AP Euro Unit 9
Russo-Japanese War
"the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were Southern Manchuria, specifically the area around the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden; and the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea. Russia sought a warm water port 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 impractical. Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as a Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused this, so Japan chose war to counter what it described as Russian aggression in Asia. After discussions broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy attacked the Russian eastern fleet at Port Arthur, a naval base in the Liaotung province leased to Russia by China, which led to war. The Japanese defeated the Russians in a series of battles on land and at sea. The resulting campaigns, in which the Japanese military attained victory over the Russian forces arrayed against them, were unexpected by world observers. Over time, the consequences of these battles would transform the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage.
Balkan War of 1876-8
(I think it's this, but I'm not entirely sure) fought between the Principality of Serbia and the Ottoman Empire from the Serbian declaration of war on 30 June 1876 until the Treaty of San Stefano of 3 March 1878. In 1876 Serbia couldn′t lead offensive war with aim to destroy Ottoman Empire, but could lead a war with limited aims. Serbia deployed larger number of units at the beginning of the war. Serbia commanding fragmented those forces, without distinctive attacking point which allowed Ottomans to at first stop Serbian offensive and then in counteroffensive to beat fragmented Serbian forces with their concentrated attacks. Concentration forces on left side bank of South Morava gave Ottomans double supremacy on the battlefield and during autumn they have continued their successful offensive which was crowned with victory on Đunis height. During final truce signing, situation of Serbian forces was not as bad as it looked because Ottomans were not capable to continue their offensive because of very bad operative position and general strategic situation, so they needed peace as much as Serbs did. The war merged with the Bulgarian uprising, the Montenegrin War and the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78). Ottoman victory in the first stage (1876-1877); Serbian victory and independence in the second stage (1877-1878)
Marie Curie
(her husband Pierre helped out as well) a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.
Irrationalism
19th- and early 20th-century philosophical movement that claimed to enrich the apprehension of human life by expanding it beyond the rational to its fuller dimensions. Rooted either in metaphysics or in an awareness of the uniqueness of human experience, it stressed the dimensions of instinct, feeling, and will as over and against reason. Bergson, Schopenauer, Nietzche
la Belle Epoque
A period in French and Belgian history that is conventionally dated as starting in 1871 and ending when World War I began in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Third French Republic (beginning 1870), it was a period characterized by optimism, peace at home and in Europe, new technology and scientific discoveries. The peace and prosperity in Paris allowed the arts to flourish, and many masterpieces of literature, music, theater, and visual art gained recognition. Coincides with Gilded Age in US.
League of the Three Emperors
AKA Dreikaiserbund an alliance between Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary, from 1873 to 1887. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck took full charge of German foreign policy from 1870 to his dismissal in 1890. His goal was a peaceful Europe, based on the balance of power. Bismarck feared that a hostile combination of Austria, France and Russia would crush Germany. If two of them were allied, then the third would ally with Germany only if Germany conceded excessive demands. The solution was to ally with two of the three. In 1873 he formed this league, an alliance of the kaiser of Germany, the Tsar of Russia, and the emperor of Austria-Hungary. Together they would control Eastern Europe, making sure that restive ethnic groups such as the Poles were kept in control. The Balkans posed a more serious issue, and Bismarck's solution was to give Austria predominance in the western areas, and Russia in the eastern areas.
Reform Act of 1884 (British)
AKA Third Reform Act a law which further extended the suffrage in Britain after the Disraeli Government's Reform Act 1867. It extended the same voting qualifications as existed in the towns to the countryside, and essentially established the modern one member constituency as the normal pattern for Parliamentary representation. The act extended the 1867 concessions from the boroughs to the countryside. All men paying an annual rental of £10 or all those holding land valued at £10 now had the vote. The British electorate now totaled over 5,500,000. An Act a year later redistributed constituencies, giving more representation to urban areas (especially London). It did not establish universal suffrage: although the size of the electorate was widened considerably, all women and 40% of adult males were still without the vote at the time.
Public Health Act of 1875
An Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to combat filthy urban living conditions, which caused various public health threats, including the spread of many diseases such as cholera and typhus. Reformers wanted to resolve sanitary problems, because sewage was flowing down the street daily, including the presence of sewage in living quarters. The Act required all new residential construction to include running water and an internal drainage system. This Act also led to the government prohibiting the construction of shoddy housing by building contractors. The Act also meant that every public health authority had to have a medical officer and a sanitary inspector, to ensure the laws on food, housing, water and hygiene were carried out.
Robert Baden-Powell
Founder of Boy Scouts a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder of the Scout Movement and first Chief Scout of The Boy Scouts Association. After having been educated at Charterhouse School, he served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910 in India and Africa. In 1899, during the Second Boer War in South Africa, he successfully defended the town in the Siege of Mafeking. Several of his military books, written for military reconnaissance and scout training in his African years, were also read by boys. Based on those earlier books, he wrote Scouting for Boys, published in 1908 by Sir Arthur Pearson, for youth readership. In 1907, he held the first Brownsea Island Scout camp, which is now seen as the beginning of Scouting.
Third Republic
France's government from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed, to 1940, when France's defeat by Nazi Germany led to the Vichy France government. Vichy was replaced by the French Fourth Republic.
