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| 6763200 | Civil Code | The French legal code fromulated by Napoleon I (r. 1804-1814) in 1804. Also called the Napoleonic Code, it reaffirmed many of the social liberties that had been introduced during the Revolution (1789-99) while at the same time reestablishing a patriarchal system. Property rights, religious liberty, and equal treatment under the law to all classes of men were assured. However, it curtailed many of the rights of women, restricting them to the private sphere of the home and giving males greater authority over them. | 0 | |
| 6763201 | Civil Constitution of the Clergy | A body of legislation passed in July 1790 that redefined the relationship between the clergy and the state in France. It allowed for the confiscation of church property formerly used to support the clergy, replacing it with a guarantee of state salaries for clergymen instead. It also stipulated that parish priests and bishops be elected just like public officials. The National Assembly attempted to enforce it by requiring the clergy to take an oath, divided public opinion of the French Revolution (1789-99) and galvanized religious opposition. | 1 | |
| 6773121 | departement | An adminstrative unit developed in revolutionary France, intended to minimize regional distinctions and provide more efficient and egalitarian government. They were to be equal in size and provide all inhabitants with easy access to government services. All officials were elected and no offices could be bought or sold. They remain the basic units of the French state today. | 2 | |
| 6811045 | Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen | A decree granting basic rights to French citizens that was written in August 1789 after the French Revolution (1789-1799) as a preamble to France's constitution. This French document established the sovereignty of the nation, meaning that the king derived his authority from the people of the nation rather than from divine right or tradition. It proclaimed that "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights" and granted freedom of religion, freedom of press, equality in taxation, and the equality of all citizens before the law. | 3 | |
| 6811107 | Directory | The political body that governed France between the fall of Robspierre in 1794 and the rise of Napoleon I (r. 1804-1814) in 1799. Designed to keep a single person from wielding too much power, it was an executive body comprised of five members instituted by the new constitution. It faced many challenges from remaining Jacobins and royalists. Napoleon's supporters toppled it with relative ease and replaced it with a three-man consulate in which Napoleon was the First Consul. | 4 | |
| 6811131 | Committee of Public Saftey | An adminsitrative body created by the French National Convention in April 1793 to supervise food distribution, direct the war effort, and detect and punish counterrevolutionaries. With Robspierre at its head it became the political organ of the Terror, overseeing the prosecution and execution of tens of thousands of French men and women who oppossed its policies. | 5 | |
| 6811409 | Confederation of the Rhine | A federation of German states organized under Napoleon I in July 1806. Formerly under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire, which was dissolved the same year, the new federation placed itself under the "protection" of Napoleon and was governed by one of his close allies. It quickly fell apart after Napoleon's defeat outside Leipzig in 1813 as member states abandonded the French and joined the German natinalist "war of liberation." | 6 | |
| 6811808 | Congress of Vienna | A meeting among the powers allied against French emperor Napoleon I - Russia, Prussia, and Austria - that began shortly before his downfall in 1814 and lasted into the following year. Reactionary in many aspects, the meeting sought wherever possible to restore Europe to the way it was before the wars of the French Revolution (1789-1799) and Napoleon by returning many states to their traditional monarchs. | 7 | |
| 6812152 | Continental System | Napoleon's order in 1806 that prohibited France, its satellites, dependent states, and allies from purchasing British goods. Britain was the only power standing between Napoleon I and total dominance of Europe. The goal was to isolate Britain and starve its economy. After some success in blocking British trade, it was undermined by smugling and ultimately proved impossible to enforce. | 8 | |
| 6812259 | consul | The title given to the three leaders of the French government installed after the fall of the Directory in 1799. The three consuls theoretically shared power, but Napoleon I as First Consul, later emperor, effectively held uncontested authority and asserted himself as leader in drafting a new constitution. | 9 | |
| 6812418 | Estates General | A body of deputies representing the three estates, or orders, of France: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and everyone else (Third Estate). It originated in the 14th century as an advisory body but fell out of use after 1614 when the French monarchy adopted a more absolutist style of rule. A fiscal crisis forced Louis XVI to summon it in 1789, and disputes about procedures of voting in this body paved the way for the French Revolution. | 10 | |
| 6812830 | Girondins | A political party that emerged in revolutionary France after the fall of the monarchy in 1792 when the jacobins split into two factions. Named for the region in southwestern France where many of their leaders were from. They were members of the professional class (lawyers and merchants) who wanted a constitutional governemnt, opposed the growing influence of Parisian miltants, and championed the smaller provinces bewond the city of Paris. They agreed the king was guilty of treason but were reluctant to execute him, arguing for exile or a referendum on his fate. They were first to be targeted as the beginning of the Terror. | 11 | |
| 6815294 | Great Fear | The term used by historians to describe the rural panic during the beginning of the French Revolution (1789-1799). As the National Assembly devised a constitution, people in the countryside, already facing severe food shortages, struggled with rumors about as aristocratic plot to pay beggars and vagrants to burn crops or barns. These rumors sometimes inspired violent attacks on aristocrats or on property holders' records of peasants' dues. | 12 | |
| 6816655 | Mountain | A political party that emerged during the French Revolution after the fall of the monarchy in 1792; one faction of the Jacobins. It got its name from the fact that its deputies occupied the highest seats in the National Convention, was closely allied with Parisian militants and favored the execution of Louis XVI for treason. | 13 | |
| 6816764 | Thermidorian Reaction | The violent backlash in France against the rule of Robspierre that began with his arrest and execution in July 1794, or 9 Thermidor in the French revolutionary calendar. Most of the instruments of Terror were dismantled, Jacobins were purged from public office, and Jacobin supporters were harassed or even murdered. | 14 | |
| 6816913 | Terror | A radical phase in the French Revolution (1789-1799) led by Robspierre, which sought to create a "republic of virtue" in which the government would teach - or force - citizens to become virtuous republicans through a massive program of reeducation. In 1973 the Committee of Public Saftey was established to direct this effort, using the guillotine to suppress dissent; tens of thousands of ordinary citizens were executed. It ended in July 1794 when the National Convention rose up against Robspierre and sent him to the guillotine. | 15 |
