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315 Cards in this Set

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Jeremy Bentham
(1748-1832) British theorist and philosopher who proposed utilitarianism, the principle that governments should operate on the basis of utility, or the greatest good for the greatest number.
Edmund Burke
(1729-1797) Member of British Parliament and author of Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), which criticized the underlying principles of the French Revolution and argued conservative thought.
Burschenschaften
Politically active students around 1815 in the German states proposing unification and democratic principles.
Carbonari
Italian secret societies calling for a unified Italy and republicanism after 1815.
Carlsbad Decrees
(1819) Repressive laws in the German states limiting freedom of speech and dissemination of liberal ideas in the universities.
Decembrist
Russian revolutionaries calling for constitutional reform in the early nineteenth century.
Frederick William IV
(1840-1861)-King of Prussia who promised and later reneged on his promises for constitutional reforms in 1848.
Francois Guizot
(1787-1874)-Chief minister under Louis Philippe. Guizot's repression led to the revolution of 1848.
Holy Alliance
An alliance envisioned by Alexander I of Russia by which those in power were asked to rule in accord with Christian principles.
Louie Napoleon Bonaparte
(1808-1873)-Nephew of Napoleon I; he came to power as president of the Second French Republic in 1848.
Prince Clemens von Metternich
(1773-1859)-Austrian member of the nobility and chief architect of conservative policy at the Congress of Vienna.
John Stuart Mill
(1806-1873)-British philosopher who published On Liberty (1859), advocating individual rights against government intrusion, and The Subjection of Women (1869), on the cause of women's rights.
Poor Law of 1834
Legislation that restricted the number of poverty-stricken eligible for aid
Quadruple Alliance
Organization, made up of Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia, to preserve the peace settlement of 1815; France joined in 1818.
Rotten boroughs
Depopulated areas of England that nevertheless sent representatives to Parliament.
Zollverein
Economic customs union of German states established in 1818 by Prussia and including almost all German-speaking states except Austria by 1844
Repeal of Test Act
(1828)-Allowed Protestants who were not members of the Church of England to hold public office.
Catholic Emancipation Bill
(1829)-Enabled Catholics to hold public office for the first time.
Reform Bill of 1832
Gave vote to all men who paid ten pounds in rent a year; eliminated the rotten boroughs.
Slavery
Abolished in the British Empire, 1833.
Factory Act
Limited children's and adolescents workweek in textile factories
Corn Laws
Repealed in 1846. They had imposed a tariff on imported grain and were a symbolic protection of aristicratic landholdings.
Michael Bakunin
1814-1876) Radical Russian, advocated revolutionary violence. He believed that revolutionary movements should be lead by secret societies who would seize power, destroy the state and create a new social order.
Henry Bessemer
(1813-1898) Englishman who developed the Bessemer converter, the first efficient method forthe mass production of steel
Louis Blanc
(1811-1882) Wrote the Organization of Work (1840) which proposed the use of competition to eliminate competition. It wasthe first step toward a future socialist society. Advocated the principle of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."
Classical liberalism
Middle class (bourgeois) doctrine indebted to the writings of the philosophes, the French Revolution, and the popularization of the Scientific Revolution. Its politi8cal goals were self government (concept ofthe general will); a written constitution; natural rights (speech, religion, press, property, mobility); limited suffrage; its economic goals were laissez-faire (free trade -- no government interference inthe workings of the economy).
Dialectical materialism
The idea, according to Karl Marx, that change and development in history results from the conflict between social classes. Economic forces impel human beings to behave in socially determined ways.
Domestic system
The manufacture of goods in the household setting, a productdon system that gave way to the factory system.
Friedrich Engels
(1820-1895) Collaborator with Karl Marx. Engels was a textile factory owner and supplied Marx with the hard data for his economic writings, most notably Das Kapttal (l867).
Roger Fenton
Battlefield photographer of the Crimean War.
J. G. Fichte
(1762-1814)-Gerrnan writer who believed that the German spirit was nobler and purer than that of other peoples.
Charles Fourier
(1772-1837)-A leading utopian socialist who envisaged small communal societies in which men and women cooperated in agriculture and industry, abolishing private property and monogamous marriage as well.
Hegelian dialectic
The idea, according to G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831), a German philosopher, that social change results from the conflict of opposite ideas. The thesis is confronted by the antithesis, resuiting in a synthesis, which then becomes a new thesis. The process is evolutionary. Marx turned Hegel "upside down" and made class conflict, not ideas, the force driving history forward.
J. G. Herder
(1774-1803)-Forerunner of the German Romantic movement who believed that each people shared a national character, or Volksgeist.
Thomas Malthus
(1776-1834)-English parson whose Essay on Population (1798) argued that population would always increase faster than the food supply.
Karl Marx
(1818-1883)-German philosopher and founder of Marxism, the theory that class conflict is the motor force driving historical change and development.
Robert Owen
(1771-1858) Utopian socialists who improved health and safety conditions in mills, increased workers wages and reduced hours. Dreamed of establishing socialist communities the most noteable was New Harmony (1826) which failed.
David Ricardo
(1772-1823)-English economist who formulated the "iron law of wages," according to which wages would always remain at the subsistence level for the workers because of population growth.
William Russell
British journalist who reported the events of the Crimean War first hand for the people at home.
Herbert Spencer
(1820-1903)-English philosopher who argued that in the difflcuit economic struggle for existence, only the "fittest" would survive.
Flora Tristan
(1803-1844)-Soclalist and feminist who called for working women's social and political rights.
Otto von Bismarck
(1815-1898)-Prussian chancellor who engineered a series of wars to unify Germany under his authoritarian rule.
Bundesrat
The upper house, or Federal Council, of the German Diet (legislature).
Count Cavour
(1810-1861)-Italian statesman from Sardinia who used diplomacy to help achieve unification of Italy.
Francis Deak
(1803-1876) Magyar, who forced Franz Joseph to agree to the Compromise of 1867 (Ausgleich) which created the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
Ems Telegram
The carefully edited dispatch by Bismarck to the French ambassador Benedetti that appeared to be insulting and thus requiring retaliation by France for the seeming affront to French honor.
Giuseppe Garibaldi
(1807-1882)-Soldier of fortune who amassed his "Red Shirt" army to bring Naples and Sicily into a unified Italy.
House of Savoy
The Italian dynasty ruling the independent state of Piedmont- Sardinia. Its head was King Victor Emmanuel II.
Indemnity Bill
(1867-The bill passed by the German Reichstag that legitimated Bismarck's unconstitutional collection of taxes to modernize the army in 1863.
Kulturkampf
Bismarck's anticlerical campaign to expel Jesuits from Germany and break off relations with Vatican. Eventually, after little success, Bismarck halted these policies.
Ferdinand Lassalle
(1825-1864)-Leader of the revisionist socialists, who hoped to achieve socialism through the ballot rather than the bullet. They agreed to work within the framework of the existing government.
Giuseppe Mazzini
(1805-1872)-Idealistic patriot devoted to the principle of united and republican Italy in a world of free states.
Napoleon III
(1852-1870)-The former Louis Napoleon, who became president of the Second Republic of France in 1848 and engineered a coup d'état, ultimately making himself head of the Second Empire.
Nationalism
The shared belief among peoples of a common heritage, culture, and customs, and speaking a similar language (there may be dialect differences).
Daniel O'Connell
(1775-1847) Irish advocate for the of the Penal Laws against Catholics. Tried to have repealed the Act of Union of 1800, which linked Britain and Ireland legislatively. His election to Parliament for the passage of the1829 Catholic Emancipation Act which declared Catholics were eligible for Public Office.
Parnell, Charles Stewart
(1846-1891) elected to Parliament in 1875 he came to prominence by obstructing other legislation to gain a hearing for home rule for Ireland. In 1885 Parnell's party won 86 seats, exactly the number of votes separating the Liberals (335) from the Conservatives (249). This forced Gladstone to announced his support for a HOME RULE BILL.
Realpolitik
The "politics of reality," i.e., the use of practical means to achieve ends. Bismarck was a practitioner.
"Red Shirt"
Volunteers in Garibaldi's army.
Reichstag
The lower house of the German Diet, or legislature.
Risorgimento
Italian drive and desire for unity.
Siege of Paris
The four-month Prussian assault on the French capital after Napoleon III's surrender in 1870.
Schleswig-Holstein
Two duchies located south of Denmark. In 1863 Schleswig was annexed by Denmark prompting Bismarck's Danish War.
Treaty of Frankfurt
The end of the Franco-Prussian War, which ceded the territories of Alsace and most of Lorraine to Germany.
Young Italy
An association under the leadership of Mazzini that urged the unification of the country.
Alexander II
(1855-1881)-Reforming czar who emancipated the serfs and introduced some measure of representative local government.
Alexander III
(1881-1894-Politically reactionary czar who promoted economic modernization of Russia.
Boyar
Russian noble.
Catherine the Great
(1762-1796)-An "enlightened despot" of Russia whose policies of reform were aborted under pressure of rebellion by serfs.
Church Statute of 1721
A Holy Synod that replaced the office of patriarch. All of its members (lay and religious) had to swear allegiance to the czar.
Crimean War
(1853-1856)-Conflict ostensibly waged to protect Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire, in actuality to gain a foothold in the Black Sea. Turks, Britain, and France forced Russia to sue for peace. The Treaty of Paris (1856) forfeited Russia's right to maintain a war fleet in the Black Sea. Russia also lost the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia.
Decembrist Revolt
The 1825 plot by liberals (upper-class intelligentsia) to set up a constitutional monarchy or a republic. The plot failed, but the ideals remained.
Duma
Russian national legislature.
