World History Study Guide: World War I, Russia, Political Ideologies, Imperialism, and Public Health

Black Hand: A secret Serbian organization that sought to unite Serbs and other South Slavs. The group was directly involved in the conspiracy and plot to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Gavrilo Princip: The individual who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. His assassination of the Archduke served as the pivotal event that catalyzed the outbreak of World War I.
Triple Entente: An alliance formed during World War I comprising Britain, France, and Russia, who fought together against opposing forces.
Central Powers: A major coalition during World War I made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.
14 Points: A post-World War I peace proposal introduced by United States President Woodrow Wilson. The plan focused on:
- Establishing an international organization known as the League of Nations.
- Granting self-determination, which allowed populations to choose their own forms of government.

Bloody Sunday: A historical event in 1905 in which imperial Russian soldiers opened fire on peaceful protesters. This event critically undermined public trust in the tsar and acted as a major catalyst for a broader revolution.
Duma: The elected parliament of Russia created in the aftermath of the 1905 Revolution. Although established as a legislative assembly, its real authority and political power were severely limited.
Alexander Kerensky: A prominent political leader who headed Russia's Provisional Government. He lost broad political and public backing primarily because he made the decision to maintain Russia's military involvement in World War I.
Bolsheviks: A radical revolutionary political group led by Vladimir Lenin. They successfully seized political power and took control of Russia in October 1917.
Mensheviks: A Russian socialist faction that advocated for political, economic, and social transformation to occur through gradual methods, in contrast to the rapid revolutionary approach of the Bolsheviks.
Soviets: Councils composed of workers, soldiers, and peasants who convened to deliberate and make key political decisions during the Russian Revolution.

Liberalism: A political ideology founded on the promotion of individual liberty, human rights, and representative democratic government.
Nationalism: A devotion and strong sense of pride and loyalty toward one's nation. It frequently incorporates the goal of obtaining or preserving an independent sovereign country for a specific national group.
Socialism: An economic and political system premised on the distribution of wealth and resources more equally across society, typically achieved through collective or state/government ownership.
Imperialism: The practice, policy, or ideology where a powerful state exerts control over or conquers weaker nations, territories, or peoples.

Opium War: A armed conflict between Great Britain and China resulting from Britain's insistence on exporting opium to China despite Chinese efforts to ban and halt the trade. China suffered defeat in the war, which forced it to concede increased trade rights and economic access to foreign powers.
Boxer Rebellion: An anti-foreign and anti-Christian armed movement in China organized to eliminate foreign influence. The uprising was suppressed and defeated by a coalition of international military forces.
King Leopold II: The Belgian monarch who exercised personal control over the Congo Free State. His regime instituted a system of forced labor and harsh, violent practices to extract natural resources, primarily rubber.

Cholera: A severe and deadly infectious disease typically transmitted through the consumption of dirty or contaminated water.
Night-soil men: Laborers tasked with collecting human waste manually from domestic toilets, privies, and municipal cesspools prior to modern plumbing.
Great Stink: A public crisis in London during 1858 caused by the overwhelming odor of untreated human waste and sewage accumulated in the River Thames. The event spurred civic action and forced the city to engineer and build a modernized underground sewer system.
Dr. John Snow: A British physician who deduced that an outbreak of cholera was directly linked to water drawn from a contaminated public water source.