a Absolutism: form of despotism in which rulers were influenced by the Enlightenment, a historical period,
enlightened monarchs embraced the principles of the Enlightenment, especially its emphasis upon
rationality, and applied them to their territories. They tended to allow religious toleration, freedom of
speech and the press, and the right to hold private property. Most fostered the arts, sciences, and education.
Personal Rule: The Personal Rule was the period from 1629 to 1640, when King Charles I of England,
Scotland and Ireland ruled without recourse to Parliament. He was entitled to do this under the Royal
Prerogative, but his actions caused discontent among those who provided the ruling classes.
Charles I:(19 November 1600 30 January 1649) was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of
Ireland until his execution in 1649. He famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of
England. There was widespread opposition to many of his actions, especially the levying of taxes without
Parliament's consent.
Peterloo Massacre: August 16, 1819. Was the result of a cavalry charge into the crowd at a public meeting
at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, England. Eleven people were killed and over 500, including many women
and children, were injured.
Bonnie Prince Charlie: (December 31, 1720 January 31, 1788), was the exiled claimant to the thrones of
England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Jacobite movement tried to restore the family to the throne. After his
father's death Charles was recognized as King Charles III by his supporters; his opponents referred to him
as The Young Pretender.
Church of England: England adhered to the Roman Catholic Church for nearly a thousand years, before
the church separated from Rome in 1534.
Puritans: A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was any person seeking "purity" of worship and
doctrine, especially the parties that rejected the Laudian reform of the Church of England.
William and Mary: refers to the joint sovereignty over the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of
Scotland of King William III and his wife Queen Mary II.
Archbishop William Laud: Archbishop of Canterbury and a fervent supporter of King Charles I of
England, whom he encouraged to believe in divine right. His support for Charles, absolute monarchy, and
his persecuting of opposing views led to his beheading in the midst of the English Civil War.
The Glorious Revolution: the overthrow of James II of England in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians
and the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange). It is sometimes called the
Bloodless Revolution, although there was fighting and loss of life in Ireland and Scotland.[1]
Louis XIV: (Louis-Dieudonn) (September 5, 1638 September 1, 1715) ruled as King of France and of
Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death just prior to his seventy-seventh birthday. He acceded to the
throne a few months before his fifth birthday, but did not assume actual personal control of the government
until the death of his First Minister in 1661. The reign of Louis XIV, known as The Sun King or as Louis
the Great, spanned seventy-two yearsthe longest reign of any major European monarch. Louis XIV
increased the power and influence of France in Europe, fighting three major wars. state. Louis XIV became
the archetype of an absolute monarch.
Mercantilism: is an economic theory which holds that the prosperity of a nation depends upon its supply of
capital, and that the global volume of trade is "unchangeable." Mercantilism was the dominant school of
throughout the early modern period (from the 16th to the 18th century, which roughly corresponded to the
emergence of the nation-state).
Mercenaries: After the signing of the Treaty of Limerick (1691) the soldiers of the Irish Army who left
Ireland for France took part in what is known as the Flight of the Wild Geese. Subsequently, many made a
living from working as mercenaries for continental armies.
Joint Stock Companies: The English started joint stock companies. The British East India Company was
one of the first joint-stock companies. It was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I with the
intention of favouring trade privileges in India.
The Dutch East India Company: was established in 1602, when the Estates-General of the Netherlands
granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational
corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock.
Gustavus Adolphus: referred to by contemporary Protestants as the Lion of the North, was King of
Sweden from 1611 until his death. He is the only Swedish king to be styled "the Great".
Adam Smith: was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneering political economist. One of the key
figures of the intellectual movement known as the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith's work helped to create
the modern academic discipline of economics and provided one of the best-known intellectual rationales
for free trade, capitalism, and libertarianism.
Denis Diderot : a French philosopher and writer. He was a prominent figure in the Enlightenment, and
editor-in-chief of the famous Encyclopdie.
