Socials ETA

Mercenaries 

Mercenaries 

Soldiers who are paid to fight in foreign armies.

Constantinople

Originally named the city of Byzantium but renamed for the Roman emperor Constantine who moved the capital of the eastern empire from Rome to Byzantium. Today it is called Istanbul.

William the Conqueror

The Duke of Normandy in France who invaded England in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and claimed the English throne.

Magna Carta

The Great Charter, it is a document signed by King John of England after being forced to by the Nobles guaranteeing basic political rights to all in England. For the first time in history everyone was equal under the law.

Parliament

A body of representatives that makes laws for a nation.

American Revolution

War between the 13 American Colonies and England in which the colonies overthrew the English King and Declared themselves an independent country.

Charles I

Was King of England from 1625 until his execution in 1649. From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War. Charles was tried, convicted, and executed for high treason in January 1649. The monarchy was abolished and the Commonwealth of England was established as a republic.

English Civil War 

A conflict, lasting from 1642-1649, in which Puritan supporters of Parliament battled supporters of England’s monarchy under King Charles I.

Oliver Cromwell

Led the Puritans to victory in the English Civil War, seizing power from Charles I and becoming military dictator.

Restoration

The period in England of Charles II rule after the collapse of Oliver Cromwell’s government after his death.

Habeas Corpus

A document requiring that a prisoner be brought before a court or judge so that it can be decided whether his or her imprisonment is legal.

Cabinet

A group of advisors or ministers chosen by the head of a country to help make government decisions.

Constitutional monarchy

A system of governing in which a ruler’s power is limited by law. Canda today is a constitutional monarchy where the King’s power is largely symbolic and parliament and the senate runs the country.

Cesar Becaria

Enlightenment philosopher who advocated for the right to a speedy trial, against cruel and unusual punishment and against the death penalty. He believed that punishment should be ethical and fit the crime.

Enlightenment  

European movement in the 1700’s in which thinkers attempted to apply the principles of Reason and the scientific method to all problems and aspects of society.

Social Contract

The agreement by which people define and limit their individual rights, thus creating an organized society or government.

John Locke

An English philosopher living in the 1600’s who argued that all people were equal, with three natural rights: life, liberty and property.

Jean Jaques Rousseau

A passionate defender of personal freedom during the enlightenment. In 1762 he explained his position on the social contract, disagreeing with Thomas Hobbes on the divine right of kings. Governments get their power from the people.

Mary Woolstonecraft

Wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” in 1972 arguing that women in order to be virtuous and useful, ought to be educated. She urged women to enter the male dominated fields of science and medicine.

Voltaire

French philosopher who advocated for the use of reason and defended freedom of speech, religion and liberty of all.

Baron de Montesquieu

An influential French philosopher who was concerned with political liberty. He advocated for the separation of government powers into the executive, legislative and judicial branches so that too much power would not be concentrated in one individual's hands.

Salons / Salon Society

A social gathering of intellectuals and artists, like those held in the houses of wealthy women in Paris and other European cities during the enlightenment.

Baroque 

A grand, ornate design style that characterized European painting, music, and architecture during the enlightenment.

Enlightened despots

European monarchs of the 1700’s who were inspired by the enlightenment to attempt to rule justly and respect the rights of their subjects.

Catherine the Great

Empress of Russia from 1762-1796. She ruled with absolute authority but was also well-educated and wrote many philosophers of the enlightenment such as voltaire. She wanted reforms, but crushed rebellion and made Russia a great power.

Declaration of Independence 

July 4th 1776 a statement issued by the 13 American colonies outlining their reasons for their break with England.

Thomas Jefferson

American political leader and primary writer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Checks and balances

Measures designed to prevent any one branch of government from having too much power and dominating the other branches.

Federal system

A system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and a number of individual states.

American Bill of rights (1787)

The first ten amendments to the US constitution, which protect citizens’ basic rights and freedoms.

Thomas Hobbes

English philosopher who believed in the Divine Right of monarchs to rule. He believed that we are born naturally selfish and fearless. We need laws to promote peace and avoid conflict. We must give some of our freedoms away to ensure a peaceful society. This justified absolute monarchy.

Constitution

 A constitution defines the principles upon which the state is based, the procedure in which laws are made and by whom.

English Bill of Rights (1689)

The 1689 English Bill of Rights was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1689 that declared the rights and liberties of the people and settled the succession of William and Mary following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James II abdicated the throne and fled England.

Feudalism 

The dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (serfs) were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection.

Nobles

In the feudal system Nobles were part of the aristocracy in medieval Europe and thus worked together to rule the land for the King. The upper-level nobles were landowners who provided military assistance and soldiers to the monarch..

Rule by Divine Right

Divine right of kings/Queens, in European history, a political doctrine in defense of monarchical absolutism, which asserted that kings/Queens derived their authority from God and could not therefore be held accountable for their actions by any earthly authority such as a parliament.

Serfs

A medieval peasant legally bound to live on a lord/noble’s estate and work the land in return for protection.

Knight

In medieval Europe, an armored warrior who fought on horseback. Knights. Knights were granted land from a noble's estate in exchange for military service.

Glorious Revolution

The bloodless overthrow of the English King James II and his replacement by his daughter Mary and her husband William.

Guillotine

A device, invented in France, consisting of a sharp blade in a tall frame, used in the past for killing criminals by cutting off their heads: King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette went to the guillotine along with 1000’s of aristocrats during the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.

Trebuchet

A medieval siege machine/weapon was used to toss stones and other objects at the walls of castles to break them down.

Needs

Things essential for survival, such as food and shelter; contrasted with wants.

Wants

Things that people desire; the opposite of needs.

