Colonists were required to ship certain products exclusively to England. These laws made colonists very angry because they were forbidden from trading with other countries.

The document recording the proclamation of the second Continental Congress (4 July 1776) asserting the independence of the colonies from Great Britain based on the notion that the King of England had violated their natural rights and broken the social contract binding citizens to their government.

Author of the Declaration of Independence

A system in which power is divided between the national and state governments

A term used to describe supporters of the Constitution during ratification debates in state legislatures.

Anti-Federalists rose up as the opponents of the Constitution during the period of ratification. They opposed the Constitution's powerful centralized government, arguing that the Constitution gave too much political, economic, and military control. They instead advocated a decentralized governmental structure that granted most power to the states

The top two classes of French society under the "Old Regime;" Consisting of the FIRST ESTATE: Leadership of the Catholic Church and the SECOND ESTATE: Nobles; These two classes controlled French society and were exempt from most property taxes.

The bottom class that made up 97% of the population of France; consisting of the middle class, the urban poor, and the peasants; they paid high taxes and had no special privileges

King and Queen of France during the French Revolution; The king was a weak leader and the queen was wasteful with the country's money. Both were beheaded by guillotine after the success of the revolution.

French middle class, including merchants, industrialists, and professional people

In the French Revolution, a radical group made up of Parisian wage-earners, and small shopkeepers who wanted a greater voice in government, lower prices, and an end of food shortages

a French congress established by representatives of the Third Estate on June 17, 1789, to enact laws and reforms in the name of the French people

A pledge made by the members of France's National Assembly in 1789, in which they vowed to continue meeting until they had drawn up a new constitution

Medieval fortress that was converted to a prison; stormed by peasants for ammunition during the early stages of the French Revolution.

caused by peasant uprisings, manors of nobles were attacked, records destroyed, many nobles fled to other countries where they became counter-revolutionaries

French Revolution document that outlined what the National Assembly considered to be the natural rights of all people and the rights that they possessed as citizens

A French congress with the power to create laws and approve declarations of war, established a limited monarchy

revolutionaries break into prisons across France and massacre thousands of many innocent people (nobles, priests, royal supporters) for fear that political prisoners will aid the Austrian-Prussian army