World History II: The Age of Reason, Absolutism, and Revolutions

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the Scientific Revolution, the Age of Absolutism, the English Civil War, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, Napoleon, and cultural/technological transformations in 16th- to 18th-century Europe.

Scientific Revolution

A major transformation in European thought during the 16th to 18th centuries that questioned traditional beliefs, moved away from relying solely on religion, and emphasized reason, systematic observation, and measurement.

Heliocentric Theory

The astronomical model first proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus asserting that the sun sits at the center of the solar system while planets orbit around it in imaginary ovals, challenging Church dogma.

Johannes Kepler

The astronomer who discovered the laws of planetary motion, confirming that planets orbit around the sun in elliptical paths.

Galileo Galilei

The Italian scientist who used an improved telescope to make celestial observations that supported Copernicus's heliocentric theory.

Isaac Newton

The English scientist who formulated the Law of Gravity, demonstrating that all physical objects exert a gravitational force of attraction dependent on mass and distance.

William Harvey

The English physician who discovered the circulation of blood pumped throughout the human body by the heart.

Scientific Method

A systematic research procedure created by Francis Bacon and René Descartes combining observation, hypothesis testing, experimentation, data collection, and mathematical logic.

Absolute Monarch

A king or queen possessing centralized, unrestricted authority over a state and its people, whose power is not restricted by a constitution or legislative body.

Divine Right

The doctrine asserting that God created the monarchy and appointed the monarch as God's representative on Earth, meaning the ruler answers solely to God and not to subjects.

Louis XIV

The absolute monarch of France (1638–1715) who revoked the Edict of Nantes, excluded the Estates General, spent extravagantly, accumulated immense national debt, and built the Palace of Versailles.

Palace of Versailles

The grand French royal palace expanded by King Louis XIV as a symbol of immense royal wealth, centralized power, and absolutism.

Peter the Great

The Tsar of Russia (1672–1725) known as the 'Founder of Modern Russia,' who modernized the army, introduced Western dress and grooming, founded Russia's first newspaper, and established St. Petersburg.

Westernization

The policy championed by Peter the Great and Catherine the Great to modernize Russia's military, legal, cultural, and educational systems by adopting European models.

Catherine the Great

The Empress of Russia who expanded on Peter the Great's Westernization by reforming the legal and educational systems, reducing trade restrictions, and patronizing the arts and sciences.

Magna Carta

A historic charter written in 1215 by English nobles that King John was forced to sign, placing the first formal limitations on royal monarchical power.

Constitutional Monarchy

A system of government (also called a Parliamentary Monarchy) where the monarch's power is limited by established laws and shared with an elected or appointed parliament.

Royalists

The political faction in the English Civil War (also termed Cavaliers) that supported King Charles I and favored monarchical power.

Roundheads

The parliamentary faction led by Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War that opposed the King and fought for parliamentary supremacy.

Oliver Cromwell

The military commander who led the Roundheads to victory in the English Civil War, oversaw the trial and 1649 execution of Charles I, and established a Commonwealth government in England.

The Restoration

The return of the monarchical system in England following the collapse of Cromwell's Commonwealth, marked by Parliament voting to place Charles II on the throne.

Glorious Revolution

The peaceful, bloodless transition of power in England in 1688 where Catholic King James II fled and Dutch Protestants William and Mary were invited to assume the throne.

English Bill of Rights of 1689

An English constitutional document signed by William and Mary that established a constitutional monarchy by limiting royal authority and expanding parliamentary power.

The Enlightenment

An 18th-century intellectual movement in Europe that applied reason, logic, and scientific principles to society, government, and human nature, spurring democratic revolutions.

Thomas Hobbes

The English political thinker who argued in Leviathan (1651) that humans in a state of nature are naturally selfish and violent, requiring an absolute sovereign to maintain peace.

Social Contract

The political theory that individuals surrender some freedoms and consent to government authority in exchange for security, order, or the preservation of rights.

John Locke

The English philosopher who argued in Two Treatises of Government that citizens are sovereign, possess natural rights to life, liberty, and property, and have the right to form a government to protect them.

Natural Rights

Inherent rights that belong to all human beings from birth, famously defined by John Locke as life, liberty, and property.

Baron de Montesquieu

The French political philosopher who wrote The Spirit of the Laws, proposing that liberty is preserved and tyranny prevented through the separation of powers into legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Enlightenment thinker who wrote The Social Contract, arguing that legitimate government rests on the 'General Will' of the majority and that people retain the right to overthrow failing governments.

Voltaire

The French Enlightenment writer of Candide who fiercely advocated for freedom of speech, religious toleration over fanaticism, and the complete separation of church and state.

René Descartes

The French philosopher famous for the principle 'I think, therefore I am,' who emphasized logic, skepticism, and rational deduction to discover fundamental truths.

David Hume

The Scottish philosopher who advocated empiricism (knowledge acquired through sensory experience) and skepticism, questioning unverified religious assumptions.

Three Estates

The rigid social structure of pre-revolutionary France consisting of the First Estate (Clergy), Second Estate (Nobility), and Third Estate (Everyone Else, including merchants, professionals, and peasants).

Estates General

The representative assembly of France's Three Estates, summoned in May 1789 by Louis XVI after 175 years of disuse to address national debt, sparking the revolution.

Storming of the Bastille

The historic event on July 14, 1789, where Parisian insurgents assaulted and demolished the royal medieval fortress and prison to seize explosives and challenge the monarchy.

Reign of Terror

The extreme period of the French Revolution (1793–1794) during which over 16,000 individuals accused of treason were executed by guillotine, including Marie Antoinette.

Napoleon Bonaparte

The military general who seized power in France in 1799, restored political order, established an empire controlling much of Europe, and promoted revolutionary legal reforms.

Napoleonic Code

A unified, written civil legal code instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte that preserved major Enlightenment and French Revolutionary principles, notably the legal equality of all men.

Nationalism

A widespread sense of intense loyalty, devotion, and pride toward one's own nation and culture, stimulated throughout Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.

Congress of Vienna

The 1815 peace conference convened by European leaders following Napoleon's fall to establish a balance of power, suppress revolutionary movements, and redraw Europe's borders.

Johann Sebastian Bach

The celebrated German Baroque composer known for his complex polyphonic and instrumental compositions during the Age of Reason.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The prolific Austrian composer recognized as one of the primary figures of the Classical style of music during the Enlightenment.

Miguel de Cervantes

The Spanish novelist who wrote Don Quixote, which is widely regarded as the first modern European novel.

Eugène Delacroix

The prominent French Romantic painter who led the transition toward 19th-century Romanticism, celebrated for dramatic works such as Liberty Leading the People.

Agricultural Revolution

An era during the Age of Reason characterized by new, more efficient farm tools and agricultural methods that boosted productivity and lowered food production labor.