AP Euro Rosen Review

Jean Bodin on sovereignty (political theory)

"la puissance absolue et perpetuelle d'une Republique" (the absolute and perpetual power of a Republic). "The sovereign Prince is only accountable to God" (If you're going to memorize a quotation, this one would be pretty useful.)

Andropov

(15 June [O.S. 2 June] 1914 - 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.

Oliver Cromwell

(25 April 1599 - 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Locarno Pact

(Dec. 1, 1925), series of agreements whereby Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Italy mutually guaranteed peace in western Europe. The treaties were initialed at Locarno, Switz., on October 16 and signed in London on December 1.The agreements consisted of (1) a treaty of mutual guarantee between Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Italy; (2) arbitration treaties between Germany and Belgium and between Germany and France; (3) a note from the former Allies to Germany explaining the use of sanctions against a covenant-breaking state as outlined in article 16 of the League of Nations Covenant; (4) arbitration treaties

Brezhnev

(December 19, 1906 - November 10, 1982) was the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen year term as General Secretary was one of the lengthiest, second only to that of Joseph Stalin. Brezhnev's rule saw the global influence of the Soviet Union's grow dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet Army during this time. His tenure as leader has often been criticized, however, for marking the beginning of a period of economic stagnation which would eventually lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Causes of the Russian Revolution of 1917

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Industrial Technology

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The seventeenth-century family

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Russo-Japanese War

10 February 1904 - 5 September 1905) was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were Southern Manchuria, specifically the area around the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden, the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea. The Russians sought a warm water port[3] on the Pacific Ocean, for their navy as well as for maritime trade. Vladivostok was only operational during the summer season, but Port Arthur would be operational all year. From the end of the First Sino-Japanese War and 1903, negotiations between Russia and Japan had proved futile. Japan chose war to maintain exclusive dominance in Korea. The resulting campaigns, in which the fledgling Japanese military consistently attained victory over the Russian forces arrayed against them, were unexpected by world observers. These victories, as time transpired, would dramatically transform the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage. The embarrassing string of defeats inflamed the Russian people's dissatisfaction with their inefficient and corrupt Tsarist government, and proved a major cause of the Russian Revolution of 1905.

Jeremy Bentham

15 February 1748 - 6 June 1832) was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism. He is best known for his advocacy of utilitarianism and animal rights,[1] and the idea of the panopticon.

Nineteenth-century Conservatism

19th century Conservatism-The 19th century was in many ways antithetical to conservatism, both as a political philosophy and as a program of particular parties identified with conservative interests. The Enlightenment had engendered widespread belief in the possibility of improving the human condition—a belief, that is, in the idea of progress—and a rationalist disposition to tamper with or discard existing institutions or practices in pursuit of that goal.

Josef Stalin

18 December 1878[2] - 5 March 1953) was the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. In the years following Lenin's death in 1924, he rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin launched a command economy, replacing the New Economic Policy of the 1920s with Five-Year Plans and launching a period of rapid industrialization and economic collectivization. The upheaval in the agricultural sector disrupted food production, resulting in widespread famine, such as the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932-1933, known in Ukraine as the Holodomor.[3] During the late 1930s, Stalin launched the Great Purge (also known as the "Great Terror"), a campaign to purge the Communist Party of people accused of sabotage, terrorism, or treachery; he extended it to the military and other sectors of Soviet society. Targets were often executed, imprisoned in Gulag labor camps or exiled. In the years which followed, millions of members of ethnic minorities were also deported.[4][5] In 1939, after failed attempts to establish a collective security system in Europe, Stalin decided to enter into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, followed by a Soviet invasion of Poland, Finland, the Baltics, Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. After Germany violated the pact in 1941, the Soviet Union joined the Allies to play a primary role in the Axis defeat, at the cost of the largest death toll for any country in the war. Thereafter, contradicting statements at allied conferences,[citation needed] Stalin installed communist governments in most of Eastern Europe, forming the Eastern bloc, behind what was referred to as an "Iron Curtain" of Soviet rule. This launched the long period of antagonism between the Western world and the Soviet Union known as the Cold War. Stalin fostered a cult of personality around him, but after his death, his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced his legacy and drove the process of de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union.[6]

Disraeli

1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, (21 December 1804 - 19 April 1881) was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. He served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister. A teenage convert to Anglicanism, he was nonetheless the country's first and thus far only Prime Minister of Jewish heritage.[1] He played an instrumental role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party after the Corn Laws schism of 1846. Although a major figure in the protectionist wing of the Conservative Party after 1844, Disraeli's relations with the other leading figures in the party, particularly Lord Derby, the overall leader, were often strained. Not until the 1860s would Derby and Disraeli be on easy terms, and the latter's succession of the former assured. From 1852 onwards, Disraeli's career would also be marked by his often intense rivalry with William Ewart Gladstone, who eventually rose to become leader of the Liberal Party. In this feud, Disraeli was aided by his warm friendship withQueen Victoria, who came to detest Gladstone during the latter's first premiership in the 1870s. In 1876 Disraeli was raised to the peerage as the Earl of Beaconsfield, capping nearly four decades in the House of Commons.

Queen Victoria

24 May 1819 - 22 January 1901) was the Queen regnant of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death. Her reign as the Queen lasted 63 years and 7 months, longer than that of any other British monarch before or since, and her reign is the longest of any female monarch in history. The time of her reign is known as the Victorian era, a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military progress within the United Kingdom.Victoria ascended the throne at a time when the United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the king or queen held relatively few direct political powers and exercised influence by the prime minister's advice; Victoria's reign was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. During this period, it reached its zenith and became the foremost global power of the time. 150

Enlightened Despots

Absolutist leaders who ruled with a central absolutist administration yet reformed other pieces of their regime with enlightened policies. (Who were they? Name them.)

National Assembly (French Revolution)

After an attempt by the Louis XVI to undermine the Revolution, the deputies of the 3rd Estate gathered at the King's indoor tennis court. They soon gained support and took over in place of the Estates-General. (History? Duration?)

Protectorate

After the dissolution of the Barebones Parliament, John Lambert put forward a new constitution known as the Instrument of Government, closely modelled on the Heads of Proposals. It made Cromwell Lord Protector for life to undertake "the chief magistracy and the administration of government". Cromwell was sworn in as Lord Protector on 16 December 1653, with a ceremony in which he wore plain black clothing, rather than any monarchical regalia.[84] However, from this point on Cromwell signed his name 'Oliver P', standing for Oliver Protector - in a similar style to that used by English monarchs - and it soon became the norm for others to address him as "Your highness".[85] As Protector, he had the power to call and dissolve parliaments but was obliged under the Instrument to seek the majority vote of a Council of State. Nevertheless, Cromwell's power was buttressed by his continuing popularity among the army. As the Lord Protector he was paid £100,000 a year.[86] Cromwell had two key objectives as Lord Protector. The first was "healing and settling" the nation after the chaos of the civil wars and the regicide, which meant establishing a stable form for the new government to take.[87] Although Cromwell declared to the first Protectorate Parliament that, "Government by one man and a parliament is fundamental," in practice social priorities took precedence over forms of government. Such forms were, he said, "but... dross and dung in comparison of Christ".[88] The social priorities did not, despite the revolutionary nature of the government, include any meaningful attempt to reform the social order. Cromwell declared, "A nobleman, a gentleman, a yeoman; the distinction of these: that is a good interest of the nation, and a great one!",[89] Small-scale reform such as that carried out on the judicial system were outweighed by attempts to restore order to English politics. Direct taxation was reduced slightly and peace was made with the Dutch, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War. England's American colonies in this period consisted of the New England Confederation, the Providence Plantation, the Virginia Colony and the Maryland Colony. Cromwell soon secured the submission of these and largely left them to their own affairs, intervening only to curb his fellow Puritans who were usurping control over the Maryland Colony, by his confirming the former Catholic proprietorship and edict of tolerance there. Of all the English dominions, Virginia was the most resentful of Cromwell's rule, and Cavalier emigration there mushroomed during the Protectorate. Cromwell famously stressed the quest to restore order in his speech to the first Protectorate parliament at its inaugural meeting on 3 September 1654. He declared that "healing and settling" were the "great end of your meeting".[90] However, the Parliament was quickly dominated by those pushing for more radical, properly republican reforms. After some initial gestures approving appointments previously made by Cromwell, the Parliament began to work on a radical programme of constitutional reform. Rather than opposing Parliament's bill, Cromwell dissolved them on 22 January 1655. Cromwell's signature before becoming Lord Protector in 1653, and afterwards. 'Oliver P', standing for Oliver Protector, echoes the similar style in which English monarchs had signed their names: for example, 'Elizabeth R' standing for Elizabeth Regina. Cromwell's second objective was spiritual and moral reform. He aimed to restore liberty of conscience and promote both outward and inly godliness throughout England.[91] During the early months of the Protectorate, a set of "triers" was established to assess the suitability of future parish ministers, and a related set of "ejectors" was set up to dismiss ministers and schoolmasters who were deemed unsuitable for office. The triers and the ejectors were intended to be at the vanguard of Cromwell's reform of parish worship. This second objective is also the context in which to see the constitutional experiment of the Major Generals that followed the dissolution of the first Protectorate Parliament. After a royalist uprising in March 1655, led by Sir John Penruddock, Cromwell (influenced by Lambert) divided England into military districts ruled by Army Major Generals who answered only to him. The 15 major generals and deputy major generals—called "godly governors"—were central not only to national security, but Cromwell's crusade to reform the nation's morals. The generals not only supervised militia forces and security commissions, but collected taxes and ensured support for the government in the English and Welsh provinces. Commissioners for securing the peace of the commonwealth were appointed to work with them in every county. While a few of these commissioners were career politicians, most were zealous puritans who welcomed the major-generals with open arms and embraced their work with enthusiasm. However, the major-generals lasted less than a year. Many feared they threatened their reform efforts and authority. Their position was further harmed by a tax proposal by Major General John Desborough to provide financial backing for their work, which the second Protectorate parliament—instated in September 1656—voted down for fear of a permanent military state. Ultimately, however, Cromwell's failure to support his men, sacrificing them to his opponents, caused their demise. Their activities between November 1655 and September 1656 had, however, reopened the wounds of the 1640s and deepened antipathies to the regime.[92] Half-Crown coin of Oliver Cromwell, 1658. The Latin inscription reads: OLIVAR.D.G.RP.ANG. - SCO.ET.HIB&cPRO (OLIVARIUS DEI GRATIA REIPUBLICAE ANGLIAE SCOTIAE ET HIBERNIAE ET CETERARUM PROTECTOR), meaning "Oliver, by the Grace of God Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and other (territories)". As Lord Protector, Cromwell was aware of the contribution the Jewish community made to the economic success of Holland, now England's leading commercial rival. It was this—allied to Cromwell's toleration of the right to private worship of those who fell outside evangelical Puritanism—that led to his encouraging Jews to return to England in 1657, over 350 years after their banishment by Edward I, in the hope that they would help speed up the recovery of the country after the disruption of the Civil Wars.[93] In 1657, Cromwell was offered the crown by Parliament as part of a revised constitutional settlement, presenting him with a dilemma, since he had been "instrumental" in abolishing the monarchy. Cromwell agonised for six weeks over the offer. He was attracted by the prospect of stability it held out, but in a speech on 13 April 1657 he made clear that God's providence had spoken against the office of king: "I would not seek to set up that which Providence hath destroyed and laid in the dust, and I would not build Jericho again".[94] The reference to Jericho harks back to a previous occasion on which Cromwell had wrestled with his conscience when the news reached England of the defeat of an expedition against the Spanish-held island of Hispaniola in the West Indies in 1655—comparing himself to Achan, who had brought the Israelites defeat after bringing plunder back to camp after the capture of Jericho.[95] Instead, Cromwell was ceremonially re-installed as Lord Protector on 26 June 1657 (with greater powers than had previously been granted him under this title) at Westminster Hall, sitting upon King Edward's Chair which was specially moved from Westminster Abbey for the occasion. The event in part echoed a coronation, utilising many of its symbols and regalia, such as a purple ermine-lined robe, a sword of justice and a sceptre (but not a crown or an orb). But, most notably, the office of Lord Protector was still not to become hereditary, though Cromwell was now able to nominate his own successor. Cromwell's new rights and powers were laid out in the Humble Petition and Advice, a legislative instrument which replaced the Instrument of Government. Despite failing to restore the Crown, this new constitution did set up many of the vestiges of the ancient constitution including a house of life peers (in place of the House of Lords). In the Humble Petition it was called the Other House as the Commons could not agree on a suitable name. Furthermore, Oliver Cromwell increasingly took on more of the trappings of monarchy. In particular, he created two baronages after the acceptance of the Humble Petition and Advice—Charles Howard was made Viscount Morpeth and Baron Gisland in July 1657 and Edmund Dunch was created Baron Burnell of East Wittenham in April 1658. Cromwell himself, however, was at pains to minimise his role, describing himself as a constable or watchman.

America's causes for entering WWI

America entered WWI on the bases of economical and superior power; however, they did not declare war until the Germans sunk the Lusitania. (We need more here. What economic and superior power are you talking about here?)

Fascists

Autocratic authoritarian leader, elitist rule. Completely right wing. Very militaristic and nationalist.

Edmund Burke

British statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker prominent in public life from 1765 to about 1795 and important in the history of political theory. He championed conservatism in opposition to Jacobinism in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).

Legislative Assembly (French Revolution)

Brought into power under the 1791 Constitution. They were to share power with the King. (Background?)

Catholic, Anglican, Calvinist, and Lutheran views on Transubstantiation

Catholic- agree that in a valid Divine Liturgy bread and wine truly and actually become the body and blood of Christ. Anglican- The Articles declared that "Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions." Calvinist- is a symbolic act done in remembrance of what Christ has done for us on the cross Lutheran- rejected transubstantiation, believing that the bread and wine remained fully bread and fully wine while also being fully the body and blood of Jesus Christ

Gustav Stresemann

Chancellor and Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic.

NATO

Created by members of the Treaty of Brussels and other Western powers. Done to counter the military power of the USSR and the Eastern alliances. (year?)

Battles of Crecy and Agincourt

Crecy - took place on 26 August 1346 near HYPERLINK Crécy in northern France, and was one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years' War. The combinations of new weapons and tactics have caused many historians to consider this battle the beginning of the end of classic HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chivalry" \o "Chivalry" chivalry. Crécy was a battle in which an English army of 12,000 to 16,000 (depending on source), commanded by HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England" \o "Edward III of England" Edward III of England and heavily outnumbered by HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_VI_of_France" \o "Philip VI of France" Philip VI of France's force of 35,000 to 100,000 (depending on source), was victorious as a result of superior weaponry and tactics, demonstrating the importance of the modern military concept of HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_power" \o "Fire power" fire power. The effectiveness of the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_longbow" \o "English longbow" English longbow, used en masse, was proven against armored knights, contrary to the conventional wisdom of the day which held that archers would be ineffective and be butchered when the armored units closed in. Agincourt - was a major English victory against a larger French army in the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Years%27_War" \o "Hundred Years' War" Hundred Years' War. The battle occurred on Friday 25 October 1415 ( HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Crispin%27s_Day" \o "Saint Crispin's Day" Saint Crispin's Day), in northern France. HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt" \l "cite_note-5" [6] HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt" \l "endnote_bnone" [b] HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_of_England" \o "Henry V of England" Henry V's victory, which brought France to her knees, started a new period in the war, in which Henry married the French king's daughter and his son was made heir to the throne of France, but his achievement was squandered by his heirs, notably HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VI_of_England" \o "Henry VI of England" Henry VI. While HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_of_England" \o "Henry V of England" Henry V led his troops into battle and actually participated in hand to hand fighting, the French king of the time, HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VI_of_France" \o "Charles VI of France" Charles VI, did not command the French army himself as he suffered from severe, repeating illnesses and moderate mental incapacitation. Instead the French were commanded by HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constable_of_France" \o "Constable of France" Constable HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_d%27Albret" \o "Charles d'Albret" Charles d'Albret and various prominent French noblemen of the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armagnac_%28party%29" \o "Armagnac (party)" Armagnac party. The battle is notable for the use of the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_longbow" \o "English longbow" English longbow, which Henry used in very large numbers, with English and Welsh longbow men forming the vast majority of his army. The battle is also the centerpiece of the play HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_%28play%29" \o "Henry V (play)" Henry V, by HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare" \o "William Shakespeare" William Shakespeare. Joan of Arc - is a national HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero" \o "Hero" heroine of HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France" \o "France" France and a HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic" \o "Roman Catholic" Catholic HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint" \o "Saint" saint. A HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant" \o "Peasant" peasant girl born in eastern France, she led the French army to several important victories during the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Years%27_War" \o "Hundred Years' War" Hundred Years' War, claiming divine guidance, and was indirectly responsible for the coronation of HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VII_of_France" \o "Charles VII of France" Charles VII. She was captured by the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Burgundy" \o "Kingdom of Burgundy" Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiology" \o "Ecclesiology" ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was nineteen years old. HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc" \l "cite_note-ward-2" [3] Twenty-four years later, on the initiative of Charles VII, HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Callixtus_III" \o "Pope Callixtus III" Pope Callixtus III reviewed the decision of the ecclesiastical court, found her innocent, and declared her a HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyr" \o "Martyr" martyr. HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc" \l "cite_note-ward-2" [3] She was HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatified" \o "Beatified" beatified in 1909 and HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonized" \o "Canonized" canonized in 1920. HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc" \l "cite_note-longwinded-1" [2] She is, along with HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Denis" \o "St. Denis" St. Denis, HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin_of_Tours" \o "St. Martin of Tours" St. Martin of Tours, HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_IX" \o "St. Louis IX" St. Louis IX, and HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Theresa_of_Lisieux" \o "St. Theresa of Lisieux" St. Theresa of Lisieux, one of the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patron_saint" \o "Patron saint" patron saints of France. Joan asserted that she had visions from HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God" \o "God" God that told her to recover her homeland from HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England" \o "England" English domination late in the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Years%27_War" \o "Hundred Years' War" Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VII_of_France" \o "Charles VII of France" King Charles VII sent her to the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Orl%C3%A9ans" \o "Siege of Orléans" siege at Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reims" \o "Reims" Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.

The price revolution

Denotes the transition from a simpler trade-based economy to one reliant on loans and interest that occurred in mainland Europe and England between sixteenth- and eighteenth-centuries. Nineteenth-century Swiss sociologist Max Weber attributes the price revolution to the spread of Calvinism.

John Wycliff

English theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformist and university teacher who was known as an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. His followers are known as Lollards, a somewhat rebellious movement, which preached anticlerical and biblically-centered reforms, a precursor to the Protestant Reformation (for this reason, he is sometimes called "The Morning Star of the Reformation"). He was one of the earliest opponents of papal authority influencing secular power. Wycliffe was also an early advocate for translation of the Bible into the common tongue in the year 1382

Musollini

Fascist leader of Italy. Black Shirts. (Redo. Totally insufficient.)

Maria Theresa/Joseph II

Female ruler of the Hapsburg monarchy. She promoted reform, agriculture, and the reorganization of Austria's military. He was an enlightened absolutist. (Dates? Context?)