Emancipation Edict
(1861-The imperial law that abolished serfdom in Russia and, on paper, freed the peasants. In actuality they were collectively responsible for redemption payments to the government for a number of years.
Father Gapon
Leader of the factory workers who assembled before the czar's palace to petition him on January 1905 (Bloody Sunday).
Ivan the Great
(1533-1584) earned his nickname for his great acts of cruelty directed toward all those with whom he disagreed. He became the first ruler to assume the title Czar of all Russia.
Kulak
An independent and propertied Russian farmer.
Mir
Village commune where the emancipated serfs lived and worked collectively in order to meet redemption payments to the government.
Nicholas II
(1894-1917)-The last czar of the Romanov dynasty, whose government collapsed under the pressure of World War 1.
Sofia Perovskiai
The first woman to be executed for a political crime in Russia. She was a member of a militant movement that assassinated Czar Alexander II in 1881.
Pugechev
(1726-1775)-Head of the bloody peasant revolt in 1773 that convinced Catherine the Great to throw her support to the nobles and cease internal reforms.
Michael Romanov
In 1613 an assembly of nobels chose Michael as the new czar. For the next 300 years the Romanov family ruled in Russia.
Peter Stolypin
(1862-1911)-Russian minister under Nicholas II who encouraged the growth of private farmers and improved education for enterprising peasants.
Sergei Witte
(1849-1915 )-Finance minister under whom Russia industrialized and began a program of economic modernization, founder of the Transiberian Railroad.
Zemstovo
A type of local government with powers to tax and make laws; essentially, a training ground for democracy, dominated by the property-owning class when established in 1864.
Eduard Bernstein
(1850-1932)-Revisionist German Social Democrat who favored socialist revolution by the ballot rather than the bullet-i.e, by cooperating with the bourgeois members of Parliament and securing electoral victories for his party (the SDP).
"Cat and Mouse Act"
(1913)-Law that released suffragettes on hunger strikes from jail and then rearrested and jailed them again.
Conservativc Party
Formerly the Tory Party, headed by Disraeli in the nineteenth century.
Charles Darwin
(1809-1882)-British scientist whose Origin of Species (1859) proposed the theory of evolution based on his biological research.
Benjamin Disraeli
(1804-1881)-Leader of the British Tory Party who engineered the Reform Bill of 1867, which extended the franchise to the working class. Added the Suez Canal to English overseas holdings.
Alfred Dreyfus
(1859-1935)-French Jewish army captain unfairly convicted of espionage in a case that lasted from 1894 to 1906.
Fabian Society
Group of English socialists, including George Bernard Shaw, who advocated electoral victories rather than violent revolution to bring about social change.
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)-Viennese psychoanalyst whose theory of human personality based on sexual drives shocked Victorian sensibilities.
William Gladstone
1809-1898) English Prime Minister (Liberal) known as the "Grand Old Man." Instituted liberal reforms which were designed to remove long standing abuses without destroying existing institutions. He believed in Home Rule for Ireland. In 1870 he passed the Education Act of 1870 and the Order in Council which replaced patronage as a means of entering civil service with competitive examinations. In 1871 he removed the Anglician religion qualification for faculty positions at Oxford and Cambridge universities and introduced The Ballot act of 1872 which provided for a secret ballot.
Jean Jaures
(1859-1914)-French revisionist socialist who was assassinated for his pacifist ideals at the start of World War 1.
Liberal Party
Formerly the Whig Party, headed by Gladstone in the nineteenth century.
Friedrich Nietzeche
(1844-1900)-German philosopher and forerunner of the modern existentialist movement; he stressed the role of the Ubermensch or Superman, who would rise above the common herd of mediocrity.
Caroline Norton
(1808-1877)-British feminist whose legal persistence resulted in the Married Women s Property Act (1883), which gave married women the same property rights as unmarried women.
Emmeline Pankhurst
(1858-1928)-British suffragette and founder of the Women's Social and Political Union.
Parliament Act of 1911
Legislation that deprived the House of Lords of veto power in all money matters. (realistically curtails the power of the House of Lords).
Paris Commune
The revolutionary municipal council, led by radicals, that engaged in a civil war (March-May 1871) with the National Assembly of the newly established Third Republic, set up after the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco- Prussian War.
Rerum Novarum
(1891-Papal encyclical of Leo XIII (1878-1903) that upheld the right of private property but criticized the inequities of capitalism. It recommended that Catholics form political parties and trade unions to redress the poverty and insecurity fostered under capitalism.
Revisionists
Marxists who believed that workers empowered to vote could obtain their ends through democratic means without revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, known as revisionism.
SDP
The Social Democratic Party in Germany, based on Marx's Ideology.
Syllabus of Errors
(1864)-Doctrine of Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) that denounced belief in reason and science and attacked "progress, liberalism, and modern civilization."
Syndicalism
The French trade-unionist belief that workers would become the governmental power through a general strike that would paralyze society.
