Global History and Geography Regents Review Vocabulary

Topic 4 - Unit 10.3 Industrial Revolution

Starting around 1750, Europe experienced a series of major changes. They began with improvements in farming that led to an increase of population. These changes contributed to the Industrial Revolution. With the Industrial Revolution, social classes, people’s roles, working conditions, and city life change greatly. When the new conditions led to problems, differing thinkers wanted to solve them in different ways. Some groups emphasized the rights of individuals. Others stressed the needs of society as a whole. A period of reform followed, and life began to improve for all social classes.

Agricultural Revolution - the unprecedented increase in agricultural production in Britain due to increases in labor and land productivity

Enclosure Movement - forced the poor people to migrate to centralized locations such as industrial cities and towns and to seek work in factories and mines

Seed Drill - a device used in agriculture that sows seeds for crops by positioning them in the soil and burying them to a specific depth while being dragged by a tractor

Surplus of Food - when food availability and stock exceeds the demand, largely driven by global overproduction, and contributes towards eventual food waste and to an extent, climate change

Industrial Revolution - the transition from creating goods by hand to using machines

James Watt - 18th-century inventor who invented the steam engine

Laissez-faire - an economic philosophy of free-market capitalism that opposes government intervention

Adam Smith - Scottish philosopher who founded modern capitalism

Capitalism - economic system based on private ownership and the investment of money

Communism - economic system all production is owned by the government/people, and private ownership doesn’t exist

Socialism - economic system in which the factors of production are owned by the public

Supply and Demand - the relationship between the price of a given good or product and the willingness of people to either buy or sell it

Social Darwinism - the idea that certain people become powerful in society because they are innately better

Karl Marx - German philosopher who wrote the Communist Manifesto

Fredrich Engels - co-author of Communist Manifesto, helped define modern communism

Bourgeoisie - the middle class, merchant, banker, or entrepreneur

Proletariat - the lower or working class, the members of which must under capitalism sell their labor in order to earn a living

Labor Unions - a group of two or more employees who join together to advance common interests such as wages, benefits, schedules and other employment terms and conditions

Irish Potato Famine - famine that occurred in Ireland in 1845–49 when the potato crop failed in successive years