World History & International Exchange Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering global trade networks, land-based and maritime empires, industrialization, and 20th-century global conflicts as detailed in the lecture notes.

Caravanserai

Hotel or rest areas along the Trans-Saharan and Silk Road routes located about every $100\,\text{miles}$.

Genghis (Chinggis) Khan

The Mongol leader who attacked China, Central Asia, Russia, and the Islamic middle east, claiming to unite the whole world in one empire.

Astrolabe

A technological advancement used for calculating latitude to assist navigation on the Indian Ocean Sea Roads.

Zheng He

A grand eunuch in China who led a fleet of $300\,\text{ships}$ and $27,000\,\text{people}$ beginning in $1405$ to promote the tribute system.

Timbuktu

A thriving West African city of education with hundreds of schools and higher learning centers where students came from all over Africa.

Sharia

Religious regulations in Islam that include laws for regulating trade.

Janissaries

Elite Ottoman infantry force and personal bodyguards to the emperor, originally made up of Christian boys converted to Islam through the devshirme system.

Qezelbash

Military chiefs in the Safavid Empire who helped control individual districts.

Mansabdars

Military and civil officers in the Mughal Empire who acted as a complex bureaucracy and collected taxes.

Qing Dynasty

A dynasty established by a Manchu takeover of China in $1644$ that lasted until $1912$, emphasizing security and expansion through gunpowder.

Zamindars

Large local landowners in the Mughal Empire who collected taxes on behalf of the emperor to generate land revenue.

Bushido

The "way of the warrior" in Japan, a code of honor that emphasized frugality, kindness, honesty, and care for family elders.

Indulgences

Slips of paper sold by the Catholic Church for the forgiveness of sins, which Martin Luther famously opposed.

Yasak

Tribute paid to the Russian state in cash or kind; in Siberia, this was often paid in furs.

Mercantilism

An economic theory where a nation's wealth is measured in gold and silver, emphasizing a trade surplus by exporting more than importing.

Empiricism

The Enlightenment idea that knowledge comes from observed experiences and experiments rather than tradition or religion.

Laissez-Faire

A theory by Adam Smith, known as the foundation of capitalism, stating that the government should "leave it be" regarding economic decisions.

Toussaint Louverture

A formerly enslaved man who led the enslaved people during the Haitian Revolution.

Spinning Jenny

An invention created by James Hargreaves in the $1760\text{s}$ that allowed weavers to spin multiple threads at once.

Bessemer process

A method for steel production that removed impurities, making steel stronger and cheaper to replace iron products.

Proletariat

The term used by Karl Marx to describe the poor working class under capitalism.

Social Darwinism

A pseudoscience using the theory of "survival of the fittest" to justify imperialism by claiming certain races or nations are biologically superior.

Sepoy Mutiny

An $1857$ rebellion of Indian soldiers against the British East India Company, triggered by rumors of gun cartridges greased with beef and pork fat.

Treaty of Nanjing

The $1842$ agreement following the Opium War where China gave Britain Hong Kong and opened five ports to foreign trade.

Blitzkrieg

Known as "lightning war," a German WWII tactic of rapid movement of forces over large areas.

Perestroika

A Soviet economic policy involving an open global economy and more free market involvement.

Green Revolution

A mid-$20\text{th}$ century movement that introduced disease and drought-resistant crops to grow more food on less land.