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9918060768GuildsExclusive organizations that monopolizedthe skilled trades in Europe from the medeival period until broken by the development of cottage industries in the eighteenth century.0
9918060769HumanismIn the Renaissance, both a belief in the value of human achievement and an educational program based on Classical Greek and Roman languages and values.1
9918060770Studia humanitasThe educational program of the Renaissance, founded on knowledge of the Classical Latin and Greek languages and literatures.2
9918060771Oration on the Dignity of ManOne of the best articulations (1486) of the belief in the dignity and potential of humans that characterized Renaissance humanism, authored by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.3
9918060772The PrinceThe book by Niccolo Machiavelli (1513), which marks the shift from a "civic ideal" to a "princely ideal" in Renaissance humanism. The princely ideal is focused on the qualities and strategies necessary for attaining and holding social and political power.4
9918060773NeoplatonismIn the Renaissance and Early Modern period, a philosophy based on that of Plato, which contended that reality was located in a changeless world of forms and which, accordingly, spurred the study of mathematics. It also refers to the attempt to reconcile pagan and Christian ideals, and the artistic idea that contemplation of beauty led to contemplation of the divine.5
9918060774Florentine AcademyAn informal gathering of humanists devoted to the revival of the teachings of Plato, founded in 1462 under the leadership of Marsilio Ficino and the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici.6
9918060775FrescosPainting done on either wet or dry plaster; an important medium of art during the Renaissance.7
9918060776Michelangelo's DavidSculpted by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1504), this sculpture of the biblical hero is characteristic of the last and most heroic phase of Renaissance art. Sculpted from a single piece of marble, it is larger than life and offers a vision of the human body and spirit that is more dramatic than real life, an effect Michelangelo produced by making the head and hands deliberately too large for the torso.8
9918060777Treaty of Lodi/Peace of LodiThe treaty (1454-1455) that established a mutual defensive pact among Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples, and the Papal States. It lapses after the French invasion of 1494.9
9918060778ColloquiesDialogues written (beginning in 1519) by the most important and influential of the northern humanists, Desiderius Erasmus, for the purpose of teaching his students both the Latin language and how to live a good life.10
9936707369Lay PietyA tradition in the smaller, independent German provinces, flourishing in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, whereby organized groups promoted pious behavior and learning outside of the bureaucracy of the church.11
9936707370PatronageThe support of artists and artisans, frequently by both aristocrats and the newly emergent middle class merchant; also, awarding of noble titles and government appointments as a means of gaining political support.12
9936707371Papal StatesA kingdom in central Italy, ruled directly by the pope until Italian unification (1866-1870).13
9936707372IndulgencesCertificates of absolution sold by the Church forgiving people of their sins, sometimes even before they committed them, in return for a monetary contribution. The selling of indulgences was one of the practices that Martin Luther objected to.14
9936707373MillenarianismThe belief that one is living in the last days of the world and that the judgment day is at hand (originally tied to the belief that the end would come in the year AD 1000)15
9936707374Salvation by Faith AloneOne of the central tenets of Martin Luther's theology: the belief that salvation is a gift from God given to all who possess true faith.16
9936707375Scripture Alone (Sola Scriptura)One of the central tenets of Martin Luther's theology: the belief that scripture is the only guide to knowledge of God. (In contrast, the Catholic Church holds that there are two guides to knowledge of God: scripture and Church tradition.)17
9936707376Priesthood of All BelieversOne of the central tenets of Martin Luther's theology: the belief that all who have true faith are "priests," that is, they are competent to read and understand scripture.18
9936707377The Ninety-Five ThesesThe 95 propositions or challenges to official Church theology posted by Martin Luther on the door of Wittenberg castle church in the autumn of 1517.19
9936707378Peace of AugsburgThe treaty, signed in 1555, that established the principle of "whoever rules, his religion" and signaled to Rome that the German princes would not go to war with each other over religion.20
9936707379PeasantryThe class of rural, agricultural laborers in traditional European society.21
9936707380HuguenotsThe sixteenth and seventeenth century term for French Calvinists.22
9936707381Edict of NantesA royal edict that established the principle of religious toleration in France, proclaimed in 1598 and revoked in 1685.23
