AP World Academic Vocabulary - Chapter 3

Commerce

The large-scale exchange of goods and services, driving economic and cultural interaction between societies

Angkor Wat

A massive Buddhist temple complex in Cambodia, originally built in the 12th century as a Hindu temple.

Swahili Civilization

A set of independent city-states on the East African coast that developed a blended African and Arab culture through Indian Ocean trade.

Great Zimbabwe

A powerful medieval city in southern Africa known for its impressive stone enclosures and its central role in the gold trade.

Srivijaya

A powerful maritime empire on the island of Sumatra that controlled a crucial chokepoint in Indian Ocean trade from the 7th to the 13th century.

Pochteca

Professional, long-distance merchants in the Aztec Empire who traded luxury goods and served as spies.

Chaco Phenomenon

A major process of settlement and societal organization in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, known for large pueblos and an extensive road network.

American Web

A network of trade that linked parts of the pre-Columbian Americas, exchanging luxury goods and ideas over large areas.

House of Wisdom

An intellectual center and library in Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age that translated and advanced knowledge in various fields.

Timbuktu

A historic city in Mali that became a major center for trans-Saharan trade, Islamic scholarship, and culture.

Trans-Saharan slave trade

A network that involved the transport of enslaved Africans across the Sahara Desert to North Africa and the Middle East, mostly between the 8th and 19th centuries.

Mali

A significant West African empire that flourished from the 13th to 16th century, known for its wealth from trade and its Islamic centers like Timbuktu.

Ghana

A powerful West African state (6th–13th century) that grew wealthy by controlling the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade.

West African Civilization

The societies and empires, like Ghana and Mali, that developed complex cultures and economies driven by trade networks.

Arabian Camel

A domesticated animal whose ability to endure desert travel was crucial for the trans-Saharan trade routes.

Zheng He

A Chinese admiral who led massive maritime expeditions across the Indian Ocean in the early 15th century to establish trade and tributary relations.

Sand Roads

The network of trans-Saharan trade routes connecting sub-Saharan Africa with North Africa via caravans of camels.

Silk Roads

An ancient network of land-based trade routes that connected East and West Eurasia, facilitating the exchange of goods, ideas, and diseases.

Sea Roads

A vast sea-based trade network across the Indian Ocean that connected East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.