International Studies and Global History Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering key terms related to globalization, historical colonialism, the Columbian Exchange, race relations, apartheid, decolonization, and the Cold War.

International Studies

The study of global political, economic, and cultural connections.

Globalization

Growing worldwide interconnectedness marked by increased flows between places and changes in how space and time function.

Glocalization

The process where global and local influences occur together simultaneously.

World-Systems Analysis (WSA)

A framework developed by Immanuel Wallerstein that explains the history and development of the modern world over the past 500 years by viewing capitalism as an expansionary global system.

Mini-system

A type of world-system that is dominated primarily by culture.

World-empire

A type of world-system that is dominated primarily by politics.

World-economy

A type of world-system dominated by economics and markets, which forms today's dominant capitalist system.

Core

Economically powerful and industrialized countries in World-Systems Analysis that often control and exploit the economies and resources of peripheral nations.

Semiperiphery

The middle position in the Core–Periphery model of World-Systems Analysis.

Periphery

Weaker countries in the Core–Periphery model whose economies and resources are often controlled or exploited by core countries.

Dependency Theory

The theory that developing countries can remain economically dependent on core countries and large corporations even as they develop.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of diseases, animals, crops, and ideas between the Old World (Europe, Africa, Asia) and the New World (Americas) following Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage.

Quinine

A key anti-malarial compound derived from the Andean cinchona tree that acted as a 'tool of empire' by enabling European colonization in malaria zones.

Homogenocene

The biological homogenization of the planet caused by the global exchange and spread of non-native species.

Colonialism

The conquest and control of another people's land and goods, usually involving physical settlement or occupation by a foreign power.

Imperialism

Broad political and economic control over a dependent territory, which may involve direct government or indirect domination without necessarily including widespread settlement.

Postcolonialism

The enduring legal, economic, and social legacies of colonialism that continue after former colonies gain formal independence.

Neocolonialism

A condition where a country is formally independent and sovereign, but outside powers dominate its economic and political policies.

Bacon's Rebellion (1676)

A 1676 uprising that frightened elite landowners, leading to legal changes that increasingly separated Africans from Europeans and created permanent racial slavery.

Gullah/Geechee Culture

A distinct culture created by the mixing of African and European traditions in the Lowcountry, preserving heritage in language, food, religion, crafts, and folklore.

Stono Rebellion (1739)

A 1739 slave uprising in South Carolina in which more than 60 people died, prompting stricter surveillance and discipline of enslaved people.

Denmark Vesey

A formerly enslaved Black carpenter who purchased his freedom and was tried and executed in 1822 for allegedly planning a massive slave revolt in Charleston.

Indirect Rule

A system of colonial governance primarily used by Britain ('rule by proxy') that governed through local chiefs and traditional leaders.

Direct Rule

A system of colonial governance primarily used by France, Belgium, Germany, and Portugal ('rule by assimilation') that exercised centralized control over colonial populations.

Settler Colonialism

A form of colonialism where large numbers of Europeans permanently settled in the territory, relying on economic exploitation and political oppression.

Congo Free State

A territory personally ruled by King Leopold II of Belgium from 1885 to 1908 that used severe terror, forced labor, and mutilation to enforce rubber extraction quotas.

1913 Natives Land Act

A South African law that allocated 87% of the nation's land to the white minority, laying the territorial foundation for apartheid.

Apartheid

A official system of total racial segregation implemented in South Africa from 1948 to 1994, derived from the Afrikaans word for 'apartness'.

Petty Apartheid

Laws under apartheid designed to control everyday physical interactions by segregating public spaces, transportation, and marriages.

Grand Apartheid

Large-scale structural apartheid policies that classified individuals by race, designated forced residential zones, and removed citizenship rights.

Pass Laws Act (1952)

An apartheid measure requiring Black South Africans over age 16 to carry passbooks that strictly regulated where they could live, work, and travel.

Bantustans

Impoverished ethnic 'homelands' created under the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 to which Black South Africans were forcibly assigned.

Freedom Charter

A 1955 anti-apartheid manifesto adopted in South Africa that declared 'The People Shall Govern!'

Black Consciousness Movement

An anti-apartheid movement during the 1960s–70s led by Steve Biko focusing on psychological liberation, Black pride, and political unity.

Soweto Uprising

A June 16, 1976 student-led protest in Soweto against discriminatory Afrikaans education policies that faced lethal police resistance.