| Term | Definition |
| balance of power | equal power among nations. |
| blockade | Forcibe closing of ports. |
| Concordat | A formal agreement especially one between the pope and a government, dealing with the control of church affairs. |
| conservative | In the first half of the 19th century a European-mainly wealthy landowners and nobles- who wanted to preserve the traditional monarchies of Europe. |
| Coup d'etat | A sudden, bloodless seizure of political power in a nation. |
| Creole | In spanish colonial society, a colonist who was born in Latin America to spanish parents. |
| Guerilla | A member of a loosely organized fighting force that makes surprise attackeson enemy troops occupying his/her country. |
| Junkers | Conservative members of Prussia's landowning class. |
| Legitimacy | Hereditary right of a monarch to rule. |
| Liberal | In the first half of the 19th century, a European- mainly middle-class business leaders and merchants-who wanted to give more political power to elected parliaments. |
| Lycees | French government-run public schools. |
| Merchantilism | Economic policy in which nations seek an increase of power by selling more finished goods to their colonies than the raw materials they bought from them. |
| mestizos | persons of mixed European and Indian ancestry. |
| Mulattos | Persons of mixed European and African ancestry. |
| Nation-state | A state having its own independent government. |
| Nationalism | Political system in which a person's greatest loyalty is to the nation, not the king. |
| Peninsulare | people in Latin America born in Spain. |
| Plebiscite | Direct vote of the people. |
| Radicals | People who favored drastic change to extend democracy to all people. |
| Realpolitik | Politics of reality. |
| Scorched-earth policy | Practice of burning fields and killing livestock to keep advancing army from having food. |
| Sans-culottes | Radical Parisian wage earners who wanted greater voice in governmetn. |
| Emigre | Nobles and others who left France during peasant uprisings and who hoped to come back the old system. |
| Declaration of the Rights of Man | Document that guaranteed rights such as liberty and property to all. |
| Legislative Assembly | Replaced National assembly; took away most of king's power. |
| Committee of Public Safety | Led by Robespierre; enemies of the republic were executed. |
| Reign of Terror | The period of Robespierre's rule; period of killing and unrest. |
| Robespierre | Revolutionary leader who tried to wipe out every trace of France's past monarchy and nobility. |
| Guillotine | Machine for beheading people. |
| National razor | Nickname for the guillotine. |
| Old Regime | Social and political system of France in the 1770's. |
| Estates | Three large social classes. |
| First Estate | Made up of clergy. |
| Second Estate | Made up of rich nobles. |
| Third Estate | Made up of bourgeoisie, urban lower class, and peasant farmers. |
| Louis XVI | King of France at the time of the French Revolution. |
| Marie Antoinette | Queen of France; wife of Louis XIV; daughter of Maria-Theresa, empress of autria. |
| The Bastille | French prison that became known as a symbol of the royal abuse of power. |
| Estates-General | Assembly of reopresentatives from all three estates. |
| Tennis Court Oath | Pledge made by members of France's National Assembly in which they vowed to continue meeting until a new constitution was drawn up. |
| Jacobins | Radical political organization. |
| Jean-Paul Marat | Radical, revolutionary journalist. |
| Reign of Terror | Period during which Robespierre ruled. |
| Toussaint L'Ouverture | Former slave who became a general and led rebel forces against French to gain independence for Hispaniola, which became independent country of Haiti. |
| Miguel Hidalgo | Catholic priest, who led independence movement in Mexico. |
| Simon Bolivar | Venezuelan Creole, known as the Liberator, who helped drive spanish out of northern/eastern part of South America. |
| Jose de San Martin | Revolutionary leader, born in Argentina, who freed Chile and joined Bolivar to free Peru. |