Key Historical Terms and Concepts: 18th and 19th Centuries
Ancien Régime
The name given by French revolutionaries to the era before the 1789 revolution.
Seignorialism
Land owned by a lord and on which peasants work, paying taxes to the lord for the use of manorial monopolies (mills, warehouses, etc.).
Guild
An economic partnership that brought together artisans of the same trade. Their goal was to balance work demands and the number of active workshops, ensuring the work of their members, their economic welfare, and learning systems.
Old Demographic Cycle
The population of a country is related to the amount of resources it possesses. In times of crisis, the population decreases and increases in good times. The fertility rate is high, but mortality is also high, especially among children.
Estates
Social division defined by a common lifestyle or social function. A closed grouping to which one usually belongs by birth.
Third Estate
All the needy population that did not enjoy the privileges of the clergy and nobility. It was composed of peasants, burghers, merchants, craftsmen, etc.
Absolute Monarchy
A form of government where the monarch holds absolute power. There is no separation of powers; all powers are concentrated in the king.
Enlightened Despotism
A political concept framed within absolute monarchies that includes the philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment. Monarchs sought to culturally enrich their countries.
Encyclopedia
Books containing all the knowledge of the period, illustrated with numerous engravings. It was published between 1751 and 1772 by Diderot and d’Alembert and employed over 200 authors. It collected the ideas of the Enlightenment, spreading new ideals of freedom and equality.
Coking Coal
An energy fuel with more power than regular coal.
Puddling
A process to transform iron into plates, which are more manageable than slugs.
Laminate
The conversion of pig iron to wrought iron, a purer form, which removes carbon.
Constitution
Legal texts governing the political life of a state, drafted by a representative assembly of national sovereignty.
Veto Law
The right of a person or institution to prevent the compliance or execution of something.
Thirteen Colonies
The name historically given to Britain’s colonial possessions on the Atlantic coast of North America, between Nova Scotia and Florida. In the late 18th century, they united under an independent government to create the present United States.
Boston Tea Party
A movement that involved throwing a cargo of tea into the sea. It was an act of protest by American colonists against Britain and is considered a precursor to the War of Independence of the United States. The revolt of the settlers at the port of Boston, Massachusetts, arose as a result of the adoption by Britain in 1773 of the Tea Act, which imposed the importation into the metropolis of various products, including tea, to benefit the British East India Company. Americans had been boycotting tea from Holland.
Estates-General
An assembly representing the three estates of French society of the Ancien Régime (nobility, clergy, and the Third Estate).
Cahiers de Doléances
Records of each district’s assemblies in France, charged with electing representatives to the Estates-General, filled with requests and complaints.
Holy Alliance
An organization created after the defeat of Napoleon. A coalition between Russia, Austria, and Prussia to maintain absolutism and defend against the liberal threat. It defended the right of intervention to suffocate any revolutionary action. Its principal action was in Spain in 1823, with the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis, to end the constitutional government and restore absolute power to Ferdinand VII.
Nationalism
Nationalism is an ideology and a social and political movement that emerged in tandem with the concept of the nation itself in the contemporary age, during the historical circumstances of the Age of Revolutions (Industrial Revolution, Bourgeois Revolution, Liberal Revolution) from the late 18th century. It can also designate nationalist sentiment and the age of nationalism.
As an ideology, nationalism offers a particular nation as the only referent of identity within a political community and is based on two basic principles regarding the relationship between nation and state:
- The principle of national sovereignty: maintaining that the nation is the only legitimate basis for the state.
- The nationality principle: that each nation should form its own state and that state boundaries should match those of the nation.
Plutocracy
A system in which the rich dominate.
Bourgeois Morality
A set of values advocated by the bourgeoisie, such as order and property, the worship of work, saving, and individual effort as a means to achieve prosperity, in addition to the family and home.
Elite
A small group within a society that has a high status compared to other group members.
Luddism
Violent rejection by textile industry workers of the new machines, which threatened to deprive them of their jobs.
Chartism
A mass movement that demanded political rights and universal suffrage, independence of deputies, an eight-hour workday, and revision of laws on the poor.
Victorian Era
A period during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). During this period, the United Kingdom reached its maximum territorial expansion and consolidated its industrial development.
Tories
The name designating those who own or support the Conservative Party in England. It initially had derogatory connotations.
Whig
A political party that existed during the 19th century in the United States. It was created to serve as opposition to the policies of Andrew Jackson and was named by analogy to the British Whigs, who had opposed royal power during the English Restoration.
Home Rule
The statute that gave Ireland some autonomy within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Since the late 19th century, leaders of the Irish Parliamentary Party demanded greater autonomy for Ireland, including the creation of an Irish parliament within the UK.
Irish Question
Ireland wanted independence from the United Kingdom, which provoked violence. This was sought to be curbed with agrarian reform and the agreement of the British government, known as the Kilmainham Pact. A year later, Ireland became an autonomous territory within the United Kingdom.
Electoral Reforms
Changes in the United Kingdom, expanding the franchise.
Bonapartist Policy
The policy adopted by Napoleon III, who understood power as authoritarian, although based on popular delegation.
Right to Strike
The freedom to demonstrate.
Commune
A political organization that was established after the defeat of Napoleon III in Paris.
Secular Teaching
Education that does not adhere to any particular religion.
Dreyfus Affair
The false accusation of treason against Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish man imprisoned without evidence of wrongdoing.
Anticlericalism
A social group opposed to the clergy.