WHAP Unit 1

Paleolithic Era

Long period in which human society sustained themselves through gathering, hunting, and fishing. Also named the stone age.

Agricultural Revolution

Maybe the most transformative process in human history. Domestication of plants and animals, which led to both farming and pastoral societies.

Pastoral Societies

Alternative king of food producing solely focused on livestock (reliance on nomadism)

Patriarchy

A social system where women have been made subordinate to men in the family/ society linked to the development of plow

Hinduism

The oldest, largest and most prominent religion in India. It had no historical founder unlike other religions. It was based on many beliefs, practices and rituals much like religions in our world today. It became an integral part of India however later it spread to South East Asia.

Upanishads

Mystical and Philosophical Indian sacred works written between 800

Siddhartha Guatama

A new religion formed in South East Asia, however it was founded by a historical founder, Siddhartha Guatama. The Indian prince whose exposure of human suffering led him to develop a path of enlightenment. Lived ca. 566

Theravada Buddhism

Teaching of the Elders, the early form of Buddhism in which Buddha was a wise teacher but not divine, more practices than beliefs.

Mahayana Buddhism

Great Vehicle, the more popular evolution of Buddhism to the common era which gives a greater role to the supernatural leading it to be the more popular type of Buddhism (rather than Theravada). This religion was available to everyone, this type of Buddhism took root in Central Asia, China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia.

Bhakti Movement

From Buddhism largely disappearing from India, the decline owed something to the piling wealth and this path took shape to the vocabulary word. Meaning “worship,” this Hindu movement began in south India and moved northward between 600 and 1300 c.e.; it involved the intense adoration of and identification with a particular deity through songs, prayers, and rituals.

Confucianism

An ethical and philosophical system founded by Confucius. The Chinese philosophy first enunciated by Confucius, advocating the moral example of superiors as the key element of social order.

Han Dynasty

The Chinese dynasty (206 b.c.e.–220 c.e.) that emerged after the Qin dynasty collapsed, establishing political and cultural patterns that lasted into the twentieth century.

Daoism

Different from Confucian, it was quite a different school of thought and it took shape as Daoism. A Chinese philosophy or popular religion that advocates a simple and unpretentious way of living and alignment with the natural world, founded by the legendary figure Laozi who was a sixth

Judaism

Jews found in their God, whose name they were reluctant to pronounce because of its sacredness, a powerful and jealous deity, who demanded their exclusive loyalty. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” — this was the first of the Ten Commandments.

Jesus of Nazareth

Christianity began in a distinctly Jewish cultural setting. In the remote province of Judaea, which was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 63 b.c.e., a young Jewish craftsman or builder called Jesus of Nazareth (ca. 4 b.c.e.–29 c.e.)

Saint Paul

Christianity soon emerged as a separate faith. Its transformation from a small Jewish sect to a world religion began with Saint Paul (ca. 6–67 c.e.), an early convert whose missionary journeys in the eastern Roman Empire led to the founding of small Christian communities that included non

Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (Prophet Muhammad)

The catalyst for the emerge of Islam, a trader from Mecca and a man troubled by the corruption there.

Quran (Koran)

Muhammad experienced an overwhelming religious experience that lead him to believe that he was one of Allah's messengers to the Arabs making the Arabs bring scripture of their own, leading to the creation of the Quran. The Quran demanded social justice and laid out a prescription for its implementation.

Umma

The just and moral society of Islam was the umma (OOM

Ulama

No group was more important in the transmission of those beliefs and practices than the ulama. These learned scholars served as judges, interpreters, administrators, prayer leaders, and reciters of the Quran, but especially as preservers and teachers of the sharia or Islamic law

Sharia

Sharia is the divine path Muslims are to follow to live according to God's will, encompassing a wide range of ethical, moral, and legal principles for daily life. The term literally means "path" or "way" and serves as a comprehensive guide for Muslims, covering aspects from ritual worship and personal behavior to finance and family matters.

Madrasas

Beginning in the eleventh century, formal colleges called madrassas offered more advanced instruction in the Quran and the sayings of Muhammad; grammar and rhetoric; sometimes philosophy, theology, mathematics, and medicine; and, above all else, law.

Sufism

Sufism is a spiritual path based on the principles expressed in the Holy Qur'an and embodied in the character of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

The Song Dynasty

The Chinese dynasty (960–1279) that rose to power after the Tang dynasty. During the Song dynasty, an explosion of scholarship gave rise to Neo

China’s Economic Revolution

A major rise in prosperity that took place in China under the Song dynasty (960–1279); was marked by rapid population growth, urbanization, economic specialization, the development of an immense network of internal waterways, and a great increase in industrial production and technological innovation

Hangzhou

China’s capital during the Song dynasty, with a population at its height of more than a million people.

