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398 Cards in this Set

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Nomadic pastoralists of the Arabian peninsula; culture based on camel and goat herding; early converts to Islam.
bedouin
leaders of the tribes and clans within bedouin society; usually men with large heads and several wives, children, and retainers.
shaykhs
a large city located in the mountainous region along the Red Sea in Arabian peninsula; founded by Umayyad clan of Quraysh; site of Ka’ba original home of Muhammad; location of chief religious pilgrimage point in Islam.
Mecca
Most revered religious shrine in pre-Islamic Arabia; located in Mecca; focus of obligatory annual truce among bedouin tribes; later incorporated as important shrine in Islam.
Ka’ba
(Yathrib) town located northeast of Mecca; grew date palms whose fruit was sold to Bedouins; became refuge for Muhammad following flight from Mecca (hijra).
Medina
Prophet of Islam; born c. 570 to Banu Hashim clan of Quraysh tribe in Mecca; raised by father’s family; received revelations from Allah in 610 C.E. and died in 632.
Muhammad
First wife of the prophet Muhammad, who had worked for her as a trader.
Kadijah
Recitations of revelations received by Muhammad; holy book of Islam.
Qur’an
Flight to Medina; marks first year of Islamic calendar.
hijra
Community of the faithful within Islam; transcended old tribal boundaries to create degree of political unity.
umma
The obligatory religious duties of all Muslims; confession of faith, prayer, fasting during Ramadan, zakat, and hajj.
Five Pillars
Islamic month of religious observance requiring fasting from dawn to sunset.
Ramadan
A Muslim’s pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, to worship Allah and the Ka’ba.
hajj
Struggle; often used for wars in defense of the faith.
jihads
Political and theological division within Islam; supported the Umayyads.
Sunnis
(i.e. Shi’ites) political and theological division within Islam; followers of Ali.
Shi’a
Arab sailing vessels with triangular or lateen sails; strongly influenced European ship design.
dhows
Triangular sails attached to the masts of dhows by long booms, or yard arms, which extended diagonally high across the fore and aft of the ship.
lateen
Nomadic invaders from central Asia via Persia; staunch Sunnis; ruled in the name of Abbasid caliphs from mid-11th century.
Seljuk Turks
Series of military adventures initially launched by western Christians to free Holy Land from Muslims; temporarily succeeded in capturing Jerusalem and establishing Christian kingdoms; later used for other purposes such as commercial wars and extermination of heresy.
Crusades
Muslim leader in the last decades of the 12th century; reconquered most of the crusader outposts for Islam.
Saladin
Written by Firdawsi in late 10th and early 11th centuries; relates history of Persia from creation to the Isalmic conquests.
Shah-Nama
Mystics within Islam; responsible for expansion of Islam to southeast Asia and other regions.
Sufis
Central Asian nomadic peoples; smashed Turko-Persian kingdoms; captured Baghdad in 1258 and killed last Abbasid caliph.
Mongols
Born in 1170s in decades following death of Kabul Khan; elected Khagan of all Mongol tribes in 1206.
Chinggis Khan
(1498-1547) Celebrated Hindu writer of religious poetry; reflected openness of bhaktic cults to women.
Mira Bai
Portuguese factory or fortified trade town located on the tip of the Malayan peninsula; traditionally a center for trade among the southeastern Asian islands.
Malacca
African societies organized around kinship or other forms of obligation and lacking the concentration of political power and authority associated with states.
stateless societies
The “Lion Prince”; a member of the Keita clan; created a unified state that became the Mali Empire; died about 1260.
Sundiata
Professional oral historians who served as keepers of traditions and advisors to kings within the Mali Empire.
griots
Port city of Mali; located just off the flood plain on the great bend in the Niger River; population of 50,000; contained a library and university.
Timbuktu
Successor state to Mali; dominated middle reaches of Niger valley; formed as independent kingdom under a Berber dynasty; capital at Gao; reached imperial status under Sunni Ali (1464 – 1492).
Songhay
Peoples of northern Nigeria; formed states following the demise of Songhay Empire that combined Muslim and pagan traditions.
Hausa
Islamic law; defined among other things the patrilineal nature of Islamic inheritance.
Sharia
The study of population.
demography
Kingdom, based on agriculture, formed on lower Congo River by late 15th century; capital at Mbanza Kongo; ruled by hereditary monarchy.
Kongo
Bantu confederation of Shona-speaking peoples located between Zambezi and Limpopo rivers; developed after 9th century; featured royal courts built of stone; created centralized state by 15th century; king took title of Mwene Mutapa.
Great Zimbabwe
New church constructed in Constantinople during reign of Justinian.
Hagia Sophia
One of Justinian’s most important military commanders during period of reconquest of western Europe; commanded in north Africa and Italy.
Belisarius
Byzantine weapon consisting of mixture of chemicals that ignited when exposed to water; utilized to drive back the Arab fleets that attacked Constantinople.
Greek fire
Along with Methodius, missionary sent by Byzantine government to eastern Europe and the Balkans; converted southern Russia and Balkans to Orthodox Christianity; responsible for creation of written script for Slavic known as Cyrillic.
Cyril
Trade city in southern Russia established by Scandinavian traders in 9th century; became focal point for kingdom of Russia that flourished to 12th century.
Kiev
Legendary Scandinavian, regarded as founder of the first kingdom of Russia based in Kiev in 855 C.E.
Rurik
Russian form of Christianity imported from Byzantine Empire and combined with local religion; king characteristically controlled major appointments.
Russian Orthodox
Russian aristocrats; possessed less political power than did their counterparts in western Europe.
boyars
Mongols; captured Russian cities and largely destroyed Kievan state in 1236; left Russian Orthodoxy and aristocracy intact.
Tatars
The period in western European history from the decline and fall of the Roman Empire until the 15th century.
Middle Ages
Seagoing Scandinavian raiders from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway who disrupted coastal areas of western Europe from the 8th to 11th centuries.
Vikings
System that described economic and political relations between landlords and their peasant laborers during the Middle Ages; involved a hierarchy of reciprocal obligations that exchanged labor or rents for access to land.
manorialism
Peasant agricultural laborers within the manorial system of the Middle Ages
serfs
System of agricultural cultivation by 9th century in western Europe; included 1/3 of spring grains, 1/3 fallow.
three-field system
Royal house of Franks after 8th century until their replacement in 10th cent.
Carolingians
Charles the Great; Carolingian monarch who established substantial empire in France and Germany c.800.
Charlemagne
Members of the military elite who received land or a benefice from a feudal lord in return for military service and loyalty.
vassals
Invaded England from Normandy in 1066; extended tight feudal system to England; established administrative system based on sheriffs; established centralized monarchy.
William the Conqueror
Great Charter issued by King John of England in 1215; confirmed feudal rights against monarchical claims; represented principle of mutual limits and obligations between rulers and feudal aristocracy.
Magna Carta
Bodies representing privileged groups; institutionalized feudal principle that rulers should consult with their vassals; found in England, Spain, Germany, and France.
parliaments
Conflict between England and France from 1337 to 1453; fought over lands England possessed in France and feudal rights versus the emerging claims of national states.
Hundred Years War
Practice of state appointment of bishops; Pope Gregory VII attempted to ban the practice of lay investiture, leading to war with Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV.
investiture
Creator of one of the great syntheses of medieval learning; taught at University of Paris; author of several Summas; believed that through reason it was possible to know much about natural order, moral law, and nature of God.
