Industrial Revolution
This new source of energy fueled steam engines and became essential for powering 19th-century factories, especially in Britain.
Coal
European powers carved up this continent at the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, leading to the establishment of various colonies.
Africa
This term describes a strong sense of pride, loyalty, and devotion to one’s nation or cultural group, a driving force in 19th-century Europe's colonialism
Nationalism
A reaction to the excesses of capitalism, this ideology called for collective or governmental ownership of the means of production.
Socialism
Although best known for his advocacy of free markets in The Wealth of Nations, this economist also served as Commissioner of Customs in Scotland
Adam Smith
This method of producing goods in large quantities using machines and an assembly line was pioneered during the Industrial Revolution.
Mass Production
This term describes the British practice of directly controlling Indian territories through British officials rather than through local rulers after a military rebellion.
Direct Rule
Under this policy, Japan rapidly industrialized and modernized beginning in 1868, ending centuries of feudal isolation.
Meiji Restoration
This mid-19th-century conflict in China, led by Hong Xiuquan, aimed to overthrow the Qing Dynasty but was ultimately unsuccessful.
Taiping Rebellion
Following his role in liberating northern South America from Spanish rule, he served as president of the short-lived state of Gran Colombia before dying in relative isolation and disillusionment in 1830.
Simón Bolívar
This invention by James Watt was crucial in powering factories, locomotives, and ships, drastically increasing production capacity.
Steam Engine
This rebellion (1857–1858) began among Indian soldiers under the British East India Company and is often considered the first major anti-colonial uprising in India.
Sepoy Muntiny
He was instrumental in the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership, famously using the policies of "Blood and Iron."
Otto von Bismark
These regional military leaders gained significant power in Latin America after independence movements, often ruling as personalist dictators.
Caudillos
Although he co-authored The Communist Manifesto, this thinker died stateless in London in 1883, having renounced his Prussian citizenship decades earlier. He spent much of his life analyzing European industrial capitalism and its impact on the working class.
Karl Marx
The rise of industrial cities is closely tied to this phenomenon, in which people moved from rural areas to urban centers in search of factory work.
Urbanization
Signed in 1842, this treaty ended the First Opium War, granting Britain control of Hong Kong and opening several Chinese ports to European trade.
Treaty of Nanjing
This powerful empire centered on Istanbul was declining by the 19th century due to its slow modernization.
Ottoman Empire
Belgium's exploitative rule in this African colony prompted widespread international criticism, highlighting the brutality of European imperialism.
The Congo
Before he became a leader of India’s independence movement, he developed his concept of satyagraha after facing racial discrimination in South Africa, where he was forced off a first-class train compartment despite holding a valid ticket.
Gandhi
This economic system played a key role in the expansion of industrial economies and competition between factories.
Capitalism
The United States declared its intention to oppose European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere through this 1823 statement, influencing later imperialism.
Monroe Doctrine
This 1860s movement sought to westernize and strengthen China by adopting European industrial and military technology.
Self-Strengthening Movement
These two commodities were the main minerals extracted in South Africa during the age of imperialism
Diamonds & Gold
Under the pretext of philanthropic and scientific research, this 19th-century European monarch established a private corporate state in Central Africa which he controlled directly. His brutal extraction of natural material resulted in millions of deaths and international condemnation.
King Leopold II