AP World History:Modern Final Exam Review

Champa Rice

a quick-maturing, drought resistant staple crop that can allow two harvests, SE Asia, circa 1000 CE

filial piety

a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors

Mahayana

sect of Buddhism that offers salvation to all and allows popular worship

Theravada

a sect of Buddhism focusing on the strict spiritual discipline originally advocated by the Buddha.

Grand Canal

built in 7th century during reign of Yangdi during Sui dynasty; designed to link the original centers of Chinese civilization on the north China plain with the Yangtze river basin to the south; nearly 1200 miles long.

Song Dynasty

(960-1279 CE) The Chinese dynasty that placed much more emphasis on civil administration, industry, education, and arts other than military.

Tang Dynasty

(618-907 CE) The Chinese dynasty that was much like the Han, who used Confucianism. This dynasty had the equal-field system, a bureaucracy based on merit, and a Confucian education system.

Confucianism

the system of ethics, education, and statesmanship, stressing love for humanity, ancestor worship, reverence for parents, and harmony in thought and conduct.

Islam

a religion based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed which stresses belief in one god (Allah), Paradise and Hell, and a body of law written in the Quran. Followers are called Muslims.

House of Wisdom

Combination library, academy, and translation center in Baghdad established in the 800s.

Abbasid Caliphate

(750-1258 CE) The caliphate, after the Umayyads, who focused more on administration than conquering. Had a bureaucracy in which any Muslim could participate regardless of ethnicity.

Dar al-Islam

an Arabic term that means the "house of Islam" and that refers to lands under Islamic rule

Ulama

Muslim religious scholars. From the ninth century onward, the primary interpreters of Islamic law and the social core of Muslim urban societies.

Al-Andalus

A Muslim-ruled region in what is now Spain, established by the Berbers in the eighth century A.D.

Sufis

Muslim mystics who seek communion with God through meditation, fasting, and other rituals

Shia Islam

minority branch of Islam; belief that only a descendant of Ali can be caliph.

Sunni Islam

Muslims belonging to branch of Islam believing that the community should select its own leadership. The majority religion in most Islamic countries.

Bhakti

Hindu devotional movement that flourished in the early modern era, emphasizing music, dance, poetry, and rituals as means by which to achieve direct union with the divine.

Khmer Empire

a powerful empire that lasted roughly from the 9th to the 15th centuries in what is now Cambodia; agricultural economy

Majaphit

Southeast Asian kingdom centered on the island of Java; maritime orientation

Srivijaya Empire

A maritime empire that controlled the Sunda strait the strait of Malacca between India and China; flourished from 600s to 1200s

Vijayanagar Kingdom

Southern Hindu Indian kingdom (1336-1565) that later fell to the Mughals; maritime orientation

Chaco Canyon

An urban center established by Anasazi located in southern New Mexico. There, they built a walled city with dozens of three-story adobe houses with timbered roofs. Community religious functions were carried out in two large circular chambers called kivas.

Cahokia

Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home to as many as 25,000 Native Americans; circa 1050-1350 CE

Mexica

a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Aztec Empire

Maya city-states

classical culture in Southern Mexico and Central America; contemporary with Teotihuacan; extended over broad region; featured monumental architecture, written language, calendrical system, mathematical system; highly developed region.

Mesa Verde

the largest complex of Anasazi cliff-dwellings in the United States Southwest, built between about AD 1150 and AD 1300

Inca Empire

The Western Hemisphere's largest imperial state in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries; built by a relatively small community of Quechua-speaking people, the empire stretched some 2,500 miles along the Andes Mountains, which run nearly the entire length of the west coast of South America, and contained perhaps 10 million subjects.

Aztec Empire

Major state that developed in what is now Mexico in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; dominated by the seminomadic Mexica, who had migrated into the region from northern Mexico.

Great Zimbabwe

A powerful state in the African interior that apparently emerged from the growing trade in gold to the East African coast; flourished between 1250 and 1350 C.E.

