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decreed a levy-in-mass, or universal mobilization of the

nation:

Young men will fight, young men are called to conquer.

Married men will forge arms, transport military baggage and

guns and wi ll prepare food supplies. Women, who at long

last are to take their rightful place in the revolution and fol-

low their true destiny, will forget their futile tasks: their deli-

cate hands will work at making clothes for soldiers; they will

make tents and they will extend their tender care to shelters

where the defenders of the Patrie [nation] will receive the

help that their wounds require. Children will make lint of

old cloth. It is for them that we are fighting: children, those

beings destined to gather all the fruits of the revolution, will

raise their pure hands toward the skies. And old men, per-

forming their missions again, as of yore, will be guided to

the public squares of the cities where they will kindle the

courage of young warriors and preach the doctrines of hate

for kings and the unity of the Republic.

In less than a year, the French revolutionary government

had raised an army of 650,000, and by 1795 it had pushed

the allies back across the Rhine and even conquered the

Austrian Netherlands.

The French revolutionary army was an important

step in the creation of modern nationalism. Previously,

wars had been fought between governments or ruling

dynasties by relatively small armies of professional

soldiers. The new French army was the creation of a

‘‘people’s’’ government; its wars were now ‘‘people’s’’ wars.

The entire nation was to be involved in the war. But when

dynastic wars became people’s wars, warfare increased

in ferocity and lack of restraint. The wars of the French

revolutionary era opened the door to the total war of the

modern world.

Reign of Terror To meet the domestic crisis, the Na-

tional Convention and the Committee of Public Safety

launched the Reign of Terror. Revolutionary courts were

instituted to protect the Republic from its internal ene-

mies. In the course of nine months, 16,000 people were

officially killed under the blade of the guillotine---a rev-

olutionary device designed for the quick and efficient

separation of heads from bodies.

Rev olutionary armies were set up to bring recalcitrant

cities and districts back under the c ontr ol of the N ational

Conv ention. The Committee of Public Safety decided to

make an example of L y ons, which had defied the authority

of the N ational Convention. By April 1794, some 1,880

citizens of L yons had bee n executed. When the guillotine

prov ed too slow , cannon fire was used to blow condemned

men into open graves. A German observed:

Whole ranges of houses, always the most handsome, burnt.

The churches, convents, and all the dwellings of the former

patricians were in ruins. When I came to the guillotine, the

blood of those who had been executed a few hours before-

hand was still running in the street. ... I said to a group

of [radicals] that it would be decent to clear away all this

human blood. Why should it be cleared? one of them said to

me. It’s the blood of aristocrats and rebels. The dogs should

lick it up.

Equality and Slavery: Revolution in Haiti Early in the

French Revolution, the desire for equality led to a dis-

cussion of what to do about slavery. A club called Friends

of the Blacks advocated the abolition of slavery, which

was achieved in France in September 1791. But French

planters in the West Indies, who profited greatly from the

use of slaves on their sugar plantations, opposed the ab-

olition of slavery in the French colonies. When the Na-

tional Convention came to power, the issue was revisited,

and on February 4, 1794, guided by ideals of equality, the

government abolished slavery in the colonies.

In one French colony, slaves had already rebelled

for their freedom. In 1791, black slaves in the French

sugar colony of Saint-Domingue (the western third of the

island of Hispaniola), inspired by the ideals of the revo-

lution occurring in France, revolted against French

plantation owners. Led by Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743--

1803), a son of African slaves, more than 100,000 black

slaves rose in revolt and seized control of all of Hispaniola.

Later, an army sent by N apoleon captured L’Ouverture,

who die d in captiv-

ity in Franc e. But

the French soldiers,

weakened by dis-

ease, soon suc-

cumbed to the slave

forces. On January

1, 1804, the western

part of Hispaniola,

now called Haiti,

announced its free-

dom and became the first independent state in Latin

America. One of the French revolutionary ideals had

triumphed abroad.

Reaction and the Directory

By the summer of 1794, the French had been successful on

the battlefield against their foreign foes, making the Terror

less necessary . But the Terror continued because Robes-

pierre, who had come to dominate the Committee of Public

Safety, became obsessed with purifying the body politic of

all the corrupt. Many deputies in the National Convention

began to fear that they were not safe while Robespierre

was free to act and gathered enoug h votes to condemn

him. Robespierre was guillotined on July 28, 1794.

nti

cean

Hispaniola

300

Mile

0 200 400 Kilometers

Revolt in Saint-Dom ingue

454 CHAPTER 18 THE WEST ON THE EVE OF A NEW WORLD ORDER

After the death of Robespierre, a reaction set in as

more moderate middle-class leaders took control. The

Reign of Terror came to a halt, and the National Con-

vention reduced the power of the Committee of Public

Safety. In addition, a new constitution was drafted in

August 1795 that reflected the desire for a stability that

did not sacrifice the ideals of 1789. Five directors---the

Directory---acted as the executive authority.