German Social Democrat Party (SDP)
In charge in Germany after the Emperor and his High Command of the Army bowed out. Marxist but revisionist (toned-down, pre-Leninist). Led by union officials and party managers. In 1912, SDs been largest group in the Reichstag. By 1918 they were prudent, cautious, conservative. Bolshevik Revolution had effect of making SDs seem moderate. Awkward spot to be in during hard times. They were between the pro-Bolshevik movt in Germany on their "left" and the junkers on their "right." Basically, more afraid of the left than the right since the latter largely discredited because of outcome of the war. The SDs formed a coalition with the Center Party(Catholic & conservative) and the Liberal Democrats in the new Constituent Assembly.
Pope Pius IX
Pope from 16 June 1846 to his death in 1878. He was the longest-reigning elected pope in the history of the Catholic Church — totalling nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council (1869-1870), which decreed papal infallibility, but the council was cut short. He defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, meaning that Mary was conceived without original sin. He also granted the Marian title of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, a famous Byzantine icon from Crete entrusted to the Redemptorist priests. In addition to this, he was also the last pope to rule as the Sovereign of the Papal States, which fell completely to Italian nationalist armies in 1870 and were incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. After this, he was referred to as the "Prisoner of the Vatican".
Pope Leo XIII
Pope from 20 February 1878 to his death in 1903. He was the oldest pope (reigning until the age of 93), and had the third longest pontificate, behind that of Pope Pius IX (his immediate predecessor) and Pope John Paul II. He is well known for intellectualism, the development of social teachings with his famous papal encyclical Rerum Novarum and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. He influenced Roman Catholic Mariology and promoted both the rosary and the scapular. He issued a record eleven encyclicals on the rosary earning the moniker the "Rosary Pope", approved two new Marian scapulars and was the first pope to fully embrace the concept of Mary as mediatrix. He was the first Pope to never have held any control over the Papal States, after they were dissolved by 1870.
Protective tariffs
Refer to taxes on foreign imports that are put in place to protect domestic industries (Became more prevalent at this time?)
mass society
Refers to everything in society being created in large quantities (?)
Irish Question
Refers to how the namesake country would govern itself or whether it would get home rule (?)
Anarchism
Refers to people ruling themselves without government...(?)
Alexander Herzen
Russian writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism" and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudoviks and the agrarian American Populist Party). He is held responsible for creating a political climate leading to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. His autobiography My Past and Thoughts, written with grace, energy, and ease, is often considered the best specimen of that genre in Russian literature. He also published the important social novel Who is to Blame? (1845-46).
Bismarckian System
The alliance system crafted and employed by Otto von Bismarck in the late nineteenth century was based upon a "policy of peace", and was designed to keep the newly unified German Empire in favor with the whole of Europe while gaining power. The major powers of Europe would likely intervene if the threat of a powerful Prussia became imminent, so Bismarck ingeniously played the "honest broker" of peace alliances in order to pacify these fears.
slop work
The manufacture of inexpensive, low-quality, ready-to-wear clothes. the poorest-paid jobs for the cheapest goods
Impressionism
a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists. Their independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s, in spite of harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France. The name of the style derives from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satirical review published in the Parisian newspaper Le Charivari. characteristics include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles.
Rainer Maria Rilke
a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. Several critics have described his work as inherently "mystical". His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry, and several volumes of correspondence in which he invokes haunting images that focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety. These deeply existential themes tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist writers.
David Lloyd George
a British Liberal politician and statesman. As Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908-1915), he was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. His most important role came as the highly energetic Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government (1916-22), during and immediately after the First World War. He was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that reordered Europe after the defeat of Germany in the Great War. He arguably made a greater impact on British public life than arguably any other 20th-century leader, thanks to his pre-war introduction of Britain's social welfare system, his leadership in winning the war, his post-war role in reshaping Europe and his partitioning Ireland (between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland which remained part of the UK). He was the last Liberal to serve as Prime Minister. Parliamentary support for the coalition premiership was mostly from Conservatives rather his own Liberals. The Liberal split led to the permanent decline of that party as a serious political force. Although he became leader of the Liberal Party in the late 1920s, he was unable to regain power, and by the 1930s he was a marginalised and widely mistrusted figure. In the Second World War he was known for defeatism.
William Gladstone
a British Liberal politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times (1868-74, 1880-85, February-July 1886 and 1892-94), more than any other person. government also passed the Third Reform Act. Back in office in early 1886, he proposed Irish home rule but this was defeated in the House of Commons in July. The resulting split in the Liberal Party helped keep them out of office, with one short break, for twenty years. In 1892 he formed his last government at the age of 82. The Second Irish Home Rule Bill passed the Commons but was defeated in the Lords in 1893. He resigned in March 1894, in opposition to increased naval expenditure. He left Parliament in 1895 and died three years later aged 88. famous for his oratory, his religiosity, his liberalism, his rivalry with the Conservative Leader Benjamin Disraeli, and for his poor relations with Queen Victoria, who once complained, "He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting."
