Big Era Five: Revolutions, Empires, and Nations Practice Flashcards

Vocabulary practice cards covering the Major Revolutions, Industrialization, and Imperialism eras from 1750-1900.

Big Era Five

The historical period spanning from $1750$ to $1900$ CE characterized by Revolutions, Empires, and Nations.

The Modern Revolution

A global transformation driven by Fossil Fuels, Democratic Politics, and the Communication Revolution.

Fossil Fuels

Energy sources used by humans to deal with the growing need for resources as the population increased.

Steam Engine

A device improved by people to harness coal's energy for power.

Power Loom

An industrial weaving machine used in Lancashire that allowed people to produce textiles more efficiently.

Robert Fulton

The inventor associated with the Clermont steamship.

Clermont

Robert Fulton's steamship that allowed people to travel more quickly.

George Stephenson

The engineer who created the Rocket steam locomotive in $1829$.

Rocket

George Stephenson's steam locomotive developed in $1829$.

Industrial Revolution

A period of change that allowed for new global economic relationships based on industrial production.

Cotton Exports

Raw materials sent from agrarian economies like Russia, the U.S.A., India, and Egypt to industrial economies.

Textile Exports

Manufactured goods sent from industrial economies to agrarian economies.

Adam Smith

The author of The Wealth of Nations who argued for free land, labor, and goods.

The Wealth of Nations

The book written by Adam Smith advocating for new economic ideas like buying and selling labor freely.

Standardized Weights and Measures

A governmental action needed to make new economic ideas work, such as the metric system.

Infrastructure Development

The building of railroads, ports, and telegraphs by governments during the Modern Revolution.

Metric System

A standardized scientific measuring system established in $1790$.

Antiseptic Medicine

Medical advancements developed in $1867$ to improve public health.

Transcontinental Railroad

A massive infrastructure project completed in $1869$ marked by laying the last rail.

Democratic Politics

New ideas about government where people choose it and have equal rights.

Constitutions

Formal documents written by governments to establish the laws and rights of a nation.

Representative Institutions

Governmental bodies created to represent the interests of the people.

United States Constitution

A foundational democratic document written in $1787$.

French National Assembly

A representative body formed in $1789$ during the French Revolution.

Ottoman Turkish Regulations for Public Education

A governmental initiative for promoting education established in $1869$.

Atlantic Revolutions

A series of revolutions in the United States, Haiti, France, and Venezuela to change governments.

Communication Revolution

The phase of the Modern Revolution characterized by the movement of ideas via newspapers, steamships, railroads, and the transatlantic cable.

Transatlantic Cable

A communication link that allowed ideas to move across the ocean more quickly.

Global Market Food Distribution

A result of the Modern Revolution where food shifted to the highest price rather than where it was needed most.

Battle of Omdurman

An $1898$ conflict in Sudan that demonstrated the technological disparity between European and African forces.

Sudanese Dead (Omdurman)

The $10,000$ casualties suffered by the Sudanese side at the Battle of Omdurman.

British Dead (Omdurman)

The $48$ casualties suffered by the British side at the Battle of Omdurman.

Imbalanced Modernization

The situation where countries that modernized first used their advantage to gain power over others.

Estates

The three social classes in pre-revolutionary France: Clergy ($1^{ ext{st}}$), Nobility ($2^{ ext{nd}}$), and Commoners ($3^{ ext{rd}}$).

First Estate

The pre-revolutionary French social class consisting of the Clergy.

Second Estate

The pre-revolutionary French social class consisting of the Nobility.

Third Estate

The pre-revolutionary French social class consisting of commoners, representing $98\%$ of the people.

Louis XVI

The King of France whose weak leadership and financial crises helped trigger the French Revolution.

Marie Antoinette

The Queen of France criticized for her lavish spending and Austrian heritage.

National Assembly

A new legislature set up by the Third Estate to make reforms.

Tennis Court Oath

The decision by delegates to write a new constitution for France despite the king's opposition.

Bastille

A Parisian prison stormed by a mob on rumors that Louis wanted to suppress the National Assembly.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

A document recording natural rights such as liberty and property, stating power comes from the people.

Jacobins

A radical political group in France that wanted to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic.

National Convention

The body that took office in September forming the French republic and deposing the king.

Guillotine

A machine designed during the French Revolution to behead people in a more equal, humane manner.

Maximilien Robespierre

A Jacobin leader who ruled France for a year as a dictator leading the Committee for Public Safety.

Committee for Public Safety

The executive body led by Robespierre that oversaw the Reign of Terror.

