AP World Chapters 1-3

Paleolithic Era

The long period during which human societies sustained themselves through gathering, hunting, and fishing without the practice of agriculture. Such ways of living persisted well after the advent of agriculture in many places

Agricultural Revolution

Perhaps the most transformative process in all of human history, these terms refer to the domestication of plants and animals, which led to both farming and pastoral societies

Pastoral Societies

Based on an alternative kind of food-producing economy focused on the raising of livestock, pastoral societies emerged in the Afro-Eurasian world where settled agriculture was difficult or impossible. Pastoral peoples often led their animals to seasonal grazing grounds rather than settling permanently in a single location.

Patriarchy

A social system in which women have been made subordinate to men in the family and in society; often linked to the development of plow-based agriculture, intensive warfare, and private property

Hinduism

A religion based on the many beliefs, practices, sects, rituals, and philosophies in India; in the thinking of nineteenth-century Indian reformers, it was expressed as a distinctive tradition, an Indian religion wholly equivalent to Christianity

Upanishads

Indian mystical and philosophical works written between 800 and 400 BCE

Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)

The Indian prince whose exposure to human suffering led him to develop a path to Enlightenment that became the basis for the emerging religious tradition of Buddhism; lived from around 556 to 486 BCE

Theravada Buddhism

“Teaching of the Elders,” the early form of Buddhism according to which the Buddha was a wise teacher but not divine; emphasizes practices rather than beliefs

Mahayana Buddhism

“Great Vehicle,” the popular development of Buddhism in the early centuries of the Common Era, which gives a much greater role to supernatural beings and to compassion and proved to be more popular than the original (Theravada) Buddhism

bhakti movement

Meaning “worship,” this Hindu movement began in south India and moved northward between 600 and 1300 CE; it involved the intense adoration and identification with a particular deity through songs, prayers, and rituals

Confucianism

The Chinese philosophy first enunciated by Confucius ( who lived from 551-479 BCE), advocating the moral example of superiors as the key element of social order

Han Dynasty

The Chinese dynasty (206 BCE-220CE) that emerged after the Qin dynasty collapsed, establishing political and cultural patterns that lasted into the twentieth century

Daoism

A Chinese philosophy or popular religion that advocates a simple and unpretentious way of living and alignment with the natural world, founded by the legendary figure Laozi

Judaism

The monotheistic religion developed in the Middle East by the Hebrews, emphasizing a sole personal god (Yahweh) with concerns for social justice

Jesus of Nazareth

A peasant/artisan “wisdom teacher” and Jewish mystic (who lived from around 4 BCE to 29 CE) whose life, teachings, death, and alleged resurrection gave rise to the new religion of Christianity

Saint Paul

An early convert and missionary (who lived from about 6 to 67 CE) and the first great popularizer of Christianity, especially to Gentile (non-Jewish) communities

Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (Prophet Muhammad)

The Prophet and founder of Islam whose religious revelations became the Quran, bringing a radically monotheistic religion to Arabia and the world

Quran (Koran)

Also transliterated as Qur’án and Koran, this is the most holy text of Islam, which records the words of God through revelations given to the Prophet Muhammad

umma

The community of all believers in Islam, bound by common belief rather than territory, language, or tribe

ulama

Islamic religious scholars, both Sunni and Shia, who shaped and transmitted the core teachings of Islamic civilization

sharia

Islamic law, dealing with political, economic, social, and religious life. It literally translates as “a path to water,” which is considered the source of all life

madrassas

Formal colleges for higher instruction in the teachings of Islam as well as in secular subjects like law, established throughout the Islamic world beginning in the 11th century (1000s)

Sufism

An understanding of the Islamic faith that saw the worldly success of Islamic civilization as a distraction and deviation from the purer spirituality of Muhammad’s time. By renouncing the material world, meditating on the words of the Quran, chanting the names of God, using music and dance, and venerating Muhammad and various “saints,” Sufis pursued an interior life, seeking to tame the ego and achieve spiritual union with Allah

Song dynasty

The Chinese dynasty (960-1279 CE) that rose to power after the Tang dynasty. During the Song dynasty, an explosion of scholarship gave rise to Neo-Confucianism, and a revolution in agricultural and industrial production made China the richest and most populated country on the planet

China’s economic revolution

A major rise in prosperity that took place in China under the Song dynasty (960-1279 CE); was marked by rapid population growth, urbanization, economic specialization, the development of an immense network of internal waterways, and a great increase in industrial production and technological innovation

