User:Atcovi/History/Glossary - The French Revolution

1. 1st Estate - during the Old Regime; the highest social group in France; <1% of French population; clergy

2. 2nd Estate - during Old Regime; 2nd highest social group in France; ca 1% of French population; nobles and royal family

3. 3rd Estate - during Old Regime; 3rd social group in France; 98% of French population: bourgeoisie, city poor, and peasants

4. Louis XVI (r 1774-1792) 18th century; absolute monarch of France at outbreak of French Rev; incapable of dealing with financial crisis and unwilling to change Old Regime

5. Estates General - French legislative body that had not met since 1614; each Estate had one vote, therefore 1st and 2nd always outvoted 3rd; called into session in May, 1789 at Versailles to deal w/ France’s financial crisis; nobles wanted to use E-G to protect their status and privileges; 3rd wanted to use it to reform voting method to reform French gov’t

6. National Assembly - created June 17, 1789, by bourgeoisie after king refused to change voting in E-G; demanded a constitution for France; met at an indoor tennis court and took the Tennis Court Oath (the first real act of the French Rev)

7. Declaration of the rights of Man and Citizen - created by National Assembly; composed late August, 1789; inspired by Am. Dec of Independence and US Constitution; basic rights due French citizens: all men equal before the law; freedom of speech, press, religion; no arbitrary arrest and punishment; rights not extended to women

8. Guillitine - “humane” method of execution; introduced in 1792; method of execution during the French Rev, esp the Reign of Terror; Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette

9. Committee of Public Safety - created by National Convention in 1793 to direct the war effort against France’s enemies (Austria, Prussia, G.B., Netherlands Spain, Sardinia); adopted conscription

10. Reign of Terror - Sept 1793-July 1794, during radical phase of French Rev.; Jacobin effort to crush opposition within France to French Revolution; Marie Antoinette killed during the Reign of Terror

11. Maxililien Robespierre - one of Jacobin leaders of the National Convention; radical who wanted to export the ideals of the French Rev; instrumental in formation of Committee of Public Safety and Reign of Terror; last to be executed during the Reign

12. Bastille - French prison in Paris whose “storming” on July 14, 1789 is considered the official start of the French Rev by the SOLs;