The American and French Revolutions Flashcards
King George III
King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death.
Taxation without representation
A slogan originating during the 1750s and 1760s that summarized a primary grievance of the American colonists in the Thirteen Colonies, which was one of the major causes of the American Revolution.
The Stamp Act
An act regulating stamp duty (a tax on the legal recognition of documents).
George Washington
An American politician and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
Red coats
A British soldier.
Continental Army
Formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America.
Seven Years War
A war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763,
Loyalists
A person who remains loyal to the established ruler or government, especially in the face of a revolt.
Patriots
A person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.
Thomas Jefferson
An American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809.
Declaration of Independence
The statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies,[2] then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer under British rule.
The Three Estates
France under the Ancien Régime (before the French Revolution) divided society into three estates: the First Estate (clergy); the Second Estate (nobility); and the Third Estate (commoners).
Louis XIV
A monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715.
Marie Antoinette
The last Queen of France prior to the French Revolution. She was born an Archduchess of Austria, and was the fifteenth and second youngest child of Empress Maria Theresa and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Versailles
A city of north-central France west-southwest of Paris. It is best known for its magnificent palace, built by Louis XIV in the late 1600s, where the treaty ending World War I was signed in 1919,
National Assembly
An elected legislature in various countries.
Estates General
The bicameral legislative body in the Netherlands.
Declaration of Rights of Man
A fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human and civil rights.
Constitution of 1791
French constitution created by the National Assembly during the French Revolution. It retained the monarchy, but sovereignty effectively resided in the Legislative Assembly, which was elected by a system of indirect voting.
Emigres
A person who has left their own country in order to settle in another, usually for political reasons.
Radicals
(especially of change or action) Relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough.
Moderates
A person who holds moderate views, especially in politics.
Conservatives
A person who is averse to change and holds to traditional values and attitudes, typically in relation to politics.
Reign of Terror
A period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins and Jacobins, and marked by mass executions.
Jacobins
A member of a democratic club established in Paris in 1789.
Maximillien Robespierre
A French lawyer and politician. He was one of the best-known and most influential figures associated with the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
Guillotine
A machine with a heavy blade sliding vertically in grooves, used for beheading people.
Conscription
Compulsory enlistment for state service, typically into the armed forces.
Coup
A sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government.
The Directory
A book listing individuals or organizations alphabetically or thematically with details such as names, addresses, and telephone numbers.
Napoleon Bonaparte
A French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars.
Counter Revolutionary
Engaged in or promoting a revolution that opposes a previous one or reverses its results.
Napoleonic Code
The French civil code established under Napoléon I in 1804. It was drafted by a commission of four eminent jurists and entered into force on 21 March 1804.
The Consulate Waterloo
Wellington, with the crucial help of the Prussians under Field Marshal von Blucher, defeated Napoleon at this battle in Belgium on June 18, 1815.
Nationalism
Patriotic feeling, principles, or efforts.
Duke of Wellington
An Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain.
Tennis Court Oath
The members of the French Estates-General for the Third Estate, who had begun to call themselves the National Assembly, took the Tennis Court Oath (French: Serment du Jeu de Paume), vowing “not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established.
Bastille
A fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine.