9936707382Anglican ChurchThe state Church of England, established by Henry VIII in the early sixteenth century when he decided to break from the Church in Rome.24
9936707383DissentersThe collective name for Protestant groups who refused to join the Anglican Church in England.25
9936707384PredestinationThe Calvinist belief that asserts that God had predetermined which people will be saved and which will be damned.26
9936707385The ElectThe name given in Calvinist theology to the group of people who have predestined by God for salvation.27
9936707386AnabaptistsA sect of radical Protestant reformers in Europe in the sixteenth century who considered true Protestant faith to require social reform.28
9936707387Council of TrentThe Counter Reformation council of the Catholic Church that began its deliberations in 1545. Despite its reformist aims, it continued to insist that the Catholic Church was the final arbiter in all matters of faith.29
9936707388InquisitionAn institution within Catholic Church, created in 1478 to enforce the conversion of Muslims and Jews in Spain. It was revived and expanded during the Reformation to combat all perceived threats to orthodoxy and the Church's authority.30
9936707389St. Bartholomew's Day MassacreKing Charles IX's massacre of Huguenots in August 1572.31
9936707390Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)The "last of the religious wars," but actually a European-wide struggle for dominance among the Bourbon and Hapsburg dynasties and the Holy Roman Empire.32
9936707391Spice TradeThe importation of spices from Asia into Europe, revived during the Renaissance. The need to find shorter, more efficient routes have impetus to the great voyages of exploration of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.33
9936707392HaciendasThe large estates that produced food and leather goods for the mining areas and urban centers of the Spanish Empire in the New World.34
9936707393Triangular Trade NetworksThe system of interconnected trade routes that quadrupled foreign trade in both Britain and France in the eighteenth century.35
9936707394The Middle PassageThe leg of the triangular trade networks in which African slaves were transported in brutal conditions across the Atlantic Ocean on European trade ships.36
9936707395PlantationsThe large estates in the West Indies, which produced sugar for export to Europe.37
9936707396MercantilismEconomic theory that held that money (gold and silver, especially) is the only form of wealth. Mercantilism led to the quashing of any incipient industry in colonized areas, leaving economic control strictly in the hands of the colonizer.38
9936707397Celestial realmThe realm, in the Aristotelian view of the cosmos, above the orbit of the moon.39
9936707398ElementsThe basic components of matter in Aristotelian physics; there were five: earth, air, water, fire, and aether.40
9936707399QualitiesA term, in Aristotelian physics, for the tendencies of matter; that is, Earth sinks, Air floats, etc.41
9936707400GeocentricEarth-centered; the Aristotelian model of the cosmos.42
9936707401ScholasticismA term for the pre-Renaissance system of knowledge characterized by the belief that everything worth knowing was written down in ancient texts.43
9936707402HermeticismA tradition of knowledge that taught that the world was infused with a single spirit that could be explored through mathematics, as well as through magic.44
9936707403NeoplatonismIn the Renaissance and Early Modern period, a philosophy based on that of Plato, which contended that reality was located in a changeless world of forms and that, accordingly, spurred the study of mathematics. It also refers to the attempt to reconcile pagan and Christian ideals, and the artistic idea that contemplation of beauty led to contemplation of the divine.45
9936707404Platonic-Pythagorean traditionA tradition of philosophy that developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which embraced the works of Plato and Pythagoras and which had as its goal the identification of the fundamental mathematical laws of nature.46
9936707405HeliocentricSun-centered; the model of the cosmos proposed by Nicolas Copernicus in 1534.47
9936707406CopernicanismThe theory, following Nicolas Copernicus, that the sun is at the center of the cosmos and that the Earth is the third planet from the sun.48
9936707407Kepler's LawsThree laws of planetary motion developed by Johannes Kepler between 1609 and 1619.49
9936707408The Starry MessengerGalileo's treatise of 1610, in which he published his celestial observations made with a telescope.50
9936707410Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the WorldGalileo's treatise of 1632, in which he dismantled the arguments in favor of the traditional, Aristotelian view of the cosmos and presented the Copernican system as the only alternative for reasonable people.51
9936738292Discourse on MethodRené Descartes's treatise of 1637, in which he established a method of philosophical inquiry based on radical skepticism.52
9936983463NobilityThe class of privileged landowners in traditional European society.53
9936983464MonarchsThe hereditary rulers of traditional European society.54
9936983465Divine Right of KingsThe theory that monarchs received their right to rule directly from God.55
9936983466AbsolutismA theory of government that a rightful ruler holds absolute power over his or her subjects.56
