A Blast from the Past
As Islam spread through merchants to the eastern coast of Africa, the Swahili language developed as a result. Swahili is the blend of Bantu (traditional African Language), Arabic, and other languages.
What is cultural syncretism?
This thinker’s belief in “natural rights”, life, liberty, and property. They directly influenced the Declaration of Independence.
Who is John Locke?
From 1450-1750, imperial dominance was led by maritime powers like Spain and Portugal, but from 1750-1900, nations such as Britain and Germany rose to prominence due to new economic and military advantages. This major development explains the shift in global imperial power between the early modern era to the modern era.
What is the Industrial Revolution?
During the age of imperialism, Britain reorganized India to export raw materials like cotton, while King Leopold II exploited rubber in the Congo. Railroads played a huge role in this process.
What are extraction economies?
In the late 19th and 20th centuries millions of Europeans migrated to this region in search of jobs and economic opportunities.
What is the Americas?
In the early modern era (1450-1750), political rivalries between land-based empires, such as the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire, were intensified by disputes over legitimate political and religious leadership in the Islamic World. These conflicts were rooted in disagreements over who should succeed Muhammad and hold authority within the Muslim community, contributing to military confrontations and hardened sectarian identities. This long-standing religious and political division shaped competition in Asia.
What is the Sunni-Shia split?
"Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.”
This 1789 document, inspired by Enlightenment thought, attempted to outline the natural rights of citizens in revolutionary France.
What is the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen?
This industrial revolution innovation reduced travel time on rivers and oceans, allowing European powers to expand into Africa and expand imperial control more effectively in the 19th century.
What is the steamship?
These agreements were imposed on China in the 19th century after military defeats following the Opium Wars. It forced the opening of treating ports and granted extraterritorial rights to Western powers.
What are the unequal treaties?
I will also accept:
Treaty of Nanjing (1842), Treaty of the Bogue (1843), Treaties of Tianjin (1858), and Convention of Peking (1860).
Passed in 1882, this U.S. law banned immigration from China and was one of the first major restrictions targeting a specific ethnic group.
What is the Chinese Exclusion Act?
This Ottoman system seized non-Muslim children, provided them military and academic training, and assigned them to either the Janissaries (professional organized military) or government administration.
What is the devshirme system?
Inspired by Enlightenment ideas such as popular sovereignty and the social contract, 19th century movements in places like Italy and Germany sought to unify politically fragmented regions into nation-states based on shared culture, language, and collective identity. This ideology, influenced by the Enlightenment thought, emphasized loyalty to a nation and the right of people to govern themselves.
What is nationalism?
In the late 19th century, Russia industrialized through state-sponsored efforts as the government financed the Trans-Siberian Railway, imposed protective tariffs, promoted heavy industry, and relied on foreign investment to accelerate economic growth. Similarly, Japan pursued industrialization through direct government action following this political transformation that centralized authority and launched modernization reforms.
What is the Meiji Restoration?
Believing a prophecy delivered by a teenage girl, this mid‑19th‑century South African movement saw the Xhosa destroy their cattle and crops in hopes of driving out British colonial rule and restoring their lost prosperity.
What is the Xhosa Cattle Killing Movement?
After the abolition of slavery in the 19th century, this labor system brought workers from India and China to colonies in the Caribbean, Africa, and Southeast Asia under a fixed term contract in exchange for passage or low wages.
What is indentured servitude?
This Chinese philosophy formed the ideological foundation of the imperial civil service examination system, which remained a continuity throughout China's dynastic cycle, during the Tang and Song dynasties, emphasizing moral value, filial piety, and knowledge of the Five Classics.
In the 1792 work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, this Enlightenment writer argued that women were not naturally inferior to men but appears so because they lacked equal access to education.
Who is Mary Wollstonecraft?
This economic philosophy, supported by thinkers like Adam Smith, argued that governments should limit interference in business and allow supply and demand to regulate the economy during the Industrial Revolution. Translates to let it be or let it happen.
What is Laissez-Faire?
This 1884-1885 meeting led by Otto von Bismarck established rules for European colonization of Africa but included no African representatives.
What is the berlin conference?
China town and Little Italy are examples of this.
What is an ethnic enclave?
What is the Middle Passage?
In his 1815 Letter from Jamaica, this Latin American revolutionary argued that independence from Spain was justified but warned that newly freed nations would struggle with political unity and stable republican government.
Who is Simón Bolívar?
This new social class expanded during the Industrial Revolution as factory owners and entrepreneurs gained wealth and political influence, challenging the traditional dominance of the aristocracy. Hint: They were the middle class, but I am looking for the very specific name that Marx and Engels called them.
Who are the bourgeoisie?
This justification for imperialism claimed that European powers had a duty to spread Christianity, Western education, and cultural values to less developed societies in Africa and Asia.
What is the civilizing mission?
In the 19th century, Peru profited from exporting this bird-dropping fertilizer, highly valued in Europe and the United States for increasing agricultural production during the Industrial Age.
What is guano?