The period of the Revolution under the government

of the Directory (1795--1799) was an era of stagnation

and corruption. At the same time, the Directory faced

political enemies from both the left and the right of the

political spectrum. On the right, royalists who wanted to

restore the monarchy continued their agitation. On the

left, radical hopes of power were revived by continuing

economic problems. Battered from both sides, unable to

solve the country’s economic problems, and still carrying

on the wars inherited from the Committee of Public

Safety, the Directory increasingly relied on the military to

maintain its power. This led to a coup d’



etat in 1799 in

which the popular military general Napoleon Bonaparte

seized power.

The Age of Napoleon

Focus Question: Which aspects of the French

Revolution did Napoleon preserve, and which did he

destroy?

Napoleon dominated both French and European history

from 1799 to 1815. He was born in Corsica in 1769

shortly after France had annexed the island. The young

Napoleon Bonaparte was sent to France to study in one of

the new military schools and was a lieutenant when the

Revolution broke out in 1789. The Revolution and the

European war that followed gave him new opportunities,

and Napoleon rose quickly through the ranks. In 1794, at

the age of only twenty-five, he was made a brigadier

general by the Committee of Public Safety. Two years

later, he commanded the French armies in Italy, where he

won a series of victories and returned to France as a

conquering hero (see the box on p. 456). After a disas-

trous expedition to Egypt, Napoleon returned to Paris,

where he participated in the coup that gave him control

of France. He was only thirty years old.

After the coup of 1799, a new form of the Republic---

called the Consulate---was proclaimed in which Napoleon,

as first consul, controlled the entire executive authority of

government. He had overwhelming influence over the

legislature, appointed members of the administrative

bureaucracy, commanded the army, and conducted for-

eign affairs. In 1802, Napoleon was made consul for life,

and in 1804, he returned France to monarchy when he

became Emperor Napoleon I.

Domestic Policies

One of Napoleon’s first domestic policies was to establish

peace with the oldest and most implacable enemy of the

Revolution, the Catholic church. In 1801, Napoleon ar-

ranged a concordat with the pope that recognized Ca-

tholicism as the religion of a majority of the French

people. In return, the pope agreed not to raise the ques-

tion of the church lands confiscated during the Revolu-

tion. As a result of the concordat, the Catholic church was

no longer an enemy of the French government.

Napoleon’s most enduring domestic achievement was

his codification of the laws. Before the Revolution, France

had some three hundred local legal systems. During the

Revolution, efforts were made to prepare a single code of

laws for the entire nation, but it remained for Napoleon

to bring the work to completion in the famous Civil

Code. This preserved most of the revolutionary gains by

recognizing the principle of the equality of all citizens

before the law, the abolition of serfdom and feudalism,

and religious toleration. Property rights were also

protected.

At the same time, the Civil Code strictly curtailed the

rights of some people. During the radical phase of the

French Revolution, new laws had made divorce an easy

process for both husbands and wives and allowed sons

and daughters to inherit property equally. Napoleon’s

Civil Code undid these laws. Divorce was still allowed but

was made more difficult for women to obtain. Women

CHRONOLOGY

The French Revolution

Meeting of Estates-General May 5, 1789

Formation of National Assembly June 17, 1789

Fall of the Bastille July 14, 1789

Declaration of the Rights of Man

and the Citizen

August 26, 1789

Civil Constitution of the Clergy July 12, 1790

Flight of the king June 20--21, 1791

Attack on the royal palace August 10, 1792

Abolition of the monarchy September 21, 1792

Execution of the king January 21, 1793

Levy-in-mass August 23, 1793

Execution of Robespierre July 28, 1794

Adoption of Constitution of 1795

and the Directory

August 22, 1795

HE AGE OF NAPOLEON 455

NAPOLEON AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

In 1796, at the age of twenty-seven, Napoleon Bona-

parte was given command of the French army in Italy,

where he won a series of stunning victories. His use of

speed, deception, and surprise to overwhelm his oppo-

nents is well known. In this selection from a proclamation to his troops

in Italy, Napoleon also appears as a master of psychological warfare.

