Global History and Geography Regents Review Vocabulary

Topic 5 - Unit 10.4 Imperialism

Topic 6 - Unit 10.4 Meiji Restoration

Topic 5 From the mid 1800’s through the first decades of the 1900’s, Western nations pursued an aggressive policy of expansion. European powers were motivated by economic, political, and social factors as well as by a strong sense of nationalism. During this time, Great Britain took control of India. In Africa, several European nations engaged in a scramble for colonies.

Topic 6 In 1853, an American fleet sailed to Japan and ended over 200 years of isolation by opening Japan to trade. Soon afterward, Japan’s ruling shogun was overthrown, and the Meiji Restoration began. During this period, Japan underwent a rapid period of modernization and revolution. Changes took place within government, the economy, and social life.

Imperialism - a policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, economically, or socially

Old Imperialism - the time period, from the 1400s until the 1600s, in which European powers set out to explore, conquer, and establish colonial empires in order to make profit

New Imperialism - a period of colonial expansion by European powers, the United States, and Japan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Causes of Imperialism - economic pressures, human aggressiveness and greed, the search for security, the drive for power and prestige, nationalist emotions, humanitarianism

White Man’s Burden - colonial domination, to illustrate the falsity of the good intentions of Western neo-colonialism towards the non-white peoples of the world

Spheres of Influence - the claim by a state to exclusive or predominant control over a foreign area or territory

Jewel in the Crown - used to describe India's place in the British Empire

Sepoy Mutiny - widespread but unsuccessful rebellion against British rule in India in 1857–59

Leopold II - the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State

Berlin Conference - regulated the division of Africa among fourteen European countries and the United States

Scramble for Africa - the artificial drawing of African political boundaries among European powers in the end of the 19th century

Boer War - between 1899 and 1902, the British Army fought a bitter colonial war against the Boers in South Africa

Ethiopia - the only African nation to successfully resist the nation to successfully resist the Europeans

Zulu - a nation of Nguni-speaking people in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa

Battle of Adwa - a stunning victory for Ethiopia but a disaster for Italy

Opium War - British forces fought a war in China that benefitted drug smugglers

Treaty of Nanjing - treaty that ended the first Opium War, the first of the unequal treaties between China and foreign imperialist powers

Taiping Rebellion - a revolt against the Qing dynasty in China, fought with religious conviction over regional economic conditions

Boxer Rebellion - an uprising against foreigners that occurred in China about 1900, begun by peasants but eventually supported by the government

Matthew Perry - a military leader who went on two expeditions to Japan in 1853 and 1854, established trade between Japan and the United States

Treaty of Kanagawa - the first treaty between the United States of America and Japan

Sino-Japanese War - the conflict between Japan and China in 1894–95 that marked the emergence of Japan as a major world power and demonstrated the weakness of the Chinese empire

Russo-Japanese War - a military conflict fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan

Iwakura Mission - make preparations for treaty revisions and to conduct an investigation of various countries' institutions and cultures

Zaibatsu - any of the large capitalist enterprises of Japan before World War II, similar to cartels or trusts but usually organized around a single family

Tokugawa Isolation - most Japanese couldn't leave, and foreigners couldn't enter Japan (without the approval of the authorities) under – the threat and the threat of execution