AP World - Units 5 and 6 Vocab

American Revolution

successful rebellion against British rule conducted by the European settlers in the 13 colonies of British North America, starting in 1775; a conservative revolution whose success preserved property rights and class distinctions but established republican government in place of monarchy

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

charter of political liberties, drawn up by the French National Assembly in 1789, that proclaimed the equal rights of all male citizens; the declaration gave expression to the essential outlook of the French Revolution and became the preamble to the French constitution completed in 1791

French Revolution

massive upheaval of French society (1789-1815) that overthrew the monarchy; ended the legal privileges of the nobility, and for a time outlawed the Catholic Church; proceeded in stages, becoming increasingly radical and violent until the period known as the Terror in 1793-1794, after which it became more conservative, especially under Napoleon Bonaparte

Maximilien Robespierre

leader of the French Revolution during the Terror; his Committee of Public Safety executed tens of thousands of enemies of the revolution until he was arrested and guillotined

Napoleon Bonaparte

French head of state and general; preserved much of the French Revolution under a military dictatorship and was responsible for the spread of revolutionary ideals through his conquest of much of Europe

Haitian Revolution

only fully successful slave rebellion in world history; the uprising in the French Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue (later renamed Haiti, which means "mountainous" or "rugged" in the native Taino language) was sparked by the French revolution and led to the establishment of an independent state after a long and bloody war (1791-1804); first leader was Toussaint Louverture, a former enslaved person

Latin American revolutions

series of risings in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of Latin America (1808-1825) that established the independence of new states from European rule but that for the most part retained the privileges of the elites despite efforts at more radical social change by the lower classes

Hidalgo-Morelos rebellion

socially radical peasant rebellion in Mexico (1810) led by the priests Miguel Hidalgo and Jose Morelos

Tupac Amaru

leader of a Native American rebellion in Peru in the early 1780's, claiming the last Inca emperor as an ancestor

Great Jamaica Revolt

slave rebellion in the British West Indies (1831-1832) in which around 60,000 enslaved people attacked several hundred plantations; inspired by the Haitian revolution, the discontent of the enslaved population and the brutality of the British response helped sway the British public to support the abolition of slavery

abolitionist movement

international movement condemned slavery as morally repugnant and contributed much to ending slavery in the Western world during the 19th century; the movement was especially prominent in Britain and the US beginning in the late 18th century

nationalism

focusing of citizens' loyalty on the notion that they are part of a "nation" that merits an independent political life, with a unique culture, territory, and common experience; 1st became a prominent element of political culture in 19th century Europe and the Americas

Vindication of the Rights of Women

written in 1792 by Mary Wollstonecraft, this tract was one of the earliest expressions of feminist consciousness

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

leading figure of the early women's rights movement in the US; at the 1st Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, she drafted a statement paraphrasing the Declaration of Independence, stating that men and women were created equal

maternal feminism

movement that claimed that women have value in society not because of an abstract notion of equality but because women have a distinctive and vital role as mothers; its exponents argued that women have the right to intervene in civil and political life because of their duty to watch over the future of their children

steam engine

great breakthrough of the Industrial Revolution, was coal-fired and provided an almost limitless source of power and could be used to drive any number of machines as well as locomotives and ships; the introduction of this allowed a hitherto inimagined increase in productivity and made the Industrial Revolution possible

British textile industry

site of the initial technological breakthroughs of the Industrial Revolution in 18th century Britain, where multiple innovations transformed cotton textile production, resulting in an enormous increase in output

middle-class society

British social stratum developed in 19th century, composed of small businessmen, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, and other professionals required in an industrial society; politically liberal, they favored constitutional government, private property, free trade, and social reform within limits; had ideas of thrift, hard work, rigid morality, "respectability," and cleanliness

ideology of domesticity

set of ideas and values that defined the ideal role of middle-class women in 19th century Europe, focusing their activity on homemaking, child rearing, charitable endeavors, and "refined" activities as the proper sphere for women

lower middle class

social stratum that developed in Britain in the 19th century and that consisted of people employed in the service sector as clerks, salespeople, secretaries, police officers, and the like; by 1900, this group made up about 20% of Britain's population

laboring classes

majority of Britain's 19th century population, which included manual workers in the mines, ports, factories, construction sites, workshops, and farms of Britain's industrializing and urbanizing society; this class suffered the most and at least initially gained the least from the transformations of the Industrial Revolutions

Karl Marx

most influential proponent of socialism, was a German expatriate in England who predicted working-class revolution as the key to creating an ideal communist future

Labour Party

British working class political party established in the 1890's and dedicated to reforms and a peaceful transition to socialism, in time providing a viable alternative to the revolutionary emphasis of Marxism

socialism in the United States

fairly minor political movement in the US; at its height in 1912, it gained 6% of the vote for its presidential candidate

Progressives

followers of an American political movement in the period around 1900 that advocated reform measures such as wages-and-hours legislation to correct the ills of industrialization

Russian Revolution of 1905

spontaneous rebellion that erupted in Russia after the country's defeat at the hands of Japan in 1905; the revolution was suppressed, but it forced the government to make substantial reforms

caudillos

military strongmen who seized control of a government in 19th century Latin America, and were frequently replaced

Mexican Revolution

long and bloody war (1910-1920) in which Mexican reformers from the middle class joined with workers and peasants to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Diaz and create a new, much more democratic political order

dependent development

term used to describe Latin America's economic growth in the 19th century, which was largely financed by foreign capital and dependent on European and North American prosperity and decisions; also viewed as a new form of colonialism

