Age of Revolutions (1750-1900) Glossary

The middle class, especially factory owners and merchants who control capital.

Person of European descent born in the Americas, who led Latin American independence movements.

18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, natural rights, and popular sovereignty.

French representative assembly of three estates (clergy, nobility, commoners) convened in 1789.

Transformation from manual to mechanized production, beginning in Britain in the late 18th century.

Economic doctrine opposing government intervention in markets, favored by industrial capitalists.

French legal code establishing equality before law, property rights, and secular governance.

Belief that people sharing language, culture, and history should have their own sovereign state.

Rights believed to be inherent to all humans, including life, liberty, and property.

Principle that political power comes from the consent of the people.

The industrial working class who sell their labor for wages.

Phase of the French Revolution (1793-1794) marked by mass executions under Robespierre.

Venezuelan leader who liberated much of northern South America from Spanish rule.

Theory that government authority derives from an agreement between rulers and the governed.

Leader of the Haitian Revolution who transformed it from a slave revolt into an independence movement.