History Final

Monotheism

Belief in one god

Polytheism

The worship of multiple Gods

Christianity

Abrahamic monotheistic religion; Believe in the resurrection of Jesus; Believe God chose Jesus to spread the gospel; Holy text is the Bible; Believe Jesus is a prophet; Jerusalem is their holy city; Believe in the God of Abraham; Live by the Ten Commandments.

Islam

Abrahamic monotheistic religion; Believe in Allah as the creator of all; Holy text is the Quran; The place of worship is called a Mosque; The holiest city is Mecca; Believe in the 5 Pillars; Believe Jesus is a prophet; Jerusalem is the holy city.

Judaism

Abrahamic monotheistic religion; Believe in God of Abraham; Jerusalem is the holy city; Live by the Ten Commandments; Holy book is the Torah; The place of worship is called a Synagogue; Have kosher diets; Have holidays such as Sabbath, Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur.

Hinduism

Dharmic monotheistic/polytheistic religion; Believe God lives within your soul; Founder unknown; Believe in Dharma (moral duties) and karma (cause and effect of actions); Believe in God karma = good reincarnation; Goal is to be released from the reincarnation cycle and reunite with God; Believe that Caste System is determined by birth and cannot be changed.

Buddhism

Dharmic non-monotheistic/polytheistic religion; Based on the teachings of Buddha; Believe in Four Noble Truths (1. The Truth of Suffering, 2. The Origin of Suffering, 3. The Cessation of Suffering, 4. The Path of the Cessation of Suffering); Believe in the Eight Fold Path; Believe in Dharma (moral duties) and karma (cause and effect of actions); Believe all lives are equal and sacred.

Nirvana

A state of happiness and union with the universe that releases you from the cycle of rebirth which Buddhists try to seek.

Reincarnation

Rebirth of the soul into another body.

Caste System

Social structure of Vedic Religions; Brahmins: Priests; Kshatriyas: Rulers or warriors; Vaishyas: Herders or merchants; Shudras: Farmers or servants.

Zheng He

Chinese navy commander; Commanded first of seven expeditions; Departed 62 huge ships carrying a crew of 25,000 sailors; His goal was to promote change; His accomplishments represent the power and strength of the Chinese Empire; Diplomat from Ming Dynasty.

Marco Polo

Italian merchant; Served Kublai Khan for 17 years; Crossed Persia and Central Asia to reach China; Left vivid writing accounts of places he traveled to; First went to China as a teenager with his family; Told stories describing the riches of China to Europe.

Ibn Battuta

Scholar and explorer; Traveled the farthest; Traveled to Persia, Africa, Iraq, India, and China; Went on his journey because he was on his pilgrimage to Mecca.

Absolute Monarchy

A political system in which the head of government inherits the title of king or queen.

Age of Reason

A time when people believed human reason and scientific thinking could improve society, government, and everyday life.

English Civil War

Causes: Charles I wanted power for himself; Parliament wanted to secure their right to participate in government and limit the absolute power of the monarch; Charles introduced highly unpopular taxes to fund his court and failed military. Results: Charles I was put on trial for treason and beheaded; England abolished monarchy; Oliver Cromwell became a dictator; England turned it into a republic ensuring that future monarchs could not govern without the consent of Parliament.

Oliver Cromwell

Leader of the Parliamentary forces; Led the New Model Army and later became Lord Protector.

Louis XIV

Strongly believed in divine right to rule; Appointed royal officials to collect taxes, carry out policies, and recruit soldiers; Fostered a strong and wealthy economy in France; Became known as the 'Sun King'; Left behind a powerful France; Centralized government and monarchy.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

Queen consort of France; Wife of Louis XVI until the abolition of the French monarchy; Known for having a lot of dresses; Blamed for much of the debt France was in because of the amount of money she spends on clothes and jewelry.

French Revolution

Overthrew absolute monarchy and people established a Republic; Causes: Financial Ruin: France was nearly bankrupt due to the heavy costs of the American Revolution; Society was divided into three Estates, the First and Second Estates paid virtually no taxes, placing the entire burden on the underprivileged Third Estate; Philosophers popularized concepts of social contracts, separation of power, individual freedom, and unusual punishment; Robespierre - Leading figure of the Committee of Public Safety, he instituted the Reign of Terror to protect the republic but was ultimately guillotined when his extreme measures spun out of control; Reign of Terror - A brutally violent phase of the French Revolution.

Palace of Versailles

Louis XIV turned a hunting lodge into his royal court and government; Held elaborate ceremonies that emphasized his importance.

