The Enlightenment and the French Revolution

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key thinkers, concepts, publications, social classes, and historical events of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.

The Enlightenment

An intellectual movement of the 1700s (the 18th century) in which thinkers applied reason and science to society, government, and religion, emphasizing natural rights, progress, and challenging traditional authority.

Thomas Hobbes

English thinker who argued in Leviathan that people are naturally selfish and violent, and must surrender freedom to an absolute monarch in a social contract in exchange for order and security.

John Locke

English thinker who argued that all people possess natural rights to life, liberty, and property; government exists to protect these rights, and people have the right to overthrow it if it fails.

Montesquieu

Philosophe who advocated the separation of powers into legislative, executive, and judicial branches in The Spirit of the Laws to prevent any single branch from becoming too powerful.

Voltaire

Philosophe who defended freedom of speech and religious tolerance while using wit and satire to criticize the Catholic Church and censorship.

Diderot

Enlightenment thinker who created the Encyclopedia, a massive compilation of articles designed to spread Enlightenment ideas across Europe.

Rousseau

Thinker who wrote The Social Contract, arguing that people are naturally good but corrupted by society, and that legitimate government derives from the general will of the people.

Wollstonecraft

Author who argued in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman that women deserve the same rights and education as men.

Adam Smith

Scottish thinker responsible for capitalism (free-market economics) who argued in The Wealth of Nations that an invisible hand of supply, demand, and self-interest regulates the economy without government interference.

Laissez-faire

An economic doctrine advocating that the free interaction of supply, demand, and self-interest should regulate the economy without government interference.

Salons

Informal social gatherings, often hosted by wealthy women in their homes, where writers, artists, and thinkers freely debated new ideas.

Madame Geoffrin

Host of one of the most famous salons in Paris where leading philosophes gathered; she tutored monarchs and corresponded with rulers across Europe.

Baroque

An art style of the 1600s characterized by grand, dramatic, ornate features, movement, tension, and vivid detail, often commissioned by monarchs and the Church.

Rococo

An art style of the 1700s that was lighter, more elegant, and playful, shifting away from religious grandeur toward decoration, pleasure, and domestic life.

Bach

Baroque composer famous for complex, structured religious musical works such as the Brandenburg Concertos.

Handel

Baroque composer best known for the Messiah who frequently wrote compositions for English royalty.

Mozart

Classical composer whose operas, such as The Marriage of Figaro, celebrated Enlightenment values and criticized aristocratic privilege.

Defoe

Early novelist who wrote Robinson Crusoe, helping establish the novel as a popular literary form.

Frederick the Great

Enlightened despot of Prussia who granted religious tolerance, supported education, simplified laws, and encouraged agricultural reform while retaining absolute power.

Catherine the Great

Enlightened despot of Russia who reformed laws and education, promoted the arts, and corresponded with Voltaire, but limited reforms to preserve her power.

Joseph II

Enlightened despot of Austria who abolished serfdom, granted religious toleration to Protestants and Jews, and reformed the legal system to treat all classes more equally.

The First Estate

The clergy of the Roman Catholic Church in France in 1789, which owned roughly 10% of the land, collected tithes, paid almost no taxes, and made up about 1% of the population.

The Second Estate

The nobility of France in 1789, which held the highest positions in the army, government, and courts, owned large estates, was exempt from most taxes, and comprised about 2% of the population.

The Third Estate

About 97% of the French population in 1789, comprising the bourgeoisie, urban workers, and peasants, who paid nearly all the taxes and resented the privileges of the clergy and nobility.

Estates-General

A legislative assembly representing all three French estates that had not met since 1614; summoned by Louis XVI in May 1789 to approve new taxes and resolve the debt crisis.

Tennis Court Oath

A pledge sworn on June 20, 1789, by members of the Third Estate (National Assembly) on a tennis court, promising not to disband until France had a constitution.

Storming of the Bastille

The event on July 14, 1789, where a Parisian mob seized a royal fortress and prison to obtain gunpowder and arms, igniting revolts across France.

The Great Fear

The first phase of the French Revolution in which rumors ran rampant and peasants violently attacked nobles.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

A foundational document issued by the National Assembly to calm revolutionary violence and affirm basic rights and equality.

Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity

The central slogan representing the guiding principles of the French Revolution.

Olympe de Gouges

Author who demanded equal rights for women in her 1791 work, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, in response to the National Assembly's exclusion of women.

Women's March on Versailles

An event on October 5, 1789, in which thousands of Parisian women marched twelve miles in the rain to Versailles, invaded the palace, and forced Louis XVI and his family to move to the Tuileries Palace in Paris.

Legislative Assembly

An elected body created by the constitution of 1791 that turned France into a limited (constitutional) monarchy.

Flight to Varennes

The failed June 1791 attempt by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to escape France in disguise to reach Austrian territory, which destroyed the public's trust in the king.