Unit 1: The Global Tapestry

State

A territory that’s politically organized under a single government.

Neo-Confucianism

A revival of Confucianism from the Tang Dynasty that sought to rid Confucian thought of the influence of Buddhism.

Confucianism

A philosophy that taught human society is hierarchical by nature, with a prescribed and proper order to everything.

Filial piety

Emphasized the necessity and virtue of children obeying and honoring their parents, grandparents, and deceased ancestors.

Bureaucracy

A government entity arranged in a hierarchical fashion that carries out the will of the emperor.

Civil Service Examination

An exam heavily based on Confucian classics, required to fill a position in the bureaucracy, ensuring jobs were earned based on merit.

Four Noble Truths (Buddhism)

1. Life is suffering. 2. We suffer because we crave. 3. We cease suffering when we cease craving. 4. The Eightfold Path leads to the cessation of suffering and craving.

Nirvana

The Buddhist ultimate goal of dissolving into the oneness of the universe, shared with Hinduism's ultimate goal.

Theravada Buddhism

A form of Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka, which confined its practice to monks and monasteries.

Mahayana Buddhism

A form of Buddhism practiced in East Asia, which encouraged broader participation of Buddhist practice, including the concept of Bodhisattvas.

Bodhisattvas

In Mahayana Buddhism, those who had attained enlightenment and made it their goal to help others attain the same.

Commercialization of economy (Song Dynasty)

Manufacturers and artisans began to produce more goods than they consumed, selling excess in markets across China and Eurasia.

Champa rice

An agricultural innovation during the Song Dynasty; a rice variety that matured early, resisted drought, and could be harvested multiple times a year.

Grand Canal

A transportation innovation during the Song Dynasty; its expansion facilitated trade and communication among China’s various regions.

Abbasid Caliphate

A powerful ethnically Arab Muslim empire ruling from Baghdad pre-1200, which later diminished in power as Turkic empires rose.

Sharia law

A legal code based on the Qur’an, established in Muslim empires.

Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi

A Muslim scholar who made significant advances in mathematics and invented trigonometry.

House of Wisdom

A library in Baghdad where Muslim scholars preserved and translated Greek moral and natural philosophy, making extensive commentary, during the 'Golden Age of Islam'.

Golden Age of Islam

A period characterized by significant advancements in scholarship and wealth, centered in Dar al Islam and China.

Bhakti movement

An innovation on traditional polytheistic Hinduism in South Asia, emphasizing devotion to just one Hindu god and challenging social and gender hierarchies.

Delhi Sultanate

An empire that attempted to spread Islam to many places, but was often prevented by other empires.

Angkor Wat

A monument that began as a Hindu temple but later incorporated Buddhist elements as Buddhism grew in popularity, symbolizing religious continuity and change in Southeast Asia.

Aztec Empire

Founded in 1345 by the Meshika people with its capital Tenochtitlan, characterized by an elaborate system of tribute states and human sacrifice.

Tribute states (Aztec)

Conquered peoples of the Aztec Empire who were required to provide labor and regular contributions of goods (food, animals, building materials, etc.) to the Aztecs.

Inca Empire

Born in the early 1400s, it incorporated the land and languages of older Indian societies and developed an elaborate bureaucracy with a rigid hierarchy.

Mit’a system

An Inca system requiring all people under their rule to provide labor on state projects such as large state farms, mining, military service, and construction.

Mississippian Culture

The first large-scale civilization in North America, where large towns dominated smaller, satellite settlements politically.

Swahili civilization

A series of cities on the African coast organized around commerce, heavily involved in Indian Ocean trade, politically independent but sharing a common social hierarchy and deep influence from Muslim traders.

Swahili language

A language that emerged in the Swahili civilization, descended from indigenous African Bantu languages but using the Arabic alphabet and script, demonstrating cultural intermingling.

Hausa Kingdoms

A group of decentralized city-states in Africa, organized and grown powerful through the trans-Saharan trade.

Great Zimbabwe

A capital built between 1250 and 1450, known for massive structures and a large population, growing wealthy through farming, cattle herding, and gold exports, maintaining indigenous shamanistic religion.

Kingdom of Ethiopia

A Christian state in Africa that grew and flourished because of trade, resembling other hierarchical states across Africa.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

One of two types of Christianity in Europe, practiced in the Byzantine Empire and later Kievan Rus.

Roman Catholicism

One of two types of Christianity in Europe, culturally linking decentralized Western European states after the fall of the Roman Empire, with significant church influence.

Feudalism

A system of allegiances in Europe between powerful lords, monarchs, and knights, where vassals received land from their lords in exchange for military service.

Manorialism

A smaller-scale organizational system in Europe where land owned by a lord was rented out to peasants (serfs) who worked it in exchange for protection from the lord’s military forces.

Serfs

Working peasants bound to the land under manorialism, who worked the land in exchange for protection from their lord.