Chapter 9 Terms

American Revolution

This political revolution began with the Declaration of Independence in 1776. This revolution would change Europe by proving that the ideals of the Enlightenment (rights of man, ideas of liberty and equality, popular sovereignty, the separation of powers, and freedom of religion, thought, and press) could be put into reality and a government could be formed.

Marquis de Lafayette

French soldier who joined General Washington's staff and became a general in the Continental Army. During the French Revolution he would lead the National Guard

French Revolution (1789)

Reacting to the oppressive aristocracy, the French middle and lower classes overthrew the king and asserted power for themselves in a violent and bloody revolution. This uprising was inspired by America's independence from England and the Enlightenment ideas.

Louis XVI of France

King of France, eventually executed by the National Assembly during the French Revolution. His inability to deal with the state's issues in time caused the French Revolution. Husband of Marie Antoinette.

Old Order/Old Regime

The political and social system of France in the eighteenth century before the Revolution

First Estate

They consisted of the Roman Catholic Clergy; they received special privileges and paid no direct taxes

• owned 10% of land

• 130,000 clergy

Second Estate

The second class of French society made up of the nobility

• 350,000 nobles

• 2-3% pop

• owned 25-30% of the land

Third Estate

97% of the population (the rest of France) They consisted of the bourgeoisie, the san-culottes and the peasants; they paid high taxes and had no special privileges

• owned 35-40% of land

• 70-80% were peasants

• 8% were bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie

the middle class

Charles de Calonne

Controller of general finances that proposed a complete revamping of the fiscal and administrative system of the state. He convened an assembly of notables (gathering of nobles, prelates, and magistrates) to ask for support but they refused. He was forced to call the Esates-General

Estates General

The French parliamentary body. Contained representatives from all three of the estates, or social classes, in France.

Doubling the Third

The act that made the Third Estate twice the size of either of the two groups that formed the Estates General

Cahiers de Doleances

Statements of local grievances drafted throughout France during the elections to the Estates-General, advocating a regular constitutional government abolishing fiscal privileges of the church and nobility

National Assembly

A French congress established by representatives of the Third Estate on June 17, 1789, to write a constitution for France.

Tennis Court Oath

A pledge made by the members of France's National Assembly in 1789, in which they vowed to continue meeting until they had drawn up a new constitution

Storming of the Bastille

Paris, France; July 14, 1789; The medieval fortress and prison known as the Bastille contained only seven prisoners, its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution and it subsequently become an icon of the French Republic

National Guard

A newly created citizens' militia lead by Marquis de Lafayette

Great Fear of 1789

Panic that spread like wildfire through France between July 20 and August 6. Fear of invasion by foreign troops that were aided by aristocrats led to more citizens to form militias and committees.

Constituent Assembly (1789-1791)

Alternative name for the National Assembly from 1789-1791 as it was writing a new constitution

August 4, 1789

The National Assembly voted to abolish feudal rights and the fiscal privileges of nobles, clergy, towns, and provinces

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789)

Adopted August 26, 1789 this charter was created by the National Assembly and affirmed the basic rights and liberties of men (not women)

Olympe de Gouges

A proponent of democracy, she demanded the same rights for French women that French men were demanding for themselves. In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791), she challenged the practice of male authority and the notion of male-female inequality. She lost her life to the guillotine due to her revolutionary ideas.

Women's March on Versailles

On October 5, 1789 an angry mob of Parisian women stormed through Versailles demanding Louis XVI end the nationwide food shortage and that the royal family return to Paris with them.

Assignats

In December of 1789 this was a paper currency issued by the Constituent Assembly which had confiscated church property and issued this paper money based on this land. Initially could just buy land with it though later it was used as a general currency. Supposed to help ease the difficulties of peasants but all sorts of problems with it - overissued plus easily forged.

Civil Constitution of the Clergy, 1790

This document secularized the Catholic Church in France. Established by National Assembly, bishops and priests of the Catholic Church were to be elected by the people and paid by the state. All clergy were also required to swear an oath of allegiance to the Civil Constitution. The document angered the pope and church officials and turned many French Catholics against the revolutionaries

Jacobins

The most radical political faction of the French Revolution who ruled France during the Reign of Terror.

Flights to Varennes

Escape attempt by the royal family from Paris to create a counter revolt against their people, recognized in Varennes and brought back to then face charges of tyranny and betraying country for leaving in time of poverty

Declaration of Pillnitz

A statement agreed upon by Leopold II and Fredrick William II to intervene if Louis XVI was threatened by revolution

Sans-culottes

The common people, who did not wear the fine clothes of the upper classes and played an important role in the radical phase of the French Revolution

National Convention of 1792

• Declares France a republic and abolishes the monarchy! France also gets a new calendar, new holidays, and a new way of speaking to 'citizens' and 'citizenesses'.

