(U3) The Long Nineteenth Century (1815-1914): [1788-1913]

Industrial Revolution

Identify: The shift from agrarian, handicraft economies to machine-based manufacturing and factory production, beginning in Britain in the late 18th century.

Significance: Dramatically increased productivity, urbanization, and wealth; created new social classes and transformed daily life across Europe by the mid-19th century.

Contextualization: Fundamental economic and social transformation that defined the modern world and spread from Britain to continental Europe.

Spinning Jenny

Identify: Multi-spindle machine invented by James Hargreaves (1764) that allowed one worker to spin multiple threads simultaneously.

Significance: Greatly increased textile production efficiency and was one of the first key inventions of the Industrial Revolution.

Contextualization: Early mechanization in the cotton textile industry.

Water Frame

Identify: Water-powered spinning machine invented by Richard Arkwright (1769) that produced stronger thread than the spinning jenny.

Significance: Enabled the move from cottage industry to large-scale factory production powered by water.

Contextualization: Technological breakthrough that promoted the factory system.

Steam Engines

Identify: Machines (improved by James Watt in the 1760s–1780s) that converted heat from coal into mechanical energy.

Significance: Provided a reliable, portable power source independent of water; powered factories, mines, and later locomotives.

Contextualization: Core energy breakthrough of the Industrial Revolution.

Rocket

Identify: Early steam locomotive built by George Stephenson (1829) that won the Rainhill Trials.

Significance: Demonstrated the practicality of steam-powered rail transport and launched the railway age.

Contextualization: Symbol of the transportation revolution.

Crystal Palace

Identify: Massive iron-and-glass building constructed in London for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Significance: Showcased Britain’s industrial supremacy and technological achievements to the world.

Contextualization: Icon of mid-19th-century industrial confidence and progress.

Iron Law of Wages

Identify: Theory by David Ricardo stating that wages tend to remain at subsistence level because population growth offsets any rise in pay.

Significance: Used to explain worker poverty and influenced pessimistic views of industrialization.

Contextualization: Classical liberal economic thought during the Industrial Revolution.

Tariff Protection

Identify: Government policy of placing high taxes on imported goods to protect domestic industries.

Significance: Adopted by most continental countries (e.g., Germany, France) to catch up with British industry.

Contextualization: Economic nationalism and state support for industrialization.

Factory Acts

Identify: Series of British laws (beginning 1802) that regulated working conditions, hours, and child labor in factories.

Significance: Represented the first government intervention to improve industrial working conditions.

Contextualization: Early social reform movement in response to industrialization.

Separate Spheres

Identify: 19th-century ideology that men belonged in the public world of work and politics while women belonged in the private domestic sphere.

Significance: Reinforced gender roles and limited middle-class women’s opportunities outside the home.

Contextualization: Dominant gender ideology of the industrial middle class.

Mines Act of 1842

Identify: British law that prohibited women and children under 10 from working underground in mines.

Significance: Highlighted the terrible conditions in mines and advanced protective labor legislation.

Contextualization: Social reform during the Industrial Revolution.

Luddites

Identify: British workers (1811–1816) who destroyed new textile machinery because it threatened their jobs.

Significance: Represented early violent resistance to industrialization and mechanization.

Contextualization: Working-class reaction to the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution.

Class-Consciousness

Identify: Awareness among workers of their shared interests and identity as a distinct social class opposed to the bourgeoisie.

Significance: Fueled the growth of trade unions and socialist movements.

Contextualization: Social consequence of industrialization and the rise of Marxism.

Combination Acts

Identify: British laws (1799–1800) that outlawed trade unions and worker organizations.

Significance: Reflected fears of radicalism during the French Revolutionary era; later repealed in 1824.

Contextualization: Government attempt to suppress early labor organization.

Congress of Vienna (1814–1815)

Identify: International meeting of major European powers after Napoleon’s defeat to redraw the map of Europe.

Significance: Restored conservative monarchies, created a balance of power, and suppressed liberalism and nationalism for a generation.

Contextualization: Attempt to restore stability and the Old Regime after the French Revolution and Napoleon.

Holy Alliance

Identify: Alliance proposed by Tsar Alexander I (1815) between Russia, Austria, and Prussia based on Christian principles to suppress revolution.

Significance: Symbolized the conservative cooperation of the Great Powers after 1815.

Contextualization: Tool of conservative international order.

Karlsbad Decrees (1819)

Identify: Repressive measures issued by the German Confederation to censor the press, supervise universities, and crush liberal and nationalist movements.

Significance: Delayed German unification and liberal reform until mid-century.

Contextualization: Conservative reaction to the spread of liberal and nationalist ideas.

