| A | B |
|---|
| Old Regime | The political and social system that existed in France before the French Revolution. |
| estates | The three social classes in France before the French Revolution: First Estate - clergy, Second Estate - nobility, Third Estate - the rest of the population. |
| Estates-General | An assembly of representatives from all three of the estates, or social classes, in France. |
| National Assembly | A French congress established by representatives of the Third Estate on June 17, 1789, to enact laws and reforms in the name of the French people. |
| Bastille | A Paris prison, stormed by the mob on July 14, 1789. |
| Great Fear | A wave of senseless panic that spread through the French countryside after the storming of the Bastille in 1789. |
| Tennis Court Oath | A pledge made by members of France's National Assembly in 1789, in which they vowed to continue meeting until they had drawn up a new constitution. |
| The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen | A statement of revolutionary ideals adopted by the National Assembly. |
| Women’s March to Versailles | A march by women in Paris in October, 1789, demanding that the government provide bread. |
| The Civil Constitution of the Clergy | A law passed by the National Assembly by which the French government took over Church lands and that Church officials and priests were to be elected and paid as state officials. |
| Legislative Assembly | A French congress with the power to create laws and approve declarations of war, established by the Constitution of 1791. |
| Jacobins | Radical party in the Legislative Assembly, wanted social revolution and central control from Paris. |
| Girondins | Moderate party in the Legislative Assembly, they wanted a federal type of government. |
| Monarchists | Conservative party in the Legislative Assembly, they wanted to bring back the Old Regime. |
| Emigre | A person who leaves their country for political reasons, like the nobles and others who fled France during the peasant uprisings of the French Revolution. |
| sans-culottes | A radical group made up of Parisian wage-earners and small shopkeepers who wanted a greater voice in government, lower prices, and an end to food shortages. |
| Guillotine | A machine for beheading people, used as a means of execution during the French Revolution. |
| Brunswick Manifesto | The threat by the commander of Prussian forces advancing on Paris in 1792, if the king or any member of the royal family was harmed, Paris would be destroyed. |
| September Massacres | Murder of many nobles, priests and royalist sympathizers in September, 1792. |
| National Convention | Governing body in France after September 21, 1791 which abolished the monarchy and declared France a rewpublic. |
| First Coalition | Alliance of Britain, Holland, Spain, Sardinia, Austria, Prussia and the German States against France. |
| Assignats | Paper money issued by the french government. |
| Royalist Uprisings | Counter-revolutionary uprisings in the Brittany and Vendee regions in France. |
| Jacobin Acts | Laws issued by the National Convention that aimed at radical change in France. |
| Committee of Public Safety | Organization whose chief task was to protect the Revolution from it enemies by uncovering counter-revolutionaries and executing them. |
| Reign of Terror | The period from mid-1793 to mid-1794, when Maximillien Robespierre ruled France nearly as a dictator and thousands of political figures and ordinary citizens were executed. |
| Levy En Masse | The draft of 300,000 French citizens during 1793 -1794. |
| The Directory | French government from 1795 to 1799, consisting of 5 Directors and two assemblies. |