Galileo

First to turn a telescope to heaven and made many discoveries which required a Copernican interpretation of the heavens. Articulated the concept of a universe subject to mathematical laws. (Dates needed)

French involvement in Indochina

French Indochina (French: Indochine française; Vietnamese: Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, pronounced [ɗoŋm zɰəŋ tʰuə̀k fǎp], frequently abbreviated to Đông Pháp) was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the threeVietnamese regions, Tonkin (North), Annam (Central), and Cochinchina (South), as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887. Laoswas added in 1893 and Kouang-Tchéou-Wan in 1900. The capital was moved from Saigon (in Cochinchina) to Hanoi (Tonkin) in 1902. During World War II, the colony was administered by Vichy France and was under Japanese occupation. Beginning in May of 1941, the Viet Minh, a communist army led by Ho Chi Minh, began a revolt against French rule known as the First Indochina War. In Saigon, the anti-Communist State of Vietnam, led by former Emperor Bảo Đại, was granted independence in 1949. Following the Geneva Accord of 1954, the Viet Minh became the government of North Vietnam, although the Bảo Đại government continued to rule in the South. The colonial administration of Annam was dissolved in 1955 and the region was split between North and South, as provided for in the Geneva Accord.

Battle of Britain

German: Luftschlacht um Großbritannien) is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command. The name derives from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons: "The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin..."[23][24][nb 14] Also known as 'The blitz'.

John Huss

He is famed for having been burned at the stake by civil authorities for the propagation of what the Catholic Church considered to be his heretical views of ecclesiology, the Eucharist, and other points of theology, as the civil authorities of that time generally saw heresy as a criminal offense. Hus was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the 16th century, and his teachings had a strong influence on the states of Europe, most immediately in the approval for the existence of a reformist Bohemian religious denomination

Friedrich Nietzsche

He sought to probe the source of values in human character. He urged that the non-rational aspects of human nature are as important and noble as the rational characteristics. To limit human activity to strictly rational behavior was the impoverish human life. Ubermensch. Not what are good and evil, but the social and psychological sources of the judgment of good and evil. (Role in establishing modern/modernist thought?)

Leonardo Bruni

He was a Florentine humanist who used rhetorical skills to rally against Naples. One of the Chancellors. He wrote adulatory histories of the city. (Cam)

Frederick William

He was the Duke of Prussia. Known as the Great Elector because of his militarily and political skill. Was a Calvinist and promoted the commercial class and trade. Set Prussia up to become a Kingdom. (Dates?)

Lorenzo Valla

He was the humanist author of Elegances of the Latin Language and Donation of Constantine. Revealed the explosive character of new learning and was a defender of predestination against the advocates of free will. Used textual analysis and historical logic to back his argument. (We need dates on these, Cam)

Lord Palmerston

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, more popularly known simply as Lord Palmerston KG, GCB, PC (20 October 1784 - 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Popularly nicknamed "Pam", he was in government office almost continuously from 1807 until his death in 1865, beginning his parliamentary career as aTory and concluding it as a Liberal. He is best remembered for his direction of British foreign policy through a period when the United Kingdom was at the height of its power, serving terms as both Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister. Some of his aggressive actions, now sometimes termed liberal interventionist, were greatly controversial at the time, and remain so today. 156

Bourgeoisie

In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie (adjective: bourgeois) describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late eighteenth century to now, the bourgeoisie is a social class characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture. A member of the bourgeoisie is a bourgeois or capitalist (plural: bourgeoises; capitalists). They are a part of the middle or merchant classes, and derived social and economic power from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from social classes whose power came from being born into an aristocratic family of titled land owners granted feudal privileges by the monarch. The bourgeoisie emerged from late feudal and early modern towns, through the control of long distance trade and petty manufacture. Bourgeois and bourgeoisie originate in the French language, meaning "city-dweller" (from bourg, cf. German Burg).

Scientific Revolution

In the history of science, the scientific revolution was a period when new ideas in physics, astronomy, biology, human anatomy, chemistry, and other sciencesled to a rejection of doctrines that had prevailed starting in Ancient Greece and continuing through the Middle Ages, and laid the foundation of modern science.[1]According to a majority of scholars, the scientific revolution began with the publication of two works that changed the course of science in 1543 and continued through the late 17th century: Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) and Andreas Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human body). 46

Blaise Pascal

June 19, 1623, Clermont-Ferrand - August 19, 1662, Paris) was a French mathematician, physicist, and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a Tax Collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators, the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method.

Brezhnev Doctrine in Czechoslovakia

Justified the Soviet invasion to stop the liberalization and strengthen the Communist Party. (Years? Context?)

Louis XV and Louis XVI

Kings of France whose actions led to the French Revolution. Louis XV- made financial decisions that weakened the power of France and the treasury. (Dates? Context?) Louis XVI - Ruled during the Revolution. Was beloved at first, but was indecisive and marred by the people.

Syndicalist-Corporate System

Linked to the private ownership of capital and to government arbitration of labor disputes. Corporations grouped all industries relating to a major area of production into one entity.

Mary I and Elizabeth I

Mary I (18 February 1516 - 17 November 1558) was Queen regnant of England and Queen regnant of Ireland from 19 July 1553 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Henry VIII and only surviving child of Catherine of Aragon. As the fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty, she is remembered for restoring England to Roman Catholicism after succeeding her short-lived half brother, Edward VI, to the English throne. In the process, she had almost 300 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian Persecutions, earning her the sobriquet of "Bloody Mary". Her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed by her successor and half-sister, Elizabeth I.Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 - 24 March 1603) was Queen regnant of England and Queen regnant of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Oriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a half years after her birth, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. Her brother, Edward VI, bequeathed the crown to Lady Jane Grey, cutting his sisters out of the succession. His will was set aside, and in 1558 Elizabeth succeeded the Catholic Mary I, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. Elizabeth set out to rule by good counsel,[1] and she depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers led by William Cecil, Baron Burghley. One of her first moves as queen was to support the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement held firm throughout her reign and later evolved into today's Church of England. It was expected that Elizabeth would marry, but despite several petitions from parliament and numerous courtships, she never did. The reasons for this outcome have been much debated. As she grew older, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity, and a cult grew up around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, and literature of the day. In government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and siblings.[2] One of her mottoes was "video et taceo" ("I see, and say nothing").[3] This strategy, viewed with impatience by her counsellors, often saved her from political and marital misalliances. Though Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs and only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands, France and Ireland, the defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588 associated her name forever with what is popularly viewed as one of the greatest victories in English history. Within 20 years of her death, she was being celebrated as the ruler of a golden age, an image that retains its hold on the English people. Elizabeth's reign is known as the Elizabethan era, famous above all for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Francis Drake. Some historians are more reserved in their assessment. They depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered,[4] sometimes indecisive ruler,[5] who enjoyed more than her share of luck. Towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity to the point where many of her subjects were relieved at her death. Elizabeth is acknowledged as a charismatic performer and a dogged survivor, in an age when government was ramshackle and limited and when monarchs in neighbouring countries faced internal problems that jeopardised their thrones. Such was the case with Elizabeth's rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, whom she imprisoned in 1568 and eventually had executed in 1587. After the short reigns of Elizabeth's brother and sister, her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity.[2]

Rene Descartes

Method of Rational Deduction, reasoning from general principle to arrive at specific facts. He doubted everything expect propositions about which he could have clear and distinct ideas. "Je pense donc je suis" Dates?

St. Petersburg

On 1 May 1703 (Julian calendar), during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured the Swedish fortress of Nyenskans on the Neva river in Ingria. A few weeks later, on 27 May 1703 (May 16, Old Style), lower on the river, on Zayachy (Hare) Island, three miles (5 km) inland from the gulf, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. He named the city after his patron saint, Saint Peter, the apostle. The original name was meant to sound Dutch as a result of Peter's appreciation of Dutch culture.[13] The city was built by conscripted serfs from all over Russia and also by Swedish prisoners of war[14] under the supervision of Alexander Menshikov and later became the centre of Saint Petersburg Governorate. Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war. The Bronze Horseman, monument to Peter the Great. Palace Square, as the main square of the Russian Empire it was the setting of many events of great historical significance Lenin statue outside the Finland station. Between 1924 and 1991 the city was known as Leningrad. Map of Saint Petersburg, 1903. Church of the Savior on Blood. Hero-City Obelisk During the first few years of its existence the city grew spontaneously around Trinity Square on the right bank of the Neva, near the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to develop according to a plan. By 1716 Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilievsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is still evident in the layout of the streets. In 1716 Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond was appointed chief architect of Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great. The style of Petrine Baroque, developed by Trezzini and other architects and exemplified by such buildings as the Menshikov Palace, Kunstkamera, Peter and Paul Cathedral, Twelve Collegia, became prominent in the city architecture of the early 18th century. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great. However, in 1725 Peter died. His near-lifelong autocratic push for modernisation of Russia had met with considerable opposition from the old-fashioned Russian nobility — resulting in several attempts on his life and a treason case involving his own son.[15] Thus, in 1728, Peter II of Russia moved his seat back to Moscow. But four years later, in 1732, under Empress Anna of Russia, Saint Petersburg again became the capital of the Russian Empire and remained the seat of the government for 186 years. In 1736-1737 the city suffered from catastrophic fires. In order to rebuild the damaged boroughs, in 1737 a new plan was commissioned by a committee under Burkhard Christoph von Munnich. The city was divided into five boroughs, and the city centre was moved to the Admiralty borough, situated on the east bank between the Neva and Fontanka. It developed along three radial streets, which meet at the Admiralty and are now known as Nevsky Prospekt (which is now perceived as the main street of the city), Gorokhovaya Street and Voznesensky Prospekt. The style of Baroque dominated the city architecture during the first sixty years, culminating in the Elizabethan Baroque, represented most notably by Bartolomeo Rastrelli with such buildings as the Winter Palace. In the 1760s the Baroque architecture was succeeded by the neoclassical architecture.

Treaty of Utrecht

Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713. As a result Philip V remained King of Spain but was removed from the French line of succession, averting a union of the two kingdoms. The Austrians gained most of the Spanish territories in Italy and the Netherlands.

Lech Walesa

Polish politician who helped co-found the Soviet trade union. (Solidarity?)

Classical liberalism

Political and economic doctrine that emphasizes the rights and freedoms of the individual and the need to limit the powers of government. Liberalism originated as a defensive reaction to the horrors of the European wars of religion of the 16th century Its basic ideas were given formal expression in works by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, both of whom argued that the power of the sovereign is ultimately justified by the consent of the governed, given in a hypothetical social contract rather than by divine right

Causes of the French Revolution

Poor lifestyle conditions, failure of France's government and treasury, and the rise of Enlightenment ideals. The 2nd and 3rd estates wanted more freedoms and representations. They no longer wanted an absolutist monarchy to rule over them, but rather a system like Britain.

The Northern Renaissance

Stimulated by the importation of Italian learning through varied intermediaries. They tended to come from diverse social backgrounds and more devoted to religious reformation. Were willing to write to lay people. Printing have them a new power. (Cam)

German Unification

The formal unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state officially occurred on 18 January 1871 at the Versailles Palace's Hall of Mirrors in France. Princes of the German states gathered there to proclaim Wilhelm of Prussia as Emperor Wilhelm of the German Empire after the French capitulation in the Franco-Prussian War. Unofficially, the transition of the northern German-speaking states into a federated organization of states finally occurred over nearly a century of experimentation. Unification exposed several glaring religious, linguistic, and cultural differences between and among the inhabitants of the new nation, suggesting that 1871 really only represents one moment in a continuum of the larger unification processes. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had effectively dissolved when Emperor Francis II abdicated (6 August 1806) during the Napoleonic Wars. Despite the legal, administrative, and political disruption associated with the end of the Empire, the people of the German-speaking areas of the old Empire had a common linguistic, cultural and legal tradition further enhanced by their shared experience in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. European liberalism offered an intellectual basis for unification by challenging dynastic and absolutist models of social and political organization; its German manifestation emphasized the importance of tradition, education, and linguistic unity of peoples in a geographic region. Economically, the creation of the Prussian Zollverein (customs union) in 1818, and its subsequent expansion to include other states of the German Confederation, reduced competition between and within states. Emerging modes of transportation facilitated business and recreational travel, leading to contact and sometimes conflict between and among German-speakers from throughout Central Europe. The model of diplomatic spheres of influence resulting from the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15 after the Napoleonic Wars endorsed Austrian dominance in Central Europe. However, the negotiators at Vienna took no account of Prussia's growing strength within and among the German states, failing to foresee that Prussia would challenge Austria for leadership within the German states. This German dualism presented two solutions to the problem of unification: Kleindeutsche Lösung, the small Germany solution (Germany without Austria), or Großdeutsche Lösung, greater Germany solution (Germany with Austria). Historians debate whether or not Otto von Bismarck, the Minister President of Prussia, had a master-plan to expand the North German Confederation of 1866 to include the remaining independent German states into a single entity, or whether he simply sought to expand the power of the Kingdom of Prussia. They conclude that factors in addition to the strength of Bismarck's Realpolitik led a collection of early modern polities to reorganize political, economic, military and diplomatic relationships in the nineteenth century. Reaction to Danish irredentism and French nationalism provided foci for expressions of German unity. Military successes - especially Prussian ones - in three regional wars generated enthusiasm and pride that politicians could harness to promote unification. This experience echoed the memory of mutual accomplishment in the Napoleonic Wars, particularly in the War of Liberation of 1813-14. By establishing a Germany without Austria, the political and administrative unification in 1871 at least temporarily solved the problem of dualism.

Italian and Greek unification

Two instances where nationalism prevailed, resulting in the formation of Italy and Greece. These, along with Spain, caused an interruption to the goals of the conservatives. (Years?)

Directory (French Revolution)

a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate. (2 November 1795 until 10 November 1799) constitutes the second to last stage of the French Revolution

Florence

a city in Italy once ruled by the Medici and a center of culture; one of the birthplaces of the Renaissance. (Scott, this explanation, and all of your others, are terrible. You must redo these tomorrow at school)

Virtu

a concept most notably theorized by Niccolò Machiavelli centered on the martial spirit of a population or leader, but also encompasses a broader collection of traits necessary for maintenance of the state. not equivalent to moral virtue, but instead linked to raison d'État. what was good for the state and for the leader may be contradictory to that which is morally good.

The Renaissance

a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe

Revolution of 1991

a failed coup attempt on Gorbachev. Although it failed, it ultimately led to the fall of Gorbachev. (How?)

Symbolism

a late nineteenth-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the movement had its roots in Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857) by Charles Baudelaire. The works of Edgar Allan Poe, which Baudelaire greatly admired and translated into French, were a significant influence and the source of many stock tropes and images. The aesthetic was developed by Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine during the 1860s and '70s. In the 1880s, the aesthetic was articulated through a series of manifestoes and attracted a generation of writers. The label "symbolist" itself comes from the critic Jean Moréas, who coined it in order to distinguish the symbolists from the related decadent movement in literature and art. Distinct from, but related to, the movement in literature, symbolism in art represents an outgrowth of the darker, gothic side of Romanticism; but where Romanticism was impetuous and rebellious, symbolist art was static and hieratic.

War of the League of Augsburg

a major war of the late 17th century fought between King Louis XIV of France, and a European-wide coalition, the Grand Alliance, led by the Anglo-Dutch Stadtholder-King William III, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, King Charles II of Spain, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, and the major and minor princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The Nine Years' War was fought primarily on mainland Europe and its surrounding waters, but it also encompassed a theatre in Ireland, where William III and James II struggled for control of the British Isles, and a minor campaign between French and English settlers and their Indian allies in colonial North America. The Nine Years' War was the second of Louis XIV's three major wars. Louis XIV had emerged from the Franco-Dutch War in 1678 as the most powerful monarch in Europe; but although he had expanded his realm the 'Sun King' remained unsatisfied. Using a combination of aggression, annexation, and quasi-legal means, Louis XIV immediately set about extending his gains in order to stabilize and strengthen France's frontiers, culminating in the brief War of the Reunions (1683-84). The resulting Truce of Ratisbon guaranteed the extended borders of France for twenty years, but Louis XIV's subsequent actions - notably his revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and his attempt to extend his influence in the German Rhineland - culminated in the deterioration of his military and political dominance. Louis XIV's decision to cross the Rhine and besiege Philippsburg in September 1688 was intended to pre-empt a strike against France by Emperor Leopold I and to force the Holy Roman Empire into accepting his territorial and dynastic claims. But when the Emperor and the German princes resolved to resist, and when the States-General and William III brought the Dutch and the English into the war against France, Louis XIV at last faced a powerful coalition aimed at curtailing his ambitions. The main fighting took place around France's borders: in the Spanish Netherlands; the Rhineland; Duchy of Savoy; and Catalonia. These campaigns were dominated by siege operations, notably at Mons, Namur, Charleroi and Barcelona: open battles such as Fleurus and Marsaglia were less common. These engagements generally favoured Louis XIV's armies but by 1696 France was in a grip of an economic crisis. The Maritime Powers (England and the Dutch Republic) were also financially exhausted, and when Savoy defected from the Alliance all parties were keen for a negotiated settlement. By the terms of the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) Louis retained the whole of Alsace but was forced to return Lorraine back to its owner; he also had to give up any gains on the right bank of the Rhine. Louis XIV agreed to accept William III as King of England, while the Dutch garrisoned a line of fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands to help secure their border. However, with the imminent death of the childless Charles II of Spain a new conflict over the inheritance of the Spanish Empire (the most important unsolved question of European politics) would soon embroil France and the Grand Alliance in Louis XIV's final conflict - the War of the Spanish Succession.

Night of the Long Knives

a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political executions. Most of those killed were members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary Brownshirts. Hitler moved against the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, because he saw the independence of the SA and the penchant of its members for street violence as a direct threat to his power. He also wanted to conciliate leaders of the Reichswehr, the official German military who both feared and despised the SA—in particular Röhm's ambition to absorb the Reichswehr into the SA under his own leadership. Finally, Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate critics of his regime, especially those loyal to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, and to settle scores with old enemies. At least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been into the hundreds,[2][3] and more than a thousand perceived opponents were arrested.[2] Most of the killings were carried out by the Schutzstaffel (SS) and the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei), the regime's secret police. The purge strengthened and consolidated the support of the Reichswehr for Hitler. It also provided a legal grounding for the Nazi regime, as the German courts and cabinet quickly swept aside centuries of legal prohibition against extra-judicial killings to demonstrate their loyalty to the regime. Before its execution, its planners sometimes referred to it as "Hummingbird" (German: Kolibri), as that was the codeword used to set the execution squads in motion on the day of the purge.[4] The codename for the operation appears to have been chosen arbitrarily. The phrase "Night of the Long Knives" in the German language predates the massacre itself, and it also refers generally to acts of vengeance. To this day, Germans still use the term "Röhm-Putsch" ("Röhm coup d'état") to describe the event, as that was the term the Nazi regime used at the time, despite its overall false implication that the murders were necessary to forestall a coup. To emphasize this, German authors often use quotation marks or write about the so-called Röhm-Putsch.[5]

Blitzkrieg

all-mechanized force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery and air power, concentrating overwhelming force and rapid speed to break through enemy lines, and once the latter is broken, proceeding without regard to its flank. "Blitzkrieg" operations worked during the Blitzkrieg campaigns, 1939 - 1941.

