1750-1900 ap mwh vocab
1750 - 1900 "The New Imperialism"
"Industrialized Imperialism"/A new round of imperialism perpetrated by the nations of the West (Western Europe and North America) from c. 1830 to World War I (1914), involving both MEANS and MOTIVES stemming from industrialization, and the conquest/colonization of new regions (Africa; South and Southeast Asia; Oceania). Significance: The "New Imperialism" wound up impacting the economics, government, social structure, human environment interaction, and/or culture of people in nearly every society in the world!
1750 - 1900 Adam Smith
A British philosopher and economist who sought to apply the ideas of the Enlightenment to explain and improve economics. Significance: Because of his promotion of laissez-faire capitalism (minimal government intervention in economics) and free markets (or free trade), Western European states began abandoning mercantilism and adopting free-trade policies. 1750 - 1900
1750 - 1900 1900 - now The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)
A banking corporation founded by British merchants and bankers in Hong Kong in 1865, with worldwide operations by c. 1900. Significance: Like the U.S.-based Standard Oil Company, one of the key examples of a translational corporation (or multinational corporation [a corporation operating in many nations]). Also, a beneficiary of economic imperialism, especially in China.
Natural Rights
A belief stemming from the Enlightenment that humans have certain rights INHERENTLY (not given), that should NOT BE ABRDIGED. Examples: Life; liberty; property; speech; freedom of religion; right to bear arms (protection) Resource export economies Definition: Economies specialized in commercial extraction of natural resources and the production of food and industrial crops. The profits from these raw materials are used to purchase finished goods. Examples: From the c. 1750-1900 time period: 1. Cotton production in Egypt and South Asia 2. Rubber extraction in the Amazon and Conga basins 3. Guano industry in Chile and Peru (bird poop)
1750-1900 Deism
A belief system arising during the Enlightenment whose followers acknowledged the existence of a Supreme Being or God who created the universe, revealed in the wonder of nature and human reason. Significance: Followers of Deism during the Enlightenment, like Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson, tended to question traditional religions like Christianity and Islam, and sought to limit the role that religion played government—Part of a broader trend of Enlightenment thinkers reexamining the role that religion played in public life.
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Social Darwinism
A belief system inspired by Charles Darwin's idea of natural selection which held that some groups, societies, or races of humans were more "fit", and thus deserved to dominate or succeed more than others. Often used to support a racial ideology known as "scientific racism". Significance: This ideology was used as justification for various Western practices: Imperialism, in the 19th and 20th Centuries; Nazism in the 20th Century; and American Capitalism from the 19th Century.
Migrant enclaves
A community of people from one part of the world who have settled together in another part of the world, often in a particular neighborhood of a large city or a particular town in a rural area. These migrant enclaves (or ethnic enclaves) often help transplant the culture of these migrants' society of origin into the new society in which they settle. Examples: • Neighborhoods in cities like Georgetown... • And in towns like Taiping became Indian or Chinese communities transplanted to Southeast Asia • This same pattern of settlement in migrant enclaves repeated itself wherever Indian and Chinese migrants settled (including the Caribbean; East and Southern Africa; and North America, where many West Coast cities developed "Chinatown" neighborhoods).
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Internal combustion engine
A device developed by engineers in Europe and the United States beginning in the 1890s which relied on controlled explosions of oil (petroleum) to power motion. Significance: Like the steam engine, an example of a machine which made it possible for humans to take advantage of vast new resources of energy stored in fossil fuels, greatly increasing the energy available to human societies. New travels technologies powered by internal combustion engines included automobiles and boats.
1750 - 1900 Telegraph
A device perfected by the 1840s by inventers in both Britain and the United States which enabled humans to send long-distance messages through electric wires instantly, in the form of "beeps" - a major development in communication. Significance: This device allowed for much faster communication across the world.
