ABSOLUTISM,

ENLIGHTENMENT,
& REVOLUTION
Vocab

Absolute
monarch: kings
or queens who
held all of the
power within
their states
boundaries.

Divine right: idea

that God created
the monarchy
and that the
monarch acted
as Gods
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 hand over
their rights to a
strong ruler to
create/run their
government.

representatives
of the Third
Estate to enact
laws and reforms
in the name of
the French
people.

Estate: social
classes of France.
1st Estate: Church
leaders. 2nd
estate: rich
nobles. 3rd estate:
97% of the people.
Tennis Court Oath:
a pledge made by
the members of
Frances National
Assembly in 1789,
in which they
vowed to continue
meeting until they
had drawn up a

EstatesGeneral:
Gathering of all
three estates of
France called by
the king.

Great Fear: a
wave of
senseless panic
that spread
through the
French
countryside after
the storming of
the Bastille in
1789.
Bastille: French
prison torn down
in the early days
of the French
Revolution.

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
1793-1794 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.
Battle of
Trafalgar: an
1805 naval battle
in which
Napoleons
forces were
defeated by a
British fleet

destroy Great
Britains economy.

Reign of Terror: period

from 1793-1794 when
Maximilien
Robespierre ruled
France nearly as a
dictator and
thousands of political
figures and ordinary
citizens were
executed.

Peninsular War: a
conflict in which
Spanish rebels,
with the aid of
British forces,
fought to drive
Napoleons
French troops
out of Spain.
Legitimacy: the
hereditary right
of a monarch to
rule

Scorched-earth
policy: the
practice of
burning crops
and killing
livestock during
wartime so that
the enemy
cannot live off
the land.