Napoleon Bonaparte, Proclamation to French Troops

in Italy (April 26, 1796)

Soldiers:

In a fortnight you have won six victories, taken twenty-one standards

[flags of military units], fifty-five pieces of artillery , several strong posi-

tions, and conquered the richest part of Piedmont [in northern Italy]; you

have captured 15,000 prisoners and killed or wounded more than 10,000

men. ... You have won battles without cannon, crossed rivers wi thout

bridges, made forced marches without shoes, camped without brandy

and often without bread. Soldiers of liberty, only republican troops

could have endured what you have endured. Soldiers, you have our

thanks! The grateful Patrie [nation] will owe its prosperity to you. ...

The two armies which but recently attacked you with audacity

are fleeing before you in terror; the wicked men who laughed at

your misery and rejoiced at the thought of the triumphs of your

enemies are confounded and trembling.

But, soldiers, as yet you have done nothing compared with

what remains to be done. ... Undoubtedly the greatest obstacles

have been overcome; but you still have battles to fight, cities to cap-

ture, rivers to cross. Is there one among you whose courage is abat-

ing? No. ... All of you are consumed w ith a desire to extend the

glory of the French people; all of you long to humiliate those arro-

gant kings who dare to contemplate placing us in fetters; all of you

desire to dictate a glorious peace, one which will indemnify the

Patrie for the immense sacrifices it has made; all of you wish to be

able to say with pride as you return to your villages, ‘‘I was with the

victorious army of Italy!’’

What themes did Napoleon use to play on the emotions of

his troops and inspire them to greater efforts? Do you think

Napoleon believed these words? Why or why not?

The Cor onation of Napoleon . In 1804, Napoleon restored monarchy to France when he became Emperor

Napoleon I. In the coronation scene painted by Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon is shown crowning his wife, the

empress Josephine, while the pope looks on. The painting shows Napoleon’s mother seated in the box in the

background, even though she was not at the ceremony.



eunion des Mus



ees Nationaux/Art Resource, NY

456 CHAPTER 18 THE WEST ON THE EVE OF A NEW WORLD ORDER

were now ‘‘less equal than men’’ in other ways as well.

When they married, their property came under the

control of their husbands.

Napoleon also developed a powerful, centralized

administrative machine and worked hard to develop a

bureaucracy of capable officials. Early on, the regime

showed that it cared little whether the expertise of offi-

cials had been acquired in royal or revolutionary bu-

reaucracies. Promotion, whether in civil or military

offices, was to be based not on rank or birth but on ability

only. This principle of a government career open to talent

was, of course, what many bourgeois had wanted before

the Revolution.

In his domestic policies, then, Napoleon both de-

stroyed and preserved aspects of the Revolution. Al-

though equality was preserved in the law code and the

opening of careers to talent, the creation of a new ar-

istocracy, the strong protection a ccorded to property

rights, and the use of conscription for the military make

it clear that much equality had been lost. Liber t y was

replaced by an initially benevolent despotism that grew

increasingly ar bitrary. Na poleon shut down sixty of

France’s seventy-three newspapers and insisted that all

manuscripts be subjected to government scrutiny before

they were published. Even the mail was opened by

government police.

Napoleon’s Empire

When Napoleon became consul in 1799, France was at

war with a second European coalition of Russia, Great

Britain, and Austria. Napoleon realized the need for a

pause and made a peace treaty in 1802. But in 1803 war

was renewed with Britain, which was soon joined by

Austria, Russia, and Prussia in the Third Coalition. In a

series of battles from 1805 to 1807, Napoleon’s Grand

Army defeated the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian ar-

mies, giving Napoleon the opportunity to create a new

European order.

The Grand Empire From 1807 to 1812, Napoleon was

the master of Europe. His Grand Empire was composed

of three major parts: the French Empire, dependent

states, and allied states (see Map 18.3). Dependent states

were kingdoms under the rule of Napoleon’s relatives;

these came to include Spain, the Netherlands, the king-

dom of Italy, the Swiss Republic, the Grand Duchy of

Warsaw, and the Confederation of the Rhine (a union of

all German states except Austria and Prussia). Allied

states were those defeated by Napoleon and forced to join

his struggle against Britain; these included Prussia, Aus-

tria, Russia, and Sweden.

Within his empire, Napoleon sought acceptance of

certain revolutionary principles, including legal equality,

religious toleration, and economic freedom. In the inner

core and dependent states of his Grand Empire, Napoleon

tried to destroy the old order. Nobility and clergy ev-

erywhere in these states lost their special privileges. He

decreed equality of opportunity with offices open to

talent, equality before the law, and religious toleration.

