20th Century European History Key Terms Flashcards(1)

Sepoy Mutiny/Indian Rebellion

When Indian soldiers revolted against the British. The British called it a Mutiny(they said they rebelled because of the pork fat on the gun cartredges so they would have had to bite the pork fat). India called it a rebellion and said they rebelled because they were not being paid and they were forced to fight. Establish Brits as peacemakers because they are able to defeat the Indians. 

Suez Canal

Was a symbol of everything that new European technology can do. It was created as a collaboration between France and Egypt. It was created as a shorter path to India. However due to debts the Egyptians had to sell all their shares so the British bought their shares and owned the land of the canal. 

King Leopold of Belgium

He had a colony in the Congo and he was known for being ruthless. Eventually his actions are brought into light with the public and he looses his control over the Congo(it is granted to the Belgian parlement).

Henry Morton Stanley

A famous explorer. He found Dr David Livingstone who had previously gone missing in Africa, this made him very famous. Because of his fame he was hired by King Leopold to explore Africa and lay the groundwork for a colony for Belgium(he forces and tricks Africans into signing unfair treaties). He also creates a fake exploration society in order to hide what he is doing for King Leopold. 

Berlin Conference

All the major colonial powers talk about how they are going to divide up Africa(NO AFRICAN REPS are present). Four outcomes of Berlin Conference. 1) The territory that Stanley was exploring became the Congo Free State 2) Effective Occupation is law → says that you can only claim occupation of land if others agree that it is an effective occupation 3) Treaties signed by the African rulers are valid 4) Slave trade, alcohol sales, and firearm sales are banned in colonies

Rubber Harvesting

Brutal process that the colonial powers would force their workers in the colonies to do. Each worker would have a quota and if they failed to meet their quota they would be brutally punished(hands cut off or women and children held hostage until they harvested enough). 

Force Publique

African enforcement officers used by the French in their colonies heavy in rubber harvesting. They would be used to punish the workers if they weren’t meeting their quotas and supervise the workers. 

Civilizing Mission

The European ideology that it was their duty to help make other peoples more civilized(like they were). 

Monogenism

The belief that all humans originated from a single source(Christians who believed this believed that the single source was Adam and Eve from the bible). Monogenists say that people who look different from them have fallen backwards from their original form. In this belief humans are all one species. 

Polygenism

The belief that humans originated in different locations all around the world and that’s why there is so much diversity. The British in particular were strongly against this theory, calling it anti-Christian. They use Linnaeus’s system where every living thing is classified into one of four different categories.

Charles Darwin

A scientist who a lot of people looked up to because he seemed to embody the middle class ideologies. He went on a voyage and found different beaks of the same bird species across different islands, this leads him to create survival of the fittest. 

Natural Selection

A theory developed by Charles Darwin that states organisms will evolve to better match their environment and be able to survive better. This creates evolution. 

Evolutionary Paradigm

The broader idea of evolution. It incorporates the idea that people evolved through natural selection and also through pre-existing genetics. Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace were the two people who really wrote and popularized the theory. 

The Descent of Man

A book written by Charles Darwin outlining his evolutionary theologies. Emphasized a big division of ideologies between people who heavily leaned into and supported his theologies and people who were very against them. 

Phrenology

The theory that there is a correlation between head size and intelligence level. This idea was spread to the middle classes by using it as almost fortune telling. 

Theory of Recapitulation

this theory combines evolutionary principles with Linnaeus classification. It said that when you are watching a child become an adult it is like you are watching the evolution of the human mind. It also likened some adults(such as women and Africans) to children. 

Francis Galton

He first coined the term Eugenics. He also developed “ethnic types” which are a specific set of characteristics used to describe one ethnic group. His ideologies also inspired “better baby” competitions where people would have their babies compete to see whose possessed the most “desirable” characteristics.

Eugenics

The belief that most everything is determined by genes and hereditary behaviors. People who believed this thought that they could create a more “perfect” race of people by choosing exactly what traits they wanted these “perfect” peoples to have and having only people with those traits have kids. 

Cesare Lombroso

Someone who goes into prisons in Italy and draws the people in the prisons in order to come up with physical characteristics that “define” criminals. Some examples of these characteristics are tattoos and using slang. 