Cecil Rhodes
a British businessman, mining magnate, and politician in South Africa. He was named the chairman of De Beers at the company's founding in 1888. De Beers, established with funding from NM Rothschild & Sons Limited in 1887, today markets 40% of the world's rough diamonds, and at one time marketed 90%. An ardent believer in British colonialism, he was the founder of the southern African namesake territory, which was named after him in 1895. South Africa's ________ University is also named after him. He set up the provisions of his namesake scholarship, which is funded by his estate.
Emmeline Pankhurst
a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote. In 1999 Time named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating: "she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back." She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in Britain.
Fabian Socialists
a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of socialism via gradualist and reformist means. The society laid many of the foundations of the Labour Party and subsequently affected the policies of states emerging from the decolonisation of the British Empire, most notably India and Singapore. Originally, it was committed to the establishment of a socialist economy, alongside a commitment to British imperialism as a progressive and modernizing force. Today its viewpoints are more social democratic.
Camille Pissaro
a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. He studied from great forerunners, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. He later studied and worked alongside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac when he took on the Neo-Impressionist style at the age of 54.
Alfred Dreyfus
a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history. Known today as the namesake "Affair", the incident eventually ended with his complete exoneration.
Paul Cezanne
a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. His often repetitive, exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of colour and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields. The paintings convey his intense study of his subjects. He can be said to form the bridge between late 19th-century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. Both Matisse and Picasso are said to have remarked that he "is the father of us all." Mont Sainte-Victoire The Card Players The Bathers Still Life with Fruits
Claude Debussy
a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions. In France, he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed. (Symbolism, the literary movement, occurred when he was writing his music)
Ernest Renan
a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany. He is best known for his influential historical works on early Christianity and his political theories, especially concerning nationalism and national identity. (said Jesus was important because of his teachings; didn't think he was divine?)
Georges Boulanger
a French general and politician who seemed at the apogee of his popularity in January 1889 to pose the threat of a coup d'état and the establishment of a dictatorship. With his base of support in working districts of Paris and other cities, he promoted an aggressive nationalism aimed against Germany
Arthur Rimbaud
a French poet born in Charleville, Ardennes. As part of the decadent movement, he influenced modern literature and arts, inspired various musicians, and prefigured surrealism. All of his poetry was written as a teenager; he gave up creative writing completely before he turned 20. His "genius, its flowering, explosion and sudden extinction, still astonishes". He was known to have been a libertine and a restless soul. He traveled extensively on three continents before his death from cancer just after his thirty-seventh birthday.
Adolphe Thiers
a French politician and historian. He was a leading historian of the French Revolution, with a multivolume history that argued that the republicanism of the Revolution was the central theme of modern French history. He served as a prime minister in 1836, 1840 and 1848. He was a vocal opponent of Emperor Napoleon III, who reigned 1848-71. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to power and his suppression of the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871 killed thousands of Parisians. From 1871 to 1873 he served initially as Head of State (effectively a provisional President of France), then President. He lost power in 1873 to Patrice de Mac-Mahon, Duke of Magenta.
Georges Clemenceau
a French statesman who led the nation in the First World War. A leader of the Radical Party, he played a central role in politics during the Third Republic. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. He was one of the principal architects of the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Nicknamed "Père la Victoire" (Father Victory) or "Le Tigre" (The Tiger), he took a harsh position against defeated Germany, though quite not as much as President Poincaré, and won agreement on Germany's payment of large sums for reparations. (at this point, he was interested in the Dreyfus affair and wanted to defend Dreyfus)
Emile Zola
a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'accuse. He was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902. L'Assommoir Les Rougon-Macquart Therese Raquin Germinal
Eduard Bernstein
a German social democratic political theorist and politician, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism. He had held close association to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, but he saw flaws in Marxist thinking and began to criticize views held by Marxism when he investigated and challenged the Marxist materialist theory of history. He rejected significant parts of Marxist theory that were based upon Hegelian metaphysics; he rejected the Hegelian dialectical perspective. He distinguished between early Marxism as being its immature form: as exemplified by The Communist Manifesto written by Marx and Engels in their youth, that he opposed for what he regarded as its violent Blanquist tendencies; and later Marxism as being its mature form that he supported. This mature form of Marxism refers to Marx in his later life acknowledging that socialism could be achieved through peaceful means through legislative reform in democratic societies. Without the need for a revolution, he stated that ethics could be restored to socialism in a capitalist system, with the state as a pivotal asset to the workers.
Max Planck
a German theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. He made many contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame rests primarily on his role as originator of the quantum theory. This theory revolutionized human understanding of atomic and subatomic processes, just as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity revolutionized the understanding of space and time. Together they constitute the fundamental theories of 20th-century physics.
Albert Einstein
a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). While best known for his mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"), he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory.
Theodor Herzl
a Jewish journalist and writer from Austria-Hungary. He is considered to have been the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the founder of the State of Israel. He formed the World Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish migration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state.
Edvard Grieg
a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use and development of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions put the music of Norway in the international spectrum, as well as helping develop a national identity, much like Jean Sibelius and Antonín Dvořák did in Finland and Bohemia respectively.
Russian nihilism
a Russian movement in the 1860s which rejected all authorities. After the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, they were known throughout Europe as proponents of the use of violence in order to bring about political change.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and philosopher. His literary works explore human psychology in the context of the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia. He began writing in his 20s, and his first novel, Poor Folk, was published in 1846 when he was 25. His major works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His output consists of eleven novels, three novellas, seventeen short novels and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature.
