World History since 1500 AD

Fourteen Points

. Fourteen goals of the United States in the peace negotiations after World War I. President Woodrow Wilson announced the Fourteen Points to Congress in early 1918. ... The "association of nations" Wilson mentioned became the League of Nations. ( See also Treaty of Versailles.)

Ulrich Zwingli

1 January 1484 - 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. ... The Reformation spread to other parts of the Swiss Confederation, but several cantons resisted, preferring to remain Catholic.

John Wycliffe (Lollards)

1320s - 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, Biblical translator, reformer, and seminary professor at Oxford. ... Wycliffe was also an advocate for translation of the Bible into the vernacular.

Vasco da Gama

1st Count of Vidigueira (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈvaʃku ðɐ ˈɣɐmɐ]; c. 1460s - 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea.

Robert Walpole

1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC (26 August 1676 - 18 March 1745), known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Ignatius Loyola (Jesuits)

23 October 1491 - 31 July 1556) was a Spanish Basque priest and theologian, who founded the religious order called the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and became its first Superior General.

Desiderius Erasmus

28 October 1466 - 12 July 1536), known as Erasmus or Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Erasmus was a classical scholar and wrote in a pure Latin style.

Samuel Crompton

3 December 1753 - 26 June 1827) was an English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry. Building on the work of James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright he invented the spinning mule, a machine that revolutionised the industry worldwide.

Alexander of Greece

356-323 b.c, king of Macedonia 336-323: conqueror of Greek city-states and of the Persian empire from Asia Minor and Egypt to India. British Dictionary definitions for Alexander the Great.

Admiral Horatio Nelson

A British naval officer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, also called Lord Nelson. He defeated the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar but was fatally wounded in the battle.

Li Po

A Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty

Joan of Arc

A French military leader of the fifteenth century, a national heroine who at the age of seventeen took up arms to establish the rightful king on the French throne. She claimed to have heard God speak to her in voices. ... Joan of Arc is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

Henry VIII

A king of England in the early sixteenth century. With the support of his Parliament, Henry established himself as head of the Christian Church in England, in place of the pope, after the pope refused to allow his marriage to Catherine of Aragon to be dissolved.

Ming Dynasty

A major dynasty that ruled China from the mid-fourteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. It was marked by a great expansion of Chinese commerce into East Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Note : The Ming Dynasty is known for its porcelain and enamel-based decorative art.

"New World"

A name for the Americas, especially during the time of first exploration and colonization of the Americas by Europeans.

Mahmud

A storytelling mariner who came from the emporium of Siraf on the Persian Gulf significance: Demonstrated trade influenced in India. Harsha. definition: 7th century north Indian ruler; built a large state that declined after his death 646 (last true Hindu ruler) significance: unified India temporarily. Mahmud of Ghazni.

Chateau-Thierry

A town of northern France on the Marne River east-northeast of Paris. Nearby, the second Battle of the Marne was fought, ending the last major German...

War of 1812

A war between Britain and the United States, fought between 1812 and 1815. The War of 1812 has also been called the second American war for independence.

Seven Years War

A war fought in the middle of the eighteenth century between the German kingdom of Prussia, supported by Britain, and an alliance that included Austria, France, and Russia. Prussia and Britain won, and their victory greatly increased their power.

Bank of England

, formally the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based.

Old Regime

Political and social system of France prior to the French Revolution. Under the regime, everyone was a subject of the king of France as well as a member of an estate and province.

Bartholomew Diaz

Portuguese explorer who in 1488 was the first European to get round the Cape of Good Hope (thus establishing a sea route from the Atlantic to Asia)

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese explorer; Portuguese name Fernão Magalhães. In 1519 he sailed from Spain, rounding South America through the strait that now bears his name, and reached the Philippines in 1521.

principle of legitimacy

Principle by which monarchies that had been unseated by the French Revolution or Napoleon were restored by the Congress of Vienna

private ownership

Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which is owned by a state entity; and from collective (or cooperative) property, which is owned by a group of non-governmental entities.

the Thirty Years' War

A war waged in the early seventeenth century that involved France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, and numerous states of Germany. The causes of the war were rooted in national rivalries and in conflict between Roman Catholics and Protestants.

Deccan Plateau

Although sometimes used to mean all of India south of the Narmada River, the word Deccan relates more specifically to that area of rich volcanic soils and lava-covered plateaus in the northern part of the peninsula between the Narmada and Krishna rivers.

John D. Rockefeller

An American businessman of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; a founder of the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller was the richest man in the world at his retirement and was noted for founding many charitable organizations.

John D. Rockefeller (Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Institute (Rockefeller University)

An American businessman of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; a founder of the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller was the richest man in the world at his retirement and was noted for founding many charitable organizations.

Andrew Carnegie

An American industrial leader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Carnegie, a self-made man, immigrated to the United States from Scotland without money and made millions in the steel industry.

Catherine the Great

An empress of Russia in the late eighteenth century who encouraged the cultural influences of western Europe in Russia and extended Russian territory toward the Black Sea. She is also known for her amorous intrigues, including affairs with members of her government.

Robert Clive

British general and statesman whose victory at Plassey in 1757 strengthened British control of India (1725-1774)

(Hsai, Shang, Chou, Ch'in, Han)

China's classical age

Hideyoshi

Different meanings depending on the kanji used. Hideyoshi (written: 秀吉, 秀義, 英義 or 英良) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣 秀

George Lvov

During the first Russian Revolution and the abdication of Nicholas II, emperor of Russia, Lvov was made head of the provisional government founded by the Duma on 2 March. Unable to rally sufficient support, he resigned in July 1917 in favour of his Minister of War, Alexander Kerensky.

Fischer Act (1918)

Education Act 1918 (8 & 9 Geo. V c. 39), often known as the Fisher Act, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was drawn up by Herbert Fisher.

John J. Pershing

General of the Armies John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing (September 13, 1860 - July 15, 1948) was a senior United States Army officer. His most famous post was when he served as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) on the Western Front in World War I, 1917-18.

Kongo Afonso

I, was a ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo in the first half of the 16th century. He reigned over the Kongo Empire from 1509 to late 1542 or 1543.

Samuel Slater

Image result for Samuel Slater Definition Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 - April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson) and the "Father of the American Factory System."

Salisbury Oath

In August 1086 William I summoned 'landowning men of any account' to attend at Salisbury and swear allegiance to him and to be faithful against all other men.

General Winter

Russian Winter, General Winter, General Frost, or General Snow refers to the winter climate of Russia as a contributing factor to the military failures of several invasions of Russia

Joseph Stalin

Russian leader who succeeded Lenin as head of the Communist Party and created a totalitarian state by purging all opposition (1879-1953)

St. Helena

It's famous as the place of Napoleon Bonaparte's exile and death

William and Mary

King William III and Queen Mary II of England, who ruled jointly after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 had expelled Mary's father, King James II.

James Stuart/ James I

King of England (1603-1625) and of Scotland as James VI (1567-1625). The son of Mary Queen of Scots, he succeeded the heirless Elizabeth I as the first Stuart king of England.

William of Orange

King of England and Scotland and Ireland; he married the daughter of James II and was invited by opponents of James II to invade England; when James fled, William III and Mary II were declared joint monarchs (1650-1702)

Charles I

King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1625-1649). His power struggles with Parliament resulted in the English Civil War (1642-1648) in which Charles was defeated. He was tried for treason and beheaded in 1649.

Louis XIV/ the Sun King

Known as "Louis the Great" and "the Sun King." 1638-1715. King of France (1643-1715). His reign, the longest in French history, was characterized by a magnificent court, the expansion of French influence in Europe, and the establishment of overseas colonies.

Asoka

Known as "the Great." Died 232 BC. King of Magadha (273-232) who united most of the Indian subcontinent under one rule and was converted to Buddhism, establishing it as the state religion.

Rouget de Lisle (MARSEILLAISE)

La Marseillaise is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria,

Jacobins (Marat, Danton, Robespierre)

Led by Robespierre, Danton, & Marat. Maximilien Robespierre. "The incorruptible;" Jacobin (Mountain) leader of the bloodiest portion of the French Revolution; set out to build a Republic of Virtue.; reign of power called the Reign of Terror; formed Committee of Public Safety which decided who should be executed; executed ...

Voltaire (LETTERS ON THE ENGLISH)

Letters on the English (or Letters Concerning the English Nation; French: Lettres philosophiques) is a series of essays written by Voltaire based on his experiences living in England between 1726 and 1729 (though from 1707 the country was part of the Kingdom of Great Britain).

Revolutions of 1848

Liberal and nationalist ( see nationalism ) rebellions that broke out in 1848 in several European nations, including Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Belgium.

Turgot and Necker

Swiss Protestant banker, appointed by Louis XVI as financial minister with Turgot only to arouse opposition among traditionalist factions within the court. Philosopher, physiocrat, and former provincial intendant. Appointed as principal financial minister by Louis XVI. -Proposed reducing the debt by curtailing court expenses, replacing the corvee with a small tax on landowners, and abolishing certain guild restrictions in order to stimulate manufacturing. (the Paris parlement opposed these innovations)

Bill of Rights (1689)

The 1689 English Bill of Rights was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1689 that declared the rights and liberties of the people and settling the succession in William III and Mary II following the Glorious Revolution of 1688

Shogunates (Kamakura, Ashikaga, Tokugawa)

The Ashikaga shogunate was the weakest of the three Japanese military governments. Unlike its predecessor, the Kamakura shogunate, or its successor, the Tokugawa shogunate, when Ashikaga Takauji established his government he had little personal territory with which to support his rule.

