As thanks for taking in the royal family when Portugal was invaded and occupied by the French Joao VI elevated Brazil's importance in the Kingdom by making it a Kingdom itself. Therefore the title of Portugal would no longer be United Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, it would now be United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves. Thus giving Brazil an important place in the Empire.

The left-wing, right-wing political dichotomy stems from the French Revolution, when the French king's allies in the National Assembly sat on the speaker's right, and the king's opponents on the speaker's left.

The American War of Independence empowered the new country with self-determination, but there was no left-right dichotomy in the American government.

The Franco-Prussian War left very little lasting political legacy, although it had a profound effect on how military planners thought of military force.

Many philosophies, such as Marxism, emerged from the industrial revolution, but the left-right political dichotomy already existed.

The Meiji Restoration was a political change in Japan that saw an increase in the emperor's power and the fall of the Shogun, but the left-right dichotomy already existed.

The fall of the Qing Dynasty was marked by resentment of Western influence, many people wanted reform, and a stronger Chinese identity, not to allow for greater penetration of the influence of Christianity and Western imperial powers.

Father Miguel Hidalgo rallied Mestizo and Creole peasants in an uprising against Spanish rule of Mexico that eventually led to independence. The other leaders were key figures in other Latin American Revolutions (Ouverture in Haiti, Bolivar in Venezuela, San Martin in Argentina, and Prestes in Brazil)

The independence movement in Latin America was a result of the Western Imperial influence over the continent, Qing China was not interested in overseas conquest, and was not a player in Latin America. The rise of nationalism, and enlightened thinking eventually trickled down to the Latino populace, creating deep resentment of colonial rule. 

George Washington's strategy was to draw the British redcoats deep into the continent, away from Britain's powerful navy and their ability to resupply and reinforce their troops.

Washington's troops did attack the British, but more as an incitement to draw them into the continent's interior than to push them into the sea.

George Washington never sent fighters into England itself.

Fighting the British in pitched battles using orthodox tactics would have been suicide, as would have defeating the British navy in the open ocean.

The sans-culottes, so called because they wore long pants rather than the britches associated with nobles, were some of the most enthusiastic and energetic French revolutionaries who formed the nucleus of the movement that stormed the Bastille and invaded Versailles.

Both the Guelphs and the Ghibellines were factions in medieval Italy at a time when the rule of the Church was a major political issue.

The Hashisheen were a semi-mythological sect of Muslim assassins.

The Red Guards were young Maoists during China's Cultural Revolution.

Liberalism and Nationalism are considered the major philosophical drivers of the French Revolution. Liberalism holds that the power of the government should reside in the people and that government should allow individuals responsibility for controlling their own actions. Nationalism calls for popular loyalty to focus on the nation rather than on one monarch or ruler.

The Tokugawa Shogunate is considered the last of Japan's shogunates and was replaced in 1868 by the imperial Japanese government under the Emperor Meiji. The opening of communications with Japanese society by Commodore Matthew Perry in in 1854 greatly changed Japanese society and converted the insular and isolationist nation into one fully engaged in global and regional politics.

Sepoys were Indian soldiers employed by the British East India Company, and because most Indians were either Hindu or Muslim, these soldiers were shocked and outraged to learn that their bullets were greased with fat from animals that their religions forbade them to eat. Bullet cartridges had to be bitten off, so the soldiers were frequently ingesting the fat without their knowledge. Their employment by the British East India Company shows that the British takeover of India was already well under way, as was the decline of Mughal rule. Queen Victoria was named Empress of India in 1877, decades after the rebellion had been put down.