Reign of Terror

The period of Robespierre's rule characterized by the execution of thousands of opponents and former allies.

Directory

A five-man body that, along with a two-house legislature, restored order to France after the Terror.

Napoleon Bonaparte

The military leader made commander of armies by the new French government after the Terror.

Insurgents

Rebels or revolutionaries who rise up in active opposition to an established government.

Toussaint L'Ouverture

A former slave who became the lead general of the Haitian Revolution and abolished slavery in Haiti.

Gens de couleur

Free people of color in Haiti seeking equal legal rights with white colonists.

Simon Bolivar

The Venezuelan leader known as "The Liberator" who fought for the independence of several South American nations.

Juntas

Local military or political groups that took control of Latin American colonies after the Spanish King was deposed.

Gran Colombia

Bolivar's short-lived dream of a single, unified country made of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama.

Peninsulares

The elite class of Spanish-born officials who held the highest positions in the American colonies.

Creoles

Locally-born people of Spanish descent who often resented the power of the peninsulares.

Enlightenment influence

Ideas of liberty, reason, and democratic government that inspired leaders like Simon Bolivar.

War to the Death

A policy used by Simon Bolivar to rally support and fight against Spanish absolute rule.

James Watt

An inventor who improved the steam engine to power factories and mines efficiently.

Division of Labor

Breaking down a large job into small, simple tasks performed by different workers to increase speed.

Luddites

English textile workers who smashed machinery because they believed it was destroying their livelihoods.

Cottage Industry

A system where goods like cloth were produced by hand in people's homes rather than in factories.

Factors of Production

The essential resources needed for industrialization: land, labor, and capital.

Capital

Wealth or money available for investment in an economy.

Henry Bessemer

The inventor who created a cheap method for the mass production of steel.

Eli Whitney

The inventor of the cotton gin, which transformed textile production.

Seed Drill

A machine used in agriculture that allowed fewer farmers to produce more food.

Crop Rotation

An agricultural technique that improved yields and supported urbanization.

Textile Manufacturing

The first industry to industrialize, becoming the backbone of Britain's economy.

Factory Pollution

The byproduct of industrialization that fouled the air and poisoned rivers.

Child Labor

The practice of using children as young as $6$ in dangerous factory environments during the Industrial Revolution.

Liberalism

A political philosophy favoring individual liberty, free markets, and limited government power.

John Stuart Mill

A philosopher who advocated for individual freedom and women's rights in a liberal society.

Karl Marx

A co-author of the Communist Manifesto who argued that history is a struggle between social classes.

Friedrich Engels

The co-author of the Communist Manifesto who worked with Karl Marx.

Communist Manifesto

A book arguing that capitalism exploited workers and would be overthrown by a violent revolution.

Communism

A system where private property is abolished and the community owns all means of production.

Proletariat

The working class who sell their labor for wages and do not own the tools of production.

Socialism

An economic system where factors of production are owned and operated for the people's benefit to ensure equality.

Jeremy Bentham

The philosopher who developed utilitarianism.

Utilitarianism

The idea that things should be judged by their usefulness in doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Pursuit of Self Interest

One of Adam Smith's natural laws often perceived as a negative of the Industrial Revolution by socialists.

North Korea

An example of a country with a Pure Planned Economy.

Social Darwinism

The misapplication of "survival of the fittest" to human societies to justify imperialism and racism.

Nationalism

A strong movement for unification or political reform based on shared cultural or national identity.

Labor Unions

Associations formed by laborers to negotiate for better pay and conditions with employers.

Strike

A work stoppage called by unions to pressure owners for higher wages or improved conditions.

Giuseppe Garibaldi

The leader who helped join the Italian Peninsula into a single constitutional monarchy.

Sardinia

The Italian kingdom that led the movement for Italian unification.

German Unification

The process occurring between $1858$ and $1871$ that unified various Germanic territories.

Imperialism

A policy where a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, economically, or socially.

King Khama III

A leader of the Bamangwato people who sought British protection to keep his land from Cecil Rhodes.

Bamangwato

The African people led by King Khama III who resisted private company land seizures.

Henry Stanley

An explorer who helped King Leopold II of Belgium acquire land in the Congo.

King Leopold II

The Belgian monarch who acquired land in the Congo for his personal control.

Berlin Conference

A meeting in $1884-85$ where European powers divided Africa without any African leaders present.

Maxim Machine Gun

A technological advancement that gave Europeans a massive military advantage in Africa.