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.