9936983467English Civil War(1642-1646) The war in which forces loyal to King Charles I fought to defend the power of the monarchy, the Official Church of England, and the privileges and prerogatives of the nobility, while forces supporting Parliament fought to uphold the rights of Parliament, to bring and end to the notion of an official state church, and for the ideals of individual liberty and the rule of law.57
9936983468The Commonwealth(1649-1660) The period during which England was ruled without a monarch, following the victory of the Parliamentary forces in the English Civil War and the subsequent execution of King Charles I.58
9936983469IntendentAn administrative bureaucrat in absolutist France of the seventeenth century, usually chosen from the middle class, who owed his position and, therefore, his loyalty directly to the state.59
9936983470Edict of Nantes (1598)Decree by King Henry IV of France granting Protestants religious tolerance and marking the end of France's Religious Wars. Revoked in 1685.60
9936983471The RestorationThe period of English history (1660-1688) following the Commonwealth and preceding the Glorious Revolution. It encompassed the reigns of Charles II (1660-1685) and James II (1685-1688).61
9936983472The Glorious RevolutionThe quick, nearly bloodless uprising (1688) that coordinated Parliament-led uprisings in England with the invasion of a Protestant fleet and army from the Netherlands and led to the expulsion of James II and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in England under William and Mary.62
9936983473Constitutional MonarchyA theory of government that contends that a rightful ruler's power is limited by an agreement with his or her subjects.63
9936983474Two Treatises on GovernmentA philosophical work (1690) by the Englishman John Locke, which became the primary argument for the establishment of natural limits to governmental authority.64
9936983475VersaillesThe great palace of the French monarchs, located 11 miles outside of Paris, which was the center of court life and political power in France from 1682 until the French Revolution in 1789.65
9936983476TsarsThe hereditary monarchs of Russia.66
9936983477Law Code of 1649Legislation in Russia that converted the legal status of groups as varied as peasants and slaves into that of a single class of serfs.67
9936983478Manorial SystemThe traditional economic system of Europe, developed in the medieval period, in which landowning elites (lords of the manor) held cast estates divided into small plots of arable land farmed by peasants for local consumption.68
9936983479Cash cropsCrops grown for sale and export in the market-oriented approach that replaced the manorial system during the Agricultural Revolution of the eighteenth century.69
9936983480EnclosureThe building of hedges, fences, and walls to deny the peasantry access to traditional farming plots and common lands, which had been converted to fields for cash crops during the Agricultural Revolution of the eighteenth century.70
9936983481Putting-out system (also "cottage industry")A system in which rural peasants engaged in small-scale textile manufacturing. It was developed in the eighteenth century to allow merchants, faced with an ever-expanding demand for textile, to get around the guild system.71
9936983482Flying ShuttleA machine invented in 1733 by John Kay that doubled the speed at which cloth could be woven on a loom, creating a need to find a way to produce greater amounts of thread faster.72
9937069535Spinning JennyA machine invented in 1760s by James Hargreaves that greatly increased the amount of thread a single spinner could produce from cotton, creating a need to speed of the harvesting of cotton.73
9937069536Cotton GinA machine invented in 1793 by an American, Eli Whitney, that efficiently removed seed from raw cotton, thereby increasing the speed with which it could be processed and sent to the spinners.74
9937069537Diplomatic RevolutionThe mid-eighteenth-century shift in European alliances, whereby the expansionist aims of Frederick II of Prussia causes old enemies to become allies. Prussia, fearful of being isolated by its enemies, forged an alliance in 1756 with its former enemy Great Britain; Austria and France, previously antagonistic toward one another, responded by forging an alliance of their own.75
9937069538The Seven Years' War (1756-1763)A conflict that pitted France, Austria, Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and (after 1762) Spain against Prussia, Great Britain, and the German state of Hanover in a contest for control of both the European Continent and the New World in North America.76
9938560137Civil SocietyThe society formed when free individuals come together and surrender some of their individual power in return for greater protection.77
9938560138The Spirit of LawsThe Baron de Montesquieu's treatise of 1748, in which he expanded on John Locke's theory of limited government and outlined a system in which government was divided into branches in order to check and balance its power.78
9938560139An Essay Concerning Human UnderstandingJohn Locke's treatise of 1689-1690, which argued that humans are born Tabula Rosa (as "blank slates"), contradicting the Christian notion that humans were born corrupt and sinful and implying that what humans become is purely a result of what they experience.79