Mikhail Bakunin
a Russian revolutionary anarchist, and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism, and one of the principle founders of the "social anarchist" tradition
Leo Tolstoy
a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. He was a master of realistic fiction and is widely considered one of the world's greatest novelists. He is best known for two long novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). He first achieved literary acclaim in his 20s with his semi-autobiographical trilogy of novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852-1856) and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based on his experiences in the Crimean War. His fiction output also includes two additional novels, dozens of short stories, and several famous novellas, including The Death of Ivan Ilych, Family Happiness, and Hadji Murad. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. He is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.
Peter Kropotkin
a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, scientist, revolutionary, philologist, economist, activist, geographer, writer, and prominent anarcho-communist. He advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between workers. He wrote many books, pamphlets and articles, the most prominent being The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops, and his principal scientific offering, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. He also contributed the article on anarchism to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition.
Igor Stravinsky
a Russian, and later French and American, composer, pianist and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. His compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). The last of these transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for his enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design.
James Clerk Maxwell
a Scottish mathematical physicist. His most prominent achievement was to formulate a set of equations that describe electricity, magnetism, and optics as manifestations of the same phenomenon, namely the electromagnetic field. His achievements concerning electromagnetism have been called the "second great unification in physics", after the first one realised by Isaac Newton. equations helped create electric generators (?)
Pablo Picasso
a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. As one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The Weeping Woman The Old Guitarist The Three Musicians
The Rite of Spring
a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky, with stage designs and costumes by Nicholas Roerich. When first performed, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 29 May 1913, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a sensation and a near-riot in the audience. Although designed as a work for the stage, with specific passages accompanying characters and action, the music achieved equal if not greater recognition as a concert piece, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century.
Labour Party
a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. It has been described as a broad church, containing a diversity of ideological trends from strongly socialist, to more moderately social democratic. Founded in 1900, it overtook the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s and formed minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after which it formed a majority government under Clement Attlee.
Berlin Conference
a conference that took place in the namesake city that regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power. Called for by Portugal and organized by Otto von Bismarck, first Chancellor of Germany, its outcome, the General Act of the __________, can be seen as the formalization of the Scramble for Africa. The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, while simultaneously eliminating most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance.
Spanish-American War
a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, the result of American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. American attacks on Spain's Pacific possessions led to involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately to the Philippine-American War. as a result of winning, US took several Caribbean and Pacific possessions from Spain
Second Balkan War 1913
a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 (O.S.)/29 June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria. With Bulgaria also having previously engaged in territorial disputes with Romania, this war provoked Romanian intervention against Bulgaria. The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territories from the previous war. When Romanian troops approached the capital Sofia, Bulgaria asked for an armistice, resulting in the Treaty of Bucharest, in which Bulgaria had to cede portions of its First Balkan War gains to Serbia, Greece and Romania. In the Treaty of Constantinople it lost Edirne to the Ottomans.
October Manifesto
a document that served as a precursor to the Russian Empire's first constitution, which would be adopted the next year. The Manifesto was issued by Emperor Nicholas II, under the influence of Count Sergei Witte, on 30 October 1905 as a response to the Russian Revolution of 1905.
Cartels
a formal "agreement" among competing firms. It is a formal organization of producers and manufacturers that agree to fix prices, marketing, and production. (aka syndicates?)
Claude Monet
a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by him and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris. Famous for living at Giverny Impression, Sunrise Waterlillies Haystacks Poplars Rouen Cathedral Series London Parliament Series
Sergei Witte
a highly influential policy-maker who presided over extensive industrialization within the Russian Empire. He served under the last two emperors of Russia. He was also the author of the October Manifesto of 1905, a precursor to Russia's first constitution, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) of the Russian Empire.
Henri Bergson
a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. He convinced many thinkers that immediate experience and intuition are more significant than rationalism and science for understanding reality. He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented". experience of time's passage is core of existence embraced irrational free will
Congress of Berlin (1878)
a meeting of the leading statesmen of the European Great Powers and the Ottoman Empire, in the namesake town 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.
Social Darwinism
a modern name given to various theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, and which allegedly sought to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology and politics. Adherents generally argue that the strong should see their wealth and power increase while the weak should see their wealth and power decrease.
Trans-Siberian Rail Line
a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway line in the world. There are connecting branch lines into Mongolia, China and North Korea. It has been connecting Moscow with Vladivostok since 1916 and is still being expanded. (I guess construction started around this time)
Berthe Morisot
a painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt. sister-in-law of Manet
Second Industrial Revolution
a phase of the larger Industrial Revolution corresponding to the latter half of the 19th century until World War I. It is considered to have begun around the time of the introduction of Bessemer steel in the 1860s and culminated in early factory electrification, mass production and the production line. also use of gasoline and creation of automobiles
Woman question
a phrase usually used in connection with a social change in the latter half of the nineteenth century which questioned the fundamental roles of women in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, and Russia. Issues of women's suffrage, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, property rights, legal rights, and medical rights, and marriage, dominated cultural discussions in newspapers and intellectual circles. While many women were supportive of these changing roles, they did not agree unanimously. Often issues of marriage and sexual freedom were most divisive.
