AP World Chapter 22

mechanization

In agriculture, the replacement of human labor with technology or machines.

megalopolis

a region in which several large cities and surrounding areas grow together

proletariat

working class

entrepreneur

A person who starts up and takes on the risk of a business

industrialization

The development of industries for the machine production of goods.

laissez-faire

Idea that government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs.

positivism

the belief that knowledge should be derived from scientific observation

dissemination

the act of spreading widely; scattering

socialism

a political theory advocating state ownership of industry

precarious

Dangerous; risky; lacking in security or stability

Industrial Revolution

A period of rapid growth in the use of machines in manufacturing and production that began in the mid-1700s

agricultural revolution

The time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering

mass production

Process of making large quantities of a product quickly and cheaply

Josiah Wedgwood

English industrialist whose pottery works were the first to produce fine-quality pottery by industrial methods.

division of labor

Division of work into a number of separate tasks to be performed by different workers

Richard Arkwright

Invented the water frame

Crystal Palace

Building erected in London, for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Made of iron and glass, like a gigantic greenhouse, it was a symbol of the industrial age.

steam engine

an engine that uses the expansion or rapid condensation of steam to generate power.

James Watt

Invented the steam engine

electric telegraph

Device invented by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1836 that transmits coded messages along a wire over long distances; the first electronic communications device

mercantilism

An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought

Muhammad Ali

Leader of Egyptian modernization in the early nineteenth century. He ruled Egypt as an Ottoman governor, but had imperial ambitions. His descendants ruled Egypt until overthrown in 1952.

enclosure movement in England

Landowners began to enclose their estates, throwing peasant farmers off their land and turning them into wage laborers, forming a working class.

Benjamin Disraeli

A British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. Only Prime Minister of Jewish heritage. He played an instrumental role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party after the Corn Laws schism of 1846.

Zollverein

The name of the free trade zone that German states created in the early 19th century, decades prior to their unification.