9938560140The Wealth of NationsAdam Smith's treatise of 1776, which argued that there are laws of human labor, production, and trade, which stem from the unerring tendency of all humans to seek their own self-interest.80
9938560141Invisible handA phrase, penned by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (1776), to denote the way in which natural economic laws guide the economy.81
9938560142Vindication of the Rights of WomenMary Wollstonecraft's treatise of 1792, in which she argued that reason was the basis of moral in all human beings, not just in men.82
9938560143SalonsPlaces where both men and women gathered, in eighteenth century France, to educate themselves about and discuss the new ideas of the Enlightenment in privacy and safety.83
9938560144PhilosophePublic intellectual of the French Enlightenment who believed that society should be reformed on the basis of natural law and reason.84
9938560145Masonic lodgesSecret meeting places established and run by Freemasons, whose origins dated back to the medieval guilds of the stonemasons. By the eighteenth century, the lodges were fraternities of aristocratic and middle-class men (and occasionally women) who gathered to discuss alternatives to traditional belief.85
9938560146DeismThe belief that the complexity, order, and natural laws exhibited by the universe were reasonable proof that it had been created by a God who was no longer active.86
9938560147Enlightened DespotismThe hope shared by many philosophes that the powerful monarchs of European civilization, once educated in the ideals of the Enlightenment, would use their power to reform and rationalize society.87
9938560148CandideVoltaire's sprawling satire of European culture, penned in 1759, which has become the classic example of Enlightenment period satire.88
9938560149EncyclopediaProduced by the tireless efforts of its co-editors, Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1751-1772), the entries of the Encyclopedia championed a scientific approach to knowledge and labeled anything not based on reason as superstition.89
9938560150System of NatureThe Baron Paul d'Holbach's treatise of 1770, which was first work of Enlightenment philosophy to be openly atheist and materialistic.90
9938560151The Social ContractJean-Jacques Rousseau's treatise of 1762, in which he wrote,"Man is born free; and everywhere he is chains." He argues that a virtuous citizen should be willing to subordinate his own self-interest to the general good of the community and that the government must be continually responsive to the general will of the people.91
9938560152AlmanacsPopular eighteenth century texts that incorporated much of the new scientific and rational knowledge of the Enlightenment.92
9938560153Philosophical textsThe underground book trade's code name for banned books, which included some versions of the philosophical treatises, and bawdy, popularized versions of the philosophes' critique of the Church and the ruling classes.93
9938560154BourgeoisieA term for the merchant and commercial classes of eighteenth and nineteenth-century France. In Marxist social critique, the class that owns the means of production and exploits wage laborers.94
9938560155Ancien Régime (also Old Regime)The traditional social and political hierarchy of eighteenth-century France.95
9938560156Estates GeneralThe representative body of eighteenth-century France. Members representing each of the three Estates met to hear the problems of the realm and royal requests for new taxes. In return, they were allowed to present a list of their own concerns and proposals, called cahiers, to the Crown.96
9938560157National AssemblyThe name taken by the representatives of the Third Estate on June 17, 1789, declaring themselves to be the legislative body of France. This event is often seen as the beginning of the French Revolution's moderate phase.97
9938560158"Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen"A declaration adopted by the National Assembly of France on August 27, 1789, espousing individual rights and liberties for all citizens.98
9938560159Sans-culottesThe working people (bakers, shopkeepers, artisans, and manual laborers) who asserted their will in the radical phase of the French Revolution (1791-1794). They were characterized by their long working pants, hence, sans-culottes (literally "without short pants").99
9938560160GirondinsActive during the National Assembly, the Girondins, primarily drawn from the provincial bourgeoisie, supported the revolution, and advocated war with Europe as a means of uniting France behind the revolutionaries. During the National Convention phase, they became concerned with the increasing violence and the power of the sans-culottes, whose economic demands they opposed. They also opposed execution of the king. This they evolved into the moderate faction of the National Convention, especially when compared to their more radical counterparts, the Jacobins.100
