Modern World Midterm

Muhammad Ali

(r. 1805–1848) Ruler of Egypt who initiated a set of modernizing reforms that sought to make it competitive with the great powers.

Napoleon Bonaparte

(1769–1821) General who rose to power in a post revolutionary coup d’état, eventually proclaiming himself emperor of France. He placed security and order ahead of social reform and created a civil legal code. This general expanded his empire through military action, but after his disastrous Russian campaign, the united European powers defeated this general and forced him into exile. He escaped and reassumed command of his army but was later defeated at the Battle of Waterloo.

Bourgeoisie

A French term originally designating non-noble city dwellers (Bürger in German). They sought to be recognized not by birth or aristocratic title but by property and ability. In the nineteenth century, this term came to refer to non-noble property owners, especially those who controlled modern industry. A this person with this term was an individual. We can refer to “(insert term)’s values.” This term refers to the entire class, as in the French class as a whole.

East India Company

(1600–1858) British charter company created to outperform Portuguese and Spanish traders in Asia; in the eighteenth century the company became, in effect, the ruler of a large part of India.

free trade (laissez-faire)

Domestic and international trade unencumbered by tariff barriers, quotas, and fees.

industrial revolution

Gradual accumulation and diffusion of old and new technical knowledge that led to major economic changes in Britain, northwestern Europe, and North America. It resulted in large-scale industry and the harnessing of fossil fuels, which allowed economic growth to outpace the rate of population increase.

Opium Wars

(1839–1842, 1856–1860) Wars fought between the British and Qing China over British trade in opium; the result was that China granted to the British the right to trade in five different ports and ceded Hong Kong to the British.

popular sovereignty

The idea that the power of the state resides in the people.

social contract

The idea, drawn from the writings of British philosopher John Locke, that the law should bind both ruler and people.

Caste War of Yucatán

(1847–1901) Conflict between Indigenous Maya and the Mexican state over Indigenous autonomy and legal equality, which resulted in the Mexican takeover of the Yucatán Peninsula.

Usman dan Fodio

(1754–1817) Fulani Muslim cleric whose visions led him to challenge the Hausa ruling classes, who he believed were insufficiently faithful to Islamic beliefs and practices. His ideas gained support among those who had suffered under the Hausa landlords. In 1804, his supporters and allies overthrew the Hausa in what is today northern Nigeria.

liberalism

Political and social theory that advocates representative government, free trade, and freedom of speech and religion.

Marxism

A current of socialism created by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It stressed the primacy of economics and technology—and, above all, class conflict—in shaping human history. Economic production provided the foundation, the “base” for society, which shaped politics, values, art, and culture (the superstructure). In the modern, industrial era, they believed class conflict boiled down to a two-way struggle between the bourgeoisie (who controlled the means of industrial production) and the proletariat (workers who had only their labor power to sell).

millenarian

Believer (usually religious) in the cataclysmic destruction of a corrupt, fallen society and its replacement by an ideal, utopian future.

proletarians

Industrial wage workers.

Taiping Rebellion

(1850–1864) Rebellion by followers of Hong Xiuquan and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom against the Qing government over the economic and social turmoil caused by the Opium Wars. Despite raising an army of 100,000 rebels, the rebellion was crushed.

Tenskwatawa

(1775–1836) Shawnee prophet who urged disciples to abstain from alcohol and return to traditional customs, reducing dependence on European trade goods and severing connections to Christian missionaries. His message spread to other tribes, raising the specter of a pan-Indigenous confederacy.

utopian socialism

The most visionary of all Restoration-era movements. Utopian socialists like Charles Fourier dreamed of transforming states, workplaces, and human relations and proposed plans to do so.

Wahhabism

Early eighteenth-century reform movement organized by Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who preached the absolute oneness of Allah and a return to the pure Islam of Muhammad.

Mfecane movement

African political revolts in the first half of the nineteenth century that were caused by the expansionist methods of King Shaka of the Zulu people.

