AP World History Review

Flashcards with vocabulary terms and definitions from the AP World History notes. These will help you review for the AP Exam.

Swahili Civilization

Cities organized on commerce, politically independent, common hierarchy, influenced by Muslim traders, had the Swahili language (a hybrid), became Islamic, and were powerful because of the Indian Ocean Trade.

West African Empires

West African empires (Ghana, Mali, and Songhay) grew in power by trade (not sea-based).

Swahili Coast Trade

A series of city-states along East Africa’s coast thrived through trade with Arabs, Persians, and Indians.

Hausa Kingdom

Formed seven states, no central authority, established city states.

Trans Saharan Trade

Network of trade routes across the great desert

East Asia

Women were stripped of legal rights and endured limited education and foot binding.

Civil Service Exam

To join the bureaucracy, men had to pass an exam based on Confucian classics.

Foot Binding

Girls had feet wrapped so tightly that the bones did not grow naturally. A bound foot signified status; if women who could not walk could not work.

Grand Canal

An inexpensive and efficient internal waterway transportation system that extended over 30,000 miles, making China the most populous trading area in the world under the Song Dynasty.

Gunpowder

Innovators in the Song Dynasty made the first funds and spread gunpowder and guns to all parts of Eurasia via the Silk Roads.

Champa Rice

A drought-resistant strain of rice that expanded agricultural production in China.

Woodblock Printing

Allowed people to make multiple copies of art or written text without laboriously copying each by hand.

Feudalism: Japan

No centralized government. Landowning aristocrats, the daimyo, battled for land control while the majority were rice farmers.

Shogunate System

Military dictators held actual power, whereas the emperor was just the figurehead.

Feudalism: Europe

A political system of decentralized Europe, powerful lords and kings gained alliance from lesser lords who became their vassals. Vassals got land in exchange for military service.

Manorialism

Peasants were bound to the land where they lived in exchange for a lord’s protection.

Crusades

Religious and military campaigns in Europe initiated by European Christians.

Scholasticism in Europe

A method of critical thought that dominated medieval universities, aiming to reconcile faith and reason.

Gothic Architecture Emergence

Characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses, reflecting the era’s artistic advancements.

Magna Carta’s Significance

A charter signed in 1215 limiting the English king’s power and laying the foundation for constitutional governance.

Hanseatic League

A commercial and defensive organization of merchant guilds and market towns, it played a role in facilitating trade across the region, establishing trade routes, and more. Allowed trade of timber, fish, grain, and textiles.

Neo-Confucianism

Confucian thought with elements of Buddhism and Daoism. This movement sought to address the spiritual and moral challenges of the time, reinforcing Confucian ideals while also adapting to the influences from other belief systems.

Confucianism, East Asia

Society is hierarchical by nature. There is a prescribed and proper order to everything.

Filial Piety

The necessity and virtue of children obeying and honoring their parents, grandparents, and deceased ancestors.

Christianity Eastern Orthodox

Byzantine Empire, Orthodox (correct opinion or belief) Christianity shared with Kievan Rus.

Christian Monasticism

Monasteries were central places for learning, agricultural, and healthcare in medieval Europe.

Papacy’s Authority

The Pope held significant religious and political influence, often clashing with secular rulers.

Buddhism

Believed in reincarnation, but the ultimate goal was to stop it and achieve nirvana.

Four Noble Truths

Life is suffering, we suffer because we crave, we cease suffering when we cease craving.

Theravada Buddhism

OG form of Buddhism, where monks lived in monasteries. Emphasizes individual enlightenment through monastic life.

Mahayana Buddhism in East Asia

Bodhisattvas were those who had already achieved enlightenment but put off entering nirvana to assist others in reaching it. Collective enlightenment.

Silk Roads

The Silk Roads crossed Eurasia and mainly traded silk and porcelain.

Caravanserai

Inns and guesthouses that allowed the transfer of culture and technology. They provided safety along the route.

Paper Money

Developed in China, also known as Flying Cash.

Credit

Banking houses in Europe manage credit through bills of exchange. Similar to checks.

Mongol Empire

Largest land-based empire ever.

Yuan Dynasty

Established by Kublai Khan and rebuilt the capital of Zhongdu. Under the rule of Kublai Khan he brought prosperity through cultural exchanges, and improved trade with other countries.

Indian Ocean Trading Network

Maritime network that connected Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia. Mainly traded in textiles and spices, and there was more cargo on the ship.

Diasporic Communities

Group of people who do not live in their homeland but still maintain heritage in their new land.

Zheng He

Sent by the Ming dynasty to go through the Indian Ocean to enroll people and states in the tributary system. He also transferred tech and culture to other regions.

Magnetic Compass

Know which direction to sail

Astrolabe

Measure the stars and compare them to star charts for latitude and longitude.

Junks

massive ships that could hold big cargo.

Trans-Saharan Trade Routes

The Empire of Mali grew rich through connections with Dar Al-Islam, gold trade, and taking trade routes in West Africa

Camel Saddle

Improved carrying of larger cargo loads across the desert.

Timbuktu

Centers of Muslim life in the region. It became a world-renowned center of Islamic learning.

