U1: Foundations

Imperialism

The policy of extending a nation's authority and power over other cultures and territories through military force or economic dominance.

Colonization

The physical process whereby a powerful nation establishes a settlement and direct administrative control over a foreign territory and its people.

Berlin Conference

An 1884–1885 meeting where European powers carved up and regulated the colonization of Africa without any input from African leaders.

Social Darwinism

The distorted application of biological evolution theories to human societies, used to justify imperialism by claiming Western nations were naturally superior to colonized peoples.

Industrial Revolution

A period of rapid technological shift to mechanized manufacturing, which dramatically increased Europe's demand for raw materials and foreign markets.

Direct Colonial Rule

A centralized form of governance where foreign imperial officials are sent to physically run the colony's government, replacing local leadership entirely.

Indirect Colonial Rule

A governance strategy where the imperial power relies on pre-existing native leaders and local political structures to enforce colonial laws.

Cold War

The decades-long state of geopolitical tension and ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union following World War II.

First World

The bloc of democratic, highly industrialized, capitalist nations aligned with the United States during the Cold War.

Second World

The bloc of industrialized communist nations aligned with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Third World

The group of developing, often newly independent nations that chose to remain non-aligned with either major superpower bloc during the Cold War.

Proxy War

A conflict where opposing superpowers back different sides in a third country's war to advance their own strategic interests without fighting each other directly.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

A military deterrent doctrine stating that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two opposing sides would result in the complete annihilation of both attacker and defender.

Self-determination

The fundamental political principle that a population or nation has the right to choose its own government and political status without outside interference.

Decolonization

The historical process by which colonies achieved independence and broke free from the political and economic control of European empires.