Lesson 12-20: The French Revolution to the Second World War

These vocabulary flashcards cover major historical concepts, events, and figures from the French Revolution through the end of the Second World War as presented in the lecture notes.

Three Estates

The social divisions of 18th-century France consisting of the Clergy, Nobility, and the vast majority of the population (the Third Estate).

Tennis Court Oath

A pledge taken on June 23, 1789, by members of the Third Estate after forming the National Assembly.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

A 1789 document stating all men are born free and equal, with inviolable rights to private property, free speech, and assembly.

Reign of Terror

A radical phase of the French Revolution (October 1793 – June 1794) under the Committee of Public Safety led by Maximilien Robespierre.

The Consulate (1799-1804)

French government established by Napoleon's coup following the fall of the Directory, where executive authority was vested in three consuls.

Code Napoleon (Civil Code)

A 1801 legal system introduced by Napoleon that established the principle of equality before the law.

Invisible Hand

Adam Smith's concept in Wealth of Nations describing the self-regulating nature of the marketplace through supply and demand.

Enclosures

An ecological factor in England's industrial growth involving the elimination of open fields and commons to increase agricultural productivity.

Sadler Commission

A report on child labor that documented abuses and lower life expectancy during the Industrial Revolution.

Canton System

A trade arrangement that confined incoming foreign trade in China to the southern port city of Canton.

Romanticism

An artistic movement based on feeling and intuition that acted as a reaction to Enlightenment scientific rationalism.

Conservatism

An ideology that promotes traditional social institutions, social hierarchy, and the role of the church while opposing rapid social change.

Nationalism

A spiritual principle or identity defined by shared heritage, language, or history, often displacing monarchy as a source of identity.

Congress of Vienna

A conference of European states aimed at restoring boundaries and resizing powers to ensure long-term peace after the Napoleonic Wars.

Giuseppe Garibaldi

A military leader of the Italian unification movement known for his campaigns and expedition to invade the Two Sicilies.

Otto Von Bismarck

A conservative statesman who led German unification through a series of wars against Denmark, Austria, and France.

Utopian Socialism

Socialist thought in the early 19th century represented by thinkers like Saint-Simon and Robert Owen before the rise of Marxism.

Proletariat

The working class created by industrialization that Karl Marx believed must organize as a political party to establish a dictatorship.

Historical/Dialectical Materialism

The Marxist philosophy that history is determined by material forces and driven by class conflict arising from the economic system.

Social Darwinism

The application of Darwin's theory of natural selection to human society to justify racial hierarchy and European imperialism.

Berlin Conference

An 1884 meeting brokered by Bismarck to divide Africa among European powers to avoid conflict within Europe.

Pogrom

A term first used to describe organized violence and destruction directed against Jewish villages in the Russian Empire.

Dreyfus Affair

A political scandal involving the wrongful treason conviction of a Jewish French officer, which divided France and inspired Zionism.

Zionism

A movement for the creation of a Jewish state, organized by Theodor Herzl following the Dreyfus Affair.

Impressionism

A 19th-century French art style focused on expressing nature through light and perspective rather than realistic detail.

Cubism

An art movement, associated with Pablo Picasso, that rejects traditional perspective by depicting objects from multiple viewpoints in abstracted forms.

Meiji Restoration (1868)

The return of power to the Japanese Emperor and the ensuing effort to modernize Japan based on Western industrial and military models.

The Black Hand

A Serbian nationalist organization involved in the plot to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Schlieffen Plan

The German military strategy for WWI designed to avoid a two-front war by quickly knocking France out of the conflict.

Treaty of Versailles

The WWI peace treaty that imposed reparations, a war-guilt clause, and permanent disarmament on Germany.

Fascism

An ultra-nationalist, anti-democratic ideology that emerged in Italy, emphasizing the national organism and a charismatic leader.

Enabling Act

A 1933 German law that suspended civil liberties and granted Hitler dictatorial power.

Appeasement

The failed diplomatic policy of making concessions to Nazi Germany, exemplified by the Munich pact regarding the Sudetenland.

Wannsee Conference

A 1942 meeting of high-ranking Nazi officials to determine the 'final solution' or the systematic extermination of the Jewish population.

Aktion T4

A Nazi 'Euthanasia Program' that used lethal gas to murder individuals in psychiatric hospitals.