Taiping Uprising

massive Chinese rebellion against the ruling Qing dynasty that devastated much of the country between 1850 and 1864; it was based on the millenarian teachings of Hong Xiuquan

Opium Wars

2 wars fought between Western powers and China after China tried to restrict the importation of foreign goods, especially opium; China lost both wars and was forced to make major concessions

Commissioner Lin Zexu

royal official charged with ending the opium trade in China; his concerted efforts to seize and destroy opium imports provoked the Opium Wars

unequal treaties

series of 19th century treaties in which China made major concessions to Western powers

informal empires

term commonly used to describe areas that were dominated by Western powers in the 19th century but retained their own governments and a measure of independence

self-strengthening

China's program of internal reform in the 1860's and 1870's, based on vigorous application of traditional principles and limited borrowing from the West

Boxer Uprising

antiforeign movement led by Chinese militia organizations, in which large numbers of Europeans and Chinese Christians were killed; resulted in military intervention by Western powers and the imposition of a huge payment as punishment

Chinese revolution of 1911-1912

collapse of China's imperial order, officially at the hands of organized revolutionaries but for the most part under the weight of the troubles that had overwhelmed the imperial government for the previous century

"the sick man of Europe"

Western Europe's description of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries, based on the empire's economic and military weakness and its apparent inability to prevent the shrinking of its territories

Tanzimat

important reform measures undertaken in the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1839; means "reorganization"

young Ottomans

group of would-be reformers in the mid-19th century Ottoman Empire that included lower level officials, military officers, and writers; they urged the extension of westernizing reforms to the political system

Sultan Abd al-Hamid II

Ottoman sultan who accepted a reform constitution but then quickly suppressed it, ruling as a despotic monarch for the rest of his long reign

young Turks

movement of Turkish military and civilian elites that advocated a militantly secular public life and a Turkish national identity; came to power through a coup in 1908

Tokugawa Japan

a period of internal peace in Japan that prevented civil war but did not fully unify the country; led by military rulers, or shoguns, from the Tokugawa family, who established a "closed door" policy toward European encroachments

Meiji Restoration

The political takeover of Japan in 1868 by a group of young samurai from southern Japan; the samurai eliminated the shogun and claimed they were restoring to power the young emperor, Meiji; the new government was committed to saving Japan from foreign domination by drawing upon what the modern West had to offer to transform Japanese society

Russo-Japanese War

fought over rival ambitions in Korea and Manchuria, this conflict ended in a Japanese victory, establishing Japan as a formidable military competitor in East Asia; the war marked the 1st time that an Asian country defeated a European power in battle, and it precipitated the Russian Revolution of 1905

scientific racism

new kind of racism that emerged in 19th century that increasingly used the prestige and apparatus of science to support European racial prejudices and preferences

civilizing mission

European understanding of empire that emphasized Europeans' duty to "civilize inferior races" by bringing Christianity, good government, education, work discipline, and production for the market to colonized peoples, while suppressing "native customs," such as polygamy, that ran counter to Western ways of living

social Darwinism

an outlook that suggested that European dominance inevitably led to the displacement or destruction of backward peoples or "unfit" races; this view made imperialism, war, and aggression seem both natural and progressive

scramble for Africa

the process by which European countries partitioned the continent of Africa among themselves in the period 1875-1900

settler colonies

imperial territories in which Europeans settled permanently in substantial numbers; examples include British North America, Portuguese Brazil, Spanish Mexico, and Peru, Australia, New Zealand, Algeria, and South Africa

Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858

massive uprising of parts of India against British rule caused by the introduction of the colony's military forces of new cartridge smeared with animal fat from cows and pigs, which caused strife among Muslims, who regarded pigs as unclean, and Hindus, who venerated cows; came to express a variety of grievances against the colonial order

Congo Free State

private colony ruled personally by Leopold II, king of Belgium; was the site of widespread forced labor and killing to ensure the collection of wild rubber; by 1908 these abuses led to reforms that transferred control to the Belgian government

cultivation system

system of forced labor used in the Netherlands East Indies in the 19th century; peasants were required to cultivate at least 20 percent of their land in cash crops, such as sugar or coffee, for sale at low and fixed prices to government contractors, who then earned enormous profits from resale of the crops

cash crop production

agricultural production of crops for sale in the market rather than for consumption by the farmers themselves; operated at the level of both individual farmers and large scale plantations

female circumcision

the excision of a pubescent girl's clitoris and adjacent genital tissue as part of initiation rites marker her coming-of-age; missionary efforts to end the practice sparked a widespread exodus from mission churches in colonial Kenya

Africanization of Christianity

process that occured in non-Muslim Africa, where many who converted to Christianity sought to incorporate older traditions, values, and practices into their understanding of Christianity; often expressed in the creation of churches and schools that operated independently of the missionary and colonial establishment

Hinduism

religion based on the many beliefs, practices, sects, rituals, and philosophies in India; in the thinking of 19th century Indian reformers, it was expressed as a distinctive religion, an Indian religion wholly equivalent to Christianity

Vivekananda

leading religious figures of 19th century India; advocate of a revived Hinduism and its mission to reach out to the spiritually impoverished

African identity

new way of thinking about belonging that emerged by the end of the 19th century among well educated Africans; it was influenced by the common experience of colonial oppression and European racism and was an effort to revive the cultural self confidence of their people

Edward Blyden

prominent West African scholar and political leader who argued that each civilization, including that of Africa, has its own unique contribution to make to the world

idea of "tribe"

new sense of clearly defined ethnic identities that emerged in 20th century Africa, often initiated by Europeans intent on showing the primitive nature of their colonial subjects, but widely adopted by Africans themselves as a way of responding to the upheavals of modern life