Parlements: in ancien rgime France were political institutions that developed out of the previous council
of the king. In the thirteenth century, judicial functions were added. Originally, there was only the
Parlement of Paris
Tax Farmers: Tax farming was historically an important step in the development of state revenues and
economic growth by providing a method for collecting taxes across a large area without the need for a taxcollecting bureaucracy (or during periods when such a bureaucracy is unworkable or impossible to
maintain
The Terror: The Reign of is a phase in the French Revolution during which many rival factions struggled
between themselves, leading to mutual radicalization and to massive executions by the means of the
guillotine.
18th Brumaire: the second month of the autumn quarter). It started between October 22 and October 24. It
ended between November 20 and November 22. In political/historical usage, Brumaire often refers to the
coup d'tat of 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799), by which General Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the
government of the Directory to replace it with the Consulate.
The Battle of Waterloo: fought on 18 June 1815, was Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle. His defeat led
swiftly to his final overthrow as ruler of France, as he was defeated earlier at the battle of Leipzig in 1813,
for which he was exiled. After his exile, he reinstalled himself on the throne of France for a Hundred Days
in March, 1815, which subsequently led to the topic at hand.
Enclosure: the process of conversion of common land to private ownership. Historically, enclosure is
primarily associated with the privatization of land in England from the 12th to 19th centuries.
Greek War of Independence: (18211831), also known as the Greek Revolution. A successful war waged
by the Greeks to win independence for Greece from the Ottoman Empire. Independence was finally granted
by the Treaty of Constantinople in July 1832 when Greece (Hellas) was recognized as a free country.
Revolutions of 1830: The nineteenth century is marked in Europe by a set of civil wars which marks the
wake of the European nations and the establishment of nation states.The Revolutions of 1830 were a
revolutionary wave in Europe. The key events were the two "romantic" revolutions :
In the United Kingdom of the Netherlands: The Belgian revolution
In France: The July revolution
The Revolutions of 1848: The European Revolutions of 1848 were a revolutionary wave which erupted in
Sicily and then, further triggered by the revolutions of 1848 in France, soon spread to the rest of Europe
and as far afield as Brazil. These European revolutions were the violent consequences of a variety of
changes that had been taking place in Europe in the first half of the 19th century
Big Germany Litttle (German Germany:
Zollverein: Customs Union) was formed among the majority of the states of the German
Confederation in 1834 during the Industrial Revolution to remove internal customs barriers, although
upholding a protectionist tariff system with foreign trade partners.
Peter the Great: ruled Russia from 7 May (27 April O.S.) 1682 until his death, jointly ruling before 1696
with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V. Peter carried out a policy of "Westernization" and expansion
that transformed the Tsardom of Russia into the Russian Empire, a major European power.
Navigation Acts: a series of laws which, beginning in 1651, restricted the use of foreign shipping in the
trade of England. Resentment against the Navigation Acts was a cause of the Anglo-Dutch Wars and the
American Revolutionary War
Huguenot: In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name Huguenot was applied to a member of the Protestant
Reformed Church of France, historically known as the French Calvinists.
Oliver Cromwell: was an English military and political leader best known for making England a republic
and leading the Commonwealth of England. A brilliant soldier, he rose from the ranks to command the
army. Politically he took control of England, Scotland, and Ireland as Lord Protector, from December 16,
1653 until his death.
Intendants: were royal civil servants in France under the ancien rgime. Intendants were sent to supervise
and enforce the king's will in the provinces and had jurisdiction over three areas: finances, policing, and
justice. The position of Intendant remained in existence until the French Revolution.
Versailles: It was only 20 years later, in 1661, when Louis XIV started his personal reign that the young
king showed interest in Versailles. The idea of leaving Paris had never left him. In 1678 the king decided
that the court and the government would be established permanently in Versailles, which happened on May
6, 1682.
The Defenestrations of Prague: an event central to the initiation of the Thirty Years' War in 1618. Some
members of the Bohemian aristocracy effectively revolted following the 1617 election of Ferdinand as
King of Bohemia to succeed the aging Emperor Matthias. In 1617, Roman Catholic officials ordered the
cessation of construction of some Protestant chapels on land which the Catholic clergy claimed belonged to
them. Protestants, who claimed that it was royal (not Catholic Church) land and thus available for their own
use, interpreted this as a violation of the right of freedom of religious expression as granted in the Letter of
Majesty issued by Emperor Rudolf II in 1609. They feared that the fiercely Catholic Ferdinand would
revoke the Protestant rights altogether once he came to the throne.
