Year 9 History: The Industrial Revolution and Causes of the First World War

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts, criteria, figures, acts, and historical terminology for the Industrial Revolution and the causes of World War One.

Change

Something becoming different over time.

Continuity

Something staying the same over time.

Revolution

A fundamental, wide-reaching change to a system or society.

Progress

Change that makes things better for people.

Causation

The relationship between causes and their effects.

Capital

Money invested to start or grow a business.

Infrastructure

Basic physical systems such as roads, canals, and ports.

Institution

An established organisation or system, such as a bank or patent law.

Scale

A historical criterion measuring how many people were affected by a change.

Speed

A historical criterion evaluating how quickly a change occurred.

Depth

A historical criterion assessing how fundamentally people's lives were changed.

Duration

A historical criterion measuring how lasting a change proved to be.

Arnold Toynbee

The historian who notably popularised the phrase "Industrial Revolution" in the 1880s.

Global commodity network

A chain connecting raw materials, trade, and manufacturing across the world.

Enslavement

Forcing people into slavery, denying them freedom and rights.

Merchant

Someone who buys and sells goods, often across long distances.

Domestic

Relating to one's own country.

Enclosure

The fencing of common land into privately owned fields, particularly common via Parliamentary Acts from the 1760s to the 1830s.

Selective breeding

The agricultural method of choosing the best animals to breed from to produce larger, faster-maturing livestock.

Crop rotation

Growing different crops in a planned sequence across fields to keep soil fertile without leaving land fallow.

Surplus

More than is immediately needed.

Eric Williams

Historian who argued in "Capitalism and Slavery" (1944) that profits from slavery were a crucial engine of British industrial capital.

Mechanisation

Replacing human or animal labour with machines.

Factory system

A system of production in a single building using machine-powered lines, clocks, bells, and fines to regulate work.

Domestic system

Also called the "putting-out" system; a method of manufacture where people made goods at home at their own pace.

Textile

Cloth or woven fabric.

Productivity

How much output is produced in a given amount of time.

Urbanisation

The growth and expansion of towns and cities.

Migration

Moving from one place to live in another.

Social class

A division of society defined by economic and social position.

Push factors

Negative conditions driving people to leave an area, such as low agricultural wages and loss of common land after enclosure.

Pull factors

Positive conditions attracting people to a new area, such as factory jobs and higher wages in towns.

Interpretation

A later explanation or representation of past events.

Testimony

A firsthand account given as evidence, such as statements given by child labourers to government inquiries.

Workhouse

A public institution where destitute people lived and worked in return for basic food and shelter.

Apprentice

Someone, often a child, bound to work for an employer to learn a trade or skill.

Public health

The general health of a population and the government action taken to protect it.

Sanitation

Clean water supplies and the safe removal of sewage and waste.

Cholera

A deadly waterborne disease that caused major British epidemics in 1831–32, 1848–49, and 1854.

Miasma

The historical medical theory that diseases were spread by inhaling toxic "bad air".

Sadler Committee

An 1832 British parliamentary inquiry that gathered testimony from child factory workers to build support for labour reform.

1833 Factory Act

Legislation that placed limits on working hours and established minimum working ages for children in textile mills.

1842 Mines Act

Legislation that banned underground mine work for all women as well as children under the age of 10.

Edwin Chadwick

Public health reformer whose 1842 statistical report linked poor sanitation with disease and economic waste, leading to the 1848 Public Health Act.

John Snow

Doctor who investigated the 1854 Soho cholera outbreak by mapping cases to the Broad Street pump, demonstrating that cholera is waterborne.

Joseph Bazalgette

Civil engineer who designed London's extensive underground sewer network, primarily constructed during the 1860s following the Great Stink of 1858.

Synthesis

Bringing separate pieces of knowledge together into one coherent overall judgement.

Criteria

Standards used to evaluate or judge something, specifically Scale, Speed, Depth, and Duration in this course.

Overturn

To completely change or replace something that previously existed.

Proposition

A statement or formal premise put forward for debate and historical argument.

Counterargument

A point or set of reasoning that challenges or opposes an argument.

Digital revolution

The historical transition from mechanical and analogue technologies to digital computing and communications.

Automation

Machines, systems, or algorithms performing operational tasks without direct human intervention.

Economic diversification

Developing many distinct industrial sectors so that a country's economy does not depend on a single source of revenue.

Harkness discussion

A student-led, evidence-based academic discussion where students collaborate around a table while the teacher observes.

Militarism

The belief that a country should build up powerful armed forces and be prepared to use them aggressively.

Alliance

A formal agreement or treaty between countries pledging mutual support in times of conflict.

Imperialism

A policy or practice in which a powerful nation builds an empire by acquiring or subjugating other lands.

Nationalism

Intense pride in one's nation, often accompanied by the belief that each national group should rule itself independently.

Arms race

A competitive buildup in which rival states race to develop and amass larger, more powerful weapons and armaments.

Conscription

Compulsory enlistment of citizens into a state's armed services.

Mobilisation

The act of assembling, organizing, and preparing military forces and war equipment for immediate active service.

Entente

A friendly diplomatic understanding between countries that is less binding than a formal military alliance.

Weltpolitik

Germany's imperial "world policy" adopted under Kaiser Wilhelm II to acquire colonies, naval power, and international influence ("a place in the sun").

Schlieffen Plan

Germany's strategic war plan formulated around 1905 to defeat France rapidly by invading through neutral Belgium before redeploying against Russia.

Triple Alliance

The military alliance established in 1882 uniting Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

Triple Entente

The diplomatic coalition connecting France, Russia, and Britain through the 1894 Franco-Russian Alliance, 1904 Entente Cordiale, and 1907 Anglo-Russian Entente.

Scramble for Africa

The rapid invasion, occupation, and colonisation of nearly the entire African continent by European powers between 1881 and 1914, coordinated at the Berlin Conference.

Black Hand

A clandestine Serbian nationalist secret society founded in 1911 that used political violence and terrorism to unite South Slav territories.

Assassination

The planned murder of a prominent or politically significant figure for ideological or political reasons.

Trigger

The immediate catalyst or event that sets off a larger chain of events or conflict.

Ultimatum

A final diplomatic demand issued by one state to another, non-compliance with which results in severe retaliation or war.

Blank cheque

Germany's promise of unconditional military and diplomatic backing given to Austria-Hungary on 5–6 July 1914.

Neutrality

The legal and political stance of refusing to take sides or participate in an ongoing war.