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Committee of Public Safety

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The provisional government of revolutionary France from 1793 to 1794.

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Continental Congresses

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Two assemblies of elected colonial representatives that met in Philadelphia in 1774 and 1775, the second time to adopt the powers of government and approve the Declaration of Independence from Britain.

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Deductive reasoning

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A form of logical reasoning that begins with a general statement and applies it to specific conclusions.

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Directory

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An executive council of five men established by the Convention in France to replace the Committee of Public Safety after the decline of the Reign of Terror.

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Empiricism

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A philosophical concept based on the belief that all knowledge derives from sensory experience.

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Enlightened despot

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An absolutist ruler influenced by the principles of the Enlightenment.

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Estates General

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A legislative assembly of the three estates, or orders, of French society: the clergy, the nobility, and commoners.

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General will

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A concept in political philosophy by which the state can be legitimate only if it is guided by the will of the people as a whole.

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Gens de couleur libres

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A French term that referred to free people of color in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now Haiti.

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Girondins

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A moderate faction of the Jacobin political club in revolutionary France.