History Final '08 1871-1914

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Mali: Trading empire that flourished in West Africa in the 13th - 16th centuries. It developed from the state of Kangaba on the upper Niger River and was probably founded before AD 1000. The Malinke inhabitants of Kangaba acted as middlemen in the gold trade in ancient Ghana. Growing in the 13th century under the leadership of Sundiata, it continued to expand in the 14th century and absorbed Gao and Timbuktu. Its boundaries extended to the Hausa people in the east and to Fulani and Tukulor peoples in the west. It eventually outgrew its political and military strength, and many of its subject areas revolted. By c. 1550 it had ceased to be an important political entity.
Partition of Africa: Africa is the nearest continent to western Europe, yet its colonization lagged far behind more distant regions, partly because of the health risks it presented to Europeans, and partly because there seemed little to take them there. The main exception was trade, in slaves and other goods, which could be carried on perfectly well through African and Arab middlemen at the coasts. A number of maritime nations had posts in Africa from the 16th cent. onwards, including the Portuguese, Spaniards, and—a little later—the Dutch and British. As late as the 1860s, however, their presence in tropical Africa was marginal. Britain seemed content. In 1865 a parliamentary select committee recommended withdrawing from three of her four west coast settlements altogether. Shortly after that, however, interest in Africa revived. To prevent conflict, the German chancellor Bismarck called a conference in Berlin in 1884, which parcelled west and central Africa. That was done with relatively little fuss, mainly because none of the claimants felt desperately strongly about it. The only new colony to feel the effects of this immediately was the Congo 'Free State', chiefly because of its bloody exploitation by its new owner, the Belgian King Leopold II. In the 1890s action shifted to the east and south. Here the lion's share went to Britain, including the Sudan, most of east-central Africa, and the Rhodesias. This time the competition was keener, threatening conflicts with France over Fashoda in 1898, and Germany on the eve of the second Boer War. By 1900 the process was completed, leaving virtually the whole of Africa—barring only Ethiopia and Liberia— in European hands
Meiji Restoration/Meiji Era: Overthrow of Japan's Tokugawa shogunate (see Tokugawa period) and restoration of direct imperial rule (through the Meiji emperor) in 1868. In the 19th century the shogunate's policy of isolation was challenged by Russia, England, and the U.S., making Japanese feudal leaders aware of Japan's vulnerability to superior Western firepower. After the visit of Commodore Matthew Perry, the country was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties, which, as in China, gave Western nations special privileges in Japan. In response, young samurai from feudal domains historically hostile to the Tokugawa regime took up arms against the government. In January 1868 they announced the restoration of the emperor to power, and in May 1869 the last Tokugawa forces surrendered. The revolutionaries had the emperor issue the Charter Oath, which promised a break with the feudal class restrictions of the past and a search for knowledge that could transform Japan into a "rich country with a strong military." The restoration ushered in the Meiji period, a time of rapid modernization and Westernization.
Bismarck's Alliance System: After the unification of Germany and the establishment of the second Reich in 1871, in means of domestic policy, Bismarck devoted the majority of his time as 1st imperial chancellor to seek out and neutralize any enemies towards the Reich that might abate Germany's new found supremacy. Conflict between the great powers of Europe and Germany was to be avoided as Bismarck foresaw it, although Germany's strength amplified economically and politically, it was not Bismarck's goal to steer Germany into isolation as an ominous power of Europe as France had. Bismarck's solution was to devise a complex system of alliances to maintain peace throughout Europe, making it mutually beneficial to all of the great powers and therefore protect his newly unified Germany allowing it to strengthen.. His first goal was to maintain Germany as a peaceful and friendly power as to gain trust and prestige from the powers of Europe. From which he could then manipulate and formulate his desired alliances. He pinpointed France as the biggest enemy toward the Reich, as they were still hostile over the recent annexation of Alsace and Lorraine and so Bismarck focused on keeping France isolated. It was from this he formulated most of his alliances, fearing an alliance such as the Nightmare Collation (Franco-Russian) that could jeopardy the German Empire with war. The intentions of Bismarck's alliance system seemed to be straightforward, to isolate France, maintain a peaceful co-existence with the other two major conservative powers (Austria and Russia), and to preserve the peace throughout the growth of his alliance system. These became the main objectives of Bismarck's foreign policy from 1871-1894, and would turn out to be quite the juggling act.
