Absolutism to the Fall of Napoleon Vocabulary

Absolutism to the Fall of Napoleon – Vocabulary

Russia

1. Autocrat (G) – ruler who has complete authority.

2. Catherine the Great – German born ruler of an efficient, autocratic Russian government; she expanded South to gain warm water ports.

3. Enlightened Despot (G) – absolute ruler who uses his or her power to bring about political and social change.

4. Peter the Great – Russian czar who westernized Russia and centralized royal power.

The Enlightenment

5. Baron de Montesquieu – Wrote the Spirit of Laws, which designed a three-branch system of government.

6. Enlightenment (RBG) – the period in the 1700s in which people rejected traditional ideas and supported a belief in human reason.

7. Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Wrote the Social Contract – stressed that man was born free and becomes corrupted.

8. John Locke – Wrote Two Treatises of Government, which outlined the Natural Rights of life, liberty, and property.

9. Natural Right(s) (G) – right that belongs to all humans from birth.

10. Social Contract (G) – agreement by which people give up their freedom to a powerful government in order to avoid chaos.

11. Thomas Hobbes – Wrote the Leviathan, supported absolutism because man is naturally evil and must be controlled by the government.

12. Voltaire – Wrote Candide, which defended freedom of speech and thought. The French Revolution

13. Absolute Monarch (G) – ruler with complete authority over the government and lives of the people he or she governs.

14. Bourgeoisie (G) – the middle class.

15. Coup d’etat (RBG) – a revolt by a small group intended to overthrow a government.

16. Declaration of the Rights of Man – French document which was a first step towards writing a constitution.

17. Divine Right (G) – belief that a ruler’s authority comes directly from God.

18. Louis XIV – Absolute monarch of France referred to as the Sun King.

19. Maximilien Robespierre - Chief architect of the Reign of Terror.

20. Napoleon Bonaparte – French General who became self-proclaimed Emperor of France.

21. National Assembly (RBG) – group formed mostly by the third estate in France in 1789 with the intention of writing a new constitution.

22. Reign of Terror – A period during which French revolutionary courts executed 40,000 people mostly by use of the guillotine.

England

23. 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.

24. Limited Monarchy (G) – government in which a constitution or legislative body limits the monarch’s powers.

25. Parliament (RBG) – representative assembly of England.