Bank of France

The Bank of France known in French as the Banque de France, headquartered in Paris, is the central bank of France; it is linked to the European Central Bank (ECB).

Belleau Wood

The Battle of Belleau Wood (1-26 June 1918) occurred during the German Spring Offensive in World War I, near the Marne River in France.

Borodino

The Battle of Borodino (Russian: Бороди́нское сраже́ние, tr. Borodínskoye srazhéniye; French: Bataille de la Moskova) was a battle fought on 7 September 1812 in the Napoleonic Wars during the French invasion of Russia.

Friedland

The Battle of Friedland (June 14, 1807) was a major engagement of the Napoleonic Wars between the armies of the French Empire commanded by Napoleon I and the armies of the Russian Empire led by Count von Bennigsen.

Battle of the Nations

The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations (Russian: Битва народов, Bitva narodov; German: Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig; French: Bataille des Nations, Swedish: Slaget vid Leipzig) was fought from 16 to 19 October 1813, at Leipzig, Saxony.

St. Mihiel

The Battle of Saint-Mihiel was a major World War I battle fought from 12-15 September 1918, involving the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) and 110,000 French troops under the command of General John J. Pershing of the United States against German positions.

Battle of Trafalgar

The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement fought by the British Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies, during the War of the Third Coalition (August-December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1796-1815).

Battle of the Nile (1798)

The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; French: Bataille d'Aboukir; was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the Nile Delta of Egypt from 1 to 3 August 1798.

Lexington

The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775, kicked off the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts.

"Big Four,"

The Big Four is also known as the Council of Four. It was composed of Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, and Georges Clemenceau of France.

Anglican Church/Church of England

The Church of England and the churches in other nations that are in complete agreement with it as to doctrine and discipline and are in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury. Also called Anglican Communion .

Continental System

The Continental System or Continental Blockade (known in French as Blocus continental) was the foreign policy of Napoleon I of France against the United Kingdom during the Napoleonic Wars.

"Peace, Bread, and Land,"

The Decrees seemed to conform to the popular Bolshevik slogan "Peace, Bread, and Land", taken up by the masses during the July Days (July 1917), an uprising of workers and military forces. ... The Decree on Land outlined measures by which the peasants were to divide up rural land among themselves.

Confusion Classics

The Four Books and The Five Classics were the canonical works of the Confucian culture in the feudal society in ancient China. The Four Books refers to The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, Confucian Analects and The Works of Mencius. And The Five Classics ...

7/14/1789 "Bastille Day,"

The French National Day commemorates the first anniversary of Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, a turning point of the French Revolution, as well as the Fête de la Fédération which celebrated the unity of the French people on 14 July 1790.

Second French Republic

The French Second Republic was a short-lived republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the 1851 coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire. It officially adopted the motto of the First Republic, Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.

Bourbon

The House of Bourbon (English: /ˈbɔːrbən/; French: [buʁˈbɔ̃]) is a European royal house of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty (/kəˈpiːʃən/). ... The royal Bourbons originated in 1272 when the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon married the youngest son of King Louis IX.

Rousseau (EMILE, THE SOCIAL CONTRACT)

The Social Contract, originally published as On the Social Contract; or, Principles of Political Rights (French: Du contrat social; ou Principes du droit politique) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is a 1762 book in which Rousseau theorized about the best way to establish a political community in the face of the problems of ...

Haiti/Saint Dominique

Like the name Haiti itself, Saint-Domingue may be used to refer to all of Hispaniola, or the western part in the French colonial period, while the Spanish version Hispaniola or Santo Domingo is often used to refer to the Spanish colonial period or the Dominican nation.

Kublai Khan

Mongolian emperor of China and grandson of Genghis Khan who completed his grandfather's conquest of China; he establish the Yuan dynasty and built a great capital on the site of modern Beijing where he received Marco Polo (1216-1294)

Akbar the Great

Mughal emperor of India (1556-1605) who conquered most of northern India and exercised religious tolerance.

Arabian Sea

Part of the Indian Ocean whose main arms include the Gulf of Oman to the northwest and the Gulf of Aden to the west. Note: It is an important trade route between the Indian subcontinent and the states of the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea.

Philip Augustus

Philip II, known as Philip Augustus (French: Philippe Auguste; 21 August 1165 - 14 July 1223), was King of France from 1180 to 1223, a member of the House of Capet.

Phillip the Fair

Philip IV (April-June 1268 - 29 November 1314), called the Fair (French: Philippe le Bel, Basque: Filipe Ederra) or the Iron King (French: le Roi de fer), was King of France from 1285 until his death. By virtue of his marriage with Joan I of Navarre, he was also Philip I, King of Navarre from 1284 to 1305.

Montesquieu (THE SPIRIT OF LAWS)

The Spirit of the Laws (French: De l'esprit des lois, originally spelled De l'esprit des loix; also sometimes translated The Spirit of Laws) is a treatise on political theory, as well as a pioneering work in comparative law, published in 1748 by Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu.

Murasaki (tale of genji)

The Tale of Genji (源氏物語 Genji Monogatari) is a classic work of Japanese literature written by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu in the early years of the 11th century.

Industrial Revolution

The rapid development of industry that occurred in Britain in the late 18th and 19th centuries, brought about by the introduction of machinery. It was characterized by the use of steam power, the growth of factories, and the mass production of manufactured goods.

1066

The year of the Norman Conquest of England.

cabinet executive power

They are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the head of government and are therefore strongly subordinate to the president as they can be replaced at any time.

caste system

is a class structure that is determined by birth. Loosely, it means that in some societies, if your parents are poor, you're going to be poor, too. Same goes for being rich, if you're a glass-half-full person.

Austerlitz

n a decisive battle during the Napoleonic campaigns (1805); the French under Napoleon defeated the Russian armies of Czar Alexander I and the Austrian armies of Emperor Francis II. Synonyms: Austerlitz

Czar Alexander

n the czar of Russia whose plans to liberalize the government of Russia were unrealized because of the wars with Napoleon (1777-1825) Synonyms: Aleksandr Pavlovich, Alexander I Example of: czar, tsar, tzar. a male monarch or emperor (especially of Russia prior to 1917)

Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis

officials from Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan sign the ten-year Tripartite Pact (the Three-Power Agreement), a military alliance. The pact sealed cooperation among the three nations (Axis powers) in waging World War II.

daimios

one of the great lords who were vassals of the shogun.

The Protestant Reformation

the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era.

House of Windsor

the British royal family since 1917 Windsor dynasty - a sequence of powerful leaders in the same

Code Napoleon

the French civil code established under Napoléon I in 1804. It was drafted by a commission of four eminent jurists and entered into force on 21 March 1804.

Gestapo

the German state secret police during the Nazi regime, organized in 1933 and notorious for its brutal methods and operations. adjective. 2. (sometimes lowercase) of or resembling the Nazi Gestapo, especially in the brutal suppression of opposition: The new regime is using gestapo tactics.

Stuart Rule (1603-1642)

the Stuart dynasty reigned in England and Scotland from 1603 to 1714, a period which saw a flourishing Court culture but also much upheaval and instability, of plague, fire and war. It was an age of intense religious debate and radical politics.

Tibetan mountain plateau (Roof of the World)

the Tibetan Plateau stands over 3 miles above sea level and is surrounded by imposing mountain ranges that harbor the world's two highest summits, Mount Everest and K2.

Balboa

the basic monetary unit of Panama, equal to 100 centésimos.

simony

the buying or selling of ecclesiastical privileges, for example pardons or benefices.

Quebec

the capital and Montreal the largest city.x. also Quebec City or Québec City The capital of Quebec, Canada, in the southern part of the province on the St. Lawrence River. Founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, it served as capital of New France before becoming a provincial capital under the British.

Wars of Roses

the civil struggle between the royal house of Lancaster, whose emblem was a red rose, and the royal house of York, whose emblem was a white rose, beginning in 1455 and ending with the accession of Henry VII in 1485 and the union of the two houses.

bushido

the code of honor and morals developed by the Japanese samurai.

principle of compensation

the compensation principle refers to a decision rule used to select between pairs of alternative feasible social states. One of these states is the hypothetical point of departure ("the original state").

profit motive

the desire for financial gain as an incentive in economic activity.

National Assembly

the elected legislature in France during the first part of the French Revolution, 1789-91.

Glorious Revolution (1688-1689)

the events of 1688-89 in England that resulted in the ousting of James II and the establishment of William III and Mary II as joint monarchs. . Also called: Bloodless Revolution.

Shih Huang

the first Qin emperor who unified China, built much of the Great Wall, standardized weights and measures, and created a common currency and legal system (died 210 BC)

Bill of Rights

the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, ratified in 1791 and guaranteeing such rights as the freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship.

usury

the illegal action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest.

Sung Dynasty

the imperial dynasty of China from 960 to 1279; noted for art and literature and philosophy. Synonyms: Song, Song dynasty, Sung Type of: dynasty. a sequence of powerful leaders in the same family.

Manchu Dynasty

the last imperial dynasty of China (from 1644 to 1912) which was overthrown by revolutionaries; during the Qing dynasty China was ruled by the Manchu.

the Estates General

the legislative body in France until 1789, representing the three estates of the realm (i.e., the clergy, the nobility, and the commons).

Yangtze river

the longest river in China, rising in SE Qinghai province and flowing east to the East China Sea near Shanghai: a major commercial waterway in one of the most densely populated areas of the world.

bourgeoisie

the middle classes. 2. (in Marxist thought) the ruling class of the two basic classes of capitalist society, consisting of capitalists, manufacturers, bankers, and other employers. The bourgeoisie owns the most important of the means of production, through which it exploits the working class.

Vedas

the most ancient Hindu scriptures, written in early Sanskrit and containing hymns, philosophy, and guidance on ritual for the priests of Vedic religion. Believed to have been directly revealed to seers among the early Aryans in India, and preserved by oral tradition, the four chief collections are the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda.

Tudor Rule (1485-1603)

the period between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England whose first monarch was Henry VII (1457-1509).

Middle Ages

the period of European history from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West (5th century) to the fall of Constantinople (1453), or, more narrowly, from c. 1100 to 1453.

nepotism

the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.

Isabella of Castile

the queen of Castile whose marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469 marked the beginning of the modern state of Spain; they instituted the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 and sponsored the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492 (1451-1504)

primogeniture

the right of succession belonging to the firstborn child, especially the feudal rule by which the whole real estate of an intestate passed to the eldest son.

House of Lancaster (red rose)

the royal House of Plantagenet

Anne Boleyn

the second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I; was executed on a charge of adultery (1507-1536) Boleyn.

factory system

the system of manufacturing that began in the 18th century with the development of the power loom and the steam engine and is based on concentration of industry into large establishments

regionalism

the theory or practice of regional rather than central systems of administration or economic, cultural, or political affiliation.

Lord Protector

the title of the head of state in England during the later period of the Commonwealth between 1653 and 1659, first Oliver Cromwell (1653-58), then his son Richard (1658-59).

George I

was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698, until his death.

Heinrich Himmler

was Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) of Germany.

Emmeline Pankhurst

was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote.

Tamerlane

was a Central Asian ruler and warlord who lived in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Wang An-shih

was a Chinese economist, statesman, chancellor and poet of the Song Dynasty who attempted major and controversial socioeconomic reforms known as the New Policies. These reforms constituted the core concepts of the Song-Dynasty Reformists, in contrast to their rivals, the Conservatives,

Wu Tao-hsuan

was a Chinese painter and the most admired figure painter in Chinese history.

Kalidasa

was a Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language of India. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Mahabharata and the Puranas.

Sir Humphrey Davy

was a Cornish chemist and inventor, who is best remembered today for isolating a series of substances for the first time: potassium and sodium in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium and boron the following year, as well as ...

Carlolingian family

was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD.

Abbe Sieyes

was a French Roman Catholic abbé, clergyman and political writer.

Marquis de Lafayette

was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War.

Joseph Goebbels

was a German Nazi politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... He was particularly adept at using the relatively new media of radio and film for propaganda purposes.

Rudolf Diesel

was a German inventor and mechanical engineer, famous for the invention of the diesel engine, and for his mysterious death.

Albert Schweitzer

was a German philosopher, philanthropist, physician, theologian, missionary, and musicologist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.

Hermann Goering

was a German political and military leader as well as one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party (NSDAP) that ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Louis Kossuth

was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician, statesman and Governor-President of the Kingdom of Hungary during the revolution of 1848-49.

Alexander Kerensky

was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who was a key political figure in the Russian Revolution of 1917.

David Livingstone

was a Scottish Christian Congregationalist, pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of the late-19th-century in the Victorian era.

James Watt

was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1781, which was fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his ...

John Knox (Presbyterianism)

was a Scottish minister, theologian, and writer who was a leader of the country's Reformation. He is the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. ... Influenced by early church reformers such as George Wishart, he joined the movement to reform the Scottish church.

John Cabot

was a Venetian navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England was the first European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to Vinland in the eleventh century.

Battle of the Marne

was a World War I battle fought from 6-10 September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German armies in the west.

Holy Alliance

was a coalition created by the monarchist great powers of Russia, Austria and Prussia.

Second Continental Congress

was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the spring of 1775 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia between September 5, 1774 and October 26, 1774.

Proclamation of Neutrality

was a formal announcement issued by U.S. President George Washington on April 22, 1793 that declared the nation neutral in the conflict between France and Great Britain. It threatened legal proceedings against any American providing assistance to any country at war

CIVIL CONSTITUTION OF THE CLERGY

was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that caused the immediate subordination of the Catholic Church in France to the French government.

Congress of Vienna

was a meeting of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich, and held in Vienna from November 1814 to June 1815, though the delegates had arrived and were already negotiating by late September 1814.

First Continental Congress

was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies who met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

was a peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between the new Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), that ended Russia's participation in World War I.

Hundred Years War (1337-1453)

was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, over the succession to the French throne. Each side drew many allies into the war.

Confucius

was a teacher and philosopher who lived from 550 to 479 BC.

Quadruple Alliance

was a treaty signed in Paris on 20 November 1815 by the great powers of United Kingdom, Austria, Prussia, and Russia. It renewed the use of the Congress System which advanced European international relations at the time. The alliance first formed in 1813 to counter France.

gabelle

was a very unpopular tax on salt in France that was established during the mid-14th century and lasted, with brief lapses and revisions, until 1946. The term gabelle is derived from the Italian gabella (a duty), itself originating from the Arabic word qabala (to receive).

James Hargreaves

was a weaver, carpenter and inventor in Lancashire, England. He was one of three inventors responsible for mechanising spinning.

Charles Townshend (rotation of crops)

was an 18th century British secretary of state who became known as "Turnip Townshend" for his agricultural innovations

Dahomey

was an African kingdom (located in the area of the present-day country of Benin) that existed from about 1600 until 1894, when the last king, Béhanzin, was defeated by the French, and the country was annexed into the French colonial empire.

Dorothea Dix

was an American activist on behalf of the indigent mentally ill who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums.

Charles Newbold

was an American blacksmith born in 1780 in Chesterfield Township, New Jersey. On June 26, 1797, Newbold received the first patent for a cast-iron plow. However, he was unable to sell his plow because many farmers feared that the iron in it would poison the soil.

Edwin Drake

was an American businessman and the first American to successfully drill for oil.

Horace Mann

was an American educational reformer and Whig politician dedicated to promoting public education. He served in the Massachusetts State legislature (1827-1837).

Henry Barnard

was an American educationalist and reformer.

Robert Fulton

was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing a commercially successful steamboat called The North River Steamboat of Clermonts.

Cyrus McCormick

was an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which later became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902.

Eli Whitney

was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the Antebellum South.

Jethro Tull

was an English agricultural pioneer from Berkshire who helped bring about the British Agricultural Revolution. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1700 that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows.

George Stephenson

was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer. ... George also built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use locomotives, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830.

Star Chamber Courts

was an English court of law which sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late 15th century to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Councillors and common-law judges, to supplement the judicial activities of the common-law and equity courts in ...

Thomas Newcomen

was an English inventor who created the first practical steam engine in 1712, the Newcomen atmospheric engine. He was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling.

Henry Bessemer

was an English inventor, whose steelmaking process would become the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century for almost one century from year 1856 to 1950.

Edmund Cartwright

was an English inventor. He graduated from Oxford University very early and went on to invent the power loom.

Elizabeth Fry

was an English prison reformer, social reformer and, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist. She has sometimes been referred to as the "angel of prisons".

Mary Wollstonecraft

was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book.

Concordat of 1801

was an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, signed on 15 July 1801 in Paris. It remained in effect until 1905.

Lao-tse

was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer. He is known as the reputed author of the Tao Te Ching, the founder of philosophical Taoism, and a deity in religious Taoism and traditional Chinese religions.

Gupta Empire

was an ancient Indian empire, which existed at its zenith from approximately 319 to 605 CE and covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is called the Golden Age of India. ... Science and political administration reached new heights during the Gupta era.

Guatama/Buddha

was an ascetic and sage, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded.

Gottlieb Daimler

was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf (Kingdom of Württemberg, a federal state of the German Confederation), in what is now Germany.

Tang Dynasty

was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is generally regarded as a high point in Chinese civilization, and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture.

Carbonari

was an informal network of secret revolutionary societies active in Italy from about 1800 to 1831. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Brazil and Uruguay.

Intellectual Revolution/Enlightenment/Age of Reason

was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, "The Century of Philosophy". ... The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution.

Age of Metternich/Age of Reaction

This was Austria's foreign minister who wanted conservativism, represented austria in congress of vienna,opposed ideas of liberals and reformers

Generals von Hindenburg and Ludendorff

Two Russian armies invaded East Prussia earlier than expected, the Eighth Army commanders panicked and were fired by OHL, Oberste Heeresleitung, German Supreme Headquarters. OHL assigned Ludendorff as the new chief of staff, while the War Cabinet chose a retired general, Paul von Hindenburg, as commander.

Tao/Taoism

a Chinese philosophy based on the writings of Lao-tzu ( fl. 6th century BC), advocating humility and religious piety.

New Netherland

a Dutch colony in North America (1613-64), comprising the area along the Hudson River and the lower Delaware River. By 1669 all of the land comprising this colony was taken over by England.

the Bourbon family

a European royal line that ruled in France (from 1589-1793) and Spain and Naples and Sicily.

Huguenots

a French Protestant of the 16th-17th centuries. Largely Calvinist, the Huguenots suffered severe persecution at the hands of the Catholic majority, and many thousands emigrated from France.

Legion of Honor

a French order conferred as a reward for civil or military merit.

gens de coleur

a French term meaning "people of color". The term was commonly used in France's West Indian colonies prior to the abolition of slavery, where it was a short form of gens de couleur libres (French: [ʒɑ̃ də kulœʁ libʁ], free people of color).

the Fuggers

a German family that was a historically prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and venture capitalists.

