Frederick William "The Great Elector"
a. Prussian leader b. Prussia c. He was known as the "Great Elector" since he was an elector in the Holy Roman Empire. He understood that Prussia was small and possessed no natural borders, thus he built an incredible army to defend Prussia. He made an agreement with Junkers, they would pay his taxes but have complete control over their serfs.
King Frederick I
a. king b. Prussia c. Frederick's son, became the first "king" of Prussia which was a one-of-a-kind title in the Holy Roman Empire. He furthered the development of Prussia into a European power.
Frederick the Great
a. King b. Prussia c. An example of an Enlightened Absolutist, he played the flute, spoke French instead of German, freed the serfs on royal lands, ended capital punishment, used the Enlightenment to further his power, rather than ensuring individual rights.
War of Austrian Succession
a. War b. Austria and Prussia c. This war was fought over whether Maria Theresa should be the next Habsburg leader of the Austrian Empire. The war started with Frederick the Great of Prussia's attack on Austria. The war resulted in the "Diplomatic Revolution" as France allied with Austria, and Prussia allied with Britain.
Charles VI
a. Emperor b. Austria c. This dying emperor issued the Pragmatic Sanction, in which other European leaders recognized the legitimacy of his daughter, Maria Theresa, rule over Austria. Frederick the Great later attacked Maria Theresa to start the War of Austrian Succession.
Pragmatic Sanction
a. Document b. Austrian Empire c. This document ensured that other European leaders recognized the legitimacy of Maria Theresa, and her right to rule the Austrian Empire. Frederick the Great disregarded this sanction and attacked Austria to start the War of Austrian Succession.
Silesia
a. Region b. Austrian Empire c. Agriculturally rich region of the Austrian Empire that was taken from the Austrians by the Prussians during the War of Austrian Succession. The seizure of this region dramatically increased Prussia's power on the European scene.
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
a. Treaty b. Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany c. This treaty ended the War of Austrian Succession. Prussia emerged as a major German state that was rival to Austria. As a result of this treaty, Austria felt threatened and joined in alliance with France, later included the marriage of Marie Antoinette to Louis XVI.
Diplomatic Revolution
a. A major reversal of alliances. b. Europe c. As a result of the War of Austrian Succession, Prussia and Great Britain signed a defensive alliance which caused Austria and France to ally, despite their past. Russia and Sweden joined the Franco-Austrian Alliance.
Seven Years' War
a. War b. Worldwide c. The Diplomatic Revolution quickly led to this war. In this war, Prussia quickly routed France and Austria, but Russia defeated Prussia and occupied Berlin. Prussia survived because the Tsar admired Frederick the Great. In North America it was known as "French and Indian War."
Maria Theresa
a. Empress b. Austria c. She was attacked by Frederick the Great during the War of Austrian Succession. She survived the war and brought about ideas of reform, established royal control over taxes, and took steps to end serfdom. One of her daughters was Marie Antoinette.
Joseph II
a. Emperor b. Austrian Empire c. He wished to reduce the power of the Catholic Church, so he brought about religious toleration for Jews and Protestants. He enraged the nobility by banning serfdom and making nobles responsible for taxes. Many of his reforms were overturned.
Leopold II
a. Emperor b. Austrian Empire c. The brother of Joseph II, he aided the nobility in overturning his brother's reforms. He also led Austria's invasion of France in response to the French Revolution.
Ivan the Terrible
a. czar b. Russia c. He was the Duke of Muscovy (Moscow) that gained a significant amount of territory. He also used incredible violence against the recalcitrant boyars.
"Time of Troubles" in Russia
a. period b. Russia c. After Ivan's death, Russia entered a protracted period of famine and civil war. Finally, the boyars chose Michael Romanov, a sixteen-year old from powerful Romanov family. The ascension of Michael Romanov ended this period of Russian history.
Romanov family
a. Royal family b. Russia c. This royal family ruled Russia from 1603 until 1917, with the Russian Revolution. Great czars of this family include Michael Romanov and Peter the Great.
