5 French Revolution (Know)

Napoleon Bonaparte

Overthrew the French revolutionary government (The Directory) in 1799 and became emperor of France in 1804. Failed to defeat Great Britain and abdicated in 1814. Returned to power briefly in 1815 but was defeated and died in exile.

Reign of Terror

(1793-94) during the French Revolution when thousands were executed for "disloyalty"

Invasion of Russia

(1812) Attempted attack on Russia by Napoleon, Russia used their *scorched-earth policy* in which they burned villages and cropland as they retreated, which left French troops with no food heading into the cold winter. So Napoleon returned in France in October. The journey back was a struggle for survival, and only 20,000 men made it to France

The Grand Army

Combined French armies under Napoleon. Virtually destroyed during Napoleon's ill-fated Russian campaign.

Three Estates

1st (Clergy, 1%), 2nd (Nobility 2%), 3rd (Everyone else 97%)

Robespierre

A French political leader of the eighteenth century. A Jacobin, he was one of the most radical leaders of the French Revolution. He was in charge of the government during the Reign of Terror, when thousands of persons were executed without trial. After a public reaction against his extreme policies, he was executed without trial.

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

A document, issued by the National Assembly in July 1790, that broke ties with the Catholic Church and established a national church system in France with a process for the election of regional bishops. The document angered the pope and church officials and turned many French Catholics against the revolutionaries.

Girondists

A moderate (liberal) group that fought for control of the French National Convention in 1793.

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

The Bastille

A prison that housed prisoners of the crown. A feared and hated symbol of the King's oppression. Contained gunpowder and taken over by revolutionaries, guards were killed and head put on spear, "brick by feudal brick" tore down by hand

Olympe de Gouges

A proponent of democracy, she demanded the same rights for French women that French men were demanding for themselves. In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791), she challenged the practice of male authority and the notion of male-female inequality. She lost her life to the guillotine due to her revolutionary ideas.

Concordant of 1801

An agreement in which the Pope was to give up all his claims to French land acquired during the revolution, and to allow France to have its own French Bishops. The French had to recognize Catholicism as the religion of the majority of French People.

Estates General

An assembly that represented the entire French population through three groups, King Louis XVI called this in May 1789 to discuss the financial crises.

The Directory

Established after the Reign of Terror / National Convention; a five man group as the executive branch of the country; incompetent and corrupt, only lasted for 4 years.

Committee of Public Safety

Established and led by Robespierre, fixed bread prices and nationalized some businesses. Basically secret police and also controlled the war effort. Instigated the Reign of Terror.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

French Revolution document that outlined what the National Assembly considered to be the natural rights of all people and the rights that they possessed as citizens

Lycees

French government-run public schools.

Jean Paul Marat

French revolutionary leader (born in Switzerland) who was a leader in overthrowing the Girondists and was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday (1743-1793)

Danton

French revolutionary leader who stormed the Paris Bastille and who supported the execution of Louis XVI but was guillotined by Robespierre for his opposition to the Reign of Terror (1759-1794)

The Consulate

Government established in France after the overthrow of the Directory in 1799, with Napoleon as first consul in control of entire government

sans-culottes

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

Louis XVI

King of France (r.1774-1792 CE). In 1789 he summoned the Estates-General, but he did not grant the reforms that were demanded and revolution followed. Louis and his queen, Marie Antoinette, were executed in 1793.

Counter Revolution Movement

Movement of people who were against the French Revolution.

The Continental System

Napoleon demanded all trade with Great Britain to be stopped in an effort to win his Napoleonic Wars against them. Fails after nations lose money and turn against him

Marie Antoinette

Queen of France (as wife of Louis XVI) who was unpopular her extravagance and opposition to reform contributed to the overthrow of the monarchy; she was guillotined along with her husband (1755-1793)

Jacobins

Radical French republicans who instigated the Reign of Terror

Republic of Virtue

Robespierre's attempt to erase all traces of the monarchy, nobility and the Catholic Church

Thermidorean Reaction

The Thermidorian Reaction was a coup d'état within the French Revolution against the leadership of the Jacobin Club over the Committee of Public Safety.

Code Napoleon/Napoleonic Code

The codification and condensation of laws assuring legal equality and uniformity in France; French civil code established in the early 1800s; basis of many civil codes today and still remains France's civil code

Great Fear

The panic and insecurity that struck French peasants in the summer of 1789 and led to their widespread destruction of manor houses and archives.

The Mountain

This was a political party within the National Convention named because the people that made up this party sat on the highest benches in the assembly hall. These people were the activists within the Convention; worried the Girondists would become conservative because of their already moderate beliefs; allied with Sans-Culottes, resulting in a more radical group of people.

Abbe Sieyes

Wrote an essay called "What is the 3rd estate" Argued that lower classes were more important than the nobles and the government should be responsible to the people.

National Assembly

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

Constitution of 1791

all 3 estates have equal power in government, National Assembly becomes Legislative Assembly, absolute monarchy is abolished, forcing the king to obey

Cahiers

list of grievances

Women's March on Versailles

marched 12 miles to Versailles protesting the bread prices; took royal family to Paris and kept them under house arrest at Tuilleries Palace (part of the Louvre today)

National Convention

the new democratic republic in France after Legislative Assembly. Robespierre in charge