French Revolution Unit 1B - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, people, ideas, and events from the notes on the French Revolution and related European history.

Enlightenment

philosophical movement emphasizing reason, individual rights, and skepticism of absolute authority.

John Locke

rights to life, liberty, and property; to protect these rights, with people able to overthrow it if violated.

Magna Carta

A 1215 English charter limiting the king’s power and establishing the principle of the rule of law and due process.

English Bill of Rights

1689 document that limited the monarchy, established parliamentary supremacy, and protected certain individual rights.

Montesquieu

separation of powers and checks and balances in government.

Rousseau

o founded the idea of the general will and popular sovereignty in governance.

Louis XVI

King of France during the French Revolution; executed by guillotine in 1793.

Estates General

A three-estate (clergy, nobility, commoners) that advised the monarchy and led to revolutionary movements when summoned in 1789.

Storming of the Bastille

July 14, 1789: Symbolic start of the French Revolution as revolutionaries attacked a royal fortress in Paris.

Tennis Court Oath

1789 pledge by the Third Estate to not disband until a constitution was created.

Napoleonic Code

Napoleon’s civil code establishing equality before the law and property rights, but restricting many rights for women.

National Assembly

Legislative body formed by the Third Estate in 1789 to draft a constitution and enact revolutionary reforms.

Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen

1789 document asserting basic rights: liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

Robespierre and the Committee on Public Safety

Radical leadership during the Reign of Terror; centralized power and oversaw mass executions.

Guillotine

Execution device used during the Revolution as a symbol of egalitarian punishment.

Napoleon Bonaparte

French military leader who rose to power, crowned himself emperor, and expanded a European empire; introduced the Napoleonic Code.

Congress of Vienna

1815 gathering of European powers to restore monarchies and balance of power after Napoleon’s defeat.

Continental System

Napoleon’s policy to block Britain by preventing continental Europe from trading with it; ultimately unsuccessful.

Toussaint L’Ouverture

Leader of the Haitian Revolution who freed enslaved people and ended French control on Saint-Domingue.

Simon Bolivar

The Liberator; led independence movements across northern South America, fighting Spanish rule; known as El Libertador.

Thermidorian Reaction

1794 conservative turn in the French Revolution ending the Reign of Terror and weakening the radical government.

National Convention

French revolutionary government (1792–1795) that abolished the monarchy and proclaimed France a republic.

Directory

Executive body in France (1795–1799) after the Reign of Terror, characterized by corruption and instability, paving the way for Napoleon.