Thomas Aquinas
Dominant medieval philosophical approach; so-called because of its base in the schools or universities; based on use of logic to resolve theological problems.
scholasticism
An architectural style developed during the Middle Ages in western Europe; featured pointed arches and flying buttresses as external supports on main walls.
Gothic
An organization of cities in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia for the purpose of establishing a commercial alliance.
Hanseatic League
Sworn associations of people in the same business of craft in a single city; stressed security and mutual control; limited membership, regulated apprenticeship, guaranteed good workmanship; often established franchise within cities.
guilds
Plague that struck Europe in 14th century; significantly reduced Europe’s population; affected social structure.
Black Death
Misnomer created by Columbus referring to indigenous peoples of New World; implies social and ethnic commonality among Native Americans that did not exist; still used to apply to Native Americans.
Indians
Toltec deity; Feathered Serpent; adopted by Aztecs as a major god.
Quetzalcoatl
Founded c.1325 on marshy island in Lake Texcoco; became center of Aztec power; joined with Tlacopan and Texcoco in 1434 to form a triple alliance that controlled most of central plateau of Mesoamerica.
Tenochtitlan
Aztec tribal patron god; central figure of cult of human sacrifice and warfare; identified with old sun god.
Huitzilopochtli
Beds of aquatic weeds, mud, and earth placed in frames made of cane and rooted in lakes to create “floating islands”; system of irrigated agriculture utilized by Aztecs.
chinampas
Inca practice of descent; all titles and political power went to successor, but wealth and land remained in hands of male descendants for support of cult of dead inca’s mummy.
split inheritance
Way stations used by Incas as inns and storehouses; supply centers for Inca armies on move; relay points for system of runners used to carry messages.
tambos
Labor extracted for lands assigned to the state and the religion; all communities were expected to contribute; an essential aspect of Inca imperial control.
mita
System of knotted strings utilized by the Incas in place of a writing system; could contain numerical and other types of information for censuses and financial records.
quipu
(566-635) Also known as Duke of Tang; minister for Yangdi; took over empire following assassination of Yangdi; first emperor of Tang dynasty; took imperial title of Gaozu.
Li Yuan
Administered examinations to students from Chinese government schools or those recommended by distinguished scholars.
Ministry of Rites
Title granted to students who passed the most difficult Chinese examination on all of Chinese literature; became immediate dignitaries and eligible for high office.
jinshi
Known as Chan Buddhism in China; stressed meditation and the appreciation of natural and artistic beauty.
Zen
Tang ruler 690-705C.E. in China; supported Buddhist establishment; tried to elevate Buddhism to state religion; had multistory statues of Buddha created.
Empress Wu
Revived ancient Confucian teachings in Song era China; great impact on the dynasties that followed; their emphasis on tradition and hostility to foreign systems made Chinese rulers and bureaucrats less receptive to outside ideas and influences.
neo-Confucians
Built in 7th century during reign of Yangdi during Sui dynasty; designed to link the original centers of Chinese civilization on the north China plain with the Yangtze river basin to the south; nearly 1200 miles long.
Grand Canal
Chinese ships equipped with watertight bulkheads, sternpost rudders, compasses, and bamboo fenders; dominant force in Asian seas east of the Malayan peninsula.
junks
Chinese credit instrument that provided credit vouchers to merchants to be redeemed at the end of the voyage; reduced danger of robbery; early form of currency.
flying money
Practice in Chinese society to mutilate women’s feet in order to make them smaller; produced pain and restricted women’s movement; made it easier to confine women to the household.
footbinding
(701-762) Most famous poet of the Tang era; blended images of the mundane world with philosophical musings.
Li Bo
Attempt to remake Japanese monarch into an absolute Chinese-style emperor; included attempts to create professional bureaucracy and peasant conscript army
Taika reforms
The first novel in history written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu; criticized indulgence in aesthetics; nobility must act poised/cultured.
The Tale of Genji
Japanese aristocratic family in mid-9th century; exercised exceptional influence over imperial affairs; aided in decline of imperial power
Fujiwara
Regional warrior leaders in Japan; ruled small kingdoms from fortresses; administered the law, supervised public works projects, and collected revenues; built up private armies.
bushi
Mounted troops of Japanese warrior leaders (bushi); loyal to local lords, not the emperor.
samurai
Ritual suicide or disembowelment in Japan; commonly known in the West as hara-kiri; demonstrated courage and a means to restore family honor.
seppuku
Military leaders of the bakufu (military governments in Japan).
shoguns
Warlord rulers of 300 small states following civil war and disruption of Ashikaga Shogunate; holdings consolidated into unified and bounded mini-states.
daimyos
Earliest Korean kingdom; conquered by Han emperor in 109 B.C.E.
Choson
Extensive adaptation of Chinese culture in other regions; typical of Korea and Japan, less typical of Vietnam.
Sinification
Indianized rivals of the Vietnamese; moved into Mekong River delta region at time of Vietnamese drive to the south.
Khmers
Leaders of one of the frequent peasant rebellions in Vietnam against Chinese rule; revolt broke out in 39 C.E.; demonstrates importance of Vietnamese women in indigenous society.
Trung sisters
Meeting of all Mongol chieftains at which the supreme ruler of all tribes was selected.
kuriltai
Title of the supreme ruler of the Mongol tribes.
khagan
One of the four subdivisions of the Mongol Empire after Chinggis Khan’s death, originally ruled by his grandson Batu; territory covered much of what is today south central Russia.
Golden Horde
Russian army victory over the forces of the Golden Horde; helped break Mongol hold over Russia.
Battle of Kulikova
In legends popular from 12th to 17th century, a mythical Christian monarch whose kingdom was cut off from Europe by Muslim conquests; Chinggis Khan was originally believed to be this mythical ruler.
Prester John
(1215-1294) Grandson of Chinggis Khan; commander of Mongol forces responsible for conquest of China; became khagan in 1260; established Sinicized Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1271.
Kubilai Khan
Influential wife of Kubilai Khan; promoted interests of Buddhists in China; indicative of refusal of Mongol women to adopt restrictive social conventions of Chinese; died c. 1281.
Chabi
Secret religious society dedicated to overthrow of Yuan dynasty in China; typical of peasant resistance to Mongol rule.
White Lotus Society
Succeeded Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1368; lasted until 1644; initially mounted huge trade expeditions to southern Asia and elsewhere, but later concentrated efforts on internal development within China.
Ming dynasty
Also known as Tamerlane; leader of Turkic nomads; beginning in 1360s from base at Samarkand, launched series of attacks in Persia, the Fertile Crescent, India, and southern Russia; empire disinter-grated after his death in 1405.
Timur-i Lang
Chinese Muslim admiral who commanded series of Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea trade expeditions under third Ming emperor, Yunglo, between 1405 and 1433.
Zhenghe
Cultural and political movement in western Europe; began in Italy c. 1400; rested- on urban vitality and expanding commerce;
Renaissance
(1304-1374) one of the major literary figures of the Western Renaissance; an Italian author and humanist.
Francesco Petrarch
regional kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula; pressed reconquest of peninsula from Muslims; developed a vigorous military and religious agenda.
Castile and Aragon
Two Genoese brothers who attempted to find a Western route to the “Indies”; disappeared in 1291; precursors of thrust into southern Atlantic.
the Vivaldis
Portuguese captain who sailed for India in 1497; established early Portuguese dominance in Indian Ocean.