Peter the Great
a. Czar b. Russia c. He enforced economic, educational, administrative, military, and social reform, and made Russia a military and naval power using European technology. This czar focused on the westernization of Russian culture.
"Window to the West"
a. Term for a city b. Russia c. Peter built the city of St. Petersburg and forced the boyars to live there. St. Petersburg was established in 1703 and made the capital, modeled on Amsterdam. The city was built on marsh land, many of the serfs lost their lives building the city.
Great Northern War
a. war b. The Baltic Sea c. During this war with Sweden, Peter the Great westernized and then greatly expanded his military. In a two decade struggle, he defeated Sweden, which once was a great European power.
Catherine the Great
a. Czarina b. Russia c. This czarina was a fan of the Enlightenment and reformed Russia's penal code, but she later abandoned her ideas when the French Revolution began.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
a. Commonwealth b. Poland, Lithuania c. In order to offset the lack of natural borders, Poland aligned with Lithuania in a commonwealth, which initially led to the defeat of the Germans. Poland-Lithuania was a remarkably open, democratic country that provided some toleration for Jews.
Tadeusz Kosciuszko
a. noble b. Poland c. Polish noble that fought with distinction in the American Revolution, rebelled against Prussia and Russia. Poland defeated.
George I of Britain
a. King b. United Kingdom c. He was from Germany and was the Protestant cousin of Queen Anne. He was the first leader of the Hanoverian line. During the reign of this king, Robert Walpole served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, or treasurer. Walpole served as the king's "Prime Minister" over the government, he controlled Parliament through a system of patronage.
George II of Britain
a. King b. United Kingdom c. The second Hanoverian to rule the United Kingdom, he mostly spoke German and was disinterested in British politics. He was the last British monarch born outside of the United Kingdom.
Robert Walpole
a. Politician b. United Kingdom c. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, or treasurer. Walpole served as the king's "Prime Minister" over the government, he controlled Parliament through a system of patronage.
Edmund Burke
a. Philosopher b. UK c. He was the first modern conservative. He criticized the French Revolution in his book Reflections on the Revolutions in France for reforming society too quickly.
Louis XV
a. King of France b. France c. He led France into the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. His wars drained the treasury while producing little gain.
Parlements
a. Governmental body b. France c. The courts of nobles, these bodies were often more conservative than the monarch, but also detested royal absolutism. Used their power to reject Louis's reforms, and would later stymie Louis XVI's attempts to raise taxes.
Louis XVI
a. King b. France c. The last Bourbon ruler before the French Revolution. He struggled to find ways to repay France's debt and called on the Estates General to meet in 1789. The Third Estate rebelled during the meeting and brought about the French Revolution, which resulted in his execution.
Ancien Regime
a. term b. France c. French for the "former regime" it refers to France before the French Revolution. During this period, France was divided into three estates that was ruled by an absolute Bourbon monarch.
The Estates General
a. A general assembly b. France c. An assembly of all estates in which they discussed issues. In 1789, this was called by Louis XVI to discuss France's debt.
The Assembly of Notables (1787)
a. assembly b. France c. This was not the Estates General, but rather a gathering that met in 1787. This gathering of nobles refused to consider a tax, and instead demanded that they be given a greater share in governing the nation.
The First Estate of France
a. Social class b. France c. The First Estate was the smallest of the Three Estates. It consisted of the clergy. While the clergy were not necessarily wealthy, they were not obligated to pay taxes and had higher status and had privileges that were not available to the larger Third Estate.
The Second Estate of France
a. Social class b. France c. This social class of France did not belong to the clergy, but were born to incredible privileges and rights. Many members of this estate spent time at Versailles being entertained by the Bourbon kings.
The Third Estate of France
a. A social class b. France c. This was the poorest economic group in France at the time of the Revolution. While they were the most populous group, they had little to no say in any sort of politics. This group included all French people that were neither nobles or clergy.
