Pre AP World Final Prep

Paleontologists

A scientist who studies fossils

Historians

scholars who study the past by analyzing written records

Archaeologists

a scientist who studies the items left behind by ancient peoples to determine how they lived

Anthropologists

Study past and present human cultures

Economists

Scholars of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods within an economy

Isthmus

A narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas

Andes Mountains

A large system of mountain ranges located along the Pacific coast of Central and South America

Amazon Basin

The home of the world's largest tropical rainforests, runs along the the largest river in the world on the continent of South America.

Ural Mountains

This north-south range separates Siberia from the rest of Russia. It is commonly considered the boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia.

Himalayan Mountains

Highest mountain range in the world, seperates India from China

Siberia

The northeastern sector of Asia or the Eastern half of Russia (permafrost)

Sahara Desert

the largest desert in the world, covering most of northern Africa

Nile River

The river in which early kingdoms in Egypt were centered around.

Huang He River

"river of sorrows" floods; located in the north east, very long. Also called the "yellow river".

Tigris/Euphrates Rivers

the two rivers that surround Mesopotamia. These rivers would flood and provide silt that made the soil fertile.

Fertile Crescent

A geographical area of fertile land in the Middle East stretching in a broad semicircle from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates (cradle of civilization)

The Pacific Rim of Fire

the great volcanic mountain ranges surrounding the Pacific ocean that often produce earthquakes and volcanic activity

archipelagos

chains of islands

Paleolithic Period

Old Stone Age

The Ice Age

a time when glaciers covered much of the land (land bridges and migration)

The Neolithic Revolution

The switch from nomadic lifestyles to a settled agricultural lifestyle is this revolution.

African Bantu Pastoralists

facilitated the spread of language, metallurgy, and new agricultural techniques

irrigation ditches

Invention that allowed people to redirect water from rivers for storage and irrigation

Egypt

This early empire has its home along Africa's longest river, with a detailed form of writing. (Core civilization; predictable flooding; "gift of the Nile")

Huang He

Yellow River

Yangtze

Longest river in China

Olmecs

An early peopl who settled in modern day Mexico and who traded in jade and obsidian and erected colossal heads carved from rocks.

Chavin

the first major South American civilization, which flourished in the highlands of what is now Peru from about 900 to 200 B.C.

Chavin de Huantar

center of Chavin culture - urban religious and trading center with a population of about 3000 farmers, craftspeople and others.

llama

Latin American beast of burden

Confucianism

A philosophy that adheres to the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It shows the way to ensure a stable government and an orderly society in the present world and stresses a moral code of conduct.

Buddhism

the teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth

Hinduism

A religion and philosophy developed in ancient India, characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being who takes many forms

Christianity

A monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior.

Judaism

A religion with a belief in one god. It originated with Abraham and the Hebrew people. Yahweh was responsible for the world and everything within it. They preserved their early history in the Old Testament.

Islam

A religion based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed which stresses belief in one god (Allah), Paradise and Hell, and a body of law written in the Quran. Followers are called Muslims.

Animism

Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life.

Daoism

A religion in China which emphasizes the removal from society and to become one with nature.

Liu Bang

the founder of the Han dynasty

civil service examinations

a test given to qualify candidates for positions in the government

Han Wudi

The most important Han Emperor. Expanded the Empire in all directions. Created the Civil Service System. Established Public Schools.

Han technology

water mills, paper, iron/steel

Xiongnu

A confederation of nomadic peoples living beyond the northwest frontier of ancient China. Chinese rulers tried a variety of defenses and stratagems to ward off these 'barbarians,' as they called them, and dispersed them in 1st Century. (168)

The Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE)

First politically centralized dynasty following fall of Han and Era of Division (Grand Canal)

Chandragupta Maurya

founder of the Mauryan Empire

Asoka

grandson of Chandragupta; most honored emperor for his commitment to spreading peace and prosperity to all; was buddhist but accepted other religions; decline came after his death

The Kushan State

prospered from trade via the Silk Road - the route between the Roman Empire and China. (30 CE - 375CE)

The Gupta Empire (350 - 543 CE)

After invasions from the Huns, the empire fell apart in the middle of the 600s CE, leaving the Indian subcontinent disunited until the modern era.