Pan-German League
a political interest organization which was officially founded in 1891, a year after the Zanzibar Treaty was signed. It was concerned with a host of issues, concentrating on imperialism, anti-semitism, the Polish Question, and support for German minorities in other countries. The purpose of the league was to nurture and protect the ideology of German nationality as a unifying force. By 1922, the League had grown to over 40,000 paying members. Berlin housed the central seat of the league, including its president and its executive, which was capped at a maximum of 300. Full gatherings of the league happened at the Pan-German Congress. Although numerically small, the League enjoyed a disproportionate influence on the German state through connections to the middle class, the political establishment and the media, as well as links to the 300,000 strong Agrarian League.
Vincent van Gogh
a post-Impressionist painter of Dutch origin whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died aged 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found). His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still. known for cutting off ear The Potato Eaters Portrait of Dr. Gachet Starry Night Sunflowers Bedroom in Arles Sorrow
Paris Commune
a revolutionary and socialistic government that briefly ruled Paris from 18 March until 28 May 1871. Though elected as the city council it eventually proclaimed its own authority to govern all of France. The killing of two French army generals by soldiers of the its National Guard and the refusal of the Commune to accept the authority of the French government led to its harsh suppression by the regular French Army in "La Semaine sanglante" ("The Bloody Week") beginning on 21 May 1871.
Entente Cordiale
a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom and France, marking the start of the alliance against Germany that fought the First World War. Beyond the immediate concerns of colonial expansion addressed by the agreement, the signing of this marked the end of almost a thousand years of intermittent conflict between the two nations and their predecessor states, and the formalisation of the peaceful co-existence that had existed since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. This, along with the Anglo-Russian Entente and the Franco-Russian Alliance, later became part of the Triple Entente among Britain, France, and Russia. settled many long-standing issues. France recognized British control over Egypt, while Britain reciprocated regarding France in Morocco. In a minor key France gave up its exclusive fishery rights on the French Shore of Newfoundland and in return received an indemnity and territory in The Gambia (Senegal) and Nigeria. Britain dropped complaints regarding the French customs régime in Madagascar. The respective spheres of influence were defined in Siam (Thailand).
Psychoanalysis
a set of psychological and psychotherapeutic theories and associated techniques, originally popularized by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and stemming partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others. Since then, psychoanalysis has expanded and been revised, reformed and developed in different directions. This was initially by Freud's colleagues and students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung who went on to develop their own ideas independently from Freud. Later neo-Freudians included Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Harry Stack Sullivan and Jacques Lacan.
Open Door Policy
a term in foreign affairs initially used to refer to the United States policy in the late 19th century and early 20th century outlined in Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door Note, dispatched in 1899 to his European counterparts. The policy proposed to keep China open to trade with all countries on an equal basis; thus, no international power would have total control of the country. The policy called upon foreign powers, within their spheres of influence, to refrain from interfering with any treaty port or any vested interest, to permit Chinese authorities to collect tariffs on an equal basis, and to show no favors to their own nationals in the matter of harbor dues or railroad charges. This policy was rooted in desire of American businesses to exploit Chinese markets, though it also tapped the deep-seated sympathies of those who opposed imperialism, especially as the policy pledged to protect China's territorial integrity.
Treaty of San Stefano
a treaty between Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed at the end of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78. It was signed on 3 March 1878 at San Stefano (now Yeşilköy), a village west of Istanbul, by Count Nicholas Pavlovich Ignatiev and Alexander Nelidov on behalf of the Russian Empire and Foreign Minister Safvet Pasha and Ambassador to Germany Sadullah Bey on behalf of the Ottoman Empire. Although according to the official Russian position, by signing the treaty, Russia had never intended anything more than a temporary rough draft, so to enable a final settlement with the other Great Powers, this preliminary treaty almost immediately became the central point of Bulgarian foreign policy, lasting until 1944 and leading to the Second Balkan War and Bulgaria's participation in World War I. The treaty provided for the creation of an autonomous Principality of Bulgaria after almost 500 years of Ottoman domination.
Zeppelin
a type of rigid airship named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century.
Boxer Rebellion
a violent anti-foreign and anti-Christian movement which took place in China towards the end of the Qing dynasty between 1898 and 1900. It was initiated by the Militia United in Righteousness (Yihetuan), known in English as the namesake people, and was motivated by proto-nationalist sentiments and opposition to foreign imperialism and Christianity. The Great Powers intervened and defeated Chinese forces.
pogrom
a violent riot aimed at massacre or persecution of an ethnic or religious group, particularly one aimed at Jews. happened a lot in Russia (?)
Revolution of 1905
a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies. It led to the establishment of limited constitutional monarchy, the State Duma of the Russian Empire, the multi-party system, and the Russian Constitution of 1906. (AKA October Revolution)
Symbolists
adherents to the late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857) by Charles Baudelaire. The works of Edgar Allan Poe, which Baudelaire admired greatly 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 by a series of manifestos and attracted a generation of writers.
