Absolutism, Enlightenment & Revolution Vocab World History Honors
absolute monarch: kings or queens who held ALL of the power within their states’ boundaries divine right: idea that God created the monarch and that the monarch acted as God’s representative on earth Huguenots: French protestants Intendents: government agents used by Louis XIV who collected taxes and administered justice
Edict of Nantes: declaration made by Henry of Navarre of France allowing Huguenots freedom to worship in France Enlightenment: intellectual movement that stressed reason and thought and the power of individuals to solve problems Philosophe: social critics or philosophers from France
Social Contract: idea from Thomas Hobbes that suggested all humans are naturally selfish and wicked and must had over their rights to a strong ruler to create/run their government Estate: social classes France; 1 st Estate (church leaders), 2 nd Estate (rich nobles), 3 rd Estate (97% of the people) National Assembly: a French congress established by representatives of the Third Estate to enact laws and reforms in the name of the French people
Tennis Court Oath: 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 Estates-General: gathering of ALL three estates of France called by the king
Bastille: French prison torn down in the early days of the French Revolution Great Fear: a wave of senseless panic that spread through the French countryside after the storming of the Bastille in 1789 Jacobins: radical political party during the French Revolution Guillotine: a machine for beheading people, used as a means of execution during the French Revolution
Reign of Terror: period from when Maximilien Robespierre ruled France nearly as a dictator and thousands of political figures and ordinary citizens were executed
Napoleonic Code: a comprehensive and uniform system of laws established for France by Napoleon Continental System: Napoleon’s policy of preventing trade between Great Britain and continental Europe intended to destroy Great Britain’s economy Battle of Trafalgar: an 1805 naval battle in which Napoleon’s forces were defeated by a British fleet under the command of Horatio Nelson
Peninsular War: a conflict in which Spanish rebels, with the aid of British forces, fought to drive Napoleon’s French troops out of Spain scorched-earth policy: the practice of burning crops and killing livestock during wartime so that the enemy cannot live off the land