Ch 23 vocab

Question 1

Old regime

Answer 1

The political and social system that existed in France before the French Revolution

Question 2

Estates

Answer 2

One of the three social classes in France before the French Revolution

Question 3

First estate

Answer 3

Clergy

Question 4

Second estate

Answer 4

Nobles

Question 5

Third estate

Answer 5

The rest of the population, includes bourgeoisie

Question 6

Louis XVI

Answer 6

Wanted to improve life for the people but was not a good leader, queen gave him poor advice, increased debt, king of France

Question 7

Marie Antoinette

Answer 7

Louis XVI’s queen, spent a lot of money on herself and parties, from Austria, hated in France

Question 8

Estates-general

Answer 8

An assembly of representatives from all three of the estates, or social classes, in France

Question 9

National Assembly

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Tennis court oath

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Great fear

Answer 11

A wave of senseless panic that spread through the French countryside after the storming of the Bastille in 1789

Question 12

Legislative assembly

Answer 12

A French congress with the power to create laws and approve declarations of war, established by the constitution of 1791

Question 13

Émigré

Answer 13

A person who leaves their native country for political reasons, like the nobles and others who fled France during the peasant uprisings of the French Revolution

Question 14

Sans-culottes

Answer 14

In the French Revolution, a radical group made up of Parisian wage-earners and small shop-keepers who wanted a greater voice in government, lower prices, and an end to food shortages

Question 15

Jacobins

Answer 15

A radical political organization mainly involved in governmental changes in September 1792, a member

Question 16

Guillotine

Answer 16

A machine for beheading people, used as a means of execution during the French Revolution

Question 17

Maximilien Robespierre

Answer 17

Jacobin leader, set out to build a “republic of virtue” (wiping out every trace of France’s past), created new calendar without a Sunday, thought religion was old fashioned, closed many churches, became leader of the Committee of Public Safety in 1793, governed France as a dictator, Master Orator

Question 18

Reign of terror

Answer 18

The period, from mid-1793 to mid-1794, when Robespierre ruled France nearly as a dictator and thousands of political figures and ordinary citizens were executed

Question 19

Napoleon Bonaparte

Answer 19

Born in Corsica, when revolution broke out, he joined the army of the new government, hailed throughout Paris as the savior of the French Republic, lead a French army against Austria and won, won in Italy, did not win in Egypt, seized political power, assumed powers of a dictator

Question 20

Coup d’état

Answer 20

A sudden seizure of political power in a nation

Question 21

Plebiscite

Answer 21

A direct vote in which a country’s people have the opportunity to approve or reject a proposal

Question 22

Lycées

Answer 22

A government-run public school in France

Question 23

Concordat

Answer 23

A formal agreement - especially one between the pope and a government, dealing with the control of church affairs

Question 24

Napoleonic code

Answer 24

A comprehensive and uniform system of laws established for France by Napoleon

Question 25

Battle of Trafalgar

Answer 25

An 1805 naval battle in which Napoleon's forces were defeated by a British fleet under the command of Horatio Nelson

Question 26

Blockade

Answer 26

The use of troops or ships to prevent commercial traffic from entering or leaving a city or region

Question 27

Continental system

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Guerilla

Answer 28

A member of a loosely organized fighting force that makes surprise attacks on enemy troops occupying his or her country

Question 29

Peninsular war

Answer 29

A conflict, lasting from 1808 to 1813, in which Spanish rebels, with the aid of British forces, fought to drive Napoleon's French troops out of Spain

Question 30

Scorched-Earth policy

Answer 30

The practice of burning crops and killing livestock during wartime so that the enemy cannot live off the land

Question 31

Waterloo

Answer 31

Village in Belgium, attacked by Napoleon, British and Prussian forces drove French out

Question 32

Hundred days

Answer 32

The brief period during 1815 when Napoleon made his last bid for power, disposing the French kind and again becoming emperor of France

Question 33

Congress of Vienna

Answer 33

A series of meetings in 1814-1815, during which the European leaders sought to establish long-lasting peace and security after the defeat of Napoleon

Question 34

Klemens von Metternich

Answer 34

Foreign minister of Austria, wanted things to stay the same, wanted to prevent future French aggression by surrounding France with strong countries, wanted to restore a balance of power so no countries were a threat, and wanted to restore Europe's royal families to the throne they had before Napoleon

Question 35

Balance of power

Answer 35

A political situation in which no one nation is powerful enough to pose a threat to others

Question 36

Legitimacy

Answer 36

The hereditary right of a monarch to rule

Question 37

Holy Alliance

Answer 37

A league of European nations formed by the leaders of Russia, Austria, and Prussia after the Congress of Vienna

Question 38

Concert of Europe

Answer 38

A series of alliances among European nations in the 19th century, devised by Prince Klemens von Metternich to prevent the outbreak of revolutions