Hapsburg

a German princely family founded by Albert, count of Hapsburg (1153). From 1440 to 1806, the Hapsburgs wore the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire almost uninterruptedly. They also provided rulers for Austria, Spain, Hungary, Bohemia, etc.

Shintoism

a Japanese religion dating from the early 8th century and incorporating the worship of ancestors and nature spirits and a belief in sacred power ( kami ) in both animate and inanimate things. It was the state religion of Japan until 1945.

Khyber pass

a mountain pass of great strategic and commercial value in the Hindu Kush on the border between northern Pakistan and western Afghanistan; a route by which invaders entered India.

Danes

a native or inhabitant of Denmark, or a person of Danish descent. historical one of the Viking invaders of the British Isles in the 9th-11th centuries.

Thomas Paine (COMMON SENSE)

a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775-76 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Written in clear and persuasive prose, Paine marshaled moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government.

feudal dues

a peasant or worker known as a vassal received a piece of land in return for serving a lord or king, especially during times of war. Vassals were expected to perform various duties in exchange for their own fiefs, or areas of land.

Jutland

a peninsula comprising the continental portion of Denmark: naval battle between the British and German fleets was fought west of this peninsula 1916

Commercial Revolution

a period of European economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism which lasted from approximately the late 13th century until the early 18th century. It was succeeded in the mid-18th century by the Industrial Revolution.

creoles

a person of mixed European and black descent, especially in the Caribbean.

mulattoes

a person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially a person with one white and one black parent.

policy of isolation

a policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries.

Monroe Doctrine

a principle of US policy, originated by President James Monroe in 1823, that any intervention by external powers in the politics of the Americas is a potentially hostile act against the US.

the Krupp's

a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their production of steel, artillery, ammunition, and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century.

Tu Fu

a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty. Along with Li Bai (Li Po), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.

Boston Tea Party

a raid on three British ships in Boston Harbor (December 16, 1773) in which Boston colonists, disguised as Indians, threw the contents of several hundred chests of tea into the harbor as a protest against British taxes on tea and against the monopoly granted the East India Company. Origin of Boston Tea Party.

Buddhist religion

a religion of eastern and central Asia growing out of the teaching of Siddhārtha Gautama that suffering is inherent in life and that one can be liberated from it by cultivating wisdom, virtue, and concentration.

cahiers

a report or memorial concerning policy especially of a parliamentary body.

premium

a reward or recompense for a particular act. b : a sum over and above a regular price paid chiefly as an inducement or incentive.

Ganges River

a river flowing SE from the Himalayas in N India into the Bay of Bengal: sacred to Hindus. 1550 miles (2495 km) long. ... His first wife was the goddess Ganga of the ganges river, and she was divinely beautiful like to her kind.

Somme

a river in N France, flowing NW to the English Channel: battles, World War I, 1916, 1918; World War II, 1944. 150 miles (241 km) long. ... Smith survived the night patrol, and met Tolkien again on the fringes of the Battle of the Somme that summer.

Oba

a ruler of any of several African peoples of western Nigeria —used as a form of address.

Calais

a seaport in N France, on the Strait of Dover: the French port nearest England. Examples from the Web for Calais. The forces in Calais would have moved to Normandy and could well have thrown the Allies back into the sea.

Calcutta

a state in E India: formerly part of the province of Bengal.

Madras

a strong, fine-textured cotton fabric, typically patterned with colorful stripes or checks.

Cavaliers

a supporter of King Charles I in the English Civil War.

domestic system

a system of manufacturing based upon work done at home on materials supplied by merchant employers —contrasted with factory system

Confucianism

a system of philosophical and ethical teachings founded by Confucius and developed by Mencius.

unitary government

a system of political organization with a central supreme government which holds the authority over and makes the decisions for subordinate local governments. An example of a unitary government is the United Kingdom overseeing Scotland.

Mikado

a title given to the emperor of Japan.

Nirvana

a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It represents the final goal of Buddhism.

equalitarian family

a type of family wherein the husband and wife share equal distribution of authority especially in decision making at home. If the couple are both working and no one will be left home to look after their kids, then they tend to elect somebody who would perform their duty instead.

Pondicherry

a union territory of India, on the Coromandel Coast: formerly the chief settlement of French India; territory includes Mahé (on the Malabar Coast), Karikal, and Yanaon.

Buchenwald

a village in E central Germany, near Weimar; site of a Nazi concentration camp (1937-45)

Harappa

a village in Pakistan: site of successive cities of the Indus valley civilization. 2. a Bronze Age culture that flourished in the Indus valley.

putsch

a violent attempt to overthrow a government.

House of York (white rose)

a white heraldic rose, is the symbol of the House of York and has since been adopted as a symbol of Yorkshire as a whole.

Taj Mahal

a white marble mausoleum built at Agra, India, by the Mogul emperor Shah Jahan (fl. 1628-58) for his favorite wife.

Bay of Bengal

a wide arm of the Indian Ocean, between India and Myanmar.

bills of exchange

a written order to a person requiring the person to make a specified payment to the signatory or to a named payee; a promissory note.

Toleration Act (1689)

act of Parliament granting freedom of worship to Nonconformists (i.e., dissenting Protestants such as Baptists and Congregationalists). It was one of a series of measures that firmly established the Glorious Revolution (1688-89) in England.

mercantilism

also called "commercialism," is a system in which a country attempts to amass wealth through trade with other countries, exporting more than it imports and increasing stores of gold and precious metals. It is often considered an outdated system.

Peace of Augsburg (1555)

also called the Augsburg Settlement, was a treaty between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (the predecessor of Ferdinand I) and the Schmalkaldic League, signed in September 1555 at the imperial city of Augsburg.

Montreal

city in Canada, originally Ville Marie de Montréal, settled by the French 1642, named for the hill on which it was built, Mont Réal, in French literally "royal mount;" named 1534 by Jacques Cartier in honor of Francis I. Related: Montrealer.

Detroit

city in Michigan, U.S., from French détroit, literally "straits," from Old French destreit (12c.), from Latin districtum, neuter of districtus. French fort built there 1701. By 1918 the city name was synonymous with "U.S. automobile manufacturing." Le Détroit (1701-1710) On July 24, 1701, Antoine de La Mothe-Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain and the parish of Sainte-Anne on the straits ("le détroit " in French). He was helped by Alphonse de Tonti.

"Black Shirts,"

colloquial term originally used to refer to the members of the Fasci di combattimento, units of the Fascist organization founded in Italy in Mar., 1919, by Benito Mussolini. A black shirt was the most distinctive part of their uniform. The Black Shirts were mainly discontented ex-soldiers.

Foch

commander in chief of Allied armies on the Western front in World War I (1918)

Der Fuhrer (The Leader)

commonly spelled Fuehrer when the umlaut is not available) is a German word meaning "leader" or "guide". As a political title it is most associated with the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, who was the only person to hold the position of Führer.

Committee of Public Safety

created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793—formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror (1793-94), a stage of the French Revolution.

Ferdinand of Aragon

he king of Castile and Aragon who ruled jointly with his wife Isabella; his marriage to Isabella I in 1469 marked the beginning of the modern state of Spain and their capture of Granada from the Moors in 1492 united Spain as one country; they instituted the Spanish Inquisition in 1478

Estates-General

in France of the pre-Revolutionary monarchy, the representative assembly of the three "estates," or orders of the realm: the clergy and nobility—which were privileged minorities—and a Third Estate, which represented the majority of the people.

John Calvin (institutes of the christian religion)

is John Calvin's seminal work of Protestant systematic theology.

MEIN KAMPF (MY STRUGGLE)

is a 1925 autobiographical book by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926.

Rome-Berlin Axis

is a 1949 book by British historian Elizabeth Wiskemann. It is a study of the Axis alliance of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany with particular emphasis on the relationship between Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.

Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts

is a London-based, British organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges.

Chandragupta

(c.325-297 BC), Indian emperor. He founded the Mauryan empire and annexed provinces deep into Afghanistan from Alexander's Greek successors.

taille

(in France before 1789) a tax levied on the common people by the king or an overlord.

Brahma

"the Creator," the first member of the Trimurti, with Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer.

l'etat c'est moi

'L'etat c'est moi' ('I am the state') express the spirit of a rule in which the king held all political authority.

Kubt-ud-din Aibak

(1150-1210), was the founder of the Mamluk Dynasty in Delhi and the first sultan of the Delhi Sultanate. He was born a Turk of the Aybak tribe and was the sultan for only four years, 1206-1210.

Babar

(1483-1530), a famous conqueror of India and founder of the so-called Mogul dynasty. Babar, the fifth in descent from Timur, was originally prince of Ferghana, but conquered Samarkand and northern India, where he founded the Mogul (Mughal) empire. And 124° 22' and 135° E., and include: (I) the ...

Giovanni di Verrazano

(1485-1528) was an Italian explorer of North America, in the service of King Francis I of France.

Richard Arkwright

(23 December 1732 - 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. ... Later in his life Arkwright was known as the "father of the modern industrial factory system."

Louis Philippe

(6 October 1773 - 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 as the leader of the Orléanist party. ... His popularity faded as economic conditions in France deteriorated in 1847, and he was forced to abdicate after the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1848.

Rudolf I

(French: Rodolphe, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish: Rodolfo) or Rodolphe is a male first name, and, less commonly, a surname. It is a Germanic name deriving from two stems: Rod or Hrōð, meaning "fame", and olf meaning "wolf" (see also Hroðulf; cf. Adolf).