Central Powers: They fought against the Allies, and consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The name Central Powers is derived from the location of these countries; all four were located between the Russian Empire in the east and France and the United Kingdom in the west.
Allied Powers: The main allies were France, the Russian Empire, the British Empire, Italy and the United States. France, Russia, the United Kingdom (and, by default, its empire), entered World War I in 1914, as a result of their Triple Entente alliance. Many other countries later joined the Allied side in the war.
Moghul Empire: Muslim empire in India, 1526-1857. The dynasty was founded by Babur, a Turkish chieftain who had his base in Afghanistan. Babur's invasion of India culminated in the battle of Panipat (1526) and the occupation of Delhi and Agra. Babur was succeeded by his son, Humayun, who soon lost the empire to the Afghan Sher Khan. Akbar, the son of Humayun and the greatest of the Mughal emperors, reestablished Mughal power in India. At the time of Akbar's death (1605), the empire occupied a vast territory from Afghanistan E to Orissa and S to the Deccan Plateau. Mughal expansion continued under Akbar's son Jahangir and under his grandson Shah Jahan, who built many architectural marvels at Delhi and at Agra (including the Taj Mahal). Aurangzeb, expanded Mughal territory to its greatest extent, but at the same time the empire suffered the blows of major Hindu revolts. The most serious of these was the Maratha uprising. Weakened by the Maratha wars, dynastic struggles, and invasions by Persian and Afghan rulers, the empire came to an effective end as the British established control of India in the late 18th and early 19th cent. However, the British maintained puppet emperors until 1857. Many features of the Mughal administrative system were adopted by Great Britain in ruling India, but the most lasting achievements of the Mughals were in art and architecture (see Mughal art and architecture).
Ghana: First of the great medieval trading empires of western Africa (7th - 13th century). Located in what is now southeastern Mauritania and part of Mali, it acted as intermediary between Arab and Berber salt traders to the north and gold and ivory producers to the south. Gold was secured through barter from those living at the empire's southern limit and exchanged in the capital for commodities, especially salt. As the empire grew richer it extended its reach, incorporating gold-producing southern lands and cities to the north. The king exacted tribute from the princes of subject tribes. Ghana began to decline with the rise of the Muslim Almoravids; the Almoravid leader Abu Bakr seized the Ghanaian capital of Kumbi in 1076. The empire's subject peoples began to break away, and in 1240 the empire's remains were incorporated into the Sundiata empire of Mali
Western Front: Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Both sides then dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France. This line remained essentially unchanged for most of the war.Between 1915 and 1917 there were several major offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, machine gun nests, barbed wire, and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties on the attackers and counter attacking defenders. As a result, no significant advances were made. In an effort to break the deadlock, this front saw the introduction of new military technology, including poison gas, aircraft, and tanks. But it was only after the adoption of improved tactics that some degree of mobility was restored. In spite of the generally stagnant nature of this front, this theater would prove decisive. The inexorable advance of the Allied armies in 1918 persuaded the German commanders that defeat was inevitable, and the government was forced to sue for conditions of an armistice.
Kaiser Wilhelm (William) II: (1859-1941), Kaiser of Germany, he helped lay the foundations for WW I, and in consequence gambled away his throne, bringing to an end the German empire—the Second Reich—established by his grandfather and namesake in 1871. Within two years of ascending the throne Wilhelm had forced the departure from office of Bismarck, his grandfather's long-serving chancellor, adviser, and architect of the Second Reich. Wilhelm was certainly not the first leader to be seduced by the siren calls of nationalism and militarism, or to discover that leading a cavalry charge on manoeuvres (an annual ritual in his case) is not the same thing as presiding over a beleaguered state engaged in total war. However, he lacked the strength of character and consistency of purpose which his role demanded, and if he cannot be blamed for leading Germany into war, he may be more justly censured for what one historian has called 'a childlike flight from reality' in the crisis of July 1914.