9938560161JacobinsMembers of a political club who were active in the National Assembly, the Jacobins intended to secure support for the revolution. During the National Convention phase, the group was dominated by more radical elements who called for the execution of the king, opposed war with Europe, advocated a republic, and allied with the sans-culottes and the Paris commune. After purging the Girondins, the Jacobin faction was responsible for instituting the Reign of Terror.101
9938560162Committee of Public SafetyA twelve-man committee created in the summer of 1793 and invested with nearly absolute power in order that it might secure the fragile French Republic from its enemies.102
9938560163Reign of TerrorThe period of the French Revolution during which Robespierre, the leader of the Committee of Public Safety, created tribunals in the major cities of France to try individuals suspected of being enemies of the Revolution. During the Reign of Terror, between September 1793 and July 1794, between 200,000 and 400,000 people were sentenced to prison; between 25,000 and 50,000 of them are believed to have died either in prison or the guillotine.103
9938560164DirectoryA five-man board created to handle the executive functions of the government during Thermidor, the third and final phase of the French Revolution (1794-1799).104
9938560165Napoleonic Code (also known as the Civil Code of 1804)A system of uniform law and administrative policy the Napoleon created for the empire he was building in Europe.105
9938560166Continental SystemA system established by Napoleon in order to weaken Britain by forbidding the continental European states and kingdoms under French control from trading with Britain.106
9938560167Concert of EuropeThe alliance created in November 1815 that required important diplomatic decisions to be made by all four great powers-Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain-"in concert" with one another.107
9938560168Industrial RevolutionThe phase of the industrialization process, lasting roughly from 1820 to 1900, characterized by the advent of large-scale iron and steel production, the application of the steam engine, and the development of a railway system.108
9938560169Factory SystemA system of production created in order to better supervise and centralize labor, increasing their efficiency. In the factory system, workers came to a central location and worked machines under the supervision of managers.109
9938560170Division of laborA technique whereby formerly complex tasks that required knowledge and skill were broken down into a series of simple tasks, aided by machines.110
9938560171Bessemer ProcessA process, invented in the 1850s by English engineer Henry Bessemer, that allowed steel to be produced more cheaply and in larger quantities.111
9938560172Steam engineA power source that burns coal to produce steam pressure. First used in the early eighteenth century to pump water out of coal mines, it came to be used to drive machinery as diverse as the bellows of iron gorges, looms for textile manufacture, and mills for grain, and, in the nineteenth century, as a source of locomotive power.112
9938560173Internal Combustion EngineDeveloped in 1886 by two German engineers, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, an engine that burns petroleum as fuel. When mounted on a carriage, it was used to create the automobile.113
9938560174The Railway BoomThe rapid development of a railway system, beginning in Great Britain in the 1830s. The development of railway systems further spurred the development of heavy industry, as railroads facilitated the speedy transportation of iron and steel while simultaneously consuming large quantities of both.114
9938560175Class consciousnessA sense of belonging to a "working class" that developed among European workers during the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century. It developed partly due to their working together in factories and living together in isolated slums.115
9938560176ConservatismA nineteenth-century ideology that held that tradition was the only trustworthy guide to social and political action.116
9938560177LiberalismAn eighteenth and nineteenth-century ideology that asserted that the task of government was to promote individual liberty.117
9938560178SocialismAn ideology that sought to reorder society in ways that would end or minimize competition, foster cooperation, and allow the working classes to share in the wealth being produced by industrialization.118
9938560179Utopian SocialismA form of socialism that envisioned, and sometime tried to establish, ideal communities (or utopias) where work and its fruits were shared equitably.119
9938560180Psychological SocialismA variety of nineteenth-century utopian socialism that saw a conflict between the structure of society and the natural needs and tendencies of human beings. It's leading advocate was Charles Fourier, who argued that the ideal society was one organized on a smaller, more human scale.120
9938560181Technocratic SocialismA variety of nineteenth-century utopian Socialism that envisioned a society run by technical experts who managed resources efficiently and in a way that was best for all. The most prominent nineteenth-century advocate of technocratic socialism was the French aristocrat Henri Comte de Saint-Simon.121
9938560182Scientific Socialism/CommunismAn ideology dedicated to the creation of a class-free society through the abolition of private property.122
