World His 1800-Present

Front 1

InvisibleHand

Back 1

A term used by Adam Smith to describehis belief that individuals seeking their economic self-interestactually benefit society more than they would if they tried tobenefit society directly.

By advocating free-market capitalism,Smith was challenging the prevailing economic doctrine, mercantilism,and set the groundwork for modern economics.

Front 2

Declaration of the Rights of Man andCitizen

Back 2

A statement of fundamental rights for afuture constitution adopted by the National Assembly at the beginningof the French Revolution, influenced heavily by the AmericanDeclaration of Independence and enlightenment philosophy. It listed“inalienable rights” of the individual and asserted the equalityof men and the sovereignty of the people.It demonstrated ideas representative ofthe movement of the century. It was based on natural law rather thanreligion, and helped to create the idea that people everywhere areentitled to basic human rights. It lead to the French constitution,and also helped trigger the Haitian revolution by inspiring theslaves to seek freedom.

Front 3

Toussaint L'Ouverture

Back 3

A former domestic slave in SaintDomingue, high ranked and educated, who led the slaves in the HaitianRevolution – the only successful slave rebellion in history. Heunited the rebellious slaves in a disciplined military force.He was a primary cause of the Frenchabolishing slavery in 1794. His education and military tacticslargely contributed to the success of the Haitian Revolution, whichset a precedent for the rest of the world, catalysing a series ofrevolutions throughout Latin America. After the revolt, Toussaintappointed himself governor for life – a corrupt decision that'sinfluence can be seen in Haiti's government today.

Front 4

Otto von Bismarck

Back 4

Germany became a modern, unified nationunder the leadership of the “Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck(1815-1898) who, between 1862 and 1890, ruled Prussia and then all ofGermany.A master strategist, Bismarck initiated decisive warsto unite independent German states under Prussian leadership. Hemanipulated European rivalries to make Germany a world power, but indoing so laid the groundwork for both World Wars.

Front 5

Simón Bolívar

Back 5

(“The Liberator”) Venezuelansoldier and statesman who led the revolutions against Spanish rule inSouth America in the early 19th century. He was presidentof Gran Colombia (1819–30) and dictator of Peru (1823–26).The most important military leader inthe struggle for independence in South America. He led countries likeGran Colombia to their independence from Spanish rule, andessentially set in motion the full independence of modern SouthAmerican countries.

Front 6

Durbar

Back 6

An elaborate display of political powerand wealth in British India in the nineteenth century, ostensibly inimitation of the pageantry of the Mughal Empire.

Front 7

Janissaries

Back 7

Infantry, originally of slave origin,armed with firearms and constituting the elite of the Ottoman armyfrom the fifteenth century until the corps was abolished in 1826.They opposed reforms introduced bySultan Selim, who was trying to catch up with Europe.

Front 8

Opium Wars

Back 8

War between Britain and the Qing Empirethat was, in the British view, occasioned by the Qing government’srefusal to permit the importation of opium into its territories.Britain needed tea from China. They had to pay for it with silverand had nothing to sell the Chinese. This meant Britain's silverreserves were leaking away to China. So when the British found theycould sell opium to Chinese, they had a way to get their silver backfrom the Chinese. When China banned the opium trade, Britain went towar.The victorious British imposed theone-sided Treaty of Nanking on China, giving Britain all sorts ofrights that essentially made parts of China subject to British lawand not Chinese law (more treaty ports, Hong Kong a British colony,British tariff control and extraterritorial rights).

Front 9

Taiping Rebellion

Back 9

A Christian-inspired rural rebellion, the Chinese civil war was caused by social unhappiness and foreign intrusion, and it threatened to topple the Qing Empire in China. It caused a lot of damage to the power and prestige of the Qing dynasty in China. It took 14 years to finally suppress the rebellion,and only with considerable European assistance, demonstrating weakness to the rest of the world. A side effect of the rebellion was that many Chinese fled the worst effected areas and emigrated to America.

Front 10

Sokoto Caliphate

Back 10

A large Muslim state founded in 1809 inwhat is now northern Nigeria. The Sokoto Caliphate was one of thelargest empires in Africa during the 19th century.The SokotoCaliphate was the center of politics and economics in the regionuntil it fell to French and British colonial armies in the early 20thCentury.