Abbe Sieyes
a. Clergyman b. France c. An obscure lower clergymen, he would later serve in every political government until 1815. Wrote "What is the Third Estate?" a pamphlet that provided the ideological justification for the Revolution. "What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been in the political order up to the present? Nothing. What does it ask? To become something."
Cahiers
a. Notebooks b. France c. These were "notebooks of grievances" collected by representatives of the Third Estate at the Estates General. Although some called for reform of tax system, most of the Third Estate noted that there greatest concern was their hunger. Many of the Third Estate noted in the notebooks their support for the king and the belief that the king would address their issues.
Tennis Court Oath
a. Oath b. France c. On June 17, 1789, the Third Estate believed they were locked out of the Estates General. Thus, they took to a nearby tennis court to make an oath that they were the true representatives of the nation, the King must abide by a new constitution. This was one of the first major events of the French Revolution.
The Bastille
a. Prison b. France c. This prison was on the northern edge of Paris, and was built during the Hundred Years War. It once housed political prisoners (Voltaire) and munitions. In 1789, Paris was struck by a shortage of food, many Parisians blamed the nobility and took to the streets. A crowd of 80k assembled at the Bastille, stormed the fortress, and began the French Revolution.
The Commune of Paris
a. Commune b. Paris, France c. Following the fall of the Bastille prison, Louis XVI recognized this group and their right to govern Paris. This new municipal government that would later play a pivotal role in the Revolution.
Marquis de Lafayette
a. A French soldier b. France, United States c. He helped the United States win their war against Britain by providing French troops and ships to the colonists. After the war, he returned to France and played a large role in the French Revolution. He pleaded with the US to help him, but from the urging of his old comrade Alexander Hamilton, Washington decided against helping them fight, thus leading to a bloodier Revolution.
The Great Fear
a. Period b. France c. This period gripped the French countryside in the immediate phase of the Revolution. Many of the French lived in fear of starvation and Austrian invasion.
The National Assembly
a. Governmental body b. France c. The Estates-General had given rise to this more permanent body. This governmental body got the nobility to renounce their feudal rights. On August 4, 1789, peasants no longer tied to the land, allowed to hunt and fish on noble lands.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
a. Document b. France c. This document written in France during the French Revolution. It had 17 articles, some of which were reasonable like free speech and freedom from oppression. This document shows the incredible influence of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution.
Olympe de Gouges
a. Feminist b. France c. She argued that women should have the right to be educated, control their own property, and to initiate divorce. However, she did not demand full political equality with men. She was later executed by the Revolutionaries.
The Rights of Woman
a. Book b. France c. This book, written by Olympe de Gouges, argues that women should control their own property, and to initiate divorce. However, in this book she did not demand full political equality with men. De Gouges was later executed by the Revolutionaries.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
a. Constitution b. France c. Louis XVI, in horror, had to pass this Constitution, which made the Catholic Church a department of the state. The parishioners elected priests, the priests elected bishops. Additionally, all clergy had to swear an oath of loyalty to the Revolution. This essentially placed the French Catholic Church under the French government.
Pope Pius VI
a. Pope b. Rome, Italy c. This pope denounced the French Civil Constitution of the Clergy. He called on the Church to instigate a counter-revolutionary movement, and thus Catholicism, royalism, and counter-revolution all became associated in the French public mind.
Constitution of 1791
a. Constitution b. France c. In the second year of the French Revolution, this Constitution demonstrated that the upper middle class wanted to establish a constitutional monarchy, and were fearful of mass participation in politics. This Constitution established that only men that paid taxes equal to a three days of work could participate. Women could not vote.
Count of Artois
a. Count b. Artois, France c. He was the youngest brother of Louis XVI, and he encouraged Louis to flee. Louis and family caught on the border with the Austrian Netherlands. National Assembly lied and said family had been abducted, in a desperate attempt to keep a constitutional monarchy.
