AP World History: Modern · Revolutions

Flashcard deck · Test Prep · AP World History: Modern · History

Key terms for the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions — Robespierre, Toussaint Louverture, Locke, Rousseau — plus industrialization for AP World History Modern.

Terms in this deck

Boston Tea Party

A 1773 colonial protest against British tea taxes in which activists dumped tea into Boston Harbor.

Declaration of Independence

The 1776 document declaring American colonies free from Britain, grounding its argument in Lockean natural-rights philosophy.

Republicanism

A system of government in which citizens elect representatives to hold power, rejecting hereditary monarchy.

Estates System

The French social hierarchy dividing society into the clergy, nobility, and commoners before the Revolution.

Natural Rights

Rights such as life, liberty, and property that Enlightenment thinkers argued all humans possess by nature, not granted by rulers.

National Assembly

The legislative body formed by Third Estate delegates in 1789, signaling the start of the French Revolution.

Federalism

A system dividing power between a national government and regional governments, as established in the U.S. Constitution.

Loyalists

American colonists who remained loyal to the British Crown during the Revolutionary War, often facing persecution afterward.

Social Contract

The idea that governments derive authority from an agreement with the people, who give up some freedoms in exchange for protection of their rights.

Stamp Act

A 1765 British tax on colonial documents that fueled American resistance under the slogan no taxation without representation.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing individual freedoms such as speech, religion, and due process.

Articles of Confederation

The first governing document of the United States, criticized for creating a weak central government with little taxing power.

George Washington

Commander of the Continental Army and first U.S. president, symbolizing republican leadership after the American Revolution.

U.S. Constitution

The 1787 framework for American federal government, embedding Enlightenment principles like checks and balances and popular sovereignty.

Montesquieu

French philosopher who proposed separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches to prevent tyranny.

Declaration of the Rights of Man

The 1789 French document asserting liberty, equality, and popular sovereignty, inspired by Enlightenment and American ideas.

Committee of Public Safety

The powerful executive committee that governed France during the Terror, prioritizing national defense and revolutionary purity.

Jacobins

A radical republican club that dominated the French government during the Reign of Terror and pushed for equality.

Separation of Powers

The division of government authority into distinct branches so that no single person or group holds unchecked power.

Third Estate

The commoners of France, comprising about 97 percent of the population, who bore the heaviest tax burden before 1789.

Treaty of Paris 1783

The agreement ending the American Revolutionary War, in which Britain recognized the independence of the United States.

Continental Congress

The assembly of colonial delegates that coordinated the American Revolution and adopted the Declaration of Independence.

John Locke

English philosopher who argued governments must protect natural rights and citizens may revolt if rulers fail to do so.

Maximilien Robespierre

Leader of the Committee of Public Safety who directed the Reign of Terror before being arrested and guillotined in 1794.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle that political authority comes from the people, who are the ultimate source of governmental legitimacy.

Tennis Court Oath

The 1789 pledge by National Assembly members not to disband until France had a new constitution.

Reign of Terror

The 1793 to 1794 period of radical revolutionary government in France, during which thousands were executed as enemies of the republic.

Voltaire

French Enlightenment writer who criticized religious intolerance and absolute monarchy, championing reason and freedom of speech.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Enlightenment thinker who argued sovereignty belongs to the people and that the general will should guide government.

Storming of the Bastille

The July 1789 attack on a Paris prison that became the symbolic start of the French Revolution.

Factory System

System of industrial production where workers and machines are concentrated in one building, replacing home-based cottage industry.

Peninsulares

People born in Spain who held the highest social and political positions in Spanish colonial Latin America.

Haitian Revolution

The 1791 to 1804 uprising of enslaved people in Saint-Domingue that resulted in the first Black republic in the world.

Steam Engine

Engine powered by steam that mechanized production and transportation, becoming central to the Industrial Revolution.

Unification of Germany

Process culminating in 1871 under Prussian leadership and Otto von Bismarck that united German states into one nation-state.

José de San Martín

South American independence leader who liberated Argentina, Chile, and Peru from Spanish rule in the early 19th century.

Saint-Domingue

The French Caribbean colony that became the site of the Haitian Revolution, known for brutal plantation slavery and great sugar wealth.

