Unit 6 Reading Terms

Sepoy

An indigenous soldier in South Asia, especially in the service of the British

British raj

The rule over much of South Asia between 1765 and 1947 by the East India Company and then by a British government

Durbar

An elaborate display of political power and wealth in British India in the nineteenth century, ostensibly in imitation of the pageantry of the Mughal Empire

Indian Civil Service

The elite professional class of officials who administered the government of British India. Originally composed exclusively of well-educated British men, it gradually added qualified Indians

Indian National Conference

A movement and political party founded in 1885 to demand greater Indian participation in government. Its membership was middle class, and its demands were modest until World War I. Led after 1920 by Mohandas K. Gandhi, it appealed increasingly to the poor, and it organized mass protests demanding self-government and independence

Benito Juárez

President of Mexico (1858–1872). Born in poverty in Mexico, he was educated as a lawyer and rose to become chief justice of the Mexican supreme court and then president. He led Mexico’s resistance to a French invasion in 1862 and the installation of Maximilian as emperor

Tecumseh

Shawnee leader who attempted to organize an Amerindian confederacy to prevent the loss of additional territory to American settlers. He became an ally of the British in the War of 1812 and died in battle

Caste War

A rebellion of the Maya people against the government of Mexico in 1847 that nearly returned the Yucatán to Maya rule. Some Maya rebels retreated to unoccupied territories, where they held out until 1901