The World of the Ancient Regime and the Industrial Revolution

Vocabulary flashcards covering key historical concepts, figures, systems, and events from the Ancient Regime to the British Industrial Revolution.

Terra nullius

A term meaning 'No one's land' used by European colonizers to justify the occupation of lands inhabited by indigenous populations, considering them empty or without a recognized government.

Contemporary history

The academic discipline that studies the historical period from the end of the 18th century (1789) to the present time.

French Physiocrats

The first school of continental economists, who identified the crux of the economic problem as the division between the people who owned land and those who cultivated it.

Quasi-feudal system estates

Large agricultural estates defined by terms such as hacienda, finca, estancia, or slave plantations where typical landlords accumulated wealth from unfree cultivators.

Enlightenment

A revolutionary ideology from an enriched middle class of rational, secular, and progressive thinkers who believed in progress, liberty, fraternity, and equality.

Magna Charta

The historical legal document that created a limit on monarchical government power specifically in Great Britain.

Dual revolution

The transformation occurring between 1789 and 1848 consisting of an economic/social revolution (Industrial Revolution in England) and a political/social revolution (French Revolution).

Seven Years' War (1756-63)

A major conflict resulting in France's defeat by Britain, leading France to later assist the American revolt; the excessive costs of this victory severely burdened France financially and triggered a domestic political crisis.

Take-off into self-sustained growth

The technical economic phrase used to describe the period in the 1780s when the shackles were removed from human productive power, making revolutionary economic change normal.

Domestic or putting-out system

The primary model of expanding early industrial production where merchants bought the products of handicraftsmen or part-time non-agricultural peasant labor to sell in wider markets.

Major British colonial ports

Bristol, Glasgow, and Liverpool, which developed rapidly through colonial expansion, the cotton trade, and the Slave Trade.

Lunar Society of Birmingham

An influential scientific and intellectual group whose members included Josiah Wedgwood, James Watt, Matthew Boulton, Priestley, Erasmus Darwin, and Baskerville.

James Watt

The inventor of the modern steam engine and key figure in the Lunar Society of Birmingham.

Benjamin Franklin

An inventor mentioned in the notes for creating the lightning rod and bifocal lenses.