Front 11

V.I Lenin

Back 11

The founder of the Russian CommunistParty, leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and the architect andfirst head of the Soviet Union. He led the Bolsheviks to victoryduring the Russian Revolution and the civil war that followed.Reformed political systems, landownership, and industry in the Soviet Union. Lenin was the man whobrought conventional communism to the world stage and made it realityfor the West. Communism shaped the 20th century by influencingwestern militaristic democracies to fight the potential threat. Thisfactored into causing the cold war and many other reactionaryconflicts in the 20th century.

Front 12

“Separate Spheres”

Back 12

Nineteenth-century idea in Westernsocieties that men and women, especially of the middle class, shouldhave clearly differentiated roles in society: women as wives,mothers, and homemakers; men as breadwinners and participants inbusiness and politics.Reflective of the changes of theindustrial revolution. The ideology reinforced gender roles andhelped establish a distinct middle-class identity.

Front 13

Dyer Affair

Back 13

On April 13, 1919, in the city ofAmritsar, General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to fire into apeaceful crowd of some 10,000 demonstrators, killing hundreds andwounding over 1,000. While waves of angry demonstrations swept overIndia, Britain approve Dyer’s actions and a fund was raised inappreciation of his services. Indians interpreted these gestures asshowing British contempt for their colonial subjects. Drastically changed the British-Indianrelationship and instigated a movement of civil disobedience, led byGandhi, to kick the British out of India.

Front 14

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Back 14

Italian nationalist and revolutionarywho conquered Sicily and Naples and added them to a unified Italy in1860.Contributed to the unification ofItaly. Represents the familiar idea of nationalism as a radicaldemocratic idea. Cavour took over the unification process and unifiedItaly under a king using a conservative top-down approach. Theunification of Italy is an example of ethno-linguistic nationalism.

Front 15

Meiji Restoration

Back 15

The political program in which acollection of young leaders set Japan on the path of centralization,industrialization, and imperialism following the destruction of theTokugawa Shogunate in 1868.It shifted political power from theshogun to the emperor, a shift which helped Japan modernize swiftly.This swift modernization allowed Japan to become an economic andmilitary rival of the Western colonial powers.

Front 16

Empress Dowager Cixi

Back 16

Empress of China and mother of EmperorGuangxi. She put her son under house arrest, supported anti-foreignmovements, and resisted reforms of the Chinese government and armedforces.Supported reforms in the wake of theTaiping rebellion but was anti-foreign when she was in power. Opposedself-strengthening movement (bring reforms in reducing gov'texpendature and corruption. By resisting modernization, China wasable to slow foreign intrusion but denied themselves the best meansof resisting western influence by not modernizing.

Front 17

Suez Canal

Back 17

Ship canal dug across Suez in Egypt,completed in 1869, that connects the Mediterranean and the RedSea.It shortened the sea voyage between Europe and Asia,reducing shipping time and costs. Its strategic and economicimportance led to the British occupation of Egypt in 1882.

Front 18

New Imperialism

Back 18

A period of colonial expansion—andits accompanying ideologies—by the European powers, the UnitedStates of America and the Empire of Japan during the late 19th andearly 20th centuries.Led to the westernization of Asia andAfrica, and economic benefits to the west. Many colonies lost aspectsof their culture and national identity, and were faced with povertyand social degradation. The formation of political and militaryalliances ultimately brought about World War I.

Front 19

East India Company

Back 19

English company formed in 1600 for theexploitation of trade with Asia and India. Starting as a monopolistictrading body, the company became involved in politics and acted as anagent of British imperialism in India from the early 18th century tothe mid-19th century. In addition, the activities of the company inChina in the 19th century served as a catalyst for the expansion ofBritish influence.Responsible for industrialization ofIndia and essentially had rule in India prior to British rule.