1750 - 1900 Simón Bolívar
A key leader in the Latin American Wars of Independence (also known as the "Latin American Revolutions") who lived from 1783 to 1830. A native of present-day Venezuela, his military defeats of Spanish forces won independence for that state, along with Colombia; Ecuador; Peru; and Bolivia. Significance: Bolívar drew on Enlightenment ideals like freedom and constitutional government as justification for his rebellion, most famously in the document he wrote called "The Jamaica Letter" - the key revolutionary document of the Latin American Revolutions. He was disappointed that his vision of a "United States of Latin America" never materialized, though, as the Spanish colonies failed to unify following independence.
1750 - 1900 Siam
A kingdom (now called Thailand) which, thanks to a series of reform efforts involving a degree of Westernization and modernization implemented by King Chulalongkorn (reigned 1868-1910), remained the only society in Southeast Asia NOT colonized by Western imperial powers in the age of "New Imperialism" (c. 1830-1914). Significance: Like the Cherokee Nation in present-day Georgia and North Carolina organized by the Cherokee native American people to resist the expansion of the United States or the Zulu Kingdom formed by the Zulu (a Bantu people) to resist British and Afrikaner conquest of South Africa, Siam was an example of non-European people forming or strengthening states of their own on the peripheries (edges) of Western-controlled territories in order to resist Western imperialism.
Indentured servitude
A labor system in which migrant laborers agree to work for a certain number of years, specified in a contract, in exchange for passage to the place of labor and sometimes a fixed fee at the end of the contract period. Along with the use of convict labor and slave labor, an example of coerced labor (or semi-coerced labor) migrations in the c. 1750-1900 time period. Examples: European indentured servants in British North American colonies in the c. 1450-1700 time period; Chinese and Indian laborers in the c. 1750-1900 time period, often replacing slave labor in places like the Caribbean.
1750 - 1900 1900 - now The Chinese Exclusion Act
A law passed in 1882 that prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers, skilled or unskilled, for a period of 10 years. It also prevented Chinese already in the country from becoming citizens. For the first time, the United States had restricted immigration based solely on nationality or race. Significance: Like the White Australia policy, an example of how societies receiving immigrants in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries did not always embrace them, and also an example of how states attempted to regulate the increased flow of people across their borders in ways that reflected various degrees of racial and ethnic prejudice.
1750 - 1900 The Taiping Rebellion
A massive rebellion (20-30 million killed) rebellion (1850-1864) against the Manchu rulers Qing Dynasty led by Hong Xiuquan, who believed he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ. The Taiping rebels hoped to both modernize and reform China (by ending patriarchy and introducing industrialization and public education. Significance: Along with the Indian Rebellion of 1857, an example of how increasing discontent with imperial rule led to rebellions in the c. 1750-1900 period. Also, like the Ghost Dance movement amongst Native Americans in the United States, an example of a rebellion influenced by religious beliefs.
1750 - 1900 Indian Rebellion of 1857
A massive rebellion against British East India Company rule of India which occurred in 1857-1858. Significance: The rebellion reflected resentment of British rule inspired by many factors, including the way in which the import of manufactured textiles and other goods from Europe had driven many Indian artisans out of work and into economic desperation. Like the Herero Revolt in Southern Africa, an example of the many rebellions against European imperialism throughout Asia and Africa in the c. 1750-1900 time period. Importantly, it led to an end of British East India Company rule of India, and the transition to India being a formal colony of Britain.
Nationalism
A political ideology involving three key beliefs: Belief One: A nation is made up of a group of people who share a common identity - not just the people ruled by the same ruler. 1. "Cultural Nationalism" says that this identity is primarily cultural. 2. "Ethnic Nationalism" says that this identity is based on common genetic background ("race" or "ethnicity"). 3. "Civic Nationalism" says that this identity is based on common values and a commitment to the responsibilities of citizenship. Belief Two: People should be loyal to their nation, and try to make their nation as great as it can possibly be - maybe even better and stronger than others. Belief Three: Each nation should have their own territory and government - a nation-state. Examples: • Nationalism inspired Haitians, Argentinians, and Greeks to fight for independence in the c. 1750-1900 from the French, Spanish, and Ottoman Empires. • German and Italian nationalism in the c. 1750-1900 time period led to the unification of these previously fragmented regions.
