VCE History Revolutions key terms

The pre-1789 French social and political order built on absolute monarchy, hereditary privilege, seigneurial dues and a society of legally distinct estates.

The French representative assembly summoned in 1789 for the first time since 1614, meeting as three separate orders and deadlocking over voting by head or by order.

The commoner order of French society, encompassing peasants, urban workers and the bourgeoisie, which declared itself a National Assembly in June 1789.

The educated, propertied middle class of merchants, lawyers and professionals whose grievances about privilege and office-holding fed revolutionary leadership.

Grievance notebooks compiled by each French electoral district in 1789, recording complaints about taxes, feudal dues and royal administration.

An eighteenth-century intellectual movement stressing reason, natural rights, religious toleration and government by consent, whose ideas circulated among literate elites.

The idea that political authority derives from an agreement among people rather than divine right, associated with thinkers such as Locke and Rousseau.

Rights held to belong to every person by virtue of humanity, such as liberty, property and resistance to oppression, independent of any ruler's grant.

A system in which the sovereign holds undivided legislative and executive power, claiming authority from God and answerable to no representative body.

The doctrine that a monarch rules as God's appointed deputy, making obedience a religious duty and resistance a sin against providence.

Payments and labour obligations owed by peasants to landlords under feudal tenure, including tithes, banalities and fees for using the lord's mill or oven.

A state's inability to raise enough revenue to service debt and fund expenditure, forcing reform or collapse; in France it triggered the 1789 summons.

A sharp shortage and price rise in staple foods that leaves poorer households unable to eat, producing hunger, riot and loss of faith in authorities.

The cost of the staple loaf, whose movement was the most sensitive gauge of popular hardship and a recurring trigger for urban protest in revolutionary Paris.

The June 1789 pledge by deputies of the Third Estate not to disperse until France had a constitution, marking a decisive claim to national sovereignty.

The principle that ultimate political authority rests with the people collectively, not with a monarch, and that governments may be dissolved if they betray it.

The body formed when Third Estate deputies claimed to represent the nation, later abolishing feudal privilege and drafting the 1791 constitution.

The 1789 statement of universal principles including liberty, equality before the law, property and resistance to oppression, which framed later revolutionary politics.

The legal status defining who belongs to the political community and what rights they hold, which revolutionaries redefined by excluding or including categories of people.

The right to vote in elections; revolutionaries disputed whether it should be universal, restricted by property, or granted to women and freed slaves.

The 1791 French distinction granting voting and office-holding only to men paying a set tax, while poorer men held civil rights but no political voice.

Militant urban working people of Paris, named for their long trousers, who demanded cheap bread, direct democracy and price controls through crowd action.

The French term for days of revolutionary crowd action, such as the storming of the Bastille or the insurrection that toppled the monarchy in 1792.

The Paris fortress-prison seized on 14 July 1789, an event symbolising the collapse of royal authority and the entry of the crowd into revolutionary politics.

The period of systematic revolutionary government repression, roughly 1793 to 1794, using tribunals, surveillance and execution to suppress counter-revolution.

The intensified phase of revolutionary repression under the Committee of Public Safety, marked by mass arrests and executions before the fall of Robespierre.

The emergency executive created in 1793 to direct defence and internal security, which became the central instrument of revolutionary government.

The 1793 decree conscripting all unmarried men for military service and mobilising the whole population for war, a landmark of total national mobilisation.

Organised resistance to revolutionary change, whether by armed revolt, emigration, foreign invasion or royalist plotting, which shaped revolutionary security policy.

A person who fled revolutionary France, especially nobles and clergy, whose property was confiscated and whose return was penalised as treason.

The coup of July 1794 that overthrew Robespierre, ended the Terror and shifted power to propertied survivors of the revolutionary years.

The five-member executive governing France from 1795 to 1799, marked by corruption, unstable elections and reliance on the army to suppress opposition.

The general whose 1799 coup ended the Directory and whose subsequent rule consolidated some revolutionary reforms while extinguishing republican liberty.

The 1804 civil law code affirming equality before the law, property rights and secular marriage, while reinforcing male authority over wives and children.

Identification with and loyalty to a nation as a political community, mobilised by revolutionary war and later reshaping European politics.

Evidence produced during or by participants in the period under study, such as letters, decrees, newspapers or artefacts, valued for proximity to events.

An account created after the events by someone interpreting evidence, such as a scholarly monograph or textbook, whose argument must itself be assessed.

The origin of a source: who made it, when, where, for whom and in what circumstances, which shapes how far its testimony can be trusted.

A systematic slant in a source arising from the author's purpose, position or audience, which limits but does not necessarily destroy its usefulness as evidence.

The degree to which a source can be trusted to report accurately, judged from its provenance, internal consistency, purpose and comparison with other evidence.

The practice of checking one source against others of independent origin to test whether a claim is supported or contradicted.

The study of how history has been written, including changing interpretations, methods and debates among historians across generations.

A historian's reasoned explanation of what happened and why, shaped by evidence, questions asked and the assumptions of their own time.

The challenging of established historical accounts through new evidence or new questions, producing reinterpretations that displace earlier orthodoxies.

A long-term underlying condition, such as social inequality or institutional weakness, that makes upheaval possible rather than immediately triggering it.

The role of chance, accident and individual decisions in shaping events, contrasted with explanations that stress deep structural forces.

A short-term occurrence that sets off upheaval by converting underlying tensions into open action, such as a food riot or a fiscal summons.

The analytical framework comparing what persisted across a revolution with what was transformed, and judging how far change was deep or superficial.

A moment when events decisively alter the direction of a revolution, after which earlier possibilities are closed off or new ones open.

The division of a revolution into phases with start and end dates, a choice that shapes interpretation of causes, radicalisation and outcomes.

A concise, arguable claim stating the position an extended response will defend, giving the essay direction and coherence.

An opposing interpretation that a response acknowledges and answers, demonstrating balanced judgement rather than one-sided assertion.

An evaluation of competing historians' interpretations, weighing their evidence and assumptions before reaching a supported conclusion.