AP World History Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards for AP World History review.

Confucianism

A philosophy and belief system from ancient China, which focuses on the importance of personal ethics and morality.

Buddhism

A religion that originated in India and encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha.

Civil Service Exam

In China, it was a test given to qualify candidates for positions in the state bureaucracy.

Champa Rice

A drought-resistant, fast-ripening rice that can allow two harvests in one growing season.

Filial Piety

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

Grand Canal

An inland waterway 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long in eastern China.

House of Wisdom

A major intellectual center during the Abbasid Caliphate.

Sufism

Mystical form of Islam that emphasizes direct personal experience of God.

Delhi Sultanate

A Muslim kingdom based mostly in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years

Bhakti Movement

An Indian religious movement that sought to erase the distinction between Hinduism and Islam.

Incan Empire

The largest pre-Columbian empire in the Americas.

Aztec Empire

A large Mesoamerican empire based in modern day Mexico, that was created by the Mexica people.

Mayan City States

Independent polities of the Maya civilization, in modern day Central America.

Mit'a System

A mandatory public service in the society of the Inca Empire.

Chinampa

A type of Mesoamerican agriculture which used small, rectangular areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, now Mexico City.

Great Zimbabwe

A ruined city in the south-eastern hills of Zimbabwe.

Ethiopia

A country in the Horn of Africa.

Mali

A landlocked country in West Africa.

Timbuktu

A city in Mali, it was a major center of trans-Saharan trade and a center of Islamic learning.

Swahili

A Bantu language spoken in East Africa.

Mansa Musa

The tenth Mansa (emperor) of the Mali Empire.

Camel Caravans

A series of camels carrying passengers and goods on a regular service between points.

Feudalism

A dominant social system in medieval Europe.

Manorialism

An economic system structured around a lord's manor, or estate.

Serfdom

The status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism.

Crusades

A series of religious wars blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church.

Black Death

A bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Afro-Eurasia from 1346 to 1353.

Marco Polo

A Venetian merchant, explorer, and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295.

Kashgar

A city in Xinjiang, China; it was a key point on the Silk Road.

Samarkand

A city in Uzbekistan; it was a key point on the Silk Road.

Caravanserai

A roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey.

Paper Money

Legal currency issued on paper.

Flying Cash

Letters of credit used by merchants.

Banking

The business activity of accepting and safeguarding money owned by other individuals and entities, and then lending out this money to conduct economic activities.

Porcelain

A ceramic material made by heating materials generally including kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between 1,200 and 1,400 °C (2,200 and 2,600 °F).

Genghis Khan

Founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.

Khanates

A political entity ruled by a Khan.

Steppe

A large area of flat unforested grassland in southeastern Europe or Siberia.

Bubonic Plague

A bacterial disease caused by Yersinia pestis.

Gujarat

A state on the western coast of India. Was a key point of trade in the Indian Ocean.

Malacca

A state in Malaysia. Was a key point of trade in the Indian Ocean.

Diaspora

The dispersion of any people from their original homeland.

Monsoon Winds

Seasonal change in the direction of the prevailing winds of a region.

Compass

A navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the Earth.

Zhenghe

A Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty.

Camel Saddles

Allowed for increased trade and travel along the Sahara.

Ibn Battuta

A Muslim Berber-Moroccan scholar and explorer who widely travelled the medieval world.

Margery Kempe

An English Christian mystic, known for writing The Book of Margery Kempe.

Manchu Empire

The last imperial dynasty of China.

Gunpowder

An explosive mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal.

Qing

The last imperial dynasty of China.

Kangxi

The fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty.

Banner System

An administrative and military organization used by the Manchu.

Queue

A specific male hairstyle worn by the Manchu people.

Neo-Confucianism

A moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism.

Songhai Empire

A West African empire that flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Askia Muhammad

An emperor, military commander, and political reformer of the Songhai Empire in the late 15th century.

Gao

The most important commercial center for the Songhai Empire

Cuzco

A city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Inca Empire.

Atahualpa

The last Sapa Inca (sovereign emperor) of the Inca Empir

Tokugawa Japan

The final period of traditional Japan, a time of internal peace, political stability, and economic growth.

Samurai

The hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early modern Japan.

Shogun

A hereditary commander-in-chief in feudal Japan.

Bakafu

The military government of Japan between 1192 and 1867, headed by the shogun.

Sakoku

The isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate

Ottoman Empire

A former Turkish empire that was founded in about 1299 by Osman I and reached its greatest territorial extent in 1679.

Istanbul

The largest city in Turkey, formerly known as Constantinople, it was captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1453.

Devshirme

The Ottoman practice of forcibly recruiting soldiers and bureaucrats from Balkan Christian populations.

Janissaries

Elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and bodyguards.

Tax Farming

A system for collecting state revenue.

Alhambra Decree

An edict issued in 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ordering the expulsion of practicing Jews from the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.

Safavid Empire

One of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran.

Shi'a Islam

The second largest branch of Islam.

Mughal Empire

An early-modern empire in South Asia.

Divine Faith

A syncretic religion propounded by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1582 AD, intending to merge some of the elements of all the religions of his empire, mainly Islam, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism, but also some parts of Christianity, Jainism, and Buddhism.

Sikhism

A monotheistic religion that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century.

Zamindars

Aristocrats who appeared under the Mughal Empire.

Taj Mahal

An ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra.

Marathas

A group of Hindu warriors in India.

Versailles

The principal royal residence of France from 1682, under Louis XIV, until the start of the French Revolution in 1789, under Louis XVI.

Protestant Reformation

A major movement within Western Christianity that started in 1517.

Scientific Revolution

A series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology and chemistry transformed the views of society about nature.

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.

Fluyts

A Dutch type of sailing ship historically designed as a dedicated cargo vessel.

Astrolabe

A historical astronomical instrument used by astronomers and navigators.

Lateen Sails

A triangular sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle on the mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction.

Trading Post Empire

A state whose economy is based on controlling commerce.

Encomiendas

A Spanish labor system that rewarded conquerors with the labor of particular groups of subject people.

Castas

A social hierarchy based on race that was used in the Spanish colonies.

Vodun

A syncretic religion practiced chiefly in Haiti.

Potosi

A city in Bolivia, it was the location of the Spanish colonial silver mine.

Joint Stock Company

A business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders.

Columbian Exchange

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Americas, West Africa, and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Cossacks

A group of East Slavic-speaking people who became known as members of democratic, self-governing, semimilitary communities.

Marathas

A group of Hindu warriors in India.

Creoles

People of Spanish ancestry who were born in the Americas.

Peninsulares

Spanish-born spaniard residing in the New World.

Timars

Land granted by the Ottoman sultans between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with a tax revenue annual value of less than 20,000 akçe.

Boyars

A member of the highest rank of the feudal Bulgarian, Moscovian, Kievan Rus', Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes (tsars or knyazes) from the 10th century to the 17th century.