Vasco da Gama
Portuguese prince responsible for direction of series of expeditions along the African coast in the 15th century; marked beginning of western European expansion.
Prince Henry the Navigator
Established by Europeans by the 16th century; based on control of seas, including the Atlantic and Pacific; created international exchange of foods, diseases, and manufactured products.
world economy
Southern tip of Africa; first circumnavigated in 1488 by Portuguese in search of direct route to India.
Cape of Good Hope
Genoese captain in service of king and queen of Castile and Aragon; successfully sailed to New World and returned in 1492; initiated European discoveries in Americas.
Christopher Columbus
(1480-1521) Spanish captain who in 1519 initiated first circumnavigation of the globe; died during the voyage; allowed Spain to claim Philippines.
Ferdinand Magellan
Joint stock company that obtained government monopoly over trade in India; acted as virtually independent government in regions it claimed.
British East India Company
Naval battle between the Spanish and the Ottoman Empire resulting in a Spanish victory in 1571.
Lepanto
Nations, usually European, that enjoyed profit form world economy; controlled international banking and commercial services such as shipping; exported manufactured goods for raw materials.
core nations
Economic theory that stressed governments’ promotion of limitation of imports from other nations and internal economies in order to improve tax revenues; popular during 17th and 18th centuries in Europe.
mercantilism
People of mixed European and Indian ancestry in Mesoamerica and South America; particularly prevalent in areas colonized by Spain; often part of forced labor system.
mestizos
(c. 1475-1519) First Spanish captain to begin settlement on the mainland of Mesoamerica in 1509; initial settlement eventually led to conquest of Aztec and Inca empires by other captains.
Vasco de Balboa
Led conquest of Inca Empire of Peru beginning in 1535; by 1540, most of Inca possessions fell to the Spanish.
Francisco Pizarro
Fought both in continental Europe and also in overseas colonies between 1765 and 1763; resulted in Prussian seizures of land from Austria, English seizures of colonies in India and North America.
Seven Years War
Arranged in 1763 following Seven Years War; granted New France to England in exchange for return of French sugar island in Caribbean.
Treaty of Paris
Dutch settlers in Cape Colony, in southern Africa.
Boers
Headquarters of British East India Company in Bengal in Indian subcontinent; located on Ganges; captured in 1756 during early part of Seven Years War; later became administrative center for all of Bengal.
Calcutta
Form of Protestantism set up in England after 1534; established by Henry VIII with himself as head, at least in part to obtain a divorce from his first wife; became increasingly Protestant following Henry’s death.
Anglican Church
French Protestant (16th century) who stressed doctrine of predestination; established center of his group at Swiss canton (region) of Geneva; encouraged ideas of wider access to government, wider public education; Calvinism spread from Switzerland to northern Europe and North America.
Jean Calvin
Restatement of traditional Catholic beliefs in response to Protestant Reformation (16th century); established councils that revived Catholic doctrine and refuted Protestant beliefs.
Catholic Reformation
Polish monk and astronomer (16th century); disproved Hellenistic belief that the earth was at the center of the universe.
Copernicus
Concept of God current during the Scientific Revolution; role of divinity was to set natural laws in motion, not to regulate once process was begun.
Deism
Grant of tolerance to Protestants in France in 1598; granted only after length civil war between Catholic and Protestant factions.
Edict of Nantes
Intellectual movement centered in France during the 18th century; featured scientific advance, application of scientific methods to study of human society; belief that rational laws could describe social behavior.
Enlightenment
Published Copernicus’s findings (17th century); added own discoveries concerning laws of gravity and planetary motion; condemned by the Catholic church for this work.
Galileo
English overthrow of James II in 1688; resulted in affirmation of parliament as having basic sovereignty over the king.
Glorious Revolution
Introduced movable type to western Europe in 15th century; credited with greatly expanded availability of printed books and pamphlets.
Johannes Gutenberg
Focus on humankind as center of intellectual and artistic endeavor; method of study that emphasized the superiority of classical forms over medieval styles, in particular the study of ancient languages.
humanism
A new religious order founded during the Catholic Reformation; active in politics, education, and missionary work; sponsored missions to South America, North America, and Asia.
Jesuits
English philosopher who argued that people could learn everything through senses and reason and that the power of government came from the people, not divine right of kings; offered possibility of revolution to overthrow tyrants.
John Locke
German monk; initiated Protestant Reformation in 1517 by nailing 95 theses to donor of Wittenberg church; emphasized primacy of faith over works stressed in Catholic church; accepted state control over church.
Martin Luther
Author of The Prince (16th century); emphasized realistic discussions of how to seize and maintain power; one of the most influential authors of Italian Renaissance.
Niccolo Machiavelli
English scientist; author of Principia; drew together astronomical and physical observations and wider theories into a neat framework of natural laws; established principles of motion; defined forces of gravity.
Isaac Newton
Cultural and intellectual movement of northern Europe; began later than Italian Renaissance c. 1450; centered in France, Low Countires, England, and Germany; featured greater emphasis on religion than Italian Renaissance.
Northern Renaissance
Class of working people without access to producing property; typically manufacturing workers, paid laborers in agricultural economy, or urban poor; in Europe, product of economic changes of 16th and 17th centuries.
proletariat
General wave of religious dissent against Catholic church; generally held to have begun with Martin Luther’s attack on Catholic beliefs in 1517; included many varieties of religious belief.
Protestantism
Culminated in 17th century; period of empirical advances associated with the development of wider theoretical generalizations; resulted in change in traditional beliefs of Middle Ages.
Scientific Revolution
Established liberal economics (Wealth of Nations, 1776); argued that government should avoid regulation of economy in favor of the operation of market forces.
Adam Smith
Ended Thirty Years War in 1648; granted right to individual rulers within the Holy Roman Empire to choose their own religion—either Protestant or Catholic.
Treaty of Westphalia
Enlightenment feminist thinker in England; argued that new political rights should extend to women.
Mary Wollstonecraft
(1440-1505 Also known as Ivan the Great; prince of Duchy of Moscow; claimed descent from Rurik; responsible for freeing Russia from Mongols after 1462; took title of tsar or Caesar – equivalent of emperor
Ivan III
(1530-1584) Also known as Ivan the Terrible; confirmed power of tsarist autocracy by attacking authority of boyars (aristocrats); continued policy of Russian expansion; established contacts with western European commerce and culture.
Ivan IV
peasants recruited to migrate to newly seized lands in Russia, particularly in south; combined agriculture with military conquests; spurred additional frontier conquests and settlements.
cossacks
Followed death of Ivan IV without heir early in 17th century; boyars attempted to use vacuum
Time of Troubles
Dynasty elected in 1613 at end of Time of Troubles; ruled Russia until 1917.
Romanov dynasty
Russians who refused to accept the ecclesiastical reforms of Alexis Romanov (17th century); many exiled to Siberia or southern Russia, where they became part of Russian colonization.
Old Believers
Also known as Peter the Great; son of Alexis Romanov; ruled from 1689 to 1725; continued growth of absolutism and conquest; included more definite interest in changing selected aspects of economy and culture through imitation of western European models.
Peter I
German-born Russian tsarina in the 18th century; ruled after assassination of her husband; gave appearance of enlightened rule; accepted Western cultural influence; maintained nobility as a service aristocracy by granting them new power over peasantry.
