HIS4C Key Terms

Great Chain of Being

A hierarchal structure of all matter and life, ordered with God at the top all the way down to inanimate matter.

First Estate

The clergy, religious leaders

Second Estate

The titled nobles

Third Estate

The commoners, bourgeoisie and peasants

The Enlightenment

A mid 18th century European philosophical movement that argued through reason, society could progress and the world would overall be improved.

National Assembly

A revolutionary body formed by the Third Estate to defy Louis XVI’s rule

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

A Declaration influenced by enlightenment ideas which stated mankind’s unalienable rights, and how they are being withheld by the French government

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

A reorganization of the Catholic Church in France, which was decided upon by the National Assembly. It moved the clergy to become employees of the French government who had to be elected into their roles.

Montagnards

The radical faction of the National Assembly, who opposed a trial of the King and sought to kill him. They saw a trial as putting the Revolution on trial, which they could not let happen

Revolutionary Calendar

One of the reforms made by the Montagnards after they took control of the French government. It completely reorganized the timekeeping system, making it so all the months had a different name, hours had a different number of days, months had a different number of days, etc.

The Terror

Triggered by Maximilian Robespierre. The French, although socially reformed, were still poor and living on the verge of starvation daily. This was blamed on an “internal enemy” as opposed to the shortcomings of Montagnard policy, so killings began. Anyone who was suspected of even remotely opposing the Revolution was an enemy of the state and subject to immediate execution by guillotine.

9-10 Thermidor

After Robespierre’s execution, the Directory takes over the nation, which repeals many laws created under the Republic of Virtue. It was headed by Paul Barras.

Cult of Personality

The public perspective created and nurtured by Napoleon through his dominating victories and the agenda he spread about how France needs to be a conquesting nation and how he is politically legitimate,

Napoleonic Code

Napoleon’s legal system for France, which provided legal equality, still being used today.