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Indian National Congress (I.N.C.)
A political organization formed in 1885 to unify Indians on the basis of a nationalist identity, regardless of their religious; cultural; or caste background with the goal of winning independence from British rule. Following Indian independence in 1947, the I.N.C. became one of India's leading political parties, known as the "Congress Party". Key leaders of the I.N.C. included Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) and Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), India's first prime minister. Significance: An example of how growing nationalism in colonies contributed to anticolonial movements in the c. 1750-1900 time period, and of how nationalist leaders and parties in Asia and Africa sought varying degrees of autonomy within or independence from imperial rule after 1900 as well.
1750 - 1900 Reform Acts of 1832, 1867, and 1884
A series of laws passed by the British Parliament, which gradually resulted in the extension of suffrage to all adult males. Significance: Like the similar extension of voting rights to working-class men in the United States, France, and Germany in the Nineteenth Century, an example of political reforms promoted by governments in the industrializing West in response to the social and economic changes brought about by industrial capitalism.
Tanzimat Reforms
A set of legal, economic, government, military and educational reforms initiated by the leadership of the Ottoman Empire in the middle of the Nineteenth Century in an attempt to modernize their state. The reforms were supported by an educated class known as the "Young Ottomans" and rulers like Sultan Abdul Mejid. Significance: An example of governments in Asia and Africa seeking to reform and modernize their economies, militaries, and societies in response to the expanding power of industrializing Western states. However, as the reforms were later resisted by Sultan Abd al-Hamid, also an example of how some members of governments or established elite groups often resisted reform.
Economic Imperialism
A situation where corporations from an imperial power control the economy (or key sectors of the economy) in an independent but weaker state. This is usually backed up by the imperial power's government. Examples: British control of trade in China (including the opium trade); British and American control of mines and railroads throughout Latin America. (British-owned railroads in Argentina used to export foodstuffs like wheat and beef.)
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Public education
A system of education paid for by the government of a particular society and offered free to children in that society. The German state of Prussia was the first country to offer public education to all children, beginning in 1819; by the year 1900, most states in Western Europe and North America offered public education. Significance: An example of how some governments in the c. 1750-1900 time period responded to the social and economic changes brought about by industrial capitalism by promoting educational reform. Public education enabled more people to read in at least one language and it allowed for quicker production of things (since they could read the manuals easily and were educated on how to build/make things).
1750 - 1900 Manchester
A village in northwest England which grew into a city of half a million people by 1850 as Britain industrialized. (Manchester was close to the coal mines of northern England; Britain's canal network; AND the part of Liverpool, where cotton arrived from India, making it a prime location for Britain's new textile mills.) Significance: Like Pittsburgh in the U.S. or Essen in Germany, Manchester was an example of how industrialization has led to urbanization - and problems of urbanization, like pollution, poverty, increased crime, public health, crises, housing shortages, and insufficient infrastructure to accommodate rapid growth - since 1750.
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Communism
According to Karl Marx, this was going to be the final, best kind of human society. Little government needed (because we can all share fairly); the community (the people) share ownership of property and the means of production. Marx believed communism could only be established following a violent overthrow of the ownership class ("bourgeoisie") by the working class ("proletariat"). Significance: Inspired many people and movements (like communist political parties) in various societies from the 1850s to the present, but never actually truly realized on a large scale. 1750 - 1900
1450 - 1750 1750 - 1900 John Locke and the "Social Contract"
An English philosopher (lived 1632-1704) considered one of the first Enlightenment thinkers. Significance: Along with his fellow Seventeenth Century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, Locke developed the idea of government as a "social contract" that governments should derive their power and legitimacy from the people they govern in return for protecting the Natural Rights and freedoms of those people.
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Witwatersrand
An area of South Africa around the city of Johannesburg containing the largest deposits of gold ever discovered on Earth. Since the discovery of gold here in 1886, this area has been one of the most significant centers of the world's mining industry. Significance: Beginning in the 1880s, the vast demand for mine workers drew male labors to migrate from their homes in South Africa and neighboring countries, leaving behind their wives, children, and other women in their home societies. This is an example of a trend in migration since the Nineteenth Century, in which migrants have tended to be male, leaving women to take on new roles in the home society that had been formerly occupied by men. As men sought employment in other cities, wives had to manage the domestic economy and supply food for their husbands.