9938560183AnarchismA nineteenth-century ideology that saw the modern state and its institutions as the enemy of individual freedom and recommended terrorism as a way to disrupt the machinery of government.123
9938560184RomanticismA nineteenth-century ideology that urged the cultivation of sentiment and emotion by reconnecting with nature and with the past.124
9938560185NationalismA nineteenth-century ideology that asserted that a nation was a natural, organic entity whose people shared a cultural identity and a historical destiny.125
9938560186Social DarwinismA nineteenth-century ideology that asserted that competition was natural and necessary for the evolutionary progress of society.126
9938560187CarbonariSecret groups of Italian nationalists active in the early part of the nineteenth century. In 1820, the Carbonari has briefly succeeded in organizing an uprising that forced King Ferdinand I of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to grant a new constitution and a new Parliament.127
9938560188RisorgimentoThe mid-nineteenth-century Italian nationalist moment composed mostly of intellectuals and university students. From 1834 to 1848, the Risorgimento attempted a series of popular insurrections and briefly established a Roman Republic in 1848.128
9938560189JunkersA powerful class of landed aristocrats in nineteenth-century Prussia who supported Bismarck's plan for the unification of Germany.129
9938560190RealpolitikA political theory, made fashionable by Bismarck in the nineteenth century, which asserted that the aim of any political policy should be to increase the power of a nation by whatever means and strategies were necessary and useful.130
9938560191The nationalities problemThe name given to the conflict between the 10 distinct linguistic and ethnic groups that lived within the borders of Austria-Hungary and their German-speaking rulers.131
9938560192RussianizationAlexander III's attempt, in the 1880s, to make Russian the standard language and the Russian Orthodox Church the standard religion throughout the Russian Empire.132
9938560193ChartismA movement in Britain (1837-1842) in support of the People's Charter, a petition that called for universal manhood suffrage, annual Parliaments, voting by secret ballot, equal electoral districts, the abolition of property qualifications for Members of Parliament, and the payment of Members of Parliament.133
9938560194Nationalism (#2)This term is often conflated with patriotism, but the differences are both subtle and important. Nationalism means a strong sense of national identity based on commonalities like language, culture, ethnicity, and traditional homeland. It can either be a unifying force (Italy, Germany) or a fragmenting one (Greece, Austrian Empire). In its later usage, nationalism is distinguished from patriotism in that, though both entail love of country, nationalism has connotations of national superiority, sometime manifesting in aggression.134
9938560195New ImperialismThe expansion of European influence and control in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It was characterized by a shift from indirect commercial influence to active conquest and the establishment of direct political control of foreign lands around the globe, particularly in Africa and Asia.135
9938560196Scramble for AfricaThe rush of European powers to claim interest in and sovereignty over portions of Africa in the first half of the 1880s. It culminated in the Berlin Conference of 1885, at which European powers laid down rules for the official claiming of African territories. As a result, by the end of the 1880s, only Liberia and Ethiopia remained independent African countries.136
9938560197Suez CanalA canal opened in 1869, built by a French company with Egyptian labor, that connects the Mediterranean Sea through Egypt to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. In 1875, Great Britain took advantage of the Egyptian ruler's financial distress and purchased a controlling interest in the canal. Control of the canal led to British occupation and the annexation of Egypt.137
9938560198Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 (sometimes known as the Sepoy Mutiny)A well organized anti-British uprising led by military units of Indians who had formerly served the British. It resulted in the British government taking direct control of India and a restructuring of the Indian economy to produce and consume products in order to aid the British economy.138
9938560199Taiping RebellionAn attempt to overthrow the Manchu rulers of China (1850-1864), whose authority had been undermined by Western interference. Defending their rule from the rebellion made the Manchus even more dependent on Western support.139
9938560200GlobalizationPolitical, cultural, economic interdependence of the world's nations and the global nature of contemporary problems.140
9938560201UntranationalistsPolitical parties which argued that political theories that put class solidarity ahead of loyalty to a nation threatened the very fabric of civilization. This, they vowed to fight liberalism and socialism.141
