Chapter 17, Culture Change in the Modern World Key Terms

Pillage To strip an area of money, goods, or raw materials through the use of physical violence or the threat of such violence. Peonage The practice of holding a person in bondage or partial slavery in order for them to work off a debt or serve a prison sentence.

Vassalage A condition of hereditary bondage in which the use of land is granted in return for payment, homage, and military service or its equivalent. Monoculture plantation an agricultural plantation specializing in the large-scale production of a single crop to be sold on the market.

Joint stock company A firm that is managed by a centralized board of directors but owned by shareholders. Dutch East India Company (VOC) A joint stock company chartered by the Dutch government to control all Dutch trade in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Heeren XVII The “Lords Seventeen” members of the board of directors of the Dutch East India Company. Colonialism The active possession of a foreign territory and the maintenance of political domination over that territory.

Industrialization The process of the mechanization of production. Corvée labor Unpaid labor required by a governing authority.

Per capita GNP Total market value of all goods and services produced in a country in a year divided by the population of that country. Development The notion that some countries are poor because they have small industrial plants and few lines of communication and that they should pursue wealth by acquiring these things.

Modernization theory A model of development that predicts that nonindustrial societies will move in the social and technological direction of industrialized nations. World Bank An agency of the United Nations, officially called the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, that provides loans to promote international trade and economic development, especially to poor nations.

Multinational corporation A corporation that owns business enterprises or plants in more than one nation. Maquiladora A manufacturing plant owned by an international company, located in Mexico to take advantage of inexpensive labor there.

Voluntary association A social group based on voluntary membership, typically found in complex, urban societies.