Capitalism
An economic system in which "factors of production" (the things workers use to produce and move stuff, like farms, factories, mines, and roads) are mostly privately owned, and people invest money to make a profit. Examples: Common elements of Capitalism 1. Free trade (and not mercantilism) 2. Entrepreneurship (the ability of people to start businesses on their own) 3. Specialization of labor (often in a factory system in industrialized societies *Note: "Capital" refers to the combination of both the "factors of production" and wealth, sometimes people sued the term "Capital" to refer to the ownership in an industrial society.
1750 - 1900 Steam Engine
An engine driven by steam pressure created usually by coal (a fossil fuel), first perfected by the British inventor James Watt around 1780. Significance: The rapid development of steam-powered industrial production in European countries and the U.S. contributed to these regions' share of global manufacturing in the first Industrial Revolution. 1750 - 1900
1750 - 1900 Irish Potato Famine
An event which occurred in Ireland (then part of the United Kingdom) in the 1840s in which a fungus wiped out the potato crop in Ireland, leading to mass starvation and mass emigration from Ireland, mostly to North America. Significance: Since Ireland's population even before the famine had grown too large for its farmlands to sustain, this is an example of how migration in many cases was influenced by changes in demographic in both industrialized and unindustrialized societies that presented challenges to existing patterns of living. Additionally, the same kind of thing happened in China, where overpopulation helped drive immigration.
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Johannesburg
An instant city formed during the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of the 1880s which remained the largest African city south of the Sahara Desert into the 21st Century. Significance: Johannesburg is an example of how the worlds migrations from 1800-1930 fueled significant urbanization of the world's population in the c. 1750-1900 time period. Another similar example is New York City.
1750 - 1900 The Enlightenment
An intellectual movement originating in Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries whose proponents sought to apply new ways of understanding using REASON and empiricist (scientific) approaches to better understand and improve human nature and human societies. Significance: Key beliefs developed by Enlightenment thinkers included faith in liberty, equality, natural rights, constitutional government. They also questioned the role that religion played in public life. Enlightenment ideas influenced various reform movements in the c. 1750 to 1900 time period, including the Atlantic Revolutions; the drive to expand suffrage; and the abolition of slavery in the Atlantic world.
1750 - 1900 The Abolitionist Movement
An international movement that between approximately 1780 and 1890 succeeded in condemning slavery as morally repugnant and abolishing it in much of the world; the movement was especially prominent in Britain and the United States. Significance: An example of how Enlightenment ideas influenced various reform movements that challenged existing notions of social relations (race-based slavery, in this case) and contributed to the expansion of rights in the c. 1750 to 1900 time period.
1750 - 1900 London Municipal Board of Works
An organization established by the British government in 1855 to improve urban life in London, as it grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution. Two kinds of reforms the London Municipal Board of Works accomplished were: 1. Development of an improved sewage system. 2. More streets and bridges were built to relieve traffic congestion. Significance: An example of an organization which initiated the kinds of urban reforms (including policing) initiated by government in response to the changes brought about by industrial capitalism. Similar reforms were also seen in such cities in the industrializing west as Pittsburgh; Manchester; and Frankfurt.
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Labour Party of Britain
British working-class political party established in the 1890s and dedicated to reforms and a peaceful transition to socialism in time providing a viable alternative to the revolutionary emphasis of Marxism. Significance: Like the Social Democratic Party in Germany, an example of a workers' political party that emerged in the industrializing parts of the world in the c. 1750-1900 time period that promoted an alternative vision of society. Like labor unions, the work of such political parties helped the industrial working class improve their working conditions, limit their working hours, and gain higher wages. (As of 2020, the Labour Party was still one of the two main political parties in Britain.)