Charles V

(German: Karl; Italian: Carlo; Latin: Carolus; Dutch: Karel, Spanish: Carlos; 24 February 1500 - 21 September 1558) was ruler of both the Spanish Empire as Charles I from 1516 and the Holy Roman Empire as Charles V from 1519, as well as of the lands of the former Duchy of Burgundy from 1506.

Siva

(Hinduism) the destroyer, one of the three chief divinities of the later Hindu pantheon, the other two being Brahma and Vishnu. Siva is also the god presiding over personal destinies. from Sanskrit Śiva, literally: the auspicious (one)

Estates (First, Second, Third)

(before the French Revolution) divided society into three estates: the First Estate (clergy); the Second Estate (nobility); and the Third Estate (commoners).

St. Francis Xavier

(born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta, 7 April 1506 - 3 December 1552), was a Navarrese Basque Roman Catholic missionary, born in Javier (Xavier in Navarro-Aragonese or Xabier in Basque), Kingdom of Navarre (present day Spain), and a co-founder of the Society of Jesus. Known as the "Apostle of the Indies," and the "Apostle of Japan", he is considered to be one of the greatest missionaries since Saint Paul. ... He is now co-patron saint of Navarre with San Fermin. The Day of Navarre (Día de Navarra) in Spain marks the anniversary of Saint Francis Xavier's death, on 3 December 1552.吉) (1536/1537-1598), Japanese samurai and daimyō Sasaki Hideyoshi (佐々木 秀義) (1112-1184), Japanese samurai and daimyō

Henry the Navigator

1394-1460, Portuguese prince. First European royal to heavily promote discovery and exploration. Motivated by mercenary as well as missionary factors. Seeking to promote Portugese economic interests (challenging Muslim monopoly of gold trade) and to further Christian influence. Hope to find the kingdom of Prince Henry promoted settlement of islands in the Atlantic and exploration of the African coast. Founded the school for navigators at Sagres at the southwestern tip of Portugal.

Pedro Cabral

1467 or 1468 - c. 1520) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil.

Hernando De Soto

1495 - May 21, 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States (Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and most likely Arkansas).

Elizabeth I

1533-1603, queen of England (1558-1603); daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She established the Church of England (1559) and put an end to Catholic plots, notably by executing Mary Queen of Scots (1587) and defeating the Spanish Armada (1588).

Oliver Cromwell

1599-1658, English general and statesman. A convinced Puritan, he was an effective leader of the parliamentary army in the Civil War. After the execution of Charles I he quelled the Royalists in Scotland and Ireland, and became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth (1653-58) 2.

Jean Baptiste Colbert

1619-1683. French politician who served as an adviser to Louis XIV. Colbert reformed taxes, centralized the administration, and improved roads and canals in an effort to encourage trade.

Charles II

1630-1685. King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660-1685) who reigned during the Restoration, a period of expanding trade and colonization as well as strong opposition to Catholicism.

James II

1633-1701. King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1685-1688). The last Stuart king to rule both England and Scotland, he was deposed by his Protestant daughter Mary (later, Mary II) and her husband, William of Orange.

Habeaus Corpus Act

1679 is an Act of the Parliament of England (31 Cha. 2 c. 2) passed during the reign of King Charles II to define and strengthen the ancient prerogative writ of habeas corpus, whereby persons unlawfully detained can be ordered to be prosecuted before a court of law.

Maria Theresa

1717-1780. Holy Roman empress (1745-1780), archduchess of Austria, and queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1740-1780) whose reign was marked by the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).

Louis XVI

1754-1793. King of France (1774-1792). In 1789 he summoned the Estates-General to undertake fiscal reforms, an event that eventually led to the French Revolution. Louis was convicted of treason by the revolutionary government and executed in 1793.

Louis XVI (r. 1774-1792)

1754-1793. King of France (1774-1792). In 1789 he summoned the Estates-General to undertake fiscal reforms, an event that eventually led to the French Revolution. Louis was convicted of treason by the revolutionary government and executed in 1793.

Charles X

1757-1836. King of France (1824-1830) who dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, restricted freedom of the press, and launched an invasion of Algeria (1830). He abdicated as a result of the July Revolution of 1830 and went into exile.

Presbyterian Church

A Protestant denomination based on the doctrines of John Calvin and governed by elders ( presbyteros is the Greek word for "elder"). The Presbyterian Church was founded in Scotland, where it is the established church, supported by the government.

Julius Caesar

A Roman general and dictator in the first century b.c. In military campaigns to secure Roman rule over the province of Gaul, present-day France, he gained much prestige.

Peter the Great

A Russian czar of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries who tried to transform Russia from a backward nation into a progressive one by introducing customs and ideas from western European countries.

Leon Trotsky

A Russian revolutionary leader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Trotsky rose to power alongside Lenin after the Russian Revolution, taking charge of foreign affairs.

Ramayana

A Sanskrit epic, traditionally attributed to Valmiki, that concerns the banishment of Rama from his kingdom, the abduction of his wife Sita by a demon and her rescue, and Rama's eventual restoration to the throne.

Battle of Waterloo

A battle in Belgium in 1815 in which the British and Prussians defeated the French under Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon abdicated as emperor a few days after this final defeat, and a few weeks later he was captured and sent into exile.

Indian Ocean

A body of water extending from southern Asia to Antarctica and from eastern Africa to southeast Australia. n an ocean bordered by Africa in the west, Asia...

Maurya

A dynasty which ruled northern India 321-c.184 BC. It was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, who introduced a centralized government and uniform script. The oldest extant Indian art dates from this era.

Thomas Jefferson

A political leader of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; one of the Founding Fathers; the leader of the Democratic-Republican party. Jefferson was principal author of the Declaration of Independence and served as president from 1801 to 1809, between John Adams and James Madison.

the Medici

A powerful Italian family of bankers and merchants whose members effectively ruled Florence for much of the 15th century and from 1569 were grand dukes of Tuscany.

Susan B. Anthony

A reformer of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, known especially for her advocacy of women's suffrage. She was also active in the cause of abolitionism before the Civil War.

Hindu religion

A religion of India that emphasizes freedom from the material world through purification of desires and elimination of personal identity. Hindu beliefs include reincarnation.

northwest passage

A sea route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through northwestern America, often sought by early explorers. There is an actual Northwest Passage, but it requires sailing through far northern waters that are icebound much of the year.

French and Indian War

A series of military engagements between Britain and France in North America between 1754 and 1763. The French and Indian War was the American phase of the Seven Years' War, which was then underway in Europe.

John Locke

A seventeenth-century English philosopher. Locke argued against the belief that human beings are born with certain ideas already in their minds. He claimed that, on the contrary, the mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) until experience begins to "write" on it.

Andrew Carnegie (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; The Hague Peace Palace)

An American industrial leader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Carnegie, a self-made man, immigrated to the United States from Scotland without money and made millions in the steel industry.He was also one of the most important philanthropists of his era

Prince Metternich

An Austrian nobleman and political leader of the early nineteenth century; he was chancellor, or head, of the Austrian government for nearly forty years.

Francis Drake

An English navigator of the sixteenth century; the first Englishman to sail around the world. Drake often raided Spanish treasure ships; he participated in the destruction of the Spanish Armada.

Florence Nightingale

An English nurse of the nineteenth century, known for establishing a battlefield hospital for British soldiers wounded in the Crimean War. Her tireless service, at night as well as during the day, gained her the nickname "Lady with the Lamp."

Marco Polo

An Italian explorer of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries; one of the first Europeans to travel across Asia. He visited the court of Kublai Khan ( see " Kubla Khan " under "Literature in English"), the Mongol ruler of China, and became a government official in China.

Christopher Columbus

An Italian explorer responsible for the European discovery of America in 1492. He had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain, under the patronage of the king and queen, Ferdinand and Isabella, hoping to find a westward route to India.

Minute men

Armed American civilians who were active in the Revolutionary War and in the period just preceding the war. They were named Minutemen because they were ready to fight alongside regular soldiers at a moment's notice.

Sir Arthur Wellesley (Duke of Wellington)

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (1 May 1769 - 14 September 1852), was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain. ... Wellesley was born in Dublin, into the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland.

Battles (Crecy 1346, Poitiers 1356, Agincourt 1415)

Battle of Cressy, was an English victory during the Edwardian phase of the Hundred Years' War. ... The battle was fought on 26 August 1346 near Crécy, in northern France. Part of the Hundred Years' War. The Battle of Poitiers (1356) Eugène Delacroix. Date. 19 September 1356. decisive victory of the English over the French in the Hundred Years' War. In 1413 the new king of England, Henry V, took the opportunity of a power struggle inside France to renew English claims to the French throne and invade.

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Known as "Il Duce." 1883-1945. Italian Fascist dictator and prime minister (1922-1943) who conducted an expansionist foreign policy, formalized an alliance with Germany (1939), and brought Italy into World War II (1940).

Count Mirabeau

Count of Mirabeau (9 March 1749 - 2 April 1791) was a leader of the early stages of the French Revolution. A noble, he was involved in numerous scandals before the start of the Revolution in 1789 that had left his reputation in ruins.

John Huss (Hussites)

Czechoslovakian religious reformer who anticipated the Reformation; he questioned the infallibility of the Catholic Church was excommunicated (1409) for attacking the corruption of the clergy; he was burned at the stake (1372-1415)

Jacques Cartier

December 31, 1491 - September 1, 1557) was a Breton explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France.

thirteen English colonies

Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Jimmu

Emperor Jimmu (神武天皇 Jinmu-tennō) was the first Emperor of Japan, according to legend. His accession is traditionally dated as 660 BC. According to Japanese mythology, he is a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu, through her grandson Ninigi, as well as a descendant of the storm god Susanoo.

