Vocabulary #8 - AP World History: Modern

Vocabulary terms and definitions from AP World History: Modern Vocabulary List #8 covering economic, political, and social developments of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.

Consumer goods

Any tangible commodity produced and subsequently purchased to satisfy the current wants and perceived needs of the buyer. A marked increase in the consumption and variety of consumer goods by individuals from different economic and social backgrounds is a key effect of the Industrial Revolution.

Duma

The Russian parliament.

Dutch East India Company

Trading company founded in the Dutch Republic (present-day Netherlands) in 1602 to protect that state’s trade in the Indian Ocean. As a result of corruption and debt it was dissolved in 1799 and control in Indonesia and Southeast Asia shifted to the Dutch government.

Economic Imperialism

Control of a country’s economy by the businesses of another nation.

Free trade

Policy by which a government does not discriminate against imports or interfere with exports by applying tariffs (to imports) or subsidies (to exports). Free trade came to what would become the United States as a result of the American Revolutionary War and China as a result of the Treaty of Nanking (1842).

Great Trek

The emigration of some 12,000 to 14,000 Boers from Cape Colony in South Africa between 1835 and the early 1840s, in rebellion against the policies of the British government and in search of fresh pasturelands. It is regarded by Afrikaners as a central event of their 19th-century history and the origin of their nationhood.

Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)

Established in 1865 to finance trade between Europe and Asia. Initially founded in the British colony of Hong Kong, it benefitted from the opening of China to trade, including the opium trade.

Indian National Congress

Political party that became the leader of the Indian nationalist movement.

Infrastructure

Basic physical systems of a business or nation—transportation, communication, sewage, water, and electric systems are all examples. These systems tend to be high-cost investments and are vital to a country's economic development and prosperity.

Limited liability

Condition under which the loss that an owner (shareholder) of a business firm may incur is limited to the amount of capital invested by him in the business and does not extend to his personal assets. Acceptance of this principle enabled business concerns to mobilize large amounts of capital from a wide variety of investors unwilling to risk their entire personal fortunes.

Manifest Destiny

Concept of U.S. territorial expansion westward to the Pacific Ocean that saw the occupation of the rest of the continent as a divine right of the American people. The term was used to justify the U.S. annexation of Oregon, New Mexico, and California and later U.S. involvement in Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines.

Marathas (Maratha Empire or the Maratha Confederacy)

Indian power that existed from 1674 to 1818 and ruled over a large area of the Indian sub-continent. Credited to a large extent for ending Mughal rule in India.

Marxism

A body of doctrine developed by Karl Marx and, to a lesser extent, by Friedrich Engels in the mid-19th century. Originally consisted of three related ideas: a philosophical anthropology, a theory of history, and an economic and political program, and became the doctrine of many communist parties.

Meiji Restoration

The restoration of the Meiji emperor in Japan in 1868 that began a program of industrialization and centralization of Japan following the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Monroe Doctrine

(1823) Policy issued by the United States in which it declared that the Western Hemisphere was off limits to colonization by other powers.

Palm oil

Edible vegetable oil derived from the fruit of the oil palms, primarily the African oil palm. By around 1870, palm oil constituted the primary export of some West African countries.

Proletariat

In Marxist theory, the class of workers in an industrial society.

Radicalism

Western European political philosophy during the nineteenth century; advocated democracy and reforms favoring lower classes.

Raj

In many Indian languages, it literally means Prince or Royalty though is often used to mean empire; frequently used in reference to the Mughal Raj and the British Raj: the period of direct colonial rule of India by the British Empire.

Revolutions of 1848

Democratic and nationalistic revolutions, most of them unsuccessful, that swept through Europe.

Second Industrial Revolution

Developments in steel, chemicals & petroleum, precision machinery, and electricity/electronics that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Self-Strengthening Movement

A late nineteenth century movement in which the Chinese modernized their army and encouraged Western investment in factories and railways.

Sepoys / Sepoy Rebellion

South Asian soldiers who served in the British army in India / 1857 revolt of Indian soldiers against the British caused by a military practice in violation of the Muslim and Hindu faiths.

Settler colonies

Distinct type of colonialism that functions through the replacement of indigenous populations with an invasive settler society that, over time, develops a distinctive identity and sovereignty.

Seven Years’ War

(1756-1763) Conflict fought in Europe and its overseas colonies; in North America, also known as the French and Indian War.

Siam

Southeast Asian nation (modern day Thailand) ruled by an absolute monarch. Never formally colonized, it was influenced by British colonies to the west (Burma and India) and French colonies to the east (French Indochina). Its capital was Bangkok, its economy was based on rice production, and it employed Western technical advisers and developed a legal system along Western lines.

Social Darwinism

The application of Darwin’s philosophy of natural selection to human society.

Socialism

Economic and political philosophy based on the idea that the benefits of economic activity should be equitably distributed throughout a society.

Sokoto Caliphate

West African Empire that became a part of northern Nigeria. Founded by the charismatic Fulani Islamic scholar and political leader Usman dan Fodio upon his conquest of the Hausa people.

Stock market

Financial instrument/place where investors buy and sell shares in public companies with the advantage that they provide a free flow of capital to finance industrial expansion.

System of Checks and Balances

Constitutional system in which each branch of government places limits on the power of other branches.

Taiping Rebellion

(1853-1864) Revolt in southern China against the Qing Empire.

Transnational business

A commercial enterprise that operates substantial facilities, does business in more than one country, and does not consider any particular country its national home.

Treaty of Nanking

(1842) Treaty ending the Opium War that ceded Hong Kong to the British.

Unilever

Corporation that developed palm oil plantations in West Africa and the Congo region of Africa. Backed by King Leopold's colonial forces of Belgium and financed by the Lever brothers of Britain, it would become one of the world's largest food corporations.