Unit 2: The Silk Roads and The Mongol Empire Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical figures, and concepts from the lecture on the Silk Roads and the Mongol Empire (1200 CE to 1450 CE).

Silk Road

A major trade route for goods such as silk and spices between Asia and Europe dating back to Han Dynasty China and the Roman Empire.

Bubonic Plague (Black Death)

A highly contagious disease (1347-1351) that originated in Mongolia and spread along Silk Road trade routes, causing the deaths of 20 to 50 million people in Europe.

Mongols

Nomadic, warlike pastoralist tribes from the Asian steppe north of China who unified around 1200 to conquer vast territories across Asia, Europe, and the Silk Road.

Marco Polo

A famous European traveler from Venice who traveled the Silk Road to Mongol-controlled China under Kublai Khan and may have served as an advisor.

Ottoman Turks

The group that took over much of the Mongol land in the 1400s and cut off Silk Road trade routes to European nations.

Isolationism

A national policy of cutting off trade and contact with the outside world, which slowly puts a nation behind by preventing access to new inventions and ideas.

Chinggis Khan

The Mongol leader (1167-1227) who unified the Mongol tribes into a well-organized army in 1206 and conquered Central Asia and the Song Dynasty.

Steppe

The flat land north of China where Mongol tribes lived in winter months, herding goats and sheep.

Pax Mongolica

A period of peace and stability in Asian history under the Mongol Empire that ensured safe trade and travel across the Silk Road because no outside nations attacked the empire.

Khanates

The four administrative regional divisions into which the Mongol Empire was split after the death of Chinggis Khan.

Yuan Empire

The wealthiest Mongol khanate, located in China and established under the leadership of Kublai Khan.

Kublai Khan

The Mongol leader who established the Yuan Empire in China and employed foreign advisors such as Marco Polo.

Civil Service Exam System

An important Chinese bureaucratic examination system that was eliminated by Mongol rulers during their control of China.

Golden Horde

The Mongol khanate that conquered and ruled Russia and Eastern Europe for 250 years, extracting heavy taxes while allowing Russian lords to govern locally.

Il-Khanate

The Mongol khanate that conquered the Middle East in 1258, destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate, and burned Baghdad.

Abbasid Caliphate

The Middle Eastern Islamic government that was destroyed by the Mongol Il-Khanate during the 1258 sack of Baghdad.

Tengri

The Sky God from traditional Mongolian religion worshipped by the Mongols.

Primary Resource

A historical document or object created by someone who was physically present at an event and wrote about it firsthand.

Secondary Resource

A resource that compiles and analyzes information written at different times by various historical sources.

House of Wisdom

A major library and intellectual center in Baghdad that was emptied and destroyed by the Mongols in 1258, with its books thrown into the Tigris River.

Archbishop Giobani Carpini

A European figure who wrote a 1248 letter describing Tartar (Mongol) women as highly skilled in archery, riding, and leather crafting.

Bin al-Khazara

A merchant who traveled Mongol trade roads and documented the destruction of Baghdad and the House of Wisdom in 1258.