Napoleon

Transformed France and Europe through military conquests.

Totalitarianism

A form of government where the state holds absolute power, seeking to control all aspects of public and private life.

Nationalism

The idea that one's nation comes before and above others' nation, even if it means violence.

Democracy

A form of government based upon the recognition of individual rights and freedoms.

Autocracy

Government ruled by a single leader with unlimited power.

Theocracy

A form of government in which a deity (God or religious leader) is recognized as the supreme civil ruler.

Oligarchy

A government controlled by a group of powerful elites.

Scientific Revolution

A period of transformation in Europe when scientists began to question everything in the physical world and later used that same process to question government and the church.

Scientific Method

A continuous, systematic process used by researchers to acquire knowledge, test hypotheses, and understand natural phenomena.

Glorious Revolution Causes

James II, a Catholic, attempted to bypass laws preventing Catholics from holding high government and military positions, expanded the standing army, and suspended laws without Parliament's consent, raising fears of an absolute monarchy.

Glorious Revolution Results

William III and Mary II became King and Queen; The English Bill of Rights was made; Freely elected Parliament formed; Monarch couldn't interfere with Parliament.

John Locke

Believed in Social Contract Theory: everyone should have natural rights, and a government should protect these rights; if it does not, people have the right to overthrow it.

Voltaire

Believed in freedom of speech and tolerance.

Montesquieu

Believed in Separation of Power: corruption was caused by too much power in the hands of one; power should be divided into legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

Rousseau

Believed in Individual Freedom: direct democracy and that the best government was formed by the general will of the people; monarchies should be abolished completely.

Beccaria

Against cruel and unusual punishment: opposed the death penalty and torture, favored fair, speedy trials; laws are made to ensure order and not to get revenge.

Thomas Hobbes

Believed in Social Contract: people are selfish, wicked, and need a strong ruler to preserve order; absolute monarchy was the best type of government because it could impose order and discipline.

Industrial Revolution

A major historical shift in the late 1700s and 1800s where society changed from a farming and hand-crafted economy to one driven by machine manufacturing and large factories.

Communism

A political and economic system in which all property and wealth is collectively owned equally.

Communist Manifesto

Book by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels claiming capitalism is unfair because wealthy business owners exploit workers for profit, predicting a working-class revolution will eventually create a fair, classless society.

Karl Marx

Wrote the Communist Manifesto and created Marxism.

Capitalism

An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.

Socialism

A political and economic philosophy based on collective ownership of a society's resources.

Charles Darwin

British scientist in the 1800s who came up with the idea of natural selection after observing nature.

Social Darwinism

The idea that natural selection applies to humans and society, especially in warfare and economic competition.

Imperialism

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through colonization, military force, or other means.

Brazil

It went from being one of the most heavily exploited colonies in the Americas to becoming its own short-lived empire.

Congo/Dem. Rep. of Congo

King Leopold II of Belgium claimed the vast territory as his own property, enforcing a reign of terror and forced labor to extract rubber and ivory, resulting in 10 million lives lost.

Suez Canal-Egypt

Primarily used by Britain and France to easily extract resources from their colonies.

Colony

Territory governed by a foreign country, or a group of people who settle in a new land while maintaining ties to their homeland.

British East India Company

A powerful English, and later British, joint-stock company that initially focused on the spice and textile trade in Asia.

Opium War Causes

Britain fought China over trading rights, tariffs, and access to parts China didn't want to trade.

Treaty of Nanking

An unequal treaty that ended the Opium War, where the Chinese received an end to the war but no connections.

Boxer Rebellion

A secret society that targeted foreigners in China; army of foreign nations put down the rebellion which was the 1st time U.S. troops had been sent to fight overseas.

Sphere of Influence

A region within an independent country where a foreign imperial power claimed exclusive economic, political, or military privileges.

Sepoy/Sepoy Rebellion

A massive uprising against the rule of the British East India Company.

Imperialist conquests of Japan (Before WWII)

1895-1896 Japan took Taiwan after a war with China.

Machine Gun

Rapid fire weapon, defend trenches, take down soldiers, but heavy and hard to move.

Tanks

Broke through trenches, barbed wire, and protected soldiers, but slow and broke easily.

Submarines

Attacked enemy ships underwater, but had limited air supply and vulnerable when surfacing.

Airplanes

Scouting, spying, used for bombing, but were slow and fragile.

Poison Gas

Used to choke, blind, or kill enemies in trenches, but could blow back towards own troops.

Militarism

European nations building up their armies and navies; 30% of German men served in the military and Britain had 29 battleships.

