The French Revolution, the Terror, and the Rise of Napoléon

A comprehensive vocabulary review set focusing on key figures, events, laws, and political regimes of the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, the Directoire, and the Consulate up to the First Empire.

La Terreur

A period of political repression and massacres from 1793 to 1794 led by the Comité de salut public to protect the French Revolution from internal and external enemies.

Indulgents

The group of revolutionaries led by Georges Danton who believed it was time to put an end to the Reign of Terror, leading to their arrest and execution in April 1794.

Georges Danton

A prominent revolutionary leader who called for the creation of the Tribunal révolutionnaire in March 1793, but was later executed in April 1794 after advocating for the end of the Terror.

9 Thermidor an II

The Republican calendar date corresponding to July 27, 1794, when Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown at the Convention before being guillotined the following day.

Calendrier républicain

A new calendar created by revolutionaries to replace the Gregorian calendar, removing religious and Roman references and counting years from the birth of the French Republic.

Suffrage censitaire

A voting system re-established by the Convention after the Terror where only citizens paying a required amount of taxes (cens) were allowed to vote.

13 Vendémiaire an IV

October 5, 1795, the date of a royalist insurrection put down with cannon fire by General Napoléon Bonaparte, leaving over 300 dead and earning him the nickname 'général vendémiaire'.

Directoire

The French political regime established in late 1795 to prevent single-assembly or individual dictatorship, featuring executive power shared among 5 directors and legislative power split between 2 councils.

Journées de septembre

Massacres in September 1792 where panic-stricken Parisian sans-culottes set up popular tribunals and executed around 2,000 nobles and refractory priests.

Guillotine

An execution machine installed at the Place de la Concorde designed to ensure equal and painless sentences, which became the central symbol of revolutionary justice and its excesses.

Tribunal révolutionnaire

A judicial court established in March 1793 by radical deputies to legally punish counter-revolutionaries and prevent generalized popular violence.

Comité de salut public

A war government created on April 6, 1793 by the Convention with full authority to confront internal counter-rebellions and external war threats.

Camille Desmoulins

A revolutionary journalist and deputy who disapproved of the radical executions carried out by the Comité de salut public and was guillotined in 1794 alongside Danton.

Montagnards

The radical group of revolutionary deputies led by figures like Maximilien Robespierre who supported the execution of Louis XVI and seized control of the Convention in June 1793.

Girondins

A moderate revolutionary faction including deputies like Brissot and Condorcet that favored economic liberalism, opposed execution of the king, and whose leaders were arrested in June 1793.

Levée en masse

A mass military draft of 300,000 men decreed by the Convention in February 1793 to defend France against hostile European monarchies.

Loi des suspects

A law passed on September 17, 1793 that permitted the arrest, trial, and potential execution of anyone suspected of opposing the Revolution based on their ideas, actions, or contacts.

Thermidoriens

The group of Convention deputies who organized the overthrow of Robespierre on July 27, 1794 (9 Thermidor) and reinstated the Girondin deputies to end the Terror.

Coup d'État du 18 brumaire an VIII

The coup on November 9, 1799, fomented by Director Sieyès and executed by Napoléon Bonaparte, which overthrew the Directoire and ended the French Revolution.

Consulat

The political regime established after 18 Brumaire, led by 3 consuls appointed for 10 years, where actual political authority resided entirely with First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte.

Franc germinal

A new silver currency created under Napoléon Bonaparte to ensure economic stability and foster the expansion of trade and industry.

Concordat

An agreement signed in 1801 between Napoléon Bonaparte and the Pope to resolve long-standing religious disputes with refractory Catholic priests.

Attentat de la rue Saint-Nicaise

A royalist bomb attack against Napoléon on December 24, 1800, involving an explosive barrel on a cart ('machine infernale') that killed 22 people and injured 56.

Paix d'Amiens

A peace treaty negotiated by Napoléon that ended warfare between France and European powers for the first time in 10 years.

Premier Empire

The regime established in 1804 when First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of the French, leading to his coronation on December 2, 1804.