Module 11/12 VOCAB

Chairman of the committee to draft Declaration of Independence, the Declaration’s main author and one of its signers

British writer who advocated for greater education opportunities for women

English mathematician and natural philosopher; discovered the law of gravity as well as laws on the physics of objects

conflict in which a number of European states fought to prevent the Bourbon family from controlling Spain and France

Known as the Sun King, he built the palace at Versailles as a means to consolidate absolute power

Czarina of Russia; ruling with absolute power, she introduced a number of reforms that extended Peter the Great’s policy

View in which scholars believed that the earth was an immovable object located at the center of the universe

relating to an ornate style that characterized European painting, music, and architecture in the 1600s and early 1700s.

a 1598 declaration in which the French king Henry IV promised that Protestants could live in peace in France

a logical procedure for gathering information in which experimentation and observation are used to test hypotheses.

Change in European thought characterized by careful observation and the questioning of accepted beliefs.

a belief held by scientists during the Enlightenment that God created the universe and then allowed it to run on its own

a US formal summary of the rights and liberties believed essential for the people

relating to a simple, elegant style that characterized the arts in Europe during the late 1700s.

a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and a number of individual states.

Italian astronomer; invented the first working telescope; his discoveries put him into conflict with the Catholic Church

measures designed to prevent any one branch of government from dominating the others.

Grand duke of Russia and the first Russian ruler to officially assume the title of czar

Absolute monarch who brought the ways of Western Europe to Russia and made various reforms.

the idea that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun.

a statement of reasons for the American colonies’ break with Britain, approved by Second Continental Congress in 1776.

an adoption of the social, political, or economic institutions of Western—especially European or American—countries.

a landowning noble of Russia.