Key Historical Events and Figures: 19th and 20th Centuries

Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion was a violent anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising led by Chinese nationalists. It was quickly crushed, humiliating China. This was one of the first major anti-foreign rebellions.

Bolshevik Revolution

The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia was led by Vladimir Lenin. It established a communist government in the nation and led to the eventual removal of Russia from World War I.

Bentley and Child Labor

A worker in Britain, Bentley testified before a parliamentary committee investigating conditions among child laborers in the British textile industry. He described the poor conditions and low pay. This led to the formation of unions.

The Birth of a Nation

The Birth of a Nation was a silent film released in 1915. It depicted slavery as acceptable and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as heroic. White actors were painted black and depicted slaves in the country.

War Industries Board (WIB)

The War Industries Board (WIB) was a government agency that decided which products were most important to produce during the war. It converted factories to make wartime equipment and dealt with labor disputes in companies.

Triple Alliance

The Triple Alliance was a military alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. It opposed the Triple Entente (Britain, France, and Russia). The alliance promised support in case of an attack by a great power.

Article X of the League of Nations

Article X was a section of the League of Nations charter calling for assistance to be given to a member that experiences external aggression. It was signed by the Allied forces following World War I.

Platt Amendment

The Platt Amendment stipulated the conditions for the withdrawal of US troops remaining in Cuba at the end of the Spanish-American War. It defined the terms of Cuban-US relations.

Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 challenged and ended the power and control of the British East India Company in India. It was replaced by nine decades of British colonial rule until 1947 when the subcontinent became the independent states of India and Pakistan.

Berlin Conference

The Berlin Conference regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period. It ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers and eliminated most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance.

Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire

The Capitulations were a series of agreements between European countries and the Ottoman Empire. They granted Westerners exemptions from Ottoman law and taxation. These laws made it easy for European intervention in the Ottoman Empire.

Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger was an American birth control activist, sex educator, and nurse. She opened the first birth control clinic and established organizations that evolved into Planned Parenthood.

Espionage Act of 1917

The Espionage Act of 1917 was intended to prohibit interference with military operations or recruitment, to prevent insubordination in the military, and to prevent support of US enemies during wartime.

Sedition Act of 1918

The Sedition Act of 1918 extended the Espionage Act of 1917. It forbade the use of disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the US government, flag, or armed forces.

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was the preeminent leader of nationalism in British-ruled India. He employed nonviolent civil disobedience.

The Communist Manifesto

The Communist Manifesto is a publication written by political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It argues that class struggles are the motivating force behind all historical developments. It is one of the founding texts of communism.

War Communism

War Communism was an economic and political system that existed in Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War. It was adopted by the Bolsheviks to keep towns and the Red Army stocked with weapons and food.

Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin

Eli Whitney was an American inventor who created the cotton gin. This invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop and strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the US.

Young Turks

The Young Turks argued for modernization and a secular lifestyle. They were a Turkish nationalist reform party favoring the reformation of the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Empire. They helped establish the Second Constitutional Era.

Taiping Rebellion

The Taiping Rebellion was a large uprising in China to establish a new country, the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace. It was led by the Christian convert Hong Xiuquan. The rebellion called for the abolition of private property, the redistribution of land, and the end of prostitution and opium smoking.