Liberalism

Identify: 19th-century political ideology that emphasized individual rights, constitutional government, free markets, and limited state interference.

Significance: Challenged absolutism and inspired revolutions in 1820, 1830, and 1848.

Contextualization: Major ideological force of the 19th century opposing conservatism.

Laissez Faire

Identify: Economic doctrine calling for minimal government intervention in the economy (“let it be”).

Significance: Advocated by classical liberals and influenced British economic policy in the early 19th century.

Contextualization: Economic expression of liberalism.

Nationalism

Identify: Belief that people sharing a common language, culture, history, and territory should have their own independent nation-state.

Significance: Powerful force that drove unification movements in Italy and Germany and threatened multi-ethnic empires.

Contextualization: One of the most dynamic and disruptive ideologies of the 19th century.

Socialism

Identify: Political and economic ideology that advocated collective or government ownership of the means of production to achieve greater equality.

Significance: Emerged as a response to the inequalities created by industrialization.

Contextualization: Left-wing challenge to liberalism and capitalism.

Marxism

Identify: Revolutionary socialist theory developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that viewed history as class struggle and predicted the inevitable victory of the proletariat.

Significance: Became the foundation for communist movements in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Contextualization: Most influential form of radical socialism.

Bourgeoisie

Identify: The middle class, especially merchants, manufacturers, and professionals who owned capital.

Significance: Benefited most from the Industrial Revolution and pushed liberal political demands.

Contextualization: Dominant social class in 19th-century liberal thought and Marxist analysis.

Proletariat

Identify: The industrial working class who owned only their labor.

Significance: According to Marx, this class would eventually overthrow the bourgeoisie.

Contextualization: Central actor in Marxist theory and growing labor movements.

Romanticism

Identify: Cultural and artistic movement (late 18th–mid-19th century) that emphasized emotion, imagination, nature, and individualism over reason and order.

Significance: Reacted against Enlightenment rationalism and the mechanization of the Industrial Revolution; influenced literature, art, and nationalism.

Contextualization: Major cultural reaction to the French Revolution and industrialization.

Corn Laws

Identify: British tariffs on imported grain (1815–1846) designed to protect landowners.

Significance: Caused high food prices; their repeal in 1846 symbolized the triumph of free trade.

Contextualization: Battleground between agricultural interests and industrial liberalism.

Peterloo Massacre (1819)

Identify: Violent dispersal of a large reform meeting in Manchester, England, by cavalry, killing several demonstrators.

Significance: Galvanized public opinion in favor of parliamentary reform.

Contextualization: Symbol of conservative repression in post-Napoleonic Britain.

Reform Bill of 1832

Identify: British law that expanded voting rights to the middle class and redistributed parliamentary seats.

Significance: Prevented revolution in Britain and began the gradual democratization of Parliament.

Contextualization: Peaceful liberal reform in contrast to continental revolutions.

Great Famine (Irish Potato Famine, 1845–1851)

Identify: Catastrophic famine in Ireland caused by potato blight, worsened by British policies.

Significance: Killed about one million and caused massive emigration; intensified Irish nationalism and anti-British sentiment.

Contextualization: Tragic social consequence of 19th-century population pressure and colonial rule.

Greater Germany (Grossdeutschland)

Identify: Idea of unifying all German-speaking lands, including Austria, into one nation-state.

Significance: Debated during the 1848 revolutions and later rejected in favor of Kleindeutschland (Little Germany) under Prussia.

Contextualization: Competing visions of German unification.

Utilitarianism

Identify: Philosophy developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill that judged actions by their usefulness in promoting the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

Significance: Influenced liberal reforms in law, education, and poor relief.

Contextualization: Practical application of Enlightenment rationalism to social problems.

“Great Stink” (1858)

Identify: Severe cholera epidemic and foul smell from the polluted Thames River in London.

Significance: Forced the British government to build a modern sewer system.

Contextualization: Catalyst for urban public health reforms.

Germ Theory

Identify: Scientific theory (developed by Pasteur and Koch) that specific microorganisms cause specific diseases.

Significance: Revolutionized medicine, public health, and sanitation in the late 19th century.

Contextualization: Key scientific breakthrough of the Second Industrial Revolution.

Professionalization

Identify: Process by which occupations (medicine, law, teaching, engineering) developed formal training, credentials, and standards in the late 19th century.

Significance: Created a new middle-class elite based on expertise rather than birth.

Contextualization: Social change in the Second Industrial Revolution.

Labor Aristocracy

Identify: Highest-paid, most skilled segment of the working class in the late 19th century.

Significance: More likely to support moderate reform rather than revolution.

Contextualization: Division within the working class during industrialization.

Sweated Industries

Identify: Small-scale workshops or home-based production with extremely low wages and poor conditions, especially in clothing.