Single Origin Theory

This theory suggests that all humans originated in Africa. They started to migrate out

of Africa about a million years ago and spread to Europe and Asia.

Factors of Production

The resources—including land, labor, and capital—that are needed to produce goods and services.

Trade

The exchange of goods and services.

Import

Bringing goods and services into a country from elsewhere.

Export

Sending goods and services to another country from your own.

Economics

Is the study of how to maximize the use of resources to meet needs & wants

Bartering

Fulfilling needs and wants by exchanging needed or wanted objects and resources.

Currency

A form of money. A physical object, like a coin or token, that has no value unto itself but is used as a placeholder for a thing of value. Early forms of currency included clay tokens, stamped with a seal, that could be exchanged for a fixed quantity of grain from a central repository. To trade the token in barter was akin to trading the grain itself.

Silk Road

An ancient network of trade routes that for centuries were central to trade & cultural interaction from Asia to Europe

Manor

A lord’s estate in feudal Europe.

Serf

A medieval peasant legally bound to live on a lord’s estate.

Three Field System

A system of farming developed in medieval Europe, in which farmland was divided intothree fields of equal size and each of these was successively planted with a winter crop, planted with a spring crop, and left unplanted.

Lord

In feudal Europe, a person who controlled land and could therefore grant estates to vassals.

Vassel

In feudal Europe, a person who received a grant of land from a lord in exchange for a pledge of loyalty and services.

Knight

Medieval Europe, an armored warrior who fought on horseback.

Fief

An estate granted to a vassal by a lord under the feudal system in medieval Europe.

Tithe

A family’s payment of one-tenth of its income to a church.

Guild

A medieval association of people working at the same occupation, which controlled its members’ wages and prices.

Artisan

A skilled worker, such as a weaver or a potter, who makes goods by hand.

Commercial Revolution

The expansion of trade and business that transformed European economies during the 1500s and 1600s.

Demesne

The lord’s land (called a demesne) that the serfs worked, caring for his animals & maintaining the estate.

Commerce

Commerce refers to the activity of buying & selling on a large scale

Bills of Exchange

Bills of exchange -  documents that clearly indicated exchange rates between coinage systems

Letters of Credit

Official letters issued in one country & shown in another that allowed a merchant to withdraw cash or pay for items with credit without having to carry cash around

Samurai

Samurai were members of Japan’s warrior class Early Samurai protected Japan’s aristocratic landowners and practiced the code of Bushido.

Joint Stock Companies

A business in which investors pool their wealth for a common purpose then share the profits.

Stock

A partial right of ownership of a corporation.

Colongy

A land controlled by another nation.

Mercantilism

An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought.

Triangular Trade

The transatlantic trading network along which slaves and goods were carried between Africa,England, Europe, the West Indies, and the colonies in the Americas.

Atlantic Slave Trade

The buying, transporting, and selling of Africans for work in the Americas.

Columbian Exchange

The global transfer of plants, animals, and diseases that occurred during the European colonization of the Americas.

Middle Passage

The voyage that brought captured Africans to the West Indies, and later to North and South America, to be sold as slaves—so called because it was considered the middle leg of the triangular trade.

Outward Passage

The voyage of Africans from their rural villages to the West Coast Africa to be sent to the Americas.

Adam Smith

Defended the free market in his 1776 book The Wealth of Nations, holding the view that economic liberty would naturally follow economic progress.

Laissez Faire Economics

The idea that the government should not interfere with or regulate industries and businesses.

Capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership and on the investment of money in business ventures in order to make a profit.

Industrial Revolution

The shift, beginning in England during the 1700s, from making goods by hand to making them by machine.

Factories

Large buildings in which machinery is used to manufacture goods.

Entrepreneur

A person who organizes, manages, and takes on the risks of a business.

Urbanization

The growth of cities and the migration of people into them.

Union

An association of workers, formed to bargain for better working conditions and higher wages

Profit

a financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something.

Ideology

A collection of beliefs, values, priorities, or ideals, especially one that underpins social, economic, or political policy.

Capitalism

an economic system based on private ownership and on the investment of money in business ventures in order to make a profit.

Utilitarianism

The theory, proposed by Jeremy Bentham in the late 1700s, that government actions are useful only if they promote the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Socialism

An economic system in which the factors of production are owned by the public and operate for the welfare of all.

Communism

An economic system in which all means of production—land, mines, factories, railroads, and businesses—are owned by the people, private property does not exist, and all goods and services are shared equally.

Karl Marx

a German journalist who, along with Friedrich Engels, developed a radical school of socialism in a 23-page pamphlet called The Communist Manifesto in 1848.

Proletariat

In Marxist theory, the group of workers who would overthrow the czar and come to rule Russia.

Josef Stalin

By 1928, Stalin was in total control of the Communist Party, wielding that power as a ruthless dictator.

Vladimir Lenin

A revolutionary and leader of the bolsheviks. After the revolution of 1917, Russians revered him as the “Father of the Revolution.”

Five Year Plan

Plans outlined by Joseph Stalin in 1928 for the development of the Soviet Union’s economy. Often practiced economically by communist governments today such as China.

The Communist Manifesto

1848 literary work by Marx and Egels that promoted the idea of extreme socialism and predicted that a communist revolution was inevitable as the proletariat will revolt against the bourgeoisie.

Adolf Hitler

Dictator and leader of the fascist Nazi Party who became chancellor of Germany in 1933 and led the world into war due to his invasions and atrocities.

Authoritarian

Favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government, at the expense of personal freedom.

Benito Mussolini

Founder and leader of Italy’s Fascist Party during a period of economic downturn. Public dissatisfaction with the government led to his eventual totalitarian control over the country beginning in 1922.