Bosnian Crisis 1908-9
also known as the Annexation crisis, or the First Balkan Crisis, erupted into public view when on 6 October 1908, Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of the namesake place and Herzegovina. Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, Germany and France took an interest in these events. In April 1909 the Treaty of Berlin was amended to accept the new status quo bringing the crisis to an end. The crisis permanently damaged relations between Austria-Hungary on the one hand and Russia and the Kingdom of Serbia on the other. The annexation and reactions to the annexation were contributing causes of World War I. Serbia and Russia protested to Austria-Hungary taking over that place, but backed down when Germany said it supported Austria-Hungary. Neither Russia or Serbia were prepared to go to war with Germany. Austria-Hungary became over confident with Germany's help and escalated the crisis. Russia was determined not to back down again and hastened its arms build up.
Home Rule Act of 1914
an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to provide home rule (self-government within the United Kingdom) for Ireland. It was the third such bill introduced by a Liberal government in a thirty-year period in response to the Irish Home Rule movement. Controversial; eventually part of it revoked (?)
Bertha von Suttner
an Austrian novelist, radical (organizational) pacifist, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the second to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Published "Lay Down Your Arms" and did pacifism stuff
Karl Lueger
an Austrian politician, mayor of Vienna, and leader and cofounder the Austrian Christian Social Party. He is credited with the transformation of the city of Vienna into a modern city. The populist and anti-Semitic politics of his Christian Social Party are sometimes viewed as a model for Hitler's Nazism.
Edward von Taafe
an Austrian statesman, who served for two terms as Minister-President of Cisleithania, leading cabinets from 1868 to 1870 and 1879 to 1893. He was a scion of the Irish ____ noble dynasty, who held hereditary titles from two different countries: Imperial Counts (Reichsgrafen) of the Holy Roman Empire and viscounts in the Peerage of Ireland (in the United Kingdom). ineffective in reconciling national differences in Austria
Sigmund Freud
an Austrian-born neurologist who became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis. developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association (in which patients report their thoughts without reservation and in whichever order they spontaneously occur) and discovered transference (the process in which patients displace onto their analysts feelings derived from their childhood attachments), establishing its central role in the analytic process. Oedipus complex, superego, id, ego, etc
Houston Stewart Chamberlain
an English author of books on political philosophy, natural science and son-in-law of the German composer Richard Wagner; he is described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as a "racialist writer". He later became a German citizen. In December 1908, twenty-five years after Wagner's death, he married Wagner's daughter, Eva von Bülow. His two-volume book, Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century), published in 1899, became one of the many references for the pan-Germanic movement of the early 20th century, and, later, of the völkisch antisemitism of Nazi racial policy.
Charles Darwin
an English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.
Herbert Spencer
an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era. He developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. He was "an enthusiastic exponent of evolution" and even "wrote about evolution before Darwin did." As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. "The only other English philosopher to have achieved anything like such widespread popularity was Bertrand Russell, and that was in the 20th century." He was "the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century" but his influence declined sharply after 1900 best known for coining the expression "survival of the fittest", which he did in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.
Octavia Hill
an English social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a family with a strong commitment to alleviating poverty, she herself grew up in straitened circumstances owing to the financial failure of her father. With no formal schooling, she worked from the age of 14 for the welfare of working people. She was a moving force behind the development of social housing, and her early friendship with John Ruskin enabled her to put her theories into practice with the aid of his initial investment. She believed in self-reliance, and made it a key part of her housing system that she and her assistants knew their tenants personally and encouraged them to better themselves. She was opposed to municipal provision of housing, believing it to be bureaucratic and impersonal.
W.B. Yeats
an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, and others, founded the Abbey Theatre, where he served as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irishman so honoured for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." He is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929). Yeats was a very good friend of American expatriate poet and Bollingen Prize laureate Ezra Pound. Yeats wrote the introduction for Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali, which was published by the India Society. The Second Coming ("Things fall apart, the center cannot hold")
Guglielmo Marconi
an Italian inventor and electrical engineer, known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmissio and for his development of his namesake law and a radio telegraph system. He is often credited as the inventor of radio, and he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy". An entrepreneur, businessman, and founder in Britain in 1897 of The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company (which became his namesake Company), he succeeded in making a commercial success of radio by innovating and building on the work of previous experimenters and physicists In 1924 the King of Italy ennobled him as a Marchese (marquis).
Maria Montessori
an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. Her educational method is in use today in public and private schools throughout the world.
Cubism
an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, joined by Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. It has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. The term is broadly used in association with a wide variety of art produced in Paris (Montmartre, Montparnasse and Puteaux) during the 1910s and extending through the 1920s. Variants such as Futurism and Constructivism developed in other countries. A primary influence that led to it was the representation of three-dimensional form in the late works of Paul Cézanne, which were displayed in a retrospective at the 1907 Salon d'Automne. In this type of artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context.
Gottlieb Daimler
an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf (Kingdom of Württemberg, a federal state of the German Confederation), in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development. He invented the high-speed petrol engine.
