Modern Europe Vocabulary

Flashcards for Modern Europe Study Guide focusing on vocabulary terms and definitions.

French Revolution

A period of social and political upheaval in late 1700's France that overthrew the monarchy and established a republic.

Louis XVI

The last king of France (1774–92) in the lead-up to the French Revolution, later executed.

Marie Antoinette

The queen consort of Louis XVI, often a symbol of royal excess, and later executed.

Estates General

A general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), nobles (Second Estate), and common people (Third Estate).

National Assembly

A revolutionary assembly formed by the representatives of the Third Estate.

Bastille

A medieval fortress and prison in Paris, stormed on July 14, 1789, marking a key event in the French Revolution.

Reign of Terror

A period of the French Revolution (1793-94) characterized by extreme violence and mass executions.

Napoleon Bonaparte

A French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars.

Horatio Nelson

A British flag officer in the Royal Navy, famous for his service in the Napoleonic Wars, especially the Battle of Trafalgar.

Confederation of the Rhine

A confederation of German states formed by Napoleon I in July 1806.

Peninsula War

A military conflict between France and allied powers of Spain, Portugal, and Britain for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars.

Russian Campaign

Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, which proved to be a disastrous campaign for the French forces.

Waterloo

The final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815, marking the end of his reign.

Napoleonic Wars

A series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies against a fluctuating array of European powers formed into various coalitions.

Arc de Triomphe

A triumphal arch in Paris, commemorating those who fought in the Napoleonic Wars.

Congress of Vienna

A conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich, held in Vienna from November 1814 to June 1815.

Metternich

An Austrian diplomat and statesman and one of the most important diplomats of his era.

Louis Philippe

King of the French from 1830 to 1848, coming to power after the July Revolution.

Reform Act 1832

An Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of the United Kingdom.

Conservatism

A political philosophy promoting traditional social institutions.

Liberalism

A political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law.

Radicalism

A political philosophy that emphasizes the need for fundamental or revolutionary change to society.

Nationalism

Identification with one's own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.

Revolutions of 1848

A series of republican revolts against European monarchies, beginning in Sicily, and spreading to France, Germany, Italy, and the Austrian Empire.

Karl Marx

A German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist and socialist revolutionary.

Napoleon III

The only President of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor of the Second French Empire.

Industrial Revolution

The shift from an agrarian economy to one dominated by machine manufacturing.

Romanticism

A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.

Neoclassicism

The revival of a classical style or treatment in art, literature, architecture, or music.

Italian Unification

The political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single state of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century.

Giuseppe Mazzini

An Italian politician, journalist, activist for the unification of Italy, and spearhead of the Italian revolutionary movement.

Victor Emmanuel II

King of Sardinia from 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title of King of Italy and became the first king of a united Italy since the 6th century.

Otto Von Bismarck

Led the drive to create a united Germany, prime minister of Prussia and founder and first chancellor of the German Empire.

Impressionism

A 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s expressing their perceptions.

Post-Impressionism

A range of developments in art that grew out of Impressionism; Van Gogh and Pointillism are examples.

Pointillism

A technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image.

Johann Strauss

An Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas.

Neuschwanstein Castle

A 19th-century Romanesque Revival palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany.

Historicism

The imitation or revival of past styles or motifs especially in architecture and the decorative arts.

Darwinism

The theory of the evolution of species by natural selection developed by Charles Darwin.

Imperialism

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through colonization, use of military force, or other means.

Gustav Klimt

An Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement.

World War I

The major conflict involving the Central Powers against the Allied Powers from 1914 to 1918.

Central Powers

Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria during World War I.

Allied Powers

Great Britain, France, Russia (until 1917), Italy and the United States (from 1917) during World War I.

Trench Warfare

A type of combat in which opposing troops fight from trenches facing each other.

Treaty of Versailles

The peace treaty signed in 1919 that ended World War I which imposed harsh penalties on Germany.

Woodrow Wilson

The 28th President of the United States, known for his role in creating the League of Nations.

Self Determination

The principle that the people of a given territory or region should determine their own political status and government.

League of Nations

An international organization established after World War I to promote peace and cooperation among nations.

Irish Revolution

A revolution for Irish independence from Great Britain.

Bolshevik Revolution

A pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the rise of the Soviet Union.

Vladimir Lenin

A Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Romanovs

The ruling imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917.

Ataturk

A Turkish army officer, reformist statesman, and the founder of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President from 1923 until his death in 1938.

Jazz Age

A period in the 1920s known for its distinctive cultural trends in Western society including jazz music and dance.

Pablo Picasso

A Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. Known for co-founding the Cubist movement.

Abstract Art

Art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors, and textures.

Expressionism

An artistic movement emphasizing subjective feelings and emotions.

Dadaism

An art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centers in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I.

Surrealism

A cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writing, including Salvador Dali.

Salvador Dali

A prominent Spanish Surrealist artist.

Great Depression

A severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States.

Totalitarianism

A political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible.

Benito Mussolini

An Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party.

Adolph Hitler

An Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Francisco Franco

A Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and subsequently ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975.

Joseph Stalin

The dictator of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953.

Anschluss

The annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938.

Sudetenland

A region of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly German-speaking population, annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938.

Munich Pact

An agreement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined.

Winston Churchill

A British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II.

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II.

Nazi-Soviet Pact

An agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, which paved the way for the invasion of Poland.

Poland

A country in Central Europe that was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1939, marking the start of World War II.

Blitzkrieg

A military tactic used by Nazi Germany, characterized by swift and overwhelming attacks.

Vichy France

The government of France after Germany defeated and occupied the country at the beginning of World War II.

Battle of Britain

A military campaign of the Second World War, when the United Kingdom defended against the Nazi Germany.

El Alamein

A series of battles of the Western Desert Campaign fought in Egypt between the Axis forces (primarily Germany and Italy) and the British Commonwealth forces.

Battle of Stalingrad

A major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad.

Holocaust

The systematic persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime.

Anne Frank

A Jewish girl who kept a diary of her experiences while hiding from the Nazis during the Holocaust.

War in Italy

Allied operations in and around Italy during World War II.

D-Day

The Allied invasion of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944.

Battle of the Bulge

A major German offensive campaign on the Western Front toward the end of World War II.

Cold War

The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from the end of World War II until the fall of the Soviet Union.

United Nations

An intergovernmental organization established in 1945 to promote international cooperation and prevent future conflicts.

Iron Curtain

The notional barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in eastern Europe in 1989.

Berlin Airlift

A military operation in the late 1940s that brought food and other needed goods into West Berlin by air after the government of East Germany, which at that time surrounded West Berlin, had cut off its supply routes.

NATO

A military alliance formed in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.

Warsaw Pact

A military alliance formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern Europe.

Hungarian Revolt

A spontaneous nationwide revolt against the Communist government of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956.

Nikita Khrushchev

A Soviet statesman who served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, following the death of Joseph Stalin.

Prague Spring

A period of political liberalization and mass protest in Czechoslovakia under Alexander Dubček starting 5 January 1968 and continuing until 21 August 1968 when the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded the country to suppress the reforms.

John Paul II

A Pope and Saint who is recognised as having helped end Communist rule in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe.

Lech Walesea

A Polish labour activist, dissident, and politician. He co-founded and headed Solidarity, the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The last leader of the Soviet Union.

Ronald Reagan

An American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989.

Marshal Tito

A Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1943 until his death in 1980.

Yugoslavia

A socio-political organization which included the Republic of Serbia, the Socialist Republic of Croatia, the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina,the Socialist Republic of Macedonia and the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo.