Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Shakespeare-Style of plays
Who was he: An English poet and playwright between
1590 and 1613.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther, was a German Monk who is upset about
the selling of indulgence by the Catholic Church and
voices his dissatisfaction in his writings know as the 95
theses. This leads to the Protestant Reformation and
eventually the restructuring of the Catholic Church
John Calvin
John Calvin, trained as a priest and lawyer and was also
unhappy with the Catholic Church. He leaves the Church
and creates his own religion based around his idea of
predestination.
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was an established physicist and
mathematician, and is credited as one of the great
minds of the 17th century Scientific Revolution. With
discoveries in optics, motion and mathematics, Newton
developed the principles of modern physics. He is most
famous for his law of gravitation.
Natural Law
A body of principles that are considered to be inherent
in nature and have universal application in determining
whether human conduct is right or wrong.
Social Contract
This is an implicit agreement among the members of a
society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by
sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection.
Theories of a social contract became popular in the 16th,
17th, and 18th centuries among theorists such as
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
as a means of explaining the origin of government and
the obligations of subjects.
Heliocentric
The theory that places the Sun as the center of the
universe, and the planets orbiting around it. The
heliocentric model replaced Geocentrism, which is the
belief that the Earth is the center of the universe.
Napoleonic Code
The is the French civil code established under Napolon I
in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth,
allowed freedom of religion, and specified that
government jobs should go to the most qualified.
Maximilien Robespierre
He was a lawyer and politician who becomes the leader
of the Committee of Public Safety and become the chief
architect of the Reign of Terror:
Napoleon Bonaparte
He proclaims himself the Emperor of France, he gets
France out of the turmoil that followed the revolution, but
loses the War against his European neighbors and is
forced to abdicate his position:
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new
manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760
to sometime between 1820 and 1840.
Communism-Karl Marx
Imperialism-Impact on Africa
Direct Control-Imperialism
In a direct rule, a colony would be governed by foreign
officials while no self-rule was given to natives. The goal
was assimilation of the colony into an empire.
Government institutions were based on European
governments.
Indirect Control-Imperialism
In an indirectly ruled colony, local government officials
might be used, while the native upper-class was given
limited self-rule over the colony. The goal was to
Westernize future leaders of a colony in order to
perpetuate a powers control.
Boxer Rebellion
In 1900, in what became known as the Boxer Rebellion
(or the Boxer Uprising), a Chinese secret organization
called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists
led an uprising in northern China against the spread of
Western and Japanese influence there.
Tokugawa Shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the
Tokugawa bakufu and the Edo bakufu, was the last
feudal Japanese military government which existed
between 1603 and 1868.
Militarism: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong
military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests.
Alliance: a union or association formed for mutual benefit, especially between countries or
organizations. As tension starts to build by the imperial nations during the late 1800s, groups of
nations signed treaties to protect themselves in case of war. When war between Serbia and
Austria-Hungry breaks out these Alliances draw the major world powers into war.
Trench Warfare
This is a strategy used during World War I, in which the
armies attacked each other from fortified ditches. This
style of fighting led to a stalemate and prolonged the
War.
Treaty of Versailles
the treaty imposed on Germany by the Allied powers in
1920 after the end of World War I which demanded
exorbitant reparations from the Germans, took territory
from the Central Powers, and redrew boundaries.
Russian Revolution-Bolsheviks,
Lenin-Communism
This was a series of revolutions in the Russian Empire
during 1917. The events destroyed the old government,
Tsar Nicholas II was forced to step down and was
replaced with a provisional government.
Bolsheviks: A member of the majority faction of the
Russian Social Democratic Party, which was renamed the
Communist Party after seizing power in the October
Revolution of 1917.
Adolf Hitler
He is the leader of the Nazi Party and becomes
Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He does away with the
Weimar Republic and declares himself as premier leader
of Germany. In 1939 he invades Poland and starts World
War II.
Joseph Stalin
He becomes the Communist leader of the Soviet Union
after the death of Lenin. At the beginning of World War II
he signs a Non-aggression pact with Hitler, but is drawn
into the war when Germany breaks the Non-aggression
pact.
Non-aggression Pact
This is an agreement between nations not to fight each
other if a war is declared.
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and
development project that produced the first atomic
bombs during World War II. Most of the work and testing
of the atomic bomb was done in New Mexico.
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental
organization established 24 October 1945 to promote
international co-operation. The organization was created
following the Second World War to prevent another such
conflict.
Arms Race
The nuclear arms race was central to the Cold War. Many
feared where the Cold War was going with the belief that
the more nuclear weapons you had, the more powerful
you were. Both America and Russia massively built up
their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. This further
increased the tension between the two Superpowers.
N.A.T.O.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization: an organization
formed in Washington, D.C. (1949), comprising the 12
nations of the Atlantic Pact together with Greece, Turkey,
and the Federal Republic of Germany, for the purpose of
collective defense against aggression.
Warsaw Pact
In response to the development of N.A.T.O. the Soviet
Union and it Satellites formed the Warsaw Pact:
organization formed in Warsaw, Poland (1955),
comprising Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany,
Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the U.S.S.R., for collective
defense under a joint military command.
Chinese Civil War: Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist to Victory in the Chinese Civil War in
the years following World War II. China becomes the second largest Communist Nation in the
during this time period.
Korean War: After WWII, the U.S. and Soviet Union agreed to temporarily divide Korea at the 38 th
parallel. The Soviets see this as a chance to create a new Communist Nation and place Kim IL
Sung in command of North Korea. They then recognize North Korea as a new Nation and refuse to
participate in open elections. In 1950 the North Korea attacks the South, the United Nations led by
the U.S. back South Korea, China backs North Korea and the War is fought for 3 years and becomes
a stalemate. With North Korea remaining a Communist nation and South becoming a Democratic
nation.
Vietnam: A war in Southeast Asia, which was waged from 1954 to 1975 between communist North
Vietnam and noncommunist South Vietnam, two parts of what was once the French colony of
Indochina. Vietnamese communists attempted to take over the South, both by invasion from the
North and by guerrilla warfare conducted within the South by the Viet Cong. The U.S. gets involved
because of its policy of Containment and fear of the Domino effect. The U.S. society becomes
dishearten with the war the U.S. pulls out in 1975 and Vietnam becomes a Communist nation.
Containment
U.S. Containment policy was the first major policy during
the Cold War and used numerous strategies (Truman
Doctrine, Marshall plan etc.)to prevent the spread of
Communism abroad. The Idea behind this was to treat
Communism like a diseases that there was no cure for,
and quarantine it so it did not spread.
Domino Theory
This was a Theory developed by the U.S. during the Cold
War, the idea behind it was that if one East Asian country
fall to Communism, the nations surrounding it would also
fall to Communism. This theory is why the U.S. gets
involved in Vietnam.
NAFTA
Apartheid-South Africa
was a system of racial segregation in South Africa
enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP),
the governing party from 1948 to 1994.