Period 3: Terms List A

Enlightenment

A movement based on the attempt to understand society and government by applying the Scientific Method; applied natural laws to people and governments.

nationalism

A belief/movement that supports the idea that a people with a common culture/ethnicity, language, history, and/or territory should have its own government and loyalty to the group.

empiricism

A method of studying the world that uses observations and experiments to test hypotheses and record results.

philosophe

An Enlightenment thinker/writer/philosopher who used satire and educational books to challenge religion, government, and society.

social contract

An agreement by which citizens give up specific powers to the government in exchange for protection; basis of government.

laissez-faire

An economic term that calls for the government to be completely separated from the economy.

capitalism

An economic system based on the belief that consumers will only buy goods they want at a 'fair' price, leading producers to create better goods.

Conservatism

A political belief that the government should be limited to protect individual freedoms; resists change and preserves tradition.

Fabian Society

A British group that wanted to slowly introduce socialism into the government instead of overthrowing it.

Classical liberalism

A political belief that governments should not threaten individual freedoms and that people should be able to do what they want without threatening others' liberties.

feminism

A movement that challenged the belief that women are inferior and should have more political, educational, and economic rights.

Zionism

A 19th-century movement aimed at creating a Jewish country and government in Palestine.

anti-Semitism

Beliefs or actions that threaten Jewish people, ideas, cultures, societies; a belief that Jewish people cannot fully belong to non-Jewish societies.

Dreyfus Affair

A political scandal in France over the wrongful conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish military officer.

Estates System

An organization of social classes in pre-Revolution France consisting of clergy, nobility, and the rest of the population.

sans-culottes

Middle and working-class French citizens who wanted more representation in government during the French Revolution.

Committee of Public Safety

The government organization during the French Revolution responsible for protecting the government from threats.

grands blancs

Landowners of European descent in Haiti who considered themselves members of the 2nd Estate in France.

petit blancs

European descent individuals in Haiti who did not own land but aligned with the 3rd Estate in the French and Haitian Revolutions.

Seneca Falls Convention

An 1848 meeting in New York that organized the American women's rights movement.

Reign of Terror

The period from 1793-1794 in France when Robespierre and the Jacobins executed perceived threats to their power.

Congress of Vienna

A group that met from 1814-1815 to reorganize European governments and territories after Napoleon's defeat.

Realpolitik

The belief that governments should act in their own interests without trying to be morally right.

Chartist Movement

An attempt by artisans and workers in Britain to gain the vote during the 1840s.

Centralists

Latin American politicians favoring strong, centralized national governments with broad powers.

Federalists

Latin American politicians favoring regional governments over centralized administrations.

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848)

The treaty ratified by the U.S. that resulted in Mexico losing one-half of its territory.

Romanticism

An artistic and literary movement in the 19th century emphasizing emotion and impression to understand the human experience.

socialism

An economic system where the government makes decisions about businesses, regulating conditions and pay while businesses remain privately owned.

communism

An economic philosophy where all means of production are owned collectively, with no private property.