Key Achievements and Events in Ancient and Medieval History

Qing Achievements

Final dynasty; expanded territory, preserved Confucianism, and experienced population growth.

Han Achievements

Silk Road trade, paper invention, civil service exam, Confucianism.

Shi Huangdi

Qin dynasty; unified China, built Great Wall, harsh legalism.

Liu Bang

Founder of the Han dynasty; lowered taxes, eased legalism.

Meritocracy & Wudi

Han emperor; expanded bureaucracy using civil service exams based on merit.

Oligarchy

Rule by a few elite people.

Legalism

Harsh laws, strict punishment; used by Qin.

Laozi

Founded Daoism; harmony with nature.

Han Fei Zi

Legalist philosopher.

Justinian

Codified Roman law (Justinian's Code), rebuilt Hagia Sophia.

Constantine

First Christian emperor; founded Constantinople.

Icons

Religious images in Orthodox Christianity.

Great Schism

Split between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox (1054).

Excommunicate

To ban someone from the Church.

Eastern Orthodox Language

Greek.

Black Sea, Adriatic, Caspian

Key trade and invasion routes.

Constantinople/Istanbul

Capital of Byzantium, then Ottoman Empire.

Slavs

Eastern European ethnic group; influenced by Byzantine missionaries.

Cyrillic

Alphabet made for Slavs by Byzantine monks.

Heian

Japanese court period of culture and art.

Shinto

Native religion of Japan; worship of spirits/nature.

Samurai, Shogun, Bushido

Warrior class, military leader, and code of honor.

Vikings

Norse seafarers who raided and settled parts of Europe.

Turks

Took Constantinople in 1453; became Ottomans.

Crusades 1-4

Failed due to poor planning, distance, disunity, and Muslim strength.

Clovis

First Christian Frankish king.

Charlemagne

United Western Europe, supported learning.

William the Conqueror

Won Battle of Hastings (1066); introduced feudalism to England.

Feudalism, fief, demesne

Land-based political system.

Knight, vassal, serf, peasant

Classes in feudal society.

Parliament

English representative body (developed post-Magna Carta).

Joan of Arc

French heroine during the Hundred Years' War.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Powerful medieval noblewoman.

Nationalism

Grew during and after Hundred Years' War.

Gothic

Church architecture style.

St. Benedict

Wrote monastic rules.

Franciscan Vows

Poverty, chastity, obedience.

Cardinals, Bishops

Church officials.

Innocent III

Powerful pope who expanded papal authority.

Mendicant

Wandering monk, lived by begging.

Chaucer

Wrote The Canterbury Tales.

Grenada

Final Muslim stronghold in Spain (Reconquista ends 1492).

Milan, Florence, Venice

Centers of trade, banking, and culture.

Medici

Wealthy banking family, patrons of the arts.

Petrarch

Father of Humanism.

Machiavelli

The Prince, political realism.

Brunelleschi

Dome architecture.

Perspective

Artistic depth technique.

Dante

Divine Comedy.

Thomas More

Utopia, critic of society.

Shakespeare

Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar.

Frances Xavier, Ignatius of Loyola

Catholic reformers, Jesuits.

Martin Luther

95 Theses; faith alone, scripture alone, grace alone.

John Calvin

Predestination.

Henry VIII

Broke from Church to form Anglican Church.

William Tyndale

Translated Bible to English.

Congregations

Self-governing Protestant churches.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Divided New World between Spain and Portugal.

Vasco da Gama

First European to reach India by sea.

Ferdinand Magellan

First circumnavigation.

Reasons for Spanish Success

Superior weapons, disease, alliances, horses.

Bartolome de las Casas

Critic of Spanish mistreatment of natives.

Middle Passage

Brutal journey of enslaved Africans to the Americas.

Smallpox

Devastated Indigenous populations.

Decline of Western Europe (476-1100)

Loss of trade, cities, learning; invasions.

Battle of Hastings (1066)

William vs. Harold; Norman rule began.

Magna Carta (1215)

Limited royal power; led to Parliament.

Bubonic Plague

Killed 1/3 of Europe; labor shortages, weakened feudalism.

Last Supper

Da Vinci; religious and artistic innovation.

Martin Luther's 3 Issues

Indulgences, papal authority, church corruption.

Exploration Innovations

Compass, astrolabe, better ships (caravel), printing press.

Dürer Self-Portrait

Humanism—self-focus, realism.

Holbein - Henry VIII

Power and realism.

Van Eyck - Arnolfini Portrait

Detail, symbolism, realism.

Brueghel - Return of the Hunter

Peasant life, landscape focus.

Da Vinci - The Last Supper

Human emotion, perspective.