Chapter 28: Revolutions, Ideologies, and National Unification

Comprehensive practice flashcards covering the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian and Latin American Revolutions, 19th-century political ideologies, abolition, women's rights, nationalism, and the unifications of Italy and Germany.

The Enlightenment

A major intellectual movement defined by a trend away from Aristotelian philosophy and church doctrine in favor of rational thought and scientific analysis.

Center of the Enlightenment

France, which served as the intellectual heart and geographical center of the Enlightenment movement.

Philosophes

The prominent French intellectuals and thinkers of the Enlightenment who heavily resented censorship and the persecution of minorities, calling instead for religious toleration and freedom.

Aristotle

An ancient Greek philosopher whose traditional philosophical framework Enlightenment thinkers actively moved away from in favor of new scientific analysis.

Isaac Newton

[Outside Information] An English physicist and mathematician whose laws of motion and gravity revolutionized science, heavily inspiring Enlightenment thinkers to look for similar "natural laws" governing human society and politics.

Adam Smith

[Outside Information] A Scottish economist ($1723\text{–}1790$) who wrote The Wealth of Nations, applying Enlightenment ideals of rational analysis to economics and laying the foundations of modern capitalism.

Baron de Montesquieu

($1689\text{–}1755$) A French thinker who worked to discover the natural laws of politics.

Voltaire

The pen name of François-Marie Arouet ($1694\text{–}1778$), a leading philosophe who made caustic attacks on the French monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church, holding the church responsible for fanaticism, intolerance, and human suffering.

écrasez l’infame

Meaning "crush the damned thing," this was Voltaire's famous rallying cry against the intolerance and abuses of the Catholic Church.

Deism / deists

The belief system held by Voltaire and most philosophes; they believed in the existence of a god, but denied the supernatural teachings of Christianity.

Atheism

[Outside Information] The belief that no god exists, representing a more radical position held by a small minority of Enlightenment thinkers (like Baron d'Holbach), contrasting with the vastly more popular Deism.

Secularism

A new set of secular values arising from reason that weakened organized religion and encouraged the rational analysis of society.

The theory of progress

The widespread assumption that Enlightenment thought would ultimately lead to human harmony and material wealth.

Popular sovereignty

The Enlightenment ideal that kings must be made responsible to their subject populations, contrasting heavily with ancient and medieval notions like the "mandate of heaven" or "divine right of kings".

John Locke

($1632\text{–}1704$) An English philosopher who worked to discover natural laws of politics, arguing that individuals retain personal rights and give political rights to rulers.

Second treatise of civil government

A foundational 1690 text written by John Locke arguing that rulers derive their power entirely from the consent of the ruled.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

($1712\text{–}1778$) An Enlightenment thinker who argued for the legal equality of all individuals, regardless of their class.

Rousseau's view on women's education

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's conservative belief that women should receive education primarily to prepare for lives as wives and mothers.

The social contract (book)

Rousseau's 1762 book in which he argued that society collectively acts as the sovereign power.

Parisian salon of Mme. Geoffrin

[Outside Information] Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin hosted one of the most famous salons in Paris—social gatherings organized by wealthy women where philosophes debated and spread Enlightenment ideas.

The American Revolution

A revolution driven by tightened British control and tax burdens; there was little indication it was coming in the mid-eighteenth century, as colonists still regarded themselves as British subjects and shared a mutually profitable relationship with England.

French and Indian War

($1754\text{–}1763$) An expensive North American conflict that overlapped with the global Seven Years' War.

Seven Years War

($1756\text{–}1763$) A massive global conflict fought in Europe and India; British victory ensured global dominance and prosperity in North America, but resulted in massive war debts.

Parliament

The British legislative body that passed the heavily resented tax burdens onto the American colonies to pay for Seven Years' War debts.

Sugar Act (1764)

A British parliamentary tax act that passed the British tax burden onto the American colonies to help pay for imperial war debts.

Stamp Act (1765)

A British law imposing direct taxes on paper goods in the American colonies to generate revenue for British war debts.

Quartering Act (1765)

A British act forcing the American colonies to provide housing and accommodations for British troops.

Tea Act (1773)

A British tax act designed to favor the British East India Company, sparking intense protests and colonial boycotts of British tea.

Townshend Act

[Outside Information] A series of highly unpopular acts passed in 1767 taxing items like glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea imported into the American colonies.

“no taxation without representation”

A colonial rallying cry protesting British tax policies, arguing colonists should not be taxed by a Parliament in which they had no elected representatives.

Boston tea party

A 1773 protest in which colonists attacked British officials and boycotted/destroyed British products in response to the Tea Act.