1750 - 1900 Indian Civil Service
Bureaucratic corps created by the British government to govern India after it took control of the colony from the British East India Company in 1858. The overwhelming majority of Indian Civil Service offers were British, not Indian. Significance: Like the shift from Dutch East India Company to Dutch government control in Indonesia or the shift from private ownership of the Congo by King Leopold II to the Belgian government, the replacement of British East India Company agents with the Indian Civil Service was an example of how some states with existing colonies strengthened their control over those colonies and in some cases assumed direct control over colonies previously held by non-state entities.
1750 - 1900 The Self-Strengthening Movement
China's program of internal reform in the 1860s and 1870s, based on vigorous application of Confucian principles and limited borrowing from the West. Significance: An example of governments in Asia and Africa seeking to reform and modernize their societies in response to the expanding power of industrializing states. However, as the reforms were resisted by aristocrats, some civil servants, and later the Empress Cixi, the fate of the movement is also an example of how some members of governments or established elite groups often resisted reform.
Settler colonies
Colonies in the empires of European powers to which significant numbers of Europeans migrated to and settled in permanently. Examples: British colonies of Rhodesia and Kenya in Africa; South Africa; French colony of Algeria; Canada; Australia; New Zealand. Suffrage Definition: The right to vote. Example: In 1848, a group of (mostly female) activists meeting in a convention in Seneca Falls, New York, issued a resolution calling for suffrage for women in the United States of America. (As in most democratic societies, though, women didn't gain suffrage in the United States until well after 1900, though.)
Berlin Conference of 1884
Conference held in the German capital at which representatives of European states agreed on how to divide Africa into colonies (with little or no regard to the people actually living in Africa). Significance: An example of how many European states used both warfare and diplomacy to expand their empires in Africa, mostly during the "Scramble for Africa" (1875-1900). 1750 - 1900
1750 - 1900 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
Document drawn up by the French National Assembly in 1789 that proclaimed the equal rights of all men; the declaration ideologically launched the French Revolution. Significance: Like the Declaration of Independence from the American Revolution and Simon Bolivar's "Jamaica Letter", the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen shows how the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers influenced resistance to existing political authority during the Atlantic revolutions, often in pursuit of independence and democratic ideals.
1750 - 1900 The Declaration of Independence
Document written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Continental Congress of Britain's rebelling North American colonies in 1776 to declare their independence from British rule and their creation of a new state, the United States of America. The document included a long list of complaints against the actions of the British government of King George III, and drew on the ideals of the Enlightenment as justification for their rebellion and the creation of a new nation. Significance: Like the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen from the French Revolution and Simon Bolivar's "Jamaica Letter", the Declaration of Independence shows how the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers influenced resistance to existing political authority during the "Atlantic Revolutions", often in pursuit of independence and democratic ideals.
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Socialism
Economic and political system in which, in order to ensure a fair and safe economic life for workers, the government takes significant control of the economy. Under full socialism, there is PUBLIC OWNERSHIP (not private ownership) of the means of production. Significance: A system advocated for by many and adopted at least in part by all industrialized societies since the mid-1800s.
1750 - 1900 Tsar Alexander II of Russia
Emperor (and absolute monarch) of Russia from 1855 until his assassination in 1881. Significance: His reforms included the abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861 (Russia was the last major society to maintain this social and labor system) and the launch of Russia's state-sponsored industrialization drive, which led (among other things) to the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad (the world's longest). He did not, however, attempt to establish any kind of democracy in Russia, which remained an authoritarian absolute monarchy.
1750 - 1900 Karl Marx
German-born journalist, economist, and historian who lived most of his life (1818-1883) in Britain, where he became QUITE CONCERNED about the injustices and abuses he observed in an industrializing Britain. Significance: Author, with Friedrich Engels, of one of the key documents of socialism - the "COMMUNIST MANIFESTO".