This spread of French revolutionary principles was an

important factor in the development of liberal traditions

in these countries.

Napoleon hoped that his Grand Empire would last

for centuries, but it collapsed almost as rapidly as it had

been formed. As long as Britain ruled the waves, it was

not subject to militar y attack. Napoleon hoped to in-

vade Britain, but he co uld not overcome the British

navy’s decis ive defeat of a combined French-Spanish

fleet at Trafalgar in 1805. To defeat Britain, Napoleon

turned to his Continental System. An alliance put into

effect between 1806 and 1808, it attempted to prevent

British goods from reaching the European continent in

order to weaken Britain economically and destroy its

capacity to wage war. But the Continental System failed.

Allied states resented it; some began to cheat a nd others

to resist.

Napoleon also encountered new sources of opposi-

tion. His conquests made the French hated oppressors

and aroused the patriotism of the conquered people. A

Spanish uprising against Napoleon’s rule, aided by British

support, kept a French force of 200,000 pinned down for

years.

The Fall of Napoleon The beginning of Napoleon’s

downfall came in 1812 with his invasion of Russia. The

refusal of the Russians to remain in the Continental

System left Napoleon with little choice. Although aware of

the risks in invading such a huge country, he also knew

that if the Russians were allowed to challenge the Con-

tinental System unopposed, others would soon follow

suit. In June 1812, he led his Grand Army of more than

600,000 men into Russia. Napoleon’s hopes for victory

depended on quickly defeating the Russian armies, but

the Russian forces retreated and refused to give battle,

torching their own villages and countryside to keep Na-

poleon’s army from finding food. When the Russians did

stop to fight at Borodino, Napoleon’s forces won an

indecisive and costly victory. When the remaining troops

of the Grand Army arrived in Moscow, they found the

city ablaze. Lacking food and supplies, Napoleon aban-

doned Moscow late in October and made a retreat across

Russia in terrible winter conditions. Only 40,000 of the

original 600,000 men managed to arrive back in Poland in

January 1813.

THE AGE OF NAPOLEON 457

This military disaster led other European states to rise up

and attack the crippled French army. Paris was captured in

Mar ch 1814, and Napoleon was sent into exile on the island

of Elba, off the coast of Italy. Mean while, the Bourbon

monarch y was restored in the person of Louis X VIII, the

count of Pr ov ence, brother of the executed king. (Louis XVII,

son of Louis XVI, had died in prison at age ten.) Napoleon,

bored on Elba, slipped back into France. When troops were

sent to capture him, Napoleon opened his coat and ad-

dressed them: ‘‘Soldiers of the 5th regiment, I am your

Emperor. ... If there is a man among you would kill his

Emperor, here I am !’’ No one fired a shot. Shout ing ‘‘Vive

l’Empereur! Vive l’Empereur!’’ the troops went over to his side,

and Napoleon entered Paris in triumph on Ma rch 20, 1815.

The powers that had defeated him pledged once

more to fight him. Having decided to strike first at his

enemies, Napoleon raised yet another army and moved to

attack the allied forces stationed in what is now Belgium.

At Waterloo on June 18, Napoleon met a combined

British and Prussian army under the duke of Wellington

and suffered a bloody defeat. This time, the victorious

allies exiled him to Saint Helena, a small, forsaken island

in the South Atlantic, off the coast of Africa. Only Na-

poleon’s memory continued to haunt French political life.

Leipzig 1813

Borodino 1812

Friedland 1807

Eylau 1807

Austerlitz 1805

Auerstadt 1806

Jena 1806

Waterloo 1815

Ulm 1805

Trafalgar 1805

Corsica

Sardinia

Crete

Cyprus

Malta

Atlantic

Ocean

Black Sea

North

Sea

Mediterranean Sea

Marseilles

Berlin

Moscow

Smolensk

Tilsit

Danzig

Kiev

Pressburg

Zürich

Copenhagen

London

Brussels

Paris

Milan

Genoa

Rome

Elba

Madrid

Lisbon

Vienna

Cairo

Warsaw

FRENCH

EMPIRE

RUSSIAN

EMPIRE

AUSTRIAN

EMPIRE

OTTOMAN

EMPIRE

KINGDOM

OF SICILY

KINGDOM

OF NAPLES

KINGDOM

ITALY

EGYPT

SPAIN

PORTUGAL

GREAT

BRITAIN

NORWAY

SWEDEN

DENMARK

SAXONY

PRUSSIA

ILLYRIAN

PROVINCES

SWITZERLAND

GRAND DUCHY

OF WARSAW

CONFEDERATION OF

THE RHINE

0 250 500 Miles

0 250 500 750 Kilometers

French Empire

Under French control

Allied to France

Napoleon’s route, 1812

Battle site

MAP 18.3 Napoleon’s Grand Empire. Napoleon’s Grand Army won a series of victories

against Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia that gave the French emperor full or partial control

over much of Europe by 1807.

