Sepoys
Indian troops, trained in European style, serving the French and British.
Raj
The British political establishment in India.
Plassey (1757)
Battle between the troops of the British East India Company and an Indian army under Siraj-ud-daula, ruler of Bengal; British victory gave them control of Northeast India.
Robert Clive
Architect of British victory at Plassey; established foundations of the Raj in northern India.
Presidencies
Three districts that comprised the bulk of British-ruled territories in India during the early 19th century; capitals at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.
Princely states
Ruled by Indian princes allied with the Raj; agents of the East India Company were stationed at their courts to ensure loyalty.
Nabobs
Name given to Britons who went to India to make fortunes through graft and exploitation; returned to Britain to live richly.
Charles Cornwallis
British official who reformed East India Company corruption during the 1790s.
Isandhlwana (1879)
Zulu defeat of a British army; one of the few indigenous victories over 19th-century European armies.
Tropical dependencies
Western European possessions in Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific where small numbers of Europeans ruled large indigenous populations.
White dominions
A type of settlement colony, such as those in North America and Australia, where European settlers made up the majority of the population.
Settler colonies
Colonies, such as those in South Africa, New Zealand, Algeria, Kenya, and Hawaii, where minority European populations lived among majority indigenous peoples.
White racial supremacy
Belief in the inherent superiority of whites over the rest of humanity; peaked in the period before World War I.
Great Trek
Migration into the South African interior of thousands of Afrikaners seeking to escape British control.
Boer republics
Independent states—Orange Free State and Transvaal—established during the 1850s in the South African interior by Afrikaners.
Cecil Rhodes
British entrepreneur in South Africa; manipulated political situation to gain entry to the diamonds and gold discovered in the Boer republics.
Boer War (1899-1902)
Fought between the British and Afrikaners; British victory and postwar policies left the African population of South Africa under Afrikaner control.
James Cook
His voyages to Hawaii from 1777 to 1779 opened the islands to the West.
Kamehameha
Hawaiian prince; with British backing he created a unified kingdom by 1810; promoted the entry of Western ideas in commerce and social relations.
Great Mahele
Hawaiian edict issued in 1848 that imposed Western property concepts that resulted in much Hawaiian land passed to Western commercial interests.
Mataram
Kingdom that controlled interior regions of Java in 17th century; Dutch East India Company paid tribute to the kingdom for rights of trade at Batavia; weakness of kingdom after 1670s allowed Dutch to exert control over all of Java.
Ram Mohum Roy
Western-educated Indian leader, early 19th century; cooperated with British to outlaw sati.
Natal
British colony in South Africa; developed after Boer trek north from Cape Colony; major commercial outpost of Durban.
Nationalism
Political viewpoint with origins in western Europe; often allied with other "isms"; urged importance of national unity; valued a collective identity based on culture, race, or ethnic origin.