APW Unit 5: 1750-1900

abolitionist movement

An international movement that between approximately 1780 and 1890 succeeded in condemning slavery as morally repugnant

and abolishing it in much of the world; the

movement was especially prominent in Britain and

the United States.

Creoles

Native-born elites in the Spanish colonies.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Document drawn up by the French National

Assembly in 1789 that proclaimed the equal rights

of all men; the declaration ideologically launched

the French Revolution.

Declaration of the Rights of Woman

Short work written by the French feminist Olympe de Gouges in 1791 that was modeled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and that made the argument that the equality proclaimed by the French

revolutionaries must also include women.

Estates-General

French representative assembly called into session by Louis XVI to address pressing problems and out of which the French Revolution emerged; the three estates were the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners.

Freetown

West African settlement in what is now

Sierra Leone at which British naval commanders

freed Africans they rescued from illegal slave ships.

French Revolution

Massive dislocation of French

society (1789-1815) that overthrew the monarchy,

destroyed most of the French aristocracy, and

launched radical reforms of society that were lost

again, though only in part, under Napoleon's imperial

rule and after the restoration of the monarchy.

gens de couleur libres

Literally, "free people of color";

term used to describe freed slaves and people of

mixed racial background in Saint Domingue on the

eve of the Haitian Revolution.

Haiti

Name that revolutionaries gave to the former

French colony of Saint Domingue; the term means

"mountainous" or "rugged" in the Taino language.

Haitian Revolution

The only fully successful slave

rebellion in world history; the uprising in the French

Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue (later renamed

Haiti) was sparked by the French Revolution and led

to the establishment of an independent state after a

long and bloody war (1791-1804).

Hidalgo-Morelos Revolution

Socially radical peasant insurrection that began in Mexico in 1810 and that was led by the priests

Latin American Revolutions

Series of risings in the Spanish colonies of Latin America (1810-1826) that established the independence of new states from

Spanish rule but that for the most part retained the

privileges of the elites despite efforts at more radical

social rebellion by the lower classes.

Toussaint L'Ouverture

First leader of the Haitian

Revolution, a former slave (1743-1803) who wrote

the first constitution of Haiti and served as the first

governor of the newly independent state.

Maternal feminism

Movement that claimed that

women have value in society not because of an

abstract notion of equality but because women have

a distinctive and vital role as mothers; its exponents

argued that women have the right to intervene in

civil and political life because of their duty to watch

over the future of their children.

Napoleon Bonaparte

French head of state from 1799 until his abdication in 1814 (and again briefly in 1815); preserved much of the French Revolution under an autocratic system and was

responsible for the spread of revolutionary ideals

through his conquest of much of Europe.

Nation

A clearly defined territory whose people have

a sense of common identity and destiny, thanks

to ties of blood, culture, language, or common

experience.

Nationalism

The focusing of citizens' loyalty on the

notion that they are part of a "nation" with a

unique culture, territory, and destiny; first became a

prominent element of political culture in the nineteenth

century.

North American Revolution

Successful rebellion conducted by the colonists of parts of North America (not Canada) against British rule (1775-1787); a conservative revolution whose success assured property rights but established republican government in place of monarchy.

Petit Blancs

The "little" (or poor) white population of

Saint Domingue, which played a significant role in

the Haitian Revolution.

Seneca Falls Conference

The first organized women's rights conference

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Leading figure of the early women's rights movement in the United States (1815-1902).

the Terror

Term used to describe the revolutionary

violence in France in 1793-1794, when radicals

under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre

executed tens of thousands of people deemed enemies

of the revolution.

Third Estate

In prerevolutionary France, the term

used for the 98 percent of the population that was

neither clerical nor noble, and for their representatives

at the Estates General; in 1789, it declared itself a National Assembly and launched the French Revolution.

Tupac Amaru

The last Inca emperor; in the 1780s, a

Native American rebellion against Spanish control

of Peru took place in his name.

Bourgeoisie

Term that Karl Marx used to describe

the owners of industrial capital; originally meant

"townspeople."

British Royal Society

Association of scientists established in England in 1660 that was dedicated to the promotion of "useful knowledge."