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Golondrinas
Golondrinas were the first Italian migrants to grasp the opportunity created by this leap of globalization across the equator. They migrated with the seasons (they took advantage of the difference in seasons between the Northern and Southern hemispheres to harvest crops in Italy and then take passage to Argentina). Significance: Like Japanese agricultural workers in the Pacific, Golondrinas were an example of how new, faster, and cheaper modes of transportation developed in the Nineteenth Century allowed many migrants to return, periodically or permanently, to their home societies. Like Jews, Irish people, Chinese laborers, and many other immigrants to North America, Golondrinas were examples of individuals who chose freely to relocate, often in search of work, in the c. 1750-1900 time period.
1750 - 1900 "Cult of Domesticity"
Idea developing in the industrializing west (Western Europe and North America) that middle-class women should devote themselves to domestic (household) duties as wives and mothers (since they didn't need to contribute economically to their household). Significance: This idea illustrates the new importance of nuclear families (as opposed to extended families) in the urbanizing and industrializing west, as well as a way in which industrialization reinforced patriarchy for many middle-class women (not necessarily for the lower-class women).
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Department store
Large stores selling a wide variety of manufactured goods established in most cities in industrialized societies beginning in the 19th Century. Examples include Macy's in the United States; Harrod's in Britain; and the Galleries Lafayette in France. Significance: The wide array of things sold at department stores, and the ability of middle-class and even some working-class people to purchase them, illustrates how the development of industrial capitalism in the 19th Century led to increased standards of living, and how improvement in manufacturing methods increased the availability, affordability, and variety of consumer goods.
1450 - 1750 1750 - 1900 1900 - now Stock markets
Locations and organizations in which people can buy and sell stocks (or shares), which give them part ownership of a particular business or corporation. By the Nineteenth Century, stock markets (also known as stock exchanges), were operating in cities like London, Paris, Frankfurt, New York, and Mumbai (Bombay). Significance: Booming stock markets led to more public investment and more developed societies.
Congo Free State (Belgian Congo)
Massive Belgian colony in the Congo River Basin in Central Africa, first the private possession of King Leopold II of Belgium called the "Congo Free State" and then a formal colony of Belgium. Its Belgian rulers showed remarkable brutality to its people while extracting resources like rubber and copper. Significance: Along with colonies like British Egypt, French West Africa, German East Africa, or Italian Libya, an example how European states expanded their empires in Africa.
1750 - 1900 "Lowell girls"
Nickname given to the thousands of young women who flocked to the town of Lowell, Massachusetts from about 1830 to 1860 to take jobs in its textile mills. Significance: An example of how women (and often children) in working class families typically held wage-earning jobs to supplement their family's income, often in the textile industries (an early area of mechanization), in industrializing societies like Western Europe, North America, and Japan in the 1750-1900 time period.
Labor unions
Organizations formed by the workers in a particular industry or company in order to advocate for their interests. Examples: In the Nineteenth Century, many workers in industrialized states like the United States, Britain, and Germany often organized themselves into labor unions (like the American Federation of Labor or the British Trade Unions Council) to improve working conditions, limit hours, and gain higher wages.
1750 - 1900 Meiji Restoration
Period following the 1868 overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the "restoration" of power to the emperor of Japan and his advisors. (The emperor at the time was the Meiji Emperor.) Significance: Though initially resisted by some of the samurai and aristocracy, the economic, political, and educational reforms of the Meiji Restoration enabled Japan to modernize, selectively Westernize, and avoid Western domination. Along with Tsarist Russia's development of factories and railroads or the attempts by the Ottoman official Muhammad Ali to develop a cotton textile industry in Egypt in the 1840s, the economic reforms of Meiji Japan serve as an example of state-sponsored industrialization in the c. 1750-1900 time period.
1750 - 1900 Guano
Seabird poop. The guano from Guanay cormorants on the West coast of South America is rich in phosphates and nitrates, making it quite valuable as an ingredient in explosives and fertilizer. Significance: The control of shipping (of guano and copper) from Chile and Peru to North America by the American-owned Grace Lines was an example of how trade in commodities in the c. 1750-1900 time period was organized in a way that gave merchants and companies based in Europe and the U.S. a distinct economic advantage.
