APWH vocabulary midterm

Champa rice

Fast-ripening, drought-resistant rice from Vietnam that allowed Chinese farmers in the Song era to harvest multiple crops per year, boosting population and urbanization.

Proto-industrialization

Economic phase in which rural households produced goods for external markets using simple equipment, laying groundwork for later industrialization in places like Song China and early modern Europe.

Artisans

Skilled craftworkers who produced goods such as textiles, metalwork, and pottery by hand, forming an important urban social group in Afro-Eurasian societies 1200–1750.

Scholar gentry

Class of well-educated, landowning elite in imperial China who gained status through Confucian education and civil service exams under the Song and later dynasties.

Filial piety

Confucian value requiring respect, obedience, and care for one’s parents and ancestors, reinforcing social hierarchy in East Asian families and states.

Grand Canal

Extensive waterway system in China linking northern and southern regions, expanded under the Sui and Song, facilitating internal trade and grain transport.

Song Dynasty

Chinese dynasty (960–1279) known for economic growth, urbanization, technological innovations like gunpowder and printing, and expansion of bureaucracy.

Imperial bureaucracy

Centralized system of appointed officials who carried out government policies, especially developed in China under the Tang and Song dynasties.

Meritocracy

System in which officials gain positions based on ability and examinations rather than birth, exemplified by China’s civil service exam system.

Woodblock printing

Technique of carving text or images into wood blocks, inking, and pressing on paper, used in Tang-Song China to spread literature and religious texts.

Footbinding

Practice in Song and later China of tightly binding girls’ feet to keep them small, symbolizing beauty and reinforcing patriarchal control.

Buddhism

Religion originating in India that teaches overcoming suffering through the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path, spreading widely into East and Southeast Asia.

Theravada Buddhism

Buddhist branch emphasizing monastic life, meditation, and individual enlightenment, dominant in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia.

Mahayana Buddhism

Buddhist branch that views the Buddha as divine and emphasizes bodhisattvas helping others achieve salvation, common in China, Korea, and Japan.

Tibetan Buddhism

Form of Buddhism centered in Tibet that blended Mahayana ideas with local traditions and emphasized ritual and monastic leadership.

Syncretic

Describes religions or belief systems that blend elements from different traditions, such as Neo-Confucianism and some forms of Islam and Christianity.

Chan (Zen) Buddhism

Chinese (and later Japanese) school of Buddhism combining meditation-focused Buddhism with Daoist ideas, stressing direct insight over scripture.

Neo-Confucianism

Revived and transformed Confucian philosophy in Song China that incorporated Buddhist and Daoist ideas while reinforcing social hierarchy and patriarchy.

Heian period

Japanese era (794–1185) marked by an imperial court culture focused on art and literature while political power shifted to provincial warriors.

Nuclear families

Family structure consisting of parents and their children living together as a unit, common in many early modern societies.

Polygyny

Marriage practice in which a man has multiple wives, occurring in various African, Islamic, and Asian societies before 1750.

Mamluk sultanate

Muslim state in Egypt and Syria (1250–1517) ruled by former enslaved soldiers (Mamluks) that halted Mongol expansion at Ain Jalut and prospered on trade.

Seljuk Turks

Turkic nomads who converted to Islam and established a sultanate controlling much of the Middle East, pressuring the Byzantine Empire before the Crusades.

Sultan

Title for Muslim political ruler, especially in Turkic and some Indian Islamic states such as the Seljuk and Ottoman Empires.

Mongols

Nomadic peoples from the Central Asian steppe who created a vast empire in the 13th century under Genghis Khan, reshaping Eurasian trade and politics.

Abbasid Caliphate

Islamic dynasty (750–1258) with its capital in Baghdad that presided over a golden age of learning and trade before fragmenting under internal and external pressures.

Mamluks

Enslaved soldiers of foreign origin (often Turkic) who converted to Islam and formed powerful military elites, ruling Egypt in the Mamluk sultanate.

Muhammad

Prophet and founder of Islam (c. 570–632) whose revelations became the Quran and whose teachings unified Arabian tribes.

Crusaders

European Christian warriors who launched military campaigns from the 11th to 13th centuries to seize the Holy Land and other territories from Muslim control.

Sufis

Islamic mystics who spread Islam through personal piety, missionary activity, and flexible adaptation to local cultures across Afro-Eurasia.

House of Wisdom

Major Abbasid intellectual center in Baghdad where scholars translated and preserved Greek, Persian, and Indian works and advanced science and philosophy.

