Western Civilization: Volume B: 1300 to 1815, 8th Edition

by Spielvogel, Jackson J.

  existentialism a philosophical movement that arose after World War II that emphasized the meaninglessness of life, born of the desperation caused by two world wars.

  family allowances one aspect of the welfare state whereby the state provides a minimum level of material assistance for children.

  fascism an ideology or movement that exalts the nation above the individual and calls for a centralized government with a dictatorial leader, economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition; in particular, the ideology of Mussolini’s Fascist regime in Italy.

  federates German troops enlisted in groups to fight as allies for the Romans.

  feminism the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes; also, organized activity to advance women’s rights.

  fief a landed estate granted to a vassal in exchange for military services.

  Final Solution the attempted physical extermination of the Jewish people by the Nazis during World War II.

  Five Pillars of Islam the major tenets of the Muslim faith: belief in Allah and Muhammad as his Prophet; standard prayer five times a day and public prayer on Friday; observance of the holy month of Ramadan by fasting from dawn to sunset; making a pilgrimage (the hajj) to Mecca in one’s lifetime if possible; and giving alms to the poor.

  folk culture the traditional arts and crafts, literature, music, and other customs of the people; something that people make, as opposed to modern popular culture, which is something people buy.

  free trade the unrestricted international exchange of goods with low or no tariffs.

  Führerprinzip in Nazi Germany, a leadership principle based on the belief in a single-minded party (the Nazis) under one leader (Hitler).

  functionalism the idea that the function of an object should determine its design and materials.

  general strike a strike by all or most workers in an economy; espoused by Georges Sorel as the heroic action that could be used to inspire the workers to destroy capitalist society.

  genocide the deliberate extermination of a people.

  gentry well-to-do English landowners below the level of the nobility. They played an important role in the English Civil War of the seventeenth century.

  geocentric conception the belief that the earth was at the center of the universe and that the sun and other celestial objects revolved around the earth.

  Girondins a faction in the National Convention during the French Revolution that favored keeping the king alive; so-called because their leaders came from the Gironde in southwestern France.

  glasnost “openness.” Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of encouraging Soviet citizens to openly discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet Union.

  global economy an interdependent economy in which the production, distribution, and sale of goods are accomplished on a worldwide scale.

  globalization a term referring to the trend by which peoples and nations have become more interdependent; often used to refer to the development of a global economy and culture.

  global warming the increase in the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere caused by the greenhouse effect.

  good emperors the five emperors who ruled from 96 to 180 (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius), a period of peace and prosperity for the Roman Empire.

  Gothic a term used to describe the art and especially architecture of Europe in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries.

  Gothic literature a form of literature used by Romantics to emphasize the bizarre and unusual, especially evident in horror stories.

  Great Schism the crisis in the late medieval church when there were first two and then three popes; ended by the Council of Constance (1414–1418).

  greenhouse effect the warming of the earth caused by the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a result of human activity.

  guest workers foreign workers working temporarily in European countries.

  guild an association of people with common interests and concerns, especially people working in the same craft. In medieval Europe, guilds came to control much of the production process and to restrict entry into various trades.

  gymnasium in Classical Greece, a place for athletics; in the Hellenistic Age, a secondary school with a curriculum centered on music, physical exercise, and literature.

  heliocentric conception the belief that the sun, not the earth, is at the center of the universe.

  Hellenistic literally, “imitating the Greeks"; the era after the death of Alexander the Great when Greek culture spread into the Near East and blended with the culture of that region.

  helots serfs in ancient Sparta who were permanently bound to the land that they worked for their Spartan masters.

  heresy the holding of religious doctrines different from the official teachings of the church.

  Hermeticism an intellectual movement beginning in the fifteenth century that taught that divinity is embodied in all aspects of nature; it included works on alchemy and magic as well as theology and philosophy. The tradition continued into the seventeenth century and influenced many of the leading figures of the scientific Revolution.

  hetairai highly sophisticated courtesans in ancient Athens who offered intellectual and musical entertainment as well as sex.

  hieroglyphics a pictorial system of writing used in ancient Egypt.

  high culture the literary and artistic culture of the educated and wealthy ruling classes.

  Holocaust the mass slaughter of European Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

  home rule in the United Kingdom, self-government by having a separate parliament but not complete independence.

  hoplites heavily armed infantry soldiers in ancient Greece who entered battle in a phalanx formation.

