3.2.1 - 3.2.5 French Revolution terms Flashcards
The Three Estates
The three estates were the clergy, nobility, and commoners (peasants and bourgeoisie). In France, for example, they were known as the First Estate (clergy), Second Estate (nobility), and Third Estate (commoners).
Robespierre
Robespierre was a leader of the French Revolution who thought of the idea to end up killing the royal family of france. He also led people to kill people who didn’t agree with the revolution, no matter how innocent they were. Made the “Committee of Public Safety”to rid people they thought were “traitors”. Took a huge part in dechristianization in France, started and led the “reign of terror”.
Constitutional Monarchy
A constitutional monarchy is a system of government that is ruled by a king or queen whose power is limited by its country’s constitution. Political power is shared between the monarch (the king or queen), and a constitutional government, such as parliament.
Rousseau
Showed the importance of a social contract where the society, together, agrees to be governed. He believed that liberty happens when people are forced to follow what is best for everyone and that selfish people won’t follow this if they are not made to. Showed the importance of a social contract where the society, together, agrees to be governed. He believed that liberty happens when people are forced to follow what is best for everyone and that selfish people won’t follow this if they are not made to.
Estates General
The Estates-General of 1789 was a meeting of the three estates of pre-revolutionary France: clergy, nobility, and commons. Summoned by King Louis XVI of France (r. 1774-1792) to deal with the financial and societal crisis, it ended with the Third Estate breaking from royal authority and forming a National Assembly.
Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI
They were the King and Queen of France during the French Revolution. People mocked Louis and Marie as a devil and goat in political cartoons, Marie was especially hated because she came from Austria (which had a rivalry with France), and also because she liked having an extravagant lifestyle. Louis was an indecisive and incompetent ruler who was in massive debt from wars and also didn’t pay attention to his government advisors.
Declaration of the Rights of Man
Was made after abolishing the three estates and says “men are born free and will remain free in equal rights” also says “life liberty and resistance to oppression”. Gives rights to equal justice, freedom of speech and religion.
Wollstonecraft
Argued for women’s rights, specifically for women’s education. And that women should be allowed to do the same things men can do and the reason men argue that they aren’t educated enough, is because they aren’t provided the education that they need.
John Locke
Made the idea that humans are born to the rights of life, liberty, and property. He disagrees with human’s fundamental selfishness and believes that people would remove a government that does not protect their natural rights.
The Bastille
On July 14, 1789, fears that King Louis XVI was about to arrest France’s newly constituted National Assembly led a crowd of Parisians to successfully besiege the Bastille, an old fortress that had been used since 1659 as a state prison.
Declaration of the Rights of Woman (Olympe de Gouges)
The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen was published on 15 September 1791. It is modeled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789. Olympe de Gouges dedicated the text to Marie Antoinette, whom de Gouges described as “the most detested” of women. It stated that women, like their male counterparts, have natural, inalienable, and sacred rights. Those rights, as well as the related duties and responsibilities to society, are outlined in the remainder of the document.
Montesquieu
Montesquieu created the idea of separation of powers between the three branches (executive, judiciary, and legislative). He set the ground for the American government system and many other enlightened and well balanced government