Degeneration/Decadence

Used by people who were against the views of those who had a more progressive narrative. Western cultures considered a lot of non-western people to be degenerates or people who are less civilized than them. 

Neurasthenia

A way to diagnose physical and mental exhaustion. Today it would be called chronic fatigue syndrome. 

Max Nordau

He was an Austro-Hungarian writer and physician who co-founded the Zionist movement. He criticized the role and impact of organized religion and societal norms. He was very worried about if people in society as a whole were moving backwards(because of new tech developments). 

‘New’ Woman

The idea that women were gaining slightly more independence and freedom in their lives. Talked about how some women would take more control over their lives → refuse to get married and act out against their husbands/brothers/fathers

Hysteria

Used to describe anytime a woman acted against societal norms. This condition was believed to only affect women and men could not have this. 

psychoanalysis

Today it would be the same thing as therapy or psychology. Some psychologists would really focus on someone’s mental state and study it in order to find out what was ‘wrong’ with them. This was a very common treatment for women with hysteria. 

Sigmund Freud

A psychologist who was known for his new techniques. He was strongly against Charcot’s theories of hypnotization. He thought the mind was divided into three parts: Id(unconscious mind), the Ego(the conscious mind), and the Super-ego where both the Id and the Ego co-existed. He believed that technology did not make people in Europe any happier than they were before.

Karl Marx

Communist who wrote the Communist Manifesto with Fredrich Engels. His writings would later inspire Russian communists such as Lenin in their revolution. He really tried to distance himself from socialists, saying that their views were very eutopian.

Bourgeoisie

The upper class. In communist and socialist ideologies they were blamed for all the working class’ problems and also all the country’s problems. They owned all the means of production. 

Proletariat

The working class. In communist and socialist ideologies these people were the victims of the bourgeoisie. They were forced to work in terrible working conditions for meager wages and they credited all of their suffering to the bourgeoisie. 

Syndicalism

Revolutionary socialists who believed that working through the government(a beaurocratic approach) would not help the workers gain more rights and freedoms. They argued for direct action and strikes. They wanted to organize national strikes so that they can paralyze the economy. 

Women’s Social and Political Union

Emmeline, Christabel, and Sylvia Pankhurst led the Women Social and Political Union. They were mainly focused on gaining suffrage for women, but they also wanted other rights for women such as the right to their own bank accounts.

Identify and explain the long-term and short-term causes of World War One.

Long-term: more colonialism, just under a different name, a broken Germany(which led to WW2), destroyed infrastructure

Short-term: Peace, reparations from Germany

Schlieffen Plan

Pre-made plan for if war comes to Germany. Said that Germany would invade France in a sneak attack through Belgium. Then they would march the troops east to fight. The goal was to take out France so they didn’t have to fight a two-front war. It ends up not working. 

Triple Entente

The three-way alliance between England, France, and Russia. When Germany finally unites all of its states France and Britain get scared and form an alliance. French bankers are also involved in Russia’s modernization. 

Burgfreiden/Union Sacree

Global agreement to go to war, related to Germany’s “blank check” because it was when countries allied themselves with each other and said that if the country they were allied with went to war then they will also go to war.

War Fever

The obsession that people had with war just before WWI broke out. The strong and widespread nationalism in Europe meant that people were determined to show off how amazing their country was through military power. This also caused huge wave of initial enlistees in Britain, France, and Germany. 

Mobilization(explain the multiple meanings)

The process of preparing for war. This includes ramping up national pride(it’s important to have the public in favor of war), putting together some kind of armed force, reforming the work force to be more military focused, and obtaining/making more weapons. 

British “shell scandal”

National Labor Registry

“Turnip Winter”(Germany, 1916)

Cult of the Offensive

Malingering

Battle of the Somme(July-Nov, 1916)

Voie Sacree(holy path)

Battle of Verdun

Shell Shock

K-brot(Kriegsbrot)

Hindenburg Program

War Munitions Act/Ministry of Munitions

DORA(Defense of the Realm Act)

Total War

When war infiltrates every sector and all production is just focused on war. The only goal of society is to win the war so everyone’s jobs become to help their country and allies win. In total war civilians also often become targets of war. WWI was one of the first times that many countries had seen/experienced total war. 

Social Peace

Triple Alliance

Germany’s “Blank Check”

July Crisis

Militancy(what is the meaning of the term in relation to feminist activism?)