French vocab dyer note

Old regime

Old regime

the social and political order that existed in France from the late Middle Ages until the French Revolution

Estate

the clergy, nobility and commoners – determined their class

Louis xvi

adopted a pro-reform stance, last king of France before the French Revolution (1789-99)

Marie Antoinette

The wife of Louis XVI, tried to flee with her husband but got caught and was beheaded

Estates general

a meeting of the three estates of pre-revolutionary France: clergy, nobility, and commons. Represent the clergy, nobility, and commons

National assembly

acted as a body that would represent the needs of the French people

Tennis court oath 8

the National Assembly swore not to stop meeting until France had a constitution.

Great fear

a period of panic and riot by peasants and others amid rumours of an “aristocratic conspiracy” by the king and the privileged to overthrow the Third Estate

Legislative assembly

Provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making. However, its tenure overlapped with a period of extreme political and social chaos.

Émigré

Nobels who fled France and wanted old Regime back in power

Sans culottes

lower class who wanted more change from the revolution

Jacobin

members of a radical political organization, scarest of the group, did the beheading

Guillotine

a method of executing those condemned to death, by slicing off its victim's head, death by BLANK was quick and humane.

 Maximilien Robespierre

one of the primary leaders of the French Revolution, spearheading the Reign of Terror.

Reign of terror

a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety.

napoleon Bonaparte

revolutionized military organization and training, one of the most successful generals of the French revolutionary armies

Coup detats

overthrew the system of government under the Directory in France and substituted the Consulate, making way for the despotism of Napoleon Bonaparte.

plebiscite

a type of voting, or of proposing laws

lycee

train “the elite of the nation” and as the main secondary education bodies responsible for examinations of the baccalaureate They taught French, Latin, Ancient Greek and science.

Concordat

reconciled the Church with the anti-religious policies established during the French Revolution.

Napoleonic code

Influenced civil law codes across the world, replaced the fragmented laws of pre-revolutionary France, recognizing the principles of civil liberty, equality before the law (although not for women in the same sense as for men), and the secular character of the state

Battle of Trafalgar

helped seal Napoleon's eventual downfall and established England as a dominant naval power.

Blockade

forbade all British goods and commerce entering the continent

Continenental system

banning trade between Britain and states occupied by or allied with France

Guerrilla

forced the French to deploy thousands of troops along their lines of communication and provide strong escort for the supplies.

peninsular war

the emergence of large-scale guerrilla warfare.

scorched earth policy

the military tactic of destroying everything that enables the enemy to wage war, including crops, livestock, buildings, and infrastructure

waterloo

concluded a war that had raged for 23 years, ended French attempts to dominate Europe, and destroyed Napoleon's imperial power forever.

hundred days

marked the events that occurred between Napoleon's return to Paris on March 20, 1815

congress of Vienna 31

a meeting of European nations that set out a strategy to maintain peace and stability throughout the continent

klemens von Metternich 32.

helped form the victorious alliance against Napoleon I and who restored Austria as a leading European

balance of power 33.

refers to a diplomatic arrangement between larger, wealthier, and militarily powerful European states (“great powers”) from the seventeenth century into the nineteenth century

Legitimacy

French citizens radically altered their political landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as the monarchy and the feudal system.

Holy alliance

prevent revolutionary influences in Europe and serve as a bastion against democracy, revolution, and secularism.