Syndicats
French trade unions.
Vatican Council of 1870
Gathering of Catholic church leaders that proclaimed the doctrine of papal infallibility.
Article 231
Provision of the Versailles Treaty that blamed Germany for World War 1.
Black Hand
The Serbian secret society alleged to be responsible for assassinating Archduke Francis Ferdinand. (Princeps)
Blank Check
Reference to the full support provided by William II to Austria- Hungary in its conflict with Serbia. Al;so refers to the promise of support given by Russia to Serbia to develop of Slavic state.
Dreadnought
A battleship with increased speed and power over conventional warships, developed by both Germany and Great Britain to increase their naval arsenals. Carried 10 300mm guns mounted in 5 turrets.
Dual Monarchy
An 1867 compromise between the Germans of Austria-Bohemia and the Magyars of Germany to resolve the nationalities problem by creating the empire of Austria and the kingdom of Hungary, with a common ministry for finance, foreign affairs, and war.
Encirclement
Before both world wars, the policy of other European countries that, Germany claimed, prevented German expansion, denying it the right to acquire "living room" (Lebensraum).
Entente Cordiale
The 1904 "gentleman's agreement" between France and Britain establishing a close understanding.
Fourteen Points
Wilson's peace plans calling for freedom of the seas, arms reduction, and the right of self-determination for ethnic groups.
Free Trade
An economic theory or policy of the absence of restrictions or tariffs on goods imported into a country. There is no "protection" in the form of tariffs against foreign competition.
Imperialism
The acquisition and administration of colonial areas, usually in the interests of the administering country. (The Second Age of Exploration)
Indemnities
Financial demands placed on loser nations.
League of Nations
A proposal included in Wilson's Fourteen Points to establish an international organization to settle disputes and avoid future wars.
Lusitania
British merchant liner carrying ammunition and passengers that was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. The loss of 139 American lives on board was a factor bringing the United States into World War I.
Algecira
The site of the 1906 conference in Spain at which German involvement in Morocco was rebuffed by Britain and France acting in unison.
Agatir
The site of the landing of the German gunboat in Morocco in 1911. William II tried to force the French to make concessions to Germany in Africa. Like the first crisis, this one drew Britain and France closer together.
Pan-Slavism
The movement to unite Slavs in the Balkans.
Sarajavo
The Balkan town in the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia where Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne.
Schlieffen Plan
Top-secret German strategy to fight a two-front war against Russia and France. The idea was to invade neutral Belgium for a quick victory against France, and then direct German forces against a more slowly mobilizing Russia.
Self-determination
The ability of an ethnic group to decide how it wishes to be governed, as an independent nation or as part of another country.
Social Darwinism
The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle.
Three Emperors' League
The 1873 alliance between Germany, Austria, and Russia.
Triple Alliance
The 1882 alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy.
Triple Entente
After 1907, the alliance between England, France, and Russia.
Weltpolitik
("world politics")-The policy of making Germany a major global power through an expanding navy and the acquisition of colonies, the dream of William II.
Woodrow Wilson
(1856-1924)-President of the United States and key figure in the peace conferences following World War I; he intended to make the world "safe for democracy."
Zimmermann telegram
A secret German message to Mexico supporting the Mexican government in regaining Arizona and Texas if the Mexicans declared war on the United States, a factor propelling the United States into World War I in April 1917.
Army Order Number 1
An order issued to the Russian military when the provisional government was formed. It deprived officers of their authority and placed power in elected committees of common soldiers. This led to the collapse of army discipline.
Bolshevik
Left-wing, revolutionary Marxists headed by Lenin. (Majority men).
Cheka
The secret police under Lenin and his Communist Party.
Constitutional Democrats
Also known as the Cadets, the party of the liberal bourgeoisie in Russia.
Council of People's Commissars
The new government set up by Lenin following the Red Guard seizure of government buildings on November 6, 1917.
V. I. Lenin
(1870-1924)-The Bolshevik leader who made the Marxist revolution in November 1917 and modified orthodox Marxism in doing so.
Menshevik
Right-wing or moderate Marxists willing to cooperate with the bourgeoisie. (minority men)
New Economic Policy
(NEP) Plan introduced by Lenin after the Russian civil war. Essentially it was a tactical retreat from war communism, allowing some private ownership among the peasants to stimulate agrarian production.
"Peace, land, and bread"
The promise Lenin made to his supporters on his arrival in April 1917 in Russia after his exile abroad. (In Germany)
Petrograd Soviet
The St. Petersburg, or Petrograd, council of workers, soldiers, and intellectuals who shared power with the provisional government.
Provisional government
The temporary government established after the abdication of Nicholas II (1881-1970), from March until Lenin s takeover In November 1917.
