Absolutism to the Fall of Napoleon – Vocabulary

Russia

  1. Autocrat (G) – ruler who has complete authority
  1. Catherine the Great – German born ruler of an efficient, autocratic Russian government; she expanded South to gain warm water ports
  1. Enlightened Despot (G) – absolute ruler who uses his or her power to bring about political and social change
  1. Peter the Great – Russian czar who westernized Russia and centralized royal power

The Enlightenment

  1. Baron de Montesquieu – Wrote the Spirit of Laws, which designed a three-branch system of government
  1. Enlightenment (RBG) – the period in the 1700s in which people rejected traditional ideas and supported a belief in human reason
  1. Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Wrote the Social Contract – stressed that man was born free and becomes corrupted
  1. John Locke – Wrote Two Treatises of Government, which outlined the Natural Rights of life, liberty, and property
  1. Natural Right(s) (G) – right that belongs to all humans from birth
  1. Social Contract (G) – agreement by which people give up their freedom to a powerful government in order to avoid chaos
  1. Thomas Hobbes – Wrote the Leviathan, supported absolutism because man is naturally evil and must be controlled by the government
  1. Voltaire – Wrote Candide, which defended freedom of speech and thought

The French Revolution

  1. Absolute Monarch (G) – ruler with complete authority over the government and lives of the people he or she governs
  1. Bourgeoisie (G) – the middle class
  1. Coup d’etat (RBG) – a revolt by a small group intended to overthrow a government
  1. Declaration of the Rights of Man – French document which was a first step towards writing a constitution
  1. Divine Right (G) – belief that a ruler’s authority comes directly from God
  1. Louis XIV – Absolute monarch of France referred to as the Sun King
  1. Maximilien Robespierre - Chief architect of the Reign of Terror
  1. Napoleon Bonaparte – French General who became self-proclaimed Emperor of France
  1. National Assembly (RBG) –group formed mostly by the third estate in France in 1789 with the intention of writing a new constitution
  1. Reign of Terror – A period during which French revolutionary courts executed 40,000 people mostly by use of the guillotine

England

  1. English Bill of Rights (RBG) – a set of acts passed by Parliament to ensure its superiority over the monarchy and guarantee certain rights to citizens
  1. Limited Monarchy (G) – government in which a constitution or legislative body limits the monarch’s powers
  1. Parliament (RBG) – representative assembly of England