Suez Canal
Ship canal dug across the isthmus of Suez in Egypt, designed by Ferdinand de Lesseps. It opened to shipping in 1869 and shortened the sea voyage between Europe and Asia. Its strategic importance led to the British conquest of Egypt in 1882. (p. 726)
New Imperialism
Historians' term for the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century wave of conquests by European powers, the United States, and Japan, which were followed by the development and exploitation of the newly conquered territories. (p. 726)
Battle of Omdurman
British victory over the Mahdi in the Sudan in 1898. General Kitchener led a mixed force of British and Egyptian troops armed with rapid-firing rifles and machine guns. (p. 730)
colonialism
Policy by which a nation administers a foreign territory and develops its resources for the benefit of the colonial power. (p. 731)
scramble" for Africa
Sudden wave of conquests in Africa by European powers in the 1880s and 1890s. Britain obtained most of eastern Africa, France most of northwestern Africa. Other countries (Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and Spain) acquired lesser amounts. (p. 731)
Henry Morton Stanley
British-American explorer of Africa, famous for his expeditions in search of Dr. David Livingstone. He helped King Leopold II establish the Congo Free State.
King Leopold II
King of Belgium (r. 1865-1909). He was active in encouraging the exploration of Central Africa and became the ruler of the Congo Free State (to 1908). (p. 732)
Savorgnan de Brazza
Franco-Italian explorer sent by the French government to claim part of equatorial Africa for France. Founded Brazzaville, capital of the French Congo, in 1880.
Berlin Conference
Conference that German chancellor Otto von Bismarck called to set rules for the partition of Africa. It led to the creation of the Congo Free State under King Leopold II of Belgium. (See also Bismarck, Otto von.) (p. 732)
Afrikaners
South Africans descended from Dutch and French settlers of the seventeenth century. Their Great Trek founded new settler colonies in the nineteenth century. Though a minority among South Africans, they held political power after 1910, imposing a system of
Cecil Rhodes
British entrepreneur and politician involved in the expansion of the British Empire from South Africa into Central Africa. The colonies of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) were named after him. (p. 736)
Asante
African kingdom on the Gold Coast that expanded rapidly after 1680. Asante participated in the Atlantic economy, trading gold, slaves, and ivory. It resisted British imperial ambitions for a quarter century before being absorbed into Britain. 1902 (736)
Menelik II
emperor of Ethiopia in 1889; played the Europeans against each other, meanwhile building an arsenal of weapons with which the Ethiopians declared war and defeated the Italians at the Battle of Adowa
Emilio Aguinaldo
Leader of the Filipino independence movement against Spain (1895-1898). He proclaimed the independence of the Philippines in 1899, but his movement was crushed and he was captured by the United States Army in 1901. (p. 743)
free-trade imperialism
Economic dominance of a weaker country by a more powerful one, while maintaining the legal independence of the weaker state. In the late nineteenth century, free-trade imperialism characterized the relations between the Latin American republics. (744)
Panama Canal
Ship canal cut across the isthmus of Panama by United States Army engineers; it opened in 1915. It greatly shortened the sea voyage between the east and west coasts of North America. The United States turned the canal over to Panama on Jan 1, 2000 (746)
Western Front
A line of trenches and fortifications in World War I that stretched without a break from Switzerland to the North Sea. Scene of most of the fighting between Germany, on the one hand, and France and Britain, on the other. (p. 757)
Faisal
Arab prince, leader of the Arab Revolt in World War I. The British made him king of Iraq in 1921, and he reigned under British protection until 1933. (p. 760)
Theodore Herzl
Austrian journalist and founder of the Zionist movement urging the creation of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine. (p. 760)
Balfour Declaration
Statement issued by Britain's Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour in 1917 favoring the establishment of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine. (p. 761)
Bolsheviks
Radical Marxist political party founded by Vladimir Lenin in 1903. Under Lenin's leadership, the Bolsheviks seized power in November 1917 during the Russian Revolution. (See also Lenin, Vladimir.) (p. 761)
Vladimir Lenin
Leader of the Bolshevik (later Communist) Party. He lived in exile in Switzerland until 1917, then returned to Russia to lead the Bolsheviks to victory during the Russian Revolution and the civil war that followed. (p. 761)
Woodrow Wilson
President of the United States (1913-1921) and the leading figure at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. He was unable to persuade the U.S. Congress to ratify the Treaty of Versailles or join the League of Nations. (p. 762)
Fourteen Points
A peace program presented to U.S. Congress by President Wilson in January 1918. It called for evacuation of German-occupied lands, the drawing of borders and settling of territorial disputes by self-determination of affected populations, and found of asso
League of Nations
International organization founded in 1919 to promote world peace and cooperation but greatly weakened by the refusal of the United States to join. It proved ineffectual in stopping aggression by Italy, Japan, and Germany in the 1930s. (763)
Treaty of Versailles
The treaty imposed on Germany by France, Great Britain, the United States, and other Allied Powers after World War I. It demanded that Germany dismantle its military and give up some lands to Poland. It was resented by many Germans. (p. 763)
New Economic Policy
Policy proclaimed by Vladimir Lenin in 1924 to encourage the revival of the Soviet economy by allowing small private enterprises. Joseph Stalin ended the N.E.P. in 1928 and replaced it with a series of Five-Year Plans. (See also Lenin, Vladimir.) (p. 766)
Sun Yat-sen
Chinese nationalist revolutionary, founder and leader of the Guomindang until his death. He attempted to create a liberal democratic political movement in China but was thwarted by military leaders. (p. 768)
Yuan Shikai
Chinese general and first president of the Chinese Republic (1912-1916). He stood in the way of the democratic movement led by Sun Yat-sen. (p. 768)
Guomindang
Nationalist political party founded on democratic principles by Sun Yat-sen in 1912. After 1925, the party was headed by Chiang Kai-shek, who turned it into an increasingly authoritarian movement. (p. 769)
mandate system
Allocation of former German colonies and Ottoman possessions to the victorious powers after World War I, to be administered under League of Nations supervision.
Ataturk, Kemal
founder of modern Turkey. An army officer, he distinguished himself in defense of Gallipoli in World War I and expelled Greek expeditionary army from Anatolia in 1921-1922. He abolished sultanate and replaced the Ottoman Empire with Turkish Republic in 19
Margaret Sanger
American nurse and author; pioneer in the movement for family planning; organized conferences and established birth control clinics.
Max Planck
German physicist who developed quantum theory and was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1918. (p. 774)
Albert Einstein
German physicist who developed the theory of relativity, which states that time, space, and mass are relative to each other and not fixed. (p. 774)
Sigmund Freud
Austrian psychiatrist, founder of psychoanalysis. He argued that psychology problems were cause by traumas, especially sexual experience in early childhood, that were repressed later in life. His ideas caused considerable controversy among psychologists a
Wilbur and Orville Wright
American bicycle mechanics; the first to build and fly an airplace, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, December 7, 1903.
Chiang Kai-shek
Chinese military and political leader. Succeeded Sun Yat-sen as head of the Guomindang in 1925; headed the Chinese government from 1928 to 1948; fought against the Chinese Communists and Japanese invaders. After 1949, he headed the Chinese Nationalist gov