Act of Supremacy (1534)

English act of Parliament that recognized Henry VIII as the "Supreme Head of the Church of England." The act also required an oath of loyalty from English subjects that recognized his marriage to Anne Boleyn.

Thomas Hobbes (the leviathan)

English materialist and political philosopher who advocated absolute sovereignty as the only kind of government that could resolve problems caused by the selfishness of human beings (1588-1679) Leviathan—is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668). Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan.

Captain James Cook

English navigator who claimed the east coast of Australia for Britain and discovered several Pacific islands (1728-1779)

Henry Hudson

English navigator who discovered the Hudson River; in 1610 he attempted to winter in Hudson Bay but his crew mutinied and set him adrift to die (1565-1611)

John Hawkins

English privateer involved in the slave trade; later helped build the fleet that in 1588 defeated the Spanish Armada (1532-1595) Synonyms: Hawkins, Hawkyns, Sir John Hawkyns Example of: privateer, privateersman. an officer or crew member of a privateer.

Treaty of Westphalia (1648)

European settlements of 1648, which brought to an end the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years' War. The peace was negotiated, from 1644, in the Westphalian towns of Münster and Osnabrück. The Spanish-Dutch treaty was signed on January 30, 1648.

Toussaint L'Ouverture

François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda, was the best-known leader of the Haitian Revolution. His military and political acumen saved the gains of the first Black insurrection in November 1791

Diderot (the ENCYCLOPEDIA)

French philosopher who was a leading figure of the Enlightenment in France; principal editor of an encyclopedia that disseminated the scientific and philosophical knowledge of the time (1713-1784) Synonyms: Diderot Example of: philosopher. a specialist in philosophy.

Justus von Liebig (artificial fertilizers)

German chemist, who is widely credited as one of the founders of agricultural chemistry. He made crucial contributions to the analysis of organic compounds, and, in his early years, also published several works on the use of inorganic fertilizers in several languages.

Michael Farraday (dynamo)

He also built the first electromagnetic generator, called the Faraday disk, a type of homopolar generator, using a copper disc rotating between the poles of a horseshoe magnet.

nonjuring clergy

In British history, non-jurors refused to swear allegiance to William and Mary; see Nonjuring schism. In French history, non-jurors were clergy members who refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the state under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy; also known as refractory clergy, priests and bishops.

Seven Years' War (1756-1763)

In English-speaking Canada — the balance of Britain's former North American colonies — it is called the Seven Years' War (1754-1763). ... The Third Silesian War involved Prussia and Austria (1756-1763). On the Indian subcontinent, the conflict is called the Third Carnatic War (1757-1763).

justification by faith

In Lutheranism and Calvinism, righteousness from God is viewed as being credited to the sinner's account through faith alone, without works.

Navigation Acts

In October of 1651, the English Parliament passed its Navigation Acts of 1651. These acts were designed to tighten the government's control over trade between England, its colonies, and the rest of the world. ... England's American colonies could only export their goods in English ships.

The Index

Index of Forbidden Books. Written by Pope Paul IV as part of the Counter-Reformation. It forbade Catholics from reading books considered "harmful" to faith and morals.

Dachau

Infamous as the site of a Nazi concentration camp nearby, opened in 1933 as a detention site for political prisoners and surrendered to the U.S. Army April 29, 1945. ... A concentration camp established by the Nazis in southern Germany. (See Holocaust.)

Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet

Louis Jolliet (September 21, 1645 - last seen May 1700) was a French Canadian explorer known for his discoveries in North America. Jolliet and Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette, a Catholic priest and missionary, were the first non-Natives to explore and map the Mississippi River in 1673.

Joseph II

March 1741 - 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, and the brother of Marie Antoinette.

Amerigo Vespucci

March 9, 1454 - February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated in about 1502 that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus'

Third Reich

Meaning "third regime or empire," the Nazi designation of Germany and its regime from 1933-45. Historically, the First Reich was the medieval Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. The Second Reich included the German Empire from 1871-1918.

son of the Revolution

Napoleon Bonaparte has been described to have been a "Son of the Revolution" by many people.

New Orleans

New Orleans was founded in Spring of 1718 by the French as Nouvelle-Orléans, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville.

Louis XVIII

November 1755 - 16 September 1824), known as "The Desired" (le Désiré), was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a period in 1815 known as the Hundred Days.

Harold

Old English Hereweald and Harald from Old Norse Haraldr, both from Germanic an unverified form Hariwald, literally , army chief from an unverified form harja-, army (OE here, Old High German heri) + an unverified form waldan, to rule: see wield. died 1040; king of England (1035-40): son of Canute.

Tennis Court Oath

On 20 June 1789, the members of the French Estates-General for the Third Estate, who had begun to call themselves the National Assembly, took the Tennis Court Oath (French: Serment du Jeu de Paume), vowing "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is ...

Il Duce (the leader)

Originally Mussolini's title for himself during World War II, meaning "the chief" in Italian. (The second word is pronounced 'DOO-cheh'.) In modern slang, a particularly well-crafted blunt. This sense surely derives from the close similarity of the phrase to "ill dutchy. Sometimes, by extension ...

Emperor Napoleon I

Originally Napoleon Bonaparte. Known as "the Little Corporal." 1769-1821. Emperor of the French and King of Italy (1804-1814). A brilliant military strategist, he overthrew the French Directory (1799) and proclaimed himself first consul and, later, emperor (1804).

Toulon

Siege of Toulon, also known as the Fall of Toulon, (Aug. 28-Dec. 19, 1793), military engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, in which the young artillery officer Napoleon Bonaparte won his first military reputation by forcing the withdrawal of the Anglo-Spanish fleet, which was occupying the southern French city

Francis Drake

Sir Francis definition. An English navigator of the sixteenth century; the first Englishman to sail around the world. Drake often raided Spanish treasure ships; he participated in the destruction of the Spanish Armada.

Puritan Revolution (1642-1660)

Small groups of Seekers gathered during the Puritan Revolution against Charles I to wait upon the Lord because they despaired of spiritual help either from the established Anglican Church or the existing Puritan bodies

"China's sorrow"

So-called because of the devastating consequences when the Yellow River floods. Loess, or fine sand, blown into China, gathers on the bottom and causes the water level to rise. The people of this area were always building dikes in ancient times to contain the water.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru and founded the city of Lima (1475-1541)

Hernando Cortez

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico (1485-1547)

Ponce De Leon

Spanish explorer who accompanied Columbus on his second trip in 1493; in 1513 he discovered Florida while searching for the legendary Fountain of Youth (1460-1521)

the sons of Han

The Mandarin chinese word for the people of China is Han, as is the expression Sons of Han. Han was a period of cultural flowering.Buddhism entered China during the Han. Paper was invented, time was measured with water clocks and sundials, and calendars were published frequently. Lacquerware .

Berlin and Milan Decrees (1806-1807)

The Milan Decree was issued on December 17, 1807 by Napoleon I of France to enforce the Berlin Decree of 1806 which had initiated the Continental System. This system was the basis for his plan to defeat the British by waging economic warfare.

Orders in Council

The Orders in Council were a series of decrees, in the form of Orders in Council, made by the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in the course of the wars with Napoleonic France which instituted its policy of commercial warfare.

Peninsular War

The Peninsular War (1807-1814) was a military conflict between Napoleon's empire (as well as the allied powers of the Spanish Empire), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Portugal, for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars.

Cecil Rhodes (Rhodes Scholarship)

The Rhodes Scholarship, named after the Anglo-South African mining magnate and politician Cecil John Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious scholarships.

Vladimir Lenin

The architect of Russia's 1917 Bolshevik revolution and the first leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. A prominent Marxist, Lenin was born in 1870 inRussia with the last name Ulianov.

St. Louis

The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, and named after Louis IX of France.

the Renaissance

The cultural rebirth that occurred in Europe from roughly the fourteenth through the middle of the seventeenth centuries, based on the rediscovery of the literature of Greece and Rome

William the Conqueror

The duke of Normandy, a province of France, and the leader of the Norman Conquest of England. He defeated the English forces at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and became the first Norman king of England.

George III

The king of Britain during the American Revolutionary War. He was known for insisting on royal privilege. The stubbornness of George and of his government officials is often blamed for the loss of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.

Americas

The landmasses and islands of North America, Central America, and South America.

George Washington Carver

United States botanist and agricultural chemist who developed many uses for peanuts and soy beans and sweet potatoes (1864-1943) Synonyms: Carver Example of: botanist, phytologist, plant scientist. a biologist specializing in the study of plants.

Ivan the Great

Vasilyevich (Russian: Иван III Васильевич; 22 January 1440, Moscow - 27 October 1505, Moscow), also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of all Rus'. ... He was one of the longest-reigning Russian rulers in history.

Auschwitz

WAS ONE of the largest concentration camps from the Holocaust during World War Two. Lessons from Auschwitz. A WOMAN aged 91 has been charged over the murders of 260,000 innocent Jews in Nazi death camp Auschwitz. WOMAN AGED 91 'HELPED NAZIS MURDER 260,000' Auschwitz aide is charged.

Burgundians/Franks

Western Roman Empire. Frankish Kingdom. Today part of. various countries[show] The Kingdom of the Burgundians or First Kingdom of Burgundy was a kingdom established by the Germanic Burgundians in the Rhineland and then in Savoy in the 5th century.

