Cambridge IAL History key terms

A pragmatic approach to foreign policy based on calculations of power and national interest rather than ideology or moral principle, associated especially with Bismarck's diplomacy after 1871.

The nineteenth-century movement for Italian unification, combining liberal nationalism, secret societies such as Young Italy, and diplomatic and military action led by Piedmont-Sardinia.

Secret revolutionary societies active in early nineteenth-century Italy, organising failed uprisings against Austrian and restored monarchical rule before 1848.

The German customs union formed in 1834 under Prussian leadership, which removed internal tariffs and strengthened Prussian economic dominance over Austria before unification.

Bismarck's 1870s campaign against Catholic influence in the German Empire, including restrictions on the Church, which largely failed and alienated Catholic voters.

The 1879 treaty between Germany and Austria-Hungary pledging mutual support if either was attacked by Russia, forming the cornerstone of Bismarck's alliance system.

The 1887 secret agreement in which Germany and Russia promised neutrality if the other was attacked, which Wilhelm II allowed to lapse in 1890, worsening German isolation.

The 1894 conviction and later exoneration of a Jewish French officer for treason, which exposed antisemitism and divided French politics between republicans and nationalists.

A French political movement of the late 1880s around General Boulanger, blending nationalism, anti-parliamentarianism and calls for constitutional revision, which destabilised the Third Republic.

The Russian legislative assembly created after the 1905 Revolution, whose powers were repeatedly restricted by the tsar and whose four sessions ran until 1917.

Agricultural and administrative reforms after 1906, including peasant land ownership and dissolution of the commune, intended to modernise rural Russia and stabilise autocracy.

The post-1919 arrangement under which League of Nations members administered former Ottoman and German territories, classified by supposed readiness for self-government.

The 1916 secret Anglo-French plan to divide Ottoman Middle Eastern territory into spheres of influence, later reflected in the post-war mandate boundaries.

The 1917 British statement supporting a Jewish national home in Palestine while promising to protect existing non-Jewish communities, later incorporated into the Palestine mandate.

The 1919 Chinese student protests against the Versailles decision to transfer German concessions in Shandong to Japan, which fuelled nationalism and intellectual radicalism.

Japan's 1915 demands on China, including extended rights in Shandong and Manchuria, which deepened Chinese anti-Japanese nationalism despite partial withdrawal.

Gandhi's 1930 march to the sea to make salt in defiance of the British monopoly, a central act of civil disobedience in the Indian independence campaign.

British legislation creating provincial autonomy and a federal structure in India, opposed by Congress and never fully implemented, seen as a limited step toward self-government.

The nineteenth-century belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, used to justify territorial acquisition and westward settlement.

The 1820 agreement admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as free, drawing a line across the Louisiana Purchase to balance free and slave territory.

The period after the Civil War, roughly 1865 to 1877, when federal policy attempted to rebuild the South, secure rights for freedpeople and re-admit former Confederate states.

A late nineteenth-century American political movement of farmers and workers demanding currency reform, regulation of railroads and greater popular control of government.

Franklin Roosevelt's programme of federal legislation and agencies from 1933 to combat the Depression through relief, recovery and reform, expanding the role of government.

The interwar American policy of avoiding binding political commitments abroad, reflected in rejection of the League of Nations and neutrality legislation of the 1930s.

The social and political order in France before 1789, characterised by absolute monarchy, corporate privilege and a society divided into three estates.

Lists of grievances drawn up by each estate before the 1789 Estates-General, revealing widespread criticism of privileges, taxation and seigneurial dues.

The June 1789 pledge by deputies of the Third Estate not to disperse until France had a constitution, marking a decisive break with royal authority.

The period of revolutionary government from 1793 to 1794 marked by mass arrests and executions, driven by emergency war measures and factional struggle.

The 1814-15 settlement of European powers after Napoleon, aiming at a balance of power, restoration of dynasties and containment of France.

The practice of great-power consultation and congresses after 1815 to manage disputes and suppress revolution, associated with Metternich and the Vienna settlement.

Lenin's New Economic Policy from 1921, which replaced War Communism with limited private trade and market elements to restore a devastated economy.

The forced consolidation of Soviet peasant farms into collective units from 1929, aimed at extracting grain and destroying kulaks, causing famine and resistance.

Centralised Soviet economic plans from 1928 setting output targets for heavy industry, used by Stalin to drive rapid industrialisation at high social cost.

The 1929 agreement between Fascist Italy and the papacy creating Vatican City and settling church-state disputes, which boosted Mussolini's domestic legitimacy.

A radical nationalist ideology emphasising authoritarian leadership, mass mobilisation, hostility to liberalism and socialism, and territorial expansion, exemplified by Mussolini's regime.

The 1955 meeting of Asian and African states promoting anti-colonialism, racial equality and non-alignment in the Cold War.

A grouping of states formed from 1961 that sought independence from both Cold War blocs, emphasising sovereignty, anti-colonialism and economic development.

The 1956 Anglo-French-Israeli intervention in Egypt after Nasser nationalised the canal, which ended in withdrawal and exposed declining European imperial power.

The process by which colonial territories in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean achieved independence, especially in the two decades after 1945.

The Cold War American strategy of limiting the spread of communism through alliances, economic aid and military commitment, articulated in the late 1940s.

The American programme from 1948 providing economic aid to rebuild Western Europe, intended to stabilise economies and resist communist influence.

The early 1950s American anti-communist campaign associated with Senator McCarthy, using accusations and hearings that damaged reputations and civil liberties.

The 1954 Supreme Court ruling that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, a landmark in the American civil rights movement.

Federal legislation outlawing discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex or national origin in public accommodations and employment, a key achievement of the civil rights movement.