Anabaptist:
A category of radical
Protestants, including the Mennonites and the Amish; the German Brethren, or
Dunkards, so called for how they baptized adults; and the Society of Friends,
or the Quakers, who believe in nonviolence and in simple worship based on readings
of the Bible. Anabaptists believe that knowledge of God must come from within
oneself and that the rituals and politics of existing churches are a hindrance
to true faith and worship. The Anabaptists believe that an individual should
decide to be baptized as an adult, when he or she fully understands what it
means, rather than in infancy.
Anarchist:
Believing that
governments are unnecessary and should be eliminated, and that the social world
should be organized through the cooperative efforts of the people within it.
Some anarchists have encouraged violence to overthrow the government.
Anti-Semitic:
Hostile toward Jews.
Assimilation:
The way that someone
who comes from a foreign land or culture becomes absorbed into a culture and
learns to blend into the ways of its predominant, or main, society.
Colony:
A group of people
living as a political community in a land away from their home country but
ruled by the home country.
Discrimination:
Unfair treatment
based on racism or other prejudices.
Emigration:
Leaving one's country
to go to another country with the intention of living there.
"Emigrant" is used to describe departing from one's country—for
example, "she emigrated from Ireland." "Immigrant" is used
to describe coming to a new country—for example, "she immigrated to the
United States."
Enclave:
pronounced AHN-klave;
A distinct cultural or nationality unit within a foreign territory.
Ethnic:
Relating to a group
of people who are not from the majority culture in the country in which they
live, and who keep their own culture, language, and institutions.
Exiles:
People who have been
sent away from their homeland.
Immigration:
To travel to a
country of which one is not a native with the intention of settling there as a
permanent resident. "Immigrant" is used to describe coming to a new
country—for example, "she immigrated to the United States."
"Emigrant" is used to describe departing from one's country—for
example, "she emigrated from Ireland."
Indentured servants:
Servants who agreed
to work for a colonist for a set period of time in exchange for payment of
their passage from Europe to the New World. At the end of the service term
(usually seven years), the indentured servant was given goods or a small piece
of land to help set up a new life in the colony.
Industrialization:
The historic change
from a farm-based economy to an economic system based on the manufacturing of
goods and distribution of services on an organized and mass-produced basis.
Labor unions:
Organizations that
bring workers together to advance their interests in terms of getting better
wages and working conditions.
Mass migration:
The movement of
thousands—or even millions—of people from one country to another within a
relatively short period of time.
Migration:
To move from one
place to another, not necessarily across national borders.
Multiculturalism:
A view of the social
world that embraces, or takes into account, the diversity of people and their
cultures within the society.
Nativism:
A set of beliefs that
centers around favoring the interests of people who are native-born to a
country (though generally not concerning Native Americans) as opposed to its
immigrants.
New World:
The Western
Hemisphere, including North and South America.
Old World:
The regions of the
world that were known to Europeans before they discovered the Americas,
including all of the Eastern Hemisphere—Europe, Asia, and Africa—except
Australia.
Persecution:
Abusive and
oppressive treatment.
Quaker:
A member of the
Society of Friends, a radical Protestant sect in England founded by George Fox
(1624–1691) in the late 1640s.
Reparations:
Payments to the other
side for damages and expenses attributed to the war.
Socialist:
Believing in a
society in which no one owns private property, but rather, the government or
public owns all goods and the means of distributing them among the people.