Marco Polo

a 13th century explorer who was the 1st person to travel the trade route of the East. Venice. an important seaport in Italy. Marco Polo was born there. After Marco Polo returned to Venice from China he was taken prisoner during a sea battle.

Spanish Armada (1588)

a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from La Coruña in early summer 1588, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England.

The Grand Canal

a canal in E China, extending S from Tientsin to Hangchow. 900 miles longest canal or artificial river in the world

Council of Trent

a city in N Italy, on the Adige River. 2. Council of, the ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church that met at Trent intermittently from 1545 to 1563, and defined church doctrine and condemned the Reformation.

Sarajevo

a city in and the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the central part: assassination of the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand here June 28, 1914, was the final event that precipitated World War I.

Peking

a city in and the capital of the People's Republic of China, in the NE part, in central Hebei province. 7,000,000.

Analects

a collection of short literary or philosophical extracts.

joint-stock company

a company whose stock is owned jointly by the shareholders.

Domesday Book

a comprehensive record of the extent, value, ownership, and liabilities of land in England, made in 1086 by order of William I.

cabinet responsibility

a constitutional convention in governments using the Westminster System, that members of the cabinet must publicly support all governmental decisions made in Cabinet, even if they do not privately agree with them.

National Convention

a convention of a major political party, especially one that nominates a candidate for the presidency.

Lloyd's of London

a corporate body governed by the Lloyd's Act 1871 and subsequent Acts of Parliament and operates as a partially-mutualised marketplace within which multiple financial backers, grouped in syndicates, come together to pool and spread risk. A British insurance market where members join hands as syndicates to insure and spread risks of different businesses, organizations and individuals. The syndicates are specialized in different types of risks and each syndicate decides which type of risk to insure.

Benin

a country of West Africa, immediately west of Nigeria

corvee

a day's unpaid labor owed by a vassal to his feudal lord. forced labor exacted in lieu of taxes, in particular that on public roads.

Battle of Plassey

a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757. The battle consolidated the Company's presence in Bengal, which later expanded to cover much of India over the next hundred years.

Dravidians

a family of languages, wholly distinct from Indo-European, spoken mostly in southern India and Sri Lanka and including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and, in Pakistan, Brahui.

Urdu

a form of Hindustani written in Persian script, with many loanwords from Persian and Arabic. It is an official language of Pakistan and is widely used in India and elsewhere.

enlightened/benevolent despots

a form of government in the 18th century in which absolute monarchs pursued legal, social, and educational reforms inspired by the Enlightenment.

national state/ nation state

a form of political organization under which a relatively homogeneous people inhabits a sovereign state; especially : a state containing one as opposed to several nationalities.

patriarchal family

a form of social organization in which the father is the supreme authority in the family, clan, or tribe and descent is reckoned in the male line, with the children belonging to the father's clan or tribe. 2. a society, community, or country based on this social organization.

Bombay

a former state in W India: divided in 1960 into the Gujarat and Maharashtra states.

Verdun

a fortified town in NE France, on the Meuse: scene of the longest and most severe battle (1916) of World War I, in which the French repelled a powerful German offensive.

totalitarian state

a government that subordinates the individual to the state and strictly controls all aspects of life by coercive measures. Synonyms: totalitation regime Type of: authorities, government, regime. the organization that is the governing authority of a political unit.

the Holy Inquisition

a group of institutions within the government system of the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy. It started in 12th-century France to combat religious sectarianism, in particular the Cathars and the Waldensians. ... The term Medieval Inquisition covers these courts up to mid-15th century.

shogun

a hereditary commander-in-chief in feudal Japan. Because of the military power concentrated in his hands and the consequent weakness of the nominal head of state (the mikado or emperor), the shogun was generally the real ruler of the country until feudalism was abolished in 1867.

Lutheranism

a major branch of Protestant Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther (1483-1546), a German friar, ecclesiastical reformer and theologian. ... In addition, Lutheranism accepts the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils of the undivided Christian Church.

Hwang Ho (Yellow river)

a major river of Asia in northern China

Saxons

a member of a Germanic people that inhabited parts of central and northern Germany from Roman times, many of whom conquered and settled in southern England in the 5th-6th centuries.

Jutes

a member of a Germanic people that may have come from Jutland and, according to the Venerable Bede, joined the Angles and Saxons in invading Britain in the 5th century, settling in a region including Kent and the Isle of Wight.

Angles

a member of a Germanic people, originally inhabitants of what is now Schleswig-Holstein, who migrated to England in the 5th century AD. The Angles founded kingdoms in Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia and gave their name to England and the English.

Celts

a member of a group of peoples inhabiting much of Europe and Asia Minor in pre-Roman times. Their culture developed in the late Bronze Age around the upper Danube, and reached its height in the La Tène culture (5th to 1st centuries BC) before being overrun by the Romans and various Germanic peoples.

Moors

a member of a northwestern African Muslim people of mixed Berber and Arab descent. In the 8th century they conquered the Iberian peninsula, but were finally driven out of their last stronghold in Granada at the end of the 15th century.

Normans

a member of a people of mixed Frankish and Scandinavian origin who settled in Normandy from about AD 912 and became a dominant military power in western Europe and the Mediterranean in the 11th century.

Tories/conservatives

a member of a political party in Great Britain from the late 17th century to about 1832 that favored royal authority over Parliament and the preservation of the existing social and political order:

samurai

a member of a powerful military caste in feudal Japan, especially a member of the class of military retainers of the daimyos.

Girondists

a member of the French moderate republican party in power 1791-93 during the French Revolution, so called because the party leaders were the deputies from the department of the Gironde.

Mongols/Tartars

a member of the Mongolian people of central Asia who invaded Russia in the 13th century. Synonyms: Tartar, Tatar Type of: Mongol, Mongolian. a member of the nomadic peoples of Mongolia.

Capetian kings

a member of the dynasty founded by Hugh Capet, which ruled France from 987-1328 ad. adjective. 2. of, or relating to, the Capetian kings or their rule.

Brahmans

a member of the highest Hindu caste, that of the priesthood.

Romanov family

a member of the imperial dynasty of Russia that ruled from 1613 to 1917

Michael Romanov

a member of the imperial dynasty of Russia that ruled from 1613 to 1917. 2. Mikhail Feodorovich. [myi-khuh-yeel fyaw-duh-ruh-vyich] /myɪ xʌˈyil ˈfyɔ də rə vyɪtʃ/ (Show IPA), 1596-1645, emperor of Russia 1613-45: first ruler of the house of Romanov.

Bolsheviks

a member of the majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party, which was renamed the Communist Party after seizing power in the October Revolution of 1917.

Protestant

a member or follower of any of the Western Christian churches that are separate from the Roman Catholic Church and follow the principles of the Reformation, including the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches.

Roundheads

a member or supporter of the Parliamentary party in the English Civil War.

Concert of Europe

also known as the Congress System or the Vienna System after the Congress of Vienna, was a system of dispute resolution adopted by the major conservative powers of Europe to maintain their power, oppose revolutionary movements, weaken the forces of nationalism, and uphold the balance of power.

Henry of Navarre/King Henry IV

also known by the epithet "Good King Henry", was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 to 1610 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. King of France

Argonne Forest

an American operation in World War I (1918); American troops under Pershing drove back the German armies which were saved only by the armistice on November 11.

Indus River

an Asian river that rises in Tibet and flows through northern India and then southwest through Kashmir and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea.

Sanskrit

an ancient Indic language of India, in which the Hindu scriptures and classical Indian epic poems are written and from which many northern Indian languages are derived.

Mohenjo-daro

an archaeological site in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Built around 2500 BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley civilization, and one of the world's earliest major cities

market economy

an economic system in which economic decisions and the pricing of goods and services are guided solely by the aggregate interactions of a country's individual citizens and businesses. There is little government intervention or central planning.

capitalism

an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

free enterprise

an economic system in which private business operates in competition and largely free of state control.

Mogul Empire

an empire established by the Mogul conquerors of India that reigned from 1526 to 1857. Type of: empire. a monarchy with an emperor as head of state.

Mahabharata

an epic poem of India dealing mainly with the conflict between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, with many digressions: includes the Bhagavad-Gita. ... He found his answer in the ancient Sanskrit poem, the Mahabharata, to find the essence of dharma.

Fujiyama

an extinct volcano in south central Honshu that is the highest peak in Japan; last erupted in 1707; famous for its symmetrical snow-capped peak; a sacred mountain and site for pilgrimages

Pragmatic Sanction

an imperial or royal ordinance or decree that has the force of law.

Commonwealth

an international association consisting of the UK together with states that were previously part of the British Empire, and dependencies. The British monarch is the symbolic head of the Commonwealth.

The Gauls

ancient country of western Europe comprising the region now occupied by France and Belgium and at one time also the Po River valley in northern Italy

Francis Ferdinand

archduke of Austria and heir apparent to Francis Joseph I; his assassination at Sarajevo triggered the outbreak of World War I (1863-1914) Synonyms: Francis Ferdinand Example of: archduke. a sovereign prince of the former ruling house of Austria.

Puritans (Congregational Church)

are Protestant churches in the Reformed tradition practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs.

University of France

as a highly centralized educational state organization founded by Napoleon I in 1808 and given authority not only over the individual (previously independent) universities but also over primary and secondary education

Samuel De Champlain

born Samuel Champlain; on or before August 13, 1574 - December 25, 1635), "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler.

Two Treaties of Government

by Locke and The Social Contract (1762) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) proposed justifications of political association grounded in the newer political requirements of the age. The Renaissance political philosophies of Machiavelli, Bodin, and Hobbes had presupposed ..