Balkans: The immediate cause of World War One was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. Shortly after, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. This event caused the mobilization of French and Russian troops. Sensing French and Russian involvement in this conflict, Germany backed its ally Austria-Hungary and declared war on France and Russia. England became involved in the war when German troops passed through Belgium, a neutral country and an ally of England. Germany had violated Belgium neutrality in the war and England had to defend the country. A little while after the start of the war Italy joined the war on the side of the Triple Alliance. This is how the alliance system played a major role in the involvement of the major European powers in the war. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century one of the most important areas of the world was the Balkan Peninsula which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan Peninsula had crucial trade routes to European countries as well as India and Africa and had many different and diverse people and cultures living in this region setting off conflicts and tensions. In 1848 a Pan-Slav Congress was set up which wanted to unite all the people of Slavic heritage. This created problems because so many people of Slavic heritage lived in Austria-Hungary or the Ottoman Empire which controlled the Balkan Peninsula. The first tensions in this region came in 1877 during the Russo-Turkish War. In the war between Russia, Serbia, and the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire lost and was forced to give up a lot of its territory in the Balkans including Bulgaria, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Romania. In the treaty of San Stefano, Bulgaria and Bosnia-Herzegovina which were made into autonomous states. In addition the treaty gave more land and power to Russia and Serbia in the Balkan Peninsula.
Social Democrats: German political party. Formed in 1875 as the Socialist Workers' Party and renamed in 1890, it is Germany's oldest and largest single party. Its influence grew until World War I, when centrists led by Karl Kautsky formed the Independent Social Democrats and leftists led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht formed the Spartacists. The SPD's right wing under Friedrich Ebert helped crush the Soviet-style uprisings in Germany in 1918, and the party won 37% of the vote in the 1919 elections. The government's acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles and Germany's severe economic problems caused a drop in support in the 1920s. Outlawed by the Nazis in 1933, the party revived after World War II in West Germany and grew steadily, receiving almost 46% of the vote in the 1972 elections. It formed coalition governments with the Christian Democratic Union (1966 - 69) and the Free Democratic Party (1969 - 82). In 1990 it reunited with a newly independent SPD from the former East Germany. The party returned to power in 1998 under Gerhard Schröder, who served as chancellor of Germany until 2005.
Naval Race: The naval race between Germany and Great Britain between 1906 and 1914 created huge friction between both nations and it is seen as one of the causes of World War One. In 1906, Britain launched the first dreadnought - a ship that meant all others were redundant before its awesome fire power. Ironically, al resources were put into this race, yet only one major naval battle was fought. The battle of Jutland ended in a stalemate.
