 | Term | Definition |
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Railroads |
Networks of iron (later steel) rails on which steam (later electric or diesel) locomotives pulled long trains at high speeds. First railroads were built in England in the 1830s. Success caused a railroad building boom lasting into the 20th Century |
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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. |
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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. |
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Electricity |
A form of energy used in telegraphy from the 1840s on and for lighting, industrial motors, and railroads beginning in the 1880s. |
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Thomas Edison |
American inventor best known for inventing the electric light bulb, acoustic recording on wax cylinders, and motion pictures. |
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Victorian Age |
Reign of Queen Victoria of Great Britain (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 |
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"Separate Spheres" |
Nineteenth-century idea in Western societies that men and women, especially of the middle class, should have different roles in society: women as wives, mothers, and homemakers; men as breadwinners and participants in business and politics |
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Socialism |
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 in the late 1800s. |
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Labor Unions |
An organization of workers in a particular industry or trade, created to defend the interests of members through strikes or negotiations with employers. |
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Karl Marx |
German journalist and philosopher, founder of the Marxist branch of socialism. He is known for two books: The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (Vols. I-III, 1867-1894). |
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Anarchist |
A person who believes government should not exist. People should be allowed to live freely in nature. |
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Nationalism |
Political ideology that stresses people's membership in a nation-a community defined by a common culture and history as well as by territory. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, nationalism was a force for unity in western Europe |
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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. |
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Giuseppe Garibaldi |
(1807-82) An Italian radical who emerged as a powerful independent force in Italian politics. He planned to liberate the Two Kingdoms of Sicily. |
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Otto Von Bismarck |
Chancellor of Prussia from 1862 until 1871, when he became chancellor of Germany. A conservative nationalist, he led Prussia to victory against Austria (1866) and France (1870) and was responsible for the creation of the German Empire |
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Empress Dowager Cixi |
Empress of China and mother of Emperor Guangxi. She put her son under house arrest, supported antiforeign movements, and resisted reforms of the Chinese government and armed forces. |
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Meiji Restoration |
The political program that followed the destruction of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1868, in which a collection of young leaders set Japan on the path of centralization, industrialization, and imperialism. (See also Yamagata Aritomo.) |
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Yamagata Aritomo |
One of the leaders of the Meiji Restoration. |
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