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

defined as the formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. An example of the Declaration of Independence was the document adopted at the Second Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776.

Mechanization of Agriculture

e is the process of using agricultural machinery to mechanise the work of agriculture, greatly increasing farm worker productivity. In modern times, powered machinery has replaced many farm jobs formerly carried out by manual labour or by working animals such as oxen, horses and mules.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. In the terms of the treaty, France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there.

Henry Tudor/ King Henry VIII

first Tudor king of England from 1485 to 1509; head of the house of Lancaster in the War of the Roses; defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field and was proclaimed king; married the daughter of Edward IV and so united the houses of York and Lancaster (1457-1509)

Royal Society of London

for the Advancement of Science, a society through which the British government has supported scientific investigation since 1662: awards four annual medals. Examples from the Web for Royal Society.

Thirty Years War (1618-1648)

fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. ... Initially a war between various Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers.

Genghis Khan (Universal Ruler)

founder of the Mongol empire; born Temujin. He took the name Genghis Khan ('ruler of all') in 1206 after uniting the nomadic Mongol tribes, and by the time of his death his empire extended from China to the Black Sea.

eightfold path of righteous living

from samsara, the painful cycle of rebirth. The Eightfold Path consists of eight practices: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi ('meditative

Ivan the Terrible

grand duke of Muscovy and first tsar of Russia . He conquered Kazan , Astrakhan , and Siberia , but was defeated by...

the Yamato clan

had major advantages over their neighbouring clans in the 6th century. This period is divided into the Kofun and Asuka periods, by the relocation of the capital to Asuka, in modern Nara Prefecture.

First French Republic

he First Republic (French: Première République), officially the French Republic (République française), was founded on 22 September 1792 during the French Revolution.

cowrie shells

he highly polished, usually brightly colored shell of a marine gastropod of the genus Cypraea, as that of C. moneta (money cowrie) used as money in certain parts of Asia and Africa, or that of C. tigris, used for ornament.

Hohenzollerns

is a dynasty of former princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. The family arose in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century and took their name from Hohenzollern Castle.

Petition of Right

is a major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing.

writs of assistance

is a written order (a writ) issued by a court instructing a law enforcement official, such as a sheriff or a tax collector, to perform a certain task.

Rigveda

is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is one of the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas.

Royal Institution

is an organisation devoted to scientific education and research, based in London.

Vishnu

is one of the most important gods in the Hindu pantheon and, along with Brahma and Shiva, is considered a member of the holy trinity (trimurti) of Hinduism. He is the most important god of Vaishnaism, the largest Hindu sect.

Adam Smith (WEALTH OF NATIONS)

is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith.This publication provides a detail account of the state of the political economy during the Industrial Revolution. One of the book's most important themes was its defense of free market policie

General Will

is the will of the people as a whole. The term was made famous by 18th-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Darius

king of Persia 521-486 BC; known as Darius the Great. After a revolt by the Greek cities in Ionia (499-494 BC) he invaded Greece but was defeated at Marathon (490 BC).

Frederick the Great

king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786; brought Prussia military prestige by winning the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War (1712-1786) Frederick II. Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection.

Phillip II

king of Spain and Portugal and husband of Mary I; he supported the Counter Reformation and sent the Spanish Armada to invade England (1527-1598) 2

Philip II

king of Spain and Portugal and husband of Mary I; he supported the Counter Reformation and sent the Spanish Armada to invade England (1527-1598) 2.

Gustavus Adolphus

king of Sweden 1611-32. His repeated victories in battle made Sweden a European power, and in 1630 he intervened on the Protestant side in the Thirty Years War.

Robert Bakewell (scientific breeding)

l was an agriculturist who revolutionized sheep and cattle breeding in England by methodical selection and inbreeding. He was the first to improve animals for meat production and carcass quality.

Nikita Khrushchev

led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from 1958 to 1964. Though he largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, he instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. At home, he initiated a process of ...

Spanish Armada (1588)

literally "Great and Most Fortunate Navy") was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from La Coruña in early summer 1588, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England.

kamikaze (divine wind)

literally "divine wind" were two winds or storms that are said to have saved Japan from two Mongol fleets under Kublai Khan. These fleets attacked Japan in 1274 and again in 1281.

Lebensraum (living space)

living space") comprises policies and practices of settler colonialism which proliferated in Germany from the 1890s to the 1940s.

Jean Henri Dunant (International Red Cross)

lso known as Henri Dunant, was a Swiss businessman and social activist, the founder of the Red Cross, and the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The 1864 Geneva Convention was based on Dunant's ideas.

Gobi Desert

mostly in Mongolia and the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China: sometimes considered to include all the arid regions east of the Pamirs and north of the plateau of Tibet and the Great Wall of China: one of the largest deserts in the world.

Russian Revolutions of 1917

overthrew the czar and brought the Bolsheviks, a Communist party led by Lenin, to power.

Martin Luther (95 thesis)

propositions for debate concerned with the question of indulgences, written (in Latin) and possibly posted by Martin Luther on the door of the Schlosskirche (Castle Church), Wittenberg, on October 31, 1517. This event came to be considered the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

"Red Terror,"

r was a period of political repression and mass killings carried out by Bolsheviks after the beginning of the Russian Civil War in 1918. Soviet historiography describes the Red Terror as having been officially announced in September 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ending about October 1918.

Swiss/Dutch Reformed Church

refers to the Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) and spread within a few years to Basel (Johannes Oecolampadius), Bern (Berchtold ...

Aryans

relating to or denoting a people speaking an Indo-European language who invaded northern India in the 2nd millennium BC, displacing the Dravidian and other aboriginal peoples.

Henry Ford (Ford Foundation).

s a New York-headquartered, globally oriented private foundation with the mission of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford.

Agricultural Revolution

s a period of technological improvement and increased crop productivity that occurred during the 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe. In this lesson, learn the timeline, causes, effects and major inventions that spurred this shift in production.

circumnavigation

sail or travel all the way around (something, especially the world).

Leipzig

scene of a decisive defeat for Napoleon Bonaparte in 1813.

DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN

set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a document of the French Revolution and in the history of human civil rights.

Edict of Nantes (1598)

signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France (also known as Huguenots) substantial rights in the nation, which was still considered essentially Catholic at the time.

treaty of Paris (1783)

signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War.

Goa

state of W India, on the Arabian Sea. A former Portuguese colony, it was later (1961-87) part of the union territory of Goa, Daman, and Diu. 1426 sq. mi. (3693 sq. km).

coup d'état

stroke of the state

Pontine Marshes

termed in Latin Pomptinus Ager by Titus Livius, Pomptina Palus (singular) and Pomptinae Paludes (plural) by Pliny the Elder, today the Agro Pontino in Italian, is an approximately quadrangular area of former marshland in the Lazio Region of central Italy, extending along the coast southeast of Rome ...

Battle of Hastings

was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman conquest of England.

Lateran Pacts (1929)

was one of the Lateran Pacts of 1929 or Lateran Accords, agreements made in 1929 between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, settling the "Roman Question". They are named after the Lateran Palace, where they were signed on 11 February 1929.

Sudetenland

was relegated to Germany between 1 October and 10 October 1938. The Czech part of Czechoslovakia was subsequently invaded by Germany in March 1939, with a portion being annexed and the remainder turned into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Cardinal Richelieu

was the chief of government under King Louis XIII. He achieved two difficult goals in his career: establishing absolute monarchy in France and breaking the political power of the Huguenots, or French Protestants.

Weimar Republic

was the democratic government founded in Germany following Kaiser Wilhelm II's abdication near the end of War World I. It continued in name until 1945, but actually ended with Hitler's seizure of dictatorial powers in 1933.

Hugh Capet

was the first King of the Franks of the House of Capet from his election in 987 until his death. He succeeded the last Carolingian king, Louis V. Hugh was a descendant of Charlemagne through his paternal grandmother.

Forster Act (1870)

was the first of a number of acts of parliament passed between 1870 and 1893 to create compulsory education in England and Wales for children aged between five and 13. It was known as The Forster Act after its sponsor William Forster.

John Kay

was the inventor of the flying shuttle, which was a key contribution to the Industrial Revolution. He is often confused with his namesake, who built the first "spinning frame".

Catholic Reformation/Counter-Reformation

was the period of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation, beginning with the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty ...

Vedic age

was the time when the Aryans settled in India. Their villages set the basis for architecture in India. It was the period in which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed.

Whigs/Liberals

were a political faction and then a political party in the parliaments of England, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and 1850s, they contested power with their rivals, the Tories.

White Huns

were a race of largely nomadic peoples who were a part of the Hunnic tribes of Central Asia. They ruled over an expansive area stretching from the Central Asian lands all the way to the Western Indian Subcontinent.

Enclosure Acts

were a series of Acts of Parliament that empowered enclosure of open fields and common land in England and Wales, creating legal property rights to land that was previously held in common.

lettres de cachet

were letters signed by the king of France, countersigned by one of his ministers, and closed with the royal seal, or cachet.

Storm Troopers

were specialist soldiers of the German Army in World War I. In the last years of the war, Stoßtruppen ("shock troops" or "thrust troops") were trained to fight with "infiltration tactics", part of the Germans' new method of attack on enemy trenches.

American Expeditionary Force (AEF)

were the fighting men of the United States Army during World War I. It was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing.

Haitian Rebellion

which took place between 1791-1804, is significant because Haiti is the only country where slave freedom was taken by force, and marks the only successful slave revolt in modern times.