Jacobins
a. A political party b. France c. They were a liberal political group inspired by the Enlightenment who felt France must undergo change to become a Republic. The Jacobins revolted against Louis XVI in the French Revolution and advocated for citizens' right to property. However, as the rivalry between the Girondins and Jacobins remained, radical Jacobins such as Robespierre attempted to eliminate their opposition through mass executions, thus leading to the Reign of Terror in France.
Girondins
a. Political party b. France c. This political party hailed from the Gironde department. They were more moderate, but they did lead the charge to declare war on Austria and Prussia. War would further radicalize France.
Sans-culottes
a. group b. Paris, France c. This group took their name from their pants which were "without breeches." This group was too poor to vote, but they committed radical acts of violence in the streets. They solidly supported the Jacobin Party.
Duke of Brunswick
a. Duke b. Brunswick c. He was the commander of Prussian and Austrian "Allied Army" against France. The sans culottes worried about him because he promised to destroy Paris if the royal family was harmed. This further radicalized the city of Paris, led by the Commune of Paris. Violence furthers France's radicalization, becomes a republic on September 21, 1792. Marie and Louis guillotined in 1793.
William Pitt, the Younger
a. Prime Minister b. United Kingdom c. He supported the French Revolution and noted that it "must ... culminate in general harmony ... She will enjoy just that kind of liberty which I venerate." He later rescinded his support of the French Revolution due to the Terror.
Edmund Burke
a. philosopher b. United Kingdom c. He was the first modern conservative. He argued that the French Revolution's aims were good, but change brought about too fast led to disorder and violence. He wanted to be buried in an anonymous grave for fear that his grave would be desecrated.
"The Mountain"
a. Term b. France c. In the National Convention, the Jacobins sat on the left on a raised platform that gave their party this nickname. This nickname is interchangeable with the Jacobins
"The Plain"
a. Term b. France c. In the National Convention, the Girondins sat on the flat part of the convention. Thus, the Girondins had this nickname.
The Reign of Terror
a. A period of mass murders b. France c. Beginning with the execution of Louis XVI, this was a period of terror from the spring of 1793 until the spring of 1794. During this period, the radical Jacobin Party executed 50,000 French people and brutally repressed an uprising in the Vendee.
Vendee
a. Department b. France c. This department of France was home to a true counter-revolution led by French citizens infuriated by state's restriction on the Church. Nearly 130,000 Vendeeans were slaughtered by the state. Additionally, France lost a major battle to Austria. There were significant fears in Paris that the Revolution would be overturned, and that the Revolutionaries would face major retribution.
Committee of Public Safety
a. Committee b. France c. The National Convention established this committed which assumed dictatorial power over France. Georges Danton, Lazare Carnot, and Maximilien Robespierre led this committee throughout the Terror.
Georges Danton
a. President b. France c. The first president of the Committee of Public Safety. He was guillotined by Robespierre for leniency against France's enemies.
Lazare Carnot
Maximilien Robespierre
a. Lawyer and Statesman b. France c. A relatively unknown lawyer before the French Revolution, he rose rapidly through the Jacobin Party to become a member of the Committee of Public Safety. As a member of the Committee, he charged the Committee's president, Georges Danton, and caused him to be executed. Later, he was executed after the overthrow of the Committee.
Republic of Virtue
a. Utopian republic b. France c. After the execution of Georges Danton, this was the ideal republic promoted by Robespierre. During this period, Robespierre attempted to remove all traces of the monarchy, and established a new calendar.
Thermidoreans and the Reign of Terror
a. Political group b. France c. The Thermidoreans led the charge to overthrow the Committee of Public Safety. Their revolt against the Committee took place in late July of 1794, during the French Revolutionary month of "Thermidor."
The Directory
a. Governmental body b. France c. This government of France followed the overthrow of the Committee of Public Safety. Five men served in this government on an executive board with the title of "director." They led a violent campaign against former Jacobins and the sans-culottes. During this government, only men with property were only allowed to vote.