On the Continent, what was the o verall relationship between distance from France and

degree of Fr ench control, and how can you account for this?

458 CHAPTER 18 THE WEST ON THE EVE OF A NEW WORLD ORDER

CONCLUSION

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION was a major turning point in

modern civilization. With a new conception of the universe came a

new conception of humankind and the belief that by using reason

alone people could understand and dominate the world of nature.

In combination with the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, the

Scientific Revolution gave the West an intellectual boost that

contributed to the increased confidence of Western civilization.

Europeans---with their strong governments, prosperous economies,

and strengthened military forces---began to dominate other parts of

the world, leading to a growing belief in the superiority of their

civilization.

Everywhere in Europe at the beginning of the eighteenth

century, the old order remained strong. Monarchs sought to enlarge

their bureaucracies to raise taxes to support the large standing

armies that had originated in the seventeenth century. The existence

of five great powers, with two of them (France and Great Britain)

embattled in the East and in the Western Hemisphere, ushered in a

new scale of conflict; the Seven Years’ War can legitimately be

viewed as the first world war. Throughout Europe, increased

demands for taxes to support these conflicts led to attacks on the

privileged orders and a desire for change not met by the ruling

monarchs. The inability of that old order to deal meaningfully with

this desire for change led to a revolutionary outburst at the end of

the eighteenth century that brought the old order to an end.

The revolutionary era of the late eighteenth century was a time

of dramatic political transformations. Revolutionary upheavals,

beginning in North America and continuing in France, spurred

movements for political liberty and equality. The documents

promulgated by these revolutions, the Declaration of Independence

and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, embodied

the fundamental ideas of the Enlightenment and created a liberal

political agenda based on a belief in popular sovereignty---the

people as the source of political power---and the principles of liberty

and equality. Liberty meant, in theory, freedom from arbitrary

power as well as the freedom to think, write, and worship as one

chose. Equality meant equality in rights and equality of opportunity

based on talent rather than wealth or status at birth. In practice,

equality remained limited; property owners had greater opportu-

nities for voting and office holding, and women were still not

treated as the equals of men.

TIMELINE

1600

1650 1700 1750 1800 1850

Reign of Frederick the Great

Reign of Terror

in France

Storming of the Bastille

Seven Years’ War

Napoleon becomes emperor

American Declaration of Independence

Galileo, The Starry Messenger

Work of Sor Juana

Inéz de la Cruz

Work of Watteau Reform program

of Joseph II

Battle of Waterloo

Rousseau, The Social Contract

Work of Isaac Newton

Diderot,

Encyclopedia

CONCLUSION 459

SUGGESTED READING

Intellectual Revolution in the West Two g eneral surveys of

the Scientific Revolution are J. R. Jacob, The Scientific Revolution:

Aspirations and Achievements, 1500--1700 (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.,

1998), and J. Henry, The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of

Modern Science, 2nd ed. (New York, 2002). Good introductions to

the Enlightenment can be found in U. Im Hof, The Enlightenment

(Oxford, 1994), and D. Outram, The Enlightenment, 2nd ed.

(Cambridge, 2005). See also the beautifully illustrated work by

D. Outram, Panorama of the Enlightenment (Los Angeles, 2006),

and M. Fitzpatrick et al., The Enlightenment World (New York,

2004). On the social history of the Enlightenment, see T. Munck,

The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History, 1721--1794

(London, 2000). On women in the eighteenth century, see M. E.

Wiesner-Hanks, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe

(Cambridge, 2000). On culture, see E. Gesine and J. F. Walther,

Rococo (New York, 2007).

The Social Order On the European nobility in the eighteenth

century, see J. Dewald, The European Nobility, 1400--1800, 2nd ed.

(Cambridge, 2004). On European cities, see J. de Vries, European

Urbanization, 1500--1800 (Cambridge, Mass., 1984).

