| A | B |
|---|
| Ancien Regime | old social order that existed in pre-revolution France. |
| Estate | three French social classes that existed in pre-revolution France; the clergy comprised the First Estate, the nobility, the Second Estate, and the rest of the population, the Third Estate. |
| Bourgeoisie | middle class. |
| Deficit Spending | situation in which a government spends more money than it takes in. |
| Louis XVI | king of France during the French Revolution. |
| Jacques Necker | financial advisor to Louis XVI. |
| Cahier | notebook used during the French Revolution to record grievances. |
| Tennis Court Oath | famous oath made on a tennis court in France by members of the Third Estate who swore to meet until they had established a sound and just constitution. |
| Bastille | fortress in Paris used as a prison; stormed in 1789 by Parisians, thus starting the French Revolution. |
| Faction | small group. |
| Marquis de Lafayette | French nobleman who fought in the American Revolution; leader of the French National Guard at the start of the French Revolution. |
| Olympe de Gouges | a journalist who demanded equal rights for women (published Declaration of the Rights of Women); sentenced to the guillotine for her political activities. |
| Marie Antoinette | queen of France during the French Revolution; citizens felt she lived too lavishly. |
| Emigre | person who flees his or her country for political reasons. |
| Sans-Culotte | working-class man or woman who made the French Revolution more radical; called such because he or she wore long trousers instead of fancy knee breeches that the upper class wore. |
| Republic | system of government in which officials are chosen by the people. |
| Jacobins | French revolutionary political club made up of middle-class lawyers and intellectuals. |
| Suffrage | right to vote. |
| Robespierre | lawyer and politician who rose to the leadership of the Committee of Public Safety; promoted religious toleration and wanted to abolish slavery; a chief architect of the Reign of Terror (hasty trials of the Revolutionary courts) and used the guillotine. |
| Reign of Terror | period during the French Revolution from September 1793 to July 1794 in which those who questioned the revolution were arrested and executed. |
| Guillotine | beheading device used during the Reign of Terror. |
| Napoleon | born in Corsica and sent to France to train for a military career; moved to political leader; set up the Consulate; took the title First Consul for life. |
| Nationalism | a strong feeling of pride in and devotion to one's country. |
| Marseilles | French port city that lent its name to the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise". |
| Plebiscite | ballot in which voters have a direct vote on an issue. |
| Napoleonic Code | legal code instituted by Napoleon; embodied Enlightenment principles such as equality. |
| Annex | add a territory onto an existing state or country. |
| Continental System | blockade designed by Napoleon to hurt Britain economically by closing European ports to British goods; ultimately unsuccessful. |
| Guerrilla Warfare | fighting carried on through hit-and-run raids. |
| Scorched-Earth Policy | military tactic in which soldiers destroy everything in their path, usually with fire, to hurt the enemy. |
| Abdicate | give up a high office. |
| Congress of Vienna | assembly of European leaders that met after Napoleon's defeat to restore stability and order in Europe; met from September 1814 to June 1815. |
| Legitimacy | principle by which monarchies that had been unseated by the French Revolutionaries or Napoleon were restored. |
| Concert of Europe | a system in which Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia met periodically to discuss any problems affecting the peace in Europe; resulted from the post-Napoleonic era Quadruple Alliance. |