9938560202ZionismA movement for the creation of an independent state for Jews, which came into being in 1896 when Theodor Herzl published "The Jewish State," a pamphlet that urged an international movement to make Palestine the Jewish homeland.142
9938560203Triple AllianceA military alliance among Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, forged by Bismarck after the unification of Germany in 1871.143
9938560204Triple EntenteA military alliance among Britain, France, and Russia, which countered the Triple Alliance.144
9938560205BolsheviksA party of revolutionary Marxists, led by Lenin, who seized power in Russia in November 1917.145
9938560206Treaty of VersaillesThe name given to the series of five treaties that made up the overall settlement following World War I.146
9938560207Ottoman EmpireSuccessor to the Byzantine Empire with the taking of Constantinople on 1453, the Ottoman Empire would remain the center of trade and cultural interaction between East and West (or between Christian Europe and Muslim Middle East) until 1922, when the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed.147
9938560208Weimar RepublicThe name given to the liberal democratic government established in Germany following World War I.148
9938560209SpartacistsMarxist revolutionaries in post-World War II Germany, led by Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht, who were dedicated to bringing a socialist revolution to Germany.149
9938560210New Economic Plan (NEP)A plan instituted by Lenin in the early 1920s that allowed rural peasants and small-business operators to manage their own land and businesses and to sell their products-a temporary compromise with capitalism that worked well enough to get the Russian economy functioning again.150
9938560211Great DepressionA total collapse of the economies of Europe and the United States, triggered by the American stock market crash of 1929 and lasting most of the 1930s.151
9938560212Blackshirts (squadristi)Italian fascist paramilitary groups, largely recruited from disgruntled war veterans, commanded by Mussolini. They were increasingly relied upon by the Italian government to keep order in the 1920s.152
9938560213Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP, or the Nazi Party)German political party that began as a small right-wing group—one of the more than 70 extremist paramilitary organizations that sprang up in post-World War I Germany. It was neither socialist nor did it attract many workers; it was a party made up of war veterans and misfits. The man responsible for its rise to power was Adolf Hitler.153
9938560214AnschlussThe annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938.154
9938560215The HolocaustA genocide in which approximately six million Jews were killed by the Nazi Regime and its collaborators.155
9938560216Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)Often referred to as a "dress rehearsal" for WWII. Brought Francisco Franco to power and ended the monarchy.156
9938560217Truman DoctrineA U.S doctrine (named after President Harry Truman), created in 1947, that established a system of military and economic aid to countries threatened by communist take over.157
9938560218Marshall PlanA plan (named after U.S Secretary of State George Marshall), launched in 1947, that provided billions of dollars of aid to help the Western European powers to rebuild their infrastructures and economies following World War II.158
9938560219Council for Mutual Economic AssistanceThe Soviet Union's response to the Marshall Plan whereby the Soviet Union offered economic aid packages for Eastern European countries.159
9938560220North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)A military alliance, formed in 1949, uniting the Western powers against the Soviet Union.160
9938560221Warsaw PactThe Soviet Union's response, in 1949, to the formation of NATO, which established a military alliance of the communist countries of Eastern Europe.161
9938560222DétenteAn era of warmer diplomatic relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, for a period lasting from the 1960s into the 1980s. It was characterized by a number of nuclear test-ban treaties and arms-limitation talks between the two superpowers.162
9938560223Prague SpringAn episode in 1968 when Czechoslovakian communists, led by Alexander Dubcek, embarked on a process of liberalization. Under Dubcek's leadership, the reformers declared that they intended to create "socialism with a human face." Dubcek tried to proceed by balancing reforms with reassurances to the Soviet Union, but on August 21, 1968, Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invaded and occupied the major cities of Czechoslovakia.163
9938560224Velvet RevolutionThe name for the nearly bloodless overthrow of Soviet communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989.164
9938560225Globalization (#2)A term that refers to the increasing integration and interdependence of the economic, social, cultural, and even ecological aspects of life in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The term refers not only to the way in which the economies of the world affect one another, but also to the way that the experience of everyday life is becoming increasingly standardized by the spread of technologies that carry with them social and cultural norms.165

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