AP World History Unit 1: The Global Tapestry

Song Dynasty

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

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

Filial Piety

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

Neo-Confucianism

The Confucian response to Buddhism by taking Confucian and Buddhist beliefs and combining them into this. However, it is still very much Confucian in belief.

Champa Rice

Quick-maturing rice that can allow two harvests in one growing season. Originally introduced into Champa from India, it was later sent to China as a tribute gift by the Champa state (as part of the tributary system.)

Grand Canal

The 1,100-mile (1,700-kilometer) waterway linking the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers. It was begun in the Han period and completed during the Sui Empire.

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.

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.

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.

Abbasid Caliphate

(750-1258 CE) The caliphate, after the Umayyads, who focused more on administration than conquering. Had a bureaucracy that any Mulim could be a part of.

Mamluk Sultanate

A political unit in Egypt. Did not set up a consistent, hereditary line of succession.Failed to adapt to new warfare and were eventually defeated by the Ottomans.

Delhi Sultanate

The first Islamic government established within India from 1206-1520. Controled a small area of northern India and was centered in Delhi.

Sufism

mystical Muslim group that believed they could draw closer to God through prayer, fasting, & simple life

Dar al-Islam

a term used by Muslims to refer to those countries where Muslims can practice their religion freely.

House of Wisdom

a center of learning established in Baghdad in the 800s

Hinduism

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

Bhakti Movement

An immensely popular development in Hinduism, advocating intense devotion toward a particular deity.

Monasticism

The practice of living the life of a monk

Vijayanagara Empire

Southern Indian kingdom (1336-1565) that later fell to the Mughals.

Srivijaya Empire

A maritime empire that controlled the Sunda strait the strait of Malacca between India and China. HS: control strengthened trade routes to China, India, and even Arabia

Rajput Kingdoms

set of kingdoms in India that arose after the fall of the Gupta dynasty ruled by land owning Kshatriyas (Warriors)

wealthy due to trade and a good economy.

Khmer Empire

Aggressive empire in Cambodia and Laos that collapsed in the 1400's when Thailand conquered Cambodia

Sinhala Dynasties

Kingdom on the island of Sri Lanka

Maya

Mesoamerican civilization concentrated in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and in Guatemala and Honduras but never unified into a single empire. Major contributions were in mathematics, astronomy, and development of the calendar.

Aztecs

Also known as Mexica, they created a powerful empire in central Mexico (1325-1521 C.E.). They forced defeated peoples to provide goods and labor as a tax.

Inca

Largest and most powerful Andean empire. Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco.

Chaco

An urban center established by Anasazi located in southern New Mexico. There, they built a walled city with dozens of three-story adobe houses with timbered roofs. Community religious functions were carried out in two large circular chambers called kivas.

Mesa Verde

The largest complex of Anasazi cliff-dwellings in the United States Southwest, built between about AD 1150 and AD 1300

Great Zimbabwe

City, now in ruins (in the modern African country of Zimbabwe), whose many stone structures were built between about 1250 and 1450, when it was a trading center and the capital of a large state.

Ethiopia

A Christian kingdom that developed in the highlands of eastern Africa under the dynasty of King Lalaibela; retained Christianity in the face of Muslim expansion elsewhere in Africa

Hausa Kingdoms

West African people who lived in several city-states of what is now northern Nigeria

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

Serfdom

A type of labor commonly used in feudal systems in which the laborers work the land in return for protection but they are bound to the land and are not allowed to leave or to peruse their a new occupation. This was common in early Medeival Europe as well as in Russia until the mid 19th century.

Imperial Bureaucracy

organizations where appointed officials carry out the empire's policies

Civil Service Exam

In Imperial China starting in the Han dynasty, it was an exam based on Confucian teachings that was used to select people for various government service jobs in the nationwide administrative bureaucracy.

Scholar Gentry

Chinese class created by the marital linkage of the local land-holding aristocracy with the office-holding shi; superseded shi as governors of China.

Foot Binding

Practice in Chinese society to mutilate women's feet in order to make them smaller; produced pain and restricted women's movement; made it easier to confine women to the household.

Bagdhad

Capital of Islamic Empire under the Abbasid Dynasty.

Seljuk Turks

nomadic Turks from Asia who conquered Baghdad in 1055 and allowed the caliph to remain only as a religious leader. they governed strictly

Crusades

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

Majapahit kingdom

vast archipelagic empire based on the island of Java from 1293 to around 1500; one of the last major empires of the region and is considered to be one of the greatest and most powerful empires in the history of Indonesia and Southeast Asia, one that is sometimes seen as the precedent for Indonesia's modern boundaries

Mississippian Culture

Last of the mound-building cultures of North America; flourished between 800 and 1300 C.E.; featured large towns and ceremonial centers; lacked stone architecture of Central America.

Matrilineal Society

a society in which descent & inheritance come through the mother's kinship line

Mexicas

another name for the Aztecs

Mita System

The system recruiting workers for particularly difficult and dangerous chores that free laborers would not accept.

Temple of the Sun

Inca religious center located at Cuzco; center of state religion; held mummies of past Incas

Animism

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

Carpa Nan

during Incan rule, this is a massive roadway system made possible by captive labor, stretched 25,00 miles

Kin-Based Networks

Relation between two or more people that is based on common ancestry or marriage

Manorial System

an economic system in the Middle Ages that was built around large estates called manors

Three-field system

A rotational system for agriculture in which one field grows grain, one grows legumes, and one lies fallow. It gradually replaced two-field system in medieval Europe.

Estates General

An assembly of representatives from all three of the estates, or social classes, in France.

Magna Carta

the royal charter of political rights given to rebellious English barons by King John in 1215

English Parliament

England's chief law-making body. It was a key institution in the development of representative democracy as it provided some voice and recognition of the rights and interests of various groups in society.

Marco Polo

Venetian merchant and traveler. His accounts of his travels to China offered Europeans a firsthand view of Asian lands and stimulated interest in Asian trade.

Renaissance

"rebirth"; following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome