UEE Social Studies flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Agricultural Revolution

The transition from hunting and gathering to settled farming, beginning around 10,000 BCE, which produced food surpluses, permanent villages, occupational specialization, and sharper social hierarchies.

Industrial Revolution

The period from the mid-1700s in Britain when coal, steam power, iron, and factory production transformed manufacturing, transport, and urban life, creating wage labor and rapid city growth.

French Revolution

The 1789 upheaval in France against absolute monarchy and feudal privilege, driven by fiscal crisis and Enlightenment ideas, which produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 peace settlement ending World War I, which imposed territorial losses, military limits, and reparations on Germany and redrew European borders.

Containment

The Cold War US strategy of limiting the expansion of Soviet communism through alliances, economic aid, military deterrence, and proxy conflicts rather than direct war.

Decolonization

The post-1945 process by which Asian and African colonies gained independence from European empires, producing new states, contested borders, and Cold War alignments.

Primary source

A document, artifact, image, or account created by a participant or witness at the time of an event, used as direct evidence rather than later interpretation.

Map scale

The ratio between distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the ground, expressed as a representative fraction, a verbal scale, or a graphic bar.

Population density

The number of people per unit area, usually calculated as total population divided by land area; it may be arithmetic or physiological when adjusted for arable land.

Demographic transition model

A model showing population change through stages from high birth and death rates to low ones, with rapid growth in the middle stages as death rates fall first.

Plate tectonics

The theory that Earth's lithosphere is divided into moving plates whose interactions at divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries cause earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building.

Urbanization

The rising share of a population living in cities and towns, driven by rural-to-urban migration and natural increase, and associated with changes in land use and services.

Push-pull migration

A framework explaining migration through negative conditions pushing people from origin areas and positive conditions attracting them to destination areas, filtered by distance and barriers.

Opportunity cost

The value of the next best alternative foregone when a choice is made, reflecting scarcity and the trade-offs that every economic decision involves.

Law of demand

The principle that, other things equal, quantity demanded falls as price rises and rises as price falls, producing a downward-sloping demand curve.

Price elasticity of demand

A measure of how much quantity demanded responds to a price change, calculated as percentage change in quantity demanded divided by percentage change in price.

Gross domestic product

The market value of all final goods and services produced within a country's borders in a given period, used as a main measure of economic output.

Inflation

A sustained rise in the general price level, reducing money's purchasing power; it is commonly measured by the annual percentage change in a consumer price index.

Unemployment rate

The percentage of the labor force that is without work, actively seeking work, and available for work, excluding people who are not looking.

Comparative advantage

The ability to produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another producer, which is the basis for mutually beneficial specialization and trade.

Separation of powers

The division of government authority among legislative, executive, and judicial branches so that each has distinct functions and can check the others.

Rule of law

The principle that laws, not arbitrary rulers, govern society; laws are publicly known, applied equally, and government itself is subject to legal limits.

Federalism

A system in which power is divided between a national government and regional governments, each with constitutionally protected authority and responsibilities.

Proportional representation

An electoral system that allocates legislative seats in proportion to parties' vote shares, often using multi-member districts and party lists or thresholds.

Civil society

The sphere of voluntary associations, nonprofit groups, media, and social movements outside the state and market that organize citizens and check public power.

Public policy cycle

A model of policymaking with stages including agenda setting, policy formulation, adoption, implementation, and evaluation, often revisited through feedback.

Culture

The shared beliefs, values, norms, symbols, language, and material objects that members of a society learn and transmit across generations.

Socialization

The lifelong process through which people learn the norms, values, skills, and identities needed to participate in society, mainly via family, school, peers, and media.

Social stratification

The ranking of people into hierarchical groups by unequal access to resources, prestige, and power, often based on class, caste, race, or gender.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to judge another culture by the standards of one's own, often treating one's own culture as superior and misunderstanding different practices.

Cultural relativism

The approach of understanding a cultural practice within its own social context rather than judging it by the standards of another culture.

Kinship

The system of social relationships based on descent, marriage, and adoption that defines family obligations, inheritance, and group membership.