Raputin
An uneducated Siberian preacher (nicknamed Rasputin, the Degenerate ) who claimed to have mysterious healing powers. He could stop the bleeding of Czarina Alexandra's son-possibly through hypnosis-and was thus able to gain influence in the czar's court, much to the dismay of top ministers and aristocrats, who finally arranged for his murder. The czarina's relationship with Rasputin did much to discredit Czar Nicholas's rule.
Red Guards
The Bolshevik armed forces.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
(March 1918)-Pact by which Lenin pulled Russia out of the war with Germany and gave up one third of the Russian population in the western territories.
Leon Trotsky
(1879-1940}Lenin s ally who organized and led the Bolshevik military takeover of the provisional government headed by Kerensky, in November 1917.
"Two Tactics for Social Democracy"
The 1905 essay in which Lenin argued that the agrarian and industrial revolutions could be telescoped. It was unnecessary for Russia to become an industrialized nation before the Marxist revolution.
War Communism
The application of total war by the Bolsheviks to the civil war (1918-1920) at home-i.e, requisitioning grain, nationalizing banks and industries, and introducing rationing.
"What Is to Be Done?"
Essay written by Lenin in 1902 that outlined his plan for an elite revolutionary cadre to engineer the communist revolution in agrarian Russia.
Clara Zeikin
(1857-1933)-German Marxist who focused on women's issues in the Communist Party.
Anschluss
The union of Austria with Germany, resulting from the occupation of Austria by the German army in 1938.
Appeasement
The making of concessions to an adversary in the hope of avoiding conflict. The term is most often used in reference to the meeting between Hitler and British prime minister Chamberlain in Munich, where agreement was made, in September 1938, to cede the Sudetenland (the German-speaking area of Czechoslovakia) to Germany.
Beer Hall Putsch
Hitler's attempt, in 1923, to overthrow the Weimar Republic when he fired his pistol in the ceiling of a Munich beer hall.
Black Shirts
The private army of Mussolini.
Brown Shirts
Hitler's private army of supporters, also known as the SA (Sturm Abteilung).
Crystal Night
(Krystallnacht) The November 1938 destruction, by Hitler's brown Shirts and mobs, of Jewish shops, homes, and synagogues.
Dawes Plan
(1924)-The provision of U.S. Loans to Germany to help meet reparation payments, which were also reduced.
Enabling Act
Article 48 of the Weimar constitution, which enabled Hitler to issue decrees carrying the force of law.
Fascism
The political and economic methods of Mussolini in Italy. The name comes from the fasces or bundle of rods tied around an axe, the symbol of authority in ancient Rome.
Paul von Hindenburg
(1847-1934-President of Weimar Germany, who appointed Hitler chancellor in 1933; formerly a general in World War I.
Adolf Hitler
(1889-1945)-The Nazi leader who came to power legally in Germany in 1933. He set up a totalitarian dictatorship and led Germany into World War II.
Kellogg-Briand Pact
(1928)-Document, signed by fifteen countries, that "condemned and renounced war as an instrument of national policy."
Labor Party
The British party that replaced the Liberals in the early twentieth century and championed greater social equality for the working classes through the efforts of labor unions.
Lateran Agreement
(1929)-Pact that provided recognition by Mussolini of the Vatican and a large sum of money to the church as well.
Locarno Treaty
(1925) Pact that secured the frontier between Germany and France and Germany and Belgium. It also provided for mutual assistance by France and Italy if Germany invaded its border countries.
Mein Kampf
(My Struggle )- Work written by Hitler while in prison in 1923; the book outlines his policies for German expansion, war, and elimination of non Aryans.
Benito Mussolini
(1883-1945)-The founder and leader of the Italian Fascist Party.
National Socialists
(Nazis)-The political party of Adolf Hitler.
Nuremberg Laws
(1935-Measures that excluded Jews from white-collar professions and from marriage and habitation with non-Jews.
Putsch
Forcible and illegitimate attempt to seize power.
Referendum
A plebiscite: the referring of a matter to the people for a decision.
Spartacists
Left-wing Marxists in Germany who hoped to bring about a proletarian revolution in 1919.
Sudetenland
German-speaking area of Czechoslovakia, ceded to Germany in the Hitler- Chamberlain Munich meeting (September 1938).
Third Reich
Name given to Germany during the Nazi regime, between 1933 and 1945. The First Reich (or empire) was from 963 to 1806 (the Holy Roman Empire); the second was from 1871 to 1917 (the reigns of William I and William II).
Totalitarianism
An attempt by government to control a society totally through a dictatorship that employs the modern methods of communication-press, radio, TV-to glorify the state over the individual. Its varieties are Fascism, Nazism, and communism.
Vatican
Independent sovereign state of the pope and the Catholic church, established in Rome In 1929.
Victor Emmanuel III
(190~1946)-King of Italy who asked Mussolini to form a cabinet in 1922, thus allowing Mussolini to take power legally.
Washington Conference
(1921)-Conference of major powers to reduce naval armaments among Great Britain, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States.
