Unit 1: The Global Tapestry Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards for Unit 1 terms c. 1200 to c. 1450

Confucianism

An ethical belief system that formed the intellectual core of Chinese thought for over 2,000 years, based on the teachings of Confucius.

Mandate of Heaven

A concept central to the Chinese view of government, dating back to the Zhou Dynasty, used to legitimize their rule, where the ruler is seen as the “Son of Heaven.”

Merit-based civil service system

A highly systematized manner through which Chinese dynasties selected educated and competent bureaucrats to staff their massive government.

Scholar-gentry

The class of people in China who successfully made it through the selection process of the merit-based civil service system and often enriched themselves and their families.

Song Dynasty

A Chinese dynasty (960-1279) considered a "golden age" but weakening by c. 1200, known for its large population, massive bureaucracy, and distrust of the military, eventually falling to the Mongols in 1279.

Neo-Confucianism

A syncretic belief system designed to promote and reinvigorate Confucianism by adopting some concepts and features of Buddhism and even Daoism.

Filial piety

Respect for family obligations – a key tenet of Confucianism that went hand-in-hand with ancestor veneration.

Confucian attitudes toward women

Confucian attitudes toward women, which accorded honor and power as mothers but expected women to be subservient to men, manage the household, and practice self-discipline.

China’s tributary system

A formal set of practices whereby embassies from non-Chinese states would travel to the Chinese imperial court and acknowledge Chinese superiority.

The spread of Chinese scholarly traditions to Heian Japan and Korea

The spread of Chinese scholarly traditions to Heian Japan, where the Chinese written script was adopted and adapted and the classic works of China were studied.

Theravada Buddhism

A branch of Buddhism where Buddha himself is not considered a god; emphasizes meditation, simplicity, interpretation of nirvana as the renunciation of human consciousness and of the self.

Mahayana Buddhism

A branch of Buddism where Budda is a godlike deity; other deities appear, including bodhisattvas.

Tibetan Buddhism

A branch of Buddism that emerged in Central Asia that incorporated elements of shamanism

The economy of Song China

Considered a “golden age” as China was the most fully developed, technologically advanced, cosmopolitan and prosperous country in the world.

Fast-ripening rice (aka “champa rice”)

A drought-resistant variety of rice capable of producing two crops in a single growing season rather than just one.

Expansion of the Grand Canal

The manmade waterway linking the Yellow River (north) and the Yangzi River (south), facilitating transportation and communication across China.

Song steel and iron production

The increased production of this material during the Song Dynasty due to the discovery of using coke instead of coal to fire high-temperature furnaces, used for construction, armaments, and tools.

Song textiles and porcelain for export

Luxury items from China that were worn by wealthy merchants and rulers, signifying a refined, elegant lifestyle, and produced in China for domestic and export markets.

Dar al-Islam

“The house of Islam,” a term referring to the Muslim world, or all the lands under Islamic rule.

Hajj

The fifth pillar of Islam, requiring all Muslims to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.

Seljuk Empire

A nomadic people from Central Asia who took control of the Abbasid capital of Baghdad and extended their authority to Syria, Palestine and Anatolia.

Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt

A ruling group of Turks captured in battle and raised as warriors to rule Egypt, independent of Abbasid control, stopping the Mongols in 1260 and lasting until 1517.

Delhi Sultanate

A sultanate established by the successors to Mahmud of Ghazni, a Turkic Muslim, in northern India, building mosques and imposing Islamic authority but facing internal instability.

Sufis

Mystics who were effective missionaries for Islam because they had a reputation for leading ascetic, holy lives devoted to kindness, tolerance and devotion to Allah above mastery of doctrine.

Muslim advances in mathematics

Arab and Persian scholars adopting Indian mathematics, developing advances in algebra, trigonometry and geometry, which were later passed to Europeans.

Muslim advances in literature

Arabic was the language of religion, but Persian was the principal language of literature, poetry, history and political reflection during the Abbasid Caliphate.

