- aegis: shield, protection
- archaic: ancient, old, prehistoric
- aridity: dryness
- autocratic: dictorial, one man ruler
- autonomy: self-rule
- beuracracy: sanction of government
- confrontational: creating a conflict, someone who challenges
- corsair: pirate
- detriment: something that impacts badly
- dissident: a person living in exile for political reasons
- emeritus: retired
- eminent: prominant
- epoch: era, period of time
- gratuitis: free unwaranted
- hiatus: climax
- impetus: incentive, momentum, impulse
- incendiarism: spark something that creates a fire
- infanticide: the killing of infants
- ingrained: carved into, put in, major part of
- innovator: one who creates something new
- inviolability: shouldn't be violated
- jurisprudence: study or field of law
- maladaptive: poorly adapted
- mercantile: having to do with trading
- monolithic: one piece, undivided
- mundane: everyday, routine
- nepotism: preferential hiring of one's relative
- oligarchy: the rule of a few
- paradigm: pattern, model
- patriarchal: men dominated society
- pejorative: having a tendancy to make or become worse
- perversion: bad change
- pessimist: a person who has a negative view on things
- pious: religious, or religiously devoted
- pogrom: destruction of jewish property
- pragmatic: practical
- prerequisite: something that needs to be completed before something else can be done
- proliferation: spread, growth
- restive: bulky, uneasy, restless, impatient
- resurgence: reapperance, rise again
- secular: non-religious
- sovereignty: independence, ruling
- tantamount: equal to
- to abrogate: to revoke, to annul, to cancel
- to acquisce: to accept, to agree to
- to assail: to attack violently
- to assimilate: to conform/adopt local cultures
- to disenfranchise: to deny certain rights against a certain group
- to dissent: to disagree (strongly)
- to expropriate: to take from someone and make your own
- to foray: to raid, to plunder
- to goad: to spurr, to urge
- to proselytize: to preach, to convert, to spread the word
- to stagnate: holding back, not moving forward
- vanguard: forefront of the movement
- vindictive: spiteful, revengeful
- yoke: oppression, pressure, power, control
- zealot: religious fantics