Alliances

Secret and open alliances developed in decades before WWI; France and Russia signed a treaty and Germany felt trapped between them which is why they built up their army.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Austria-Hungary prince who was assassinated by Serbian nationalist that started WWI.

Treaty of Versailles

Officially ended WWI and forced Germany to take all the blame for WWI; Germany had to have their military limited making them weak and unable to defend themselves, they had to pay $31 billion to other countries causing major economic problems, they lost territory, and were not allowed in the League of Nations.

Trench Warfare

Line of trenches 400+ miles long formed on Western Front between Germany and France; land between was called 'No Man's Land.'

Central Powers

Germany, Austria-Hungary Empire, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

Allied Powers

U.K., France, Russia, and U.S.

Total War

When nations mobilize their entire human, economic, and industrial resources to win by using all their soldiers and civilians.

League of Nations

Nations would join together to prevent future war, led by Britain and France; the U.S. doesn't join and Germany is not allowed in.

Great Depression

A period of extreme economic hardship during the 1930s when many people lost their jobs, money, and homes after the stock market crash of 1929.

Fascism

Authoritarian political ideology and movement that prioritizes the nation, or race, above the individual.

Nazism

Totalitarian ideology led by Adolf Hitler in Germany; it combined fascism with racism, antisemitism, and extreme nationalism.

Hitler

Set up fascist dictatorship; wanted revenge on the Treaty of Versailles; believed Germany had been wronged after WWI; wrote Mein Kampf which was a 'blueprint' for Nazism; violated Treaty of Versailles and built up the German military; invaded Rhineland, Austria, Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia.

Tojo

Powerful behind the scenes, strong influence over the emperor in Japan; conquered Manchuria and China; began WWII in Asia by invading those places; attacked 100,000 soldiers and civilians in the 'Rape of Nanking.'

Stalin

Ruled the Soviet Union; transformed the nation into an industrial and military superpower but did so through a totalitarian reign of terror resulting in the deaths of millions of his own citizens.

Mussolini

Set up first fascist dictatorship; nickname is 'il Duce' means the leader; rebuilt ancient Roman empire; believed 'Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, and nothing against the state' referred to him as the state; invaded and conquered Libya, Ethiopia, and Albania.

Czar Nicholas II

Emperor of Russia; he was the last Russian monarch before the Russian Revolution and oversaw the Russian Empire's participation in World War I.

Bolsheviks

A Marxist faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, founded by Vladimir Lenin.

Lenin

A Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist; he was the first head of government of Soviet Russia.

Rape of Nanking

Japanese forces attacked East China killing over 100,000 soldiers and civilians; very brutal and deadly.

Germany-Soviet Union non-aggression pact

Hitler signs an agreement with Stalin to not fight; shocking because Hitler is anti-communist; signed to eliminate a possibility of a 2 front war; secret part of the agreement was Germany and USSR would split Poland.

Causes of WWII

Hitler believed Germany had been wronged after WWI and in The Treaty Of Versailles.

Appeasement

The act of making peace with an angry or aggressive party by giving in to their demands.

Sudetenland

A strategically vital, industrialized, and heavily fortified border region of Czechoslovakia.

Lebensraum

Was the Nazis aggressive expansionist policy; it was rooted in the ideological belief that the German master race needed to conquer vast territories in Eastern Europe.

Blitzkrieg

Military tactic mainly used by Germany that used speed, surprise, and lots of force to take down enemies quickly.

Invasion of Poland

September 1, 1939 began WWII in Europe.

D-Day

June 6, 1944 when allied forces (Britain and U.S.) invaded Normandy, France to overthrow Germany occupation.

Pearl Harbor

General Tojo ordered an attack on American fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Island Hopping

Allied strategy of capturing important islands in the Pacific while skipping heavily defended ones.

Holocaust

The murder of millions of Jews and other groups by the Nazis during WWII.

Kristallnacht

(Night of Broken Glass) Businesses, houses, synagogues were destroyed.

Final Solution

Nazi Germany's codename for the genocide of European Jews during World War II. It was the deadliest, final phase of the Holocaust, resulting in the murder of six million Jewish people.

Nuremberg Laws

Laws that stripped German Jews of citizenship, banned intermarriage, and legally categorized them as an existential threat to society.

Atomic Bomb

Weapon utilized by the United States at the end of World War II to force the unconditional surrender of Imperial Japan.

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II.

Decolonization

The process by which former colonial territories gained independence and self-determination, influenced by a shift in mindset after WWII.