Colonial Empires For a brief survey of Latin America, see

E. B. Burns and J. A. Charlip, Latin America: An Interpretive

History, 8th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J., 2007). A more detailed

work on colonial Latin American history is J. Lockhardt and

S. B. Schwartz, Early Latin America: A History of Colonial

Spanish America and Brazil (New York, 1983). A history of the

revolutionary era in America can be found in S. Conway, The

War of American Independence, 1775--1783 (New York, 1995).

Enlightened Absolutism and Global Conflict On

enlightened absolutism, see D. Beales, Enlightenment and Reform

in Eig hteenth-Century Europe (New York, 2005). Good biographies

of some of Europe’s monarchs include G. MacDonough, Frederick

the Great (New York, 2001); I. De Madariaga, Catherine the Great:

A Shor t History (New Haven, Conn., 1990); and T. C. W. Blanning,

Joseph II (New York, 1994).

The French Revolution A well-written, up-to-date

introduction to the French Revolution can be found in W. Doyle,

The Oxford History of the French Revolution, 2nd ed. (Oxford,

2003). On the entire revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, see

O. Connelly, The French Revolution and Napoleonic Era, 3rd ed.

(Fort Worth, Tex., 2000). On the radical stage of the French

Revolution, see D. Andress, The Terror: The Merciless War for

Freedom in Revolutionary France (New York, 2005), and R. R.

Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled (Princeton, N.J., 1965), a classic. On the

role of women in revolutionary France, see O. Hufton, Women and

the Limits of Citizenship in the French Revolution (Toronto, 1992).

The Age of Napoleon The best biography of Napoleon is

S. Englund, Napoleon: A Political Life (New York, 2004). Also

valuable are G. J. Ellis, Napoleon (New York, 1997); M. Lyons,

Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution

(New York, 1994); and the massive biographies by F. J. McLynn,

Napoleon: A Biography (London, 1997), and A. Schom, Napoleon

Bonaparte (New York, 1997).

The French Revolution set in motion a modern revolutionary

concept. No one had foreseen or consciously planned the upheaval

that began in 1789, but thereafter, radicals and revolutionaries knew

that mass uprisings by the common people could overthrow

unwanted elitist governments. For these people, the French

Revolution became a symbol of hope; for those who feared such

changes, it became a symbol of dread. The French Revolution

became the classic political and social model for revolution. At the

same time, the liberal and national political ideals created by the

Revolution dominated the political landscape for well over a

century. A new era had begun, and the world would never be the

same.

Visit the website for The Essential World History to access study

aids such as Flashcards, Critical Thinking Exercises, and

Chapter Quizzes:

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460 CHAPTER 18 THE WEST ON THE EVE OF A NEW WORLD ORDER

461

Aryans Indo-European-speaking nomads who entered India from

the Central Asian steppes between 1500 and 1000 b.c.e. and greatly

a ected Indian society, notably by establishing the caste system.  e

term was later adopted by German Nazis to describe their racial

ideal.

asceticism a lifestyle involving the denial of worldly pleasures.

Predominantly associated with Hindu, Buddhist, or Christian

religions, adherents perceive their practices as a path to greater

spitiuality.

ASEAN the Association for the Southeast Asian Nations formed in

1967 to promote the prosperity and political stability of its member

nations. Currently Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the

Philippines, Singapore,  ailand, and Vietnam are members. Other

countries in the region participate as “observer” members.

Ausgleich the “Compromise” of 1867 that created the dual monarchy

of Austria-Hungary. Austria and Hungary each had its own capital,

constitution, and legislative assembly, but were united under one

monarch.

authoritarian state a state that has a dictatorial government and

some other trappings of a totalitarian state, but does not demand

that the masses be actively involved in the regime’s goals as

totalitarian states do.

auxiliaries troops enlisted from the subject peoples of the Roman

Empire to supplement the regular legions composed of Roman

citizens.

bakufu the centralized government set up in Japan in the twel h

century. See shogunate system.

balance of power a distribution of power among several states such

that no single nation can dominate or interfere with the interests of

another.

Banners Originally established in 1639 by the Qing empire, the

Eight Banners were administrative divisions into which all Manchu

families were placed. Banners quickly evolved into the basis of

Manchu military organization with each required to raise and

support a prescribed number of troops.

Bao-jia system the Chinese practice, reportedly originated by the

Qin dynasty in the third century b.c.e., of organizing families into

groups of  ve or ten to exercise mutual control and surveillance and

reduce loyalty to the family.

Baroque a style that dominated Western painting, sculpture, archi-

tecture and music from about 1580 to 1730, generally characterized

by elaborate ornamentation and dramatic e ects. Important practi-

tioners included Bernini, Rubens, Handel, and Bach.

