Global Hist. Vocabulary Flashcards

Front

Autocrat

Back

A ruler with unlimited power; essentially a dictator or tyrant. They hold absolute authority and are not subject to any restrictions or limits on their power. An autocrat's government is called an autocracy.

Front

Totalitarian

Back

A leader that has TOTAL control over its citizens. They control everything in a persons life; their education, religion, media, etc..

Examples: Hitler, Stalin, Mao

Front

Absolute monarchy

Back

A system of government in which a single ruler, usually a king or queen, holds supreme and unrestricted power.

Examples: King Louis XVI (France), Czar Nicholas II (Russia)

Front

Tyrant

Back

A ruler, often an absolute ruler, who exercises power in a cruel and unfair manner, usually without legal limits or constraints.

Front

Divine Right

Back

The belief that an absolute monarch's authority to rule comes directly from God.

Front

The Enlightenment

Back

An intellectual and philosophical movement that emphasized reason, science, and individual liberty and rights over traditional beliefs and authority.

Front

John Locke

Back

Enlightenment thinker who believed everyone was born with natural rights: life, liberty, and property.

Front

Suffrage

Back

The right to vote.

Front

coup d'etat

Back

a sudden, violent, and unlawful seizure of power from a government.

Front

The Old Regime

Back

The pre-revolutionary social and political system of France. The social hierarchy consisted of the absolute monarch & the three estates.