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.