Terms : Hide Images
| 772286611 | Bastille | This symbol of French absolutism and tyranny was famously stormed by the citizens of Paris on July 14, 1789 | |
| 772286612 | Revolution | "Why, this is a revolt." "No sire, it is a _____." | |
| 772286613 | Brinton (Crane) | Well-known historian and author of The Anatomy of Revolution; his thesis is that revolutions tend to be caused by a set of common factors and tend to produce governments more authoritarian than the one revolted against | |
| 772286614 | Liberty Equality Fraternity | French revolutionary slogan | |
| 772286615 | American Revolution | The success of the _____ proved to many Europeans that the liberal political ideas of the Enlightenment philosophes could be realized | |
| 772286616 | Violent | Yet for all of its obvious impact, the American Revolution proved in the long run to be far less important to Europe than the French Revolution; the French Revolution was more complex, more ____, and far more radical in its attempt to construct both a new political order and a new social order | |
| 772286617 | Privilege | Before the Revolution, French society was grounded in the inequality of rights or the idea of _____ | |
| 772286618 | Estates | Name for the legal categories into which French society (and the rest of Europe too) was divided before the revolution; also called orders | |
| 772286619 | First Estate | Order comprised of the clergy; numbered about 130,000 (of 27 million); owned about 10% of the land and were exempt from the chief tax, the taille | |
| 772286620 | Second Estate | Order comprised of the nobility (be it nobility of the robe or nobility of the sword); owned approximately 25 to 30% of the land; generally exempt from taxes like the taille | |
| 772286621 | Third Estate | Order comprised of the commoners of society, which made up the vast majority of the French population; this order was divided by important differences in level of education, occupation, and wealth | |
| 772286622 | Rural Peasants | This group comprised about 75 to 80% of the French population; they owned about 35-40% of the land, and even though serfdom was seldom practiced, many in this class still owed feudal obligations to their local landlords | |
| 772286623 | Bread | Spikes in this commodity could result in riots in urban centers like Paris; everyday urban people typically spent between a third and half of their income on this key staple of their diet | |
| 772286624 | Bourgeoisie | This group comprised about 8% of the French populace; owned approximately 20-25% of the land; this group was often excluded by the nobles from social and political privileges | |
| 772286625 | Parlements | These 13 law courts, which were supposed to register royal decrees, could play the role as "defenders of liberty" against arbitrary monarchy by not registering the decrees | |
| 772286626 | Immediate | The _____ cause of the French Revolution was the near collapse of government finances | |
| 772286627 | Assembly of Notables | Failed, last ditch attempt by Charles de Calonne, Louis XIV's controller general of finance, to revamp the fiscal and administrative system of the French state | |
| 772286628 | Delegates | In summoning the Estates-General in May 1789, the government was merely looking for a way to solve the immediate financial crisis; the monarchy had no wish for a major reform of the government, nor did the _____ who arrived at Versailles come with plans for the revolutionary changes that ultimately emerged | |
| 772286629 | Cahiers de doléances | Statements of local grievances, which were drafted throughout France during the elections to the Estates-General; these statements tended to advocate a regular constitutional government that would abolish the fiscal privileges of the church and nobility as the major way to regenerate the country | |
| 772286630 | Voting by Head | One delegate, one vote; favored by the Third Estate and reforming members of the other two | |
| 772286631 | Voting by Order | One estate, one vote; favored by the conservative members of the First and Second Estate | |
| 772286632 | Abbe Sieyes | Author of the well-known pamphlet, What is the Third Estate? | |
| 772286633 | Tennis Court Oath | Taken by the members of the new National Assembly on June 20, 1789; declared they would continue to meet until they had written a French constitution | |
| 772286634 | Marquis de Lafayette | Commander of the Parisian citizens' militia called the National Guard | |
| 772286635 | Great Fear | Name for the panic that spread like wildfire in France from July 20 to August 6, 1789 and which had been caused because a possible invasion of foreign troops aided by a supposed aristocratic plot | |
| 772286636 | Constituent Assembly | Alternative name for the National Assembly | |
| 772286637 | Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen | It provided the ideological foundation for the actions of the National Assembly; it was based on many of the core ideas of the Enlightenment philosophes and modeled after the American Declaration of Independence | |
| 772286638 | de Gouges (Olympe) | Author of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, which advocated equal rights for men and women | |
| 772286639 | Womens March | Famous assault on Versailles in early October 1789 led by the Parisian fish-ladies (poissonards) who demanded bread for their children | |
| 772286640 | Civil Constitution of the Clergy | Infamous 1790 act of the National Assembly by which both Catholic priests and bishops were to be elected by the people and paid for by the state; it proved counterproductive as the forces of counterrevolution rallied against it | |
| 772286641 | Legislative Assembly | This representative body replaced the National Assembly after the Constitution of 1791 had been written | |
