Ap euro vocabulary unit 5

Acts of Union

a treaty signed in 1707 that created the union of England and Scotland under the name of Great Britain. 

French Revolution

from 1789 to 1799, a period of dramatic change that posed a fundamental challenge to Europe’s political and social order.

Estate

one of the three divisions into which French society was divided before the revolution.

Taille

an annual direct tax, usually on land or property, that provided a regular source of income to the French monarchy.

Bourgeoisie

the middle class

Estates General

a representative assembly in pre-revolutionary France that was made up of delegates from the three estates of French society. 

National Assembly

the representative body created by the Third Estate at the meeting of the Estates General, which started making reforms during the liberal phase of the French Revolution. 

Tennis Court Oath

an oath taken by the National Assembly saying that they would continue to meet until a new constitution was written in France. 

National Convention

the new parliament that formed in France in 1792 after the dissolution of the National Assembly. 

Faction

a group or clique within a larger group, party, government, organization, or the like.

Girondins

a member of the moderate republican party during the French Revolution.

Jacobins

a member of the radical republican party during the French Revolution

Sans-culottes

Without breeches”; members of the Paris Commune who considered themselves ordinary patriots.

Reign of Terror

a 10-month attempt to quash or kill the opponents of the Revolution, during which they guillotined tens of thousands of people. 

Committee of Public Safety

a twelve person committee that suspended the constitution during the Reign of Terror and controlled the National Convention. Their job was to defend the country against foreign attacks and domestic rebellions.

Levee en masse

 a military draft during the French Revolution that saw all able bodied unmarried men between ages 18 and 25 conscripted into the French military to help fight against the counter-revolution.

Directory

a 5 member committee that had executive power within the new French government after the fall of Robespierre. 

Coup d’état

a sudden overthrow of the government.

Consulate

governing system established by Napoleon in 1799 in which 3 consuls, or chief magistrates, would lead the French government. 

Civil Code

also called the Napoleonic Code, it was a body of law governing people, property, and civil procedures which reinforced revolutionary principles by recognizing the equality of all male citizens under the law, guaranteeing religious toleration, and protecting property rights. 

Napoleonic Wars

between 1799 and 1815 it was a series of wars fought between a shifting alliance of European countries and France. 

Nationalism

the worldview in which loyalty or devotion to a nation, or common ethnicity,  is the most important political, social, and cultural expression.

Continental System

a blockade of British goods being shipped to European ports, which Napoleon hoped would weaken the British economy. 

Conservatism

A political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, favoring obedience to political authority and organized religion. 

Liberalism

A political philosophy originally based largely on Enlightenment principles, holding that people should be as free as possible from government restraint and that civil liberties – the basic rights of all people – should be protected. 

Congress of Vienna

an assembly that met between 1814 and 1815 that helped reorganize Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. 

Romanticism

an artistic and intellectual movement starting in the late 18th century and continuing into the  first half of the 19th century that emphasized feelings and emotions in art and literature.