World History Units 2-5 Review Flashcards

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts, historical figures, and events from World History Units 2-5, ranging from the Mongol Empire to the Industrial Revolution.

Bubonic Plague

Commonly known as the Black Death, a deadly disease that spread across Afro-Eurasia through increasing connectivity occurring during the era of the Mongols.

The Mongols

Created the largest land-based empire in history, which facilitated extensive interaction and technological transfers, such as the exchange of ambassadors and military intelligence across Afro-Eurasia.

Ilkhanate

A region of the former Mongol Empire where authorities made significant advances in astronomy and increased the accuracy of calendars and the astrolabe.

Gunpowder Empires

States such as the Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, and Qing empires that grew significantly through the adoption and use of gunpowder weapons.

The Ottoman Empire

Founded in the fourteenth century and headquartered in Istanbul after the sacking of Constantinople in $1453$. It expanded across Southwestern Europe and Anatolia using gunpowder weapons.

The Devshirme System

An Ottoman policy where Christians were enslaved, converted to Islam, and trained as a lethal fighting force called Janissaries to help consolidate power.

Safavid Empire

Established in $1501$ and led by Shah Ismail, it was a Shiite dynasty that frequently came into conflict with neighboring Sunni Muslim empires.

Mughal Empire

Established in South and Central Asia in $1526$ by Babur after displacing the Delhi Sultanate using gunpowder weapons.

Akbar

The grandson of Babur who masterfully administered the Mughal Empire, showed religious tolerance, and oversaw its growth across half of the Indian Subcontinent.

Qing Dynasty

Also known as the Manchu Empire, established in $1636$ by the Manchu people of the North who replaced the Ming Dynasty and ruled over an ethnically Han population.

Legitimizing Power

The methods a ruler uses to communicate who is in charge, often through religious ideas, art, or monumental architecture.

Consolidating Power

The methods used to transfer power from other groups to a single group or ruler, such as establishing bureaucracies or centralizing tax collection.

Palace of Versailles

A monumental architectural project used by Louis XIV of France to consolidate his rule by forcing nobility to live there under his control.

Sun Temple of Cuzco

A marvelous structure in the Inca Empire covered in gold and statues, used to facilitate worship and display grandeur to communicate the ruler's power.

Zamindars

Elite landowners in the Mughal Empire who were granted authority to tax peasants on behalf of the imperial government to consolidate power.

Protestant Reformation

A movement beginning in $1517$ when Martin Luther denounced the corruption of the Catholic Church in his $95$ Theses, leading to a major religious split in Europe.

Sikhism

A syncretic faith that represents a blend of Hindu and Islamic doctrines, emerging in Asia as an entirely new belief system.

Maritime Empires

Sea-based empires that developed using updated maritime technology and knowledge borrowed from classical Islamic and Asian societies.

Caravel

A small, fast, and nimble Portuguese ship with both square and Lateen sails, designed to carry large amounts of cargo.

Fluyt

A Dutch ship designed with significant cargo space, which enabled the VOC to dominate trade in the Indian Ocean.

Mercantilism

A dominant economic system based on the belief that there is a finite amount of wealth in the world, requiring states to maintain a favorable balance of trade (more exports than imports).

Trading Post Empire

A system of small but strategically located trading posts used by the Portuguese to influence the spice trade without establishing traditional large-scale colonies.

Treaty of Tresias

A diplomatic agreement between Spain and Portugal that divided the Americas, granting Portugal the western part of Brazil and Spain the eastern part.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of animals, plants, foods, and diseases between Europe and the Americas following the contact established by Christopher Columbus.

Encomienda System

A coerced labor system used by the Spanish where indigenous people were compelled to work on plantations.

Hacienda System

A labor system that replaced the Encomienda, characterized by low wages and high debt to tie laborers to the land.

Joint-Stock Companies

Ventures like the British and Dutch East India Companies that allowed for colonization and exploration with limited risks to individual investors.

Triangular Trade

A part of the Atlantic system involving the exchange of manufactured goods from Europe, enslaved people from Africa, and raw materials from the Americas.

Maratha Rebellion

An uprising by Hindu warriors against the Mughal Empire that eventually led to the end of Mughal rule and the rise of the Maratha Empire.

Pueblo Revolt

Resistance by Pueblo and Apache American Indians against Spanish attempts at forced religious conversion in North America.

Casta System

A social hierarchy in the Spanish New World organized based on ancestry and race, placing Spaniards at the top and enslaved Africans and indigenous people at the bottom.

The Enlightenment

A European movement that shifted the focus of knowledge from belief to empirical data and observation, emphasizing individual authority and rights.

Natural Rights

An Enlightenment concept pioneered by John Locke, suggesting that individuals possess inherent rights that cannot be taken away.

Social Contract

An Enlightenment idea by Jean Jacques Rousseau proposing that there is an agreement between the people and their government.

Seneca Falls Convention

An $1848$ meeting in the United States where women gathered to call for equal rights, specifically women's suffrage.

Declaration of Independence

A document articulating the ideals of the American Revolution based on Enlightenment thought, inspiring subsequent revolutions in France and Haiti.

Letter from Jamaica

An Enlightenment-influenced document written by Simone Bolivar regarding the Latin American independence movements.

Industrial Revolution

A fundamental change in manufacturing characterized by the mass production of goods using machines and the factory system, beginning in Great Britain.

Meiji Restoration

A period of defensive industrialization in Japan aimed at protecting domestic cultural institutions from Western takeover.

Trans-Siberian Railroad

A major construction project in Russia that enabled the connection of distant parts of the empire.

Free Market Capitalism

An economic system based on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and the principle of laissez-faire, where supply and demand dictate the market.

Transnational Corporations

Companies that operate across national boundaries, such as the Unilever corporation, which had factories in Australia, Switzerland, and the United States.

Marxism

A theory by Karl Marx proposing that the proletariat (working class) should rise up against the bourgeoisie (factory owners) to create a classless, equal society.

Tanzimat Reforms

A series of reforms in the Ottoman Empire intended to industrialize the state and eliminate government corruption in response to Western power.