AP World semester 1 exam: vocab

confucianism

the chinese philosophy first enunciated by confucius, advocating the moral example of superiors as the key element of social order

legalism

Chinese philosophy developed by Hanfeizi; taught that humans are naturally evil and therefore need to be ruled by harsh laws

Daoism

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

Hinduism

A Hindu nationalist movement that became politically important in India in the 1980s; advocated a distinct Hindu identity and decried government efforts to accommodate other faith communities, particularly Islamic

Siddhartha Gautama

The Indian prince whose exposure to human suffering led him to develop a path to enlightenment, which became the basis for the emerging religious tradition of Buddhism

Judaism

The monotheistic religion developed in the middle east by the Hebrews, emphasising a sole personal god with concerns for social justice

Jesus of Nazareth

A peasant/artisan "wisdom teacher" and jewish mystic whose life, teachings, death, and alleged resurrection gave rise to the new religion Christianity

Ban Zhao

A Chinese woman writer and court official (45-116 C.E.) whose work provides valuable insight on the position of women in classical China.

Saint Paul of Tarsus

A key figure in the development of early Christianity. He also wrote the majority of the New Testament.

Zoroastrianism

One of the first monotheistic religions, particularly one with a wide following. It was central to the political and religious culture of ancient Persia.

Socrates

(470-399 BCE) An Athenian philosopher who thought that human beings could lead honest lives and that honor was far more important than wealth, fame, or other superficial attributes.

Perpetua

Christian martyr (one who was killed for their beliefs) from Carthage. Educated and wealthy, she died being fed to leopards.

Aristotle

A Greek Philosopher, taught Alexander the Great, started a famous school, studied with Plato

Temujin

birth name of the Mongol leader better known as Chinggis Khan (1162-1227)

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.

Khubilai Khan

Last of the Mongol Great Khans (r. 1260-1294). Ruled the Mongol Empire from China and was the founder of the Yuan Empire in China after defeating what was left of the Song Dynasty.

Yuan Dynasty

Chinese dynasty ruled by the Mongols from 1279 to 1368; best known ruler was Kublai Khan

Ming dynasty

A major dynasty that ruled China from the mid-fourteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. It was marked by a great expansion of Chinese commerce into East Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia

Khutulun

A Mongol princess whose exploits in battle and wrestling along with her choice of husbands provide insight into the relative freedom and influence of elite Mongol women in their societies

Safavid Empire

Turkish-ruled Iranian kingdom (1502-1722) established by Ismail Safavi, who declared Iran a Shi'ite state.

Khanate of the Golden Horde

the Mongol empire, that, after the fall of Kiev, ruled all of southern Russia for 200 years

Black Death

the epidemic form of bubonic plague experienced during the Middle Ages when it killed nearly half the people of western Europe

Silk Roads

A system of ancient caravan routes across Central Asia, along which traders carried silk and other trade goods.

Sand Roads

A term used to describe the routes of the trans-Sahara trade in Africa.

Srivijaya

A Malay kingdom that dominated the Straits of Malacca between 670 and 1025 C.E.; noted for its creation of a native/Indian hybrid culture.

Angkor Wat

A temple complex built in the Khmer Empire and dedicated to the Hindu God, Vishnu.

Swahili Civilization

An East African civilization that emerged in the eighth century C.E. from a blending of Bantu, Islamic, and other Indian Ocean trade elements.

Great Zimbabwe

A powerful state in the African interior that apparently emerged from the growing trade in gold to the East African coast; flourished between 1250 and 1350 C.E.

Zheng He

Chinese admiral during the Ming Dynasty, he led great voyages that spread China's fame throughout Asia

Arabian Camel

An important way of transportation on the Sand and Silk roads for thousands of years

Ghana

West African state that supplied the majority of the world's gold from 500 CE-1400's

Chaco Phenomenon

Name given to a major process of settlement and societal organization that occurred in the period 860-1130 C.E. 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).

trans-saharan slave trade

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

Timbuktu

City on the Niger River in the modern country of Mali. It was founded by the Tuareg as a seasonal camp sometime after 1000. As part of the Mali empire, Timbuktu became a major major terminus of the trans-Saharan trade and a center of Islamic learning.

House of Wisdom

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

American Web

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

Song Dynasty

(960-1279 CE) The Chinese dynasty that placed much more emphasis on civil administration, industry, education, and arts other than military.

Byzantine Empire

(330-1453) The eastern half of the Roman Empire, which survived after the fall of the Western Empire at the end of the 5th century C.E. Its capital was Constantinople, named after the Emperor Constantine.

Hangzhou

Capital of later Song dynasty; located near East China Sea; permitted overseas trading; population exceeded 1 million.

Caesaropapism

A political-religious system in which the secular ruler is also head of the religious establishment, as in the Byzantine Empire.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

A branch of Christianity that developed in the Byzantine Empire and that did not recognize the Pope as its supreme leader

Crusades

A series of holy wars from 1096-1270 AD was undertaken by European Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

al-Andalus

A Muslim-ruled region in what is now Spain, established by the Berbers in the eighth century A.D.