Napoleon Bonaparte
a. An emperor b. France c. Starting as a French military leader during the Revolution, he eventually became the first Emperor of France via a coup d'etat. He established the Napoleonic Code, a law that promoted civil liberty, equality before the law, and the separation of church and state. Additionally, he waged the Napoleonic Wars which led France to have control over most of Europe until his death.
Admiral Horatio Nelson
a. Admiral b. United Kingdom c. This admiral defeated Napoleon in Egypt in 1798. Nevertheless, Napoleon was able to keep news of the defeat out of the major French newspapers.
Coup d'Etat Brumaire
a. Coup d'etat b. France c. Napoleon led this coup which overthrew the Directory. Napoleon was aided by the Abbe Sieyes, and Sieyes believed that Napoleon would be his puppet general.
Concordat
a. Agreement b. France and the Vatican c. Napoleon established this agreement with the Church. It ensured the papacy that "Catholicism was the religion of the great majority of the French" but it did not reestablish Catholicism as the official religion. Jews and Protestants were tolerated in France under Napoleon.
The Napoleonic Code
a. Code b. France c. This law code provided a single, unitary legal system for all of France, rather than hundreds of localized codes. All men are equal under the law, but the advances of women made during the Revolution were overturned. A woman could not buy or sell property without the approval of her father or husband. Divorce became harder for women to obtain.
Treaty of Amiens
a. Treaty b. France and the United Kingdom c. Napoleon signed this peace with Britain after years of warfare during the French Revolution. This was only a temporary peace that bought Napoleon time to consolidate his army and navy.
Louisiana Territory
a. Territory b. North America c. Napoleon attempted to reestablish control over Haiti, but most troops died of disease. Napoleon then sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million. He used the funding to wage a naval war on Britain.
The Battle of Trafalgar
a. Battle b. Atlantic Ocean c. Napoleon made plans to invade Britain, but first he would have to defeat the British Navy. At this battle, Admiral Nelson died, but the British Navy wrecked the French Navy and ensured it would not invade Britain.
Tsar Alexander I
a. czar b. Russia c. Following the Battle of Jena and the destruction of the Russian Army, this czar made a temporary peace with Napoleon. He also refused Napoleon's request to marry a Russian royal woman.
Continental System
a. system b. the European continent c. Seeing that he could not defeat Britain, Napoleon turned to economic warfare and blockaded the European continent from British goods. This system backfired and harmed economies of conquered areas. It, thus, caused these areas to resist. Unification of Europe for the first time since Roman Empire.
Napoleon's War in Spain
a. War b. Spain c. In 1807, France passed through Spain to attack Portugal, an ally of Britain. The Spanish revolted against their king, who was replaced by his incompetent son. Napoleon seized the moment to occupy Spain and put his brother Joseph on its throne. Spain rose in nationalist furor, and Napoleon was forced to leave 350k troops in Spain to brutalize the Spanish.
Grand Army
a. army b. France c. Napoleon took this army of 600,000 into Russia, expecting to defeat the Russians. Instead, the Russians retreated into their vast wilderness and only 40,000 of this army returned to France.
Duke of Wellington
a. Duke b. United Kingdom c. He led the coalition of nations aligned against Napoleon in Napoleon's first defeat. He refused to allow Napoleon's son to sit on the throne of France.
Prince Metternich
a. diplomat b. Austrian Empire c. This diplomat from Austria that dominated the proceedings at the Congress of Vienna. He believed that the social and political changes brought about by the French Revolution harmed Austrian Empire, wanted to turn back the clock.
The Hundred Days
a. period b. France c. This period was from Napoleon's escape from Elba to his final defeat at Waterloo. This period severely disrupted the Congress of Vienna's attempt to reestablish conservatism in Europe.
The Battle of Waterloo
a. Battle b. Waterloo, France (now Belgium) c. This battle was Napoleon's final defeat. After the battle he was banished to the island of St. Helena, far from Europe.