Caste War of Yucatan

Long revolutionary struggle (1847-1901) of the Maya people of Mexico against European and mestizo intruders.

Caudillo

A military strongman who seized control of a

government in nineteenth-century Latin America.

Crimean War

Major international conflict (1854-1856) in which British and French forces defeated Russia; the defeat prompted reforms within Russia.

Dependent development

Term used to describe Latin America's economic growth in the nineteenth century, which was largely financed by foreign capital and dependent on European and North American prosperity and decisions.

Porfirio Diaz

Mexican dictator from 1876 to 1911 who was eventually overthrown in a long and bloody revolution.

Duma

The elected representative assembly grudgingly created in Russia by Tsar Nicholas II in response to the 1905 revolution.

Sigmund Freud

Austrian doctor and the father of

modern psychoanalysis (1856-1939); his theories

about the operation of the human mind and emotions

remain influential today

Labour Party

British working-class political party

established in the 1890s and dedicated to reforms and

a peaceful transition to socialism, in time providing a

viable alternative to the revolutionary emphasis of

Marxism.

Latin American Export Boom

Large-scale increase

in Latin American exports (mostly raw materials

and foodstuffs) to industrializing countries in the second half of the nineteenth century, made possible

by major improvements in shipping; the boom

mostly benefited the upper and middle classes.

Lenin

Pen name of Russian Bolshevik Vladimir

Ulyanov (1870-1924), who was the main leader of

the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Lower middle class

Social stratum that developed in

Britain in the nineteenth century and that consisted

of people employed in the service sector as clerks,

salespeople, secretaries, police officers, and the like;

by 1900, this group comprised about 20 percent of

Britain's population.

Karl Marx

German expatriate in England who advocated working-class revolution as the key to creating an ideal communist future.

Mexican Revolution

Long and bloody war (1911-1920) in which Mexican reformers from the middle class joined with workers and peasants to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Díaz and create a new, much more democratic political order.

Middle class values

Belief system that developed in Britain in the nineteenth century; it emphasized thrift, hard work, rigid moral behavior, cleanliness, and "respectability."

Model T

The first automobile affordable enough for

a mass market; produced by American industrialist

Henry Ford.

Robert Owens

Socialist thinker and wealthy mill owner (1771-1858) who created an ideal industrial community at New Lanark, Scotland.

Peter the Great

Tsar of Russia (r. 1689-1725) who attempted a massive reform of Russian society in an effort to catch up with the states of Western Europe.

Populism

Late-nineteenth-century American political

movement that denounced corporate interests

of all kinds.

Progressivism

American political movement in the

period around 1900 that advocated reform measures

to correct the ills of industrialization.

Proletariat

Term that Karl Marx used to describe the

industrial working class; originally used in ancient

Rome to describe the poorest part of the urban

population.

Russian Revolution of 1905

Spontaneous rebellion that erupted in Russia after the country's defeat at the hands of Japan; the revolution was suppressed, but it forced the government to make

substantial reforms.

Socialism in the United States

Fairly minor political movement in the United States, at its height in 1912 gaining 6 percent of the vote for its presidential candidate.

Steam engine

Mechanical device in which the steam

from heated water builds up pressure to drive a piston,

rather than relying on human or animal muscle

power; the introduction of this item allowed a hitherto unimagined increase in productivity and made the Industrial Revolution possible.

Abd al-Hamid II

Ottoman sultan (r. 1876-1909) who accepted a reform constitution but then quickly suppressed it, ruling as a reactionary autocrat for the rest of his long reign.

Boxer Rebellion

Rising of Chinese militia organizations

in 1900 in which large numbers of Europeans

and Chinese Christians were killed

China 1911

The collapse of China's imperial order,

officially at the hands of organized revolutionaries

but for the most part under the weight of the

troubles that had overwhelmed the government for

the previous half-century.

Daimyo

Feudal lords of Japan who retained substantial

autonomy under the Tokugawa shogunate and only lost their social preeminence in the Meiji restoration.

Informal empire

Term commonly used to describe areas that were dominated by Western powers in the

nineteenth century but that retained their own governments and a measure of independence, e.g.,

Latin America and China.