Textile Industry

One of the first industries mechanized during the Industrial Revolution, especially cotton spinning and weaving in Britain.

Toussaint Louverture

Leader of the Haitian Revolution who organized enslaved people into a fighting force and negotiated with European powers.

Congress of Vienna

The 1814 to 1815 European conference that redrew borders after Napoleon and sought to restore conservative monarchical order.

James Watt

Scottish inventor who improved the steam engine in the 1760s–70s, making it efficient enough to power factories and locomotives.

Otto von Bismarck

Prussian statesman who united Germany through a policy of realpolitik, using wars and diplomacy rather than idealism.

Miguel Hidalgo

Mexican priest who launched the Mexican independence movement in 1810 with his famous Grito de Dolores speech.

Creoles

People of European descent born in the Americas who led most Latin American independence movements against Spanish rule.

Cottage Industry

Pre-industrial system where workers produced goods at home, usually textiles, before factories replaced this method.

Nation-State

A political unit where the boundaries of a state align with the cultural and ethnic identity of its people.

Nationalism

Political ideology that holds that people sharing a common culture, language, or history should form their own independent nation-state.

Enclosure Movement

Process in Britain where common agricultural lands were fenced off by wealthy landowners, displacing rural workers and pushing them toward cities.

Mestizo

People of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in colonial Latin America, forming a distinct social class.

Maroon Communities

Settlements of escaped enslaved people in the Americas who maintained independence and often supported slave revolts.

Monroe Doctrine

1823 U.S. policy warning European powers not to interfere in the affairs of newly independent Latin American nations.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines

Haitian revolutionary leader who declared independence in 1804 and became the new nation's first ruler.

Romanticism

Cultural movement that emphasized emotion, nature, and national identity, often fueling nationalist movements in the 19th century.

Napoleon Bonaparte

French military leader who rose from the Revolution, became emperor, and spread revolutionary legal codes across Europe.

Caudillo

Military strongman who seized political power in many Latin American nations after independence, often ruling as a dictator.

Simón Bolívar

Venezuelan-born leader who liberated much of northern South America from Spanish rule, known as the Liberator.

Unification of Italy

Process in the 1860s through which various Italian states merged into a single nation, driven by nationalism and leaders like Garibaldi.

Gran Colombia

Short-lived republic created by Simón Bolívar uniting present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama after independence.

Realpolitik

Political approach based on practical power and self-interest rather than ideology or moral principles, associated with Bismarck.

Napoleonic Code

The 1804 French legal code that standardized laws, affirmed legal equality, and abolished feudal privileges across Napoleonic Europe.

Friedrich Engels

German social thinker and Marx's collaborator who co-wrote The Communist Manifesto and analyzed the condition of the English working class.

Luddites

Early 19th-century British workers who destroyed factory machinery to protest job losses caused by industrialization.

Benjamin Franklin

American Founding Father and diplomat who helped secure French support for the American Revolution and helped draft the Declaration of Independence.

Utopian Socialism

Early socialist vision of ideal cooperative communities based on equality and shared ownership, proposed by thinkers like Robert Owen.

Capitalism

Economic system in which private individuals own the means of production and compete in markets to earn profit.

Immanuel Kant

German philosopher who argued that reason should guide human thought and society, famously summarizing Enlightenment as daring to think for yourself.

The Communist Manifesto

1848 pamphlet by Marx and Engels urging workers of the world to unite and overthrow capitalism through class struggle.

Mercantilism

An economic system where colonies existed to enrich the mother country through trade controls, a system colonists resented and later rejected.

Proletariat

Industrial working class who owned no means of production and sold their labor to factory owners for wages.

Enlightened Despotism

A style of rule where monarchs like Frederick the Great adopted Enlightenment reforms while still holding absolute power.

Coal and Iron

Key raw materials that powered and built the Industrial Revolution, enabling steam engines, railroads, and iron goods.

Chartist Movement

British working-class reform movement of the 1830s–40s that demanded democratic political rights including universal male suffrage.

Common Sense

Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet arguing in plain language that American independence from Britain was rational and necessary.

Urbanization

Rapid growth of cities as people moved from rural areas to urban centers seeking factory work during industrialization.

Sons of Liberty

A colonial American organization that organized resistance against British taxation, including the Boston Tea Party protest.

Wage Labor

System where workers are paid money in exchange for their time and effort rather than owning what they produce.

