Year 8 History Revision: Rights and Revolutions (1500-1900)

Vocabulary terms and historical definitions covering major global transformations between $$1500$$ and $$1900$$, including revolutions, empires, and social movements.

First and Second Estates

The privileged groups in French society who had special advantages and paid very little tax.

Third Estate

The group in French society made up of ordinary people who paid most of the taxes and had very little power.

National Assembly

A group formed by the Third Estate to challenge the king and create a fairer system for France.

$$1789$$

The year the French Revolution began due to unhappiness with unfair treatment, inequality, and high bread prices.

Paternalistic

The belief held by the British that their culture was superior and they had a duty to "civilise" other societies, including India and Africa.

Indian Rebellion of $1857$

An uprising caused by growing tensions, fears of cultural changes, and rumours about cartridges covered in cow fat.

Tenochtitlan

The capital city of the Aztec Empire that was conquered and destroyed by Spanish forces in $1521$.

Smallpox and flu

European diseases that spread among the Aztecs, killing hundreds of thousands who had no immunity.

Berlin Conference

A meeting where European powers took control of African lands without consulting the African people during the Scramble for Africa.

Cecil Rhodes

A man who became very wealthy by controlling approximately $90\%$ of the world’s diamond trade in the late $1800s$.

Maxim gun

An advanced weapon used by European forces to defeat Africans who resisted expansion.

Olaudah Equiano

The author of a powerful $1789$ autobiography that described the cruelty of slavery and the Middle Passage to help end the trade.

Middle Passage

The part of the journey where captured West Africans were taken across the Atlantic to the Americas under cruel conditions.

Ignatius Sancho

An abolitionist who wrote letters to show that African people were intelligent, challenging the racist ideas of the time.

Haitian Revolution ($1791-1804$)

A successful rebellion where enslaved people fought and won their freedom from slavery.

William Wilberforce

The man who led the campaign in the British Parliament to abolish slavery.

Thomas Clarkson

An abolitionist who travelled around Britain collecting and sharing physical evidence of the cruelty of slavery.

$$1807$$

The year Britain abolished the slave trade.

$$1833$$

The year Britain abolished slavery completely.

James Watt

An inventor who, along with wealthy factory owners, benefited greatly from the profits of the Industrial Revolution.

Trade unions

Groups that formed over time to improve working conditions by reducing working hours and increasing safety for laborers.