AP World Prep

Industrial Revolution

Shift to machine production that began in Britain and spread globally.

Steam engine

Power source that mechanized factories and transportation.

Factory system

Centralized production using wage labor and machinery.

Urbanization

Growth of cities as people moved for industrial jobs.

Proletariat

Industrial working class dependent on wages.

Bourgeoisie

Middle/upper-middle class who owned industrial capital.

Laissez-faire

Economic policy favoring minimal government intervention.

Marxism

Theory advocating class struggle leading to a classless society.

Socialism

Economic system advocating shared or state control of production.

Second Industrial Revolution

Late 19th-century surge in steel, electricity, and chemicals.

Imperialism

Policy of extending a nation's control over foreign territories.

Berlin Conference

1884-85 meeting that formalized the partition of Africa.

Social Darwinism

Misuse of Darwin's ideas to justify imperial conquest and inequality.

Opium Wars

Conflicts that forced China to open trade to Britain.

Meiji Restoration

Japan's rapid modernization and industrialization starting in 1868.

Suez Canal

Strategic waterway linking the Mediterranean and Red Sea.

Sepoy Rebellion

1857 uprising against British rule in India.

Labor unions

Worker organizations formed to demand better conditions.

Emancipation/abolition

Global movements to end slavery and coerced labor systems.

Migration

Large-scale movement of laborers within and across regions during industrialization.

Scramble for Africa

Rapid European partition of Africa in the late 19th century driven by imperial competition.

Indentured labor

Contract labor system that replaced slavery on plantations, especially in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean.

Social reform movements

Efforts to improve industrial living and working conditions (e.g., public health, education, labor laws).

Spinning jenny

Textile machine that increased thread production and fueled factory growth.

Steam locomotive

Rail technology that sped transport of raw materials and finished goods.

Bessemer process

Industrial method that made steel cheaper and supported railroads and construction.

Telegraph

Communication technology that shrank time and distance in global trade.

Watt steam engine

Improved steam engine that made factory and mining power more efficient.

Putting-out system

Preindustrial system where merchants gave raw materials to workers at home.

Enclosure movement

Privatization of common lands in Britain that pushed peasants into wage labor.

Coal and iron

Key resources that powered early industrialization in Britain.

Luddites

Workers who resisted mechanization by destroying machines.

Utopian socialism

Early socialist ideas advocating cooperative communities and shared property.

Communist Manifesto

1848 work by Marx and Engels calling for proletarian revolution.

Real wages

Income adjusted for prices; often stagnant for early industrial workers.

Child labor

Employment of children in factories and mines, common in early industrialization.

Ten Hours Act

British law limiting work hours for women and children in factories.

Public health reforms

Urban sanitation and health measures in response to industrial overcrowding.

Gold standard

Monetary system tying currency value to gold, facilitating global trade.

Free trade

Policy reducing tariffs to encourage international commerce.

Second Industrial Revolution inventions

Advances like electricity, chemicals, and internal combustion engines.

Urban working class

Factory laborers who formed new social and political movements.

New imperialism

Late 19th-century expansion driven by industrial needs and nationalism.

Protectorate

Imperial arrangement where a local ruler remained but foreign power controlled policy.

White Man's Burden

Ideology claiming Europeans had a duty to 'civilize' colonized peoples.

Scramble for Africa

Competitive European colonization of Africa in the late 1800s.