Public Health Crisis

Widespread disease outbreaks such as cholera in industrial cities, caused by overcrowding and lack of clean water or sanitation.

Slums

Overcrowded, poorly built urban neighborhoods where working-class factory workers lived in unsanitary and dangerous conditions.

Thomas Paine

Enlightenment writer whose pamphlet Common Sense persuaded many American colonists to support independence from Britain.

Laissez-Faire

Economic policy advocating minimal government interference in the economy, allowing market forces to operate freely.

Taxation Without Representation

The colonial grievance that Britain taxed American colonists without giving them seats in Parliament, a key cause of the American Revolution.

Bourgeoisie

Middle class of factory owners, merchants, and professionals who gained wealth and influence during industrialization.

Child Labor

Practice of employing young children in factories and mines during industrialization, often in dangerous and unhealthy conditions.

Adam Smith

Scottish economist whose Wealth of Nations argued that free markets and self-interest drive economic growth and prosperity.

Karl Marx

German philosopher and economist who co-authored The Communist Manifesto, arguing capitalism exploits workers and predicting socialist revolution.

Checks and Balances

A system where different branches of government limit each other's power, preventing any one branch from becoming too dominant.

Means of Production

Resources such as factories, tools, and land used to create goods; Marxist theory focuses on who controls them.

Capital

Wealth or resources, such as money, machinery, or factories, used to produce more goods and generate profit.

Trade Unions

Organizations formed by workers to collectively negotiate with employers for better wages, hours, and working conditions.

Denis Diderot

French philosopher who edited the Encyclopédie, a massive work meant to spread Enlightenment knowledge and challenge traditional authority.

Nationalism (French Revolution)

The sense of shared French identity and loyalty to the nation rather than to the king, energized by revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality.

Liberalism

A political ideology rooted in Enlightenment thought, emphasizing individual rights, constitutional government, and free markets.

Code Noir

French laws governing enslaved people in colonies like Saint-Domingue, defining harsh conditions that fueled revolutionary resistance.

First Estate

The clergy in pre-revolutionary France, who held special privileges and were exempt from most taxes under the Estates System.

Zollverein

A German customs union formed in the 1830s that reduced trade barriers between German states, helping build economic unity before political unification.

Bourbon Reforms

18th-century Spanish colonial policies that tightened control and increased taxes, fueling Creole resentment that helped spark independence movements.

Abolitionism

The movement to end slavery, which gained momentum from the Haitian Revolution and Enlightenment arguments about natural rights.

Slave Revolt of 1791

The massive uprising in Saint-Domingue that began the Haitian Revolution, involving hundreds of thousands of enslaved people fighting for freedom.

Continental System

Napoleon's economic blockade designed to weaken Britain by banning European trade with it, which ultimately hurt France's allies more.

Directory

The five-man governing body that ruled France from 1795 to 1799 after the Reign of Terror, before Napoleon's coup ended it.

Levée en Masse

France's 1793 mass military conscription that mobilized the entire population for the revolutionary war effort, creating a modern citizen army.

Putting-Out System

An early industrial method where merchants supplied raw materials to rural workers who produced goods at home, preceding the factory system.

Dom Pedro I

Portuguese prince who declared Brazilian independence in 1822 and became its first emperor, making Brazil's transition relatively peaceful.

Pan-Slavism

A nationalist movement seeking unity among Slavic peoples in Eastern Europe, often used by Russia as a justification to expand influence.

Brazilian Independence

Brazil's 1822 separation from Portugal, unique because it was led by Portuguese Prince Dom Pedro and occurred without widespread violent conflict.

Boukman Dutty

An enslaved leader who helped ignite the 1791 slave revolt in Saint-Domingue at the Bois Caïman ceremony.

Conservatism

A post-French Revolution ideology defending traditional institutions, monarchy, and social order against rapid change and revolution.

Richard Arkwright

British inventor of the water frame spinning machine, often called the father of the factory system for pioneering large-scale textile production.

José María Morelos

Mexican independence leader who took over after Hidalgo's death, championing abolition of slavery and social reform before his execution.

Thermidorian Reaction

The conservative backlash in 1794 that ended the Reign of Terror and led to the execution of Robespierre.