Meiji Restoration

The overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan in 1868, restoring power at long last to the emperor

Matthew Perry

U.S. navy commodore who in 1853

presented the ultimatum that led Japan to open itself

to more normal relations with the outside world.

Opium Wars

Two wars fought between Western

powers and China (1839-1842 and 1856-1858)

after China tried to restrict the importation of foreign

goods; China lost both wars

and was forced to make major concessions.

Russo-Japanese War

Ending in a Japanese victory, this war established Japan as a formidable military competitor in East Asia and precipitated the Russian Revolution of 1905.

Samurai

Armed retainers of the Japanese feudal lords,

famed for their martial skills and loyalty; in the

Tokugawa shogunate, they gradually became

an administrative elite, but they did not lose their

special privileges until the Meiji restoration.

Self-strengthening Movement

China's program of internal reform in the 1860s and 1870s, based on vigorous application of Confucian principles and limited borrowing from the West.

Selim III

Ottoman sultan (r. 1789-1807) who attempted significant reforms of his empire, including

the implementation of new military and administrative

structures.

The Sick Man of Europe

Western Europe's unkind nickname for the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a name based on the sultans' inability to prevent Western takeover of many regions and to deal with internal problems; it fails to recognize serious reform efforts in the Ottoman state during this period.

Social Darwinism

An application of the concept of "survival of the fittest" to human history in the nineteenth century.

Taiping Uprising

Massive Chinese rebellion that devastated much of the country between 1850 and 1864; it was based on the millenarian teachings of Hong Xiuquan.

Tanzimat Reforms

Important reform measures undertaken in the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1839; the term means "reorganization."

Tokugawa Shogunate

Rulers of Japan from 1600 to 1868.

Unequal treaties

Series of nineteenth-century treaties in which China made major concessions to Western powers.

Young Ottomans

Group of would-be reformers in the mid-nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire that included lower-level officials, military officers, and writers; they urged the extension of Westernizing reforms to the political system.

Young Turks

Movement of Turkish military and civilian elites that developed ca. 1900, eventually bringing down the Ottoman Empire

Africanization of Christianity

Process that occurred in non-Muslim Africa, where millions who were converted to Christianity sought to maintain older traditions alongside new Christian ideas; many converts continued using protective charms and medicines and consulting local medicine men, and many continued to believe in their old gods and spirits.

Apartheid

Afrikaans term for the system that developed in South Africa of strictly limiting the social and political integration of whites and blacks.

Cash crop agriculture

Agricultural production, often on a large scale, of crops for sale in the market, rather than for consumption by the farmers themselves.

Colonial racism

A pattern of European racism in

their Asian and African colonies that created a great

racial divide between themselves and the natives and

limited native access to education and the civil

service, based especially on pseudo-scientific

notions of naturally superior and inferior races.

Colonial tribalism

A European tendency, especially

in African colonies, to identify and sometimes

invent distinct "tribes" that had often not existed

before, reinforcing European notions that African

societies were primitive.

Leopold II

his rule as private owner of the Congo Free State during much of that time is typically held up as the worst abuse of Europe's second wave of colonization, resulting as it did in millions of deaths.

Cultivation System

System of forced labor used in the Netherlands East Indies in the nineteenth century; peasants were required to cultivate at least 20 percent of their land in cash crops such as sugar or coffee for sale at low and fixed prices to government contractors, who then earned enormous profits from further sale of the crops.

Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858

Massive uprising of much of India against British rule; also called the Indian Mutiny or the Sepoy Mutiny from the fact that the rebellion first broke out among Indian

troops in British employ.

Informal Empires

Term commonly used to describe areas such as Latin America and China that were dominated by Western powers in the nineteenth century but that retained their own governments and a measure of independence.

Invention of tradition

In many colonial states, a process of forging new ways of belonging and self identification that defined and to some extent mythologized the region's past, especially to create broader terms of belonging than had existed before.

Scramble for Africa

Name used for the process of the European countries' partition of the continent of Africa between themselves in the period 1875-1900.

Western educated elite

The main beneficiaries in Asian and African lands colonized by Western powers; schooled in the imperial power's language and practices, they moved into their country's professional classes but ultimately led anticolonial movements as they grew discouraged by their inability to win equal status to the colonizers.