MIDTERM: Modern World A

Mantle

The layer of hot magma between Earth's crust and core.

Crust

Earth's outermost layer

core

The central part of the earth below the mantle

Paleolithic

Old Stone Age (hunter gatherers)

Neolithic

New Stone Age (farmers)

post and lintel

a structure consisting of vertical beams (posts) supporting a horizontal beam (lintel) idea of first architecture

Government

some form of ruling people

Direct Democracy

A form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through representatives

Monarchy

one ruler

philosophers

Thinkers - Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

Roman Law

the idea of having a written code of law

Republic

A form of government in which the people select representatives to govern them and make laws.

Senate

A council of representatives, the main legislative body of Rome

12 tables

12 laws; the earliest Roman code of laws

Checks and Balances

used to keep the government from getting too powerful in one branch

executive

Carries out the laws

Legislative

Makes laws

judicial

Interprets the laws

Judaism

A religion with a belief in one god. It originated with Abraham and the Hebrew people. Yahweh was responsible for the world and everything within it. They preserved their early history in the Old Testament. Religion of the Jews

Islam

A religion based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed which stresses belief in one god (Allah), Paradise and Hell, and a body of law written in the Quran. Followers are called Muslims.

Christianity

A monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior.

Monotheism

Belief in one God

Absolutism

A political system in which a ruler holds total power

Renaissance

"rebirth"; following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome

Geocentric Theory

earth-centered view of the universe

Scientific Revolution

A major change in European thought, starting in the mid-1500s, in which the study of the natural world began to be characterized by careful observation and the questioning of accepted beliefs.

Heliocentric Theory

the idea that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun

Nicolaus Copernicus

Polish astronomer who proposed a heliocentric model of the universe

Galileo Galilei

Italian scientist who proved Copernicus' theory that the sun was the center of the solar system and developed the modern experimental method.

Isaac Newton

Defined the laws of motion and gravity. Tried to explain motion of the universe.

John Locke

English philosopher who advocated the idea of a "social contract" in which government powers are derived from the consent of the governed and in which the government serves the people; also said people have natural rights to life, liberty and property.

Thomas Hobbes

English materialist and political philosopher who advocated absolute sovereignty as the only kind of government that could resolve problems caused by the selfishness of human beings (1588-1679)

Social Contract

A voluntary agreement among individuals to secure their rights and welfare by creating a government and abiding by its rules. advocated by John Locke

Political Spectrum

range of political views

status quo

Existing state or condition

Radicals

those who favor extreme change (go to aggressive lengths, far left)

Liberals

people who generally favor government action and view change as progress (left)

Moderates

persons who do not hold extreme political views (middle)

Conservatives

Like to stick to the traditional ways of government and tend to oppose change (right)

Reactionaries

Those who want to restore political, social, and economic institutions that existed in the past, and would go to aggressive lengths to do so (far right)

Estates

The social classes in France

First Estate

The first class of French society made up of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church.

Second Estate

The second class of French society made up of the noblility (nobles)

Third Estate

97% of the population (the rest of France) They consisted of the bourgeoisie, the san-culottes and the peasants; they paid high taxes and had no special privileges

Louis XV

king of france (1715-1774)

Louis XVI (16th)

King of France during the French Revolution, is executed by the guillotine

Marie Antoinette

Queen of France (as wife of Louis XVI) who was unpopular her extravagance and opposition to reform contributed to the overthrow of the monarchy; she was guillotined along with her husband (1755-1793)

Estates General

An assembly of representatives from all three of the estates, or social classes, in France.

National Assembly

French Revolutionary assembly (1789-1791). Called first as the Estates General, the three estates came together and demanded radical change. It passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789.

Tennis Court Oath

A pledge made by the members of France's National Assembly in 1789, in which they vowed to continue meeting until they had drawn up a new constitution

Storming of the Bastille

Destruction of the prison seen as the true start of the French Revolution (for gun powder)

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Adopted August 26, 1789, created by the National Assembly to give rights to all (except women).

