Book Notes for Feb 24, 2009

Chapter 7 Vocabulary continued Bundesrat: the lower house in the German federal system; most legislative activity occurs in this house. Meiji Restoration: THe end of Japan's feudal era, in 1868, when a small frond of powerful individuals crowned a symbolic emperor, embarked on an economic modernization program, and established a modern governmental bureaucracy. Moghuls:Muslim invaders who created a dynastic empire on the Asian subcontinent; the greater Moghul rulers were Babur, Akbar, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzub, Shan Jahn was the architect of the Taj Mahal. British Raj: British colonial rule on the Asian subcontinent from the eighteenth century to 1947, when India and Pakistan become independent Lok Sabha: The lower house of India;s Federal Parliament; the directly elected House of the People; in Idea. as in the United Kingdom and other parliamentary system, governments are formed by the majority party in the lower house following national elections Rajya Sabha: the upper house of India's Federal Parliament; the indirectly elected Council of States Palestine: The territory south of Lebanon and Syria and west of Jordan known in Biblical times as Judea and Samara; today, most of this territory forms the nation state of Israel, which was established in 1947 with the help of the US and great Britain. Palestinian Arabs: The Arab inhabitants of the former territory of Palestine, most of which is now the state of Israel; Palestinian Arabs, like most other Arabs, are Muslims. Millions of Palestinians were displaced after WWI when Jewish immigrants, mostly from Europe, realized a long-standing Zionist dream to recreant a Jewish homeland in the historical place where Judaism was born. The creation of ISrael was accomplished by armed struggle rather than negotiation, setting the stage for what has become a permanent state of war between Palestinian Arabs (many of whom still live in refugee camps) and the state of Israel. Zionism: The movement whose genesis was in the reestablishment, and now the support of, the Jewish national state of Israel Balfour Declaration: Named for the British foreign secretary who, in 1947, declared that the United Kingdom favored "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" and pledged to "facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be down which may prejudice the civil and religious right of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine of the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. Camp David Accords: a 1979 agreement by which Israel gave the Sinai back to Egypt in return for Egypt's recognition of Israel's right to exits; the two former enemies established full diplomatic relation and pledged to remain at peace with one another. intifada: An Arabic word meaning "uprising"; the name given to the prolonged Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza in 1987-1993 and again in 2001-2002