Constitutional Monarchy
A system of government in which the monarch serves as the head of state, but Parliament holds the real power
Suffrage
the right to vote
Reform Bill of 1832
In Britain, this law eased the property requirements so that well to do men in the middle class could vote, and also modernized the districts for electing members of Parliament
Chartist movement
in 19th century Britain, members of the working class demanded reforms in Parliament and in elections, including suffrage for all men
Queen Victoria
the British Empire reached the height of its wealth and power under her reign
Third Republic
the republic that was established in France after the downfall of Napoleon III and ended with the German occupation of France during World War 2
Dreyfus affair
a controversy in France in the 1890s centering on the trial and imprisonment of a Jewish army officer, Captain Alfred Dreyfus who had been falsely accused of selling military secrets
anti-Semitism
prejudice against Jews
Zionism
a movement founded in the 1890s to promote the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine
dominion
in the British empire, a nation (such as Canada) allowed to govern its own domestic affairs
Maori
a member of a Polynesian people who settled in New Zealand around A.D. 800
Aborigine
a member of any of the native peoples of Australia
penal colony
a colony in which convicts are sent as an alternative to prison
home rule
a control over internal matters granted to the residents of a region by ruling a government
manifest destiny
the idea, popular among mid-19th-century Americans, that it was the right and the duty of the U.S to rule North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean
Louisiana Purchase
purchase of all the land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains by the United Sates from France in 1803 for $15 million dollars
Adams-Onis Treaty
in 1819, the U.S. gained all Spanish land east of the Mississippi River, Spain gave up any claims to the Oregon country, and the U.s gave up its claim to Texas
Indian Removal Act
law passed in 1830 that provided money to move Indian groups out of the southeastern U.S. to western reservations
Lone Star Republic
name given to the Independent Republic of Texas after its successful revolution against Mexico
Oregon country
A compromise treaty was signed in 1846 to prevent war and established the 49th parallel as the dividing line between British and U.S. territories
Mexican cession
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established a sale of vast Mexican territories to to the United States including California and territory in the southwest at the conclusion of the Mexican War
Gadsden Purchase
Land purchase along the southern borders of New Mexico and Arizona by the U.S. from Mexico in 1853 to allow for the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad
Abraham Lincoln
the 16th U.S. President (1861-1865). His election sparked the the succession of South Carolina and the formation of the Confederate States of America
U.S. Civil War
a conflict between Northern and Southern states of the united States over the issues of slavery, lasting from 1861 to 1865
Emancipation Proclamation
a declaration issued by U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in 1863, stating that all slaves in the Confederate states were free
Segregation
the legal or social separation of people of different races
Thomas Edison
U.S. inventor of the photograph and incandescent light bulb
Alexander Graham Bell
Inventor of the telephone
Guglielmo Marconi
Italian inventor of the first radio in 1895
Assembly line
in a factory, an arrangement in which a product in moved from worker to worker, with each person performing a single task in its manufacture
Wilbur and Orville Wright
U.S. bicycle mechanics that completed the first successful man-made flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903
Mass culture
the production of works of art and entertainment designed to appeal to a large audience
Olympic games
the revival in 1896 at Athens, Greece of the ancient Greek traditions of holding an athletic competition among countries every four years
Louis Pasteur
French Chemist who learned heat killed bacteria, leading to a process called pasteurization to kill germs in liquids such as milk
Theory of Evolution
the idea, proposed by Charles Darwin in 1859, that species of plants and animals arise by means of a process of natural selection ( totally false)
Dmitri Mendeleev
Russian chemist who organized a chart called the Periodic Table on which all known chemical elements were arranged in order of weight, from the lightest to the heaviest
radioactivity
a form of energy released as atoms decay
psychology
the study of the human mind and human behavior
secede
to withdraw formally from an association or alliance