• Constitution that abolished titles of monarchy and nobility and gave universal suffrage to men

September Massacres

Louis's imprisonment was followed by the September massacres. Wild stories seized the city that imprisoned counter-revolutionary aristocrats/priests were plotting with the allied invaders. As a results, angry crowds invaded the prisons of Paris and summarily slaughtered half the men and women they found.

Commune of Paris

Radical government of the city of Paris

Committee of Public Safety

Created to safe revolution: curb anarchy and counterrevolution while mobilizing people for war. Decreed universal mobilization of army.

Girondists

A faction in the National Convention during the French Revolution that favored keeping the king alive; so-called because their leaders came from the Gironde in southwestern France

Mountain

A faction in the National Convention during the French Revolution that represented the interests of the city of Paris and favored the execution of the king

Maximilien Robespierre

Young provincial lawyer who led the most radical phases of the French Revolution; his execution ended the Reign of Terror

Reign of Terror

The Historic period (1793-94) during the French Revolution when thousands were executed. Robespierre ruled and used revolutionary terror to solidify the home front. He tried "rebels" and they were all judged severely and most were executed

Republic of Virtue

Robespierre's attempt to erase all traces of the monarchy, nobility and the Catholic Church in order for a democratic republic to be created and composed of good citizens. France would be a stronger nation after everything was over.

De-Christianization

A policy, adopted in the radical phase of the French Revolution, aimed at creating a secular society by eliminating Christian forms and institutions from French societ

Thermidorian Reaction

A reaction to the violence of the Reign of Terror in 1794, resulting in the execution of Robespierre and the loosening of economic controls

Constitution of 1795

Established a national legislative assembly consisting of two chambers: the Council of 500 who were to initiate legislation and an upper house of 250 members known as the Council of Elders of people over 40 that were married or widowed. Executive power rested in the Directory

The Directory

Established after the Reign of Terror / National Convention; a five man group as the executive branch of the country; incompetent and corrupt, only lasted for 4 years

Napoleon Bonaparte

Overthrew the French revolutionary government (The Directory) in 1799 and became emperor of France in 1804. Failed to defeat Great Britain and abdicated in 1814. Returned to power briefly in 1815 but was defeated and died in exile

Coup d'etat of 1799

Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the French Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate.

First Consul

The most important of the three consuls established by the French Constitution of 1800; the title, given to Napoleon Bonaparte, was taken from ancient Rome

Concordat of 1801

This is the agreement between Pope Pius VII and Napoleon that healed the religious division in France by giving the French Catholics free practice of their religion and Napoleon political power

Civil Code (Napoleonic Code)

The articles included equality of all people, right to choose profession, abolitions of serfdom and feudalism, freedom of religion, workers were legally subordinate to their employers and unable to strike, workers were required to have small passports, and family was the most important thing besides the state and the individual. It also addressed the legal status of women: women were not equal to men.

Prefects

During the reign of Napoleon, an official appointed by the central government to oversee all aspects of a local government

Treaty of Tilsit

Agreement between Napoleon and Czar Alexander I in which Russia became an ally of France and Napoleon took over the lands of Prussia west of the Elbe as well as the Polish provinces

Grand Empire

Built by Napoleon and composed of three parts: the French Empire, a number of dependent satellite kingdoms (Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Swiss Republic, etc), and the largely independent but allied states of Austria, Prussia, and Russia

Battle of Trafalgar

1805 - Naval battle in which the French Navy and the Spanish Navy were defeated by a British fleet under the command of Horatio Nelson.

Continental System

Napoleon's policy of preventing trade between Great Britain and continental Europe, intended to destroy Great Britain's economy. It largely failed.

Nationalism

A sense of national consciousness based on awareness of being part of a community that has common institutions, traditions, language, and customs and that becomes the focus of the individual's primary political loyalty

Louis XVIII

(1814-1824) Restored Bourbon throne after the Revoltion. He accepted Napoleon's Civil Code (principle of equality before the law), honored the property rights of those who had purchased confiscated land and establish a bicameral (two-house) legislature consisting of the Chamber of Peers (chosen by king) and the Chamber of Deputies (chosen by an electorate). Still, his policies were rather moderate and ultrarroyalists and radical republicans did not like him.

Saint Helena

Island that Napoleon was exiled to after his defeat at Waterloo (and where he died in 1821)