guillotine
a machine that beheads people and causes a quick, painless death
Maximillian Robespierre
-a Jacobin who governed France as a dictator in 1793 - governed France during the Reign of Terror - closed churches - believed terror to be a virtue
Period in Robespierre ruled
Reign of Terror
How did the Reign of Terror end?
By some members of the National Convention sending Robespierre to the Guillotine
Napoleonic Code, which Napoleon believed to be his greatest triumph, was
- a set of laws introduced by Napoleon Bonaparte * the laws limited libery and promoted order and authority over individual rights * restored slavery and limited free speech
coup deEtat
- sudden seizure of power
What reforms did Napoleon introduce?
- set up efficient tax collection and established a national banking system - took steps to end corruption and inefficiency by getting rid of corrupt public officials - set up Lycees (government run public schools) - established a new relationship with the Church that gave him support of the Church
What steps did Napoleon take to create an empire in Europe?
-going to battle against Austria, Prussia, Russia and Britain - Annexed parts of the Austrian Netherlands and Italy to France - set up a puppet government in Switzerland
Napoleon controlled countries neighboring France by
threatening to act militarily on those countries.
Napoleon became a hero in France by
-winning a battle against the royalists -winning battles against Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia
Napoleon had trouble fighting the Peninsula War because guerillas ( spanish for peasants fighters)
- worked in small groups, ambushed the French then fled into hiding -the British sent troops to the Peninsula to fight against the French troops
Great Britain battled Napoleon's naval blockade by
- establishing a naval blockade of its own in which it forced neutral ships to British ports, so the neutral ships could be searched and taxed - aiding smugglers to bring cargo from Britain into Europe
blockade
forcible closing of ports
Factors that led to Napoleon's defeat in Russia and Napoleon's great blunder include
- Russia's scorched earth policy in which it burned grain fields and killed livestock, so the French would not have anything to eat - Napoleon stayed too long in Moscow * so the French Army had no food and could not withstand the cold weather when Napoleon left Moscow - the Russians attacked the weakened French Army so that only 10K of the original 420K French were left
Napoleon invaded Russia because
-he and Russia wanted to get land from Poland - Russia refused to stop selling grain to Britain
European allies were able to defeat Napoleon in 1814 and again in 1815 because
most of Napoleon's troops were untrained and poorly prepared for battle
Village of Waterloo in Belgium is
where Britain and Prussia first defeated Napoleon
The Great Fear
was senseless panic by peasants in which peasants believed the nobles would hire outlaws, who would terrorize peasants
estate
social class
The members of the Third Estate were dissatisfied with their life under the Old Regime because
they worked and paid taxes, but they were still starving
The Fall of Bastille prison was important to the French people
- because it was a symbolic act of revolution to the French people - the people took matters in their own hands and who overtook the authorities