Catherine the Great
During 1770s In reign of Catherine the Great; led by Emelian Pugachev, who claimed to be legitimate tsar; eventually crushed; typical of peasant unrest during the 18th century and thereafter.
Pugachev rebellion
(1484-1566) Dominican friar who supported peaceful conversion of the Native American population of the Spanish colonies; opposed forced labor and advocated Indian rights.
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Whites born in the New World; dominated local Latin American economies and ranked just beneath peninsulares.
Creoles
Grants of Indian laborers made to Spanish conquerors and settlers in Mesoamerica and South America; basis for earliest forms of forced labor in Spanish colonies.
encomiendas
(c. 1510-1554) Leader of Spanish expedition into northern frontier region of New Spain; entered what is now United States in search of mythical cities of gold.
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
Large, heavily armed ships used to carry silver from New World colonies to Spain; basis for convoy system utilized by Spain for transportation of bullion.
galleons
Rural estates in Spanish colonies in New World; produced agricultural products for consumers in America; basis of wealth and
haciendas
Led expedition of 600 to coast of Mexico in 1519; conquistador responsible for defeat of Aztec Empire; captured Tenochtitlan
Hernán Cortés
First island in Caribbean settled by Spaniards; settlement founded by Columbus on second voyage to New World; Spanish base of operations for further discoveries in New World.
Hispaniola
Prime minister of Portugal form 1755 to 1776; acted to strengthen royal authority in Brazil; expelled Jesuits; enacted fiscal reforms and established monopoly companies to stimulate the colonial economy
Marquis of Pombal
Last independent Aztec emperor; killed during Hernán Cortés’s conquest of Tenochititlan.
Moctezuma II
Pedro Alvares Cabral Portuguese leader of an expedition to India; blown off course in 1500 and landed in Brazil.
People living in the New World Spanish colonies but born in Spain.
peninsulares
Brazilian port; close to mines of Minas Gerais; importance grew with gold strikes; became colonial capital in 1763.
Rio de Janeiro
American social system based on racial origins; Europeans or whites at top, black slaves or Native Americans at bottom, mixed races in middle.
sociedad de castas
(1651-1695) Author, poet, and musician of New Spain; eventually gave up secular concerns to concentrate on spiritual matters.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Signed in 1494 between Castile and Portugal; clarified spheres of influence and rights of possession in New World; reserved Brazil and all newly discovered lands east of Brazil to Portugal; granted all lands west of Brazil to Spain.
Treaty of Tordesillas
Two major divisions of Spanish colonies in New World; one based in Lima; the other in Mexico City; direct representatives of the king.
viceroyalties
Resulted from Bourbon family’s succession to Spanish throne in 1701; ended by Treaty of Utrecht in 1713; resulted in recognition of Bourbons, loss of some lands, grants of commercial rights to English and French.
War of the Spanish Succession
European trading fortresses and compounds with resident merchants; utilized throughout Portuguese trading empire to assure secure landing places and commerce
factories
Chartered in 1660s to establish a monopoly over the slave trade among British merchants; supplied African slaves to colonies in Barbados, Jamaica, and VA
Royal African Company
Term utilized within the complex exchange system established by the Spanish for African trade; referred to the value of an adult male slave
Indies piece
Commerce linking Africa, the New World colonies, and Europe; slaves carried to America for sugar and tobacco transported to Europe
triangular trade
Movement of Boer settlers in Cape Colony of southern Africa to escape influence of British colonial government in 1834; led to settlement of regions north of Orange River and Natal
Great Trek
Southern African state that survived mfecane; not based on Zulu model; less emphasis on military organization, less authoritarian government
Lesotho
Slave voyage from Africa to the Americas (16th
Middle Passage
Slaves transported from Africa; almost invariably black
saltwater slaves
African religious ideas and practices in the English and French Caribbean islands
obeah
British statesman and reformer; leader of abolitionist movement in English parliament that led to end of English slave trade in 1807
William Wilberforce
Originally a Turkic nomadic group; family originated in Sufi mystic group; espoused in Shi’ism; conquered territory and established kingdom in region equivalent to modern Iran; lasted until 1722.
Safavid
Established by Babur in India in 1526; the name is taken from the supposed Mongol descent of Babur, but there is little indication of any Mongol influence in the dynasty; became weak after rule of Aurangzeb in first decades of 18th century.
Mughal Empire
Turkic people who advanced from strongholds in Asia Minor during 1350s; conquered large part of Balkans; unified under Mehmed I; captured Constantinople in 1453; established empire from Balkans that included most of the Arab world.
Ottomans
Ottoman infantry divisions that dominated Ottoman armies; forcibly conscripted as boys in conquered areas of Balkans, legally slaves; translated military service into political influence, particularly after 15th century.
Janissaries
Ottoman equivalent of the Abbasid wazir; head of the Ottoman bureaucracy; after 15th century often more powerful than sultan.
vizier
Site of battle between Safavids and Ottomans in 1514; Safavids severely defeated by Ottomans; checked western advance of Safavid Empire.
Chaldiran
Safavid ruler from 1587 to 1629; extended Safavid domain to greatest extent; created slave regiments based on captured Russians, who monopolized firearms within Safavid armies; incorporated Western military technology.
Abbas the Great
Local mosque officials and prayer leaders within the Safavid Empire; agents of Safavid religious campaign to convert all of population to Shi’ism.
mullahs
Founder of Mughal dynasty in India; descended from Turkic warriors; first led invasion of India in 1526; died in 1530.
Babur
Son and successor of Humayan; oversaw building of military and administrative systems that became typical of Mughal rule in India; pursued policy of cooperation with Hindu princes; attempted to create new religion to bind Muslim and Hindu populations of India.
Akbar
Most famous architectural achievement of Mughal India; originally built as a mausoleum for the wife of Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal.
Taj Mahal
Sect in northwest India; early leaders tried to bridge differences between Hindu and Muslim, but Mughal persecution led to anti-Muslim feeling.
Sikhs
slender, long-hulled vessels utilized by Portuguese; highly maneuverable and able to sail against the wind; key to development of Portuguese trade empire in Asia.
caravel
Spanish Jesuit missionary; worked in India in 1540s among the outcaste and lower caste groups; made little headway among elites.
Francis Xavier
One of two ports in which Europeans were permitted to trade in China during the Ming dynasty.
Macao
Jesuit scholars in court of Ming emperors; skilled scientist; won few converts to Christianity
Matteo Ricci / Adam Schall
General under Nobunaga; succeeded as leading military power in central Japan; continued efforts to break power of daimyos; constructed a series of alliances that made him military master of Japan in 1590; died in 1598.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Vassal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi; succeeded him as most powerful military figure in Japan; granted title of shogun in 1603 and established Tokugawa Shogunate; established political unity in Japan.
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa capital city; modern-day Tokyo; center of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Edo
New ideology that laid emphasis on Japan’s unique historical experience and the revival of indigenous culture at the expense of Chinese imports such as Confusianism; typical of Japan in 18th century.
school of National Learning
Series of changes in economy of Western nations between 1740 and 20th century; stimulated by rapid population growth, increase in agricultural productivity, commercial revolution of 17th century, and development of new means of transportation; in essence involved technological change and the application of machines to the process of production.