Continental congress

A body formed in 1774 to coordinate the colonists' resistance to British policies.

Declaration of Independence

Adopted on July 4, 1776, it officially broke ties with Britain and was heavily influenced by John Locke's ideas regarding individual rights and sovereignty based on the consent of the ruled.

Thomas Jefferson

[Outside Information] The primary author of the Declaration of Independence who utilized Enlightenment principles to justify the colonial rebellion.

John Adams

[Outside Information] A leading Patriot, lawyer, and diplomat who was instrumental in persuading Congress to declare independence, later becoming the second US President.

English Civil War

[Outside Information] A 17th-century conflict ($1642\text{–}1651$) in England over the power of the monarchy versus Parliament, establishing historical precedents that colonists drew upon regarding parliamentary rights.

Bill of rights

[Outside Information] The first ten amendments to the US Constitution (ratified 1791) protecting individual liberties, directly inspired by the English Bill of Rights (1689).

British advantages during the war

During the Revolutionary War, Britain possessed a strong central government, an established navy and army, and a significant Loyalist population in the colonies.

The colonies advantages during the war

The colonists held a logistic advantage, widespread popular support, the backing of British rivals, and the imaginative military leadership of George Washington.

Patriots

The majority population in the colonies who actively supported the revolution.

Loyalists/ Tories

An estimated $20\%$ of the white colonial population that remained loyal to the British monarchy during the war.

Religious society of friends / Quakers

A religious group that remained officially neutral during the American Revolutionary War.

George Washington

($1732\text{–}1799$) The highly imaginative military leader of the colonial forces during the American Revolution.

Molly Pitcher

[Outside Information] A folklore figure representing the real women (like Mary Ludwig Hays) who carried water to troops and assisted in combat during the American Revolutionary War.

Guerilla tactics

[Outside Information] Unconventional, hit-and-run warfare strategies utilized effectively by American militias against the rigid formations of the British army.

Foreign support in the American Revolution

The colonies were heavily supported by British rivals: Spain, the Netherlands, and most notably France, which provided crucial financial and naval support.

Charles Cornwallis

[Outside Information] The British General who commanded the forces in the South and ultimately surrendered at Yorktown.

Battle of Yorktown

The final major military engagement of the war where British forces were surrounded in Virginia and surrendered in October 1781.

The Peace of Paris

The 1783 treaty that formally ceased military conflict and recognized American independence.

Washington crossing the Delaware

[Outside Information] A famous 1776 surprise attack led by Washington across the icy Delaware River to defeat Hessian mercenaries, later immortalized in an iconic 1851 painting by Emanuel Leutze.

The Constitution

Drafted in 1787, it established the United States government but only guaranteed political and legal equality for men of property.

The French Revolution

A revolution far more radical than the American Revolution, sparked by serious fiscal problems (where $50\%$ of tax revenues were going to war debts).

French monarchy fiscal crisis

The severe economic situation preceding the French Revolution where $50\%$ of French tax revenues were allocated to servicing massive war debts.

ancien régime

Meaning the "old order," representing the pre-revolutionary political and social structures of France.

Repudiated

The complete rejection and dismantling of many aspects of the French ancien régime during the revolution.

Estates General

A representative assembly founded in 1303 that had not met since 1614; King Louis called them to meet in May 1789 for new taxes, sparking the revolution when the third estate demanded social change.

The three estates

The rigid social structure of the Estates General, which only allowed one vote per estate regardless of population size.

First estate / Clergy

Comprised of 100,000 Roman Catholic clergy; the French Revolution later seized their lands and redefined them as civilians.

Second estate / Aristocrats

Comprised of 400,000 nobles who held massive elite privileges, such as exemption from most taxes.

Third estate

The vast majority of the population (24 million serfs, free peasants, and urban residents) who seceded in June 1789 to demand greater social change.

King Louis XVI

The French monarch who was forced to call the Estates General in May 1789; he was ultimately found guilty of treason and executed via guillotine in 1793.

Marie Antoinette

The Queen of France who was found guilty of treason and sent to the guillotine alongside King Louis in 1793.

National Assembly

The new governing body formed in June 1789 when the Third Estate seceded from the Estates General; they abolished the old social order and seized church lands.

The Bastille

A French fortress and prison attacked by a mob in July 1789, resulting in a bloody battle won by the mob.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Issued in August 1789 by the National Assembly, it established the equality of men, popular sovereignty, and individual rights, heavily influenced by the American Revolution.

“Liberty equality and fraternity”

The stated goals and motto of the French National Assembly.

Palace of Versailles (importance)

The royal residence that women actively stormed in 1789, demanding food during a severe food shortage.