Franz Ferdinand

an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne

Suez Canal

an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa. The northern terminus is Port Said and the southern terminus is Port Tawfik at the city of Suez. (Who built it?)

Francis Bacon

believed that scholastic thinkers paid too much attention to tradition and to the knowledge of the ancients. He urged contemporaries to strike out on their own in search of a new understanding on nature. Research before making conclusions. Dates?

The Sick Man of Europe

commonly attributed to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, referring to the Ottoman Empire, because it was increasingly falling under the financial control of the European powers and had lost territory in a series of disastrous wars.

Impressionism

depicts modern life itself, focusing on the social life. It also uses light, color, and the representation through painting itself of visual experiences. (Examples?)

Corn Law of 1815

import tariffs designed to protect corn prices in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846.[1] The tariffs were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 (55 Geo. 3 c. 26) and repealed by the Importation Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. 22). These laws are often viewed as examples of British mercantilism,[2] and their abolition marked a significant step towards free trade. The Corn Laws enhanced the profits and political power associated with land ownership.

Sitzkrieg

lack of major military operations in Continental Europe. The various European powers had declared war on one another but neither side had committed to launching a significant attack, and there was relatively little fighting on the ground, notwithstanding the terms of the Anglo-Polish military alliance and the Franco-Polish Military Alliance, which obliged the United Kingdom and France to assist Poland.

Anarchism

political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. It seeks to diminish or even abolish authority in the conduct of human relations. there is no single defining position that all anarchists hold, and those considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance. Modern anarchism sprang from the secular or religious thought of the Enlightenment, particularly Jean-Jacques Rousseau's arguments for the moral centrality of freedom.

Berlin Conference/ Effective occupation

regulated European trade and occupation in Africa. (What is effective occupation?)

James I/Charles I/ Charles II/ James II

success Kings of England, sons and fathers (insufficient)

The Truman Doctrine

the common name for the Cold War strategy of containment versus the Soviet Union and the expansion of communism. This doctrine was first promulgated by President Harry Truman in an address to the U.S. Congress on March 12, 1947.[citation needed] In February 1946, George Kennan wrote his famed "Long Telegram", which spoke of how the Soviets would only respond to force and that the best way to handle them would be through a long-term strategy of containment. This dispatch came to the attention of Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, a leading advocate for a hard-line approach to relations with the Soviets. In March 1947, President Truman appeared before Congress and used Kennan's warnings in the "Long Telegram" as the basis for what became known as the Truman Doctrine. Based on the Long Telegram, Kennan published an article in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs under the pseudonym "X," titled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct."[1][2] The publication triggered an intense debate. Walter Lippmann, a leading U.S. journalist and commentator on international affairs, who favored proposals of disengagement in Germany, strongly criticized the "X" article.[3] President Truman, who was supported by Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg and the Republican-controlled Congress, promulgated this doctrine after Prime Minister Tsaldaris of Greece visited Washington in December 1946 to ask for additional American assistance.[4] Aid was agreed by the United States government to be given to both Greece and Turkey. It was an early response to a perceived political involvement by the Soviet Union in Europe and Asia, as suggested by the Communist movements in Turkey and Greece. The situation was perceived as very important for American balance of power politics in the context of the cold war: "If Greece was lost, Turkey would become an untenable outpost in a sea of communism. Similarly, if Turkey yielded to Soviet demands, the position of Greece would be extremely endangered."[5] It was a regional domino effect threat that guided the United States' decision. The United States was cautious of a third World War at this time, and needed military advantages over the Soviet Union if they were to win. Greece and Turkey turned out to be very important: "the failure of the West to prevent a communist takeover in Greece would not only put the Russians on a particularly dangerous flank for the Turks, but strengthen the Soviet Union's ability to cut off allied supplies and assistance in the event of war."[6] The Truman Doctrine was the first in a series of containment moves by the United States, followed by economic restoration of Western Europe through the Marshall Plan and military containment by the creation of NATO in 1949. In Truman's words, it became "the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." Using a framing rhetoric that continues to have resonance today, Truman reasoned that because these "totalitarian regimes" coerced "free peoples," they represented a threat to international peace and the national security of the United States. Countries in opposition of the Truman Doctrine feared that the United States alone could not contain communism and protect free countries. Disregarding the disapproval of some countries, Truman went forth and passed the bill. [7] President Truman made the proclamation in an address to the U.S. Congress on March 12, 1947, amid the crisis of the Greek Civil War (1946-1949). Truman insisted that if Greece and Turkey did not receive the aid that they needed, they would inevitably fall to Communism with consequences throughout the region. In 1950, Truman signed the top-secret policy plan NSC-68, which shifted foreign policy from passive to active containment. The document differed from Kennan's original notion of containment outlined in the "X" article, containing much harsher anti-Communist rhetoric. NSC-68 explicitly stated that the Communists planned for world domination.

The Cold War

the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition existing after World War II (1939-1945), primarily between the Soviet Union and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, particularly the United States. Although the primary participants' military forces never officially clashed directly, they expressed the conflict through military coalitions, strategic conventional force deployments, extensive aid to states deemed vulnerable, proxy wars, espionage, propaganda, a nuclear arms race, economic and technological competitions, such as the Space Race. Despite being allies against the Axis powers and having the most powerful military forces among peer nations, the USSR and the US disagreed about the configuration of the post-war world while occupying most of Europe. The Soviet Union created the Eastern Bloc with the eastern European countries it occupied, annexing some as Soviet Socialist Republics and maintaining others as satellite states, some of which were later consolidated as the Warsaw Pact (1955-1991). The US and some western European countries established containment of communism as a defensive policy, establishing alliances such as NATO to that end. Several such countries also coordinated the Marshall Plan, especially in West Germany, which the USSR opposed. Elsewhere, in Latin America and Southeast Asia, the USSR assisted and helped foster communist revolutions, opposed by several Western countries and their regional allies; some they attempted to roll back, with mixed results. Some countries aligned with NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and others formed the Non-Aligned Movement. The Cold War featured periods of relative calm and of international high tension - the Berlin Blockade (1948-1949), the Korean War (1950-1953), the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Vietnam War (1959-1975), the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979-1989), and the Able Archer 83 NATO exercises in November 1983. Both sides sought détente to relieve political tensions and deter direct military attack, which would likely guarantee their mutual assured destruction with nuclear weapons. In the 1980s, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures against the USSR, which had already suffered severe economic stagnation. Thereafter, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the liberalizing reforms of perestroika ("reconstruction", "reorganization", 1987) and glasnost ("openness", ca. 1985). The Cold War ended after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving the United States as the dominant military power, and Russia possessing most of the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal. The Cold War and its events have had a significant impact on the world today, and it is commonly referred to in popular culture.

Problems of the Weimar Republic

the economy collapsed so the Weimar Republic responded by printing a lot of money. Caused inflation with no progress. (Constitutional problems? Years?)

Nazism

the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] It was a unique variety of fascism that involved biological racism and anti-Semitism.[9] Nazism presented itself as politically syncretic, incorporating policies, tactics and philosophies from right- and left-wing ideologies; in practice, Nazism was a far right form of politics.[10] Nazi racial ideology is an important component of Nazism, that stresses the belief in the supremacy of an Aryan master race.[11] The Nazis claimed that the German nation represents the most racially pure Aryan people.[11] The Nazis deemed the greatest threat to the Aryan race and the German nation as the Jewish race, which the Nazis described as being a parasitic race that has attached itself to various ideologies and movements to secure its self-preservation, such as the Enlightenment, liberalism, democracy, parliamentary politics, capitalism, industrialization, Marxism, and trade unions.[12] The Nazis sought to distinguish and separate themselves from conservative nationalist competitors such as the German National People's Party (DNVP) by officially denouncing conservatism, and attacking conservative nationalists for being reactionary, bourgeois enemies of the German nation who were equal in blame alongside Marxism for Germany's downfall in 1918.[13] The Nazis made alliances with the DNVP, but they claimed that these were tactical in nature and that the two parties had significant ideological differences.[14] The Nazis claimed that the traditional conception of the European nation-state had become obsolete with the imperialism of great powers with vast territory like the British Empire, Russia, and the United States.[15] The Nazis claimed that Germany's survival as a modern great nation required it to create an empire in Europe that would give the German nation the necessary land mass, resources, and expansion of population needed to be able to economically and militarily compete with other powers.[15] The Nazis denounced both capitalism and communism, accusing both of being associated with Jewish influences and interests.[16] They claimed that capitalism damages nations due to international finance, the economic dominance of big business, and Jewish influences within it.[17] They claimed that communism was dangerous to the well-being of nations because of its intention to dissolve private property, its support of class conflict and its aggression against the middle class, its hostility to small businessmen, and its atheism.[17] In response, Nazis declared support for a form of socialism that is to provide for the nation: economic security, social welfare programs for workers, a just wage, honour for workers' importance to the nation, and protection from capitalist exploitation.[18] Nazism, however, rejected class conflict-based socialism and economic egalitarianism, favouring instead a stratified economy with classes based on merit and talent, retaining private property, and the creation of national solidarity that transcends class distinction.[18] To rescue Germany from the effects of the Great Depression, Nazism promoted an economic "third position"; a managed economy that was neither capitalist nor communist.[19][20] Post-World War II Nazism (neo-Nazism) has adherents in several countries around the world, although it remains a fringe movement. The ideology, iconography, and literature of Nazism are now outlawed in Germany and some other European countries. In Europe and North America, the term Nazi and affiliated ideas and symbols denote and connote white supremacist racism.

Decembrists

they were a group of Moscow officers who refused to pledge allegiance to Nicholas and demanded a constitution and Constantine as the Tsar. Led to the discovery of the anti-Tsar societies by Nicholas. (Years?)

Boris Yeltsin

took over after Gorbachev. Was popular at first but later had problems with the Russian Parliament. (Years? What were the problems?)

Anglicanism

tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures.[1] Anglicanism forms one of the principal traditions of Christianity, together with Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.[2] The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 meaning the English Church. Adherents of Anglicanism are called Anglicans. The great majority of Anglicans are members of churches which are part of the international Anglican Communion.[3] There are, however, a small number of churches outside of the Anglican Communion which also consider themselves to be in the Anglican tradition, most notably those referred to as Continuing Anglican churches.[citation needed] The faith of Anglicans is founded in the scriptures, the traditions of the apostolic church, the apostolic succession - "historic episcopate" and the early Church Fathers.[1] Anglicanism forms one of the branches of Western Christianity; having definitively declared its independence from the Roman pontiff at the time of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, in what has been otherwise termed the British monachism.[4][5] Many of the new Anglican formularies of the mid sixteenth century corresponded closely to those of contemporary Reformed Protestantism; but by the end of the century, the retention in Anglicanism of many traditional liturgical forms and of the episcopate was already seen as unacceptable by those promoting the most developed Protestant principles. In the first half of the 17th century the Church of England and associated episcopal churches in Ireland and in England's American colonies were presented by some Anglican divines as comprising a distinct Christian tradition, with theologies, structures and forms of worship representing a middle ground, or via media, between Reformed Protestantism and Roman Catholicism; a perspective that came to be highly influential in later theories of Anglican identity. Following the American Revolution, Anglican congregations in the United States and Canada were each reconstituted into an independent church with their own bishops and self-governing structures; which, through the expansion of the British Empire and the activity of Christian missions, was adopted as the model for many newly formed churches, especially in Africa, Australasia and the regions of the Pacific. In the 19th century the term Anglicanism was coined to describe the common religious tradition of these churches; as also that of the Scottish Episcopal Church, which, though originating earlier within the Church of Scotland, had come to be recognised as sharing this common identity. The degree of distinction between Reformed and western Catholic tendencies within the Anglican tradition is routinely a matter of debate both within specific Anglican churches and throughout the Anglican Communion. Unique to Anglicanism is the Book of Common Prayer, the collection of services that worshippers in most Anglican churches used for centuries. While it has since undergone many revisions and Anglican churches in different countries have developed other service books, the Prayer Book is still acknowledged as one of the ties that bind the Anglican Communion together. There is no single Anglican Church with universal juridical authority, since each national or regional church has full autonomy. As the name suggests, the Anglican Communion is an association of those churches in full communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury.[6] With over eighty[3] million members the Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Petrograd Soviet

was the soviet (workers' council) in Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), Russia, established in March 1917 after the February Revolution as the representative body of the city's workers. The Petrograd Soviet became important during the Russian Revolution leading up to the October Revolution as a rival power center to the Provisional Government.

Adam Smith

(baptised 16 June 1723 - 17 July 1790 [OS: 5 June 1723 - 17 July 1790]) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economics. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Smith is widely cited as the father of modern economics. Invisible hand.

Creation of Israel

The Israeli Declaration of Independence (Hebrew: הכרזת העצמאות‎, Hakhrazat HaAtzma'ut or Hebrew: מגילת העצמאות‎ Megilat HaAtzma'ut), made on 14 May 1948 (5 Iyar, 5708), the day before the British Mandate was due to expire, was the official announcement that the new Jewish state named the State of Israel had been formally established in parts of what was known as the British Mandate of Palestine and on land where, in antiquity, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah had once been. The event is celebrated annually in Israel with a national holiday called Yom Ha'atzmaut (Hebrew: יום העצמאות‎, lit. Independence Day), the timing of which is based on the Hebrew calendar date of the declaration (5, Iyar, 5708). Palestinians commemorate the event as Nakba Day (Arabic: يوم النكبة‎, Yawm al-nakba, lit. Catastrophe Day) on 15 May every year.

Joan of Arc

a national heroine of France and a Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, claiming divine guidance, and was indirectly responsible for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was nineteen years old.[3] Twenty-four years later, on the initiative of Charles VII, Pope Callixtus III reviewed the decision of the ecclesiastical court, found her innocent, and declared her a martyr.[3] She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920.[2] She is, along with St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis IX, and St. Theresa of Lisieux, one of the patron saints of France. Joan asserted that she had visions from God that told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege at Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne. Joan of Arc has remained an important figure in Western culture. From Napoleon to the present, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Major writers and composers who have created works about her include Shakespeare (Henry VI, Part 1), Voltaire (La Pucelle d'Orléans), Schiller (Die Jungfrau von Orléans ), Verdi (Giovanna d'Arco), Tchaikovsky (Орлеанская дева), Mark Twain (Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc), Jean Anouilh (L'Alouette), Bertolt Brecht (Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe), George Bernard Shaw (Saint Joan), and Maxwell Anderson (Joan of Lorraine). Depictions of her continue in film, television, video games, song, and dance.

Immanuel Kant

was an 18th-century German philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg. Kant was the last influential philosopher of modern Europe in the classic sequence of the theory of knowledge during the Enlightenment beginning with thinkers John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. Kant created a new perspective in philosophy which had widespread influences on philosophy continuing through to the 21st century. He published important works on epistemology, as well as works relevant to religion, law, and history. One of his most prominent works is the Critique of Pure Reason, an investigation into the limitations and structure of reason itself. It encompasses an attack on traditional metaphysics and epistemology, and highlights Kant's own contribution to these areas. The other main works of his maturity are the Critique of Practical Reason, which concentrates on ethics. The empiricists believed that knowledge is acquired through experience alone, but the rationalists maintained that such knowledge is open to Cartesian doubt and that reason alone provides us with knowledge. Kant argues, however, that using reason without applying it to experience will only lead to illusions, while experience will be purely subjective without first being subsumed under pure reason.

Tsar Alexander II

(29 April [O.S. 17 April] 1818, Moscow - 13 March [O.S. 1 March] 1881, Saint Petersburg), also known as Alexander the Liberator (Russian: Александр Освободитель, Aleksandr Osvoboditel') was the Emperor, or Czar, of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881. He was also the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Finland. (Scott, there's more to it than this.)

Churchill

(30 November 1874 - 24 January 1965) was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, an historian, writer and artist. To date, he is the only British Prime Minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the second person to be recognised as an Honorary Citizen of the United States.

Thomas Hobbes

(5 April 1588 - 4 December 1679) an English philosopher, remembered today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory. Opposed Locke by assuming that man was inherently bad. His was the most coherent defense of absolutism.

Louis Phillippe

(6 October 1773 - 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. He was the last king to rule France, although Napoleon III, styled as an emperor, would serve as its last monarch. Louis-Philippe grew up in a period that changed Europe as a whole and, following his father's strong support for the Revolution, he involved himself completely in those changes. In his diary, he reports that he himself took the initiative to join the Jacobin Club, a move that his father supported.

Garibaldi

(July 4, 1807 - June 2, 1882) was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and had to flee Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and afterwards returned to Italy as a commander in the conflicts of the Risorgimento. dubbed the "Hero of the Two Worlds" in tribute to his military expeditions in both South America and Europe. He is considered an Italian national hero.

Kerensky

4 May [O.S. 22 April]1881 - 11 June 1970) was a Russian politician. He served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Leninwas elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution.

Cavour

August 10, 1810 - June 6, 1861) was a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. He was the founder of the original Italian Liberal Party and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, a position he maintained (except for a six-month resignation) throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy. Cavour died only three months after the declaration of a united Kingdom of Italy, and thus did not live to see Venetia or Rome included in the kingdom. After being elected to the Chamber of Deputies, he quickly rose in rank through the Piedmontese government, coming to dominate the Chamber of Deputies through a union of left-center and right-center politicians. After a large rail system expansion program, Cavour became prime minister in 1852. As prime minister, Cavour successfully negotiated Piedmont's way through the Crimean War, Second Italian War of Independence, and Garibaldi's expeditions, managing to maneuver Piedmont diplomatically to become a new great power in Europe, controlling a nearly united Italy that was five times as large as Piedmont had been before he came to power.

Korean War

a military conflict between the Republic of Korea, supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The war began on 25 June 1950 and an armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. The war was a result of the political division of Korea by agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War. The Korean peninsula had been ruled by Japan prior to the end of the war. In 1945 following the surrender of Japan, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th parallel, with United States troops occupying the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part.[22] The failure to hold free elections throughout the Korean Peninsula in 1948 deepened the division between the two sides, and the North established a Communist government. The 38th Parallel increasingly became a political border between the two Koreas. Although reunification negotiations continued in the months preceding the war, tension intensified. Cross-border skirmishes and raids at the 38th Parallel persisted. The situation escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950.[23] It was the first significant armed conflict of the Cold War.[24] The United Nations, particularly the United States, came to the aid of the South Koreans in repelling the invasion. After early defeats by the North Korean military, when a rapid UN counter-offensive repelled the North Koreans past the 38th Parallel and almost to the Yalu River, the People's Republic of China (PRC) came to the aid of Communist North.[23] With Communist China's entry into the conflict, the fighting took on a more dangerous tone. The Soviet Union materially aided North Korea and China. The threat of a nuclear world war eventually ceased with an armistice that restored the border between the Koreas at the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone, a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) wide buffer zone between the two Koreas. North Korea unilaterally withdrew from the armistice on May 27, 2009, thus returning to a de jure state of war. During the war, both North and South Korea were sponsored by external powers, thus facilitating the war's metamorphosis from a civil war to a proxy war between powers involved in the larger Cold War. From a military science perspective, the Korean War combined strategies and tactics of World War I and World War II — swift infantry attacks followed by air bombing raids. The initial mobile campaign transitioned to trench warfare, lasting from January 1951 until the 1953 border stalemate and armistice.