Hangzhou

China’s capital during the Song dynasty, with a population at its height of more than a million people

foot binding

The Chinese practice of tightly wrapping girls’ feet to keep them small, prevalent in the Song dynasty and later; an emphasis on small size and delicacy was central to views on female beauty

hangul

A phonetic alphabet developed in Korea in the fifteenth century in a move toward greater cultural independence from China

bushido

The “way of the warrior,” referring to the martial values of the Japanese samurai, including bravery, loyalty, and an emphasis on death over surrender

tribute system

A set of practices that required a show of subordination from all non-Chinese authorities and the payment of tribute— products of value from their countries— to the Chinese emperor. In return, China would grant trading rights to foreigners and offer gifts even more valuable than the tribute itself

Srivijaya

A Malay kingdom that dominated the critical choke point in Indian Ocean trade at the Strait of Melaka between 670 and 1025 CE. Like other places in Southeast Asia, Srivijaya absorbed various cultural influences from India

Madjapahit

A significant Southeast Asian state that assimilated Hindu religious ideas. It was located primarily on the island of Java and was at the peak of its power in the fourteenth century (1300s)

Angkor Wat

The largest religious structure in the premodern world, this temple was built by the powerful Angkor kingdom (located in modern Cambodia) in the 12th century CE to express a Hindu understanding of the cosmos centered on a mythical Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hindu tradition. It was later used by Buddhists as well.    

Abbasid caliphate

An Arab dynasty of caliphs (successors to the Prophet) who governed much of the Islamic world from its capital in Baghdad beginning in 750 CE. After 900 CE that empire increasingly fragmented until its overthrow by the Mongols in 1258.

Seljuk Turkic Empire

An empire of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, centered in Persia and present-day Iraq. Seljuk rulers adopted the Muslim title of sultan (ruler) as part of their conversion to Islam

Ottoman Empire

Major Islamic state centered on Anatolia that came to include the Balkans, parts of the Middle East, and much of North Africa; lasted in one form or another from the 14th to the early 20th century

jizya

Special tax paid by dhimmis (protected but second-class subjects) in Muslim-ruled territory in return for freedom to practice their own religion

al-Andalus

Arabic name for Spain, most of which was conquered by Arab and Berber forces between 711 and 718 CE. Muslim Spain represented a point of encounter between the Islamic world and Christian Europe

Swahili Civilization

An East African civilization that emerged in the 8th century CE as a set of commercial city-states linked into the Indian Ocean trading network. Combining African Bantu and Islamic cultural patterns, these competing city-states accumulated goods from the interior and exchanged them for the products of distant civilizations

West African civilization

A series of important states that developed in the region stretching from the Atlantic coast to Lake Chad in the period 500 to 1600 CE. Developed in response to the economic opportunities of trans-Saharan trade (especially control of gold production), it included the states of Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and Kanem-Bornu, as well as numerous towns and cities

Mali

A prominent state within West African civilization; it was established in 1235 CE and flourished for several centuries. Mali monopolized the import of horses and metals as part of the trans-Saharan trade; it was a large-scale producer of gold; and its most famous ruler, Mansa Musa, led a large group of Muslims on the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324-1325

Trans-Saharan slave trade

A fairly small-scale commerce in enslaved people that flourished especially from 1100 to 1400, exporting enslaved West Africans across the Sahara for sale in Islamic North Africa

Timbuktu

A major commercial city of West African civilization and a noted center of Islamic scholarship and education by the sixteenth century

Byzantine Empire

One of the main centers of Christendom during the medieval centuries, the Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the eastern portion of the Roman Empire. It lasted for a thousand years after the collapse of Roman rule in the West, until its conquest by Muslim forces in 1453

Ottoman seizure of Constantinople

The city of Constantinople, the capital and almost the only outpost left of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the army of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II “the Conqueror” in 1453, an event that marked the end of Christian Byzantium

Kievan Rus

A culturally diverse civilization that emerged around the city of Kiev in the 9th century CE and adopted Christianity in the tenth, thus linking this emerging Russian state to the world of Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Branch of Christianity that developed in the eastern part of the Roman Empire and gradually separated, mostly on matters of practice, from the branch of Christianity dominant in Western Europe; noted for the subordination of the Church to political authorities, a married clergy, the use of leavened bread in the Eucharist, and a sharp rejection of the authority of Roman popes

Western Christendom

Western European branch of Christianity, also known as Roman Catholicism, that gradually defined itself as separate from Eastern Orthodoxy, with a major break occurring in 1054 CE; characterized by its relative independence from the state and its recognition of the authority of the pope