Industrial Revolution
Period of political upheaval beginning roughly with the American Revolution in 1775 and continuing through the French Revolution of 1789 and other movements for change up to 1848.
age of revolution
Preliminary shift away from agricultural economy in Europe; workers become full- or part-time producers of textile and metal products, working at home but in a capitalist system in which materials, work orders, and ultimate sales depended on urban merchants; prelude to industrial Revolution.
proto- industrialization
Rebellion of English American colonies along Atlantic seaboard between 1775 and 1783; resulted in independence for former British colonies and eventual formation of United States of America.
American Revolution
Revolution in France between 1789 and 1800; resulted in overthrow of Bourbon monarchy and old regimes; ended with establishment of French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte; source of many liberal movements and constitutions in Europe.
French Revolution
Adopted during the liberal phase of the French Revolution (1789); stated the fundamental equality of all French citizens; later became a political source for other liberal movements.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
Introduced as a method of humane execution; utilized to execute thousands during the most radical phase of the French Revolution known as the Reign of Terror.
guillotine
Political viewpoint with origins in western Europe; often allied with other “isms”; urged importance of national unity; valued a collective identity based on culture, race, or ethnic origin.
nationalism
Rose within the French army during the wars of the French Revolution; eventually became general; led a coup that ended the French Revolution; established French Empire under his rule; defeated and deposed in 1815.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Meeting in the aftermath of Napoleonic Wars (1815) to restore political stability in Europe and settle diplomatic disputes.
Congress of Vienna
Political viewpoint with origins in western Europe during the 19th century; opposed to revolutionary goals; advocated restoration of monarchy and defense of church.
conservative
Political viewpoint with origins in western Europe during the 19th century; stressed limited state interference in individual life, representation of propertied people in government; urged importance of constitutional rule and parliaments.
liberal
Political viewpoint with origins in western Europe during the 19th century; advocated broader voting rights than liberals; in some cases advocated outright democracy; urged reforms in favor of the lower classes.
radical
Attempt by artisans and workers in Britain to gain the vote during the 1840s; demands for reform beyond the Reform Bill of 1832 were incorporated into a series of petitions; movement failed.
Chartist movement
French scientist who discovered relationship between germs and disease in 19th century, leading to better sanitation.
Louis Pasteur
Leading conservative political figure in Britain in the second half of the 19th century; took initiative of granting vote to working-class males in 1867; typical of conservative politician making use of popular politics.
Benjamin Disraeli
Architect of Italian unification in 1858; formed an alliance with France to attack Austrian control of northern Italy; resulted in creation of constitutional monarch under Piedmontese king.
Count Camillo di Cavour
Conservative prime minister of Prussia; architect of German unification under Prussian king in 1870; utilized liberal reforms to attract support for conservative causes.
Otto von Bismarck
Fought from 1861 to 1865; first application of Industrial Revolution to warfare; resulted in abolition of slavery in the United States and reunification of North and South.
American Civil War
Political movement with origins in western Europe during the 19th century; urged an attack on private property in the name of equality; wanted state control of means of production, end to capitalist exploitation of the working man.
socialism
German socialist of the mid-19th century; blasted earlier socialist movements as utopian; saw history as defined by class struggle between groups out of power and those controlling the means of production; preached necessity of social revolution to create proletarian dictatorship.
Karl Marx
Socialist movements that at least tacitly disavowed Marxist revolutionary doctrine; believed social success could be achieved gradually through political institutions.
revisionism
Sought various legal and economic gains for women, including equal access to professions and higher education; came to concentrate on right to vote; won support particularly from middle-class women; active in western Europe at the end of the 19th century; revived in light of other issues in 1960s.
feminist movements
Biologist who developed theory of evolution of species (1859); argued that all living species evolved into their present form through the ability to adapt in a struggle for survival.
Charles Darwin
Developed mathematical theories to explain the behavior of planetary motion and the movement of electrical particles; after 1900 issued theory of relativity.
Albert Einstein
(1856-1939) Viennese physician who developed theories of the workings of the human subconscious; argued that behavior is determined by impulses.
Sigmund Freud
Artistic and literary movement of the 19th century in Europe; held that emotion and impression, not reason, were the keys to the mysteries of human experience and nature; sought to portray passions, not calm reflection.
romanticism
Alliance among Germany, Austria and Hungary, and Italy at the end of the 19th century; part of European alliance system and balance of power prior to World War I.
Triple Alliance
Alliance among Britain, Russia, and France at the outset of the 20th century; part of European alliance system and balance of power prior to World War I.
Triple Entente
Movements to create independent nations within the Balkan possessions of the Ottoman Empire; provoked a series of crises within the European alliance system; eventually led to World War I.
Balkan nationalization
Troops that served the British East India Company; recruited from various warlike peoples of India.
sepoys
British political establishment in India; developed as a result of the rivalry between France and Britain in India.
British Raj
Architect of British victory at Plassey; established foundations of British Raj in northern India (18th century).
Robert Clive
Domains of Indian princes allied with the British Raj; agents of East India Company were stationed at the rulers’ courts to ensure compliance; made up over one-third of the British Indian Empire.
princely states
Name given to British representatives of the East India Company who went briefly to India to make fortunes through graft and exploitation.
nabobs
Reformer of the East India Company administration of India in the 1790s; reduced power of local British administrators; checked widespread corruption.
Lord Charles Cornwallis
Colonies in which European settlers made up the overwhelming majority of the population; small numbers of native inhabitants were typically reduced by disease and wars of conquest; typical of British holdings in North America and Australia with growing in dependence in the 19th century.
White Dominions
Belief in the inherent mental, moral, and cultural superiority of whites; peaked in acceptance in decades before World War I; supported by social science doctrines of social Darwinists such as Herbert Spencer.
white racial supremacy
British entrepreneur in south Africa around 1900; manipulated political situation in south Africa to gain entry to resources of Boer republics; encouraged Boer War as means of destroying Boer independence.
Cecil Rhodes
Fought between 1899 and 1902 over the continued independence of Boer republics; resulted in British victory, but began the process of decolonization for whites in South Africa.
Boer War
Made voyages to Hawaii from 1777 to 1779 resulted in opening of islands to the West; convinced Kamehameha to establish unified kingdom in the islands.
Captain James Cook
Leader of slave rebellion on the French sugar island of St. Domingue in 1791; led to creation of independent republic of Haiti in 1804.
Toussaint L’Overture
Mexican priest who established independence movement among American Indians and mestizos in 1810; despite early victories, was captured and executed.
Father Miguel de Hidalgo
Creole military officer in northern South America; won series of victories in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador between 1817 and 1822; military success led to creation of independent state of Gran Colombia.
Simon Bolívar
Leader of independence movement in Rio de la Plata; led to independence of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata by 1816; later led independence movement in Chile and Peru as well.
José de San Martin
Independent leaders who dominated local areas by force in defiance of nation policies; sometimes seized national governments to impose their concept of rule; typical throughout newly independent countries of Latin America.
caudillos
Seized power in Mexico after collapse of empire of Mexico in 1824; after brief reign of liberals, seized power in 1835 as caudillo; defeated by Texans in war for independence in 1836; defeated by United States in Mexican-American War in 1848; unseated by liberal rebellion in 1854.
Antonio López de Santa Anna
American declaration stated in 1823; established that any attempt of a European country to colonize in the Americas would be considered an unfriendly act by the United States; supported by Great Britain as a means of opening Latin American trade.
Monroe Doctrine
Bird droppings utilized as fertilizer; exported from Peru as a major item of trade between 1850 and 1880; income from trade permitted end to American Indian tribute and abolition of slavery.
guano
French philosophy based on observation and scientific approach to problems of society; adopted by many Latin American liberals in the aftermath of independence.
positivism
French philosopher (18th century); founder of positivism, a philosophy that stressed observation and scientific approaches to the problems of society.
