French Revolution & Napoleon Flashcards
Banalities
Fees that peasants were obligated to pay landlord for the use of the village mill, bakeshop and winepress
Ancien Regime (old regime)
France prior to the French Revolution
Bastille
Political prison and Armory stormed on July 14, 1789, by Parisian city workers alarmed by the King’s concentration of troops at Versailles
Cahier de doleances
List of grievances that the state drew up in preparation for the summoning of the estates-general in 1789
Code Napoleon
The codification and condensation of laws assuring legal equality and uniformity in France
Committee of Public Safety
The leaders under Robespierre who organized the defenses of France, conducted foreign-policy, and centralized authority during the period 1792 to 1795
Concordat (1801)
Napoleon’s arrangement with Pope Plus VII to heal religious division in France with a unified Catholic Church under bishops appointed by the government
Continental system
Napoleon’s efforts to block foreign trade with England by forbidding importation of British goods into Europe
Corvees
Roadwork; an obligation of peasants to landlords
Coup d’ etat
Overthrow of those in power
Declaration of Pillnitz (1791)
Austria and Prussia agreed to intervene in France to end revolution with the unanimous agreement of the great powers
Declaration of the rights of man and citizen (August 27, 1789)
Document that embodied the liberal revolutionary ideas and general principles of the philosphes’ writings
Directory (1795-1799)
The five-man executive committee that ruled France in its own interests as a republic after Robespierre’s execution and prior to Napoleon’s coming to power
Estates General
The French national assembly summoned in 1789 to remedy the financial crisis and correct abuses of the ancien regime
Great Fear
Panic and insecurity that struck French peasants in summer of 1789 and led to their widespread destruction of Manor houses and archives
Jacobins
The dominant group in the national convention in 1793 who replaced the Girondist. It was headed by Robspierre.
Law of the maximum
The fixing of prices on bread and other essentials under Robespierre’s rule
Levee en masse
The creation under the Jacobins, of a citizen army with support from young and old, heralding the emergence of modern warfare
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
Console and later emperor of France (1799-1815), who established several of the reforms (Code Napoleon) of the French Revolution during his dictatorial rule
Night of August 4, 1789
Date of declaration by liberal noblemen of the National Assembly a secret meeting to abolish the feudal regime in France
Parlement
Law court staffed by Nobles that could register or refuse to register a king’s edict
Peninsular War (1808-1813)
Napoleon’s long-drawn-put war with Spain
Robespierre (1758-1794)
Jacobin leader during the reign of terror (1793-1794)
Sans culottes
A reference to Parisian workers who were loose-fitting trousers rather than the tight-fitting breaches worn by aristocratic men
