The Worlds of Christendom and Civilizations of the Americas (1200–1450)

Vocabulary flashcards covering major figures, terms, and institutional developments in Byzantium, Kievan Rus, Western Europe, and early Mesoamerica.

Ferdinand and Isabella

The Catholic monarchs of a unified Spain who captured Granada in 1492 and issued edicts forcing Muslims and Jews to convert to Christianity or face exile.

Granada

The last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, captured by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.

Constantinople

The well-fortified capital city of the Byzantine Empire, established in 330 C.E. as a 'New Rome' and conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453.

Caesaropapism

A political-religious system in the Byzantine Empire in which the emperor held dual supreme authority as both head of state ('caesar') and head of the church ('pope').

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Christian church of the Byzantine Empire that legitimated the absolute authority of the emperor, provided a cultural identity as 'right-thinking' Christians, and split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1054.

Patriarch

The appointed leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire.

Kievan Rus

A culturally diverse state of Slavic, Finnic, Baltic, and Viking peoples that emerged in the ninth century around the city of Kiev.

Prince Vladimir of Kiev

The ruler who affiliated Kievan Rus with the Eastern Orthodox faith of the Byzantine Empire in 988 to unify his subjects and link the region to broader trade networks.

Cyrillic Alphabet

An alphabet based on Greek script that was adopted by Kievan Rus from the Byzantine Empire.

Icons

Religious images widely used in Eastern Orthodox worship and adopted by Kievan Rus from Byzantium.

Feudalism

A highly fragmented and decentralized social and political system that emerged in Western Europe during the ninth and tenth centuries.

Manorialism

An economic and social system centered on self-sufficient landed estates (manors) where political, economic, and social power was exercised by a warrior elite of landowning lords.

Vassals

Lesser lords and knights who swore allegiance to greater lords or kings in exchange for land and plunder in return for military service.

Serfs

Peasant laborers bound to their lords' estates who owed payments and services in return for a small farm and physical protection.

Estates of the Realm

The three social groups represented in early European parliamentary institutions: the clergy (first estate), the landowning nobility (second estate), and urban merchants (third estate).

High Middle Ages

The period from 1000 to 1300 C.E. in Western Europe characterized by rapid population growth, warmer climate, agricultural expansion, and urban development.

Three-Field System

A medieval European system of crop rotation that allowed considerably more land to be planted at any one time, increasing agricultural productivity.

Guilds

Associations formed by merchants, artisans, university professors, and other professionals to regulate their respective occupations.

The Crusades

A series of holy wars authorized by the pope beginning in 1095, undertaken at God's command to reclaim Jerusalem and holy sites from Islamic control.

Indulgence

A spiritual reward authorized by the pope that removed penalties for any confessed sins, granted to Crusaders upon taking a vow.

Natural Philosophy

The scientific study of nature that gradually began to separate from theology in medieval European universities.

Thomas Aquinas

A thirteenth-century Christian theologian who integrated the logical philosophy of Aristotle into a systematic presentation of Christian doctrine.

European Renaissance

A cultural movement between roughly 1350 and 1500 originating in Italian cities that drew inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman art, literature, and secular values.

Mehmed II

The nineteen-year-old Ottoman sultan who led the 1453 siege and conquest of Constantinople.

Maya Civilization

A Mesoamerican civilization in Guatemala and the Yucatán region (250–900 C.E.) known for its city-states, monumental architecture, hieroglyphic writing, and mathematical concept of zero.