Samudragupta

He was a warrior and expansionist leader of the Gupta empire

Middle Eastern Society: 10,000 - 600 BCE

Babylon (Code of Hammurabi)

South Asian Society: 10,000 - 600 BCE

Harappans (grid like streets and urban planning

Mesoamerican Society 10,000 - 600 BCE

Olmecs

South American Society: 10,000 - 600 BCE

Chavin

East Asian Society: 600 - 600

Han; Sui

South Asian Society: 600 - 600

Mauryan; Kushan; Gupta

Central; Middle Eastern; East Asian Society: 600 - 1450

Mongol Khanates

Filial Piety

In Confucian thought, one of the virtues to be cultivated, a love and respect for one's parents and ancestors (family veneration)

Surplus

A situation in which quantity supplied is greater than quantity demanded

Areas that saw the spread of the earliest technologies associated with agriculture

river valleys

Monsoons

seasonal wind patterns that cause wet and dry seasons (South Asia; Indian Ocean)

The Arabian Peninsula

a peninsula between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf

manorialism

Economic system during the Middle Ages that revolved around self-sufficient farming estates where lords and peasants shared the land.

Urban II

Called First Crusade in 1095; appealed to Christians to mount military assault to free the Holy Land from the Muslims.

intolerance

A lack of acceptance of another person's opinions, beliefs, or actions (impact of the Crusades)

Theodora

the wife of Justinian, she helped to improve the status of women in the Byzantinian Empire and encouraged her husband to stay in Constntinople and fight the Nike Revolt.

Cyril and Methodius

Byzantine missionaries sent to convert eastern Europe and Balkans; responsible for creation of Slavic written script called Cyrillic.

Tang Dynasty (618 CE)

Post Classical Era 1: 500 CE to 1000 CE; Scholar Gentry in East Asia emerged

Neo Confucianism

philosophy that the world is real and good comes from participation in it - not withdrawal

Champa

Fast growing rice, caused population boom in China

Kublai Khan

(1215-1294) Grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China.

Madinah Compact

Muhammad laid the foundation of Islamic state, decreed that all Muslims were to place loyalty to the Islamic community above loyalty to their tribe

Shariah

a law code drawn up by Muslim scholars after Muhammad's death; it provided believers with a set of practical laws to regulate their daily lives

Caliph

A supreme political and religious leader in a Muslim government

Umayyad Caliphate

(661-750 CE) The Islamic caliphate that established a capital at Damascus, conquered North Africa, the Iberian Pennisula, Southwest Asia, and Persia, and had a bureaucracy with only Arab Muslims able to be a part of it.

Abbasid Caliphate

750-1258; Built Baghdad on the banks of the Tigris River (Present day Iraq) and made it the new capital.

Ottomans

Responsible for the conquest of Constantinople in 1453

Charlemagne

nearly doubled the borders of his kingdom to include Germany, France, northern Spain, and most of Italy

diaspora

the dispersion of the Jews outside Israel

feudalism

A political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to their king, in exchange for their loyalty, military service, and protection of the people who live on the land

Monasticism

A way of life in which men and women withdraw from the rest of the world in order to devote themselves to their faith

secular

worldly

Republic

A form of government in which citizens choose their leaders by voting

North Africa

Free grain was imported into Rome from

Pax Romana

A period of peace and prosperity throughout the Roman Empire, lasting from 27 B.C. to A.D. 180.

Coliseum, Circus Maximus, Aqueducts

Architectural achievement(s) of the Pax Romana

Christianity and Buddhism

spread in the wake of collapsing empires.

arithmetic and geometry

Topics studied in Athenian schools

philosophy

love of wisdom and knowledge

Alexander's Empire

stretched from Egypt and Macedonia in the west to the Indus River in the east

Hellenistic

Greek ways mixed with other cultures

Mongols

Created the largest land empire in history

Yasa

Mongol law code

Jagatai Khanate

Khanate located in central Asia

~known for open trade policy

Helegu

Grandson of Chinggis Khan (ca. 1217-1265) who became the first il-khan (subordinate khan) of Persia.

Ghana

First known kingdom in sub-Saharan West Africa between the sixth and thirteenth centuries C.E. Also the modern West African country once known as the Gold Coast. gold and salt trade.

Ghana, Mali, Songhai

• West African kingdoms that built wealth and power through trans-Saharan trade of salt and gold

Caravanserai

inn or rest station for caravans

Timbuktu

Mali trading city that became a center of wealth and learning

gunpowder

Invented within China during the 9th century, this substance was became the dominate military technology used to expand European and Asian empires by the 15th century. - used by the Moroccans to defeat Songhai