  Huguenots French Calvinists.

  humanism an intellectual movement in Renaissance Italy based on the study of the Greek and Roman classics.

  iconoclasm a movement against the use of icons (pictures of sacred figures) in the eighth-century Byzantine Empire

  iconoclast a member of an eighth-century Byzantine movement against the use of icons, which was condemned as idolatry.

  ideology a political philosophy such as conservatism or liberalism.

  imperium in the Roman Republic, the right to command troops that belonged to the chief executive officers (consuls and praetors); a military commander was known as an imperator. In the Roman Empire, the title imperator (emperor) came to be used for the ruler.

  Impressionism an artistic movement that originated in France in the 1870s. Impressionists sought to capture their impressions of the changing effects of light on objects in nature.

  individualism emphasis on and interest in the unique traits of each person.

  indulgence in Christian theology, the remission of part or all of the temporal punishment in purgatory due to sin; granted for charitable contributions and other good deeds. Indulgences became a regular practice of the Christian church in the High Middle Ages, and their abuse was instrumental in sparking Luther’s reform movement in the sixteenth century.

  infanticide the practice of killing infants.

  inflation a sustained rise in the price level.

  intendants royal officials in seventeenth-century France who were sent into the provinces to execute the orders of the central government.

  interdict in the Catholic Church, a censure by which a region or country is deprived of receiving the sacraments.

  intervention, principle of the idea, after the Congress of Vienna, that the great powers of Europe had the right to send armies into countries experiencing revolution to restore legitimate monarchs to their thrones.

  isolationism a foreign policy in which a nation refrains from making alliances or engaging actively in international affairs.

  Janissaries an elite core of eight thousand troops personally loyal to the sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

  jihad “striving in the way of the Lord.” In Islam, the attempt to
achieve personal betterment, although it can also mean fair, defensive fighting to preserve one’s life and one’s faith.

  joint-stock company a company or association that raises capital by selling shares to individuals who receive dividends on their investment while a board of directors runs the company.

  joint-stock investment bank a bank created by selling shares of stock to investors. Such banks potentially have access to much more capital than private banks owned by one or a few individuals.

  justification the primary doctrine of the Protestant Reformation, teaching that humans are saved not through good works but by the grace of God, bestowed freely through the sacrifice of Jesus.

  Kulturkampf “culture conflict.” The name given to Bismarck’s attack on the Catholic Church in Germany, which has come to refer to conflict between church and state anywhere.

  laissez-faire “let (them) do (as they please).” An economic doctrine that holds that an economy is best served when the government does not interfere but allows the economy to self-regulate according to the forces of supply and demand.

  latifundia large landed estates in the Roman Empire (singular: latifundium).

  lay investiture the practice in which someone other than a member of the clergy chose a bishop and invested him with the symbols of both his temporal office and his spiritual office; led to the Investiture Controversy, which was ended by compromise in the Concordat of Worms in 1122.

  Lebensraum “living space.” The doctrine, adopted by Hitler, that a nation’s power depends on the amount of land it occupies; thus, a nation must expand to be strong.

  legitimacy, principle of the idea that after the Napoleonic wars, peace could best be reestablished in Europe by restoring legitimate monarchs who would preserve traditional institutions; guided Metternich at the Congress of Vienna.

  Leninism Lenin’s revision of Marxism that held that Russia need not experience a bourgeois revolution before it could move toward socialism.

  liberal arts the seven areas of study that formed the basis of education in medieval and early modern Europe. Following Boethius and other late Roman authors, they consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic or logic (the trivium) and arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music (the quadrivium).

  liberalism an ideology based on the belief that people should be as free from restraint as possible. Economic liberalism is the idea that the government should not interfere in the workings of the economy. Political liberalism is the idea that there should be restraints on the exercise of power so that people can enjoy basic civil rights in a constitutional state with a representative assembly.

  limited monarchy (constitutional monarchy) a system of government in which the monarch is limited by a representative assembly and by the duty to rule in accordance with the laws of the land.

  major domus the chief officer of the king’s household in the Frankish kingdom.

  mandates a system established after World War I whereby a nation officially administered a territory (mandate) on behalf of the League of Nations. Thus, France administered Lebanon and Syria as mandates, and Britain administered Iraq and Palestine.

  Mannerism a sixteenth-century artistic movement in Europe that deliberately broke down the High Renaissance principles of balance, harmony, and moderation.

  manor an agricultural estate operated by a lord and worked by peasants who performed labor services and paid various rents and fees to the lord in exchange for protection and sustenance.

  Marshall Plan the European Recovery Program, under which the United States provided financial aid to European countries to help them rebuild after World War II.