Front 20

Informal Empire

Back 20

The spheres of influence which anempire may develop that translate into a degree of influence over aregion or country, which is not a formal colony in the empire, as aresult of the extension of commercial, strategic or militaryinterests of the empire.Allowed for imperialism to occurwithout major conflict or colonization. E.g. Portugal setting uptrading posts along the west coat of Africa, India, and Indonesia,without taking over.

Front 21

Western Front

Back 21

A line of trenches and fortificationsin World War I that stretched without a break from Switzerland to theNorth Sea. Scene of most of the fighting between Germany, on the onehand, and France and Britain, on the other.Environmental damage, lots ofcasualties with almost no territorial gain.

Front 22

Fourteen Points

Back 22

A peace program presented by USPresident Wilson in 1918. It called for the evacuation ofGerman-occupied lands, the drawing of borders, the settling ofterritorial disputes, and the founding of an association of nationsto preserve the peace and guarantee their territorial integrity.It was rejected by Germany, but it madeWilson the moral leader of the Allies in the last year of World WarI. Important for peace and ethics, and used mainly to motivate theAllied forces

Front 23

Treaty of Versailles

Back 23

The treaty imposed on Germany byFrance, Great Britain, the United States, and other Allied Powersafter World War I. It demanded that Germany dismantle its militaryand give up some lands to Poland. It was resented by many Germans.Germans had expected fair treatmentbased on Wilson's fourteen points, but were horrified by the treaty.The bitterness and resentment of the German people made themvulnerable to someone – like Hitler – wishing to unite them, andso the harshness of the Treaty of Versailles helped cause the secondworld war.

Front 24

Sun Yat-sen

Back 24

Chinese nationalist revolutionary,founder and leader of the Guomindang until his death. He attempted tocreate a liberal democratic political movement in China but wasthwarted by military leaders.Sun's chief legacy resides in hisdeveloping of the political philosophy known as the Three Principlesof the People: nationalism, democracy, and the people's livelihood.

Front 25

Proxy Wars

Back 25

During the Cold War, local or regionalwars in which the superpowers armed, trained, and financed thecombatants. For the superpowers, a win or loss inone of these wars led to a relatively minor change in power andprestige. For example, the US loss in Vietnam had a fairly minorimpact on the United States. By contrast, the wars were typicallydevastating for the countries in which they happened. They causeddestruction as well as lingering enmity between the combatant groupswithin the countries.

Front 26

Mandate System

Back 26

Allocation of former German coloniesand Ottoman possessions to the victorious powers after World War I,to be administered under League of Nations supervision.Mandate system had different classesunder different levels of control. Class A mandates were declareddeveloped, but not ready for independence, and there was essentiallya thinly-developed form of colonialism. Arab discontent in Palestinemounted as more Jews immigrated to Palestine. This created aninstability between the Arabs, Jews, and British that persists tothis day.

Front 27

Joseph Stalin

Back 27

Bolshevik revolutionary, head of theSoviet Communist Party after 1924, and dictator of the Soviet Unionfrom 1928 to 1953. He led the Soviet Union with an iron fist, usingFive-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crushall opposition.

Front 28

John Maynard Keynes

Back 28

Radical British economist who believedthat it was the responsibility of the government to use fiscalresources to counteract the effects of economic problems such asrecessions. He has been hailed as one of the most influentialeconomists of his time. His ideas and philosophies are still referredto in present day economic literature.During the Great Depression, Keynesurged the US government to adopt his policies.Considered founder of macro-economics.Argued that state intervention was necessary to moderate the ups anddowns of the economy. US and free-capitalist countries adopted hiseconomic theories.

Front 29

Long March

Back 29

The 6,000-mile flight of ChineseCommunists from southeastern to northwestern China. The Communists,led by Mao Zedong, were pursued by the Chinese army.The four thousand survivors of themarch formed the nucleus of a revived Communist movement thatdefeated the Guomindang after World War II.

Front 30

Mohandes K Gandhi

Back 30

Leader of the Indian independencemovement and advocate of nonviolent resistance. After being educatedas a lawyer in England, he returned to India and became leader of theIndian National Congress in 1920. He appealed to the poor, lednonviolent demonstrations against British colonial rule, and wasjailed many times. Soon after independence he was assassinated forattempting to stop Hindu-Muslim rioting.Led India to independence throughnon-violent movements, contrary to most independent movements whichwere violent. Made British, who had always seen themselves asrighteous, feel uncomfortable as Gandhi and his followers wereobservably morally superior.

