First Industrial Revolution: period of time in which manufacturing shifted from handmade goods to things built in factories by machines

Second Industrial Revolution: shift in focus on electricity, gasoline, and large-scale industrial manufacturing

enclosure: landowners built fences or hedges and used fields for crops, pushing tenants off that land

sepoys: Indian soldier, trained in European warfare, who served in the British army

Raj: the period/government that gave Britain direct control over India, removing the British East India Company from its control over the colony from 1858-1947.

settler colony: colony in which people from the home country create permanent homes and communities, colonists usually able to dominate government, society, and economy even if minority of population and create policies that connected colony to the Mother Country

Boer War (1899–1902): conflict from 1899-1902 between British and Dutch Afrikaner/Boers in South Africa; fought over control of land rich in minerals; British won and established colony in South Africa 

Tanzimat reforms: Western-style reforms within the Ottoman Empire between 1839 and 1876 to try to maintain the Ottoman Empire’s control over its territory; included a European-influenced constitution in 1876

Suez Canal:.built to connect the Mediterranean and Red Seas through Egypt and the Nile River; made transportation faster and easier between Europe and Asia; controlled by the British government until the 1956

Opium Wars: fought between Britain and Qing China beginning in 1839 because Qing government tried to prevent British selling opium in China; British wanted to increase opium use to ensure Chinese bought more goods from the British than they sold; British victory demonstrated Western superiority over China.

Taiping Rebellion: massive rebellion in southern China in the 1850s and 1860s led by Hong Xinquan and influenced by his ideas of Christianity; sought to overthrow the Qing dynasty and Confucianism and reacted against social problems worsened because of imperialism

Boxer Rebellion: resistance movement supported by the Qing government that attempted to force all foreigners (Europeans) out of China in 1900; especially targeted Christian missionaries; defeated by joint military from Japan, America, and European countries

Meiji Restoration: power of the emperor restored from shogunate in 1868; took name of Meiji (Enlightened One) and attempted to systematically industrialize while maintaining traditional cultures to prevent imperialists from conquering Japan

Social Darwinism: theory based on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection that argues that people are born with certain abilities that decide which social class they belong to; supports the belief that people are poor or wealthy because of their choices and abilities they’re born with, not because of social or political (dis)advantages

Chinese Exclusion Act: American law passed in 1882 that banned Chinese people from immigrating to the U.S. and made it difficult to reenter the U.S. to “protect” American jobs and culture from “undesirable” foreign influences; not officially repealed until the 1940s

White Australia Policy: Australian governments’ actions to encourage immigration for white Europeans and limit or prevent others from immigrating, including requiring European language tests; eventually passed as the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901

indentured servitude: contract-based labor system in which someone works off a debt for a set amount of time but is freed after the period is over

British East India Company: British trading company based in the Indian Ocean that controlled trade in tea, opium, and other goods; able to create its own government and military in colonies to support imperialism

Dutch East India Company: Dutch trading company that concentrated on goods from Indonesia and Southeast Asia; lost power and influence by 1800

corvée labor: forced labor system in which people work as a way to pay taxes (build roads, bridges, buildings for the government)

Berlin Conference: meeting organized by German Otto von Bismarck to settle European claims to territories/colonies in Africa; British, French, Germans, Portuguese, and Belgian officials divided Africa and claimed specific territories for themselves; no African representatives part of meeting

Afrikaner: South African person descended from Dutch and/or French colonists, also called Boers; many resisted British control of South Africa

Sphere of Influence: area in which a foreign government has power, influence, or partial control but is not part of that state’s territory

penal colony: area established to house prisoners outside of the home country

Treaty of Waitangi: agreement between British and Maori government (New Zealand) that was supposed to help settle disagreements over British colonization and establish a government; Maori disputed the translation and argued that the British tricked them into giving up control of their land

Monroe Doctrine: American policy developed by President Monroe in 1823 that declared the Americas free from European colonization and called for America to fight Europeans who attempted to colonize any territories in the Americas

Pan-Africanism: movement within Africa and African diasporic communities (people of African descent who lived outside of the continent) that argued that all people of African descent have a shared history and should unite to protect their shared interests; is controversial because it ignores or deemphasizes differences in African cultures and diasporic African cultures

ethnic enclave: practice in which immigrants who share home cultures and their descendants live together and separate themselves from other cultures; often develop into neighborhoods associated with an outside culture (Chinatown, barrio, Germantown, etc.)

paternalism: belief that Europeans and white Americans controlled people of color in the way a father controls his family