Weimer
A reference to the republic of Germany that lasted from 1919 to 1933.
Young Plan
(1929) Schedule that set limits to Germany's reparation payments and reduced the agreed-on time for occupation of the Ruhr.
Benvenuto Cellini
A goldsmith and sculptor who wrote an autobiography, famous for its arrogance and immodest self-praise.
Condottiere
A mercenary soldier of a political ruler.
Humanism
The recovery and study of classical authors and writings.
Individualism
The emphasis on the unique and creative personally
New Monarchs
The term applied to Louis XI of France, Henry VII of England, and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, who strengthened their monarchical authority often by Machiavellian means.
Rationalism
The application and use of reason in understanding and explaining events.
Renaissance
The period from 1400 to 1600 that witnessed a transformation of cultural and intellectual values from primarily Christian to classical or secular ones.
Secularism
The emphasis on the here and-now rather than on the spiritual and otherworldly.
Lorenzo Valla
(1407-1457)-A humanist who used historical criticism to discredit an eighth-century document giving the papacy jurisdiction over Western lands.
Virtu
The striving for personal excellence.
Baroque
The sensuous and dynamic style of art of the Counter Reformation.
Brethren of the Common Life
Pious laypeople In sixteenth-century Holland who Initiated a religious revival in their model of Christian living.
John Calvin
(1509-1564) - A French theologian who established a theocracy In Geneva and is best known for his theory of predestination.
Charles V
(1519-1556) - Hapsburg dynastic ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and of extensive territories in Spain and the Netherlands.
Council of Trent
The congress of learned Roman Catholic authorities that met intermittently from 1545 to 1563 to reform abusive church practices and reconcile with the Protestants.
Index
A list of books that Catholics were forbidden to read.
Indulgence
Papal pardon for remission of sins.
Inquisition
A religious committee of six Roman cardinals that tried heretics and punished the guilty by imprisonment and execution.
Jesuits
Also known as the Society of Jesus; founded by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) as a teaching and missionary order to resist the spread of Protestantism.
John Knox
(1505-1572) Calvinist leader in sixteenth-century Scotland.
Martin Luther
(1483-1546) - German theologian who challenged the church's practice of selling indulgences, a challenge that ultimately led to the destruction of the unity of the Roman Catholic world.
Sir Thomas More
(1478-1535 - Renaissance humanist and chancellor of England, executed by Henry VIII for his unwillingness to recognize publicly his king as Supreme Head of the church and clergy of England.
Nepotism
The practice of rewarding relatives with church positions.
Peace of Augsburg
(1555) - Document in which Charles V recognized Lutheranism as a legal religion in the Holy Roman Empire. The faith of the prince determined the religion of his subjects.
Pluralism
The holding of several benefices, or church offices.
Simony
The selling of church offices.
Theocracy
A community, such as Calvin's Geneva, in which the state Is subordinate to the church.
Usury
The practice of lending money for interest.
Gustavus Adolphus
(1594-1632) - Swedish Lutheran who won victories for the German Protestants in the Thirty Years War and lost his life in one of the battles
Duke of Alva
(1508-1582 - Military leader sent by Philip n to pacify the Low Countries.
Armada
(1588) - Spanish vessels defeated in the English Channel by an English fleet, thus preventing Philip II's invasion of England.
Vasco de Balboa
First European to reach the Pacific Ocean, 1513.
Catherine de Medici
(1547-1589 - The wife of Henry II (1547-1559) of France, who exercised political influence after the death of her husband and during the rule of her weak sons.
Christopher Columbus
First European to sail to the West Indies, 1492.
Concordat of Bologna
(1516 - Treaty under which the French Crown recognized the supremacy of the pope over a council and obtained the right to appoint all French bishops and abbots.
Fernando Cortez
Conqueror of the Aztecs, 1519-1521.
Defenestration of Prague
The hurling, by Protestants, of Catholic officials from a castle window in Prague, setting off the Thirty Years' War.
Bartholomew Diaz
First European to reach the southern tip of Africa, 14871488.
Dutch East India Company
Government-chartered joint-stock company that controlled the spice trade in the East Indies.
Edict of Nantes
The edict of Henry IV that granted Huguenots the rights of public worship and religious toleration in France.
Elizabeth I
(1558-1603) - Protestant ruler of England who helped stabilize religious tensions by subordinating theological issues to political considerations.
Prince Henry the Navigator
Sponsor of voyages along West African coasts, 1418.
Henry IV
(1589-1610) - Formerly Henry of Navarre; ascended the French throne as a convert to Catholicism. Surrived St. Bartholomew Day, signed Edict of Nantes, quoted as saying "Paris is worth a mass."
Huguenots
French Calvinists.
Ferdinand Magellan
Circumnavigator of the globe, 1519-1522.
Peace of Westphalia
(1648) - The treaty ending the Thirty Years' War in Germany; it allowed each prince-whether Lutheran, Catholic, or Calvinist-to choose the established creed of his territory.
