Historical Definition

Front 1

Absolutism

Back 1

A form of government where ultimate athority rested in the hands of a monarch who claimed to rule by divine right, meaning he was only responsible to God.
Louis 16 (1661-1715), king of France, controlled all aspects of government under the idea he was chosen by God.

Front 2

Bourgeoisie

Back 2

Middle industrial class.
They supported the enlightenment in the 18th century because they were excluded from social privileges.

Front 3

Coup d'etat

Back 3

A sudden overthrow of the government, typically by the military.
Napoleon Bonaparte, a french military general led a coup d'etat in 1799 to overthrow the French government and institute a empire.

Front 4

Nationalism

Back 4

A sense of national consciousness based being part of a community that has common tradition, languages, and customs and becomes the focus of political loyalty.
The storming of the Bastile in 1789 is an example of nationalism, the people of Paris bonded together to storm the French royal armory.

Front 5

Factory system

Back 5

All aspects of the making of a product are in one place. England introduced the factory system in the 1750's which replaced the cottage system, a system where each step of production was in a different place.

Front 6

Militarism

Back 6

A policy of agressive military preparedness. After 1900, right before World War I, European countries adopted the practive of militarism, creating huge armies and complex plans for moving them.

Front 7

War of attrition

Back 7

A military strategy of wearing down the enemy usually by reducing men and supplies.
War of Attrition is seen during 1914-17 when during World War I, the British and French engaged in stalemate and tried to win by killing off all their soldiers.

Front 8

Reparations

Back 8

Payments made by a defeated nation compensating for another nations damage that occured during that war.
The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 was an example the payment of reparations as this was when Germany agreed to pay and be responsible for World War I.

Front 9

Containment

Back 9

The policy of restricting territorial growth of a nation. The U.S. adopted the policy of Containment in the late 1940's to restrict the Soviet Union from aquiring any more communist countries.

Front 10

Mutual Deterrence

Back 10

A situation where two sides are stopped from attacking each other because the resulting damage would be unacceptable.
The United States and the Soviet Union established an understood policy of mutual deterrence in 1960-1980 where if one country set off an atomic bomb the other one would too, resulting in both countries destroyed.

Front 11

Glasnost

Back 11

Russian word for openness.
Glasnost is Mikhail Gorbachev's policy in the late 1980's, encouraging all Soviet citizens to speek freely.

Front 12

Detente

Back 12

Is a policy of relaxing tensions between two hostile nations. The U.S. and the Soviet Union entered a period of detente in the 1970s where they engaged in a series of peace talks.

Front 13

Perestroika

Back 13

Russian word for "restructuring".
Perestroika is the term used for Gorbachev's changes to the Soviet economy, social, and political structure.

Front 14

Fascism

Back 14

A political philosophy that prizes the whole over the individual and is centralized and headed by a dictator.
Mussolini introduced fascism to Italy in the 1920's with himself as dictator.

Front 15

Appeasement

Back 15

A policy of yeilding to demands inorder to placate a nation.
European nations practiced appeasement in the 1930's and met Hitler's demands in order to assure peace and stablility