The Atlantic Revolutions, Napoleon, and the 19th Century

Vocabulary flashcards covering the American and French Revolutions, the Napoleonic era, nineteenth-century political ideologies, and global movements.

Coercive (Intolerable) Acts

British laws designed to punish Massachusetts and close Boston's port following colonial protests.

First Estate

Under France's Old Regime, the clergy, who made up a small share of the population, held privileges, and owned substantial land.

Second Estate

Under France's Old Regime, the nobility, who formed a small elite possessing privileges, land, and political influence.

Third Estate

The vast majority of the French population, including peasants, urban workers, and the bourgeoisie, who carried most of the tax burden.

Taille

A major French land tax that fell heavily on the Third Estate.

Bourgeoisie

The educated, prosperous middle class within the Third Estate—such as lawyers, doctors, merchants, and bankers—who had wealth but limited political power.

Estates-General

The French representative assembly called by Louis XVI in May 1789, where voting by estate traditionally allowed the First and Second Estates to outvote the Third Estate.

National Assembly

A revolutionary assembly created when the Third Estate broke away, claiming to represent the French nation.

Tennis Court Oath

A pledge taken in 1789 by members of the National Assembly after being locked out of their hall, vowing not to separate until France had established a constitution.

Bastille

A Paris fortress-prison attacked by a crowd on July 14, 1789, to obtain weapons and gunpowder; its fall became a key symbol of popular resistance against royal authority.

Declaration of the Rights of Man

A French revolutionary document affirming that men are born free and equal in rights, protecting liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

Sans-culottes

Working-class radicals during the French Revolution who demanded stronger government action, price controls, and an end to the monarchy.

National Convention

The revolutionary assembly that abolished the French monarchy and declared France a republic.

Committee of Public Safety

A body led prominently by Maximilien Robespierre that took extreme measures to defend the French Revolution from internal and external enemies.

Reign of Terror

A radical period of the French Revolution during which thousands of individuals accused of opposing the Revolution were executed.

The Directory

A five-man executive government that ruled France from 1795 to 1799, characterized by political instability and public distrust.

Coup d’état

A sudden takeover of government, such as the one led by General Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799 to seize power in France.

Napoleonic Code

A legal code introduced in 1804 establishing legal equality for all men and protecting property, while restricting women's rights and reinforcing husbands' authority.

Bureaucracy

The network of government offices and appointed officials responsible for managing a nation's laws, tax collection, and administration.

Continental System

Napoleon's economic strategy aimed at weakening Great Britain by prohibiting European countries from trading with it.

Congress of Vienna

An 1814–1815 conference of European leaders aimed at restoring monarchies and establishing a balance of power to prevent any single nation from dominating Europe.

Hundred Days

The brief period in 1815 during which Napoleon escaped exile on Elba, returned to France, and regained power before his final defeat.

Battle of Waterloo

The June 1815 battle in present-day Belgium where Napoleon Bonaparte was definitively defeated, leading to his final exile to Saint Helena.

Conservatism

A political philosophy emphasizing support for tradition, established monarchy, and social order to prevent revolutionary upheavals.

Intervention

A principle allowing powerful nations to send military troops into foreign countries to suppress revolutions and protect monarchies.

Romanticism

An artistic and literary movement (1800–1850) that emphasized deep human emotion, individualism, heroism, and the wild force of nature over logic and order.

Realism

An artistic and literary movement (1850s–1900) that depicted everyday life, poverty, and social hardships accurately without embellishment.

Universal Male Suffrage

The policy granting voting rights to all adult men, eliminating property-ownership requirements.

Concert of Europe

An alliance system established by Britain, France, Russia, and Austria to preserve continental peace and stability.

Crimean War

An 1853–1856 conflict over Black Sea territories pitting Russia against Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire, which caused the collapse of the Concert of Europe.

Haitian Revolution

A 1791–1804 uprising led by Toussaint Louverture in which enslaved people defeated French forces, abolishing slavery and creating the world's first independent Black republic.

Monroe Doctrine

An 1823 policy issued by U.S. President James Monroe barring European colonization and intervention in the Western Hemisphere while promising U.S. neutrality in European wars.