CLEP Western Civilization II flashcards

34 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Peace of Westphalia

The 1648 treaties ending the Thirty Years' War; they recognized the sovereignty of German princes, confirmed Calvinism, and are conventionally treated as the origin of the modern state system.

Intendants

Royal officials sent by the French crown to administer provinces, collect taxes, and supervise local authorities; under Louis XIV they extended central power at the expense of nobles.

Bill of Rights 1689

An English statute following the Glorious Revolution that limited royal power, barred taxation without Parliament's consent, and guaranteed free elections and parliamentary privilege.

Pragmatic Sanction

A 1713 Habsburg decree by Charles VI intended to secure the undivided inheritance of Habsburg lands for his daughter Maria Theresa, and accepted by several European powers.

Treaty of Utrecht

The 1713 settlement ending the War of the Spanish Succession; it kept France and Spain under separate crowns and gave Britain Gibraltar, Minorca, and the asiento.

Treaty of Paris 1763

The agreement ending the Seven Years' War; France ceded Canada and eastern North America to Britain and transferred Louisiana to Spain, confirming British imperial dominance.

Diplomatic Revolution of 1756

The reversal of alliances before the Seven Years' War, in which Austria allied with France and Prussia with Britain, breaking the earlier Bourbon-Habsburg alignment.

Asiento

A Spanish contract granting the exclusive right to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish America; Britain obtained it at Utrecht in 1713, making it a prized commercial concession.

Heliocentrism

The astronomical model placing the Sun at the center of the planetary system, proposed by Copernicus in 1543 and confirmed by Kepler, Galileo, and Newton.

Newton's Principia

The 1687 work setting out the laws of motion and universal gravitation, which unified terrestrial and celestial physics and became the model for mathematized natural science.

General will

Rousseau's concept in The Social Contract (1762) of a collective will aimed at the common good, in which legitimate sovereignty resides and to which individuals subordinate private interest.

Encyclopédie

The multi-volume reference work edited by Diderot and d'Alembert from 1751, which disseminated Enlightenment ideas on science, religion, government, and crafts across Europe.

Tennis Court Oath

A June 1789 pledge by deputies of the Third Estate not to disband until France had a constitution, marking the transformation of the Estates-General into the National Assembly.

Committee of Public Safety

The emergency executive created by the National Convention in 1793 to direct the war effort; under Robespierre it orchestrated the Terror until its fall in 1794.

Napoleonic Code

The 1804 civil code affirming equality before the law, property rights, and secular marriage, while reinforcing male authority over wives and children; it influenced legal systems worldwide.

Continental System

Napoleon's 1806 blockade designed to exclude British trade from Europe; it failed to defeat Britain and strained relations with allied and occupied states.

Congress of Vienna

The 1814–1815 settlement led by Metternich that restored a balance of power, contained France, and created the German Confederation under Austrian leadership.

Factory Act 1833

British legislation limiting child labor in textile mills, setting minimum ages and hours, and creating factory inspectors to enforce the rules.

Repeal of the Corn Laws

The 1846 abolition of tariffs on imported grain, a victory for free-trade industrial interests over landed protectionism, which lowered food prices and encouraged urban growth.

Chartism

A British working-class movement of 1838–1848 demanding universal male suffrage, secret ballot, and annual parliaments; its petitions failed but its program was later largely enacted.

Luddism

Machine-breaking protests by skilled British textile workers around 1811–1816 against wage cuts and deskilling, rather than opposition to technology as such.

Carlsbad Decrees

Metternich's 1819 measures imposing press censorship and university supervision across the German states to suppress liberal and nationalist agitation after the murder of Kotzebue.

Reform Act 1832

British legislation redistributing parliamentary seats and extending the franchise to the middle class, while leaving the working class and most of the population without the vote.

Frankfurt Parliament

The 1848–1849 German national assembly that drafted a liberal constitution and offered the imperial crown to Frederick William IV, who refused it, ending the effort at unification.

Romanticism

An artistic and intellectual movement emphasizing emotion, individualism, nature, and the sublime, exemplified by Wordsworth, Goethe, Delacroix, and Friedrich.

Bismarck's Realpolitik

The pragmatic, power-oriented statecraft by which Prussia's chancellor engineered wars with Denmark, Austria, and France to unify Germany under Prussian leadership by 1871.

Berlin Conference

The 1884–1885 meeting of European powers that set rules for claiming African territory, accelerating the Scramble for Africa and the partition of the continent.

Triple Entente

The 1907 alignment of Britain, France, and Russia, which together with the Triple Alliance divided Europe into two rival blocs before the First World War.

Schlieffen Plan

Germany's pre-1914 strategy for a rapid defeat of France through Belgium before turning east against Russia; its failure at the Marne produced a stalemate.

Article 231

The war-guilt clause of the Treaty of Versailles making Germany accept responsibility for the war, used to justify reparations and deeply resented in Germany.

Enabling Act 1933

A German law allowing Hitler's government to enact legislation without the Reichstag, the legal foundation for the Nazi dictatorship after the Reichstag fire.

Marshall Plan

A US program from 1948 providing economic aid to rebuild Western Europe, which encouraged cooperation among recipients and helped create the institutions that led to the EEC.

Maastricht Treaty

The 1992 agreement creating the European Union, establishing EU citizenship, and setting the path toward a single currency, which became the euro.

Brexit

The United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, approved by referendum in 2016 and completed in 2020, ending free movement and single-market membership.