Russian Civil War 1919-1920

a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and then in other places. The principal fighting occurred between the Bolshevik Red Army, often in temporary alliance with other leftist pro-revolutionary groups, and the forces of the White Army, the loosely-allied anti-Bolshevik forces. Many foreign armies warred against the Red Army, notably the Allied Forces, and many volunteer foreigners fought in both sides of the Russian Civil War. Other nationalist and regional political groups also participated in the war, including the Ukrainian nationalist Green Army, the Ukrainian anarchist Black Army and Black Guards, and warlords such as Ungern von Sternberg. The most intense fighting took place from 1918 to 1920. Major military operations ended on 25 October 1922 when the Red Army occupied Vladivostok, previously held by the Provisional Priamur Government. The last enclave of the White Forces was the Ayano-Maysky District on the Pacific coast, where General Anatoly Pepelyayev did not capitulate until 17 June 1923. In Soviet historiography the period of the Civil War has traditionally been defined as 1918-1921, but the war's final skirmishes actually stretched from 1917 to 1923.[

House of Hohenzollern

a noble family and royal dynasty of electors, kings and emperors of Prussia, Germany and Romania. It originated in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century. They took their name from their ancestral home, the Burg Hohenzollern castle near Hechingen. The family uses the motto Nihil Sine Deo (English: Nothing Without God). The family coat of arms, first adopted in 1192, began as a simple shield quarterly sable and argent. A century later, in 1317, Frederick IV, Burgrave of Nuremberg, added the head and shoulders of a hound as a crest.[1] Later quartering reflected heiresses' marriages into the family. The family split into two branches, the Catholic Swabian branch and the Protestant Franconian branch. The Swabian branch ruled the area of Hechingen until their eventual extinction in 1869. The Franconian branch was more successful: members of the Franconian branch became Margrave of Brandenburg in 1415 and Duke of Prussia in 1525. Following the union of these two Franconian lines in 1618, the Kingdom of Prussia was created in 1701, and subsequently led the unification of Germany and the creation of the German Empire in 1871. Social unrest at the end of World War I led to the German Revolution of 1918, with the formation of the Weimar Republic forcing the Hohenzollerns to abdicate, thus bringing an end to the modern German monarchy. The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 set the final terms for the dismantling of the German Empire.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in October 1962, during the Cold War. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, former Eastern Bloc countries, and other communist countries (i.e. China and North Korea), it is termed the "Caribbean Crisis" (Russian: Карибский кризис, Karibskiy krizis), while in Cuba it is called the "October Crisis" (Spanish: Crisis de Octubre). In September 1962, the Cuban and Soviet governments placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. When United States military intelligence discovered the weapons, the U.S. government did all it could to ensure the removal of the missiles. The crisis ranks with the Berlin Blockade as one of the major confrontations of the Cold War, and is generally regarded, along with the Able Archer 83 incident in 1983, as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to a nuclear war.[1]

Dreyfus Affair

a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent. Sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, Dreyfus was sent to the penal colony at Devil's Island in French Guiana and placed in solitary confinement. Two years later, in 1896, evidence came to light identifying a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy as the real culprit. However, high-ranking military officials suppressed this new evidence and Esterhazy was unanimously acquitted after the second day of his trial in military court. Instead of being exonerated, Alfred Dreyfus was further accused by the Army on the basis of false documents fabricated by a French counter-intelligence officer, Hubert-Joseph Henry, seeking to re-confirm Dreyfus's conviction. These fabrications were uncritically accepted by Henry's superiors.[1] Word of the military court's framing of Alfred Dreyfus and of an attendant cover-up began to spread largely due to J'accuse, a vehement public open letter in a Paris newspaper by writer Émile Zola, in January 1898. The case had to be re-opened and Alfred Dreyfus was brought back from Guiana in 1899 to be tried again. The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society between those who supported Dreyfus (the Dreyfusards[2]) and those who condemned him (the anti-Dreyfusards), such as Edouard Drumont (the director and publisher of the antisemitic newspaper La Libre Parole) and Hubert-Joseph Henry. Eventually, all the accusations against Alfred Dreyfus were demonstrated to be baseless.[citation needed] Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army in 1906. He later served during the whole of World War I, ending his service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

United Provinces

a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. Created following The Treaty of Utrecht and the Act of Abjucation in which it cdeclared itself to be a unified state deperate from Philip II of the HRE.

Fashoda Crisis

The Fashoda Incident (1898) was the climax of imperial territorial disputes between the United Kingdom and France in Eastern Africa. It brought the United Kingdom and France to the verge of war, but ended in a diplomatic victory for the UK. It is held to have given rise to the 'Fashoda syndrome' in French foreign policy. The disputes arose from the common desire of each country to link up its disparate colonial possessions in Africa. Great Britain's aim was to link Uganda to Egypt via a railway from the Cape of Good Hope to Cairo, while France, by pushing eastward from the wes

Dialectical materialism

a strand of Marxist theorizing, predominant in the Soviet Union, composed of a synthesis of Hegel's dialectics and Feuerbach's materialism, based upon an interpretation of Karl Marx's work. According to certain followers of Karl Marx's thinking, it is the philosophical basis of Marxism, although this remains a controversial assertion due to the disputed status of science and naturalism in Marx's thought.

Nationalism

a strong identification of one's social identity with that of a nation or state. can include the belief that one's nation is of primary importance. It is also used to describe a movement to establish or protect a homeland (usually an autonomous state) for an ethnic group. In some cases the identification of a homogeneous national culture is combined with a negative view of other races or cultures. sometimes reactionary, calling for a return to a national past, and sometimes for the expulsion of foreigners. Other forms are revolutionary, calling for the establishment of an independent state as a homeland for an ethnic underclass.

Christian socialism

a view held by those on the Christian left whose politics are both Christian and socialist and who see these two philosophies as being interrelated. This category can include Liberation theology and the doctrine of the social gospel.

Trench warfare

a form of warfare in which both combatants occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops were largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and were substantially sheltered from artillery. It has become a byword for stalemate in conflict, with a slow wearing down of opposing forces.[1] Trench warfare occurred when a revolution in firepower was not matched by similar advances in mobility, resulting in a grueling form of warfare in which the defence held the advantage. Both sides constructed elaborate trench and dugout systems opposing each other along a front, protected from assault by barbed wire. The area between opposing trench lines (known as "no man's land") was fully exposed to artillery fire from both sides. Attacks, even if successful, often sustained severe casualties as a matter of course. Trenches of the 11th Cheshire Regiment at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, on the Somme, July 1916. One sentry keeps watch while the others sleep. Trench warfare was employed in conflicts such as the American Civil War, the Russo-Japanese War and the Second Anglo-Boer War, but its use is mainly associated with World War I, when it lasted on the Western Front from September 1914[2] until the last weeks of the war. By the end of October 1914 the whole front in Belgium and France had solidified into lines of trenches, as it became clear infantry assaults were futile in the face of artillery fire. Both sides concentrated on breaking up enemy attacks and on protecting their own troops by digging deep into the ground.[3] Trench warfare was also conducted on other fronts, including Italy and Gallipoli. Trench warfare has become a powerful symbol of the futility of war.[4] Its image is of young men going "over the top" (over the parapet of the trench, to attack the enemy trench line) into a maelstrom of fire leading to certain death, typified by the first day of the Somme (on which the British suffered 57,000 casualties) or the grinding slaughter in the mud of Passchendaele. To the French, the equivalent is the attrition of the Battle of Verdun in which they suffered 380,000 casualties.[5] Trench warfare is associated with needless slaughter in appalling conditions, combined with the view brave men went to their deaths because of incompetent and narrow-minded commanders who failed to adapt to the new conditions of trench warfare: class-ridden and backward-looking generals put their faith in the attack, believing superior morale and dash would overcome the weapons and moral inferiority of the defender.[6] The British and Empire troops on the Western Front are commonly referred to as "lions led by donkeys".[7] (This view persisted in the Imperial Japanese Army into World War Two.)[8] In fact the picture is far more complex. It is easy to find examples of backward and inflexible generals early in World War I. There were failures such as Passchendaele, and Sir Douglas Haig is criticised for allowing his battles to continue long after they had lost any purpose other than attrition.[9] Trench raiding and patrolling led to high casualties.[10] There was an emphasis on seeking breakthroughs, rather than being content with "bite and hold" battles. But there were also tactical and technical innovations. The problems of trench warfare were recognized, and attempts were made to address them. Solutions included improvements in artillery, better infantry tactics and the development of tanks. The lessons of the first day of the Somme were learned very quickly, and by 1918 attacks were generally more successful and suffered fewer casualties; in the hundred days there was even a return to mobile warfare. The Allies eventually achieved a decisive victory. In Britain, the reputations of the generals suffered from postwar attacks by prominent politicians[11] deflecting blame from their own conduct of the war, from tactical experts promoting their own reputations[12] and from nationalistic commentators from Empire nations blaming their British commanders for their losses.[13] The Germans certainly fared no better than the Allies.[14]

Utilitarianism

the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its utility in providing happiness or pleasure as summed among all sentient beings. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. The most influential contributors to this ideology were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.

Charles Darwin

(12 February 1809 - 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist[I] who showed that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species.[1][2] The scientific community and much of the general public came to accept evolution as a fact in his lifetime,[3] but it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed that natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.[4] In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.[5][6]

Thomas Malthus

(13 February 1766 - 23 December 1834) a British scholar, influential in political economy and demography. popularised the economic theory of rent. widely known for his theories concerning population, and its increase or decrease in response to various factors. observed that sooner or later population gets checked by famine, disease, and widespread mortality. He wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving, and in principle as perfectible

Congress of Berlin

(13 June - 13 July 1878) was a meeting of the European Great Powers' and the Ottoman Empire's leading statesmen in Berlin in 1878. In the wake of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, the meeting's aim was to reorganize the countries of the Balkans. Otto von Bismarck, who led the Congress, undertook to balance the distinct interests of the United Kingdom, Russia and Austria-Hungary. As a consequence, however, differences between Russia and Austria-Hungary intensified, as did the nationality question in the Balkans. The congress was aimed at the revision of the Treaty of San Stefano and at keeping Constantinople in Ottoman hands. It effectively disavowed Russia's victory over the decaying Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. The Congress of Berlin returned to the Ottoman Empire territories that the previous treaty had given to the Principality of Bulgaria, most notably Macedonia. The congress formally recognized the independence of the de facto sovereign states of Montenegro, Serbia and Romania, as the 27th-29th free states of the world.

Tycho Brahe

(14 December 1546 - 24 October 1601), born Tyge Ottesen Brahe (de Knudstrup), was a Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations. Coming from Scania, then part of Denmark, now part of modern-day Sweden, Tycho was well known in his lifetime as an astronomer and alchemist. As an astronomer, Tycho worked to combine what he saw as the geometrical benefits of the Copernican system with the philosophical benefits of the Ptolemaic system into his own model of the universe, the Tychonic system. Tycho is credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time, and the data was used by his assistant Kepler to derive the laws of planetary motion. No one before Tycho had attempted to make so many planetary observations.

English Civil War

(1641-1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first (1642-46) and second (1648-49) civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war (1649-51) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The Civil War ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.

David Ricardo

(19 April 1772 - 11 September 1823) an English political economist, often credited with systematizing economics, and was one of the most influential of the classical economists, also a member of Parliament, businessman, financier and speculator, who amassed a considerable personal fortune. most important contribution was the theory of comparative advantage, a fundamental argument in favor of free trade among countries and of specialization among individuals. argued that there is mutual benefit from trade (or exchange) even if one party is more productive in every possible area than its trading counterpart as long as each concentrates on the activities where it has a relative productivity advantage.

Washington Conference/Washington Naval Treaty

(1921-22), international conference called by the United States to limit the naval arms race and to work out security agreements in the Pacific area. Held in Washington, D.C., the conference resulted in the drafting and signing of several major and minor treaty agreements.

Geneva Protocol

(1924) League of Nations draft treaty to ensure collective security in Europe. Submitted by Edvard Beneš, the protocol proposed sanctions against an aggressor nation and provided a mechanism for the peaceful settlement of disputes. States would agree to submit all disputes to the Permanent Court of International Justice, and any state refusing arbitration was to be deemed the aggressor. The French enthusiastically supported the protocol, but it failed after it was rejected by the British.

The Nuclear Arms Race

(1945 - present) a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War. During the Cold War, in addition to the American and Soviet nuclear stockpiles, other countries also developed nuclear weapons, though none engaged in warhead production on nearly the same scale as the two superpowers.

Reign of Terror

(27 June 1793 - 27 July 1794) a period of violence that occurred for one year and one month after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution." Estimates vary widely as to how many were killed, with numbers ranging from 16,000 to 40,000; in many cases, records were not kept, or if they were, they are considered likely to be inaccurate. The guillotine ("National Razor") became the symbol of a string of executions: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité (Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans) and Madame Roland, as well as many others, such as "the father of modern chemistry" Antoine Lavoisier, lost their lives under its blade

Gladstone

(29 December 1809 - 19 May 1898) was a British statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served asLiberal Prime Minister four times, more than any other person (1868-1874, 1880-1885, February-July 1886 and 1892-1894). Gladstone was 84 years old when he resigned for the last time, making him Britain's oldest Prime Minister. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times (1853-1855, 1859-1866, 1873-1874, and 1880-1882). Gladstone is famous for his intense rivalry with the Conservative Party Leader Benjamin Disraeli. The rivalry was not only political, but also personal. When Disraeli died, Gladstone proposed a state funeral, but Disraeli's will asked for him to be buried next to his wife, to which Gladstone replied, "As Disraeli lived, so he died — all display, without reality or genuineness."Gladstone was also famously at odds withQueen Victoria for much of his career. She once complained, "He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting." Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as "The People's William" or the "G.O.M." ("Grand Old Man", or, according to Disraeli, "God's Only Mistake"). Winston Churchill and others cited Gladstone as their inspiration.

Sigmund Freud

(6 May 1856 - 23 September 1939), was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic method of psychiatry.[1] Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression, and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient, technically referred to as an "analysand", and a psychoanalyst. Freud is also renowned for his redefinition of sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life, as well as for his therapeutic techniques, including the use of free association, his theory of transference in the therapeutic relationship, and the interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires. He was an early neurological researcher into cerebral palsy, and a prolific essayist, drawing on psychoanalysis to contribute to the history, interpretation and critique of culture.

Khrushchev

(April 15, 1894 - September 11, 1971) led the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev. Some of Khrushchev's policies were seen as erratic, particularly by his emerging rivals, who quietly rose in strength and deposed him in October 1964. However, he did not suffer the deadly fate of some previous losers of Soviet power struggles, and was pensioned off with an apartment in Moscow and a dacha in the countryside. His lengthy memoirs were smuggled to the West and published in part in 1970. Khrushchev died in 1971 of heart disease.

Crimean War

(October 1853-February 1856) fought between the Russian Empire on one side and an alliance of the British Empire, French Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Duchy of Nassau on the other. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Most of the conflict took place on the Crimean Peninsula, but there were smaller campaigns in western Turkey, the Baltic Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the White Sea

Lenin

(Russian: Владимир Ильич Ленин, IPA [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr ɪlʲˈjiʨ ˈlʲenʲɪn]) (22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1870 - 21 January 1924), bornVladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Russian: Владимир Ильич Ульянов, IPA [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr ɪlʲˈjiʨ ʊlʲˈjanəf]), was a Russian revolutionary and communistpolitician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years (1917-1924), as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a socialist economic system. As a politician, Vladimir Lenin was a persuasive orator, as a political scientist his extensive theoretic and philosophical developments ofMarxism produced Marxism-Leninism, the pragmatic Russian application of Marxism.[1]

Napoleon Bonaparte

15 August 1769 - 5 May 1821), was a military and political leader of France and Emperor of the French as Napoleon I, whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century. He was born in Corsica to parents of noble Italian ancestry and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France. Bonaparte rose to prominence under the First French Republic and led successful campaigns against the First and Second Coalitions arrayed against France. In 1799, he staged a coup d'état and installed himself as First Consul; five years later the French Senate proclaimed him Emperor. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, the French Empire under Napoleon engaged in a series of conflicts—the Napoleonic Wars—involving every major European power. After a streak of victories, France secured a dominant position in continental Europe and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence through the formation of extensive alliances and the appointment of friends and family members to rule other European countries as French client states. The French invasion of Russia in 1812 marked a turning point in Napoleon's fortunes. His Grande Armée was badly damaged in the campaign and never fully recovered. In 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig; the following year the Coalition invaded France, forced Napoleon to abdicate and exiled him to the island of Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped Elba and returned to power, but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon spent the last six years of his life in confinement by the British on the island of Saint Helena. An autopsy concluded he died of stomach cancer, though Sten Forshufvud and other scientists have since conjectured that he was poisoned with arsenic. Napoleon's campaigns are studied at military academies the world over. While considered a tyrant by his opponents, he is also remembered for the establishment of the Napoleonic code, which laid the administrative and judicial foundations for much of Western Europe.

Copernicus

19 February 1473 - 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance astronomer and the first to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earthfrom the center of the universe.[2] Copernicus' epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), published just before his death in 1543, is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the scientific revolution. His heliocentric model, with the Sun at the center of the universe, demonstrated that the observed motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting Earth at rest in the center of the universe. His work stimulated further scientific investigations, becoming alandmark in the history of science that is often referred to as the Copernican Revolution.

Romanticism

An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions. 18th century movement, The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and terror and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, made of spontaneity a desirable character (as in the musical impromptu), and argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language and customary usage.