Aztec Empire

Major state that developed in what is now Mexico in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; dominated by the seminomadic Mexica, who had migrated into the region from northern Mexico.

Seljuk Turks

Nomadic invaders from central Asia via Persia; staunch Sunnis; ruled in name of Abbasid caliphs from mid-11th century

Roman Catholic Church

Church established in western Europe during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages with its head being the bishop of Rome or pope.

Bushido

the code of honor and morals developed by the Japanese samurai.

Inca Empire

Empire in Peru. conquered by Pizarro, who began an empire for the Spanish in 1535

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 C.E.; characterized by its relative independence from the state and its recognition of the authority of the pope.

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 C.E.

Ottoman Empire

Islamic state founded by Osman in northwestern Anatolia. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire was based at Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) from 1453-1922. It encompassed lands in the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, and eastern Europe.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Mexico in 1519-1521 for Spain.

The Great Dying

Term used to describe the devastating demographic impact of European-borne epidemic diseases on the Americas.

settler colonies

Colonies, such as those in South Africa, New Zealand, Algeria, Kenya, and Hawaii, where minority European populations lived among majority indigenous peoples.

Russian Empire

A Christian state centered on Moscow that emerged from centuries of Mongol rule in 1480; by 1800, it had expanded into northern Asia and westward into the Baltics and Eastern Europe.

Cossacks

Peoples of the Russian Empire who lived outside the farming villages, often as herders, mercenaries, or outlaws. Cossacks led the conquest of Siberia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Indian Ocean Network

The dominate network of trade in the post-classical period. In terms of the volume of trade, the number of people involved, and the interaction of various cultures,

fur trade

European powers sought to capitalize on popularity of fur in Europe; involved trade with Indians

soft gold

Nickname used in the early modern period for animal furs, highly valued for their warmth and as symbols of elite status; in several regions, the fur trade generated massive wealth for those engaged in it.

Little Ice Age

A century-long period of cool climate that began in the 1590s. Its ill effects on agriculture in northern Europe were notable.

yasak

Tribute that Russian rulers demanded from the native peoples of Siberia, most often in the form of furs.

Manila

Capital of the Spanish Philippines and a major multicultural trade city that already had a population of more than 40,000 by 1600.

transatlantic slave trade

The brutal system of trading African Slaves from Africa to the Americas. It changed the economy, politics, and environment. It affected Africa, Europe, and America. It implies that slaves were used for cash crops and created a whole new economy.

General Crisis

The near-record cold winters experienced in much of China, Europe, and North America in the mid-seventeenth century, sparked by the Little Ice Age; extreme weather conditions led to famines, uprisings, and wars.

Qing expansion

The growth of Qing dynasty China during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries into a central Asian empire that added a small but important minority of non-Chinese people to the empire's population and essentially created the borders of contemporary China.

British East India Co.

A joint stock company that controlled most of India during the period of imperialism. This company controlled the political, social, and economic life in India for more than 200 years.

African diaspora

The separation of Africans from their homeland through centuries of forced removal to serve as slaves in the Americas and elsewhere.

Columbian Ex.

Global transmission of people, ideas, technology, plants, animals, and diseases.

Mughal Empire

an Islamic imperial power that ruled a large portion of Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan (South Asia) by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century.

Dutch East India Co.

The East India Company of the Netherlands that was established to create trade throughout Asia. It became wealthier than England's company and eventually dominated the region.

maroon societies

Communities formed by escaped slaves in the Caribbean, Latin American. and the United States.

Mercantilism

An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought

Akbar

The most famous Muslim ruler of India during the period of Mughal rule. Famous for his religious tolerance, his investment in rich cultural feats, and the creation of a centralized governmental administration, which was not typical of ancient and post-classical India.

silver drain

Term often used, along with "specie drain," to describe the siphoning of money from Europe to pay for the luxury products of the East, a process exacerbated by the fact that Europe had few trade goods that were desirable in Eastern markets; eventually, the bulk of the world's silver supply made its way to China.

Benin

a kingdom that arose near the Niger River delta in the 1300s and became a major West African state in the 1400s

Mestizo

The term used by Spanish authorities to describe someone of mixed native American and European descent.

Aurangzeb

Mughal emperor in India and great-grandson of Akbar 'the Great', under whom the empire reached its greatest extent, only to collapse after his death.

Pieces of Eight

Spanish coins minted from silver from the new world; became the first global currency

Mulattoes

a person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially a person with one white and one black parent.

devshirme

Ottoman policy of taking boys from Christian peoples to be trained as Muslim soldiers

Potosi

City that developed high in the Andes (in present-day Bolivia) at the site of the world's largest silver mine and that became the largest city in the Americas, with a population of some 160,000 in the 1570s.