APWH Vocab Final Study

1918 Influenza

Global pandemic after WWI that killed around 50 million people worldwide

Apartheid

System of institutionalized racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s

Bollywood

Indian film industry blending traditional culture with global trends

Bolsheviks

Radical Marxist group that led the 1917 Russian Revolution and formed a communist state

Coca-Cola

Global American brand representing cultural globalization and economic imperialism

Fidel Castro

Communist leader of Cuba after the 1959 revolution allied with the Soviet Union

Global Warming

Long-term rise in Earth’s temperature due to human activity like fossil fuels

Globalization

Growing interconnectedness of economies

Great Leap Forward

Failed Chinese policy to industrialize rapidly under Mao Zedong; caused famine

Greenpeace

Environmental NGO founded in 1971 to fight pollution and promote sustainability

Iron Curtain

Cold War term describing the divide between Western democracies and Soviet East

NATO

Military alliance formed in 1949 among Western countries to oppose Soviet power

Satellite States

Eastern European countries under Soviet control during the Cold War

Tiananmen Square

1989 pro-democracy protest in Beijing violently suppressed by the government

Treaty of Versailles

1919 peace treaty ending WWI

Columbian Exchange

Widespread transfer of crops

Cortez

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico

Encomienda

Spanish system that allowed colonists to demand labor from indigenous people

Galleons

Large sailing ships used by Europeans for trade and colonization

Martin Luther

German monk who began the Protestant Reformation in 1517

Janissaries

Elite Ottoman troops made from Christian boys taken through the devshirme system

Mercantilism

Economic policy aiming to benefit the mother country through colonial trade control

Middle Passage

Brutal sea voyage of enslaved Africans to the Americas

Pissarro

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire in Peru

Potosi

Major silver-mining center in colonial Bolivia enriching Spain

Potato

New World crop that increased food supply and population in Eurasia

Taj Mahal

Mausoleum built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife

Tokugawa

Japanese shogunate that promoted isolation and centralized power

Triangle Trade

Transatlantic trade of slaves

Zheng He

Chinese admiral who led massive naval expeditions during the Ming dynasty

2nd Industrial Revolution

Later industrial phase focusing on steel

Boxer Rebellion

Anti-foreign uprising in China by nationalists in 1899–1901

Communism/Marxism

Classless society ideology by Karl Marx abolishing private property

Congress of Vienna

1815 meeting to restore balance in Europe after Napoleon's fall

Crimean War

Conflict exposing Ottoman weakness; fought between Russia and Western allies

Darwin

English naturalist who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection

James Cook

British explorer who charted Australia

Karl Marx

German philosopher who co-authored The Communist Manifesto

Napoleon

French emperor who expanded across Europe and spread revolutionary ideals

Otto Von Bismarck

German chancellor who unified Germany through diplomacy and war

Romanov

Russian royal family overthrown during the Bolshevik Revolution

Simon Bolivar

Leader in South American independence from Spanish rule

Taiping Rebellion

Massive civil war in China led by a man claiming to be Jesus’s brother

Tanzimat

Ottoman reform movement to modernize and centralize the empire

Toussaint L’Ouverture

Leader of the Haitian Revolution that overthrew French colonial rule

Akbar

Mughal emperor known for religious tolerance and expansion of his empire in India.

1st Industrial Revolution

Period (c. 1750–1850) marked by the rise of mechanized production, especially in textiles and iron.