  Marxism the political, economic, and social theories of Karl Marx, which included the idea that history is the story of class struggle and that ultimately the proletariat will overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish a dictatorship en route to a classless society.

  mass education a state-run educational system, usually free and compulsory, that aims to ensure that all children in society have at least a basic education.

  mass leisure forms of leisure that appeal to large numbers of people in a society, including the working classes; emerged at the end of the nineteenth century to provide workers with amusements after work and on weekends; used during the twentieth century by totalitarian states to control their populations.

  mass politics a political order characterized by mass political parties and universal male and (eventually) female suffrage.

  mass society a society in which the concerns of the majority— the lower classes—play a prominent role; characterized by extension of voting rights, an improved standard of living for the lower classes, and mass education.

  materialism the belief that everything mental, spiritual, or ideal is an outgrowth of physical forces and that truth is found in concrete material existence, not through feeling or intuition.

  mercantilism an economic theory that held that a nation’s prosperity depended on its supply of gold and silver and that the total volume of trade is unchangeable; its adherents therefore advocated that the government play an active role in the economy by encouraging exports and discouraging imports, especially through the use of tariffs.

  Mesolithic Age the period from 10,000 to 7000 B.C.E., characterized by a gradual transition from a food-gathering and hunting economy to a food-producing economy.

  Mesopotamia the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

  metics resident foreigners in ancient Athens who were not permitted full rights of citizenship but did receive the protection of the laws.

  Middle Passage the journey of slaves from Africa to the Americas as the middle leg of the triangular trade.

  militarism a policy of aggressive military preparedness; in particular, the large armies based on mass conscription and complex, inflexible plans for mobilization that most European nations had before World War I.

  millenarianism the belief that the end of the world is at hand and the kingdom of God is about to be established on earth.

  ministerial responsibility a tenet of nineteenth-century liberalism that held that ministers of the monarch should be responsible to the legislative assembly rather than to the monarch.

  mir a peasant village commune in Russia.

  mobilization the organization of troops and supplies for service in time of war.

  Modern Devotion a movement founded by Gerard Groote in the fourteenth century, aimed at a practical mysticism based on leading lives serving the needs of fellow human beings.

  Modernism the artistic and literary styles that emerged in the decades before 1914 as artists rebelled against traditional efforts to portray reality as accurately as possible (leading to Impressionism and Cubism) and writers explored new forms.

  monasticism a movement that began in early Christianity whose purpose was to create communities of men and women who practiced a communal life dedicated to God as a moral example to the world around them.

  monk a man who chooses to live a communal life divorced from the world in order to dedicate himself totally to the will of God.

  monogamy the practice of being married to one person at a time.

  monotheism the doctrine or belief that there is only one God.

  Mountain a faction in the National Convention during the French Revolution that represented the interests of the city of Paris and favored the execution of the king.

  multiculturalism a term referring to the connection of several cultural or ethnic groups within a society.

  multinational corporation a company with divisions in more than two countries.

  mutual deterrence the belief that nuclear war could best be prevented if both the United States and the Soviet Union had sufficient nuclear weapons so that even if one nation launched a preemptive first strike, the other could respond and devastate the attacker.

  mystery religions religions that involve initiation into secret rites that promise intense emotional involvement with spiritual forces and a greater chance of individu
al immortality.

  mysticism the immediate experience of oneness with God.

  nationalism a sense of national consciousness based on awareness of being part of a community—a “nation"—that has common institutions, traditions, language, and customs and that becomes the focus of the individual’s primary political loyalty.

  nationalities problem the dilemma faced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in trying to unite a wide variety of ethnic groups (Austrians, Hungarians, Poles, Croats, Czechs, Serbs, Slovaks, and Slovenes, among others) in an era when nationalism and calls for self-determination were coming to the fore.

  nationalization the process of converting a business or industry from private ownership to government control and ownership.

  nation in arms the people’s army raised by universal mobilization to repel the foreign enemies of the French Revolution.

  nation-state a form of political organization in which a relatively homogeneous people inhabits a sovereign state, as opposed to a state containing people of several nationalities.

  NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance formed in 1949 in which the signatories (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States) agreed to provide mutual assistance if any one of them was attacked; later expanded to include other nations.

  natural laws a body of laws or specific principles held to be derived from nature and binding on all human societies even in the absence of written laws governing such matters.

  natural rights certain inalienable rights to which all people are entitled, including the right to life, liberty, and property; freedom of speech and religion; and equality before the law.

  natural selection Darwin’s idea that organisms that are most adaptable to their environment survive and pass on the variations that enabled them to survive, while less adaptable organisms become extinct; “survival of the fittest.”

  Nazi New Order the Nazis’ plan for their conquered territories; it included the extermination of Jews and others considered inferior, ruthless exploitation of resources, German colonization in the east, and the use of Poles, Russians, and Ukrainians as slave labor.