Extraterritoriality: While the British were in India, local laws did not apply to foreign citizens, only British law applied. This cause a lot of friction between the natives and the foreigners
Great Mutiny (Sepoy Mutiny): The rebellion or the war for independence had diverse political, economic, military, religious,and social causes.The sepoys (the native Indian soldiers) had their own list of grievances against the Company rule, in part caused by the cultural gulf between some British officers and their Indian troops. In the early years of the Company rule, the British tolerated and even encouraged the caste privileges and customs within the Bengal Army, which recruited its regular soldiers almost exclusively amongst the landowning Bhumihar Brahmins and Rajputs of the Ganges Valley. By the time these customs and privileges came to be threatened by modernizing regimes in Calcutta from the 1840s onwards, the sepoys had become accustomed to very high ritual status, and were extremely sensitive to suggestions that their caste might be polluted.[3] The sepoys also gradually became dissatisfied with various other aspects of army life. Their pay was relatively low and after Awadh and the Punjab were annexed, the soldiers no longer received extra pay (batta or bhatta) for service there, because they were no longer considered "foreign missions". Finally, officers of an evangelical persuasion in the Company's Army (such as Herbert Edwardes and Colonel S.G. Wheler of the 34th Bengal Infantry) had taken to preaching to their Sepoys in the hope of converting them to Christianity. In 1857, the controversy over the new Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle, in the eyes of many Sepoys, added substance to the alarming rumours circulating about their imminent forced conversion to Christianity. To load the new rifle, the sepoys had to bite the cartridge open. It was believed that the cartridges that were standard issue with the rifle were greased with lard (pork fat) which was regarded as unclean by Muslims, or tallow (beef fat), regarded as sacred to Hindus. Several months of increasing tension and inflammatory incidents preceded the actual rebellion. Fires, possibly the result of arson, broke out near Calcutta on 24 January 1857. On February 26, 1857 the 19th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment came to know about new cartridges and refused to use them. The rebellion saw the end of the British East India Company's rule in India. In August, by the Government of India Act 1858, the company was formally dissolved and its ruling powers over India were transferred to the British Crown. A new British government department, the India Office, was created to handle the governance of India, and its head, the Secretary of State for India, was entrusted with formulating Indian policy. The Governor-General of India gained a new title (Viceroy of India), and implemented the policies devised by the India Office. The British colonial administration embarked on a program of reform, trying to integrate Indian higher castes and rulers into the government and abolishing attempts at Westernization. The Viceroy stopped land grabs, decreed religious tolerance and admitted Indians into civil service, albeit mainly as subordinates. Essentially the old East India Company bureaucracy remained, though there was a major shift in attitudes. In looking for the causes of the Mutiny the authorities alighted on two things: religion and the economy. On religion it was felt that there had been too much interference with indigenous traditions, both Hindu and Muslim. On the economy it was now believed that the previous attempts by the Company to introduce free market competition had undermined traditionl power structures and bonds of loyalty, placing the peasantry at the mercy of merchants and money-lenders. In consequence the new British Raj was constructed in part around a conservative agenda, based on a preservation of tradition and hierarchy. On a political level it was also felt that the previous lack of consultation between rulers and ruled had been yet another significant factor in contributing to the uprsiing. In consequence Indians were drawn into government at a local level. Though this was on a limited scale a crucial precedent had been set, with the creation of a new 'white collar' Indian elite, further stimulated by the opening of universities at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, a result of the Indian Universities Act. So, alongside the values of traditional and ancient India, a new professional middle class was starting to arise, in no way bound by the values of the past.
Von Schlieffen Plan: Schlieffen was the epitome of the single-minded staff officer, and his wife's early death left him even more chilly, with no outlet but work. He spent much of his time concocting a solution for the strategic problem facing Germany: a war on two fronts against France and Russia. Recognizing that he could win only 'ordinary victories' against the Russians, who would withdraw into their vast empire, he decided to leave a holding force in the east and to throw most of his army against France. The French had fortified their border, and a frontal attack was not to Schlieffen's taste. He decided instead to send the right wing through Belgium, violating Belgian neutrality, to swing behind the French armies and fight a decisive battle in Champagne.The Schlieffen plan' was a series of yearly memoranda, whose changes reflected staff rides and war games as well as recent military events. With retirement looming, he drafted 'War against France', a detailed guide for his successor, which emphasized the need for a decisive offensive war. Much influenced by the battle of Cannae, he dwelt on the need for the left wing to fall back before the French, drawing them deeper into the trap. Having won a decisive victory in the west, Germany could then use interior lines to shift armies to the east to beat the Russians, who would then sue for peace.
Bolsheviks/Mensheviks: The left-wing majority group of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party that adopted Lenin's theses on party organization in 1903 and seized power in 1917 was the Bolsheviks. the liberal faction of the Social Democratic Party that struggled against the Bolsheviks before and during the Russian Revolution was the Mensheviks. The quarrel centred around the nature of party organization. Whilst Lenin argued for a professional revolutionary vanguard, Martov called for a mass party. Underpinning this debate were three important questions: Was capitalism the dominant mode of production in Russia? Should the RSDLP ally with bourgeois parties? What was the relationship between the party and the proletariat? Following the February Revolution of 1917, the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries controlled the Petrograd Soviet and offered their conditional support to the Provisional Government. The period of 'dual power' developed with neither the Soviet nor the Government being willing to take control of the State. Although some Mensheviks joined the Kerensky coalition government in May, the party was divided and losing ground to the Bolsheviks. By September, the latter had majorities in both the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. After the October Revolution, the Mensheviks were subjected to increasingly systematic repression and had ceased political activity by 1920.