Swahili city-states

warring states that were always competing for control of trade routes along the East African coast; many of these city-states were Muslim and very cosmopolitan; 7th-14th centuries CE

Hausa Kingdoms

a collection of states situated between the Niger River and Lake Chad (modern day northern Nigeria); the states were characterized by fierce rivalries with each other with each state seeking supremacy over the others; 1st millennium CE

Axum Empire

early African Empire - extensive coverage of the Red Sea and East coast, Horn of Africa, near Middle East - near Kush; Christian from 4th century CE

Serfdom

A type of labor commonly used in feudal systems in which the laborers work the land in return for protection but they are bound to the land and are not allowed to leave or to peruse their a new occupation. This was common in early Medeival Europe as well as in Russia until the mid 19th century.

Fuedalism

A political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to a king in return for loyalty and military service

Caravanerai

supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes covering Asia, North Africa and Southeast Europe, most notably the Silk Roads

Silk Roads

Caravan routes connecting China and the Middle East across Central Asia and Iran.

Kashgar

an oasis city and central trading point at which the western and the eastern Silk Road met in Central Asia in the Tarim Basin; modern day China

Samarkand

a wealthy trading center known for decorated mosques and tombs; a wealthy trading city on the Silk Roads in modern day Uzbekistan

Bills of Exchange

a written order to a person requiring the person to make a specified payment to the signatory or to a named payee; a promissory note.

Banking Houses

European banks developed during the Middle Ages to aid trade; along with innovations such as bills of exchange, or bank drafts, and credit, the rise of banking houses supported the development of interregional trade in luxury goods

paper money

alternative form (to metal coins) of legal currency developed in China

Sakk

letters of credit that were common in the medieval Islamic banking world.

Ghengis Khan

the title of Temujin when he ruled the Mongols (1206-1227). It means the 'universal' leader. He was the founder of the Mongol Empire.

Kublai Khan

Mongolian emperor of China and grandson of Genghis Khan who completed his grandfather's conquest of China

Pax Mongolica

The period of approximately 150 years of relative peace and stability created by the Mongol Empire

Khanates

Mongol kingdoms, in particular the subdivisions of Genghis Khan's empire ruled by his heirs

Caliphate

Islamic empire ruled by those believed to be the successors to the Prophet Muhammad.

Sultanate

similar to a monarchy, but a government in which the supreme power is in the hands of a sultan (the head of a Muslim state); the sultan may be an absolute ruler or a sovereign with constitutionally limited authority.

Gujarat

Region of western India famous for trade and manufacturing.

Sultanate of Malacca

a bustling international trading port controlling the the important strait between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra; emerged as a center for Islamic learning; height of power 15th century

Zheng He

An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa (1371-1435)

Yongle Emperor

the Yongle emperor was the 3rd emperor of the Ming Dynasty; economic, educational, and military reforms provided benefits for the people and established the social and economic patterns for the rest of the Ming dynasty; also designed and constructed the Forbidden City in Beijing

Camel Saddle

an invention which gives camel riders more stability on the animal and its invention and basic idea traveled along the Trans-Saharan Caravan Trade Route; invented somewhere between 500 and 100 BCE by Bedouin tribes

Ibn Battuta

(1304-1369) Morrocan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time; he wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan; his writings gave a glimpse into the world of that time period.

Marco Polo

(1254-1324) Italian explorer and merchant; he made numerous trips to China and returned to Europe to write of his journeys; he is responsible for much of the knowledge exchanged between Europe and China during this time period

Gunpowder

the formula, brought to China in the 400s or 500s, was first used to make fumigators to keep away insect pests and evil spirits; in later centuries it was used to make explosives and grenades and to propel cannonballs, shot, and bullets

paper

a material made of cellulose pulp derived mainly from wood or rags or certain grasses

Diffusion

the process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time

Centralization

the degree to which decision making is concentrated at upper levels of the organization

Gunpowder Empires

Muslim empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and the Mughals that employed cannonry and gunpowder to advance their military causes

bananas

the introduction of a new food crop about 400 CE encouraged a fresh migratory surge in Africa

Bubonic Plague

disease brought to Europe from the Mongols during the Middle Ages; killed 1/3 of the population and helps end feudalism; rats & fleas as vectors

Safavid Empire

Iranian kingdom (1502-1722) established by Ismail Safavi, who declared Iran a Shi'ite state.

