The French Revolution Flashcards

This set of flashcards covers the vocabulary and key concepts of the French Revolution, including social estates, major political shifts, influential philosophers, and significant symbols.

Bastille

A fortress prison in Paris that symbolized the King's absolute power and was demolished by the populace on July $14$, $1789$.

Louis XVI

The King of France who ascended the throne in $1774$ at age $20$ and was eventually executed for treason in $1793$.

Marie Antoinette

An Austrian princess and the wife of King Louis XVI.

First Estate

The social class in eighteenth-century France consisting of the clergy.

Second Estate

The social class in eighteenth-century France consisting of the nobility.

Third Estate

The social class comprising the common people, including merchants, lawyers, and peasants, who bore the entire burden of taxation.

Tithe

A religious tax levied by the Church on the peasants.

Taille

A direct tax paid by the members of the Third Estate to the state.

Subsistence crisis

An extreme situation where the basic means of livelihood are endangered, frequently triggered by bad harvests in revolutionary France.

John Locke

The philosopher who wrote "Two Treatises of Government," challenging the divine and absolute rights of the monarch.

Rousseau

The philosopher who proposed a government based on a social contract between the people and their representatives.

Montesquieu

The author of "The Spirit of the Laws" who advocated for a division of power among the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary.

Estates-General

A representative assembly consisting of all three Estates that had to approve the imposition of new taxes.

National Assembly

The body formed by the Third Estate on June $20$, $1789$, at an indoor tennis court in Versailles after the King rejected their voting proposal.

Abbé Sieyès

A leader of the National Assembly and author of the influential pamphlet "What is the Third Estate?".

Active Citizens

Men over the age of $25$ who paid taxes equivalent to at least $3$ days' wages and were granted the right to vote under the Constitution of $1791$.

Passive Citizens

The group of men and all women who were not granted the right to vote under the Constitution of $1791$.

Marseillaise

A song sung by volunteers during the war against Austria and Prussia which eventually became France's national anthem.

Jacobin Club

The most famous political club led by Maximilien Robespierre, consisting mainly of small shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers.

Sans-culottes

Literally meaning "those without knee breeches," these were Jacobin members who wore long trousers and red caps as symbols of liberty.

Convention

The newly elected assembly that abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic on September $21$, $1792$.

Reign of Terror

The period from $1793$ to $1794$ characterized by Maximilien Robespierre's policy of severe control and punishment.

Guillotine

A machine consisting of two poles and a blade used to execute individuals found guilty by the Revolutionary Tribunal.

Directory

A five-member executive body appointed under a new constitution after the fall of the Jacobin government to prevent the concentration of power.

Napoleon Bonaparte

A military leader who declared himself Emperor of France in $1804$ and was eventually defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in $1815$.

Olympe de Gouges

A key politically active woman and author of the "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen" who was executed in $1793$.

Triangular slave trade

The trade of enslaved Africans between Europe, Africa, and the Americas to provide labor for sugar, coffee, and indigo colonies.

Red Phrygian cap

A political symbol representing the cap worn by a slave upon becoming free.

The Law Tablet

A symbol signifying that the law is the same for all and that all individuals are equal before it.