Auguste Comte
Belief of the government of the United States that it was destined to rule the continent from coast to coast; led to annexation of Texas and Mexican-American War.
manifest destiny
Agreement that ended the Mexican-American War; provided for loss of Texas and California to the United States; left legacy of distrust of the United States in Latin America.
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
Fought between Mexico and the United States from 1846 to 1848; led to devastating defeat of Mexican forces, loss of about one-half of Mexico’s national territory to the United States.
Mexican-American War
Indian governor of state of Oaxaca in Mexico; leader of liberal rebellion against Santa Anna; liberal government defeated by French intervention under Emperor Napoleon III of France and establishment of Mexican Empire under Maximilian; restored to power in 1867 until his death in 1872.
Benito Juárez
The liberal rebellion of Benito Juárez against the forces of Santa Anna.
La Reforma
Coffee estates that spread within interior of Brazil between 1840 and 1860; created major export commodity for Brazilian trade; led to intensification of slavery in Brazil.
fazendas
War fought between Spain and the United States beginning in 1898; centered on Cuba and Puerto Rico; permitted American intervention in Caribbean, annexation o Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
Spanish-American War
An aspect of American intervention in Latin America; resulted from United States support for a Panamanian independence movement in return for a grant to exclusive rights to a canal across the Panama isthmus; provided short route between Atlantic and Pacific oceans; completed in 1914.
Panama Canal
Series of reforms in Ottoman Empire between 1839 and 1876; established Western-style university, state postal system, railways, extensive legal reforms; resulted in creation of new constitution in 1876.
Tanzimat reforms
Won power struggle in Egypt following fall of Mamluks; established mastery of all Egypt by 1811; introduced effective army based on Western tactics and supply and a variety of other reforms; by 1830s was able to challenge Ottoman government in Constantinople; died in 1848.
Muhammad Ali
Descendants of Muhammad Ali in Egypt after 1867; formal rulers of Egypt despite French and English intervention until overthrown by military coup in 1952.
khedives
Built across Isthmus of Suez to connect Mediterranean Sea with Red Sea in 1869; financed by European investors; with increasing indebtedness of khedives, permitted intervention of British into Egyptian politics to protect their investment.
Suez Canal
Eight armies of the Manchu tribes identified by separate flags; created by Nurhaci in early 17th century; utilized to defeat Ming emperor and establish Qing dynasty.
banner armies
Wealthy new group of Chinese merchants under the Qing dynasty; specialized in the import-export trade on China’s south coast; one of the major links between China and the outside world.
compradors
Fought between the British and Qing China beginning in 1839; fought to protect British trade in opium; resulted in resounding British victory, opening of Hong Kong as British port of trade.
Opium War
Broke out in south China in the 1850s and early 1860s; led by Hong Xiuquan, a semi-Christianized prophet; sought to overthrow Qing dynasty and Confucian basis of scholar-gentry.
Taiping Rebellion
Late 19th-century movement in China to counter the challenge from the West; led by provincial leaders.
self-strengthening movement
Ultraconservative dowager empress who dominated the last decades of the Qing dynasty; supported Boxer Rebellion in 1898 as a means of driving out Westerners.
Cixi
Popular outburst in 1898 aimed at expelling foreigners from China; failed because of intervention of armies of Western powers in China; defeat of Chinese enhanced control by Europeans and the power of provincial officials.
Boxer Rebellion
Alliance among Russia, Prussia, and Austria in defense of religion and the established order; formed at Congress of Vienna by most conservative monarchies of Europe.
Holy Alliance
Political revolt in Russia in 1825; led by middle-level army officers who advocated reforms; put down by Tsar Nicholas I.
Decembrist uprising
Fought between 1854 and 1856; began as Russian attempt to attack Ottoman Empire; Russia opposed by France and Britain as well; resulted in Russian defeat in the face of Western industrial technology; led to Russian reforms under Tsar Alexander II.
Crimean War
Local political councils created as part of reforms of Tsar Alexander II (1860s); gave some Russians, particularly middle-class professionals, some experience in government; councils had no impact on national policy.
zemstvoes
Russian term denoting articulate intellectuals as a class; 19th-century group bent on radical change in Russian political and social system; often wished to maintain a Russian culture distinct from that of the West.
intelligentsia
Political groups that sought the abolition of all formal government; particularly prevalent in Russia; opposed tsarist autocracy; eventually became a terrorist movement responsible for assassination of Alexander II in 1881.
anarchists
Literally, the majority party; the most radical branch of the Russian Marxist movement; led by V. I. Lenin and dedicated to his concept of social revolution; actually a minority in Russian Marxist political scheme until its triumph in the 1917 revolution.
Bolsheviks
War between Japan and Russia (1904-1905) over territory in Manchuria; Japan defeated the Russians, largely because of its naval power; Japan annexed Korea in 1910 as a result of military dominance.
Russo-Japanese War
National parliament created in Russia in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1905; progressively stripped of power during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II; failed to forestall further revolution.
duma
Agricultural entrepreneurs who utilized the Stolypin and later NEP reforms to increase agricultural production and buy additional land.
kulaks
American commodore who visited Edo Bay with American fleet in 1853; insisted on opening ports to American trade on threat of naval bombardment; won rights for American trade with Japan in 1854.
Matthew Perry
Japanese parliament established as part of the new constitution of 1889; part of Meiji reforms; could pass laws and approve budgets; able to advise government, but not to control it.
Diet
Huge industrial combines created in Japan in the 190s as part of the process of industrialization.
zaibatsu
War fought between Japan and Qing China between 1894 and 1895; resulted in Japanese victory; frustrated Japanese imperial aims because of Western insistence that Japan withdraw from Liaodong peninsula.
Sino-Japanese War
Western term for perceived threat of Japanese imperialism around 1900; met by increased Western imperialism in region.
yellow peril
Heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne whose assassination in Sarajevo set in motion the events that started World War I.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Front established in World War I; generally along line from Belgium to Switzerland; featured trench warfare and horrendous casualties for all sides in the conflict.
Western Front
Tsar of Russia 1894-1917; forcefully suppressed political opposition ad resisted constitutional government; deposed by revolution in 1917.
Nicholas II
Peninsula south of Istanbul; site of decisive 1915 Turkish victory over Australian & New Zealand forces under British command in World War I.
Gallipoli
Assault carried out by mainly Turkish military forces against Armenian population in Anatolia in 1915; over a million Armenians perished and thousands fled to Russia and the Middle East.
Armenian genocide
Most mobile of the fronts established during World War I; after early successes, military defeats led to downfall of the tsarist government in Russia.
Eastern Front
Nazi leader of fascist Germany from 1933 to his suicide in 1945; created a strongly centralized state in Germany; eliminated all rivals; launched Germany on aggressive foreign policy leading to World War II; responsible for attempted genocide of European Jews.
Adolf Hitler
Right of people in a region to determine whether to be independent or not.
self-determination
International diplomatic and peace organization created by the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I; one of the chief goals of President Woodrow Wilson of the US in the peace negotiations; the United States was never a member.
League of Nations
Led sustained all-India campaign for independence from British Empire after World War I; stressed nonviolent but aggressive mass protest.
