| A | B |
|---|
| Ancien Régime | The old order of French society before the Revolution, characterized by monarchy, aristocracy, and privilege. |
| Estates-General | The representative assembly of the three estates (clergy, nobility, and commoners) that had not met since 1614 until 1789. |
| Third Estate | The commoners of France who made up about 98% of the population and initiated revolutionary change. |
| Tennis Court Oath | A pledge made by members of the Third Estate in 1789 to draft a new French constitution. |
| National Assembly | The revolutionary legislative body formed by the Third Estate after breaking from the Estates-General. |
| Storming of the Bastille | The July 14, 1789 attack on a Paris prison that became a symbol of the Revolution and popular revolt against tyranny. |
| The Great Fear | A wave of peasant panic and uprisings in 1789 over rumors of noble conspiracies to suppress the Revolution. |
| Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen | A 1789 document stating revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. |
| Civil Constitution of the Clergy | A 1790 law bringing the Catholic Church under state control and requiring clergy loyalty to France. |
| Flight to Varennes | King Louis XVI’s failed attempt to flee France in 1791, leading to a loss of public trust in the monarchy. |
| Jacobins | Radical political club during the French Revolution that pushed for a republic and led the Reign of Terror. |
| Girondins | A more moderate revolutionary faction that favored war with other nations to spread revolutionary ideals. |
| Sans-culottes | Working-class radicals of Paris who supported the most extreme revolutionary measures. |
| Committee of Public Safety | The powerful executive body led by Robespierre that directed France during the Reign of Terror. |
| Reign of Terror | The period (1793–1794) of revolutionary violence where thousands were executed for “counter-revolutionary” activities. |
| Maximilien Robespierre | The radical Jacobin leader who became head of the Committee of Public Safety and architect of the Reign of Terror. |
| Thermidorian Reaction | The revolt in 1794 that led to Robespierre’s downfall and the end of the Terror. |
| Directory | The five-man executive government that ruled France from 1795 to 1799 before Napoleon’s coup. |
| Coup d’état of 18 Brumaire | Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1799 overthrow of the Directory, ending the Revolution and establishing the Consulate. |
| Napoleonic Code | The civil legal code established by Napoleon in 1804, emphasizing equality before the law, property rights, and secular authority. |
| Concordat of 1801 | An agreement between Napoleon and the Pope that reestablished relations with the Catholic Church while maintaining state control. |
| Continental System | Napoleon’s economic blockade designed to isolate Britain and destroy its trade-based economy. |
| Peninsular War | The conflict (1808–1814) in Spain and Portugal where guerrilla warfare drained Napoleon’s resources. |
| Russian Campaign (1812) | Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia, leading to the destruction of the Grand Army and the beginning of his downfall. |
| Congress of Vienna | The 1814–1815 meeting of European powers to restore order after Napoleon’s defeat and reestablish a balance of power. |
| Romanticism | Art movement characterized by feelings, emotions, and nationalism; rejection of the science and reason of the Enlightenment |
