Western Civilization_ Volume B_ 1300 to 1815 - Jackson J. Spielvogel [346]
condottieri leaders of bands of mercenary soldiers in Renaissance Italy who sold their services to the highest bidder.
confession one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church; it provided for the forgiveness of one’s sins.
conquistadors “conquerors.” Leaders in the Spanish conquests in the Americas, especially Mexico and Peru, in the sixteenth century.
conscription a military draft.
conservatism an ideology based on tradition and social stability that favored the maintenance of established institutions, organized religion, and obedience to authority and resisted change, especially abrupt change.
consuls the chief executive officers of the Roman Republic. Two were chosen annually to administer the government and lead the army in battle.
consumer society Western society that emerged after World War II as the working classes adopted the consumption patterns of the middle class and payment plans, credit cards, and easy credit made consumer goods such as appliances and automobiles affordable.
containment a policy adopted by the United States in the Cold War. Its goal was to use whatever means, short of all-out war, to limit Soviet expansion.
Continental System Napoleon’s effort to bar British goods from the Continent in the hope of weakening Britain’s economy and destroying its capacity to wage war.
cosmopolitan the quality of being sophisticated and having wide international experience.
cottage industry a system of textile manufacturing in which spinners and weavers worked at home in their cottages using raw materials supplied to them by capitalist entrepreneurs.
council of the plebs a council only for plebeians. After 287 B.C.E., however, its resolutions were binding on all Romans.
Crusade in the Middle Ages, a military campaign in defense of Christendom.
Cubism an artistic style developed at the beginning of the twentieth century, especially by Pablo Picasso, that used geometric designs to re-create reality in the viewer’s mind.
cultural relativism the belief that no culture is superior to another because culture is a matter of custom, not reason, and derives its meaning from the group holding it.
cuneiform “wedge-shaped.” A system of writing developed by the Sumerians that consisted of wedge-shaped impressions made by a reed stylus on clay tablets.
curiales city councilors in Roman cities who played an important role in governing the vast Roman Empire.
Dadaism an artistic movement in the 1920s and 1930s begun by artists who were revolted by the senseless slaughter of World War I and used their “anti-art” to express contempt for the Western tradition.
de-Christianization a policy, adopted in the radical phase of the French Revolution, aimed at creating a secular society by eliminating Christian forms and institutions from French society.
decolonization the process of becoming free of colonial status and achieving statehood; it occurred in most of the world’s colonies between 1947 and 1962.
deconstruction (poststructuralism) a system of thought, formulated by Jacques Derrida, that holds that culture is created in a variety of ways, according to the manner in which people create their own meaning. Hence, there is no fixed truth or universal meaning.
deism belief in God as the creator of the universe who, after setting it in motion, ceased to have any direct involvement in it and allowed it to run according to its own natural laws.
demesne the part of a manor retained under the direct control of the lord and worked by the serfs as part of their labor services.
denazification after World War II, the Allied policy of rooting out any traces of Nazism in German society by bringing prominent Nazis to trial for war crimes and purging any known Nazis from political office.
depression a very severe, protracted economic downturn with high levels of unemployment.