Baghdad

Abbasid capital in Iraq that became a thriving center of trade, scholarship, and culture before being sacked by the Mongols in 1258.

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

Persian scholar (1201–1274) who made notable advances in astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy within the Islamic world.

‘A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah

Prominent female Sufi writer and poet from Damascus (c. 15th–16th centuries) known for her works on Islamic mysticism.

Vijayanagara Empire (southern India)

Hindu kingdom (c. 1336–1646) in South India that resisted Islamic expansion and became a major trading and cultural center.

Rajput Kingdoms (North India)

Collection of Hindu warrior states in northern India that resisted Muslim rule yet were gradually integrated into Islamic empires.

Delhi sultanate

Series of Muslim dynasties ruling northern India (1206–1526), introducing Islam and creating a centralized but fragile state based in Delhi.

Srivijaya Empire (Sumatra)

Buddhist maritime empire (7th–13th centuries) on Sumatra that controlled trade through the Strait of Malacca and prospered from Indian Ocean commerce.

Majapahit Kingdom (Java)

Hindu-Buddhist kingdom on Java (c. 1293–c. 1520) that dominated maritime trade in Southeast Asia and controlled many island territories.

Sinhala dynasties (Sri Lanka)

Buddhist kingdoms in Sri Lanka that built advanced irrigation systems and became centers of monastic Buddhism.

Khmer empire (Cambodia)

Powerful Southeast Asian kingdom (802–1431) centered at Angkor, known for Hindu and Buddhist temple complexes and irrigated agriculture.

Sukhothai kingdom (Thailand)

Early Thai kingdom (13th–14th centuries) that adopted Theravada Buddhism and developed a distinct Thai culture and script.

Proselytize

To actively seek converts to a religion, used for Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist missionaries in Afro-Eurasian networks.

Bhakti movement

Hindu devotional movement emphasizing personal relationship with a deity and rejecting caste distinctions, paralleling Sufi and Christian mysticism in the period.

Qutub Minar

Towering minaret in Delhi begun under the Delhi Sultanate, symbolizing Islamic rule and architectural influence in North India.

Urdu

Syncretic language combining Persian, Arabic, and local Indian languages, developing in Muslim-ruled northern India and written in Arabic script.

Mississippian

North American mound-building culture (c. 700–1600) centered on river valleys, with large towns like Cahokia and complex chiefdoms.

Matrilineal society

Society in which descent and inheritance are traced through the mother’s line, found in some Native American and African groups.

Cahokia

Largest Mississippian city near present-day St. Louis, featuring monumental earthen mounds and serving as a major regional center.

City-states

Independent urban centers with surrounding territory, such as those in the Swahili Coast, Maya region, and Italian peninsula.

Mexica (Aztecs)

Mesoamerican people who established an empire in central Mexico with a capital at Tenochtitlan, known for tribute extraction and human sacrifice.

Theocracy

Government in which religious leaders or institutions hold political power, as in the Aztec and some Islamic states.

Human sacrifice

Ritual killing of people to honor deities or ensure cosmic order, practiced by Mesoamerican civilizations like the Mexica and some Andean societies.

Pachacuti

Inca ruler in the 15th century credited with major territorial expansion and organization of the Incan Empire.

Incan Empire

Large Andean empire (c. 1438–1533) centered in Peru that used roads, mit’a labor, and centralized rule to control diverse mountain regions.

Mit’a system

Incan labor requirement that obligated subjects to perform state service projects like building roads and terraces instead of paying tribute in cash.

Qhapaq Ñan (Carpa nan)

Extensive Incan road system across the Andes used for military movement, trade, and communication throughout the empire.

Temple of the Sun

Major Incan religious center in Cuzco dedicated to the sun god Inti, reflecting the centrality of sun worship in Andean religion.

Animism

Belief that natural objects and phenomena possess spirits, common among many African, American, and Asian societies before and during 1200–1750.

Kin-based networks

Systems of governance and social organization built on extended family ties, common in sub-Saharan Africa before large centralized states.

Swahili

Bantu-based language with Arabic influence and the culture of East African coastal city-states that prospered from Indian Ocean trade.

Zanj Rebellion

Major uprising (869–883) of enslaved East African laborers in southern Iraq against the Abbasid Caliphate, showing resistance to slavery.

Trans-Saharan trade

Caravan trade across the Sahara Desert linking West Africa to North Africa and the Mediterranean, spreading Islam, gold, and ideas.

