Essential Historical and Political Concepts

Posted on Jan 18, 2026 in Social sciences

Key Historical and Political Terms

A to E

  • Anachronism — An error of chronological logic or the misplacement of chronology.
  • Anthropocene — A period in history, the most recent geological epoch, in which the presence of human beings has made an imprint on the surface of the Earth by way of radioactive fallout, microplastics, and heavy metals, as well as the influencing of the Earth’s climate.
  • Capitalism — An economic system in which the means of production are privately owned (instead of by the state) and used to generate and maximize profit.
  • City-state — A territorial unit based on a city and its immediate surroundings.
  • Civilization — A complex society bound together by common rule, sharing a common territory, identity, means of communication, and religion.
  • Cliodynamics — A field of study based on the quantification of historical phenomena and processes.
  • Comparative Research Design — An approach to conducting research through comparison.
  • Constitutional Order — A political order based on a constitution.
  • Culture — The ideas and practices that award meaning to activities in human societies.
  • Democratic Peace Theory — A theory based on the insight, originally suggested by Immanuel Kant, that democracies do not fight wars against each other.
  • Despotism — Repressive rule based on the exercise of dictatorial power, usually by one individual, sometimes also by a group.
  • Empire — A large geographical space ruled by a single state with a population that shares a sense of common identity.
  • Environmental Determinism — The idea that pre-existing environmental conditions determine the subsequent development of society.
  • Environmental History — A field of history concerned with understanding the impact of the environment on civilizational development, as well as the role of humans in changes to the environment.
  • Environmental Justice — A form of justice involving the developing and upholding of rules and regulations on the protection of the environment for all people.
  • Environmentalism — The idea that the environment deserves protection and is in need of efforts of restoration and improvement for its general condition and status.
  • Epistemology — The approach to knowledge and how to arrive at it, taking into account its foundations, methods, and validity.

F to M

  • Feudalism — A type of rule based on a hierarchy of patrons who are tied to clients, who in their turn can act as patrons to others.
  • Geopolitics — An approach to international affairs which focuses on the interplay between geography, power, and politics.
  • Global Citizenship — The field of World History operates in the belief that the study of the process of ever-increasing connections can help in the formation and education of future generations of responsible and informed global citizens.
  • Grassroots Activism — Community-based collective action focused on a particular cause or theme, involving the population directly.
  • Great Divergence — A process where Europe’s GDP per capita grew much faster than the GDP per capita of the rest of the world.
  • Historicism — The study of history in its unique context, time, and place.
  • Historiography — The pre-existing knowledge base including, importantly, debate about a particular historical subject.
  • Humanism — An intellectual movement focused on the human in its natural environment.
  • Kingdom — A territorial unit ruled by a hereditary monarch, i.e., a king or queen.
  • Liberalism — A political philosophy focused on the individual, bestowed with individual rights, liberties, and equality before the law.
  • Marxism — A political philosophy developed by Karl Marx in his book Das Kapital (1867).
  • Meaningful Communication — The deliberate act of transferring information through a verbal (speech or writing) or non-verbal (such as drawing, movement, or objects) medium.
  • Meta-History — The interpretation of history according to an overarching meaning or internal logic, leading towards an ultimate end point.
  • Modernity — A set of ideas focused on rationality, science, secularism, democracy, and cosmopolitanism.

N to Z

  • Nuclear Imperialism — Imperialist activities to establish and maintain control over nuclear production and output (including weapons production) at the cost of communities in the developing world.
  • Oligarchy — Rule by a small group, often sharing a distinct identity of ethnicity, social class, military standing, or religion.
  • Oral History — The study of history through orally transmitted sources.
  • Politics — The ability to decide who gets what, where, when, and how.
  • Racism — The belief that the human population can be biologically categorized into clear and distinct groups, i.e., races, which have inherited and essential characteristics that define their behavior and abilities, and that these differences mark a natural and inevitable inferiority or superiority.
  • Religion — A set of beliefs inherent to humankind focused on the divine which inform a set of practices which are carried out individually as well as communally.
  • Religious Syncretism — A combination of different, usually opposing, religious beliefs and practices.
  • Republic — A form of government in which authority is held by the people through elective representation.
  • Second Slavery — Processes and mechanisms of industrialization that went hand in hand with slavery in slave-based colonies in Brazil and Cuba.
  • Silk Roads — A concept used to describe the trade routes connecting, via land and sea, Asia, Europe, and Africa.
  • Sovereignty — Supreme or ultimate authority and freedom of action.
  • State — A territorial unit with a monopoly of force within that territory.
  • Teleology — Reasoning based on the perceived outcome.
  • Theocracy — A system of rule based on ultimate power resting with God.
  • The End of History Thesis — A thesis which sees the end of human ideological development in the attainment of liberal democracy.
  • The Great Game — A concept used to describe the rivalry between the British and Russian Empires in the 19th century over control of the Central Asian landmass.
  • The Thucydides Trap — A theory developed by Graham Allison, based on ideas offered by the Greek historian Thucydides, that a rising power will challenge a dominant one and this challenge will end in armed conflict.
  • Vietnam Syndrome — A perception held by U.S. Cold War hawks in the aftermath of the defeat in the Vietnam War (1954–1973) that the U.S. people had become overly wary of military interventions.
  • War — Violent engagement by at least two identifiable actors commanding force, claiming to represent a group of people to realize a political cause.
  • World History — The study of history from a world perspective focusing on the spread of people, goods, and ideas and increased interconnectedness.
  • World System Theory — The world is divided into three sets of states depending on the role they play in economic production.