Key Vocabulary 1750-1900

Declaration Of Independence

A document modeled after the political philosophies of John Locke. It altered the natural rights identified by John Locke to include “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Self-Strengthening Movement

A late nineteenth-century movement in which the Chinese modernized their army and encouraged western investment in factories and railways

Romanticism

A literary and artistic movement in nineteenth-century Europe; emphasized emotion over reason.

Queue

A long ponytail that Chinese men were forced to wear in order to distinguish them from Manchus

Domestic System

A manufacturing method in which the stages of the manufacturing process are carried out in private homes rather than a factory setting

Maoris

A member of a Polynesian group that settled in New Zealand about 800 C.E.

Declaration Of The Rights Of Man And Of The Citizen

A statement of political rights adopted by the French National Assembly during the French Revolution.

Declaration Of The Rights Of Women And Of The Female

A statement of the rights of women written by Olympe de Gouges in response to the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Communism

An economic system in which the state controls the means of production.

Liberalism

An Enlightenment philosophy that favored civil rights, the protection of private property, and representative government.

Guano

Bird droppings used as fertilizer; a major trade item of Peru in the late nineteenth century.

Suez Canal

Canal constructed by Egypt across the Isthmus of Suez in 1869.

Code Napoleon (Napoleonic Code)

Collection of laws that standardized French law under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Spanish-American War

Conflict between the United States and Spain that began the rise of the United States as a world power. Spanish Civil War A conflict from 1936 to 1939 that resulted in the installation of fascist dictator Francisco Franco as ruler of Spain; Franco's forces were backed by Germany and Italy, whereas the Soviet Union supported the opposing republican forces. (1898)

Economic Imperialism

Control of a country's economy by the businesses of another nation.

Revolutions Of 1848

Democratic and nationalistic revolutions, most of them unsuccessful, that swept through Europe.

Spheres Of Influence

Divisions of a country in which a particular foreign nation enjoys economic privileges.

Jacobins

Extreme radicals during the French revolution

Theory Of Relativity

Idea which argued that time and space are relative to one another.

Theory Of Natural Selection

Idea, first proposed by Charles Darwin, that species survive due to favorable characteristics

Bourgeoisie

In France, the class of merchants and artisans who were members of the Third Estate and initiators of the French Revolution; in Marxist theory, a term referring to factory owners.

Proletarian

In Marxist theory, the class of workers in an industrial society

Conservatism

In nineteenth-century Europe, a movement that supported monarchies, aristocracies, and state-established churches

Factors Of Production

Land, Labor, Capital, Entrepreneurship, which existed in Britain which allowed it to lead in the Industrial Revolution

Zaibatsu

Large industrial organization created in Japan during the industrialization of the late nineteenth century

Conscription

Military draft

Tanzimet Reforms

Nineteenth century reforms by Ottoman rulers designed to make government and military more efficient

Monroe Doctrine

Policy issued by the United States in which it declared that the Western Hemisphere was off limits to colonization by other powers.

Indian National Congress

Political party that became the leader of the Indian nationalist movement.

Congress Of Vienna

Restored legitimate monarchs to the thrones of Europe and to create a balance of power.

Boxer Rebellion

Revolt against foreign residents of China

Sepoy Rebellion

Revolt of Indian soldiers against the British; caused by a military practice in violation of the Muslim and Hindu faiths.(1857)

Natural Rights

Rights that belong to every person and that no government may take away.

Great Trek

Slaveholding Boers, who in 1834, left the Cape Colony and moved to the interior of Africa

Young Turks

Society founded in 1889 in the Ottoman Empire; its goal was to restore the constitution of 1876 and to reform the empire.

Boers

South Africans of Dutch descent.

Sepoys

South Asian soldiers who served in the British army in India.

Revolution Of 1905

Strikes by urban workers and peasants in Russia; prompted by shortages of food and by Russia's loss to Japan in 1905.

Entrepreneurship

The ability to combine the factors of land, labor, and capital to create factory production.

Social Darwinism

The application of Darwin’s philosophy of natural selection to human society

Separation Of Powers

The division of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government.

Estates

The divisions of society in pre-revolutionary France

Imperialism

The establishment of colonial empires.

Enclosure Movement

The fencing of pasture land in England beginning prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Bill Of Rights

The first ten amendments to the constitution of the United States

Qing Dynasty

The Manchurian invaders who ruled China from 1644 to the early 1900s

Berlin Conference

The meeting of European imperialist powers to divide Africa among them

Capital

The money and equipment needed to engage in industrialization

Feminism

The movement to achieve women's rights.

Reign Of Terror

The period of the most extreme violence during the French Revolution

Manifest Destiny

The policy in the U.S. that led to its expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific

Meiji Restoration

The restoration of the Meiji emperor in Japan in 1868 that began a program of industrialization and centralization of Japan following the end of the Tokogawa Shogunate

Extraterritoriality

The right of foreigners to live under the laws of their home country rather than those of the host country.

Duma

The Russian parliament

Raj

The Sanskrit name for the British government in India

Gran Columbia

The temporary union of the northern portion of South America after the independence movements led by Simon Bolivar

Estates-General

The traditional legislative body of France

Industrial Revolution

The transition between the domestic system of manufacturing and the mechanization of production in a factory setting

Treaty Of Nanking

Treaty ending the' Opium War that ceded Hong Kong to the British. (1842)

Pogrom

Violence against Jews in tsarist Russia.

Opium War

War between Great Britain and China began with the Qing dynasty's refusal to allow continued opium importation into China; British victory resulted in the Treaty of Nanking.(1839-1842)

Sino-Japanese War

War between Japan and China, in 1895, over control over Korea

Russo-Japanese War

War between Russia and Japan over Manchurian territory; resulted in the degeat of Russia by the Japanese Navy

Boer War

War between the British and the Dutch over Dutch independence in South Africa; resulted in British victory .(1899-1902)

Radicalism

Western European political philosophy during the nineteenth century; advocated democracy and reforms favoring lower classes.