Philip II
(1556-1598) - Son and successor to Charles V, ruling Spain and the Low Countries.
Francisco Pizarro
Conqueror of Peru, 1532-1533.
St. Bartholemew's Day
(August 24, 1572) - Catholic attack on Calvinists on the marriage day of Margaret of Valois to Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV).
Prince William of Orange
(1572-1584 - Leader of the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands.
Cardinal Richelieu
(1585-1642) Minister to Louis XIII. His three point plan (1. Break the power of the nobility, 2. Humble the House of Austria, 3. Control the Protestants) helped to send France on the road to absolute monarchy.
Absolutism
The theory that the monarch is supreme and can exercise full and complete power unilaterally.
Bill of Rights
(1689) - English document declaring that sovereignty resided with Parliament.
Charles I
(1625-1649) - Stuart king who brought conflict with Parliament to a head and was subsequently executed.
Charles II
(1660 1685) - Stuart king during the Restoration, following Cromwell's Interregnum.
Colbert
(1619-1683) - The financial minister under the French king Louis XIV who promoted mercantilist policies.
Constitutionalism
The theory that power should be shared between rulers and their subjects and the state governed according to laws.
Oliver Cromwell
(1559-1658) - The principal leader and a gentry member of the Puritans in Parliament.
Diggers and Levellers
Radical groups in England in the 1650s who called for the abolition of private ownership and extension of the franchise.
Divine right monarchy
The belief that a monarch's power derives from God and represents Him on earth.
Frederick the Great
(1740-1786) - The Prussian ruler who expanded his territory by invading the duchy of Silesia and defeating Maria Theresa of Austria.
Frederick William
(1640-1688) - The "Great Elector," who built a strong Prussian army and infused military values into Prussian society.
French Classicism
The style in seventeenth-century art and literature resembling the arts in the ancient world and in the Renaissance-e.g., the works of Poussin, Moliere, and Racine.
Fronde
The last aristocratic revolt against a French monarch.
Glorious Revolution
A reference to the political events of 1688-1689, when James II abdicated his throne and was replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband, Prince William of Orange.
Habeas corpus
The legal protection that prohibits the imprisonment of a subject without demonstrated cause.
Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679) - Political theorist advocating absolute monarchy based on his concept of an anarchic state of nature.
Interregnum
The period of Cromwellian rule (1649-1659), between the Stuart dynastic rules of Charles I and Charles II.
James I
(1603-1625 - Stuart monarch who ignored constitutional principles and asserted the divine right of kings.
James II
(1685-1688 - Final Stuart ruler; he was forced to abdicate in favor of William and Mary, who agreed to the Bill of Rights, guaranteeing parliamentary supremacy.
John Locke
(1632-1704 - Political theorist who defended the Glorious Revolution with the argument that all people are born with certain natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
Louis XIV
(1643-1715 - Also known as the "Sun King"; the ruler of France who established the supremacy of absolutism in seventeenth-century Europe.
Maria Theresa
(1740-1780) - Archduchess of Austria, queen of Hungary, who lost the Hapsburg possession of Silesia to Frederick the Great but was able to keep her other Austrian territories.
Mercantilism
Governmental policies by which the state regulates the economy, through taxes, tariffs, subsidies, laws.
New Model Army
The disciplined fighting force of Protestants led by Oliver Cromwell in the English civil war.
Peace of Utrecht
(1713 - The pact concluding the War of the Spanish Succession, forbidding the union of France with Spain, and conferring control of Gibraltar on England.
Peter the Great
(1682-1725 - The Romanov czar who initiated the westernization of Russian society by traveling to the West and incorporating techniques of manufacturing as well as manners and dress.
Petition of Right
(1628) - Parliamentary document that restricted the king's power. Most notably, it called for recognition of the writ of habeas corpus and held that only Parliament could impose new taxes.
Puritan Revolution
A reference to the English civil war (1642-1646), waged to determine whether sovereignty would reside in the monarch or in Parliament.
Puritans
Protestant sect in England hoping to "purify" the Anglican church of Roman Catholic traces in practice and organization.
Restoration
The return of the Stuart monarchy (1660) after the period of republican government under Cromwell-in fact, a military dictatorship.
Test Act
(1673) Law prohibiting Catholics and dissenters to hold political office.
Versailles
Palace constructed by Louis XIV outside of Paris to glorify his rule and subdue the nobility.
War of the Spanish Succession
(1701-1713 - The last of Louis XIV's wars involving the issue of succession to the Spanish throne.
William of Orange
(1672-1702 - Dutch prince and foe of Louis XIV who became king of England in 1689.
Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology
the geocentric view of the universe that prevailed from the fourth century B.C. to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and accorded with church teachings and Scriptures.
Francis Bacon
(1561-1626}inductive thinker who stressed experimentation in arriving at truth.
Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473-1543 - Polish astronomer who posited a heliocentric universe in place of a geocentric universe.
Deism
The belief that God has created the universe and set it in motion to operate like clockwork. God is literally in the wings watching the show go on as humans forge their own destiny.
Rene Descarte
(1596-1650 - Deductive thinker whose famous saying cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am") challenged the notion of truth as being derived from tradition and Scriptures.
Enlightenment
The intellectual revolution of the eighteenth century in which the philosophes stressed reason, natural law, and progress in their criticism of prevailing social injustices.
Galileo
(1564-1642)-Italian scientist who formulated terrestrial laws and the modern law of Inertia; he also provided evidence for the Copernican hypothesis.
Laissez-faire
The economic concept of the Scottish philosophe Adam Smith (1723-1790). In opposition to mercantilism, Smith urged governments to keep hands off the operation of the economy. He believed the role of government was analogous to the night watchman, guarding and protecting but not intervening in the operation of the economy, which must be left to run in accord with the natural laws of supply and demand.
Isaac Newton
(1642-1727 - English scientist who formulated the law of gravitation that posited a universe operating In accord with natural law.
Philosophes
Social critics of the eighteenth century who subjected social institutions and practices to the test of reason.
Royal Society of London and French Academy of Sciences
Organized bodies for scientific study.
Tabula rasa
John Locke's concept of the mind as a blank sheet ultimately bombarded by sense impressions that, aided by human reasoning, formulate ideas.
Cesare Beccaria
Crime and Punishment
Denis Diderot
Encyclopedia.
David Hume
An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
John Locke
Two Treatises on Government; Essay on Human Understanding.
Montesquieu
Spirit of the Laws, Persian Letters.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Social Contract; Emile.
Adam Smith
Wealth of Nations.
Voltaire
Philosophical Letters; Candide.
Mary Wollstonecraft
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Ancien regime
(Old Regime)-France prior to the French Revolution
Banalities
Fees that peasants were obligated to pay landlords for the use of the village mill, bakeshop and winepress
Bastille
The political prison and armory stormed on July 14, 1789, by Partisian city workers alarmed by the king's concentration of troops at Versailles
Cahier de doleances
List of grievances that each Estate drew up in preparation for the summoning of the Estates-General in 1789.
Code Napoleon
The codification and condensation of laws assuring legal equality and uniformity in France.
Committee of Public Safety
The leaders under Robespierre who organized the defenses of France, conducted foreign policy, and centralized authority during the period 1792-1795.
Concordat (1801)
Napoleon's arrangement with Pope Plus VII to heal religious division in France with a united Catholic church under bishops appointed by the government.
Continental System
Napoleon's efforts to block foreign trade with England by forbidding Importation of British goods Into Europe.
Corveees
Roadwork; an obligation of peasants to landowners.
Coup d'etat
Overthrow of those in power.
Declaration of Pillnitz
(1791) Austria and Prussia agreed to intervene in France to end the revolution with the unanimous agreement of the great powers.
Declaration of the Rights of Man end Citizen
(August 27, 1789) - Document that embodied the liberal revolutionary Ideals and general principles of the philosophes' writings.
Directory (1795-1799)
The five-man executive committee that ruled France in its own interests as a republic after Robespierre's execution and prior to Napoleon's coming to power.
Estates General
The French national assembly summoned in 1789 to remedy the financial crisis and correct abuses of the ancien regime.
Great Fear
The panic and insecurity that struck French peasants in the summer of 1789 and led to their widespread destruction of manor houses and archives.
Jacobins
The dominant group In the National Convention in 1793 who replaced the Girondist. It was headed by Robespierre.
Law of the maximum
The fixing of prices on bread and other essentials under Robespierre's rule.
Levee en masse
The creation under the Jacobins, of a citizen army with support from young and old, heralding the emergence of modern warfare.
Napoleon Bonaparte
(1769-1821) - Consul and later emperor of France (1799-1815), who established several of the reforms (Code Napoleon) of the French Revolution during his dictatorial rule.
Night of August 4, 1789
date of the declaration by liberal noblemen of the National Assembly at a secret meeting to abolish the feudal regime in France.
Parlement
Law court staffed by nobles that could register or refuse to register a king's edict.
Peninsular War
(1808-1813) - Napoleon's long-drawn-out war with Spain.
Robespierre
(1758-1794)-Jacobin leader during the Reign of Terror (1793-1794).
Sans culottes
A reference to Parisian workers who wore loose-fitting trousers rather than the tight-fitting breeches worn by aristocratic men.
Taille
A direct tax from which most French nobles were exempt.
Tennis Court Oath
Declaration mainly by members of the Third Estate not to disband until they had drafted a constitution for France (June 20, 1789).
Treaty of Tilsit
(1807 - Agreement between Napoleon and Czar Alexander I in which Russia became an ally of France and Napoleon took over the lands of Prussia west of the Elbe as well as the Polish provinces.