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Desmoulins, Camille

(Encyclopedia)Desmoulins, Camille kämēˈyə dāmo͞olăNˈ [key], 1760–94, French revolutionary and journalist. His oratory of July 12, 1789, contributed to the storming of the Bastille two days later. His pamp...

East Friesland

(Encyclopedia)East Friesland frēzˈlənd [key], Ger. Ostfriesland, region and former duchy, c.1,100 sq mi (2,850 sq km), Lower Saxony, NW Germany, on the North Sea. It includes the East Frisian Islands and is sepa...

Stark, John

(Encyclopedia)Stark, John, 1728–1822, American Revolutionary soldier, b. Londonderry, N.H. He fought in the French and Indian Wars. At the start of the Revolution he distinguished himself at Bunker Hill, and he s...

XYZ Affair

(Encyclopedia)XYZ Affair, name usually given to an incident (1797–98) in Franco-American diplomatic relations. The United States had in 1778 entered into an alliance with France, but after the outbreak of the Fre...

Miranda, Francisco de

(Encyclopedia)Miranda, Francisco de fränsēˈskō ᵺā mēränˈdä [key], 1750–1816, Venezuelan revolutionist and adventurer. A hero of the struggle for independence from Spain, he is sometimes called the Prec...

émigré

(Encyclopedia)émigré āmēgrāˈ [key], in French history, a refugee, usually royalist, who fled the French Revolution and took up residence in a foreign land. The émigrés comprised all classes, but were dispro...

David, Jacques-Louis

(Encyclopedia)David, Jacques-Louis zhäk-lwēˈ dävēdˈ [key], 1748–1825, French painter. David was the virtual art dictator of France for a generation. Extending beyond painting, his influence determined the c...

Jacobins

(Encyclopedia)Jacobins jăkˈəbĭnz [key], political club of the French Revolution. Formed in 1789 by the Breton deputies to the States-General, it was reconstituted as the Society of Friends of the Constitution a...

Montgomery, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Montgomery, Richard, 1738?–1775, American Revolutionary general, b. Swords, Co. Dublin, Ireland. After entering the British army, he was sent (1757) to Canada in the French and Indian Wars and saw a...

Sarraute, Nathalie

(Encyclopedia)Sarraute, Nathalie nätälēˈ särōtˈ [key], 1900–1999, French novelist, b. Ivanovo, Russia, as Natasha Tcherniak; studied at the Sorbonne and Oxford. A lawyer, she joined (1925) a Paris firm. Sh...