1750 - 1900 The Latin American Revolutions (or Latin American Independence Movements)
Series of risings in the Spanish colonies of Latin America (1810-1826) that established the independence of new states from Spanish rule but that for the most part retained the privileges of the elites despite efforts at more radical social rebellion by the lower classes. Significance: Along with the American and Haitian Revolutions, one of a series of rebellions led by colonial subjects in the Americas that facilitated the emergence of independent states in the c. 1750-1900 time period. Thirteen new states, including Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Argentina, emerged following the end of Spanish rule.
1750 - 1900 The Declaration of the Rights of Woman (by Olympe de Gouges)
Short work written by the French feminist Olympe de Gouges in 1791 that was modeled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and that made the argument that the equality proclaimed by the French revolutionaries must also include women. Significance: Like Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Women", an example of how an emergent feminism and demands for rights like suffrage for women in some societies challenged political and gender hierarchies in the c. 1750 to 1900 time period.
1750 - 1900 1900 - now "Lower Middle Class"
Social class that developed in Western Europe and North America in the 19th Century and that consisted of people employed in the service sector as clerks, salespeople, secretaries, police officers, and the like; by 1900, this group comprised about 20% of Britain's population. Significance: Along with the creation of the industrial working class, the emergence of the lower middle class was an example of the creation of new social classes in the industrializing states of the west in the c. 1750-1900 era.
1750 - 1900 Factory system
System of producing manufactured goods such as textile in factories, using machinery. Significance: The development of the factory system concentrated production in a single location and led to an increasing degree of specialization of labor in the c 1750-1900 time period in industrializing societies like Europe, the United States, and Japan.
1750 - 1900 The Second Industrial Revolution
The "second stage" of world industrialization, from about 1850 to about 1900, characterized by the development of the steel, chemical, electrical, and precision machinery industries, and increasing use of petroleum-driven internal combustion engines. Significance: This phase was led by the new industrial powers of Germany and the United States, and diminished the world economic dominance of Great Britain.
Cixi
The daughter of a civil servant and mother and aunt of two Chinese emperors who effectively served as the ruler of Qing Dynasty China from 1861 until 1908 (she was one of the only female rulers of China). Cixi initially supported reforms like the Self-Strengthening Movement, but by the end of her reign largely resisted efforts to reform and modernize China. Significance: Along with the Janissaries and ulama in the Ottoman Empire and some samurai in Meiji Japan, an example of the kinds of government members and established elites who resisted reforms in African and Asian societies initiated in response to the expanding power of the industrializing states in the c. 1750-1900 time period.
1750-1900 Muhammad Ali (of Egypt)
The governor of Egypt, then a province of the Ottoman Empire, from 1805 to 1848. Significance: Although Muhammad Ali attempted to modernize Egypt by establishing a textile-production industry there (an example of a state-sponsored vision of industrialization), his reluctance to use modern machinery meant that Egypt (like India) saw a declining share in global textile production as mechanized industrial production of cloth in Europe and the U.S. increased. Instead, Egypt wound up as an example of a resource-export economy, from which cotton (an industrial raw material) was shipped to Europe to be turned into cloth there.
1750 - 1900 The "Civilizing Mission"
The idea held by Europeans and Americans, especially in the 19th Century and early 20th Century, that Western states had a duty to bring "civilization" (Western education; medical care; ways of life; etc.) to the "lesser-developed" parts of the world. Significance: Along with the desire to convert indigenous populations to Christianity, one of the religious and cultural justifications for Western Imperialism in Asia, Africa, and Oceania in the c. 1750-1900 time period.
1750 - 1900 Constitutional government
The kind of government that defines and limits the power of the government and defines and protects the rights of the governed (Key elements include John Locke's social contract, Montesquieu's separation of powers, and usually, democracy). Example: U.S Government, Japanese Government
1750 - 1900 The Haitian Revolution
The only fully successful slave rebellion in world history; the uprising in the French Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue (later renamed Haiti) was sparked by the French Revolution and led to the establishment of an independent state after a long and bloody war (1791-1804). Significance: Along with the American Revolution and Latin American Revolutions, one of a series of rebellions led by colonial subjects in the Americas that facilitated the emergence of independent states in the c. 1750-1900 time period. (Haiti, in this case.)
