Unit 7: Shifting Power After 1900 - Revolutions and State Transformations

Vocabulary flashcards covering Topic 7.1 (Shifting Power After 1900), focusing on the internal and external collapses of the Russian, Qing, and Ottoman Empires, as well as the revolutionary upheavals in Russia, China, Turkey, and Mexico.

Constitutional Democrats (Kadets)

A Russian political group that advocated for the creation of a constitutional monarchy rather than radical socialist revolution.

Bolsheviks

The radical faction of the Russian Social Democrats led by Vladimir Lenin, which believed a communist revolution should be directed by a small elite of professional revolutionaries.

Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905)

A military conflict in which the Russian navy suffered a decisive defeat by Japan, exposing the imperial government's weaknesses and undermining the Tsar's credibility.

Bloody Sunday (January 22, 1905)

A massacre where Imperial Guard soldiers fired on peaceful demonstrators marching to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II, killing 1,300 people and igniting the Revolution of 1905.

Duma

The Russian national legislative assembly established by Tsar Nicholas II in the October Manifesto; its influence was repeatedly undercut when Nicholas refused to work with it and dissolved it.

Grigori Rasputin

The controversial advisor to Tsar Nicholas II's wife, Alexandra, who held significant influence over the Russian government after the Tsar left to take personal command of the armies at the front in 1915.

February Revolution (1917)

A wave of massive strikes and demonstrations over food shortages in Petrograd that caused Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate, ending three centuries of Romanov dynastic rule.

Provisional Government

The temporary democratic government formed by the Russian Duma and led by Alexander Kerensky following the Tsar's abdication, which controversially continued Russia's involvement in World War I.

Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies

A revolutionary council representing factory workers and soldiers that shared dual power with the Provisional Government following the February Revolution.

"Peace, Land and Bread"

The famous revolutionary slogan used by Vladimir Lenin to win widespread support among Russia's war-weary soldiers, peasants, and industrial workers.

Leon Trotsky

A prominent Bolshevik leader who directed the seizure of power from the Provisional Government in November 1917 by capturing key government buildings in Petrograd.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918)

The peace agreement signed by the Bolshevik government and Germany to pull Russia out of World War I, requiring Russia to cede one-fourth of its European territory and one-third of its population.

Red Army

The military organization that supported the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution and fought to establish and defend the newly formed socialist state.

First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895)

A war in which the Qing Dynasty was defeated by Japan, forcing China to cede Formosa (Taiwan) and further diminishing the dynasty's legitimacy.

Boxers (Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists)

An anti-foreign, anti-Christian movement in China (1899–1901) that was persuaded by Empress Dowager Cixi to target Westerners, resulting in foreign military intervention and further loss of Chinese sovereignty.

Empress Dowager Cixi

The Qing ruler who redirected the Boxers' anti-dynastic rebellion toward foreign powers and Christians residing in China.

Wuchang Uprising (1911)

The armed revolt that initiated the 1911 Revolution in China, culminating in the abdication of the child emperor Puyi in early 1912 and ending thousands of years of imperial dynastic rule.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen

The leader elected as the first provisional president of the Republic of China following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in the 1911 Revolution.

Three Principles of the People

Dr. Sun Yat-sen's foundational political ideology outlining the goals of Chinese governance: nationalism, democracy, and the people's livelihood.

"Sick Man of Europe"

A 19th-century nickname given to the declining Ottoman Empire as it fell behind European powers economically, militarily, and industrially.

Tanzimat Reforms

A series of state-sponsored modernization and industrialization programs implemented by the Ottoman Empire that ultimately failed to match the strength of the European great powers.

Sultan Abdul Hamid II

The autocratic Ottoman sultan who suspended constitutional reforms to assert strict central authority while facing military and territorial threats from Russia.

Young Turks

A reformist group within the Ottoman Empire that aimed to replace the sultan's absolute rule with a constitutional government and later promoted ethnic Turkish nationalism.

Turkification

A cultural policy advocated by the Young Turks designed to transform the multiethnic, pluralistic Ottoman Empire into a homogenous Turkish nation-state.

Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk)

The military commander who organized Turkish nationalist forces during the Turkish War of Independence and became the founding president of the modern, secular Republic of Turkey.

Treaty of Lausanne (1923)

The peace treaty that established international recognition for the sovereignty of the new Republic of Turkey as the recognized successor state to the Ottoman Empire.

Porfirio Díaz

The Mexican dictator who held power from 1876 to 1911, establishing a regime marked by political stability, authoritarian control, and extreme concentration of land ownership among wealthy elites.

Francisco Madero

A Mexican political reformer whose arrest and subsequent call for an armed rebellion initiated the Mexican Revolution; he served as president until his assassination in 1913.

Francisco "Pancho" Villa

A prominent revolutionary commander who organized and led rebel military forces in northern Mexico against the Díaz regime.

Emiliano Zapata

A revolutionary leader in southern Mexico who organized peasant forces to demand extensive agrarian reform and protection of indigenous land rights.

Plan de Ayala

A revolutionary program proclaimed by Emiliano Zapata that demanded the large-scale redistribution of hacienda land back to Mexican peasants and indigenous populations.

Mexican Constitution of 1917

The foundational legal document resulting from the Mexican Revolution that established substantial democratic reforms, labor protections, land redistribution, and the separation of church and state.

Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)

The political party founded in 1929 (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) that brought long-term stability to Mexico by establishing a one-party state under an electoral facade for the remainder of the 20th century.