Bedouins nomadic tribes originally from northern Arabia, who

became important traders a er the domestication of the camel

during the  rst millennium b.c.e. Early converts to Islam, their

values and practices deeply a ected Muhammad.

bene ce in the Christian church, a position, such as a bishopric, that

consisted of both a sacred o ce and the right of the holder to the

annual revenues from the position.

Berbers an ethnic group indigenous to western North Africa.

bey a provincial governor in the Ottoman Empire.

GLOSSARY

absolutism a form of government where the sovereign power or

ultimate authority rested in the hands of a monarch who claimed

to rule by divine right and was therefore responsible only to God.

Abstract Expressionism a post–World War II artistic movement

that broke with all conventions of form and structure in favor of

total abstraction.

Agricultural (Neolithic) Revolution the shi from hunting animals

and gathering plants for sustenance to producing food by systematic

agriculture that occurred gradually between 10,000 and 4000 b.c.e.

(the Neolithic or “New Stone” Age).

agricultural revolution the application of new agricultural techniques

that allowed for a large increase in productivity in the eighteenth

century.

Amerindian earliest inhabitants of North and South America.

Original theories suggested migration from Siberia across the

Bering Land Bridge; more recent evidence suggests migration

also occurred by sea from regions of the South Paci c to South

America.

anarchism a political theory that holds that all governments and

existing social institutions are unnecessary and advocates a society

based on voluntary cooperation.

ANC the African National Congress. Founded in 1912, it was the

beginning of political activity by South African blacks. Banned by

politically dominant European whites in 1960, it was not o cially

“unbanned” until 1990. It is now the o cial majority party of the

South African government.

Analects the body of writing containing conversations between

Confucius and his disciples that preserves his worldly wisdom and

pragmatic philosophies.

anti-Semitism hostility toward or discrimination against Jews.

apartheid the system of racial segregation practiced in the Republic

of South Africa until the 1990s, which involved political, legal, and

economic discrimination against nonwhites.

appeasement the policy, followed by the European nations

in the 1930s, of accepting Hitler’s annexation of Austria and

Czechoslovakia in the belief that meeting his demands would

assure peace and stability.

Aramaic a Semitic language dominant in the Middle East in the

 rst century b.c.e.; still in use in small regions of the Middle East

and southern Asia.

Arianism a Christian heresy that taught that Jesus was inferior

to God.  ough condemned by the Council of Nicaea in 325,

Arianism was adopted by many of the Germanic peoples who

entered the Roman Empire over the next centuries.

aristocracy a class of hereditary nobility in medieval Europe; a warrior

class who shared a distinctive lifestyle based on the institution of

knighthood, although there were social divisions within the group

based on extremes of wealth.

Arthasastra an early Indian political treatise that sets forth many

fundamental aspects of the relationship of rulers and their subjects.

It has been compared to Machiavelli’s well-known book,  e Prince,

and has provided principles upon which many aspects of social or-

ganization have developed in the region.

462

military force, though some were popular; they included both mod-

ernizers and destructive dictators.

censorate one of the three primary Chinese ministries, originally

established in the Qin dynasty, whose inspectors surveyed the

e ciency of o cials throughout the system.

chaebol a South Korean business structure similar to the Japanese

keiretsu.

Chan Buddhism a Chinese sect (Zen in Japanese) in uenced by

Daoist ideas, which called for mind training and a strict regimen

as a means of seeking enlightenment.

chansons de geste a form of vernacular literature in the High

Middle Ages that consisted of heroic epics focusing on the deeds

of warriors.

chinampas in Mesoamerica, arti cal islands crisscrossed by canals

that provided water for crops and easy transportation to local

markets.

chivalry the ideal of civilized behavior that emerged among the

nobility in the eleventh and twel h centuries under the in uence

of the church; a code of ethics knights were expected to uphold.

Christian (northern) humanism an intellectual movement in

northern Europe in the late   eenth and early sixteenth centuries

that combined the interest in the classics of the Italian Renaissance

with an interest in the sources of early Christianity, including the

New Testament and the writings of the church fathers.

civic humanism an intellectual movement of the Italian Renaissance

that saw Cicero, who was both an intellectual and a statesman, as the

ideal and held that humanists should be involved in government and

use their rhetorical training in the service of the state.

civil rights the basic rights of citizens including equality before

the law, freedom of speech and press, and freedom from arbitrary

arrest.

civil service examination an elaborate Chinese system of select-

ing bureaucrats on merit,  rst introduced in 165 c.e., developed

by the Tang dynasty in the seventh century c.e. and re ned under

the Song dynasty; later adopted in Vietnam and with less success

in Japan and Korea. It contributed to e cient government, upward

mobility, and cultural uniformity.

class struggle the basis of the Marxist analysis of history, which says

that the owners of the means of production have always oppressed

the workers and predicts an inevitable revolution. See Marxism.