Adolf HItler

April 1889 - 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was the absolute dictator of Germany from 1934 to 1945, with the title of chancellor from 1933 to 1945 and with the title head of state (Führer und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945. A decorated veteran of World War I, Hitler joined the precursor of the Nazi Party (DAP) in 1919 and became leader of NSDAP in 1921. Following his imprisonment after a failed coup in Bavaria in 1923, he gained support by promoting German nationalism, anti-semitism, anti-capitalism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and propaganda. He was appointed chancellor in 1933, and quickly transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideals of national socialism. Hitler ultimately wanted to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in Europe. To achieve this, he pursued a foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing Lebensraum ("living space") for the Aryan people; directing the resources of the state towards this goal. This included the rearmament of Germany, which culminated in 1939 when the Wehrmacht invaded Poland. In response, the United Kingdom and France declared war against Germany, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.[2] Within three years, Germany and the Axis powers had occupied most of Europe, and most of Northern Africa, East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. However, with the reversal of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the Allies gained the upper hand from 1942 onwards. By 1945, Allied armies had invaded German-held Europe from all sides. Nazi forces engaged in numerous violent acts during the war, including the systematic murder of as many as 17 million civilians,[3] an estimated six million of whom were Jews targeted in the Holocaust and between 500,000 and 1,500,000 were Romanis.[4] Others targeted included ethnic Poles, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents. In the final days of the war, at the fall of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun and, to avoid capture by Soviet forces less than two days later, the two committed suicide.[5]

Marshall Tito

Josip Broz Tito, He was Secretary-General (later President) of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1939-80), and went on to lead the World War II Yugoslav guerrilla movement, the Yugoslav Partisans (1941-45).[3] After the war, he was the authoritarian[4][5][6] Prime Minister (1943-63) and later President (1953-80) of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). From 1943 to his death in 1980, he held the rank of Marshal of Yugoslavia, serving as the supreme commander of the Yugoslav military, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). Tito was the chief architect of the "second Yugoslavia", a socialist federation that lasted from World War II until 1991. Despite being one of the founders of Cominform, he was also the first (and the only successful) Cominform member to defy Soviet hegemony. A backer of independent roads to socialism (sometimes referred to as "national communism" or "Titoism"), he was one of the main founders and promoters of the Non-Aligned Movement, and its first Secretary-General. As such, he supported the policy of nonalignment between the two hostile blocs in the Cold War.

Louis XVIII

King of France and Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815. Louis XVIII spent twenty-three years in exile, from 1791 to 1814, due to the French Revolution, and was exiled again in 1815, for 100 days, upon the return of Napoleon Bonaparte from Elba. During exile he lived in several countries, including Prussia, the United Kingdom and Russia.[1] The French Republic abolished the monarchy and deposed King Louis XVI on 21 September 1792.[2] Although the monarchy had been disestablished, Louis XVIII succeeded his nephew, Louis XVII, as titular King, when the latter died in prison in June 1795.[3] For 23 years, revolution and war excluded the Bourbon line from the throne of France until 1814, when coalition armies captured Paris from Napoleon Bonaparte. Louis XVIII was restored to what he and other Royalists considered his rightful place. Louis XVIII ruled as King for slightly less than a decade, during the so-called Bourbon Restoration period. The Bourbon Restoration was a constitutional monarchy (unlike the Ancien Régime, which was absolute). As a constitutional monarchy, Louis XVIII's royal prerogative was reduced substantially by the Charter of 1814, France's new constitution. Louis had no children; therefore, upon his death, the crown passed to his younger brother, Charles, comte d'Artois.[4] Louis XVIII was the last French monarch to die while reigning.

Coercion Acts

acts of emergency law passed by the Parliament of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922, in an attempt to establish law and order in Ireland.[1] Over 100 such acts were passed, some of the more notable of which were "An Act for the more effectual Suppression of Local Disturbances and Dangerous Associations in Ireland",[2] "The Protection of Life and Property in Certain Parts of Ireland Act",[3] and the "Protection of Person and Property Act 1881".[4]

Louis Napoleon/Napoleon III

Napoleon III (20 April 1808 - 9 January 1873), also known as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, né Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, was thePresident of the French Second Republic and the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was also the nephew of Napoleon I. Elected Presidentby popular vote in 1848, he undertook a coup d'état in 1851, becoming dictator before ascending the throne as Napoleon III on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of Napoleon I's coronation. He ruled as Emperor of the French until September 4, 1870. He holds the unusual distinction of being both the first titular president and the last monarch of France.

Emperor Napoleon

Napoleon became Emperor of the French ("L'Empereur des Français") on 18 May 1804 and crowned Emperor December 2, 1804, ending the period of the French Consulate, and won early military victories in the War of the Third Coalition against Austria, Prussia, Russia, Portugal, and allied nations, notably at the Battle of Austerlitz (1805) and the Battle of Friedland (1807). The Treaty of Tilsit in July 1807 ended two years of bloodshed on the European continent. Subsequent years of military victories known collectively as the Napoleonic Wars extended French influence over much of Western Europe and into Poland. At its height in 1812, the French Empire had 130 départements, ruled over 44 million subjects, maintained an extensive military presence in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Duchy of Warsaw, and could count Prussia and Austria as nominal allies.[4] Early French victories exported many ideological features of the French Revolution throughout Europe. Seigneurial dues and seigneurial justice were abolished, aristocratic privileges were eliminated in all places except Poland, and the introduction of the Napoleonic Code throughout the continent increased legal equality, established jury systems, and legalized divorce.[5] Napoleon placed relatives on the thrones of several European countries and granted many noble titles, most of which were not recognized after the empire fell. Historians have estimated the death toll from the Napoleonic Wars to be 6.5 million people, or 15% of the French Empire's subjects. In particular, French losses in the Peninsular War in Iberia severely weakened the Empire; after victory over the Austrian Empire in the War of the Fifth Coalition (1809) Napoleon deployed over 600,000 troops to attack Russia,[6] in a catastrophic French invasion of that country in 1812. The War of the Sixth Coalition saw the expulsion of French forces from Germany in 1813. Napoleon abdicated in 1814. The Empire was briefly restored during the Hundred Days period in 1815 until Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. It was followed by the restored monarchy of the House of Bourbon.

Nicholas II

Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to an economic and military disaster. Critics nicknamed him Nicholas the Bloody because of the Khodynka Tragedy,Bloody Sunday, and the anti-Semitic pogroms that occurred during his reign. Under his rule, Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War. As head of state, he approved the Russian mobilization of August 1914, which marked the first fatal step into World War I and thus into the demise of the Romanov dynasty less than four years later.

Humanism

Renaissance view that holds that the accomplishments of man should be studied above all. Its roots are in Petrarch's translation of Cicero, and its motto is "I go to wake the dead".

Six Acts of Parliament (1819)

Repressive measures to deal with the radical reform agitation which culminated in Peterloo. The Acts (a) prohibited most meetings of over 50 people; (b) gave magistrates powers to search private houses for arms; (c) prohibited drilling and military training by civilians; (d) strengthened the laws against blasphemous and seditious libel; (e) limited the right of an accused to adjournment of trial to prepare his defense; (f) increased the stamp duty on newspapers and cheap pamphlets to 4 pence. (A good one by Scott)

Louis Kossuth

September 19, 1802 - March 20, 1894) was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Governor-President of Hungary in 1849. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe.

Christian Humanism/Erasmus

Sought to unite classical ideals of humanity and civic virtue with Christian ideals. Ethical piety in imitation of Christ. (Cam - need more on this one)

Boer War

The First Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881), also known as the "Transvaal War," was a relatively brief conflict in which Boer (Dutch settlers) successfully rebelled against British rule in the Transvaal, and re-established their independence, lost in 1877 when the Boers fought the British in order to regain the independence they had given up to obtain British help against the Zulus (1880-1881). The Second War (1899-1902), by contrast, was a lengthy war - involving large numbers of troops from many British possessions - which ended with the conversion of the Boer republics into British colonies (with a promise of limited self-government). These colonies later formed part of the Union of South Africa. The Boer War lasted three years and was very bloody. The British fought directly against the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The bloodshed that was seen during the war was alarming. Two of the factors that contributed to this were: First, many of the British soldiers were physically unprepared for the environment and poorly trained for the tactical conditions they faced. As a result, British losses were high as a result of both disease and combat. Second, the policies of "scorched earth" and civilian internment (adopted by the British in response to the Boer guerrilla campaign) ravaged the civilian populations in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

July Revolution

The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbonmonarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, the Duc d'Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown. It marked the shift from one constitutional monarchy, the Bourbon Restoration, to another, the July Monarchy; the transition of power from the House of Bourbon to its cadet branch, the House of Orléans; and the substitution of the principle of popular sovereignty forhereditary right. Supporters of the Bourbon would be called Legitimists, and supporters of Louis-Philippe Orleanists.

Pact of Paris

The Kellogg-Briand Pact (also called the Pact of Paris) was a multinational treaty that prohibited the use of war as "an instrument of national policy" except in matters of self-defense.[1] It was the result of a determined American effort to avoid involvement in the European alliance system. In its original form, the Pact of Paris was a renunciation of war between only France and the United States of America. However, Frank B. Kellogg, then U.S. Secretary of State, wanted to retain American freedom of action; he thus responded with a proposal for a multilateral pact against war open for all nations to become signatories.[2]The Kellogg-Briand Pact is named after its authors: Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand.Its formal name is General Treaty for the Renunciation of War. It was counted as an attempt to limitation of arms, yet the period it witnessed caused a stronger realist approach in international relations.

Triple Alliance

The Triple Alliance was the military alliance among Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy that lasted from 1882[1] until the start of World War I in 1914[2]. Each member promised mutual support in the event of an attack by any two other great powers, or for Germany and Italy, an attack by France alone. In a supplementary declaration, Italy specified that its undertakings could not be regarded as being directed against the United Kingdom. Shortly after renewing the Alliance in June 1902, Italy secretly extended a similar guarantee to France.[1] When Germany and Austria-Hungary found themselves at war in August 1914 with the rival Triple Entente of Britain, France, and the latter's ally, Russia, Italy pledged its support to the Central Powers, but Italy did not entered in the war because the Triple Alliance was a defensive alliance, but Germany and Austria-Hungary had taken the offensive. Subsequently Italy entered the conflict on the side of the Entente against Austria-Hungary in May 1915[2] and Germany in August 1916.

Causes of WWI

The assassination on 28 June 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, is seen as the immediate trigger of the war, though long-term causes, such as imperialistic foreign policy, played a major role. Ferdinand's assassination at the hands of Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip resulted in Habsburg ultimatum against the Kingdom of Serbia.[6][7] Several alliances that had been formed over the past decades were invoked, so within weeks the major powers were at war; with all having colonies, the conflict soon spread around the world.

Causes of the Industrial Revolution

The causes of the Industrial Revolution were complicated and remain a topic for debate, with some historians believing the Revolution was an outgrowth of social and institutional changes brought by the end of feudalism in Britain after the English Civil War in the 17th century. As national border controls became more effective, the spread of disease was lessened, thereby preventing the epidemics common in previous times.[14] The percentage of children who lived past infancy rose significantly, leading to a larger workforce. The Enclosure movement and the British Agricultural Revolution made food production more efficient and less labour-intensive, forcing the surplus population who could no longer find employment in agriculture into cottage industry, for example weaving, and in the longer term into the cities and the newly developed factories.[15] The colonial expansion of the 17th century with the accompanying development of international trade, creation of financial markets and accumulation of capitalare also cited as factors, as is the scientific revolution of the 17th century.[16]

White Terror

The original White Terror took place in 1794, during the turbulent times surrounding the French Revolution. It was organized by reactionary "Chouan" royalist forces in the aftermath of the Reign of Terror, and was targeted at the radical Jacobins and anyone suspected of supporting them.[1] Throughout France, both real and suspected Jacobins were attacked and often murdered.[citation needed] Just like during the Reign of Terror, trials were held with little regard for due process. In other cases, gangs of youths who had aristocratic connections roamed the streets beating known Jacobins.[citation needed] These "bands of Jesus" dragged suspected terrorists from prisons and murdered them much as alleged royalists had been murdered during the September Massacres of 1792.[citation needed] Again, in 1815, following the return of King Louis XVIII of France to power, people suspected of having ties with the governments of the French Revolution or of Napoleon suffered arrest and execution. Marshal Brune was killed in Avignon, and General Jean-Pierre Ramel was assassinated in Toulouse. These actions struck fear in the population, dissuading Jacobin and Bonapartist electors (48,000 on 72,000 total permitted by the census suffrage) to vote for the ultras. Of 402 members, the first Chamber of the Restoration was composed of 350 ultra-royalists; the king himself thus named it the Chambre introuvable ("the Unobtainable Chamber"). The Chamber voted oppressive laws, sentencing to death Marshal Ney and general la Bédoyère, while 250 people were given prison sentences and some others exiled (Joseph Fouché, Lazare Carnot, Cambacérès).

Indian independence

The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide spectrum of political organizations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending British colonial authority in South Asia. The term incorporates various national and regional campaigns, agitations and efforts of both nonviolent and militant philosophy. The Indian independence movement was a mass-based movement that encompassed various sections of society at the time. It also underwent a process of constant ideological evolution.[1] While the basic ideology of the movement was anti-colonial, it was supported by a vision of independent capitalist economic development coupled with a secular, democratic, republican and civil-libertarian political structure.[2] After the 1930s, the movement took on a strong socialist orientation, due to the increasing influence of left wing elements in the INC as well as the rise and growth of the Communist Party of India.[1]

Effects of the Industrial Revolution

There were many artistic movements during the period of Britain's industrialization, each of which was a reaction to the feelings of the time, as well as to the movement which had preceded it. By the time that the Industrial Revolution really took hold, some artists were at differences with the ideals which it espoused, such as those of discipline, temperance, structure, and views of the Enlightenment. These feelings translated into the Romantic movement, which encouraged individualism, freedom, and emotion.

Victorianism

Victorianism is the name given to the attitudes, art, and culture of the latter two-thirds of the 19th century, especially with reference to English-speaking peoples and the British Empire. Victorianists are people who study Victorianism or the Victorian era. The word is often specifically directed[1][2][3][4] at Victorian morality, puritanism, and the Victorian Social Order with respect to the contradiction between the widespread cultivation of an outward appearance of dignity and restraint and the simultaneous, reactionary prevalence of hedonistic social phenomena.

Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

Yalta: sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the February 4-11, 1945 wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin, respectively—for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization. Mainly, it was intended to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta, the Crimea. It was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin). It had been preceded by the Tehran Conference in 1943, and it was followed by the Potsdam Conference which was attended by Harry S. Truman in place of the late Roosevelt; and Clement Attlee who attended in place of Churchill.The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The three nations were represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill[2] and later Clement Attlee,[3] and President Harry S. Truman. Stalin, Churchill, and Truman — as well as Attlee, who participated alongside Churchill, awaited the outcome of the 1945 general election, and then replaced Churchill as Prime Minister after the Labour Party's victory over the Conservatives — gathered to decide how to administer punishment to the defeated Nazi Germany, which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier, on May 8 (V-E Day). The goals of the conference also included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaties issues, and countering the effects of war.

Leon Trotsky

a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Vladimir Lenin. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army and People's Commissar of War. He was also among the first members of the Politburo. After leading a failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union. An early advocate of Red Army intervention against European fascism,[2] Trotsky also opposed Stalin's peace agreements with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. As the head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued in exile to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and was eventually assassinated in Mexico, by Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent.[3] Trotsky's ideas form the basis of Trotskyism, a term coined as early as 1905 by his opponents in order to separate it from Marxism. Trotsky's ideas remain a major school of Marxist thought that is opposed to the theories of Stalinism. He was one of the few Soviet political figures who was never rehabilitated by the Soviet administration.

Bismarck

a Prussian/German statesman of the late 19th century, and a dominant figure in world affairs. As Ministerpräsident, or Prime Minister, of Prussia from 1862-1890, he oversaw the unification of Germany. In 1867 he became Chancellor of the North German Confederation. He designed the German Empire in 1871, becoming its first Chancellor and dominating its affairs until his dismissal in 1890. His diplomacy of Realpolitik and powerful rule gained him the nickname "The Iron Chancellor". After his death German nationalists made Bismarck their hero, building hundreds of monuments glorifying the symbol of powerful personal leadership. Historians praised him as a statesman of moderation and balance who was primarily responsible for the unification of the German states into a nation-state. He used balance-of-power diplomacy to keep Europe peaceful in the 1870s and 1880s. He created a new nation with a progressive social policy, a result that went beyond his initial goals as a practitioner of power politics in Prussia. Bismarck, a devout Lutheran who was obedient to his king, promoted government through a strong well-trained bureaucracy with a hereditary monarchy at the top. Bismarck had recognized early in his political career that the opportunities for national unification would exist and he worked successfully to provide a Prussian structure to the nation as a whole.[1] On the other hand, his Reich of 1871 deliberately restricted democracy, and the anti-Catholic and anti-Socialist legislation that he introduced unsuccessfully in the 1870s and 1880s left a devastating legacy of distrust and fragmentation in German political culture.[2]

Rasputin

a Russian mystic who is perceived as having influenced the latter days of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, his wife the Tsaritsa Alexandra, and their only son the Tsarevich Alexei. Rasputin had often been called the "Mad Monk",[1] while others considered him a "strannik" (or religious pilgrim) and even a starets (ста́рец, "elder", a title usually reserved for monk-confessors), believing him to be a psychic and faith healer.[1] It has been argued[2] that Rasputin helped to discredit the tsarist government, leading to the fall of the Romanov dynasty, in 1917. Contemporary opinions saw Rasputin variously as a saintly mystic, visionary, healer and prophet or, on the contrary, as a debauched religious charlatan. There has been much uncertainty over Rasputin's life and influence as accounts of his life have often been based on dubious memoirs, hearsay and legend.[1]

Congress of Vienna

a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from November, 1814 to June, 1815.[1] Its objective was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. This objective resulted in the redrawing of the continent's political map, establishing the boundaries of France, Napoleon's duchy of Warsaw, the Netherlands, the states of the Rhine, the German province of Saxony, and various Italian territories, and the creation of spheres of influence through which France, Austria, Russia and Britain brokered local and regional problems. The Congress of Vienna was a model for the League of Nations and United Nations due to its goal to constitute peace by all parties. The immediate background was Napoleonic France's defeat and surrender in May, 1814, which brought an end to twenty-five years of nearly continuous war. Negotiations continued despite the outbreak of fighting triggered by Napoleon's dramatic return from exile and resumption of power in France during the Hundred Days of March-July, 1815. The Congress's "Final Act" was signed nine days before his final defeat at Waterloo on June 18, 1815. An unusual feature of the "Congress of Vienna" was that it was not properly a Congress: it never met in plenary session, and most of the discussions occurred in informal, face-to-face, sessions among the Great Powers of France, United Kingdom, Austria, and Russia, and sometimes Prussia, with limited or no participation by other delegates. On the other hand, the Congress was the first occasion in history where on a continental scale people came together in place to hammer out a treaty, instead of relying mostly on messengers and messages between the several capitals. The Congress of Vienna settlement, despite later changes, formed the framework for European international politics until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

The English Renaissance

a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in Tuscany in the 14th century. This era in English cultural history is sometimes referred to as "the age of Shakespeare" or "the Elizabethan era", the first period in English and British history to be named after a reigning monarch.

Beer Hall Putsch

a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power in Munich, Bavaria, and Germany. Putsch is the German word for a military coup d'état.

Prussia

a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries this state had substantial influence on German and European history. The last capital of the state of Prussia was Berlin. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, a Baltic people related to the Lithuanians and Latvians. In the 13th century, "Old Prussia" was conquered by the Teutonic Knights. In 1308 Teutonic Knights conquered the formerly Polish region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk (Danzig). Their monastic state was mostly Germanized through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south it was Polonized by settlers from Masovia. After the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) Prussia was split into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the eastern part, since 1525 called Duchy of Prussia, a fief of the Crown of Poland up to 1657. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. Prussia attained its greatest importance in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century, it became a great European power under the reign of Frederick the Great (1740-86). During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck pursued a policy of uniting the German principalities into a "Lesser Germany" which would exclude the Austrian Empire. The Kingdom of Prussia dominated northern Germany politically, economically, in population, and was the core of the unified North German Confederation formed in 1867, which became part of the German Empire or Deutsches Reich in 1871. With the end of the Hohenzollern monarchy in Germany following World War I, Prussia became part of the Weimar Republic as a free state in 1919. It effectively lost this status in 1932 following the Preußenschlag decree of Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen; Prussia as a state was abolished de facto by the Nazis in 1934 and de jure by the Allies of World War II in 1947.[1] Since then, the term's relevance has been limited to historical, geographical, or cultural usages.