Front 31

African National Congress

Back 31

An organization founded in 1912dedicated to obtaining equal voting and civil rights for blackinhabitants of South Africa. Though it was banned and its leaderswere jailed for many years, it eventually helped bring majority ruleto South Africa.Nelson Mandella organized guerrillaresistance by the ANC. He was jailed and freed. Internationalopposition led South Africa to free Mandella post-apartheid. SinceMandella and other NAC leaders that followed, South Africa has seenmuch democratic progress and a decline of conflict

Front 32

Emiliano Zapata

Back 32

Revolutionary and leader of the MexicanRevolution. He mobilized landless peasants in south-central Mexico inan attempt to seize and divide the lands of the wealthy landowners.Though successful for a time, he was ultimately defeated andassassinated.He was instrumental in bringing downthe corrupt dictatorship of Díaz in 1911 and joined forces withother revolutionary generals to defeat Huerta in 1914.

Front 33

Cuban Missile Crisis

Back 33

Brink-of-war confrontation in the 1960sbetween the United States and the Soviet Union over the latter’splacement of nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba.The first major showdown of the coldwar. Cuba was accused of being Soviet puppets. US hypocrisy(stationed missiles in Turkey). Disaster was averted when SovietUnion agreed to remove the missiles if the US agreed not to invadeCuba. US also secretly agreed to remove US missiles in Turkey.

Front 34

Organization of Petroleum ExportingCountries (OPEC)

Back 34

Organization formed in 1960 byoil-producing states to promote their collective interest ingenerating revenue from oil.The forming of OPEC set the stagefor oil to be used as a weapon, a bargaining tool, in Arab-Israeliconflict. Israeli's were supported by US and negotiated a cease-fire,but the Arab oil countries ceased oil shipments to the US inretaliation. OPEC then quadrupled prices, making consuming countriesinsecure and transferring much wealth to producing countries.

Front 35

Sandinistas

Back 35

Members of a leftist coalition thatoverthrew the Nicaraguan dictatorship in 1979 and attempted toinstall a socialist economy.Proxy war – Soviets supportedSandinistas, US supported Contras. US covertly sold weapons to Iranin the Iran-Iraq war to fund assistance of the Contras. This dealcaused a political scandal which intensified hostility between the USand Iran.

Front 36

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Back 36

Shi’ite philosopher and cleric wholed the overthrow of the shah of Iran in 1979 and created an Islamicrepublic.Imposed religious control and turnedIran, previously allied with the US, into an anti-west, conservativeIslamic republic.

Front 37

Nonaligned Nations

Back 37

Developing countries that announcedtheir neutrality in the Cold War.By manipulating the super powers andplaying them against each other, nonaligned nations were able toobtain weapons, investment in infrastructure, trade agreements, andother things that would benefit their own economic interests. In thisway, the superpowers' involvement in global affairs was amanifestation of their rivalries.

Front 38

Asian Tigers

Back 38

Collective name for South Korea,Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore—nations that became economicpowers in the 1970s and 1980s.Most developing countries were unableto change their fortunes as poverty was often a self-perpetuatingproblem. The Asian Tigers broke free of this by investing ineducation and industrialization, and through an export dominatedeconomy. They are examples of newly industrialized economies.

Front 39

World Trade Organization

Back 39

An international body established in1995 to foster and bring order to international trade.As countries/economies became moreconnected (globalization) the WTO stepped in to enforce internationalagreements, reduce barriers, facilitate negotiations. It's idea of free trade enabledlow-cost foreign manufacturers to dominate business – shrink jobopportunities in richer states.

Front 40

Universal Declaration of HumanRights

Back 40

A 1948 United Nations covenant bindingsignatory nations to the observance of specified rights.Culmination of growing human rightsmovement. Newly independent countries were eager to sign because itimplicitly condemned European colonialism. Product of westernideology and tradition and ideas, and therefor ignored by othercultures and religions because it didn't apply in the same way.