Italian explorer who sailed for Spain in 1492 and reached the Americas while trying to find a western route to Asia, beginning large-scale European exploration of the New World.
Christopher Columbus
The working-class people in industrial societies who sell their labor for wages, especially factory workers. Term established by Karl Marx
Proletariat
Sailors authorized by governments to attack enemy ships during wartime.Utilized by Elizabeth I to increase England’s wealth and power..
Privateers (Pirates)
A British law that gave the East India Company control over tea sales in the American colonies and angered colonists.
The Tea Act
The practice of settling and ruling over distant lands for resources, power, and economic gain.
Colonialism
The Church of England created after England broke from the Roman Catholic Church during the English Reformation.
Anglican Church
The belief that people who share a culture, language, or history should have their own independent nation.
Nationalism
The war (1775–1783) where the American colonies fought and gained independence from Britain.
The American Revolution
French general who rose to power after the French Revolution and became Emperor of France. eventually becoming First Consul in 1799 and later Emperor of France in 1804. Napoleon created the Napoleonic Code, which reformed laws to emphasize equality before the law, property rights, and secular government. Through his wars across Europe, he spread revolutionary ideas such as nationalism, legal equality, and the end of feudal privileges, even though he ruled as an authoritarian leader.
The shift from agricultural economies to factory-based manufacturing using machines.
Industrialization
A royalist uprising in Paris in 1795 that Napoleon Bonaparte suppressed with artillery, helping launch his military career., Killing women and children. 13 Vendémiaire refers to the date in the French Revolutionary calendar when a royalist rebellion occurred in Paris against the revolutionary government. Napoleon Bonaparte, then a young general, was ordered to defend the government. He used artillery to crush the rebellion quickly, famously described as a “whiff of grapeshot.”
13 Vendiamiare
A map created by Paolo Toscanelli suggesting Asia could be reached by sailing west across the Atlantic; it influenced Columbus’s voyage.
Toscanelli Map
The factories, machines, land, and tools used to produce goods in an economy. Capital, Labor, Land
Means of Production
A year of widespread revolutions across Europe driven by nationalism, liberalism, and demands for political reform. The Revolutions of 1848 were a wave of political uprisings that occurred across Europe, especially in France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. People demanded greater political representation, national independence, and economic reforms. Many of the revolutions were influenced by liberalism, nationalism, and socialist ideas. Although most of these revolutions failed in the short term, they forced governments to consider reforms and increased nationalist movements.
1848 Revolutions
A revolution where the working class attempts to overthrow capitalism and create a classless society. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.
Communist Revolution
English philosopher who argued that people need a strong government to maintain order and developed early ideas of the social contract. Social contract theory and argued for the necessity of an absolute, undivided sovereign power to prevent a chaotic "state of nature". He famously argued that without a strong government, human life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short".
Thomas Hobbes
A meeting in 1521 where Martin Luther was asked to take back his criticisms of the Catholic Church but refused. The Diet of Worms was an imperial meeting held in the Holy Roman Empire where Martin Luther was asked by Emperor Charles V to recant his criticisms of the Catholic Church. Luther refused to take back his teachings, especially his criticism of indulgences and Church authority. As a result, he was declared an outlaw, but his ideas spread throughout Europe.
Diet of Worms
A document sold by the Catholic Church that claimed to reduce punishment for sins, which Martin Luther strongly criticized.
Letter of Indulgence
A professional and disciplined army created by Parliament during the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell known for using the army. The New Model Army was created in 1645 by the English Parliament during the English Civil War to fight against King Charles I. It was a professional, disciplined army organized by leaders like Oliver Cromwell and Sir Thomas Fairfax. Unlike earlier armies, it promoted soldiers based on ability rather than social class and had strong political and religious motivation.
New Model Army
A period of major improvements in farming techniques that increased food production and helped lead to industrialization.
British Agricultural Revolution
An economic system where countries tried to gain wealth by controlling trade, accumulating gold and silver, and maintaining colonies.
Mercantalism
King of England who broke away from the Catholic Church to create the Anglican Church after the Pope refused to grant him a divorce.
Henry VIII
The idea that governments exist because people agree to give up some freedoms in exchange for protection and order
Social Contract Theory
Queen of England (1558–1603) who strengthened England, supported exploration, and defeated the Spanish Armada.
Elizabeth I
Leader of Parliament’s forces during the English Civil War who later ruled England after the execution of King Charles I.
Oliver Cromwell