Raj: or British India, officially the British Indian Empire, and internationally and contemporaneously, India, was the term used synonymously for the region, the rule, and the period, from 1858 to 1947, of the British Empire on the Indian subcontinent. The region included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom [1](contemporaneously, "British India") as well as the princely states ruled by individual rulers under the paramountcy of the British Crown. The princely states, which had all entered into treaty arrangements with the British Crown, were allowed a degree of local autonomy in exchange for accepting protection and complete representation in international affairs by the United Kingdom.The system of governance lasted from 1858, when the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria (and who, in 1877, was proclaimed Empress of India), until 1947.
Archduke Francis Ferdinand: Whatever else he may have done in life, is known now as the man whose assassination touched off World War I. The nephew of the Hapsburg emperor Franz Josef, he was first in line to the Austro-Hungarian throne when he visited Sarajevo in June of 1914. He and his wife Sophie were shot to death as they rode through the city in a motorcade on 28 June; the assassin was Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serbian nationalist group known as the Black Hand. The shooting led to war between Austria and Serbia, which escalated into World War I.
Boxer Rebellion: In the late 1890s China was riddled with lawlessness, and humiliated by the loss of Korea to Japan and growing European influence. The young emperor supported reformers who wished to modernize China, but in 1898 the Dowager Empress Tzu-hsi staged a coup, suppressed the reformers, and re-established herself as regent. Resentment of foreign influence encouraged the growth of a clandestine society called 'Fists of Righteous Harmony', known to Europeans as Boxers from its Chinese name and practice of ritual shadow-boxing. The Boxers were xenophobic and anti-Christian, blamed China's ills on 'foreign devils', and used elaborate rituals to emphasize divine support and invulnerability to modern weapons. The degree to which the Boxers received official support remains unclear, but Tzu-hsi certainly sympathized with them, and little was done to prevent their attacks on foreign property and railways.
Berlin Conference (1885): 1884-85, international meeting aimed at settling the problems connected with European colonies in Africa. At the invitation of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, representatives of all European nations, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire met at Berlin to consider problems arising out of European penetration of W Africa. The stated purpose of the meeting was to guarantee free trade and navigation on the Congo and on the lower reaches of the Niger. In fact, the territorial adjustments made among the powers were the important result. The sovereignty of Great Britain over S Nigeria was recognized. The claims of the International Association, a private corporation controlled by King Leopold II of Belgium, were more or less recognized; these applied to the greater part of the Congo. These territorial awards ignored French claims to parts of the Congo and of Nigeria and the historical claim of Portugal to the mouth of the Congo. The attempts to guarantee free trade and the neutrality of the region in wartime and to set up rules for future colonial expansion in Africa were hailed, but soon the agreements proved too vague to be workable.
Russo-Japanese War: (1904-5), major but ultimately indecisive war, noted for its political consequences—the first (1905) Russian revolution—but most important militarily as a full dress rehearsal for WW I. It was a war of extended fronts and protracted battles, leading to the emergence of the operational level of war, trench warfare, the use of machine guns, mortars, grenades, land and sea mines, submarines, barbed wire (sometimes electrified) and indirect fire, radio transmission and even electronic warfare (jamming). Foreign observers from the USA, UK, France, and Germany were present on both sides and their detailed and perceptive reports help make it the best-documented war up to that time. Japan built itself uo to match the fighting force of Russia, after signing an agreement with Britain. In 1915 the Russian naval fleet was destroyed. The destruction of the Russian fleet was one setback too many. As the 1905 protests at home gathered strength, the Russians sued for peace. At Portsmouth (USA) on 5 September the Russians recognized Korea as lying within the Japanese sphere of influence and gave up southern Sakhalin island and the lease of the Liao-dun peninsula, Port Arthur, and Dalny. Both sides withdrew their forces from Manchuria. After the 1917 revolution the Soviet government agreed to honour the peace terms, but after the occupation of Manchuria by Japan in 1931, which violated it, the peace treaty became irrelevant.
