AP World Unit 1

Song Dynasty

A Chinese dynasty ($960\text{--}1279\text{ CE}$) marked by stable political rule, a golden age of arts and literature, and a major bureaucratic administration overseen by the Censorate.

Censorate

An official agency in Song China that exercised surveillance and oversight over the six major ministries and the rest of the government.

Neo-Confucianism

A revived version of Confucian philosophy emerging during the Song Dynasty that was influenced by Buddhism and incorporated theological dimensions.

Champa Rice

A fast-ripening, drought-resistant strain of rice adopted from Vietnam that dramatically increased agricultural yields and fueled China's population boom.

Foot Binding

The tight wrapping of young girls' feet to break bones and alter growth, widely practiced among elite Song women as a standard of beauty, small size, and deference.

Kami

Sacred spirits and ancestral forces in traditional Japanese religion (Shinto) that persisted and assimilated into Japanese Buddhism.

Malian Empire

A powerful West African Islamic empire that reached its peak in the $14\text{th}$ century through control of the Trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, ivory, and enslaved people.

Mansa Musa

A famous Muslim ruler of the Malian Empire ($1312\text{--}1327\text{ CE}$) who promoted Islamic learning and demonstrated immense wealth during his pilgrimage to Mecca.

Al-Andalus

The Muslim-ruled territory centered in Spain and Portugal, established in $711\text{ CE}$ after Arab and Berber forces crossed the Strait of Gibraltar.

Cordoba

The capital of Al-Andalus, known as one of the wealthiest cities in Europe with advanced irrigation agriculture and the second-largest library in the world.

Malacca

A powerful city-state on the Malaysian coast that grew wealthy by taxing trade passing through the straits between Malaya and Sumatra and served as a center for the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia.

Swahili Language

A hybrid trade language spoken along the East African coast that emerged from a combination of African (Bantu) and Arabic, along with some Persian influences.

Sunni-Shia Split

The foundational division in Islam stemming from a succession dispute after Muhammad's death; Sunnis backed Abu Bakr while Shia held that leadership belonged to Muhammad's blood relatives.

Abbasid Caliphate

An Arab-Muslim dynasty ($750/751\text{--}1258\text{ CE}$) based in Baghdad that presided over a cosmopolitan and prosperous Islamic Golden Age until falling to the Mongols.

House of Wisdom

An intellectual institution and translation center in Baghdad where Muslim, Christian, and Persian scholars translated Greek, Persian, and Indian works into Arabic.

Ghulams

Enslaved Turkish military forces captured from Central Asia by the Abbasids who later rebelled and established independent territorial regimes.

Legalism

A Chinese political philosophy utilized by the Qin Dynasty that advocated strict laws, harsh punishments, and centralized authority under the premise that humans are naturally selfish.

Daoism

A mystical Chinese philosophy linked to Laozi and the Dao De Jing, emphasizing harmony with the dynamic, changing flow of nature rather than rigid legal control.

Caste System

A rigid hierarchical social structure in India associated with Hinduism, dividing society into Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, and excluded Untouchables with no upward mobility in a single lifetime.

Mahayana Buddhism

A broader, flexible branch of Buddhism that traveled north to Tibet, China, and Korea, regarding the Buddha as semi-divine and venerating bodhisattvas.

Bodhisattva

In Mahayana Buddhism, an enlightened individual who deliberately postpones entering nirvana to remain in the cycle of rebirth and assist others toward enlightenment.

Theravada Buddhism

A conservative branch of Buddhism prominent in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia that adheres closely to the Buddha's original teachings, focusing on monastic dedication to attain nirvana.

Delhi Sultanate

A Turkish Muslim kingdom in Northern India ($1206\text{--}1526\text{ CE}$) in which an Islamic minority ruled over a largely Hindu majority by incorporating local elites into government and military posts.

Angkor Wat

A vast $12\text{th-century}$ temple built by the Khmer Empire in modern Cambodia, initially designed as a Hindu architectural representation of Mount Meru before later serving Buddhist worship.

Srivijaya Empire

A maritime Buddhist kingdom ($670\text{--}1025\text{ CE}$) that commanded the critical trade choke point through the Straits of Malacca, exemplifying Indianization in Southeast Asia.

Tenochtitlan

The capital city of the Aztec Empire, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco with an estimated population of about $200{,}000$ people.

Chinampas

Artificial, highly productive agricultural islands built on shallow lake beds around Tenochtitlan that supplied crops like maize, squash, and beans.

Huitzilopochtli

The Aztec patron sun deity believed to lose energy during his struggle against cosmic darkness, requiring nourishment through human sacrificial blood.

Mita System

A mandatory Inca labor tax requiring subjects to contribute physical work annually toward public state works, terrace farming, and imperial roads.

Gender Parallelism

An Inca social arrangement in which women and men operated in distinct, separate spheres of life and labor while maintaining equal value and status.

Quipu

A communication and record-keeping system invented by the Incas using tied, knotted strings to record accounting, census figures, and inventories.

American Web

A loose, regional exchange network across the Western Hemisphere with four primary nodes: Cahokia, Chaco Canyon, Mesoamerica, and the Andes.

Caesaropapism

A governance structure in the Byzantine Empire where the emperor combined supreme imperial authority with headship of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Great Schism

The $1054\text{ CE}$ formal split dividing Christianity into the Western Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church over liturgical language, theology, and the Pope's authority.

Feudalism

A medieval European political and military system wherein monarchs distributed parcels of land (fiefs) to noble vassals in return for loyalty, taxes, and armed support.

Manorialism

The self-contained economic system of medieval Europe focused on agrarian estates (manors) worked by bound peasants and serfs in return for a lord's protection.

Three-Field System

An agricultural rotation practice in medieval Europe where arable land was divided into thirds, planting two and leaving one fallow to preserve soil fertility.

Yersinia Pestis

The bacterium causing the Black Death, carried by rodents and transmitted by fleas, which broke out in China in $1331\text{ CE}$ and decimated Eurasian populations.

Caravanserai

Roadside rest stations and commercial inns along the Silk Roads where overland merchants sheltered, replenished animals, and conducted trade.

Monsoon Winds

Predictable seasonal wind patterns in the Indian Ocean that blew northeast in summer and southwest in winter, facilitating trans-oceanic maritime trade.

Dhow

A distinctive cargo vessel equipped with triangular sails, widely employed by Arab, Persian, and Indian merchants sailing across the Indian Ocean.

Zheng He

A Ming Dynasty admiral who led seven major maritime expeditions ($1405\text{--}1433\text{ CE}$) across the Indian Ocean to project Chinese prestige and cultural power.

Genghis Khan

Originally named Temujin, he unified all warring Mongol pastoral tribes into a single military force by $1206\text{ CE}$, establishing the largest contiguous empire in history.

Feigned Retreat

A Mongol military deception tactic wherein cavalry pretended to break and flee, drawing opposing armies out of formation before turning to annihilate them.

Pax Mongolica

A state of security and administrative peace across Eurasia during the $13\text{th}$ and $14\text{th}$ centuries that fostered trade along protected Silk Road routes.

Golden Horde

The western division of the Mongol Empire founded by Batu that dominated Kievan Russia, governing from Sarai and imposing the 'Mongol Yoke' of tribute.

Ilkhanate

The southwestern Mongol khanate founded by Hulegu after capturing Baghdad in $1258\text{ CE}$, centered in Persia and governed from Maragha.

Sinicization

The process of absorbing and assimilating traditional Chinese culture, social norms, and language, which the ruling Mongol elite of the Yuan Dynasty resisted.