1750 - 1900 1900 - now Liberalism
The political philosophy rooted in the beliefs of the Enlightenment, advocating for political, economic, and social freedom and equality. Liberals generally advocate for limited, constitutional government which protects the rights of the governed as well as a free-market economy. Significance: Liberalism became a key ideology of MANY of the BIG EVENTS of the c. 1750 - c. 1900 time period: The "Atlantic Revolutions"; the abolition of slavery; capitalism, entrepreneurship, and the Industrial Revolution; etc. Liberalism continued to inspire government and economic policies into the 21st century.
Westernization
The practice of non-Western societies adopting certain elements of "Western" culture; beliefs/ideologies; and/or ways of life. (Generally since c. 1750). ("The West": Western Europe; also North America and maybe Latin America (after 1450); also Australia and New Zealand (after 1800).) Examples: By doing things like promoting the use of Western clothing and sending Siamese elites to be educated in Europe, King Chulalongkorn sponsored a certain degree of Westernization in Siam (Thailand) during his reign (1868-1910).
Modernization
The practice of societies adopting the most "advanced" forms of technology (think electricity); economics (think industrialization); education and knowledge (think science); government structure (think centralized bureaucracy); etc. Examples: By doing things like sponsoring the construction of a railway network, equipping his military with steam battle ships and rifles, and establishing public education, King Chulalongkorn sponsored a certain decree of modernization in Siam (Thailand) during his reign (1868-1910).
1750 - 1900 "Second Agricultural Revolution"
The term used to describe the notable improvement in agricultural productivity in Western Europe in the 1700s, resulting form such practices as crop rotation; the use of clover as a nitrogen fixer; and the introduction of crops from the Americas (such as potatoes). Significance: Along with the accumulation of capital (money that could be invested, much of it from colonization and plantations in the Americas), the "Second Agricultural Revolution" and the population growth and urbanization resulting from it helped create the conditions necessary for the Industrial Revolution to begin in Britain.
1750 - 1900 The Opium Wars
Two wars fought between Britain and China (1839-1842 and 1856-1858) after China tried to restrict the importation of foreign goods, especially opium (grown in British-held India). Significance: China lost both wars, showing the declining power of China relative to the West as Western states modernized. Britain forced China to make major concessions after the wars, such as ceding Hong Kong to the British as a colony, and allowing Western control of much of China's external trade (including the trade in opium)—An example of economic imperialism, and of how the trade in some commodities (opium, in this case) was organized in such a way to give merchants based in Europe an economic advantage.
1750 - 1900 Russo-Japanese War
War fought between Japan and Russia in 1904-1905 which was won by Japan. Significance: Like its earlier military victory over China in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japan's defeat of Russia showed the world the effectiveness of the military and industrial modernization of the Meiji government. Through these and other conflicts, Japan established growing regional power in East Asia and an empire that included Taiwan, Korea, and colonies in Russia and coastal China by 1910.
1750 - 1900 The Spanish American War
War fought between the United States and Spain in 1898. After Spain's defeat, the United States gained control of many of its former colonies, including the Philippines in Southeast Asia; Puerto Rico and Cuba in the Caribbean; and the Pacific island of Guam. Significance: Like the British colonization of New Zealand or the Japanese conquest of Taiwan in 1895, and example of how European states as well as the United States and Japan acquired territories throughout Asia and the Pacific in the c. 1750-1900 time period. Also an example of declining Spanish and Portuguese influence in Asia and the Pacific in this time period.
1750 - 1900 The Mexican-American War
War of aggression fought by the United States against Mexico from 1846 to 1848, which resulted in American conquest and settlement of what is now California and the southwestern United States. Significance: Like Russian conquest of Central Asia, an example of how the United States, Russia, and Japan expanded their land holdings by conquering and settling neighboring territories in the c. 1750 - 1900 time period. (IMPERIALISM!)