IB History Social Change Key Definitions

An Egyptian activist group founded in 2008, originally to support striking textile workers in Mahalla al-Kubra. It used social media, particularly Facebook, to organise protests and played a key role in planning the 25 January 2011 demonstrations that launched the revolution. Its members studied non-violent protest techniques from movements in Serbia and elsewhere.

To remove rights and privileges, such as the right to vote. In Rhodesia, the white government used property and wealth restrictions to disenfranchise the Black majority.

The granting of the right to vote. In the context of the suffrage movement, it refers to extending voting rights to women. In the Canadian Indigenous context, it had a different meaning: the process by which an Indigenous person gave up their legal status and rights as an Indigenous person in exchange for Canadian citizenship.

A political system where democratic rights and participation are limited to one dominant racial or ethnic group, while other groups are excluded or oppressed. The term was used by historian George Frederickson to describe systems like late-Victorian Britain, where parliamentary democracy coexisted with imperialism and the exclusion of women and colonised peoples.

A Canadian federal law that governs matters relating to First Nations peoples and their reserves. It defined who qualified as "Indian," imposed the band council system, restricted cultural practices and controlled nearly every aspect of Indigenous life. It has been amended many times but remains in force.

Founded in 1885, the INC was the main political organisation leading India's independence movement. Initially moderate and dominated by educated elites, it became a mass movement under Gandhi's leadership in the 1920s. After independence in 1947, it became India's dominant political party.

A system of boarding schools in Canada, funded by the federal government and run mostly by churches, that operated from the 1880s to 1996. Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families, forbidden from speaking their languages or practising their cultures, and subjected to widespread abuse. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission called it "cultural genocide."

A philosophy and practice of non-violent resistance developed by Mahatma Gandhi. The term combines the Sanskrit words for "truth" (satya) and "holding firmly" (agraha). It involves enduring suffering without retaliation to expose injustice and win over opponents through moral persuasion rather than force.

A major public square in central Cairo that became the focal point of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered there from 25 January 2011, and the sustained occupation became a symbol of popular resistance to Mubarak's regime. The name means "Liberation Square" in Arabic.

Legal rights guaranteed to Indigenous peoples through agreements (treaties) signed between Indigenous nations and the British Crown or Canadian government. These treaties often exchanged land for guaranteed rights such as hunting, fishing, education and healthcare. Many Indigenous communities argue that treaty obligations remain unfulfilled.

Established in 2008 as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the TRC documented the experiences of residential school survivors across Canada. Its final report in 2015 included 94 Calls to Action addressing the legacy of residential schools and advancing reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

A policy proposal by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's government that recommended abolishing the Indian Act, eliminating "Indian" status and assimilating Indigenous peoples as ordinary Canadian citizens. It was strongly opposed by Indigenous leaders, notably Harold Cardinal, and was withdrawn in 1970. It became a catalyst for Indigenous political mobilisation.