| 772286642 | Varennes | Where Louis XVI and his family were captured as they tried to flee to the Austrian Netherlands | |
| 772286643 | Marseillaise | French revolutionary war song that would later become the national anthem | |
| 772286644 | Declaration of Pilnitz | Issued on August 27, 1791, and authored by the kings of Austria and Prussia, it called on fellow European monarchs to help restore the rightful power of the French monarchy over their people | |
| 772286645 | Sans culottes | Name of the radical urban working classes of Paris; their name was emblematic of their style of dress | |
| 772286646 | Girondins | These Jacobin moderates represented the provinces and advocated imprisoning the king instead of executing him | |
| 772286647 | Mountain | Jacobin radicals that favored regicide | |
| 772286648 | Universal Male Suffrage | The basis by which the National Convention was elected | |
| 772286649 | Paris Commune | Name of the radical Parisian group that controlled the local government; this group purged the National Convention of the Girondins in June 1793 | |
| 772286650 | Vendee | This department (region) of France was the epicenter of counterrevolutionary activity and repudiated the authority of the National Convention | |
| 772286651 | Committee of Public Safety | This 12-man executive committee, established by the National Convention, supervised the elimination of the "enemies of the revolution" | |
| 772286652 | Marat (Jean-Paul) | He published the exceptionally popular and radical newspaper L'Ami du Peuple | |
| 772286653 | Total War | The wars of the French revolutionary era opened the door to the _____ _____ of the modern world | |
| 772286654 | Guillotine | This more "humane" method of execution was nicknamed the "national razor" | |
| 772286655 | Madame Deficit | Nickname of the frivolous Queen Marie Antoinette | |
| 772286656 | David (Jacques-Louis) | Famous Neoclassical painter of the French Revolution and Napoleonic era; his paintings include The Death of Marat and The Tennis Court Oath and several portraits of Napoleon | |
| 772286657 | Reign of Terror | Lasted from July 1793 to July 1794 and claimed approximately 50K lives | |
| 772286658 | Estates-General | Convened by Louis XVI in May 1789, this group had not met in nearly two centuries | |
| 772286659 | Something | "What is the Third Estate? EVERYTHING. What has it been thus far in the political order? NOTHING. What does it demand? To become _____." | |
| 772286660 | Saint | You wouldn't find this word on any Parisian street after dechristianization | |
| 772286661 | L'Overture (Toussaint) | He led a slave revolt against French plantation owners in Hispaniola | |
| 772286662 | Republic | "The king must die so the _____ can live." | |
| 772286663 | Robespierre | Key Jacobin leader and ultimately head of the Committee of Public Safety; his intellectual idol was Rousseau | |
| 772286664 | Tithe | Mandatory 10% tax paid by the third estate to the Church | |
| 772286665 | Corday (Charlotte) | This Girondin supporter assassinated Marat | |
| 772286666 | Limited Monarchy | The kind of government in France after the Constitution of 1791 | |
| 772286667 | Temple of Reason | New name of the Cathedral of Notre Dame after dechristianization efforts | |
| 772286668 | Directory | The five-man executive authority of the French government after the Constitution of 1795 | |
| 772286669 | Thermidorean Reaction | Nickname of the relatively conservative period after the Reign of Terror in the powers of the Committee of Public Safety were curtailed by the National Convention and the Jacobin club shut down | |
| 772286670 | Coup d'etat | Literally a "strike against the state"; Napoleon led one against the Directory in November 1799 | |
| 772286671 | Corsica | The birthplace of Napoleon | |
| 772286672 | Concordat | Deal orchestrated by Napoleon with the RCC in 1801 which no longer made the church an enemy of the French government | |
| 772286673 | Code Napoleon | Also known as the Civil Code, many consider it Napoleon's towering political achievement as it preserved most of the revolutionary gains by recognizing the principle of the equality of all citizens before the law, the right of individuals to choose their professions, religious toleration, and the abolition of serfdom and feudalism | |
| 772286674 | Grand Army | Name of Napoleon's army, which had over a million soldiers, the largest force to date ever assembled in European history | |
| 772286675 | Holy Roman Empire (HRE) | In 1806, Napoleon disbanded this loose collection of German states that had existed for over a thousand years and replaced it with the so-called Confederation of the Rhine | |
| 772286676 | Trafalgar | Famous 1805 sea battle at which Napoleon's navy was destroyed by the British fleet under the command of Lord Horatio Nelson | |
| 772286677 | Continental System | Abortive Napoleonic policy put in place after the defeat at Trafalgar that attempted to starve the British into submission | |
| 772286678 | Nationalism | Besides the survival of the British, perhaps the key reason for the undoing of Napoleon's Grand Empire | |
| 772286679 | Peninsular War | Name of the Spanish uprising (who were aided by the British) against Napoleon's rule that was fought between 1808-1814 | |
| 772286680 | Russia | The disastrous invasion of this country in 1812 by Napoleon cost his army over 500,000 soldiers | |
| 772286681 | Hundred Days | Name of the period that began with Napoleon's escape from Elba and ended with his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 | |
| 772286682 | Wellington (Duke of) | He defeated Napoleon in the historic battle of Waterloo | |
| 772286683 | Saint Helena | Island that Napoleon was exiled to after his defeat at Waterloo (and where he died in 1821) |