Petition of Right

a major English constitutional document, which sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. The Petition of Right was produced by the English Parliament in the run-up to the English Civil War. It was passed by Parliament in May 1628, and given the royal assent by Charles I in June of that year. The Petition is most notable for its confirmation of the principles that taxes can be levied only by Parliament, that martial law may not be imposed in time of peace, and that prisoners must be able to challenge the legitimacy of their detentions through the writ of habeas corpus. Additionally, the Petition's ban on the billeting of troops is reflected in the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Battle of Stalingrad

a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in southwestern Russia. It took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943, and is often cited as one of the turning points of the war.[7] The German offensive to take Stalingrad, the battle inside the city and the Soviet counter-offensive—which eventually trapped and destroyed the German 6th Army and other Axis forces around the city—was the first substantial German land defeat of the war.[8][9] The battle involved more participants than any other, and was marked by brutality and disregard for military and civilian casualties. It was amongst the bloodiest in the history of warfare, with the upper estimates of combined casualties coming to nearly two million.

Gorbachev

(2 March 1931- 25 December 1991 (this date was the end of his rule as Premier. He's still alive.)) was the seventh and last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991. He was the only Soviet leader to have been born after the October Revolution of 1917. In 1989, he became the first Soviet leader to visit China since the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s.

October Revolution

also known as the Russian Revolution, Great October Socialist Revolution, Red October or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Julian calendar (7 November 1917 Gregorian calendar).[2] It was the second phase of the Russian Revolution, after the February Revolution of the same year. The October Revolution in Petrograd overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and gave the power to the local soviets dominated by Bolsheviks. As the revolution was not universally recognized outside of Petrograd there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War (1917-1922) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.

Rococo

also referred to as "Late Baroque" is an 18th century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly more ornate, florid, and playful. Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings. It was largely supplanted by the Neoclassic style.In 1835 the Dictionary of the French Academy stated that the word Rococo "usually covers the kind of ornament, style and design associated with Louis XV's reign and the beginning of that of Louis XVI". It includes therefore,all types of art produced around the middle of the 18th century in France.

Kristallnacht

an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria on 9 to 10 November 1938. It is also known as Novemberpogrome, Reichskristallnacht, Reichspogromnacht or Pogromnacht in German.[1] The Kristallnacht was triggered by the assassination in Paris of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew. In a coordinated attack on Jewish people and their property, 91 Jews were murdered and 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and placed in concentration camps. 267 synagogues were destroyed, and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked. This was done by the Hitler Youth, the Gestapo and the SS.[2] The Kristallnacht also served as a pretext and a means for the wholesale confiscation of firearms from German Jews.[3] While the assassination of Rath served as a pretext for the attacks, the Kristallnacht was part of a broader racial policy of Nazi Germany, including antisemitism and persecution of the Jews.[4] Kristallnacht was followed by further economic and political persecutions. It is viewed by many historians as the beginning of the Final Solution, leading towards the genocide of the Holocaust.[5][6]

Baroque

an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century.[1] It is most often defined as "the dominant style of art in Europe between the Mannerist and Rococo eras, a style characterized by dynamic movement, overt emotion and self-confident rhetoric".[2] The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent, in response to the Protestant Reformation, that the arts should communicate religious themes in direct and emotional involvement.[3] The aristocracy also saw the dramatic style of Baroque architecture and art as a means of impressing visitors and expressing triumphant power and control. Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence.

New Economic Policy

an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin to prevent the Russian economy from collapsing. Allowing some private ventures, the NEP allowed small businesses or shops, for instance, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade, and large industries.[1] It was officially decided in the course of the 10th Congress of the All-Russian Communist Party. It was promulgated by decree on March 21, 1921, "On the Replacement of Prodrazvyorstka by Prodnalog" (i.e., on the replacement of foodstuffs requisitions by fixed foodstuffs tax). In essence, the decree required the farmers to give the government a specified amount of raw agricultural product as a tax in kind.[2] Further decrees refined the policy and expanded it to include some industries.

League of Nations

an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919-1920, and the precursor to the United Nations. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The League's primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing war through collective security, disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.[1] Other goals in this and related treaties included labor conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, trafficking in persons and drugs, arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe.[2] The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift in thought from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and so depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to economic sanctions which the League ordered, or provide an army, when needed, for the League to use. However, they were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could also hurt the League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them. When, during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the League accused Benito Mussolini's soldiers of targeting Red Cross medical tents, Mussolini responded that Ethiopians were not fully human, therefore the human rights laws did not apply. Benito Mussolini stated that "The League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out."[3] After a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. In May 1933, the League was powerless to convince Adolf Hitler that Franz Bernheim,[4] a Jew, was protected under the minority clauses established by the League in 1919 (that all minorities were fully human and held equal rights among all men). Hitler claimed these clauses violated Germany's sovereignty. Germany withdrew from the League, soon to be followed by many other aggressive powers. The onset of World War II showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to avoid any future world war. The United Nations replaced it after the end of the war and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League.

Castiglione

count of Novilara (December 6, 1478 - February 2, 1529)[1], was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.[2] He also produced a number of Latin poems, together with an elegy for the death of Raphael entitled De morte Raphaellis pictoris, and another elegy in which he imagined his dead wife was writing to him. In Italian prose, he wrote a prologue for Bibbiena's Calandria. In 1528, the year before his death, the book by which he is most famous, The Book of the Courtier (Il libro del Cortegiano), was published in Venice by the Aldine press[5] run by Andrea d'Asolo, father-in-law of Aldus Manutius. The book is based on a nostalgic recreation of Castiglione's experience at the court of Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro of Urbino at the turn of the sixteenth century. It describes the ideal court and courtier, going into great detail about the philosophical and cultured and lively conversations that occurred at Urbino, presided over byElisabetta Gonzaga. Castiglione himself does not contribute to the discussion, the book is his tribute to his friendship with the participants of the discussion, all of whom went on to have important positions. The Ducal Palace at Urbino, setting of the Book of the Courtier.

Bolshevik

derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority", which comes from bol'she, "more", the comparative form of bol'shoi, "big") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split apart from the Menshevik faction[3] at the Second Party Congress in 1903. The Bolsheviks were the majority faction in a crucial vote, hence their name. They ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[4] The Bolsheviks came to power in Russia during the October Revolution phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and founded the Soviet Union.

William Harvey

discovered the circulation of blood through the body. Dates? Context?

Tsar Alexander II

emperor of Russia (1855-81) His liberal education and distress at the outcome of the Crimean War, which had demonstrated Russia's backwardness, inspired him toward a great program of domestic reforms, the most important being the emancipation (1861) of the serfs. A period of repression after 1866 led to a resurgence of revolutionary terrorism and to Alexander's own assassination.

French Wars of Religion

fought between the Catholic League and the Huguenots from the March 1, 1562 massacre of 1,000 Hugeunots at Vassy to 1598. The French Wars of Religion (1562-98) is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise (Lorraine), and both sides received assistance from foreign sources. The exact number of wars and their respective dates are the subject of continued debate by historians; some assert that the Edict of Nantes in 1598 concludes the wars, while a resurgence of rebellious activity following this leads some to believe the Peace of Alais in 1629 is the actual conclusion. However, the Massacre of Vassy in 1562 is agreed to begin the Wars of Religion and the Edict of Nantes at least ended this series of conflicts. During this time, complex diplomatic negotiations and agreements of peace were followed by renewed conflict and power struggles

Polish Solidarity

is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard, and originally led by Lech Wałęsa. Solidarity was the first non-communist party controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. In the 1980s it constituted a broad anti-bureaucratic social movement. The government attempted to destroy the union during the period of martial law in the early 1980s and several years of political repression, but in the end it was forced to start negotiating with the union.

Revolutions of 1848

known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout the European continent. Described by some historians as a revolutionary wave, the period of unrest began in France and then, further propelled by the French Revolution of 1848, soon spread to the rest of Europe. Although most of the revolutions were quickly put down, there was a significant amount of violence in many areas, with tens of thousands of people tortured and killed. While the immediate political effects of the revolutions were largely reversed, the long-term reverberations of the events were far-reaching. Alexis de Tocqueville remarked in his Recollections of the period that "society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy, and those who had anything united in common terror."[3]

Utopian socialism

most often applied to those socialists who lived in the first quarter of the 19th century who were ascribed the label "utopian" by later socialists to convey negative attitudes and naivete to dismiss their ideas as fanciful or unrealistic. likened to scientists who drew up elaborate designs and concepts for creating a rational and more equal society. Charles Fourier, Robert Owen.

Reinsurance Treaty

n attempt by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to continue to ally with Russia after the League of the Three Emperors had broken down in the aftermath of the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. Facing the competition between Russia and Austria-Hungary on the Balkans, Bismarck felt that this agreement was essential to prevent a Russian convergence toward France and to continue the diplomatic isolation of the French so ensuring German security against a threatening two-front war. He thereby hazarded the expansion of the Russian sphere of influence toward the Mediterranenan and diplomatic tensions with Vienna. The secret treaty signed by Bismarck and the Russian Foreign Minister Nikolay Girs was split in two parts: 1. Germany and Russia both agreed to observe neutrality should the other be involved in a war with a third country. Neutrality would not apply should Germany attack France or Russia attack Austria-Hungary. 2. In the most secret completion protocol Germany declared herself neutral in the event of a Russian intervention in the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. As part of Bismarck's system of "periphere diversion" the treaty was highly dependent on his personal reputation. After the dismissal of Bismarck, his successor Leo von Caprivi felt unable to obtain success in keeping this policy, while the German Foreign Office under Friedrich von Holstein had already prepared a renunciation toward the Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary. When in 1890 Russia asked for a renewal of the treaty, Germany refused persistently. Kaiser Wilhelm II believed his own personal relationship with Tsar Alexander III would be sufficient to ensure further genial diplomatic ties and felt that maintaining a close bond with Russia would act to the detriment of his aims to attract Britain into the German sphere. Like the ongoing Austro-Russian conflict, the Anglo-Russian relations too were strained at this point due to the gaining influence of Russia in the Balkans and their aims to open up the Straits of the Dardanelles which would threaten British colonial interests in the Middle East. However, having become alarmed at its growing isolation, Saint Petersburg as Bismarck had feared entered into the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892 thus bringing to an end the French isolation. In 1896 the treaty was exposed by a German newspaper, the Hamburger Nachrichten, which caused an outcry in Germany and Austria-Hungary. The failure of this treaty is seen as one of the factors contributing to World War I, due to Germany's increasing sense of diplomatic isolation.

Concert of Europe

new arrangement for resolving mutual foreign policy issues. Prevented one nation from taking a major action in international affairs without working in concert with and obtaining the assent of the others. Goal was to maintain the balance of power in Europe. (Years? Background?)

February Revolution

occurred March 8-12 (February 23-27 Old Style) and its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the collapse ofImperial Russia and the end of the Romanov dynasty. The non-Communist Russian Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov replaced the Tsar. After the July Days, Lvov was succeeded by Alexander Kerensky. The Provisional Government was an alliance between liberals and socialists who wanted to instigate political reform, creating a democratically-elected executive andconstituent assembly. This revolution appeared to break out spontaneously, without any real leadership or formal planning. The tensions that had built up for so long finally exploded into a revolution, and the western city of Petrograd (called Saint Petersburg prior to the First World War) became the focal point of activity.[1] The February Revolution was followed in the same year by the October Revolution, bringing Bolshevik rule and a change in Russia's social structure, and paving the way for the USSR. The two revolutions constituted a change in the composition of the country: the first overthrew the Tsar, and the second instituted a new form of government.

Peterloo

occurred at St Peter's Field, Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000-80,000 gathered at a meeting to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment, exacerbated by the introduction of the first of the Corn Laws. By the beginning of 1819 the pressure generated by poor economic conditions, coupled with the lack of suffrage in northern England, had enhanced the appeal of political radicalism. In response, the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating for parliamentary reform, organised a demonstration to be addressed by the well-known radical orator Henry Hunt. Shortly after the meeting began, local magistrates called on the military authorities to arrest Hunt and several others on the hustings with him, and to disperse the crowd. Cavalry charged into the crowd with sabres drawn, and in the ensuing confusion, 15 people were killed and 400-700 were injured. The massacre was given the name Peterloo in ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier. Historian Robert Poole has called the Peterloo Massacre one of the defining moments of its age. In its own time, the London and national papers shared the horror felt in the Manchester region, but Peterloo's immediate effect was to cause the government to crack down on reform, with the passing of what became known as the Six Acts. It also led directly to the foundation of The Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian), but had little other effect on the pace of reform. Peterloo is commemorated by a plaque close to the site, which has been criticised as being inadequate. In a survey conducted by The Guardian in 2006, Peterloo came second to the Putney Debates as the event from British history that most deserved a proper monument or a memorial.

Treaty of Versailles

one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties. Although the armistice signed on 11 November 1918 ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty.

Thirty Years' War

one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. The war was fought primarily (though not exclusively) in what is now Germany and at various points involved most of the countries of Europe. Naval warfare also reached overseas and shaped the colonial formation of future nations. The origins of the conflict and goals of the participants were complex and no single cause can accurately be described as the main reason for the fighting. Initially the war was fought largely as a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, although disputes over the internal politics and balance of power within the Empire played a significant part. Gradually, the war developed into a more general conflict involving most of the European powers.[9][10] In this general phase, the war became more a continuation of the Bourbon-Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence, and in turn led to further warfare between France and the Habsburg powers, and less specifically about religion.[11] A major impact of the Thirty Years' War was the extensive destruction of entire regions, denuded by the foraging armies (bellum se ipsum alet). Episodes of famine and disease significantly decreased the populace of the German states, Bohemia, the Low Countries and Italy, while bankrupting most of the combatant powers. While the regiments within each army were not strictly mercenary in that they were not guns for hire that changed sides from battle to battle, the individual soldiers that made up the regiments for the most part probably were. The problem of discipline was made more difficult still by the ad hoc nature of 17th century military financing. Armies were expected to be largely self-funding from loot taken or tribute extorted from the settlements where they operated. This encouraged a form of lawlessness that imposed often severe hardship on inhabitants of the occupied territory. Some of the quarrels that provoked the war went unresolved for a much longer time. The Thirty Years' War was ended with the treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, part of the wider Peace of Westphalia.[12]

Charles V and Philip II

ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I of Spain, of the Spanish realms from 1506 until his abdication in 1556. At that time his realm, which has been described as "the empire on which the sun never sets", spanned nearly 4 million square kilometers across Europe, the Far East, and the Americas. As the heir of three of Europe's leading dynasties — the Habsburgs of the Archduchy of Austria; the Valois of the Duchy of Burgundy; and the Trastámara of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon — he ruled over a Spanish Empire of extensive domains in: Central, Western, and Southern Europe; and the Castilian (Spanish) colonies in North, Central, and South America, the Caribbean, and in Asia the Philippines Philip II- King of Spain (kingdoms of Castile, Navarra, this one disputed by the French and the Crown of Aragon) and Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. the son of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (who also reigned as Charles I of Spain) and his consort Isabella of Portugal. During his reign, Spain was the foremost Western European power. Under his rule, Spain reached the height of its influence and power, directing explorations all around the world and settling the colonization of territories in all the known continents

Balkan Crisis

state of severe international tension caused by the annexation by Austria-Hungary of the Balkan provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Congress of Berlin (1878) had given Austria-Hungary the right to occupy and administer Bosnia and Herzegovina temporarily, but the provinces officially remained possessions of the Ottoman Empire. Still, the Austrian administration tried mightily and at great expense to improve the strategically valuable region economically and to link it closely with Austria-Hungary.

Operation Barbarossa

the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941.[10][11] Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km (1,800 mile) front.[12] It was the largest military offensive in history. In addition to the large number of troops, it also involved 600,000 motor vehicles and 750,000 horses.[13] Planning for Operation Barbarossa started on 18 December 1940; the secret preparations and the military operation itself lasted almost a year, from spring to winter 1941.

New Imperialism

the colonial expansion adopted by Europe's powers and, later, Japan and the United States, during the 19th and early 20th centuries; expansion approximately took place from the Franco-Prussian War to World War I (c. 1870-1914). The period is distinguished by an unprecedented pursuit of what has been termed "empire for empire's sake," aggressive competition for overseas territorial acquisitions and the emergence in some colonizing countries of doctrines of racial superiority which purported to explain the unfitness of backward peoples for self-government.

National Convention (French Revolution)

the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October. It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic

Consulate

the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804. By extension, the term The Consulate also refers to this period of French history. During this period, Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul had established himself as the head of a more conservative, authoritarian, autocratic, and centralized republican government in France while not declaring himself head of state. Nevertheless, due to the long-lasting institutions established during these years, Robert B. Holtman has called the Consulate "one of the most important periods of all French history."[1]

Philosophes

the intellectuals of the 18th century Enlightenment.[1] Few were primarily philosophers; rather they were public intellectuals who applied reason to the study of many areas of learning, including philosophy, history, science, politics, economics and social issues. They had a critical eye and looked for weaknesses and failures that needed improvement. Pomoted a republic of letter for intellectuals, distrusted organied religion, and favored cross-cultural tolerance.

D-day

the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, also known as Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944, beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time (UTC+2). In planning, D-Day was the term used for the day of actual landing, which was dependent on final approval. The assault was conducted in two phases: an air assault landing of 24,000 American, British, Canadian and Free French airborne troops shortly after midnight, and an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armoured divisions on the coast of France commencing at 6:30 AM. There were also subsidiary 'attacks' mounted under the codenames Operation Glimmer and Operation Taxable to distract the German forces from the real landing areas.[4] The operation was the largest amphibious invasion of all time, with over 175,000[5] troops landing on 6 June 1944. 195,700[6] Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over 5,000[5] ships were involved. The invasion required the transport of soldiers and materiel from the United Kingdom by troop-laden aircraft and ships, the assault landings, air support, naval interdiction of the English Channel and naval fire-support. The landings took place along a 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

Paris Peace Conference 1919-1920

the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for Germany and other defeated nations, and to deal with the empires of the defeated powers following the Armistice of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 30 countries. They met, discussed and came up with a series of treaties (Peace of Paris Treaties) that reshaped the map of Europe and the world, and imposed guilt and stiff financial penalties on Germany. At its center were the leaders of the three "Great Powers": President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain , and Georges Clemenceau of France. Germany and Russia were not invited to attend, but numerous other nations did send delegations, each with a different agenda. Kings, prime ministers and foreign ministers with their crowds of advisers rubbed shoulders with journalists and lobbyists for a hundred causes, ranging from independence for the countries of the South Caucasus to women's rights. For six months Paris was effectively the center of a world government, as the peacemakers wound up bankrupt empires and created new countries. The most important results included a punitive peace treaty that declared Germany guilty, weakened its militarily, and required it to pay all the costs of the war to the winners. This was known as the War Guilt Clause that was included in the final Treaty of Versailles. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had ceased to exist as its disparate peoples created new states. The Conference also created the League of Nations.