Jean-Paul Marat

French revolutionary leader (born in Switzerland) who was a leader in overthrowing the Girondists and was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday (1743-1793)

Women's March on Versailles

This was the march by the women of Paris to the home of Marie Antoinette in order to demand action for the ridiculous raise in the price of bread

Girondists

A moderate group that fought for control of the French National Convention in 1793.

Jacobin

member of a radical political club during the French Revolution

Guillotine

A machine for beheading people, used as a means of execution during the French Revolution.

Maximilien Robespierre

Young provincial lawyer who led the most radical phases of the French Revolution; his execution ended the Reign of Terror.

Reign of Terror

(1793-94) during the French Revolution when thousands were executed for "disloyalty"

Napoleon Bonaparte

Overthrew the French revolutionary government (The Directory) in 1799 and became emperor of France in 1804. Failed to defeat Great Britain and abdicated in 1814. Returned to power briefly in 1815 but was defeated and died in exile.

Coup d'etat

a sudden overthrow of the government

Plebiscite

vote of the people

Lycee

a government-run public school in France

Napoleonic Code

This was the civil code put out by Napoleon that granted equality of all male citizens before the law and granted absolute security of wealth and private property. Napoleon also secured this by creating the Bank of France which loyally served the interests of both the state and the financial oligarchy

Waterloo

Battle in Belgium that was Napoleon's final defeat

Hundred Days

The brief period during 1815 when Napoleon made his last bid for power, deposing the French King and again becoming Emperor of France

Enclosures

One of the fenced-in or hedged-in fields created by wealthy British landowners on land that was formerly worked by village farmers.

crop rotation

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.

seed drill

machine that sowed seeds in rows and covered up the seeds in rows

Land and raw materials

natural resources

labor

to work

Capital

money for investment

Industrial Revolution

A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods.

Modernization

the transformation of traditional societies into industrial societies

cell theory

idea that all living things are composed of cells, cells are the basic units of structure and function in living things, and new cells are produced from existing cells

Germ Theory

The idea that disease was caused by the spread of living organisms that could be controlled.

Evolution (Darwin)

on the origin of species, natural selection, survival of the fittest

Social Darwinism

survival of the fittest

Communication

The imparting or exchanging of information or news

electricity

A form of energy caused by the movement of electrons.

transportation

The process by which passengers or goods are moved or delivered from one place to another. (invention of the steamboat/railroad)

Standardization

the development and application of standards that permit large production runs of component parts that can be readily fit to other parts without adjustment

Interchangable parts

components of any device designed to specifications which insure that they will fit within any device of the same type. Invented by Eli Whitney

mass production

Process of making large quantities of a product quickly and cheaply

assembly line

Production method that breaks down a complex job into a series of smaller tasks

Child Labor

Children were viewed as laborers throughout the 19th century. Many children worked on farms, small businesses, mills and factories. Inhumane and unjust.

social change

the transformation of culture and social institutions over time (factory families, rich get richer and the poor get poorer)

social reform

organized attempts to improve conditions of life (unions and strikes)

Union

A worker association that bargains with employers over wages, benefits, and working conditions

Strikes

times when workers refuse to work until owners improve conditions

Economic Changes

Refers to changes in how money is earned. (capitalism, socialism, communism, Laissez-Faire)

Capitalism

an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Socialism

A system in which society, usually in the form of the government, owns and controls the means of production.

Communism

A theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership belonging to the community as a whole or to the state.

Laissez-faire

Idea that government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs.

Imperialism

A policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries poitically, socially, and economically.

Nationalism

pride in one's country

Anglo-Saxonism

the idea that English-speaking nations had superior character, ideas, and systems of government and were destined to control other nations

Sepoy Mutiny

an 1857 rebellion of Hindu and Muslim soldiers against the British in India

Change in India

Sati pratha, polygamy, child marriage, and female infanticide were changed during the British rule in India