Mohandas Gandhi
class of prosperous business and professional urban families in khedival Egypt; as a class generally favored Egyptian independence.
effendi
Clash between British soldiers and Egyptians villagers in 1906; arose over hunting accident along the Nile River where wife of prater leader of mosque was accidentally shot by army officers hunting pigeons; led to Egyptians protest movement.
Dinshawai incident
Mustafa Kemal, leader of Turkish Republic formed in 1923; reformed Turkish nation using Western models.
Ataturk
Governments entrusted to European nations in the Middle East in the aftermath of World War I; Britain occupied mandates in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine after 1922.
mandates
People who supported a movement originating in eastern Europe during 1860’s and 1870’s; argued that the Jews must return to a Middle Easter holy land; eventually identified with the settlement of Palestine.
Zionists
British minister Lord Balfour’s promise of support for the establishment of Jewish settlement in Pelestine issued in 1917.
Balfour Declaration
French Jew falsely accused of passing military secrets to the Germans; his mistreatment and exile to Devil’s island provided flashpoint for years of bitter debate between the left and right in France.
Alfred Dreyfus
African American political leader; had a major impact on emerging African nationalist leaders in 1920’s and 1930’s.
Marcus Garvey
African American political leader; had a major impact on emerging African nationalist leaders in the 1920’s and 1930’s
W. E. B. Du Bois
Literary movement in Africa; attempted to combat racial stereotypes of African culture; celebrated the beauty of black skin and African physique; associated with origins of African nationalist movements.
négritude
20th-century art style; best represented by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso; rendered familiar objects as geometrical shapes.
cubist movement
Italian fascist leader after World War I; created first fascist government (1922-1943) based on aggressive foreign policy and new nationalist glories.
Benito Mussolini
Political philosophy that became predominant in Italy and then Germany during the 1920s and 1930s; attacked weakness of democracy, corruption of capitalism; promised vigorous foreign and military programs; undertook state control of economy to reduce social friction.
fascism
Mexican artist of the period after the Mexican Revolution; famous for murals painted on walls of public buildings; mixed romantic images of the Indian past with Christian symbols and Marxist ideology.
Diego Rivera
Liberal revolutionary leader during the early stages of the Russian Revolution of 1917; sought development of parliamentary rule, religious freedom.
Alexander Kerensky
Military organization constructed under leadership of Leon Trotsky, Bolshevik follower of Lenin; made use of people of humble background.
Red Army
Federal system of socialist republics established in 1923 in various ethnic regions of Russia; firmly controlled by Communist party; diminished nationalities protest under Bolsheviks; dissolved in 1991.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Successor to Lenin as head of the USSR; strongly nationalist view of communism; represented anti-Western strain of Russian tradition; crushed opposition to his rule; established series of five-year plans to replace New Economic Policy; fostered agricultural collectivization; led USSR through World War II; furthered cold war with western Europe and the United States; died in 1953
Joseph Stalin
Creation of large, state-run farms rather than individual holdings; allowed more efficient control over peasants, though often lowered food production; part of Stalin’s economic and political planning; often adopted in other communist regimes.
collectivization
Communist leader in revolutionary China; advocated rural reform and role of peasantry in Nationalist revolution; influenced by Li Dazhao; led Communist reaction against Guomindang purges in 1920s, culminating in Long March of 1934; seized control of all of mainland China by 1949; initiated Great Leap Forward in 1958.
Mao Zedong
A military officer who succeeded Sun Yat-sen as the leader of the Guomindang or Nationalist party in China in the mid-1920s; became the most powerful leader in China in the early 1930s, but his Naitonalist forces were defeated and driven from China b y the Communists after World War II.
Chiang Kai-shek
Communist escape from Hunan province during civil war with Guomindang in 1934; center of Communist power moved to Shaanxi province, firmly established Mao Zedong as head of the Communist party in China.
Long March
International economic crises following the First World War; began with collapse of American stock market in 1929; actual causes included collapse of agricultural prices in 1920s; included collapse of baking houses in the United States and western Europe, massive unemployment; contradicted optimistic assumptions of 19th century.
Great Depression
President Franklin Roosevelt’s precursor of the modern welfare state (1933-1939); programs to combat economic depression enacted a number of social insurance measures and used government spending to stimulate the economy; increased power of the state and the state’s intervention in U.S. social and economic life.
New Deal
A new kind of government in the 20th century that exercised massive, direct control over virtually all the activities of its subjects; existed in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet union.
totalitarian state
Secret police in Nazi Germany, known for brutal tactics.
Gestapo
War pitting authoritarian and military leaders in Spain against republicans and leftists between 1936 and 1939; Germany and Italy supported the royalists; the Soviet Union supported the republicans; led to victory of royalist forces.
Spanish Civil War
Military leader in Argentina who became dominant political figure after military coup in 1943; used position as Minister of Labor to appeal to working groups and the poor; became president in 1946; forced into exile in 1955; returned and won presidency in 1973.
Juan Perón
Executive committee of the Soviet Communist party; 20 members.
Politburo
Led by Adolf Hitler in Germany; picked up political support during the economic chaos of the Great Depression; advocated authoritarian state under a single leader, aggressive foreign policy to reverse humiliation of the Versailles treaty; took power in Germany in 1933. (National Socialist party)
Nazi
British prime minister during World War II; responsible for British resistance to German air assaults
Winston Churchill
German term for lightning warfare; involved rapid movement of airplanes, tanks, and mechanized troop carriers; resulted in early German victories over Belgium, Holland, and France in World War II.
blitzkrieg
The 1940 Nazi air offensive including saturation bombing of London and other British cities, countered by British innovative air tactics and radar tracking of German assault aircraft.
Battle of Britain
Term for Hitler’s attempted genocide of European Jews during World War II; resulted in deaths of 6 million Jews.
Holocaust
American naval base in Hawaii; attack by Japanese on this facility in December 1941 crippled American fleet in the Pacific and caused entry of United States into World War II.
Pearl Harbor
International organization formed in the aftermath of World War II; included all of the victorious Allies; its primary mission was to provide a forum for negotiating disputes.
United Nations
Meeting among leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union in 1945; agreed to Soviet entry into the Pacific war in return for possessions in Manchuria, organization of the United Nations; disputed the division of political organization in the eastern European states to be reestablished after the war.
Yalta Conference
Warfare of the 20th century; vast resources and emotional commitments of belligerent nations were marshaled to support military effort; resulted from impact of industrialization on the military effort reflecting technological innovation and organizational capacity.
total war
Policy of strict racial segregation imposed in South Africa to permit the continued dominance of whites politically and economically.
apartheid
Zionist military force engaged in violent resistance to British presence in Palestine in the 1940s.
Haganah
American president from 1945 to 1952; less eager for smooth relations with the Soviet Union than Franklin Roosevelt; authorized use of the atomic bomb during World War II; architect of American diplomacy that initiated the cold war.
Harry Truman
Phrase coined by Winston Churchill to describe the division between free and communist societies taking shape in Europe after 1946.
iron curtain
Program of substantial loans initiated by the United States in 1947; designed to aid Western nations in rebuilding from the war’s devastation; vehicle for American economic dominance.
Marshall Plan
Created in 1949 under United States leadership to group most of the western European powers plus Canada in a defensive alliance against possible Soviet aggression. (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
NATO
New activism of the western European state in economic policy and welfare issues after World War II; introduced programs to reduce the impact of economic inequality; typically included medical programs and economic planning.
welfare state
Political parties, especially in Europe, focusing on environmental issues and control over economic growth.