United Provinces: The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was a European republic between 1581
and 1795, in the same location as the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands, which sees itself as a successor
state.
Putting-out system: was a popular system of cloth production in Europe. It was also used in various other
industries, including the manufacture of wrought iron ironware such as pins, pots, and pans for
ironmongers. It served as a way for entrepreneurs to bypass the guild system, which was thought to be
cumbersome and inflexible.
The Peace of Westphalia: refers to the pair of treaties (the Treaty of Mnster and the Treaty of
Osnabrck) signed in October and May 1648 which ended both the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty
Years' War. The peace as a whole is often used by historians to mark the beginning of the modern era.
Corn Laws: The Corn Laws, in force between 1815 and 1846, were import tariffs designed to support and
protect domestic British corn prices against competition from less expensive foreign-grain imports.
Madame de Pompadour: a well known courtesan and the famous mistress of King Louis XV of France.
Thomas Robert Malthus: an English demographer and political economist. He is best known for his
highly influential views on population growth.
Emmanuel Joseph Sieys: was a French abb and statesman, one of the chief theorists of the French
Revolution, French Consulate, and First French Empire. His 1789 pamphlet What is the Third Estate?
became the manifesto of the Revolution.
The Third Estate: the generality of people which were not part of the other estates. The Third Estate
comprised all those who were not members of the aristocracy or the clergy, including peasants, working
people and the bourgeoisie. In 1789, the Third Estate made up 98% of the population in France.
The First Estate: was the clergy. The king was in his own special estate.
The Second Estate: the French nobility and (technically, though not in common use) royalty, other than
the monarch himself, who stood outside of the system of estates.
Thermidor: refers to the coup in which Robespierre was guillotined and the Reign of Terror ended.
Consequently, for historians of revolutionary movements, the term Thermidor has come to mean the phase
in some revolutions when the political pendulum swings back towards something resembling a prerevolutionary state, and power slips from the hands of the original revolutionary leadership
The Continental System: was a great foreign-policy of Napoleon I of France in his struggle against the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon lacked the resources
to attempt an invasion of the United Kingdom or to defeat the Royal Navy at sea. Napoleon resorted instead
to economic warfare. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, Great Britain was emerging as Europe's
manufacturing centre, and Napoleon believed it would be vulnerable to embargo on trade with the
European nations under his control.
Conservatism: Sir Robert Peel was able to reconcile the new industrial class to the Tory landed class by
persuading the latter to accept the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. He created a new political group that
sought to preserve the old status quo while accepting the basics of laissez-faire and free trade. The new
coalition of traditional landowners and sympathetic industrialists constituted the new Conservative Party.
Liberalism: The Liberal Party grew out of the Whigs, which had their origins as an aristocratic faction in
the reign of Charles II. The Whigs were in favour of reducing the power of the Crown and increasing the
power of the Parliament, and although their motives in this were originally to gain more power for
themselves, the more idealistic Whigs gradually came to support an expansion of democracy for its own
sake.
Radicalism: The Radical movement arose in the late 18th century to support parliamentary reform with
additional aims including Catholic emancipation and free trade. Working class and middle class "Popular
radicals" agitated to demand the right to vote and assert other rights including freedom of the press and
relief from economic distress, while middle class "Philosophic radicals" strongly supported parliamentary
reform, but were generally hostile to the arguments and tactics of the "popular radicals".
Muhammed Ali: Vice Roy of Egypt.
July Republic: Book
Laissez faire: In the early stages of European and American economic theory, laissez-faire economic
policy was contrasted to mercantilist economic policy, which had been the dominant system of the United
Kingdom, Spain, France and other European countries, during their rise to power
The June Days Uprising: refers to the French workers' revolt on June 21, 1848, after the closure of the
National Workshops created by the Second Republic to give work to the unemployed. The uprising lasted
five days, until June 26, 1848.
Giuseppe Mazzini: an Italian patriot, philosopher and politician. Mazzini's efforts helped bring about the
modern Italian state in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers. He also
helped define the modern European movement for popular Democracy in a Republican State.