Indian Ocean trade

Maritime network connecting East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, carrying bulk goods and facilitating cultural exchange.

Indian Ocean slave trade

Regional trade in enslaved people across the Indian Ocean basin, sending Africans and others to households, armies, and plantations in Asia and the Middle East.

Great Zimbabwe

Powerful Shona kingdom in southeastern Africa whose stone ruins mark a center of gold trade linked to the Swahili Coast.

Chief

Leader of a kin-based or small-scale society who exercised authority over a clan or group, common in pre-state African and American societies.

Hausa kingdoms

Collection of city-states in what is now northern Nigeria that thrived on trans-Saharan and regional trade and later adopted Islam.

Ghana

Early West African kingdom (c. 700–1200) that grew wealthy by taxing gold and salt trade across the Sahara.

Mali

West African empire (c. 1230–1600) that controlled trans-Saharan trade and patronized Islam, with famous rulers like Sundiata and Mansa Musa.

Zimbabwe

Region and state in southeastern Africa whose wealth came from trade in gold and cattle and where Great Zimbabwe served as a political and religious center.

Ethiopia

Christian kingdom in East Africa that maintained long-standing Christian traditions while engaging with Islamic neighbors and Indian Ocean trade.

Magna Carta

1215 English charter that limited the king’s power and established that nobles had certain rights, an early check on monarchy.

English Parliament

Representative body in England that shared power with the monarch over taxation and lawmaking, growing in influence after the 13th century.

Manors

Large agricultural estates owned by lords in medieval Europe, worked by peasants and serfs under the manorial system.

Manorial system

Economic arrangement in medieval Europe in which peasants farmed a lord’s estate in exchange for protection and use of land.

Three-field system

Medieval European farming method rotating crops among three fields, improving soil fertility and yields.

Feudalism

Decentralized political system where lords granted land to vassals in return for military service and loyalty, common in medieval Europe and Japan.

Serfs

Peasants tied to the land in feudal Europe who owed labor and dues to their lord but were not fully enslaved.

Primogeniture

Inheritance system in which the eldest son receives the entire estate, contributing to landless younger sons seeking fortunes through war or exploration.

Bourgeoisie

Urban middle class in Europe, including merchants and professionals, that grew in wealth and influence with commercial expansion.

Burghers

Urban merchants and town-dwellers in medieval and early modern Europe, similar to the bourgeoisie.

Estates-General

French representative assembly of the three estates—clergy, nobility, and commoners—called by the king, but with limited real power before the Revolution.

Estates

Social orders in pre-revolutionary France: First Estate (clergy), Second Estate (nobility), and Third Estate (everyone else).

Otto I

German king crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962, reviving the imperial title in Western Europe and linking German kingship to the Church.

Crusades

Series of Christian military campaigns from Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean to regain or defend holy sites from Muslim control.

Marco Polo

Venetian merchant whose travels to Yuan China were recorded and widely read in Europe, stimulating interest in Asian trade.

Renaissance

Cultural rebirth in Europe (c. 1300–1600) emphasizing classical learning, human-centered art, and secularism, beginning in Italian city-states.

Humanism

Renaissance intellectual movement focusing on human potential, classical texts, and secular subjects as well as religious ones.

Lay investiture controversy

Medieval conflict between the pope and Holy Roman Emperors over who had the authority to appoint bishops and church officials.

Great Schism

1054 split between the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Eastern Orthodox Church over doctrinal and political issues.

Antisemitism

Prejudice and discrimination against Jews, seen in medieval Europe through restrictions, expulsions, and violence.

Little Ice Age

Period of cooler global temperatures roughly 1300–1850 that shortened growing seasons and contributed to famines and social unrest.

Magnetic compass

Navigation tool developed in China using Earth’s magnetism to show direction, crucial for long-distance sea travel.

Rudder

Stern-mounted steering device on ships that improved maneuverability and made oceanic voyages easier.

Junk

Large, sturdy Chinese ship with multiple sails and compartments, used in Indian Ocean trade and voyages like those of Zheng He.

Mongol Empire

Largest contiguous land empire in history, created in the 13th century under Genghis Khan and his successors across Eurasia.

Kashgar

Key Silk Road oasis city in western China that served as a trading and cultural crossroads between East and Central Asia.

Samarkand

Prosperous Silk Road city in Central Asia known for trade, scholarship, and Islamic architecture under the Timurids.

Caravanserai

Roadside inns along trade routes like the Silk Roads that provided lodging and services for traveling merchants and caravans.