Chapter 27 - The New Power Balance 1850-1900 Flashcards
Commodore Matthew Perry
A navy commander who, on July 8, 1853, became the first foreigner to break through the barriers that had kept Japan isolated from the rest of the world for 250 years.
railroads
Networks of iron (later steel) rails on which steam (later electric or diesel) locomotives pulled long trains at high speeds. The first railroads were built in England in the 1830s. Their success caused a railroad-building boom throughout the world that lasted well into the twentieth century.
submarine telegraph cables
Insulated copper cables laid along the bottom of a sea or ocean for telegraphic communication. The first short cable was laid across the English Channel in 1851; the first successful transatlantic cable was laid in 1866.
steel
A form of iron that is both durable and flexible. It was first mass-produced in the 1860s and quickly became the most widely used metal in construction, machinery, and railroad equipment.
electricity
A form of energy used in telegraphy from the 1840s on and for lighting, industrial motors, and railroads beginning in the 1880s.
Thomas Edison
American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures.
Victorian Age
The reign of Queen Victoria of Great Britain (r.1837–1901). The term is also used to describe late-nineteenth-century society, with its rigid moral standards and sharply differentiated roles for men and women and for middle-class and working-class people.
“separate spheres”
Nineteenth-century idea in Western societies that men and women, especially of the middle class, should have clearly differentiated roles in society: women as wives, mothers, and homemakers; men as breadwinners and participants in business and politics
socialism
A political ideology that originated in Europe in the 1830s. Socialists advocated government protection of workers from exploitation by property owners and government ownership of industries. This ideology led to the founding of socialist or labor parties throughout Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century.
labor union
An organization of workers in a particular industry or trade, created to defend the interests of members through strikes or negotiations with employers.
Karl Marx
German journalist and philosopher, founder of the Marxist branch of socialism. He is known for two books: Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) and Das Kapital (Vols. I–III, 1867–1894).
anarchists
Revolutionaries who wanted to abolish all private property and governments, usually by violence, and replace them with free associations of groups.
nationalism
A political ideology that stresses people’s membership in a nation—a community defined by a common culture and history as well as by territory.
liberalism
A political ideology that emphasizes the civil rights of citizens, representative government, and the protection of private property.This ideology, derived from the Enlightenment, was especially popular among the property-owning middle classes of Europe and North America.
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Italian nationalist and revolutionary who conquered Sicily and Naples and added them to a unified Italy in 1860.
