A guide to the language of history
History glossary
Understand the people, places and ideas behind the stories. Find a term, read its meaning, then explore it in context.
1–27 of 27 terms · F
Clear filtersFactory system
production organised around machines, workers, discipline, and centralised workplaces.
Fair Housing Act
the 1968 law prohibiting major forms of discrimination in access to housing.
Fascism
an authoritarian far-right ideology built around dictatorship, ultranationalism, violence, and obedience.
federal government
the national government of the United States, as distinct from individual state governments.
federalism
a system dividing authority between central and regional governments.
Federalists
supporters of stronger federal authority and, in the 1790s, the party associated with Hamilton and Adams.
Feudalism
a medieval system of land, loyalty, and obligation linking lords, vassals, knights, and peasants.
Fifteenth Amendment
a constitutional amendment forbidding denial of voting rights because of race.
filioque clause
the western addition to the creed saying the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Final Solution
the Nazi program to murder Europe’s Jews through deportation, mass shooting, and extermination camps.
First Consul
the leading office in the French Consulate, held by Napoleon as the center of executive power.
First Crusade
the 1096-1099 crusading expedition that captured Jerusalem and created Latin Christian states in the Levant.
First Five-Year Plan
Stalin's first crash industrialisation plan, launched in 1928 with targets for heavy industry and state planning.
First Intermediate Period
a period of divided rule and regional competition after the Old Kingdom weakened.
First World War
the global war from 1914 to 1918 that pitted the Allied Powers against the Central Powers.
Fourteen Points
Woodrow Wilson's 1918 peace programme, promising principles such as open diplomacy, self-determination and a League of Nations.
Fourteenth Amendment
a constitutional amendment guaranteeing citizenship and equal protection of the laws.
Fourth Crusade
the 1202-1204 crusade diverted by debt and politics into attacks on Zara and Constantinople.
Fourth Lateran Council
the 1215 church council under Innocent III that legislated doctrine and discipline.
Frankish
relating to the Franks and their kingdoms in western Europe after the Roman Empire.
Franks
a Germanic people whose kingdoms became central to early medieval western Europe.
Free-Soil movement
a northern political movement opposing the expansion of slavery into western territories.
Freedom Schools
schools organised by civil rights campaigners to teach history, citizenship and skills for participation.
Freedom Summer
a 1964 campaign in Mississippi to support Black voter registration and education.
Freikorps
right-wing paramilitary units in postwar Germany, often made up of former soldiers.
Fugitive Slave Act
a federal law requiring the capture and return of people who had escaped slavery.
Führer
the German word for leader, used by the Nazi regime as Hitler's supreme political title.
