Trimester 1 Study Guide: Revolutions, Industrialization, and Imperialism

Vocabulary flashcards covering the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, Latin American and Haitian Revolutions, and Industrialization & Imperialism from the Trimester 1 Study Guide.

The Enlightenment

An intellectual movement emphasizing reason, societal progress, and challenging traditional absolute authority.

Baron de Montesquieu

Enlightenment thinker exclusively known for the separation of powers, dividing government into branches to prevent tyranny.

John Locke, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Enlightenment philosophers whose writings on natural rights (life, liberty, property), freedom of speech/religion, and the social contract collectively inspired the U.S. Bill of Rights.

The Three Estates

Pre-revolutionary France's rigid social class structure where the Third Estate (peasants/common people) bore the heavy tax burden while the First Estate (Clergy) and Second Estate (Nobility) held all privileges.

Declaration of the Rights of Man

Revolutionary French document proclaiming that "all men are born free and equal in rights".

The Reign of Terror

A radical phase of the French Revolution led by Maximilien Robespierre where no one was safe from the guillotine, including fellow revolutionaries.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Authoritarian ruler who preserved some French revolutionary reforms (such as legal equality under the Napoleonic Code) while limiting political freedoms.

Congress of Vienna

A meeting of European powers following Napoleon's defeat with the major goal of restoring stability and a balance of power across Europe.

Peninsulares

Spanish-born officials sitting at the very top of Latin American colonial society.

Creoles

People of European descent born in the colonies who resented the Peninsulares' monopoly on power and led many independence movements.

Haitian Revolution (1804)

A revolution driven by social inequality and the fight to end slavery whose success inspired other Latin American nations to declare independence from Spain.

Simón Bolívar

South American revolutionary leader heavily influenced by Enlightenment ideas of liberty and equality who helped liberate multiple countries from Spanish rule.

19th-Century Nationalism

A dominant 19th-century political force under which most Latin American nations gained independence between 1810 and 1830.

Urbanization

The rapid growth of cities, primarily driven by industrialization in 19th-century Britain and Western Europe.

Capitalism

An economic ideology introduced in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations advocating free markets and private ownership.

Communism

An economic ideology introduced in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' The Communist Manifesto advocating a classless society and worker control of production in response to industrial inequality.

Social Darwinism

The belief that stronger nations were naturally meant to rule weaker ones, serving as an ideological cause of imperialism.

Colony

A territory settled and directly ruled by people from another land to extract raw materials.

Sphere of Influence

A region where an outside power claims exclusive trading privileges and controls the economy without direct political rule.