The Convention

A new legislative body elected by universal male suffrage that escalated the revolution and ordered the execution of King Louis.

levée en masse

A policy implemented by the Convention initiating widespread conscription for the war effort.

The guillotine

An execution device used frequently during the revolution to behead perceived enemies, including King Louis, Marie Antoinette, and eventually Robespierre himself.

Maximilien Robespierre

($1758\text{–}1794$) Known as "The Incorruptible," he led the Committee of Public Safety and the Jacobins, heavily dominating the Convention until his arrest and execution in 1794.

Jacobins

The radical party led by Robespierre that reorganized the calendar, closed churches, and promoted a secular "cult of reason".

Committee of Public Safety

The executive body led by Robespierre that drove the bloody Reign of Terror, executing 40,000 people and imprisoning 300,000.

The Directory

($1795\text{–}1799$) A new government of property owners formed by revolutionary enemies of the Jacobins; they were unable to solve France's economic and military problems.

Jacques-Louis David

[Outside Information] The preeminent neoclassical painter of the era who heavily produced iconic visual propaganda for the French Revolution and later for Napoleon.

Napoleon Bonaparte

($1769\text{–}1821$) A brilliant military strategist who overthrew the Directory in 1799, established the Consulate, and crowned himself emperor in 1802.

The Concordat

An 1801 agreement between Napoleon and the Pope allowing France to retain seized church lands while paying clergy salaries and guaranteeing freedom of religion.

The Civil Code

Promulgated by Napoleon in 1804, it established strong patriarchal authority and became a massive model for many subsequent civil codes globally.

Waterloo

The site of Napoleon's final defeat by the British after returning from his first exile for 100 days; he was subsequently permanently exiled to St. Helena where he died.

Santo Domingo

The Spanish colony located in the eastern portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic).

Saint-Domingue

The heavily lucrative French colony in western Hispaniola (now Haiti) that produced almost a third of France's foreign trade via sugar, coffee, and cotton.

Haitian Revolution

The only successful slave revolt in history, taking place on the island colony of Saint-Domingue.

1789 in Saint-Domingue

The year white settlers in Saint-Domingue demanded self-rule but explicitly refused to grant equality to the gens de couleur, fueling tensions that caused civil war.

Gens de couleur

The 28,000 free people of color (mixed-race or freed slaves) in Saint-Domingue; 500 of them fought in the American Revolution, bringing back revolutionary ideals.

mulattoes

Individuals of mixed European and African descent, heavily represented within the gens de couleur population of Saint-Domingue.

Zambos

[Outside Information] A colonial caste term used in Latin America to describe individuals of mixed Native American and African descent.

Boukman

A Vodou priest who organized and led the massive slave revolt of 500,000 enslaved people that broke out on Saint-Domingue in 1791.

Voudou

The syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion in Saint-Domingue whose ritual gatherings and leadership (notably Boukman) sparked the 1791 slave rebellion.

Toussaint Louverture

($1744\text{–}1803$) Born a slave, he was freed in 1776, built an army of 20,000, and dominated Saint-Domingue during its revolution.

l’ouverture

The surname adopted by Toussaint Louverture, meaning "the opening."

Egalitarian society

A social structure promoting complete equality and the abolition of slavery, established by Toussaint Louverture's 1801 constitution in Saint-Domingue.

The Republic of Haiti

An independent nation declared in 1804 after revolutionaries drove French troops out of Saint-Domingue, marking the culmination of the Haitian Revolution.

Haiti (means land of mountains)

The name chosen for the independent republic in 1804; [Outside Information] derived from the indigenous Taíno language meaning "land of high mountains."

Peninsulares

The 30,000 colonial officials strictly from the Iberian peninsula who dominated Latin American society.

Criollos

The 3.5 million creoles born in the Americas of Spanish or Portuguese descent; they were a privileged class who held intense grievances against the peninsulares, driving revolutions for creole-dominated republics from 1810–1825.

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla

($1753\text{–}1811$) A priest who led a massive independence revolt in Mexico; though he was captured and executed, his revolt continued.

Virgin of Guadalupe

[Outside Information] A Catholic title of Mary and a deeply powerful national and religious symbol in Mexico that Father Hidalgo utilized to rally indigenous and mestizo peasant support.

Augustín de Iturbide

($1783\text{–}1824$) A Creole general who officially declared Mexican independence in 1821.

Central American Federation

Formed by the southern regions of the Mexican empire, it later divided in 1838 into independent states (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica).

Simón Bolívar

($1783\text{–}1830$) A native of Caracas influenced by George Washington and the Enlightenment; he led the independence movement in South America, destroying Spanish rule by 1825.