Plan de Iguala

An 1821 agreement that united Mexican factions around three guarantees: independence, religion, and equality, leading to Mexican independence.

Count Cavour

Italian statesman who used diplomacy and political maneuvering to unite northern Italian states under the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Italian nationalist military leader whose Redshirts conquered southern Italy, contributing to the unification of the Italian peninsula.

Simon Bolívar's Jamaica Letter

Bolívar's 1815 document predicting Latin American independence and outlining his vision for republican self-governance across the continent.

Alexandre Pétion

A Haitian revolutionary leader who later became president and supported Simón Bolívar's independence campaigns in South America.

Second Estate

The French nobility, who held land, privilege, and tax exemptions, fueling resentment from the poorer Third Estate before the Revolution.

George Stephenson

British engineer who built the first successful steam-powered railway, transforming transportation and accelerating industrial growth.

Sans-Culottes

Radical working-class Parisians who wore long trousers instead of noble breeches and were a powerful revolutionary force demanding equality.

Agustín de Iturbide

Mexican military leader who switched sides to support independence, briefly becoming Emperor of Mexico before being overthrown.

Girondins

A moderate republican faction in the French Revolution that clashed with the radical Jacobins and was eventually purged during the Reign of Terror.

Railway Revolution

The rapid expansion of railroads in the 19th century that moved goods and people faster, connecting markets and fueling industrial capitalism.

Spinning Jenny

A multi-spindle spinning machine invented by James Hargreaves that allowed workers to spin multiple threads at once, accelerating textile production during industrialization.

Surplus Value

In Marxist theory, the profit capitalists extract from workers by paying them less than the full value their labor produces.

Industrial Revolution

The sweeping transformation of manufacturing and society, beginning in Britain around the 1760s, driven by machinery, factories, and fossil fuels.

Deism

An Enlightenment-era belief that God created the universe but does not intervene in it, emphasizing reason over revealed religion.

Anarchism

A radical political philosophy rejecting all forms of government authority, advocating instead for voluntary cooperation and self-organized communities.

Russian Industrialization

State-directed economic modernization in late-19th-century Russia, focused on railways and heavy industry but leaving most workers in poverty.

American Industrial Growth

The rapid post-Civil War expansion of U.S. manufacturing, driven by railroads, steel, oil, and massive immigration supplying cheap labor.

Intendant System

A Bourbon Reform measure placing trained royal officials in colonial regions to improve tax collection and reduce Creole political power.

Encomienda System

A Spanish colonial labor system granting settlers control over indigenous workers, which Bourbon Reforms later sought to limit.

Second International

A global organization of socialist and labor parties founded in 1889 to coordinate workers' movements across industrializing nations.

Émile Zola

French novelist whose works like Germinal exposed harsh industrial working conditions and social inequality, influencing labor reform movements.

Meiji Restoration

Japan's 1868 political transformation that ended feudal rule and launched rapid industrialization modeled on Western technologies and institutions.

Zaibatsu

Large Japanese industrial and financial conglomerates that emerged during the Meiji period, dominating industries and accelerating Japan's industrial growth.

Division of Labor

Breaking production into specialized tasks so each worker performs one job repeatedly, increasing efficiency and output in factories.

Scientific Management

Frederick Taylor's system of maximizing factory efficiency by timing workers' motions and standardizing each task in the production process.

Social Darwinism

The misapplication of Darwin's evolutionary ideas to human society, used to justify economic inequality and imperial dominance as natural selection.

Chartism

A British working-class movement of the 1830s–40s demanding democratic reforms such as universal male suffrage and secret ballots.

Power Loom

A mechanized loom invented by Edmund Cartwright that used water or steam power to weave cloth, dramatically increasing textile output in factories.

Enclosure Acts

British parliamentary laws that privatized common farmlands, displacing rural workers and pushing them toward industrial cities for wage labor.

Empiricism

The philosophical belief that knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience and observation rather than innate ideas or tradition.

Historical Materialism

Marx's theory that economic conditions and class struggles are the primary drivers of historical change and social development.

Trans-Siberian Railway

A massive Russian railroad spanning from Moscow to the Pacific, completed in 1916, that connected markets and spurred industrial development.

Class Consciousness

Karl Marx's concept describing workers becoming aware of their shared exploitation and uniting to challenge capitalist power structures.

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