Foot Binding

The Chinese practice of tightly wrapping girls’ feet to keep them small, prevalent in the Song dynasty and later; an emphasis on small size and delicacy was central to views of female beauty.

Hangul

A phonetic alphabet developed in Korea in the fifteenth century in a move toward greater cultural independence from China. (pron. HAHN

Bushido

The “way of the warrior,” referring to the martial values of the Japanese samurai, including bravery, loyalty, and an emphasis on death over surrender.

Tribute System

A set of practices that required a show of subordination from all non

Srivijaya

A Malay kingdom that dominated the critical choke point in Indian Ocean trade at the Strait of Melaka between 670 and 1025 c.e. Like other places in Southeast Asia, Srivijaya absorbed various cultural influences from India

Madjapahit

A significant Southeast Asian state that assimilated Hindu religious ideas. It was located primarily on the island of Java and was at the peak of its power in the fourteenth century.

Angkor Wat

The largest religious structure in the premodern world, this temple was built by the powerful Angkor kingdom (located in modern Cambodia) in the twelfth century c.e. to express a Hindu understanding of the cosmos centered on a mythical Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hindu tradition. It was later used by Buddhists as well.

Abbasid Caliphate

An Arab dynasty of caliphs (successors to the Prophet) who governed much of the Islamic world from its capital in Baghdad beginning in 750 c.e. After 900 c.e. that empire increasingly fragmented until its overthrow by the Mongols in 1258.

Seljuk Turkic Empire

An empire of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, centered in Persia and present

Ottoman Empire

Major Islamic state centered on Anatolia that came to include the Balkans, parts of the Middle East, and much of North Africa; lasted in one form or another from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century.

Jizya

Special tax paid by dhimmis (protected but second

Al-Andalus

Arabic name for Spain, most of which was conquered by Arab and Berber forces between 711 and 718 c.e. Muslim Spain represented a point of encounter between the Islamic world and Christian Europe.

Swahili Civilization

An East African civilization that emerged in the eighth century c.e. as a set of commercial city

West African civilization

A series of important states that developed in the region stretching from the Atlantic coast to Lake Chad in the period 500 to 1600 c.e. Developed in response to the economic opportunities of trans

Mali

A prominent state within West African civilization; it was established in 1235 c.e. and flourished for several centuries. Mali monopolized the import of horses and metals as part of the trans

Trans- Saharan slave trade

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

Timbuktu

A major commercial city of West African civilization and a noted center of Islamic scholarship and education by the sixteenth century.

Byzantine Empire

One of the main centers of Christendom during the medieval centuries, the Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the eastern portion of the Roman Empire. It lasted for a thousand years after the collapse of Roman rule in the West, until its conquest by Muslim forces in 1453.

Ottoman seizure of Constantinople

The city of Constantinople, the capital and almost the only outpost left of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the army of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II “the Conqueror” in 1453, an event that marked the end of Christian Byzantium.

Kievan Rus

A culturally diverse civilization that emerged around the city of Kiev in the ninth century c.e. and adopted Christianity in the tenth, thus linking this emerging Russian state to the world of Eastern Orthodoxy.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Branch of Christianity that developed in the eastern part of the Roman Empire and gradually separated, mostly on matters of practice, from the branch of Christianity dominant in Western Europe; noted for the subordination of the Church to political authorities, a married clergy, the use of leavened bread in the Eucharist, and a sharp rejection of the authority of Roman popes.

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.

Feudalism

A highly fragmented and decentralized society in which power was held by the landowning warrior elite. In this highly competitive system, lesser lords and knights swore allegiance to greater lords or kings and thus became their vassals, frequently receiving lands and plunder in return for military service

Roman Catholic Church

Western European branch of Christianity that gradually defined itself as separate from Eastern Orthodoxy, with a major break occurring in 1054 c.e. that still has not been overcome. By the eleventh century, Western Christendom was centered on the pope as the ultimate authority in matters of doctrine. The Church struggled to remain independent of established political authorities.

European Renaissance

A “rebirth” of classical learning that is most often associated with the cultural blossoming of Italy in the period 1350–1500 and that included not just a rediscovery of Greek and Roman learning but also major developments in art, as well as growing secularism in society. It spread to Northern Europe after 1400

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.

Aztec Empire

Major state that developed in what is now Mexico in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; dominated by the semi

Inca Empire

The Western Hemisphere’s largest imperial state in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Built by a relatively small community of Quechua

Mita (Mit’a) System

The mita system was a form of mandatory labor service in the Inca Empire, later adapted by the Spanish into a forced labor system in the Americas, primarily for state and public projects like road building, construction, and particularly the Potosí silver mines.