Untitled Flashcards Set

The Cotton Gin

A mechanical device invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 to separate cotton fibers from seeds, significantly increasing cotton production.

Great Divergence

The period from the late 18th to early 19th century when Western Europe experienced rapid industrialization while China and India stagnated.

Luddism

A movement in early 19th-century Britain where textile workers destroyed machinery that threatened their jobs.

Engels’s Pause

The period of increasing productivity without a corresponding rise in wages for workers, described by Friedrich Engels.

Peterloo Massacre

An event in 1819 where British cavalry attacked a peaceful rally for parliamentary reform in Manchester, England.

Lowell Mills

Textile factories in Lowell, Massachusetts, that employed young women known as the 'Lowell Mill Girls' in the early 19th century.

Quinine

A natural treatment for malaria derived from the cinchona tree, essential for European colonial expansion.

Firearms Revolution

A transformation in warfare from the 15th to 17th centuries due to the introduction of gunpowder weapons.

Battle of Omdurman

A 1898 battle in Sudan where British forces defeated Sudanese Mahdist troops using machine guns.

The White Man’s Burden

A poem by Rudyard Kipling that justified European imperialism as a moral duty.

Mahatma Gandhi

Leader of the Indian independence movement known for employing nonviolent resistance.

Mission Civilisatrice

French colonial ideology that justified expansion as a civilizing mission.

Treaty of Nanjing

A treaty ending the First Opium War in 1842, marking the beginning of China's 'Century of Humiliation'.

Coolie System

A labor system involving the migration of Indian and Chinese workers under coercive conditions to work in plantations and mines.

Suez Canal

A man-made waterway completed in 1869, connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas, crucial for global trade.

Rickshaw

A human-pulled carriage that originated in Japan and became a symbol of labor exploitation during colonialism.

Zitkala-Ša

A Native American writer and activist who fought for Indigenous rights in the U.S.

Transcontinental Railroad

A railroad completed in 1869 connecting the U.S. East and West coasts, transforming commerce and migration.

À la lanterne!

A revolutionary slogan in France calling for the execution of corrupt officials.

Gaslight

The first widespread urban street lighting in the 19th century, replacing candles and oil lamps.

Arc Lamps

Early electric street lamps used in cities, precursor to modern electrical lighting.

The Great White Way

A reference to Broadway in New York, famous for its bright electric lights in the early 20th century.

Large Technological Systems

Complex infrastructure networks like railroads and electrical grids that transformed modern life.

Nocturnalization

The extension of human activity into the night facilitated by artificial lighting.

Mauve

The first synthetic dye, discovered by William Perkin in 1856.

Fritz Haber

A German chemist known for the Haber-Bosch process for producing ammonia, impacting agriculture and warfare.

Congo Red

One of the first synthetic dyes, used in textiles and later in biological research.

Second Battle of Ypres

A World War I battle known for Germany’s first large-scale use of chemical weapons.

I.G. Farben

A German chemical company implicated in producing chemical weapons used in WWII.

Futurism

An early 20th-century art movement that focused on speed, technology, and modernity, associated with Italian artists.