Significance: Highlighted the persistence of harsh labor conditions even after factory reforms.

Contextualization: Dark side of urban industrial society.

Companionate Marriage

Identify: 19th-century ideal of marriage based on emotional affection and partnership rather than purely economic or arranged considerations.

Significance: Gradually became more common among the middle class.

Contextualization: Evolution of family and gender roles.

Separate Spheres

Identify: See Chapter 20 — Victorian ideal that men and women occupied distinct public and domestic roles.

Significance: Reinforced gender inequality despite growing calls for women’s rights.

Contextualization: Dominant middle-class gender ideology.

Thermodynamics

Identify: Branch of physics dealing with heat, energy, and work (developed by Joule, Kelvin, Clausius).

Significance: Advanced scientific understanding and supported further industrialization.

Contextualization: Scientific foundation of the Second Industrial Revolution.

Second Industrial Revolution

Identify: Wave of industrialization after 1870 based on steel, chemicals, electricity, and oil rather than textiles and steam.

Significance: Accelerated economic growth, urbanization, and technological change; increased global competition.

Contextualization: Transformation of Europe into a fully industrial society.

Evolution

Identify: Theory of biological change over time through natural selection, proposed by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species (1859).

Significance: Challenged traditional religious views of creation and influenced social and political thought.

Contextualization: Major scientific and intellectual revolution.

Social Darwinism

Identify: Misapplication of Darwin’s ideas to society, arguing that “survival of the fittest” justified competition, inequality, and imperialism.

Significance: Used to defend laissez-faire capitalism, racism, and European domination.

Contextualization: Pseudoscientific justification for 19th-century inequalities.

Realism

Identify: Artistic and literary movement (mid-to-late 19th century) that depicted everyday life and social problems with accuracy and detail.

Significance: Rejected Romantic idealism; focused on the harsh realities of industrial society.

Contextualization: Cultural reflection of the scientific and industrial age.

Risorgimento

Identify: The 19th-century movement for Italian unification (“resurgence”).

Significance: Led by Cavour, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel II; achieved unification by 1870.

Contextualization: Classic example of 19th-century nationalism.

Realpolitik

Identify: Pragmatic, power-based politics (“politics of reality”) practiced by Bismarck and Cavour.

Significance: Emphasized practical results over ideology or morality; used to achieve German and Italian unification.

Contextualization: Political method of mid-19th-century nationalism.

Manifest Destiny

Identify: 19th-century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent.

Significance: Influenced U.S. expansion but had limited direct impact on Europe.

Contextualization: Parallel nationalist/imperialist ideology (often compared in AP Euro).

Crimean War (1853–1856)

Identify: Conflict pitting Russia against Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire.

Significance: Exposed Russian backwardness, led to reforms under Alexander II, and weakened the Concert of Europe.

Contextualization: First “modern” war and catalyst for change in Russia.

Russian Revolution of 1905

Identify: Wave of strikes, mutinies, and uprisings after Russia’s defeat by Japan.

Significance: Forced Tsar Nicholas II to create the Duma and grant limited constitutional reforms.

Contextualization: Dress rehearsal for the 1917 Russian Revolutions.

Duma

Identify: Russian parliament created after the 1905 Revolution.

Significance: Provided limited representative government but was frequently dissolved by the tsar.

Contextualization: Weak step toward constitutionalism in autocratic Russia.

Tanzimat

Identify: Series of reforms (1839–1876) in the Ottoman Empire aimed at modernization and centralization.

Significance: Attempted to strengthen the empire but failed to prevent its decline.

Contextualization: Ottoman response to European pressure and internal weakness.

Young Turks

Identify: Reformist nationalist movement that seized power in the Ottoman Empire in 1908.

Significance: Promoted Turkish nationalism and modernization but contributed to ethnic tensions.

Contextualization: Late Ottoman reform and rising nationalism.

Reichstag

Identify: Lower house of the German parliament under the 1871 constitution.

Significance: Elected by universal male suffrage but had limited power compared to the Kaiser and chancellor.

Contextualization: Feature of the German Empire’s semi-authoritarian system.

German Social Democratic Party (SPD)

Identify: Major Marxist socialist party in Germany founded in 1875.

Significance: Became the largest party in the Reichstag by 1912; represented the growing strength of working-class politics.

Contextualization: Leading socialist party in Europe before 1914.

Dreyfus Affair (1894–1906)

Identify: Scandal in France in which Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongly convicted of treason.

Significance: Deeply divided French society between republicans/secularists and conservatives/antisemites; strengthened the Third Republic.

Contextualization: Symbol of antisemitism and the battle between liberalism and reaction.