Mughal Empire

an Islamic imperial power that ruled a large portion of Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan (South Asia) by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century

Songhai Kingdom

was a state that dominated the western Sahel/Sudan in the 15th and 16th century; it was one of the largest states in African history; Sunni Ali established Gao as the capital of the empire; fell to Morocco in 1591

Mali Empire

formed in 1240 when Sundiata took control of Ghana Empire; it controlled trade across Sahara, the South and the Niger River

Timbuktu

Mali trading city that became a center of wealth and Islamic learning

Ottoman Empire

Islamic state founded by Osman in northwestern Anatolia; after the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire was based at Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) from 1453-1922; it encompassed lands in the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, and eastern Europe

Divine Right of Kings

the belief that European kings receive their power from God and are responsible only to God

Mandate of Heaven

a political theory of ancient China in which those in power were given the right to rule from a divine source

Dynastic Cycle

rise and fall of Chinese dynasties according to the Mandate of Heaven

Versailles Palace

royal palace built during the reign of Louis XIV which he used to enforce his power and prestige

Escorial Palace

palace built by Philip II in Madrid to demonstrate his power; as the Spanish counterpart to Versailles

St. Petersburg

capital city and major port that Peter the Great established in 1703; his "window to the west" and symbol of power

Devshirme System

the practice by which the Ottoman Empire conscripted boys from Christian families (of a conquered people), who were converted to Islam and trained by Janissary soldiers

Ghazi

Muslim religious warriors

Janissaries

Christian boys taken from families, converted to Islam, and then rigorously trained to serve the sultan

Protestant Reformation

A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches

Martin Luther

a German monk who became one of the most famous critics of the Roman Catholic Church; in 1517, he wrote 95 theses, or statements of belief attacking the church practices initiating a religious conflict that resulted in a European schism

Simony

the buying and selling of church offices

Indulgence

a pardon releasing a person from punishments due for a sin

Zamindars

a local official in Mughal India who received a plot of farmland for temporary use in return for collecting taxes for the central government

Tax farming

the government hires private individuals to go out and collect taxes for them; used by the Ottoman Empire

Viceroyalty

a political unit ruled by a viceroy that was the basis of organization of the Spanish colonies

compass

an instrument that shows the direction of magnetic north

Lateen Sail

triangular sail that was developed in Indian Ocean trade that allowed a ship to sail against the wind

junk

a very large flat bottom sailing ship produced in the Tang and Song Empires, specially designed for long-distance commercial travel

Caraval

a small, fast Spanish or Portuguese sailing ship of the 15th-17th centuries

Carrack

a large merchant ship of a kind operating in European waters in the 14th to the 17th century

Fluyt

a shallow-draft ship of large capacity, which enabled Dutch transport of enormous quantities of cereals, timber, and iron

Samurai

class of warriors in feudal Japan who pledged loyalty to a noble in return for land

Daimyo

one of the great lords who were vassals of the shogun; Japanese feudal lords who commanded armies of samurai

Shogunate

the Japanese system of centralized government under a shogun, who exercised actual power while the emperor was reduced to a figurehead.

Columbian Exchange

the exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia as a result of the voyages of discovery in the 15th-16th century

Mita

Andean labor system based on shared obligations to help kinsmen and work on behalf of the ruler and religious organizations; a labor system

Caste System

a set of rigid social categories that determined not only a person's occupation and economic potential, but also his or her position in society; determined by ethnicity

Encomienda

a grant by the Spanish Crown to a colonist in America conferring the right to demand tribute and forced labor from the Indian inhabitants of an area

Conquistador

a Spanish conqueror of the Americas

Reconquista

beginning in the eleventh century, military campaigns by various Iberian Christian states to recapture territory taken by Muslims; in 1492 the last Muslim stronghold of Granada fell