Vasily Kandinsky
an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely abstract works. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship (chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat—he began painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30. Der Blaue Reiter Improvisation #x (x=1,2,3...n)
(First) Moroccan Crisis 1905-6
an international crisis between March 1905 and May 1906 over the status of this place. Germany attempted to use the issue of this place's independence to increase frictions between France and the United Kingdom, as well as to advance German commercial interests in Morocco. They succeeded in their stated goal of assuring this place's independence, but failed to attract diplomatic support for their positions at the resulting international conference. The crisis worsened German relations with both France and the United Kingdom, and helped ensure the success of the new Anglo-French Entente Cordiale. It has been named as one of the Causes of World War I.
Ballet Russe
an itinerant ballet company based in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. After its initial Paris season, the company had no formal ties there. Originally conceived by impresario Sergei Diaghilev, it is widely regarded as the most influential ballet company of the 20th century, in part because it promoted ground-breaking artistic collaborations among young choreographers, composers, designers, and dancers, all at the forefront of their several fields. Diaghilev commissioned works from composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Claude Debussy, and artists such as Léon Bakst, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, and designer Coco Chanel.
Second International
an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated. It continued the work of the dissolved First International, though excluding the still-powerful anarcho-syndicalist movement and unions, and was in existence until 1916.
trade union
an organization of workers who have united together to achieve common goals such as protecting the integrity of its trade, achieving higher pay, increasing the number of employees an employer hires, and better working conditions.
Imperialism
an unequal human and territorial relationship, usually in the form of an empire, based on ideas of superiority and practices of dominance, and involving the extension of authority and control of one state or people over another. Britain, France, Belgium, US, and other countries were heavy practitioners of it
Ruhr region
an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km² and a population of some eight and a half million, it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany. It consists of several large, industrial cities bordered by the its namesake river to the south, the Rhine to the west, and the Lippe to the north. In the Southwest it borders the Bergisches Land. center of industrialization in Germany (?)
Sepoy Rebellion
began as a mutiny of the namesake people of the East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the cantonment of the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northern Madhya Pradesh, and the Delhi region. The rebellion posed a considerable threat to Company power in that region, and was contained only with the fall of Gwalior on 20 June 1858. The Mutiny was a result of various grievances. However the flashpoint was reached when the soldiers were asked to bite off the paper cartridges for their rifles which were greased with animal fat, namely beef and pork. This was, and is, against the religious beliefs of Hindus and Muslims, respectively.
Duma
council assemblies which were created by the Czar of Russia. Simply, it is a form of Russian governmental institution that was formed during the reign of the last Tsar, Nicholas II.
Ego
in Freudian psychology, refers to the component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality. According to Freud, this develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world. It functions in both the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.
Treaty of Algeciras 1906
lasted from 16 January to 7 April. The purpose of the conference was to find a solution to the First Moroccan Crisis of 1905 between France and the German Empire, which arose as Germany attempted to prevent France from establishing a protectorate over Morocco in what was known as the Tangier Crisis. Took place in namesake Spanish town
First Balkan War 1912
lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League (Serbia, Greece, Montenegro and Bulgaria) against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success. As a result of the war, almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire were captured and partitioned among the allies. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albanian state. Despite its success, Bulgaria was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in Macedonia, which provoked the start of another war.
Volk
might refer to German folk culture and nationalism (?)
Ulster
one of the provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. a central topic role in the treaty in the parliamentary debates that eventually resulted in the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Under the terms of the Act, Ireland was divided into two territories, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland with the border passing through the province. did not want to be part of Catholic Ireland (?)
Indian National Congress
one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is the largest and one of the oldest democratically-operating political parties in the world. founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, Mahadev Govind Ranade and William Wedderburn. was the largest and most prominent Indian public organization, and central and defining influence of the Indian Independence Movement. fueled Indian nationalism
sweating
referred to the subcontracting of piecework usually, but not exclusively, in the tailoring trades; it was don at home since it required few skills or equipment (women did this sometimes)
Kulturkampf
refers to German policies in relation to secularity and reducing the role and power of the Roman Catholic Church in Prussia, enacted from 1871 to 1878 by the Prime Minister of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck.
assimilation
refers to becoming a part of mainstream society (Jews were starting to do this, and people didn't like it?)
Steel reinforced concrete
refers to concrete that has steel beams to make it stronger
Anti-Semitism
refers to racism against Jews
Peter Stolypin
served as Prime Minister and the leader of the third Duma, from 1906 to 1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to counter revolutionary groups and by the implementation of noteworthy agrarian reforms. His reforms aimed to stem peasant unrest by creating a class of market-oriented smallholding landowners. He is considered one of the last major statesmen of Imperial Russia with clearly defined public policies and the determination to undertake major reforms.
Reichstag
the Parliament of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. Legislation was shared between this and the Bundesrat, which was the Imperial Council of the reigning princes of the German States.
Triple Entente
the alliance linking Russia, France, and the United Kingdom after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente on August 31, 1907. The alliance of the three powers, supplemented by agreements with Portugal and Japan, constituted a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
Superego
the aspect of personality that holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from both parents and society--our sense of right and wrong. It provides guidelines for making judgments. According to Freud, it begins to emerge at around age five.