Cold War the ideological con ict between the Soviet Union and the

United States a er World War II.

collective farms large farms created in the Soviet Union by Stalin by

combining many small holdings into one large farm worked by the

peasants under government supervision.

collective security the use of an international army raised by an

association of nations to deter aggression and keep the peace.

coloni free tenant farmers who worked as sharecroppers on the large

estates of the Roman Empire (singular: colonus).

Comintern a worldwide organization of Communist parties,

founded by Lenin in 1919, dedicated to the advancement of world

revolution; also known as the  ird International.

common law law common to the entire kingdom of England;

imposed by the king’s courts beginning in the twel h century to

replace the customary law used in county and feudal courts that

varied from place to place.

communalism in South Asia, the tendency of people to band together

in mutually antagonistic social sub-groups; elsewhere used to describe

unifying trends in the larger community.

commune in medieval Europe, an association of townspeople bound

together by a sworn oath for the purpose of obtaining basic liberties

from the lord of the territory in which the town was located; also, the

self-governing town a er receiving its liberties.

bhakti in Hinduism, devotion as a means of religious observance

open to all persons regardless of class.

bicameral legislature a legislature with two houses.

Black Death the outbreak of plague (mostly bubonic) in the

mid-fourteenth century that killed from 25 to 50 percent of Europe’s

population.

blitzkrieg “lightning war.” A war conducted with great speed and

force, as in Germany’s advance at the beginning of World War II.

bodhi Wisdom. Sometimes described as complete awareness of the

true nature of the universe.

bodhisattvas in some schools of Buddhism, individuals who have

achieved enlightenment but, because of their great compassion,

have chosen to renounce Nirvana and to remain on earth in spirit

form to help all human beings achieve release from reincarnation.

Bolsheviks a small faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party

who were led by Lenin and dedicated to violent revolution; seized

power in Russia in 1917 and were subsequently renamed the

Communists.

bonsai originating in China in the  rst millenium b.c.e. and known

there as penzai, it was imported to Japan between 700–900 c.e.

Bonsai combines patience and artistry in the cultivation of stunted

trees and shrubs to create exquisite nature scenes in miniature.

boyars the Russian nobility.

Brahman the Hindu word roughly equivalent to God; the Divine

basis of all being; regarded as the source and sum of the cosmos.

brahmin A member of the Hindu priestly caste or class; literally

“one who has realized or attempts to realize Brahman.” Tradition ally,

duties of a brahmin include studying Hindu religious scriptures and

transmitting them to others orally.  e priests of Hindu temples are

brahmin.

Brezhnev Doctrine the doctrine, enunciated by Leonid Brezhnev,

that the Soviet Union had a right to intervene if socialism was

threatened in another socialist state; used to justify the use of Soviet

troops in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Buddhism a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of

Siddhartha Gautama in about 500 b.c.e. Principally practiced in

China, India, and other parts of Asia, Buddhism has 360 million

followers and is considered a major world releigion.

Burakumin A Japanese minority similar to dalits (or untouchables) in

Indian culture. Past and current discrimination has resulted in lower

educational attainment and socioeconomic status for members of this

group. Movements with objectives ranging from “liberation” to inte-

gration have tried over the years to change this situation.

Bushido the code of conduct observed by samurai warriors;

comparable to the European concept of chilvalry.

caliph the secular leader of the Islamic community.

calpulli in Aztec society, a kinship group, o en of a thousand or

more, which served as an intermediary with the central government,

providing taxes and conscript labor to the state.

capital material wealth used or available for use in the production of

more wealth.

caste system a system of rigid social hierarchcy in which all members

of that society are assigned by birth to speci c “ranks,” and inherit

speci c roles and privileges.

cartel a combination of independent commercial enterprises that

work together to control prices and limit competition.

Cartesian dualism Descartes’s principle of the separation of mind

and matter (and mind and body) that enabled scientists to view

matter as something separate from themselves that could be

investigated by reason.

caudillos strong leaders in nineteenth-century Latin America, who

were usually supported by the landed elites and ruled chie y by

Glossary 463