Serbia: A terrorist group called the black hand was responsible for the assassination of the archduke, starting World War One
Trench Warfare: regarded as a defining characteristic of the western front in WW I. It formed part of siege warfare, when attackers dug trenches to protect themselves from the fire of the besieged. What was genuinely new about WW I was the scale and duration of trench warfare. This was a consequence of the manpower available to the combatants, the proliferation of firepower which made open warfare costly, and, especially in areas like the western front and Gallipoli, the ability of armies to fill the entire combat frontage with troops so as to leave no assailable flank. Trench warfare began on the Aisne in September 1914, and after the 'Race to the Sea', with both armies extending their flanks northwards, spread from the Swiss border to the North Sea.
Amritsar Massacre: On 10 April 1919 in Amritsar, the holy city of the Sikhs (see Sikh wars), rioting broke out following the arrest of nationalist leaders by British authorities. Some Europeans were killed, British women attacked, and British commercial interests burned. On 13 April, 20, 000 protesters crammed into the Jallianwala Bagh, an enclosed square. The local British commander, Brig Gen Reginald Dyer, arrived with a company of troops. He gave the order to open fire. In a matter of minutes, 1, 650 bullets were fired into the crowd, killing 397, including women and children, and wounding 1, 500. In 1920, an official inquiry condemned the massacre and Dyer was forced to retire. He nevertheless enjoyed some public support in Britain and remained convinced that he had carried out his duty, arguing that he had neither panicked nor overreacted, but taken deliberately firm action to suppress a potentially explosive situation.
Soviets: Group of Russian communists known as the Bolsheviks that started the Soviet Union. Later, power shifted to Stalin, and it became the USSR.
Songhai: Ancient Muslim state, West Africa. Centred on the middle Niger River in what is now central Mali, it eventually extended to the Atlantic coast and into Niger and Nigeria. Established by the Songhai people c. AD 800, it reached its greatest extent in the 16th century before falling to Moroccan forces in 1591. Its important cities were Gao and Timbuktu.
Opium Wars: (1840-2), Anglo-Chinese conflict which ushered in a century of enforced exploitation of China, and a still-emotive symbol for Chinese resentment of the West. Four decades of mutual misunderstanding and disrespect meant that reciprocal humiliations in 1839-40 related to the illegal opium trade (the confiscation of Britons' property, their enforced expulsion from Macao, and outsiders' refusal to pay even lip-service to Chinese edicts) provided a tinderbox. This was lit on 4 September 1840 when Chinese attempts to stop supplies reaching a refugee flotilla off Hong Kong ended with the sinking of four war junks by the Royal Navy. A letter of protest was sent to Peking, underlined by the blockade of Canton and the occupation of Chusan. The emperor repudiated the subsequent Convention of Chuenpi, signed by his representatives on 20 January 1841, for giving away too much, and prepared for war. The British—commanded surprisingly effectively by a naval/military/civil committee—struck pre-emptively, eventually occupying the heights commandinge Canton, from which they withdrew on payment of $6 million. The British attacked Amoy in August and went into winter quarters at Ningpo and Chinhai, where they easily repelled attacks in the spring. Counter-attacking, they seized the forts guarding Hangchow, occupied Shanghai in June, and marched to the gates of Nanking. British demands were now more intransigent and imperial commissioners could only obtain terms far more severe than those of the 1841 Convention. The Treaty of Nanking gave Britain $21 million, the right to trade in five ports (opium was not mentioned), legal jurisdiction over her own nationals, and the island of Hong Kong. Humiliatingly one-sided, the war provided a little-heeded wake-up call to the complacent imperial Manchu court.

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