Green movement
Began as European Economic Community (or Common Market), an alliance of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, to create a single economic entity across national boundaries in 1958; later joined by Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Finland, and other nations for further European economic integration.
European Union
New wave of women’s rights agitation dating from 1949; emphasized more literal equality that would play down domestic roles and qualities for women; promoted specific reforms and redefinition of what it meant to be female.
new feminism
Built in 1961 to halt the flow of immigration from East Berlin to West Berlin; immigration was in response to a lack of consumer goods and close Soviet control of economy and politics; torn down at the end of cold war in 1991.
Berlin Wall
Polish labor movement formed in 1970s under Lech Walesa; challenged USSR-dominated government of Poland.
Solidarity
Russian author critical of the Soviet regime but also of Western materialism; published trilogy on the Siberian prison camps, The Gulag Archipelago.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Stalin’s successor as head of USSR; attacked Stalinism in 1956 for concentration of power and arbitrary dictatorship; failure of Siberian development program and antagonism of Stalinists led to downfall.
Nikita Khrushchev
Also known as developing nations; nations outside the capitalist industrial nations of the first world and the industrialized communist nations of the second world; generally less economically powerful, but with varied economies.
third world
Guerrilla movement named in honor of Emiliano Zapata; originated in 1994 in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas; government responded with a combination of repression and negotiation.
Zapatistas
Cuban revolutionary; overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1958; initiated series of socialist reforms; came to depend almost exclusively on Soviet Union.
Fidel Castro
Argentine revolutionary; aided Fidel Castro in overthrow of Fulgencio Batista regime in Cuba; died while directing guerrilla movement in Bolivia in 1967.
Che Guevara
Combined Catholic theology and socialist principles in effort to bring about improved conditions for the poor in Latin America in 20th century.
liberation theology
President of Chile; nationalized industries and banks; sponsored peasant and worker expropriations of lands and foreign-owned factories; overthrown in 1973 by revolt of Chilean military with the support of the United States.
Salvador Allende
Term given to governments supported or created by the United States in Central America; believed to be either corrupt or subservient to the U.S. interests.
banana republics
Established by Franklin D. Roosevelt for dealing with Latin America in 1933; intended to halt direct intervention in Latin American politics.
Good Neighbor Policy
Founded as an independent nation in 1972; formerly East Pakistan.
Bangladesh
Daughter of the Jawaharlal Nehru (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi); installed as a figurehead prime minister by the Congress party bosses in 1966; a strong-willed and astute politician, she soon became the central figure in India politics, a position she maintained through the 1970s and passed on to her sons.
Indira Gandhi
One of Gandhi’s disciples; governed India after independence (1947); committed to program of social reform and economic development; preserved civil rights and democracy.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Twice prime minister of Pakistan in the 1980s and 1990s; first ran for office to avenge her father’s execution by the military clique then in power.
Benazir Bhutto
Industrialized nations’ continued dominance of the world economy; ability of the industrialized nations to maintain economic colonialism without political colonialism.
neocolonial economy
Took power in Egypt following a military coup in 1952; enacted land reforms and used state resources to reduce unemployment; ousted Britain from the Suez Canal zone in 1956.
Gamal Abdul Nasser
Successor to Gamal Abdul Nasser as ruler of Egypt; acted to dismantle costly state programs; accepted peace treaty with Israel in 1873; opened Egypt to investment by Western nations.
Anwar Sadat
President of Egypt since 1981, succeeding Anwar Sadat and continuing his policies of cooperation with the West.
Hosni Mubarak
Religious ruler of Iran following revolution of 1979 to expel the Pahlavi shah of Iran; emphasized religious purification; tried to eliminate Western influences and establish purely Islamic government.
Ayatollah Khomeini
Long-imprisoned leader of the African National Congress party; worked with the ANC leadership and F. W. de Klerk’s supporters to dismantle the apartheid system form the mid-1980s onward; in 1994, became the first black prime minister of South Africa after the ANC won the first genuinely democratic elections in the country’s history.
Nelson Mandela
White South African prime minister in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Working with Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress, de Klerk helped to dismantle the apartheid system and opened the way for a democratically elected government that represented all South Africans for the first time.
F.W. de Klerk
Region including Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan; typified by rapid growth rates, expanding exports, and industrialization, either Chinese or strongly influenced by Confucian values.
Pacific Rim
Southern half of Korea sponsored by United States following World War II; headed by nationalist Syngman Rhee; developed parliamentary institutions but maintained by authoritarian government.
Republic of Korea
Fought from 1950-1953; North supported by USSR, and later People’s Republic of China; South supported by US and small UN force; ended in stalemate and continued division of Korea.
Korean War (Conflict)
British colony on Chinese mainland; major commercial center; agreement reached by between Britain and People’s Republic of China returned colony to China in 1997.
Hong Kong
Example of huge industrial groups that wield great power in modern S. Korea; virtually governed Korea’s SE coast.
Hyundai
Communist government of mainland China; proclaimed in 1949 following military success of Mao Zedong over forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the Guomindang.
People’s Republic of China
Chinese communist army; administered much of country under People’s Republic of China.
People’s Liberation Army
Economic policy of Mao Zedong; lead to formation of agricultural cooperatives in 1955; cooperatives became farming collectives in 1956.
Mass Line
Economic policy of Mao Zedong introduced in 1958; proposed industrialization of small-scale projects integrated into peasant communes; lead to economic disaster.
Great Leap Forward
Chinese Communist politicians such as Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, and Liu Shaoqui; determined to restore state direction and market incentives at the local level; opposed Great Leap Forward.
pragmatists
wife of Mao Zedong; one of Gang of Four; opposed pragmatists and supported Cultural Revolution of 1965; arrested and imprisoned for life in 1976.
Jiang Qing
Movement initiated in 1965 by Mao Zedong to restore his dominance over pragmatists; sued mobs to ridicule Mao’s political rivals.
Cultural Revolution
Student brigades utilized by Mao Zedong and his political allies during the Cultural Revolution to discredit Mao’s political enemies.
Red Guard
Jiang Qing and 4 political allies who attempted to seize control of Communist government in China from pragmatists; arrested and imprisoned for life in 1976 after Mao’s death.
Gang of Four
Also known as Nguyen Ai Quoc; led Vietnamese Communist party in struggle for liberation from French and US dominances and to unify north and south Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh
Communist-dominated Vietnamese nationalist movement; operated out of bvase in southern China during WWII; employed guerrilla tactics similar to the Maoists in China.
Viet Minh
Name given by Diem regime to communist guerrilla movement in southern France following defeat of French armies by the Germans.
Viet Cong
USSR premier after 1985; renewed attacks on Stalinism; urged reduction in nuclear armament; proclaimed policies of glasnost and perestroika
Mikhail Gorbachev
policy of openness or political liberation in Soviet union put forward by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s
glasnost
Policy of Mikhail Gorbachev calling for economic restructuring in the USSR in the late 1980s; more leeway for private ownership and decentralized control in industry and agriculture
perestroika
Russian leader who stood up to coup attempt in 1991 that would have displaced Gorbachev; president of the Russian republic after the dissolution of Soviet Union
Boris Yeltsin
1991 war led by US and various European and Middle Eastern allies, against Iraqi occupation of Kuwait; war led to Iraqi withdrawal and a long confrontation with Iraq about armaments and political regime
Persian Gulf War