Italy & Germany
This French leader’s conquests in the early 1800s spread ideas of nationalism and disrupted old political boundaries, helping inspire later unification movements in places like Italy and Germany.
Napoleon Bonaparte
This addictive substance, heavily traded by the British into China, led to conflict and war when Chinese officials attempted to suppress its import in the 19th century.
Opium
During the Meiji Restoration, this warrior class lost its privileges and status as Japan modernized and centralized its government.
Samurai
After the 1857 uprising, this government took direct control of India from the East India Company.
Britiain
This 1884–1885 meeting of European powers set the rules for colonizing Africa, accelerating the “Scramble for Africa” without African representation.
Berlin Conference
In 1859, this empire was defeated with the help of French support, allowing the Kingdom of Sardinia to gain territory and advance the cause of Italian unification.
Austria
This anti-foreign uprising in China around 1900, led by a secret society known as the “Righteous and Harmonious Fists,” sought to expel foreign influence and Christian missionaries.
Boxer Rebellion
In 1853, this country sent Commodore Matthew Perry to Japan, pressuring it to open its ports to trade after centuries of isolation.
USA
This British trading corporation gradually took political control of large parts of India before the British government assumed direct rule in 1858.
East India Company
This British imperialist and mining magnate, educated at University of Oxford, used his wealth from South Africa’s gold and diamond mines to fund scholarships for students from around the world.
Cecil Rhodes
In 1870, this European country was provoked into declaring war on Prussia, a conflict that ultimately helped unify the German states.
France
This ethnic group from northeastern Asia established the Qing Dynasty in China, ruling as a foreign minority over a largely Han Chinese population.
Manchus
This Japanese feudal government, which ruled from the early 1600s until 1868, maintained strict social order and limited foreign contact under a policy of isolation.
Tokugawa Shogunate
These Indian soldiers employed by the East India Company rebelled in 1857, sparking a major uprising against British rule.
Sepoys
This strategic waterway, completed in 1869, connected the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, dramatically shortening travel between Europe and Asia and becoming a key interest of European imperial powers.
Suez Canal
This Prussian statesman used a strategy known as “blood and iron” to unify the German states in the 19th century, becoming the first chancellor of a united Germany.
Otto von Bismarck
This port city and island was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Nanjing, becoming a key hub of trade and imperial influence in East Asia.
Hong Kong
Following victories over China in 1895 and Russia in 1905, Japan expanded its control over this neighboring peninsula, eventually annexing it in 1910.
Korea
This once-powerful empire in India declined significantly by the 18th century, creating a power vacuum that the East India Company exploited to expand its control.
Mughal Empire
This powerful African kingdom, led by Shaka Zulu, resisted British expansion in southern Africa, famously clashing with imperial forces in the late 19th century.
Zulus
This island in southern Italy was captured by forces led by Giuseppe Garibaldi during his campaign of 1860, helping to unify Italy.
Sicily
This massive mid-19th century uprising in China, led by Hong Xiuquan, sought to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and establish a new “Heavenly Kingdom.”
Taiping Rebellion
These powerful family-controlled business conglomerates, supported by the Japanese government, played a major role in the rapid industrialization of Japan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Zaibatsus
This traditional Hindu practice, involving widows immolating themselves on their husbands’ funeral pyres, was banned by British colonial authorities as part of their efforts to reform Indian society.
Sati
This Belgian monarch personally controlled the Congo Free State, where millions of Africans suffered under a brutal system of forced labor and exploitation.
King Leopold II