Muslim advances in medicine

Scholars in the Abbasid Caliphate synthesizing medical knowledge from Greece, Syria, and India, developing advanced medical and pharmacological knowledge.

Muslim preservation of Greek philosophy

Muslim scholars preserving scientific and philosophical texts, especially those written by ancient Greek philosophers, influencing logic and reason.

House of Wisdom

The most prominent of the Islamic research institutions built by Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad, staffed by scholars translating Greek, Syrian, Sanskrit and Persian works into Arabic.

Scholarly and cultural transfers resulting from the Crusades

Series of unsuccessful wars by Christian crusaders to recapture the Holy Land of Palestine from the Seljuk Turks, leading to scholarly and cultural transfers between Europe and the Muslim world.

Bhakti movement

A South Asian cult of love and devotion that ultimately sought to erase the distinction between Hinduism and Islam

Buddhist monasticism

A follower of Buddhism that takes vows of poverty and nonattachment to the material world.

Srivijaya Empire

A maritime and commercial empire in Southeast Asia that flourished between the 7th and the 13th centuries in what is now Indonesia

Rajput kingdoms

Hindu kingdoms in central and northern India, and what is now eastern Pakistan

Khmer Empire

A powerful state in Southeast Asia from 802 to 1431, covering what is now Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and southern Vietnam

Angkor Wat

A temple complex that is the world’s largest religious monument, built in Cambodia for the Khmer Empire

Maya city-states

The fundamental political organization of this civilization occupying a region in southern Mexico that included the Yucatan Peninsula, and more southern lands including modern-day Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador

Aztec Empire

The Mexica, came to central Mexico in the mid-1200s and established an empire of perhaps 12 million people with its capital at Tenochtitlan, where Spanish conquerors would later build Mexico City

Inca Empire

The Incas settled in the region around Lake Titicaca, which straddles the border between Peru and Bolivia, in the mid-13th century and went on to establish a large, centralized empire

Chaco

Between 860 and 1130, eight large towns were built by the agricultural people known as Anasazi in Chaco Canyon, located in what is now northwestern New Mexico, encompassing 25,000 square miles and a regional population of perhaps 15,000

Cahokia

Maize, beans and squash – three crops first domesticated in Mesoamerica – were key to the emergence of an urbanized Mississippian culture along the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys

Great Zimbabwe

A powerful state in southeastern Africa, near the Swahili Coast city-state of Sofala, at its peak between 1250 and 1350

Ethiopia

A state in the East Africa highlands southwest from the mouth of the Red Sea

Hausa kingdoms

In what is now northern Nigeria, a series of city-state kingdoms arose deriving wealth from their relative proximity to trans-Saharan trade routes, and exports of cotton textiles and leather goods

Social role of the Catholic Church

Like Buddhist monasteries in Asian lands and charitable religious foundations in Muslim lands, Christian monasteries provided a variety of social services that enabled them to build close relations with local communities

Political role of the Catholic Church

Medieval Europe was highly decentralized, governed essentially by local warlords … so the increasing wealth and landholdings of the Catholic Church meant it assumed a political role within this vacuum of power

Consequences of the Crusades (including the Fourth)

The Byzantine Empire was devastated to the point where it never recovered, because of the Fourth Crusade in 1202-1204

Al-Andalus

The primary site of Islamic encounter with Christian Europe occurred in Spain, called al-Andalus by Muslims, which was conquered by Arab and Berber forces from North Africa in the early 8th century during Islam’s first wave of expansion

Feudalism

A loosely organized system of rule that emerged in the fragmented, decentralized lands of Europe following the collapse of the western half of the Roman Empire in 476, necessitated because the region – while lacking strong governments – was under repeated assault by invading Vikings

Manorial system

Essentially the economic component of feudalism

Serfdom

A system of coerced labor in medieval Europe in which tenant farmers were bound to a hereditary plot of land and to the will of their landlord