrongful execution that Voltaire used to promote religious tolerance and legal reform (1762–1765).

Philosophe

An 18th-century Enlightenment intellectual who used reason to critique society, religion, and politics.

Voltaire

French Enlightenment writer who advocated freedom of speech, religious tolerance, and separation of church and state.

Moses Mendelssohn

German-Jewish philosopher who advocated Jewish civil rights and religious tolerance.

National Assembly

Revolutionary French assembly that challenged royal authority and drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Tennis Court Oath

A 1789 pledge by French representatives to remain united until France had a constitution.

Storming of the Bastille

The July 14, 1789, attack on a royal prison that symbolized resistance to monarchy.

Maximilien Robespierre

Jacobin leader who helped direct the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.

The Vendée

A western French region where royalists and Catholics rebelled against the revolutionary government.

Saint-Domingue

French Caribbean colony where the Haitian Revolution began; its slave system was overthrown.

Toussaint Louverture

Formerly enslaved general who led the Haitian Revolution against colonial rule.

“What Is the Third Estate?”

Sieyès’s 1789 pamphlet arguing that common people represented the nation and deserved political power.

Liberalism

Ideology emphasizing individual liberty, legal equality, constitutional government, and often free markets.

Republicanism

Ideology supporting government by elected representatives rather than hereditary monarchy.

Klemens von Metternich

Austrian statesman who promoted conservative order and opposed liberalism and nationalism after Napoleon.

Congress of Vienna

1814–1815 conference that restored monarchies and redrew Europe’s borders after Napoleon’s defeat.

Concert of Europe

A system of cooperation among European powers to preserve stability and suppress revolutions after 1815.

Revolutions of 1848

European uprisings demanding political rights, constitutions, worker protections, and national unity.

Otto von Bismarck

Prussian statesman who unified Germany in 1871 through diplomacy and war.

Realpolitik

Practical politics focused on national interests rather than ideology or morality.

Kulturkampf

Bismarck’s campaign to reduce the Catholic Church’s influence in Germany during the 1870s.

Louis-Napoléon (Napoléon III)

French president who became emperor and modernized France before defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.

Pius IX

Pope (1846–1878) who opposed modern liberalism and established the doctrine of papal infallibility.

Ultramontanism

Catholic movement emphasizing the pope’s supreme authority over the Church.

Anti-Clericalism

Opposition to religious influence, especially Catholic influence, in government and public life.

Émile Zola

French novelist who defended Alfred Dreyfus through his famous 1898 letter “J’Accuse…!”

Dreyfusard

A supporter of Alfred Dreyfus who opposed the injustice and antisemitism behind his conviction.

Indirect Rule

Colonial system using local rulers to govern under European supervision.

Leopold II

Belgian king who exploited the Congo Free State through forced labor and extreme violence.

Scramble for Africa

The late-19th-century European invasion and partition of Africa for territory and resources.

Jennifer Sessions

Historian who studied French imperialism and the conquest of Algeria.

Jewish Emancipation

The removal of discriminatory laws and granting of civil and political rights to Jewish people in Europe.