Triple Entente

the name given to the alliance between the Great Britain, the French Third Republic, and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907. The Franco-Russian Alliance, along with the Anglo-Russian Entente and the Entente Cordiale, formed the Triple Entente between the British Empire, France and Russia. This was an effective deterrent to the Triple Alliance of the Central Powers and also a plan by the French to encircle Germany. The alliance of the three powers, supplemented by various agreements with Portugal, Japan, the United States, and Spain, constituted a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, the third having concluded an additional secret agreement with France effectively nullifying their alliance commitments.

The Marshall Plan

the primary program, 1947-51, of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger economic foundation for the countries of Western Europe. The initiative was named for Secretary of State George Marshall and was largely the creation of State Department officials, especially William L. Clayton and George F. Kennan. George Marshall spoke of the administration's desire to help European recovery in his address at Harvard University in June 1947.[1] The reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was established on June 5, 1947. It offered the same aid to the USSR and its allies, but they did not accept it.[2][3] The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948. During that period some US$13 billion in economic and technical assistance were given to help the recovery of the European countries that had joined in the Organization for European Economic Co-operation. This $13 billion was in the context of a U.S. GDP of $258 billion in 1948, and was on top of $12 billion in American aid to Europe between the end of the war and the start of the Plan.[4] The ERP addressed each of the obstacles to postwar recovery. The plan looked to the future, and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war. Much more important were efforts to modernize European industrial and business practices using high-efficiency American models, reduce artificial trade barriers, and instill a sense of hope and self-reliance.[5] By 1952 as the funding ended, the economy of every participant state had surpassed pre-war levels; for all Marshall plan recipients, output in 1951 was 35% higher than in 1938.[6] Over the next two decades, Western Europe enjoyed unprecedented growth and prosperity, but economists are not sure what proportion was due directly to the ERP, what proportion indirectly, and how much would have happened without it. The Marshall Plan was one of the first elements of European integration, as it erased trade barriers and set up institutions to coordinate the economy on a continental level—that is, it stimulated the total political reconstruction of western Europe.[7] Belgian economic historian Herman Van der Wee concludes the Marshall Plan was a "great success": "It gave a new impetus to reconstruction in Western Europe and made a decisive contribution to the renewal of the transport system, the modernization of industrial and agricultural equipment, the resumption of normal production, the raising of productivity, and the facilitating of intra-European trade."[8]

Enabling Act

the second Enabling Act, passed on 23 March 1933, by 444 votes to 94 votes, was the second stepping-stone after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which Adolf Hitler obtained dictatorial powers using largely legal means. The formal name of the Enabling Act was Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the State"). It carried a four-year sunset clause (and would also have lost force should another government have been appointed) but was renewed in 1937, 1941 and 1944. In contrast to the Article 48 of 1923, this Act covered changes to the constitution, accepting only the existence of the Reichstag, the Reichsrat and the office of President.

Romanov

the second and last imperial dynasty to rule over Russia, reigning from 1613 until the February Revolution abolished the crown in 1917. The later history of the Imperial House is sometimes referred to informally as the House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov. The Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, who was himself descended from a junior branch of the Oldenburgs, wedded into the Romanov family in the mid-eighteenth century. Though officially known as the House of Romanov, these descendants of the Romanov and Oldenburg Houses are sometimes referred to as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov.[1]

Scientific socialism (Radical socialism, AKA Marxism)

the term used by Friedrich Engels[1] to describe the social-political-economic theory pioneered by Karl Marx. The purported reason why this socialism is "scientific socialism" (as opposed to "utopian socialism") is because its theories are held to an empirical standard, observations are essential to its development, and these can result in changes/falsification of elements of theory. Although Marx denounced "utopian socialism", he never referred to his own ideas as "scientific socialism".

Henry VIII and the English Reformation

the series of events in 16th century England by which the Church of England first broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. These events were, in part, associated with the wider process of the European Protestant Reformation, a religious and political movement which affected the practice of Christianity across most of Europe during this period. Many factors contributed to the process: the decline of feudalism and the rise of nationalism, the rise of the common law, the invention of the printing press and increased circulation of the Bible, the transmission of new knowledge and ideas among scholars and the upper and middle classes. However, the various phases of the English Reformation, which also covered Wales and Ireland, were largely driven by changes in government policy, to which public opinion gradually accommodated itself. Based on Henry VIII's desire for an annulment of his marriage, the English Reformation was at the outset more of a political than a theological dispute. The reality of political differences between Rome and England allowed growing theological disputes to come to the fore.[1] Before the break with Rome, it was the Pope and general councils of the church that decided doctrine. Church law was governed by the code of canon law with final jurisdiction in Rome. Church taxes were paid straight to Rome and it was the Pope who had the final say over the appointment of bishops. The split from Rome made the English monarch the Supreme Governor of the English church by "Royal Supremacy", thereby making the Church of England the established church of the nation. Doctrinal and legal disputes now rested with the monarch and the papacy was deprived of revenue and the final say on the appointment of bishops. The structure and theology of the church was a matter of fierce dispute for generations. These disputes were finally ended by a coup d'état in 1688, from which emerged a church polity with an established church and a number of non-conformist churches whose members at first suffered various civil disabilities which were only removed over time, as did the substantial minority who remained Roman Catholic in England, whose church organization remained illegal until the nineteenth century.King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) and claimant to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Henry VIII was a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy. Although in the great part of his reign he brutally suppressed the influence of the Protestant Reformation in England,[1][2] a movement having some roots with John Wycliffe in the 14th century, he is more popularly known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry's struggles with Rome ultimately led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and establishing himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. He changed religious ceremonies and rituals and closed down the monasteries, while remaining a fervent believer in core Catholic theological teachings, even after his excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church following the annulment of his marriage to first wife Catherine of Aragon and the marriage to his second wife, Anne Boleyn.[1][3] Royal support for the English Reformation began with his heirs, the devout Edward VI and the renowned Elizabeth I, whilst daughter Mary I temporarily reinstated papal authority over England. Henry also oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542. He is also noted for his six wives, two of whom were beheaded.

Effects of the French Revolution

though it seemed a failure in 1799 and appeared nullified by 1815, had far-reaching results. In France the bourgeois and landowning classes emerged as the dominant power. Feudalism was dead; social order and contractual relations were consolidated by the Code Napoléon. The Revolution unified France and enhanced the power of the national state. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars tore down the ancient structure of Europe, hastened the advent of nationalism, and inaugurated the era of modern, total warfare

Peace of Westphalia

two peace treaties of Osnabrück (15 May 1648) and Münster (24 October 1648) that ended the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) between Spain and the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. Make sure you are familiar with its terms, including the formation of the Netherlands, the limitation of Holy Roman Empire power, and the updating of Cuius Regio.

Hundred Years' War

was a series of separate wars lasting from 1337 to 1453 between two royal houses for the French throne, which was vacant with the extinction of the senior HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Capet" \o "House of Capet" Capetian line of French kings. The two primary contenders were the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Valois" \o "House of Valois" House of Valois and the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet" \o "House of Plantagenet" House of Plantagenet, also known as the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Ch%C3%A2teaudun" \o "House of Châteaudun" House of Anjou. The House of Valois claimed the title of King of France, while the Plantagenets from England claimed to be Kings of France and England. Plantagenet Kings were the 12th century rulers of the Kingdom of England, and had their roots in the French regions of HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anjou" \o "Anjou" Anjou and HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy" \o "Normandy" Normandy. French soldiers fought on both sides, with HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Burgundy" \o "Duchy of Burgundy" Burgundy and HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquitaine" \o "Aquitaine" Aquitaine providing notable support for the Plantagenet side.

Peace of Augsburg

treaty between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes, on September 25, 1555, at the imperial city of Augsburg, now in present-day Bavaria, Germany. It officially ended the religious struggle between the two groups and made the legal division of Christendom permanent within the Holy Roman Empire. The Peace established the principle Cuius regio, eius religio, which allowed German princes to select either Lutheranism or Catholicism within the domains they controlled, ultimately reaffirming the independence they had over their states. Subjects, citizens, or residents who did not wish to conform to the prince's choice were given a period in which they were free to migrate to different regions in which their desired religion had been accepted.

Martin Luther

(10 November 1483 - 18 February 1546) was a German priest and professor of theology who initiated the Protestant Reformation.[1] Strongly disputing the claim that freedom from God's punishment of sin could be purchased with money, he confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. His refusal to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the emperor. Luther taught that salvation is not from good works, but a free gift of God, received only by grace through faith in Jesus as redeemer from sin

War of the Spanish Succession

(1701—1714) was fought among several European powers, principally the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, Portugal and the Duchy of Savoy, against the Kingdoms of France and Spain and the Electorate of Bavaria over a possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. In 1700, the last Spanish Habsburg King, Charles II of Spain died without issue, bequeathing his possessions to Philip, duc d'Anjou, grandson of his half-sister and King Louis XIV of France. Philip thereby became Philip V of Spain and since he was also the younger son of the Dauphin of France, Philip was indirectly in the line of succession of the French throne. The specter of the multi-continental empire of Spain passing under the control of Louis XIV provoked a massive coalition of powers to oppose the Duc d'Anjou's succession. The war began slowly as Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor fought to protect the Austrian Habsburg claim to the Spanish inheritance. As Louis XIV began to expand his territories, other European nations (chiefly England, Portugal and the Dutch Republic) entered on the Holy Roman Empire's side to check French expansion.

Voltaire

(21 November 1694 - 30 May 1778), a French Enlightenment writer and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and free trade. produced works in almost every literary form including plays, poetry, novels, essays, historical and scientific works, more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. an outspoken supporter of social reform, despite strict censorship laws and harsh penalties for those who broke them. he frequently made use of his works to criticize Catholic Churchdogma and the French institutions of his day. one of several Enlightenment figures (along with Montesquieu, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau) whose works and ideas influenced important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions.

Ivan the Terrible

(25 August 1530, Moscow - 28 March [O.S. 18 March] 1584,[1] Moscow) was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533. The epithet "Grozny" is associated with might, power and strictness, rather than horror or cruelty.[2][3][4] Ivan oversaw numerous changes in the transition from a medieval nation state to an empire and emerging regional power, and became the first Tsar of a new and more powerful nation. Historic sources present disparate accounts of Ivan's complex personality: he was described as intelligent and devout, yet given to rages and prone to episodic outbreaks of mental illness. One notable outburst may have resulted in the death of his groomed and chosen heir Ivan Ivanovich, which led to the passing of the Tsardom to the younger son: the weak and possibly mentally retarded[5] Feodor I of Russia. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state spanning almost 1 billion acres, growing during his term at a rate of approximately 130 square kilometers a day.[6]

Rousseau

(28 June 1712 - 2 July 1778) was a major Genevois philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th-centuryEnlightenment. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought. His novel, Emile: or, On Education, which he considered his most important work, is a seminal treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel, Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse, was of great importance to the development of pre-Romanticism[1] andromanticism in fiction.[2] Rousseau's autobiographical writings: his Confessions, which initiated the modern autobiography, and his Reveries of a Solitary Walker were among the pre-eminent examples of the late 18th-century movement known as the "Age of Sensibility", featuring an increasing focus on subjectivity and introspection that has characterized the modern age. Rousseau also made important contributions to music as a theorist. During the period of the French Revolution, Rousseau was the most popular of the philosophes among members of the Jacobin Club. He was interred as a national hero in the Panthéon in Paris, in 1794, 16 years after his death.

Jean Baptiste Colbert

(29 August 1619 - 6 September 1683) served as the French minister of finance from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing and bringing the economy back from the brink of bankruptcy. Historians note that, despite Colbert's efforts, France actually became increasingly impoverished because of the King's excessive spending on wars. Colbert worked to create a favourable balance of trade and increase France's colonial holdings. Historians of mercantilism consider Colbert a key figure. Colbert's plan was to build a general academy. Colbert's market reforms included the foundation of the Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs in 1665 to supplant the importation of Venetian glass (forbidden in 1672, as soon as French glass manufacture was on a sound basis) and to encourage the technical expertise of Flemish cloth manufacturing in France. He also founded royal tapestry works at Gobelins and supported those at Beauvais. Colbert worked to improve the economy via tariffs and the construction of internal improvements. In regard to foreign markets, Colbert aimed to ensure that the French East India Company could obtain coffee, cotton, dyewoods, fur, pepper, and sugar. In addition, Colbert founded a French merchant marine. Colbert issued more than 150 edicts to regulate the guilds. One such law had the intention of improving the quality of cloth. The edict declared that if the authorities found a merchant's cloth unsatisfactory on three separate occasions, they were to tie him to a post with the cloth attached to him.

Caravaggio

(29 September 1571, Milan - 18 July 1610) was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His intensely emotional realism and dramatic use of lighting had a formative influence on the Baroque school of painting.[1]

Louis XIV

(5 September 1638 - 1 September 1715), known as the Sun King (French: le Roi Soleil), was King of France and of Navarre.[1] His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.[2] Louis began personally governing France in 1661 after the death of his prime minister, the Italian Cardinal Mazarin.[3] An adherent of the theory of the divine right of kings, which advocates the divine origin and lack of temporal restraint of monarchical rule, Louis continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralized state governed from the capital. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France and, by compelling the noble elite to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during Louis' minority.

Michelangelo

(6 March 1475 - 18 February 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo's output in every field during his long life was prodigious; when the sheer volume of correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences that survive is also taken into account, he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century. Two of his best-known works, thePietà and David, were sculpted before he turned thirty. Despite his low opinion of painting, Michelangelo also created two of the most influential works in fresco in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling and The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library. At 74 he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of Saint Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan, the western end being finished to Michelangelo's design, the dome being completed after his death with some modification.

David Hume

(7 May 1711 [26 April O.S.] - 25 August 1776) a Scottish philosopher, economist, historian and an important figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment. often grouped with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others as a British Empiricist. During his lifetime, Hume was more famous as a historian; his six-volume History of England was a bestseller well into the nineteenth century and the standard work on English history for many years, while his works in philosophy to which he owes his current reputation were less widely read during his day.

Peter the Great

(9 June [O.S. 30 May] 1672 - 8 February [O.S. 28 January] 1725)[1] ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May [O.S. 27 April] 1682 until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V. He carried out a policy of modernization and expansion that transformed the Tsardom of Russia into a 3-billion acre Russian Empire, a major European power.

Leonardo Da Vinci

(April 15, 1452 - May 2, 1519), was an Italian polymath: painter, sculptor,architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention.[1] He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.[2] According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote".[1] Marco Rosci points out, however, that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time.[3]

Petrarch

(July 20, 1304 - July 19, 1374), known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliestRenaissance humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism".[1] Based on Petrarch's works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio and above all Dante Alighieri, Pietro Bembo in the 16th century created the model for the modern Italian language, later endorsed by the Accademia della Crusca. His sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. Petrarch was also known for being one of the first people to refer to the Dark Ages.

Absolutism

(c. 1610 - c.1789) a form of monarchical power that is unrestrained by all other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites. used in conjunction with some European monarchs during the transition from feudalism to capitalism, and monarchs described as absolute can especially be found in the 16th century through the 19th century. Absolutism is characterized by the ending of feudal partitioning, consolidation of power with the monarch, rise of state power, unification of the state laws, and a decrease in the influence of the Church and the nobility

William and Mary

.The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the joint sovereignty over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, of King William III & II and Queen Mary II. Their joint reign began in February, 1689, when they were called to the throne by Parliament, replacing James II & VII, Mary's father and William's uncle/father-in-law, who was "deemed to have fled" the country in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. After Mary died in 1694, William ruled alone until his death in 1702. Their rule was the only period in British history in which "joint sovereigns" with equal powers were allowed to reign; Philip and Mary I were joint sovereigns, but Philip was not equal to Mary. [1] William and Mary were childless and were ultimately succeeded by Mary's younger sister, Anne. [edit] Historic impact To end the Glorious Revolution, William and Mary signed the English Bill of Rights, and began a new co-operation between the Parliament and the monarchs, leading to a greater measure of personal liberty and democracy in Britain. This action both signaled the end of several centuries of tension and conflict between the English crown and parliament, and the end of the idea that England would be restored to Roman Catholicism, King William being a Protestant leader. The English Bill of Rights also inspired the English colonists in North America to revolt against the rule of James II and his proposed changes in colonial governance. These colonial revolts occurred in Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland.[2] The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, was established by royal charter in 1693 and named in the monarchs' honor.

Council of Trent

16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important[1] councils. It convened in Trent (then capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Trent, inside the Holy Roman Empire, now in modern Italy) between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods. Council fathers met for the first through eighth sessions in Trent (1545-1547). The council issued condemnations on what it defined as Protestant heresies and defined Church teachings in the areas of Scripture and Tradition, Original Sin, Justification, Sacraments, the Eucharist in Holy Mass and the veneration of saints. It issued numerous reform decrees.[3] By specifying Catholic doctrine on salvation, the sacraments, and the Biblical canon, the Council was answering Protestant disputes.

Dante

Dante Alighieri (May/June c.1265 - September 14, 1321), commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. He was born in Florence. He died and is buried in Ravenna. The name Dante is, according to the words of Jacopo Alighieri, a hypocorism for Durante. In contemporary documents it is followed by the patronymic Alagherii or de Alagheriis; it was Boccaccio who popularized the form Alighieri. His Divine Comedy, originally called Commedia by the author and later nicknamed Divina by Boccaccio, is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.[1] In Italy he is known as "the Supreme Poet" (il Sommo Poeta) or just il Poeta. Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio are also known as "the three fountains" or "the three crowns". Dante is also called the "Father of the Italian language". The first biography written on him was by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), who wrote the Trattatello in laude di Dante.[2] 15

Kepler

December 27, 1571 - November 15, 1630) was a German mathematician, astronomer andastrologer, and key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution. He is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. They also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation. Kepler described his new astronomy as "celestial physics",[2] as "an excursion into Aristotle's Metaphysics",[3] and as "a supplement to Aristotle's On the Heavens",[4] transforming the ancient tradition of physical cosmology by treating astronomy as part of a universal mathematical physics.[5]

Frederick the Great

He was another enlightened absolutist and a correspondent of Voltaire. Attacked Austria and claimed Silesia, winning military acclaim. First Partition of Poland to unite his realm. (Dates? Context?)

