Emiliano Zapata campaigned extensively for land reforms and improving the rights of the Mexican peasantry. Zapata lived in southern Mexico where almost all of the land was owned by small landowning elites who monopolized control of land and water. Zapata wanted to reform this situation and improve the access to land and water for Mexico’s peasant population.

In the chaos and tumult of Revolutionary-era France, social status and class distinctions were constantly in flux. A new sub-class, known as emigres, emerged. These emigres were aristocrats who were especially loyal to the King and the entire royal family. Fearing that political conditions in their home country were about to take a perilous turn, the emigres fled France to start new lives in neighboring countries. In total, about sixteen thousand emigres departed France over the course of the decade between 1789 and 1799. However, they had no intentions of abandoning their beloved monarchy to the revolutionary forces; from their self-imposed exile, many emigres sponsored anti-revolutionary campaigns, plots, and disturbances back in France. The most consequential émigré was King Louis XVI’s younger brother, the count of Artois, who fled the country in 1791 and then orchestrated his older brother’s unsuccessful escape attempt from Paris later that same year.

Prior to the Tokugawa Shogunate and the unification of Japan, Daimyos had been powerful feudal landowners and rulers in Japanese society. However, during the Tokugawa Shogunate the power of the Daimyos declined significantly as the rulers of Japan consolidated their power. The land, which had been held by the Daimyos for centuries, was redistributed and with the loss of their land the Daimyos also lost most of their power.

In the Indian caste system a jati is a subcaste, such as “fisherman” or “rice farmer.” A person’s jati generally reflects, or determines, their occupation. In modern Indian society the privileges and roles of jatis are extremely complicated and the cause of much controversy.

The Indian caste system is a system of social hierarchy that has prevailed, in varying degrees of adherence, since the arrival of the Aryans on the subcontinent in 1,500 BCE. In the traditional caste system priests are at the top (called Brahmins); followed by rulers and warriors (called Kshatriya); followed by merchants and artisans (called Vaishyas); followed by peasants and serfs (called Shudras); and finally the untouchables (called Dalits).

In 1791, the French National Constituent Assembly drafted and passed a new Constitution. The document, which reaffirmed its earlier counterpart, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, officially structured France as a constitutional monarchy, with the Assembly as the primary governmental power base. Voting rights were reapportioned based on a new system of classification: active citizens versus passive citizens. Any men who could afford to pay a tax equivalent to three days’ worth of labor were classified as active citizens. Only active citizens were permitted to vote; all other non-qualifying individuals were not eligible voters. At first glance, this change does not seem to be a radical departure from France’s past, but it did widen the voting base by permitting non-noble (but still wealthy) men to vote for the first time.

The Sans-culottes were one of the most influential political groups ever to take part in the French Revolution. The Sans-culottes (whose name came from their humble style of dress) were comprised of members of the nation’s working class, including factory workers, tradespeople, artisans, and shopkeepers. Their marginalized political status under the Old Regime, in addition to their low social caliber and poor economic position, made the Sans-culottes very politically radical. As such, they were one of the most vehement supporters of the Revolution. Their primary goals included putting an end to the nation’s chronic food shortages, instituting price controls, ending social inequality, cutting off the influence of the aristocracy and the monarchy, increasing the property-owning sector of the population, and allowing the common citizenry to directly influence as many political decisions as possible.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, a small number of powerful people with Western connections both understood the concept of private property better than their compatriots and had the resources to act upon their knowledge, purchasing large companies for pennies on the dollar.

For the rest of society, the fall of the Soviet Union did not have an economically positive effect; quality of life diminished for the vast majority, including the middle class.

The collapse of the Soviet Union had an enormous effect on socioeconomic class in the region; essentially the gulf between the rich and the poor became larger.

Mao Zedong was the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and the founder of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Mao drew much of his support from the peasantry, something of a curiosity amongst Communist movements, as usually the greatest Communist support base is the industrial working class.

The kulaks were independent farmers who gained some measurement of prosperity after the abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861. As such, they were considered to be class enemies of the poor peasants by Lenin, Stalin, and other Bolsheviks.