Home Rule

Identify: Campaign for Irish self-government within the British Empire (late 19th–early 20th century).

Significance: Caused major political crises in Britain and contributed to tensions leading to the Easter Rising.

Contextualization: Nationalist movement within the British Isles.

Suffrage Movement

Identify: Campaign for women’s right to vote (women’s suffrage), led by figures like Emmeline Pankhurst in Britain.

Significance: Gained momentum in the early 20th century and achieved partial success after World War I.

Contextualization: Key element of first-wave feminism.

Zionism

Identify: Jewish nationalist movement founded by Theodor Herzl (1890s) calling for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Significance: Response to European antisemitism (especially the Dreyfus Affair); led eventually to the creation of Israel.

Contextualization: Nationalist response to 19th-century persecution of Jews.

Marxist Revisionism

Identify: Late 19th-century movement within socialism (led by Eduard Bernstein) that argued for gradual reform through democracy rather than violent revolution.

Significance: Split socialist parties between revolutionaries and moderates.

Contextualization: Adaptation of Marxism to democratic realities.

Neo-Europes

Identify: Settler societies (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) where European immigrants reproduced European culture and institutions.

Significance: Became major food exporters and new centers of Western civilization.

Contextualization: Result of global mass migration and European expansion.

Opium Wars (1839–1842, 1856–1860)

Identify: Conflicts between Britain (and later France) and Qing China over the opium trade.

Significance: Forced China to open ports and accept unequal treaties, weakening the Qing dynasty.

Contextualization: Example of gunboat diplomacy and Western imperialism in Asia.

Gunboat Diplomacy

Identify: Use or threat of naval force to compel weaker nations to accept Western trade and diplomatic demands.

Significance: Common Western tactic in Asia and Africa during the 19th century.

Contextualization: Tool of New Imperialism.

Global Mass Migration

Identify: Massive movement of Europeans (especially 1840–1914) to the Americas, Australia, and other regions.

Significance: Relieved population pressure in Europe and created neo-European societies.

Contextualization: Demographic consequence of industrialization and European dominance.

Nativism

Identify: Anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States and other receiving countries.

Significance: Led to restrictive immigration policies and reflected tensions caused by rapid migration.

Contextualization: Reaction to global mass migration.

New Imperialism

Identify: Aggressive wave of European colonial expansion, especially in Africa and Asia (c. 1870–1914).

Significance: Created vast overseas empires and increased international rivalries that contributed to World War I.

Contextualization: Distinct phase of European global domination driven by nationalism, economics, and racism.

Afrikaners

Identify: Descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa who developed a distinct Boer identity.

Significance: Clashed with the British in the Boer War.

Contextualization: European settler population in southern Africa.

Berlin Conference (1884–1885)

Identify: Meeting of European powers to regulate the “Scramble for Africa” and set rules for colonization.

Significance: Accelerated the partition of Africa with little regard for African peoples.

Contextualization: Formalization of New Imperialism in Africa.

South African (Boer) War (1899–1902)

Identify: War between Britain and the Boer republics in South Africa.

Significance: Costly British victory that revealed the difficulties of colonial warfare and raised moral questions about imperialism.

Contextualization: Peak example of New Imperialism and its costs.

Fashoda Incident (1898)

Identify: Confrontation between British and French forces in Sudan that nearly led to war.

Significance: Resolved peacefully; led to the Entente Cordiale between Britain and France.

Contextualization: Example of imperial rivalry and eventual alliance-building.

White Man’s Burden

Identify: Rudyard Kipling’s phrase justifying European imperialism as a noble duty to “civilize” non-Western peoples.

Significance: Reflected racist and paternalistic attitudes that underpinned New Imperialism.

Contextualization: Ideological justification for imperialism.

Orientalism

Identify: Western depiction and study of the Middle East and Asia as exotic, backward, and inferior (critiqued by Edward Said).

Significance: Shaped European attitudes and justified colonial rule.

Contextualization: Cultural dimension of imperialism.

Great Rebellion (Indian Mutiny, 1857)

Identify: Major uprising against British rule in India by sepoys and civilians.

Significance: Led to direct British Crown rule (Raj) after the East India Company was dissolved.

Contextualization: Turning point in British imperialism in India.

Meiji Restoration (1868)

Identify: Overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate and rapid modernization of Japan under Emperor Meiji.

Significance: Allowed Japan to industrialize and resist Western imperialism; made Japan an imperial power itself.

Contextualization: Successful non-Western response to European pressure.

Hundred Days of Reform (1898)

Identify: Short-lived attempt by Chinese reformers to modernize the Qing government and institutions.

Significance: Failed due to conservative opposition; highlighted China’s difficulties with modernization.

Contextualization: Failed Chinese response to Western imperialism.