Marco Polo, Margery Kempe, and Ibn Battuta

Travelers gave insight on regions.

Bubonic Plague

fleas on camels and rats on ships along the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean, which killed a huge number of people.

Legitimizing power

the methods rulers use to establish their authority.

Consolidating power

the method rulers use to transfer power from other groups to themselves.

Manchu Empire

Qing were Manchu not Hna Chinese so they portrayed themselves in portraits with books on Confucion wisdom.

Ottoman Empire

Gunpowder weapons spread through Afro-Eurasia from China

Janissaries

Ottomans enslaved Christians from the Balkans and converted them to Islam.

Sunni Muslim

The rightful successor of Muhammad is anyone spiritually fit for the office.

Tax Farming

The ruler sent someone to collect taxes, but the person got to keep some of the money. The right to tax subjects of the empire was awarded to the highest bidder.

Mughal Empire

1526 Babur led campaigns against the Delhi Sultanate and wiped them off the map.

Zamindar tax system

elite landowners and taxed peasants living on their land on behalf of the imperial government.

Devshirme System

formation of large bureaucracies and staffed bureaucracy with highly trained individuals. The smartest Janissaries were appointed to the democracy after education and training in Istanbul.

Religious Monumentalism

Architecture became theology you could walk through — rulers used mosques, temples, and churches to assert power and divine favor.

Shi’a Muslim

only blood relatives of Muhammad were his legitimate successors

Sikhism

a blend of Hinduism and Islam. It adopted the belief in a single God from Islam and cycle of reincarnation after death.

Columbian Exchange

transfer of new diseases, food, plants, people and animals between Eastern and Western hemispheres.

Cash Cropping

a method of agriculture that focuses on growing crops, usually a single crop, primarily for export.

Mercantilism

an economic theory based on the fact that there is a finite amount of wealth in the world. Each country wanted the largest share of the wealth in the world.

Joint Stock Companies

limited liability businesses that were often chartered by states and funded by private investors.

Trading Post Empire

Set trading posts/factories to control trade throughout

Encomienda System

Spanish colonists extracted labor and tribute from Indigenous people in exchange for “civilizing” them — a thin veil over exploitation.

Mita System Adaption

The Spanish borrowed the Inca’s rotational labor system and turned it into forced mine work, especially at Potosí.

Feudalism

local lords having too much power

Maroon Societies

Caribbean and Brazil, free blacks, runaway slaves.

The Enlightenment

a cultural and intellectual movement that emphasized reason, individualism, and natural laws to understand society and the world.

Empiricism

knowledge comes from sensed experience and from what you observe through your experience.

Social Contract

Giving up rights to a strong central government for law and order in return.

Laissez-faire

businesses and consumers were allowed to make choices in their interests. His ideas were the basis of capitalism, and the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit.

Deism

A belief that a divinity simply sets laws in motion but does not intervene.

Conservatism

belief in traditional institutions, stability, and reliance on the individual to maintain society

Socialism

a system of public/community or direct worker ownership of the means of production, not individual ownership.

Liberalism

belief in natural rights, constitutional government, laissez-faire economics, and reduced spending on armies and established churches.

Feminism

Women's rights and equality based on Enlightenment Ideas.

Zionism

the desire of Jews to reestablish an independent homeland where their ancestors have lived in the Middle East

Secularism

separates religion from government and public life.

Haitian Revolution

The French and the sugar colony of Haiti. A slave revolt led by Toussaint L’Ouverture overthrew the French colonial system.

Bessemer Process

easily converted iron to stronger material steel.

Transnational Business

a joint stock company owned by the British and opened factories around the world.

Self-Strengthening Movement

borrowed from the West whilst maintaining Chinese culture.

Tanzimat Reforms

Ottomans built factories and railroads and changed to western-style law and constitutional government. Similar to China, conservatives resisted the reforms.

Proximity to Waterways

Helps with the transportation of goods

Civilizing

Western powers felt a moral obligation to spread their culture, religion, and way of life to non-European societies.

National Identity

a shared sense of belonging to a nation.

Social Darwinism

advocates used the “survival of the fittest” to argue that the spread of European and U.S. powers proved the biological superiority of whites.

Berlin Conference

held by Otto Von Bismarck, who wanted to keep peace in Europe. Held the meeting of European powers to provide an orderly colonization of Africa. African leaders were not a part of the conference.

Scramble for Africa

competing efforts of Europeans to colonize Africa, which would eventually lead to the Boer Wars.

Economic imperialism

one state extending control over another state by economic means.

Spheres of Influence

areas or regions where a foreign power has a significant influence over political, economic, or cultural affairs, often without direct territorial control.

Opium Wars

conflict between Britain and China. China failed to industrialize and became vulnerable to industrial powers.

Treaty of Nanjing

After the Opium War, it had China open up ports to the British.

Indentured Servitude

Laborers would sign a contract to work for a certain amount of time in exchange for free passage to their destination.

Decline of the Ottoman Empire

The Tanzimat reforms did not strengthen the empire

Militarism

Germany and Britain led massive armies and navies. Glorification of the military.

Alliances

Triple Alliance- Germany, Italy, and Austro-Hungarian Empire. Triple Entente- Russia, France, Britain.