Degeneration

Refers to the abandonment of God and the rise of demon worship, meaning idolatry, Confucian rites, Daoism, and Buddhism. These belief systems are portrayed as corruptions that deluded people and led to disobedience against the Heavenly Father.

Charles Darwin

(1809-1882) British scientist who became convinced that the species of organic life had evolved under the uniform pressure of natural laws, not by means of a special, one-time creation as described in the Bible.

Imperialism

Acquisition of new territories by a state and the incorporation of these territories into a political system as subordinate colonies.

limited-liability joint-stock company

Company that mobilized capital from a large number of investors, called shareholders, who were not to be held personally liable for financial losses incurred by the company.

Ghost Dance

American Indian ritual performed in the nineteenth century in the hope of restoring the world to precolonial conditions.

Manifest Destiny

Belief that it was God's will for the American people to expand their territory and political processes across the North American continent.

Meiji Restoration

(1868-1912) Reign of the Meiji Emperor, which was characterized by a new nationalist identity, economic advances, and political transformation.

Natural selection

Charles Darwin's theory that populations grew faster than the food supply, creating a "struggle for existence" among species. In later work he showed how the passing on of individual traits was also determined by what he called sexual selection-according to which the "best" mates are chosen for their strength, beauty, or talents. The outcome: the "fittest" survived to reproduce, while the less adaptable did not.

Raj

British crown's administration of India following the end of the East India Company's rule after the Rebellion of 1857.

Self-Strengthening movement

A movement of reformist Chinese bureaucrats in the latter half of the nineteenth century that attempted to adopt western elements of learning and technological skill while retaining their core Chinese culture.

Steel

An alloy more malleable and stronger than iron that became essential for industries like shipbuilding and railways.

anarchists

Advocates of anarchism, the belief that society should be a free association of its members, not subject to government, laws, or police.

Anglo-Boer War

(1899-1902) A colonial conflict in South Africa between the British and the Afrikaners over the gold-rich Transvaal. In response to the Afrikaners' guerrilla tactics and in order to contain the local population, the British instituted the first concentration camps. Ultimately, Britain won the conflict but at a terrible cost.

Boxer Uprising

(1899-1900) Chinese peasant movement that opposed foreign influence, especially that of Christian missionaries; it was put down after the Boxers were defeated by an army composed mostly of Japanese, Russians, British, French, and Americans.

Indian National Congress

Formed in 1885, a political party deeply committed to constitutional methods, industrialization, and cultural nationalism.

Mexican Revolution

(1910-1920) Conflict fueled by the unequal distribution of land and by disgruntled workers; it erupted when political elites split over the succession of General Porfirio Díaz after decades of his rule. The fight lasted over ten years and cost 1 million lives, but it resulted in widespread reform and a new constitution.

modernism

In the arts, modernism refers to the effort to break with older conventions and seek new ways of seeing and describing the world.

pan movements

Groups that sought to link people across state boundaries in new communities based on ethnicity or, in some cases, religion (for example, pan-Germanism, pan-Islamism, and pan-Slavism).

popular culture

Affordable and accessible forms of art and entertainment available to people at all levels of society.

progressive reformers

Members of the U.S. reform movement in the early twentieth century that aimed to eliminate political corruption, improve working conditions, and regulate the power of large industrial and financial enterprises.

Shanghai School

Late nineteenth-century style of painting characterized by an emphasis on spontaneous brushwork, feeling, and the incorporation of western influences into classical Chinese pieces.

Sun Yat-sen

(1866-1925) Chinese revolutionary and first provisional president of the Republic of China. Sun played an important role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and later founded the Guomindang, the Nationalist Party of China.

syndicalists

Advocates of syndicalism, a movement of workplace associations that included unskilled labor and sought a replacement for capitalism led by workers. They believed those associations, organized in the workplace, rather than traditional political parties and parliaments, should make basic decisions.