World History II Final Exam Study Guide

A vocabulary-focused flashcard set covering the major units of the World History II Final Exam study guide, from the Industrial Revolution through the Modern Middle East.

Political Spectrum

The range of political positions including Communist, Radical, Liberal, Moderate, Conservative, Reactionary, and Fascist.

Capitalism

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

Communism

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

Inflation

A decline in the value of money, accompanied by a rise in the prices of goods and services.

Balance of Trade

The difference in value between a country's imports and its exports.

Market Economy

An economic system in which production and prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.

Nationalism

The belief that people should be loyal mainly to their nation—that is, to the people with whom they share a culture and history—rather than to a king or empire.

Nation-state

An independent geopolitical unit of people having a common culture and identity.

Industrial Revolution

The shift, beginning in England during the 18th century, from making goods by hand to making them by machine.

Adam Smith

A philosopher of industrialization who defended the idea of a free economy and is considered the father of modern capitalism.

Karl Marx

A German journalist who introduced a radical type of socialism called Marxism; co-author of The Communist Manifesto.

Socialism

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

Social Darwinism

The application of Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution and "survival of the fittest" to human societies, particularly as a justification for imperialist expansion.

White Man’s Burden

The idea that Europeans had a moral obligation to civilize non-European peoples, often used as a justification for imperialism.

Sepoy Rebellion

An 1857 rebellion of Hindu and Muslim soldiers against the British in India.

Berlin Conference

A meeting in 1884-1885 at which representatives of European nations agreed upon rules for the European colonization of Africa.

Extraterritorial Rights

An exemption of foreign residents from the laws of a country.

Taiping Rebellion

A mid-19th century rebellion against the Qing Dynasty in China, led by Hong Xiuquan.

Open Door Policy

A policy proposed by the United States in 1899, under which all nations would have equal opportunities to trade in China.

Boxer Rebellion

A 1900 revolt in China, aimed at ending foreign influence in the country.

Treaty of Kanagawa

An 1854 agreement between the United States and Japan, which opened two Japanese ports to U.S. ships and allowed the United States to set up an embassy in Japan.

Meiji Era

The period of Japanese history from 1867 to 1912, during which the country was ruled by Emperor Mutsuhito and modernized rapidly.

Militarism

A policy of glorifying military power and keeping a standing army always prepared for war.

Trench Warfare

A form of warfare in which opposing armies fight each other from trenches dug in the battlefield.

14 Points

A series of proposals in which U.S. President Woodrow Wilson outlined a plan for achieving a lasting peace after World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

The peace treaty signed by Germany and the Allied powers after World War I, which included the War Guilt Clause and established the League of Nations.

Bolshevik Revolution

The November 1917 revolution in Russia that overthrew the provisional government and brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power.

Five Years Plans

Plans outlined by Joseph Stalin in 1928 for the development of the Soviet Union's economy.

Collectivization

A process under Stalin where the government seized privately owned farms and combined them into large, government-owned collective farms.

Kulaks

A class of wealthy peasants in the Soviet Union who were eliminated by the Soviet government during Stalin's reign.

Fascism

A political movement that promotes an extreme form of nationalism, a denial of individual rights, and a dictatorial one-party rule.

Appeasement

The making of concessions to an aggressor in order to avoid war.

Blitzkrieg

"Lightning war"—a form of warfare in which surprise attacks with fast-moving airplanes are followed by massive attacks with infantry forces.

Nuremberg Laws

Laws passed in 1935 that deprived Jews of their rights to German citizenship and forbade marriages between Jews and non-Jews.

Final Solution

Hitler's program of systematically killing the entire Jewish people.

Truman Doctrine

A U.S. policy of giving economic and military aid to free nations threatened by internal or external opponents, announced by President Harry Truman in 1947.

Marshall Plan

A U.S. program of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after World War II.

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization—a defensive military alliance formed in 1949 by ten Western European nations, the United States, and Canada.

Warsaw Pact

A military alliance formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and seven Eastern European countries.

Glasnost

A Soviet policy of openness to the free flow of ideas and information, introduced in 1985 by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Perestroika

A restructuring of the Soviet economy to permit more local decision making, begun by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985.

Mao Zedong

Leader of the Communist Party in China who established the People's Republic of China and led the Cultural Revolution.

Long March

A 6,000-mile journey made in 1934-1935 by Chinese Communists fleeing from Jiang Jieshi’s Nationalist forces.

Deng Xiaoping

A Chinese leader who supported moderate economic policies and introduced the Four Modernizations.

Balfour Declaration

A 1917 statement by the British government that supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Ayatollah Khomeini

The conservative Islamic leader who led the 1979 Iranian Revolution and established an Islamic state in Iran.