Feudalism

A highly fragmented and decentralized society in which power was held by the landowning warrior elite. In this highly competitive system, lesser lords and knights swore allegiance to greater lords or kings and thus became their vassals, frequently receiving lands and plunder in return for their military service

Roman Catholic Church

Western European branch of Christianity that gradually defined itself as separate from Eastern Orthodoxy, with a major break occurring in 1054 CE that still has not been overcome. By the 11th century, Western Christendom was centered on the pope as the ultimate authority in matters of doctrine. The Church struggled to remain independent of established political authorities

European Renaissance

A “rebirth” of classical learning that is most often associated with the cultural blossoming of Italy in the period 1350-1500 and that included not just a rediscovery of Greek and Roman learning but also major developments in art, as well as growing secularism in society. It spread to Northern Europe after 1400

Maya civilization

A major civilization of Mesoamerica known for the most elaborate writing system in the Americas and other intellectual and artistic achievements; flourished from 250 to 900 CE

Aztec Empire

Major state that developed in what is now Mexico in the 14th and 15th centuries; dominated by the semi-nomadic Mexica, who had migrated into the region from northern Mexico

Inca Empire

The Western Hemisphere’s largest imperial state in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Built by a relatively small community of Quechua-speaking people (the Incas), 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

Mita (Mit’a) System

A labor service in the Inca Empire in which every household was periodically required to work in service of the state; work included working on large state farms or on “sun farms,” which supported temples and religious institutions, working on construction projects, creating textiles, and making corn beer (as a “chosen woman”)

Silk Roads

Land-based trade routes that linked many regions of Eurasia. They were named after the most famous product traded along these routes

Temujin/Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan)

Birth name of the Mongol leader better known as Chinggis Khan (1162-1227), or “universal ruler,” a name he acquired after unifying the Mongols

Mongol world war

Term used to describe half a century of military campaigns, massive killing, and empire building pursued by Chinggis Khan and his successors in Eurasia after 1209 CE

Khubilai Khan

Grandson of Chinggis Khan who ruled China from 1271 to 1294 CE

Ming dynasty

Chinese dynasty (1368-1644) that succeeded the Yuan dynasty of the Mongols; noted for its return to traditional Chinese ways and restoration of the land after the destructiveness of the Mongols

Black Death

A massive pandemic that swept through Eurasia in the early 14th century, spreading along the trade routes within and beyond the Mongol Empire and reaching the Middle East and Western Europe by 1347. Associated with a massive loss of life

Sea Roads

The world’s largest sea-based system of communication and exchange before 1500 CE. Centered on India, it stretched from southern China to eastern Africa

Great Zimbabwe

A powerful state in the southern African interior that apparently emerged from the growing trade in gold to the East African coat; flourished between 1250 and 1350 CE

Melaka

Muslim port city that came to prominence on the waterway between Sumatra and Malaya in the fifteenth century CE; it was the springboard for the spread of a syncretic form of Islam throughout the region

Zheng He

Great Chinese admiral who commanded a huge fleet of ships in a series of voyages in the Indian Ocean that began in 1405. Intended to enroll distant peoples and states in the Chinese tribute system, those voyages ended abruptly in 1433 and led to no lasting Chinese imperial presence in the region

Sand Roads

A term used to describe the routes of the trans-Saharan trade, which linked interior West Africa to the Mediterranean and North African world

Arabian camel

Introduced to North Africa and the Sahara in the early centuries of the Common Era, this animal made trans-Saharan commerce possible by 300-400 CE

House of Wisdom

An academic center for research and translation of foreign texts that was established in Baghdad in 830 CE by the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun

Crusades

A term used to describe the “holy wars” waged by Western Christendom, especially against the forces of Islam in the eastern Mediterranean from 1095 to 1291 and on the Iberian Peninsula into the 15th century. Further Crusades were also conducted in non-Christian regions of Eastern Europe from about 1150 on. Crusades could be declared only by the pope; participants swore a vow and received in return an indulgence removing the penalty for confessed sins

American web

A term used to describe the network of trade that linked parts of the pre-Columbian Americas; although less densely woven than the Afro-Eurasian trade networks, this web nonetheless provided a means of exchange for luxury goods and ideas over large areas

Chaco Phenomenon

Name given to a major process of settlement and societal organization that occurred in the period 860-1130 CE among the peoples of Chaco Canyon, in what is now northwestern New Mexico; the society formed is notable for its settlement in large pueblos and for the building of hundreds of miles of roads, the purpose of which is not known

pochteca

Professional merchants among the Aztecs who undertook large-scale trading expeditions in the 15th century CE