AP World: Unit 3 Vocab

11/06/23

Absolutism

Def: the political theory that monarchs have complete control over their subjects by divine right

Sig: this theory allowed many monarchs across Europe and Asia to consolidate their power at a time of remarkable change to their societies and to handle the religious diversity of their many subjects

Asante Kingdom

Def: kingdom that emerged in the 1700s in present-day Ghana

Sig: it's activity in the Atlantic slave trade led to its growth and influence

Boyars

Def: traditional Russian landholding aristocrats

Sig: their power would increasingly decrease as the Russian tsars adopted European traditions and increased their own autocratic powers

Devshirme

Def: a system developed by the Ottoman Empire which took non-Muslim children as an alternative tax to have them trained as Janissaries (soldiers trained to protect and serve the sultan) or to serve in the government

Sig: system was utilized by Ottoman emperors to maintain centralized control over their culturally diverse populations

Kingdom of Kongo

Def: Kingdom dominating small states along the Congo River that maintained effective, centralized government and a royal currency until the seventeenth century

Sig: grew as a result of its participation in the Atlantic slave trade but also challenged the Portuguese by pushing for the slave trade to be subjected to/limited by Kongolese laws

Manchus/Qing Dynasty (1636-1912)

Def: Nomadic people from north of the Great Wall who invaded China and established a dynasty, claiming the "Mandate of Heaven" and adopting the Confucian belief and political administration system

Sig: opened up trade with Europeans and the limitations on the power and freedoms of the ethnic Chinese Han people, as well as intermarriage with them, dramatically increased the power of the dynasty during this time

Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

Def: saw the restoration of Confucian traditions after Mongol rule, as well as increased economic exchange outside of China and extensive overseas trade through the journeys of Zheng He

Sig: after the date of Emperor Yongle, the dynasty abandoned international exchange and focused solely on internal affairs, allowing the Europeans to explore and dominate the Indian Ocean trade

Mughal-Maratha Wars (1680-1707)

Def: aka Maratha War of Independence fought in response to Mughal expansionism over the Indian sub-continent

Sig: the first significant resistance to Mughal rule by a Hindu kingdom, which then encroached on additional Mughal territory while other minor kingdoms elsewhere also began to assert their independence against the Mughals - beginning of the end of Mughal dominance over India and the beginning of British incursion into India

Ottoman-Safavid Conflict

Def: A century-long conflict from 1534-1639 in which the Sunni Ottomans fought the Shiite Safavids over control of Mesopotamia

Sig: it was a political and religious dispute between two groups descended from Central Asian Turks, it led to emerging Iranian nationalism as a Shi'ite Islamic state struggling against its Sunni neighbors

Ottoman Tax Farming 

Def: the Ottoman government assigned land to holders who paid fixed annual sums to the empire's central treasury in exchange for use of the property and the right to collect taxes for the empire - they were able to keep a portion of their collections as profit

Sig: The assignment of tax farmers to the land of existing nobles (timars) led to the decline in the power of the timars to influence the Sultan

Salaried Samurai

Def: Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, the importance of these individuals as mercenaries/warriors who reported only to their daimyo declined so they took paid jobs as bureaucrats within the government of the shogunate

Sig: this was an effort by the Tokugawa government to minimize resistance from this warrior class and in effect, break the power hold of the daimyos who they served

Sikhism

Def: a syncretic belief system founded by Guru Nanak in the early 1500s in South Asia which blends elements of Hinduism and Islam into a single faith

Sig: its rejection of the caste system and lesser patriarchal expectations made it appealing to Hindus, women, and merchants; was under attack by the Mughal empire since its inception, leading to longstanding Sikh/Muslim enmity

Sultanate of Oman 

Def: a prominent Indian Ocean Trade player located on the Strait of Hormuz in the middle east, all its ports faced the Indian Ocean and it was greatly involved in trade from East Africa to China

Sig: Defeated and occupied by the Portuguese from 1507-1648, it remerged as a Indian Ocean Trade power and ran the slave trade out of East Africa after kicking the Portuguese out and despite of growing European power in the Indian Ocean

Tokugawa Shogunate

Def: the unification of Japan in the 1500s under a military government led by the shogun (who had more power than the symbolic emperor he "reported" to) which brought nearly 300 years of peace and stability to the nation while decreasing the power of the landholders and the samurai warriors

Sig: policies of this government included isolationism from trade with Europeans by only giving the Dutch the right to trade with Japan once a year

Versailles Palace

Def: royal palace built during the reign of Louis XIV which he used to enforce his power and prestige and limited the power of his nobles by insisting they live in the palace under his watchful eyes

Sig: an example of a monarch using monumental architecture to legitimize his rule

Wahhabism

Def: named for the teachings of strict Islamist scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in Saudi Arabia, who believed that non-Quranic practices, such as veneration of Sufi saints or the study of logic, were damaging to authentic Islam

Sig: was a conservative backlash within Islam against more lax practices or way of life (i.e. women's rights dramatically decreased); the Saudi Wahhabis in Arabia became the chief challengers to the Ottoman Empire for the spiritual leadership of Islam and overseeing of Mecca

Zamindar system

Def: this group was the noble ruling class under the Mughals, with most being former Indian princes whose sovereignty became limited and ultimately lost under British rule.

Sig: the aristocrats were responsible for collecting taxes from the peasants living in their large tracts of land while keeping some of the money for themselves