18th and 19th Century Revolutions, Ideologies, and Industrialization

Vocabulary flashcards covering key 18th- and 19th-century political philosophies, reform movements, nationalist uprisings, and the First and Second Industrial Revolutions.

Abolition of Slavery

An international movement arguing that slavery was morally unacceptable, violated natural rights, and was economically unnecessary in an industrial and capitalist society; it was galvanized by the Haitian Revolution and the Great Jamaica Revolt (1831).

Abolition of Serfdom

Tsar Alexander II's decree freeing approximately 23 million serfs bound to land and nobles due to fear of rebellion, economic inefficiency, and moral pressure, transferring land to peasants in exchange for 49 years of redemption dues.

Feminism

An intellectual and political movement emerging in the late 18th and 19th centuries asserting that women possess individual rights equal to those of men, developing out of other reform movements such as abolition, temperance, and socialism.

Great Jamaica Revolt

An 1831 uprising of approximately 60,000 enslaved people in Jamaica led by Samuel Sharpe, also known as the Baptist War; it began as a general strike and escalated into an armed rebellion before being suppressed by British colonial forces.

Maori Nationalism

A 19th-century movement by the indigenous Maori of New Zealand resisting British colonialism and land confiscation through diplomacy, armed resistance (the New Zealand Wars, 1845–1872), and state-building via the Kingitanga (Maori King Movement).

Olympe de Gouges' Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Female Citizen (1791)

A document written in response to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen arguing that the French Revolution had betrayed women by proclaiming universal rights that applied only to men.

Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

An early feminist philosophical work arguing that women are rational beings entitled to equal education and political rights, and that denying women education creates the very weakness used to justify their exclusion.

Maternal Feminism

A strain of feminist thought, prominent in France, asserting that women have a right and civic duty to participate in public and political life based on their essential role as mothers raising the next generation.

Propaganda Movement

The first organized Filipino nationalist movement, led by European-educated mestizo and creole Filipinos, which used journalism and media to advocate for equal rights and full incorporation into Spain as a province.

Seneca Falls Convention

The first organized women's rights convention in U.S. history, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the 'Declaration of Sentiments' based on the Declaration of Independence to demand legal and political equality for women.

Lola Rodriguez de Tio

A Puerto Rican poet and independence activist exiled multiple times by Spanish colonial authorities for using her writings, including the revolutionary lyrics to 'La Borinquena,' to advocate for Puerto Rican independence.

Nationalism

An 18th-century belief that people bound by a common language, culture, or territory deserve self-governance; a deliberately constructed identity assembled through shared stories, rituals, education, and media.

Ottomanism

A mid-19th-century ideology created by the Young Ottomans to unify the Ottoman Empire by establishing equal citizenship for all subjects under a constitutional government blending Western political models with Islamic values.

Factory System

A method of production replacing the cottage industry (putting-out system) that concentrated labor under one roof using machines, division of labor, and strict time discipline to mass-produce goods through narrow, repetitive tasks.

Decline of Asian Manufacturing

The deindustrialization of regions in Asia and the Middle East caused by cheap, machine-made British goods, resulting in the collapse of Indian and Southeast Asian shipbuilding, Indian iron works, and Indian and Egyptian textile production.

First Industrial Revolution

A period beginning in late 18th-century Britain characterized by the mechanization of textile production, coal-fired steam engines, and iron production, shifting economies from agricultural to industrial.

Fossil Fuels Revolution

The shift in primary energy sources from wood, water, and wind to coal and oil, made possible by the development of the steam engine and later the internal combustion engine.

Railroads and Steamships

19th-century steam-powered transportation technologies that connected continental interiors to global markets and drastically reduced transoceanic travel time and costs, enabling mass migration and global trade.

Second Industrial Revolution

A wave of industrialization in the second half of the 19th century centered on steel, chemicals, electricity, precision machinery, rubber, and the telephone, led by Germany and the United States alongside Britain.

Telegraph

An electrical communication technology created in the 1830s–1840s that sent encoded messages near-instantaneously via wire, connecting continents through submarine cables by the 1860s.

Meiji Restoration

The 1868 political revolution in which reformist samurai overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate and restored power to Emperor Meiji, launching rapid, state-led modernization and selective Westernization while preserving Japanese culture.

Muhammad Ali Pasha

The Ottoman-appointed governor of Egypt who created a de facto independent dynasty, established cotton as a chief export crop, modernized the military with European advisers, and created state-run factories for textiles and armaments.

Zaibatsu

Large, family-owned Japanese industrial and financial conglomerates (including Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, and Yasuda) that operated across multiple sectors and partnered closely with the imperial state.

Self-Strengthening Movement

A selective modernization effort launched by Qing dynasty officials to build Western-style arsenals, shipyards, and military academies while maintaining Confucian social and political structures.

Tanzimat

Extensive modernizing reforms carried out by Ottoman officials that established legal equality for all subjects, created Western-style law courts, built railroads and modern schools, reorganized the military, and expanded education for women.

Unequal Treaties

Agreements imposed on China by Western powers after military defeats (beginning with the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing) granting foreigners privileges such as extraterritoriality, treaty port access, and the right to own property, trade, and preach Christianity.