Evolutionary Socialism
the belief that gradual changes through and within existing institutions can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic system and political structures
Natural Selection
the gradual process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of the effect of inherited traits on the differential reproductive success of organisms interacting with their environment. It is a key mechanism of evolution. The term was popularized by Charles Darwin who intended it to be compared with artificial selection, which is now called selective breeding. Applied to humans in Social Darwinism
Naturalism
the idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world; (occas.) the idea or belief that nothing exists beyond the natural world. Santayana
Nicholas II
the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and titular King of Poland. ruled from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 2 March 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. Enemies nicknamed him Bloody Nicholas because of the Khodynka Tragedy, the anti-Semitic pogroms, Bloody Sunday, his violent suppression of the 1905 Revolution, his execution of political opponents, and his pursuit of military campaigns on an unprecedented scale. defeated in Russo-Japanese War The Anglo-Russian Entente, designed to counter German attempts to gain influence in the Middle East, ended the Great Game between Russia and the United Kingdom. As head of state, Nicholas approved the Russian mobilisation of August 1914, which marked the beginning of Russia's involvement in the First World War, a war in which 3.3 million Russians were killed. The Imperial Army's severe losses and the High Command's incompetent handling of the war, along with other policies directed by Nicholas during his reign, are often cited as the leading causes of the fall of the Romanov dynasty. Abdicated during February Revolution Killed with his family by Bolsheviks
Kaiser Wilhelm II
the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe, three notable contemporary relations being his first cousins King George V of the United Kingdom, founder of the House of Windsor, Marie of Romania, Queen consort of Romania and the Czarina Alix of Hesse, consort of his second cousin Tsar Nicholas II of the House of Romanov, the last ruler of the Russian Empire before the Russian Revolution of 1917 which deposed the monarchy. after WWI he abdicated
Triple Alliance
the military alliance among Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, (as opposing the Triple Entente which consisted of an alliance between Britain, France and Russia), that lasted from 1882 until World War I in 1914. Each member promised mutual support in the event of an attack by any other great power, 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 Great Britain. Shortly after renewing the Alliance in June 1902, Italy secretly extended a similar guarantee to France. By a particular agreement, neither Austria-Hungary nor Italy would change the status quo in the Balkans without previous consultation.
Zionism
the national movement of Jews and Jewish culture that supports the creation of a Jewish homeland (contemporary supporters have said it needs to be in Israel) Theodor Herzl started this mvt
Id
the only component of personality that is present from birth. This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes of the instinctive and primitive behaviors. According to Freud, the it is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality. It is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state anxiety or tension.
Leopold II
the second King of the Belgians, and is chiefly remembered for the founding and exploitation of the Congo Free State. Born in Brussels the second (but eldest surviving) son of Leopold I and Louise of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865, reigning for 44 years until his death, the longest of any Belgian monarch. was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, the colonial nations of Europe committed the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. From the beginning, however, he essentially ignored these conditions and ran the Congo using a mercenary force for his personal gain. Some of the money from this exploitation was used for public and private construction projects in Belgium during this period. He extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forcing the population to collect sap from rubber plants. Villages were required to meet quotas on rubber collections, and individuals' hands were cut off if they did not meet the requirements. His regime was responsible for the death of an estimated 2 to 15 million Congolese. This became one of the most infamous international scandals of the early 20th century, and he was ultimately forced to relinquish control of it to the Belgian government.
Post-Impressionism
the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and other adherents of this movement. Followers of this movement extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, often thick application of paint, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colour.
Boer War(s)
two wars fought during 1880-1881 and 1899-1902 by the British Empire against the settlers of two independent Boer republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic. First: fight to keep sovereignty by the South African Republic against British invasion. Second: a lengthy war—involving large numbers of troops from the Empire, which ended with the conversion of the Boer republics into British colonies (with a promise of limited self-governance). These colonies later formed part of the Union of South Africa. The British fought directly against the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, defeating their forces first in open warfare and then in a long and bitter guerrilla campaign. British losses were high due to both sickness and combat. The policies of "scorched earth" and civilian internment in concentration camps were the cause of suffering in the Boer civilian populations in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. When news of these strategies reached Britain, there was an erosion of support for the war.
Gymnasien
type of secondary school with a strong emphasis on academic learning, comparable with the British grammar school system or with prep schools in the United States. The student attending a gymnasium is called "Gymnasiast" (German plural: "Gymnasiasten"). In 2009/10 there were 3094 gymnasien in Germany, with c. 2,475,000 students (about 28 percent of all precollegiate students during that period), resulting in an average student number of 800 students per school. (Became popular around now?)
Alexander III
was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Prince of Finland from 13 March [O.S. 1 March] 1881 until his death on 20 October [O.S. 8 October] 1894. He was highly conservative and reversed some of the liberal measures of his father, Alexander II. During his reign Russia fought no major wars, for which he was styled "The Peacemaker" (Russian: "Миротворец")
Alfonso XII
was King of Spain, reigning from 1874 to 1885, after a coup d'état restored the monarchy and ended the ephemeral First Spanish Republic. Having been forced into exile after the Glorious Revolution deposed his mother Isabella II from the throne in 1868, he studied in Austria and France. His mother abdicated in his favour in 1870, and he returned to Spain as king in 1874 following a military coup. He died aged 27 in 1885, and was succeeded by his unborn son, who became Alfonso XIII on his birth the following year
Women's Social and Political Union
was the leading militant organization campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom. founded by Pankhurst