Henri IV

King of France from 1589 to 1610 and (as Henry III) King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. His parents were Queen Jeanne III and King Antoine of Navarre.[1] As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before ascending the throne in 1589. Before his coronation as king of France at Chartres, he changed his faith from Calvinism to Catholicism and, in 1598, he enacted the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed religious liberties to the Protestants and thereby effectively ended the civil war. One of the most popular French kings, both during and after his reign, Henry showed great care for the welfare of his subjects and displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the time. He was assassinated by a fanatical Catholic, François Ravaillac.[2] Henry was nicknamed Henry the Great (Henri le Grand), and in France is also called le bon roi Henri ("the good king Henry") or le Vert galant ("the Green gallant"), a reference to both his dashing character and his attractiveness to women. In English he is most often referred to as Henry of Navarre. He also gave his name to the Henry IV style of architecture, which he patronised. He is the eponymous subject of the royal anthem of France, "Marche Henri IV".

Brothers of the Common Life

Roman Catholic religious community founded in the 14th century by HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Groote" \o "Gerard Groote" Gerard Groote, formerly a successful and worldly educator who had had a religious experience and preached a life of simple devotion to HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ" \o "Jesus Christ" Jesus Christ. The Brethren's confraternity is best known for having inspired the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Devotion" \o "Modern Devotion" Modern Devotion. The Confraternity of the Common Life were in many ways similar to the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beghard" \o "Beghard" Beghard and HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beguine" \o "Beguine" Beguine communities which had flourished two centuries earlier and were by then declining. Its members took no vows, neither asked nor received alms; their first aim was to cultivate the interior life, and they worked for their daily bread. The houses of the brothers and sisters occupied themselves exclusively with literature and education, and their HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest" \o "Priest" priests also with preaching.

Seven Years' War

The Seven Years' War was a major military conflict that lasted from 1756 until the conclusion of the treaties of Hubertusburg and Paris in 1763. It involved all of the major European powers of the period. The war pitted Prussia and Great Britain and a coalition of smaller German states against an alliance consisting of Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. Russia temporarily changed sides in the later stages of the war. Portugal (on the side of Great Britain) and Spain (on the side of France) entered the conflict later, and a force from the neutral Dutch Republic was attacked in India. War in Europe began in 1756 with the French siege of British Minorca in the Mediterranean Sea, and Frederick the Great of Prussia's invasion of Saxony on the continent which also upset the firmly established Pragmatic Sanction put in place by Charles VI of Austria.

Weber Thesis (by Max Weber)

Weber defined the state as an entity which claims a "monopoly on the legitimate use of violence", His analysis of bureaucracy in his Economy and Society is still central to the modern study of organizations. Weber was the first to recognize several diverse aspects of social authority, which he respectively categorized according to their charismatic, traditional, and legal forms, thus noted that modern state institutions are based on a form of rational-legal authority. Weber's thought regarding the rationalizing and secularizing tendencies of modern Western society would come to facilitate critical theory,

Versailles

a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial center. Located in the western suburbs of the French capital, 17.1 km (10.6 mi) from the center of Paris, the commune of Versailles is the préfecture (administrative seat) of the Yvelines department. According to the 2006 census, the population of the city is 89,490 inhabitants, down from a peak of 94,145 in 1975. Versailles is historically known for numerous treaties such as Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the American Revolutionary War and the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I.

Great Northern War

a coalition of numerous states successfully contested Swedish supremacy in northern Central and Eastern Europe. Initially, the anti-Swedish alliance comprised Peter the Great of Russia, Frederik IV of Denmark-Norway and August the Strong of Saxe-Poland-Lithuania. Frederik IV and August the Strong were forced out of the alliance in 1700 and 1706, respectively, but re-joined it in 1709. George I of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and Great Britain joined the coalition in 1714 for Hanover and 1717 for Britain, and Frederick William I of Brandenburg-Prussia in 1715. On the Swedish side were Holstein-Gottorp, between 1704 and 1710 several Polish and Lithuanian magnates under Stanisław Leszczyński and between 1708 and 1710 cossacks under Ivan Mazepa. The Ottoman Empire temporarily hosted Charles XII of Sweden and intervened against Peter the Great. The war started with a three-fold attack on Holstein-Gottorp, Swedish Livonia and Swedish Ingria by Denmark-Norway, Saxe-Poland-Lithuania and Russia, respectively. Sweden parried the Danish and Russian attacks in Travendal and Narva, and in a counter-offensive pushed August the Strong's forces through Lithuania and Poland to Saxony, dethroning him on the way and forcing him to acknowledge defeat in Altranstädt. Peter the Great had meanwhile recovered and gained ground in Sweden's Baltic provinces, where he cemented Russia's access to the Baltic Sea by founding Saint Petersburg. Charles XII moved from Saxony into Russia to confront Peter, but the campaign ended with the destruction of the main Swedish army in Poltava and Charles XII's exile in Ottoman Bender. Russian pursuit was halted at the Pruth by the Ottoman army. After Poltava, the initial anti-Swedish coalition was re-established and subsequently joined by Hanover and Prussia. The remaining Swedish forces south and east of the Baltic Sea were evicted from the Swedish dominions, which the allies partitioned among themselves. Sweden proper was invaded by Denmark-Norway from the West and by Russia from the East. Though the Danish attacks were repulsed, Russia managed to occupy Finland and inflict severe losses on the Swedish navy and coastal fortresses. Charles XII opened up a Norwegian front, but was killed in Fredriksten in 1718. The war ended with a defeat for Sweden, leaving Russia as the new major power in the Baltic Sea and a new important player in European politics. The formal conclusion of the war was marked by the Swedish-Hanoveranian and Swedish-Prussian Treaties of Stockholm (1719), the Dano-Swedish Treaty of Frederiksborg (1720), and the Russo-Swedish Treaty of Nystad (1721). Therein, Sweden ceded all her dominions except for the northern part of Swedish Pomerania, her exemption from the sound dues, and broke ties with Holstein-Gottorp. Hanover gained Bremen-Verden, Brandenburg-Prussia incorporated the Oder estituary, Russia secured the Baltic provinces, and Denmark her position in Schleswig-Holstein. In Sweden, the absolute monarchy had come to an end with Charles XII's death, and the Age of Liberty began.

Deism

a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this (and religious truth in general) can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without the need for either faith or organized religion. Many Deists reject the notion that God intervenes in human affairs, for example through miracles and revelations. These views contrast with the dependence on revelations, miracles, and faith found in many Jewish, Christian, Islamic and other theistic teachings.

War of the Roses

a series of dynastic civil wars between supporters of the rival houses of Lancaster and York, for the throne of England. fought in several spasmodic episodes between 1455 and 1485 (although there was related fighting both before and after this period). The war ended with the victory of the Earl of Richmond,Henry Tudor, who founded the House of Tudor, which subsequently ruled England and Wales for 117 years.

Glorious Revolution

also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (VII of Scotland and II of Ireland) in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians with an invading army led by the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange) who, as a result, ascended the English throne as William III of England. The crisis besetting King James II came to a head in 1688, when the King fathered a son, James Francis Edward Stuart on 10 June (Julian calendar).[1] Until then the throne would have passed to his daughter, Mary, a Protestant and the wife of William of Orange. The prospect of a Catholic dynasty in the kingdoms was now likely. Already troubled by the King's Catholicism and his close ties with France, key leaders of the Tories united with members of the opposition Whigs and set out to resolve the crisis by inviting William of Orange to England.[2] The expression "Glorious Revolution" was first used by John Hampden in late 1689,[3] and is an expression that is still used by the British Parliament.[4] The Glorious Revolution is also occasionally termed the Bloodless Revolution, albeit inaccurately. In England there were two significant clashes between the two armies, and anti-Catholic riots in several towns.[5] There was also the Williamite War in Ireland and serious fighting in Scotland (notably the Battles of Killicrankie and the Dunkeld).[6] The revolution also led to the collapse of the Dominion of New England and the overthrow of Maryland's government. The Revolution is closely tied in with the events of the War of the Grand Alliance on mainland Europe, and may be seen as the last successful invasion of England.[7] It can be argued that James's overthrow began modern English parliamentary democracy: never since has the monarch held absolute power, and the Bill of Rights has become one of the most important documents in the political history of Britain. The deposition of the Roman Catholic James II ended any chance of Catholicism becoming re-established in England, and also led to limited toleration for nonconformist Protestants — it would be some time before they had full political rights. For Catholics, however, it was disastrous both socially and politically. Catholics were denied the right to vote and sit in the Westminster Parliament for over 100 years afterwards. They were also denied commissions in the army and the monarch was forbidden to be Catholic or marry a Catholic, thus ensuring a Protestant succession. The invasion ended all attempts by England, in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century, to subdue the Dutch Republic by military force. However, the personal union, the common market and the co-operation between the English and Dutch navies shifted the dominance in world trade from the Republic to England (and then to the United Kingdom of Great Britain).

Mercantilism

an economic theory, considered to be a form of economic nationalism,[1] that holds that the prosperity of a nation is dependent upon its supply of capital, and that the global volume of international trade is "unchangeable". Economic assets (or capital) are represented by bullion (gold, silver, and trade value) held by the state, which is best increased through a positive balance of trade with other nations (exports minus imports). The theory assumes that wealth and monetary assets are identical. Mercantilism suggests that the ruling government should advance these goals by playing a protectionist role in the economy by encouraging exports and discouraging imports, notably through the use of tariffs and subsidies.[2] The theory dominated Western European economic policies from the 16th to the late-18th century.[1]

John Calvin

an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530. After religious tensions provoked a violent uprising against Protestants in France, Calvin fled to Basel, Switzerland, where in 1536 he published the first edition of his seminal work Institutes of the Christian Religion. In that year, Calvin was invited by William Farel to help reform the church in Geneva. The city council resisted the implementation of Calvin and Farel's ideas, and both men were expelled. At the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg, where he became the minister of a church of French refugees. He continued to support the reform movement in Geneva, and was eventually invited back to lead its church. Following his return, he introduced new forms of church government and liturgy, despite the opposition of several powerful families in the city who tried to curb his authority. During this period, Michael Servetus, a Spaniard known for his heretical views, arrived in Geneva. He was denounced by Calvin and executed by the city council. Following an influx of supportive refugees and new elections to the city council, Calvin's opponents were forced out. Calvin spent his final years promoting the Reformation both in Geneva and throughout Europe. Calvin was a tireless polemic and apologetic writer who generated much controversy. He also exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers including Philipp Melanchthon and Heinrich Bullinger. In addition to the Institutes, he wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible as well as theological treatises and confessional documents, and he regularly gave sermons throughout the week in Geneva. Calvin was influenced by the Augustinian tradition, which led him to expound the doctrine of predestination and the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation. Calvin's writing and preachings provided the seeds for the branch of theology that bears his name. The Presbyterian and other Reformed churches, which look to Calvin as a chief expositor of their beliefs, have spread throughout the world.

Catherine the Great

born 2 May [O.S. 21 April] 1729 Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg in Stettin, Pomerania, reigned as Empress of Russia from 9 July [O.S. 28 June] 1762 until her death (17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796). Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved its administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines. Catherine's rule re-vitalized Russia, which grew ever stronger and became recognized as one of the great powers of Europe. Her successes in complex foreign policy and her sometimes brutal reprisals in the wake of rebellion (most notably Pugachev's Rebellion) complemented her hectic private life. Catherine took power after a conspiracy deposed her husband, Peter III (1728-1762), and her reign saw the high point in the influence of the Russian nobility. Peter III, under pressure from the nobility, had already increased the authority of the great landed proprietors over their muzhiks and serfs. In spite of the duties imposed on the nobles by the first prominent "modernizer" of Russia, Tsar Peter I (1672-1725), and despite Catherine's friendships with the western European thinkers of the Enlightenment (in particular Denis Diderot, Voltaire and Montesquieu) Catherine found it impractical to improve the lot of her poorest subjects, who continued to suffer (for example) military conscription.[1] The distinctions between peasant rights on votchina and pomestie estates virtually disappeared in law as well as in practice during her reign. In 1775 Catherine decreed a Statute for the Administration of the Provinces of the Russian Empire. The Statute sought to efficiently govern Russia by increasing population and dividing the country into provinces and districts. By the end of her reign, there were fifty provinces, nearly 500 districts, more than double the government officials, and they were spending six times as much as previously on local government. In 1785 Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the Nobility, increasing further the power of the landed oligarchs. Nobles in each district elected a Marshal of the Nobility who spoke on their behalf to the monarch on issues of concern to them, mainly economic ones. In the same year, Catherine issued the Charter of the Towns which distributed all people into six groups in order to control the power of nobles and create a middle estate. Each of these charters had major flaws, and Catherine seemingly could not gain the reform she had long desired for her country; after her death, this was made even more obvious through her son Paul.

Indulgences

in Catholic theology, is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment[1] due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution.[2] The belief is that indulgences draw on the Treasure House of Merit accumulated by Jesus' sacrifice and the virtues and penances of the saints.[3] They are granted for specific good works and prayers. (Context in the Reformation?)

Witchcraft

in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of supernatural or magical powers. Witchcraft can refer to the use of such powers in order to inflict harm or damage upon members of a community or their property. Other uses of the term distinguish between bad witchcraft and good witchcraft, the latter involving the use of these powers to heal someone from bad witchcraft. The concept of witchcraft is normally treated as a cultural ideology, a means of explaining human misfortune by blaming it either on a supernatural entity or a known person in the community.[1] A witch (from Old English wicce f. / wicca m.) is a practitioner of witchcraft. The 17th century family was smaller and less dependent on the whole family for work.

Black Death

one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague. The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in 1400. This has been seen as creating a series of religious, social and economic upheavals which had profound effects on the course of European history.

Medieval Age

period of European history from the 5th century through the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in the 15th century and reflects the view that this period was a deviation from the path of classical learning, a path supposedly reconnected by Renaissance scholarship.

Dutch Wars (1667-1678)

the Anglo-Dutch Wars (Dutch: Engels-Nederlandse Oorlogen or Engelse Zeeoorlogen) were fought in the 17th and 18th centuries between England (later the Kingdom of Great Britain during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War) and the United Provinces for control over the seas and trade routes. They are known as the Dutch Wars in England and as the English Wars in the Netherlands.

The Reformation

the European Christian reform movement that established Protestantism as a constituent branch of contemporary Christianity. It began in 1517 when Martin Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses, and concluded in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia that ended one hundred and thirty-one years of consecutive European religious wars. Calvin, Zwingli, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Charles V, Francis I all connect to this as well.

Enlightenment

the era in Western philosophy and intellectual, scientific and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority. Developing simultaneously in Germany, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, the movement was buoyed by Atlantic Revolutions, especially the success of the American Revolution in breaking free of the British Empire. Most of Europe was caught up, including the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia, and Scandinavia, along with Latin America in instigating the Haitian Revolution. The authors of the American Declaration of Independence, the United States Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and the Polish-Lithuanian Constitution of May 3, 1791, were motivated by Enlightenment principles.[1] The terminology "Enlightenment" or "Age of Enlightenment" does not represent a single movement or school of thought, for these philosophies were often mutually contradictory or divergent. The Enlightenment was less a set of ideas than it was a set of values. At its core was a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals. Thus, there was still a considerable degree of similarity between competing philosophies. Also, some philosophical schools of the period could not be considered part of the Enlightenment at all. Some classifications of this period also include the late seventeenth century, which is typically known as the Age of Reason or Age of Rationalism, as part of the Enlightenment; however, the Age of Reason is more commonly considered a prelude to the ideas of the Enlightenment. [2]

Dutch Revolt

the partially successful revolt of the Seventeen Provinces in the Low Countries against the Spanish Empire. It led to the formation of the independent Dutch state of the Netherlands and marked the beginning of the Eighty Years' War. The first leader was William of Orange, followed by several of his descendants and relations. This revolt was one of the first successful secessions in Europe, and led to one of the first European republics of the modern era, although the country would become a monarchy 250 years later. Spain was initially successful in suppressing the rebellion. In 1572, however, the rebels captured Brielle and the rebellion resurged. The northern provinces became independent, first de facto, and in 1648 de jure. During the revolt, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, better known as the Dutch Republic, rapidly grew to become a world power through its merchant shipping and experienced a period of economic, scientific, and cultural growth. The Southern Netherlands (situated in modern-day Belgium, Luxembourg, northern France and southern Netherlands; see Spanish Netherlands and French Netherlands) remained under Spanish rule. The continuous heavy-handed rule by the Spanish in the south caused many of its financial, intellectual, and cultural elite to flee north, contributing to the success of the Dutch Republic. The Dutch imposed a rigid blockade on the southern provinces which prevented Baltic grain relieving famine in the southern towns, especially in the years 1587-9. Additionally, by the end of the war in 1648 large areas of the Southern Netherlands had been lost to France which had, under the guidance of Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII of France, allied itself with the Dutch Republic in the 1630s against Spain. The first phase of the conflict can be considered to be the Dutch War of Independence. The focus of the latter phase was to gain official recognition of the already de facto independence of the United Provinces. This phase coincided with the rise of the Dutch Republic as a major power and the founding of the Dutch colonial empire.

Counter Reformation

the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648. The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of five major elements:: 1. Ecclesiastical or structural reconfiguration 2. Religious orders 3. Spiritual movements 4. Political dimensions Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality.

Treaty of Paris

was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War.[1] The treaty marked the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance outside Europe.[2] Notably, the treaty did not involve either Prussia or Austria who signed a separate Treaty of Hubertusburg. France gave up Canada and all of its claims to the territory east of the Mississippi River to Britain.[4] Spain ceded Florida to the British, but later received New Orleans and French Louisiana from the French; Manila and Cuba were restored to Spain. France retained Saint Pierre and Miquelon and recovered Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Saint Lucia in exchange for Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tobago going to the British. In India, the French lost out to the British, receiving back its "factories" (trading posts), but agreeing to support the British client governments, as well as returning Sumatra and agreeing not to base troops in Bengal. The Mediterranean island of Minorca was returned to British control

John Locke

widely known as the Father of Liberalism,[2][3][4] was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered the first of the British empiricists, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the American Declaration of Independence.[5] Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume, Rousseau and Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. Contrary to pre-existing Cartesian philosophy, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception.[6]

Gustavus Adolphus

widely known in English by the Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus and variously in historical writings sometimes as simply just Gustavus, or Gustavus the Great, or Gustav Adolf the Great, (Swedish: Gustav Adolf den store, from the special distinction passed by the Swedish Parliament in 1634), was founder of the Swedish Empire (or Stormaktstiden - "the era of great power") at the beginning of what is widely regarded as the Golden Age of Sweden. In the era, which was characterized by nearly endless warfare, he led his armies as King of Sweden—from 1611, as a seventeen year old, until his death in battle while leading a charge during 1632 in the bloody Thirty Years' war—as Sweden rose from the status as a mere regional power and run-of-the-mill kingdom to one of the great powers of Europe and a model of early modern era government. Sweden expanded to become the third biggest nation in Europe after Russia and Spain within only a few years during his reign. Some have called him the "father of modern warfare"[1], or the first great modern general. Under his tutelage, Sweden and the Protestant cause developed a host of good generals, Lennart Torstenson for example who won the second battle of Breitenfeld, who continued to expand the empire's strength and influence long after his death in battle. He was known by the epithets "The Golden King" and "The Lion of the North" by neighboring sovereigns. Gustavus Adolphus is today commemorated by city squares in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Sundsvall. Gustavus Adolphus College, a Lutheran college in St. Peter, Minnesota, is also named for the Swedish king.