AP World History Exam All Crucial Vocabulary

Bodhisattvas

In Buddhism, a person who chooses to postpone nirvana to help others.

Mahabharata

the longest single poem in the world, about a war fought between two branches of the same family. One of India's greatest epics written between 1000 and 700 BC

Shudras

The landless peasants and serfs of the caste system. Higher than dalits

Daoism, Taoism

A chinese philosophy or popular religion that advocates a simple and unpretentious way of living and alignment with the natural world-, founded by the legendary figure Laozi.

Daodejing

The classic scripture of Daoism

Abrahamic Faiths

Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Religious traditions that revered the biblical character of Abraham

Perpetua

Christian martyr (181-203 CE) from an upper class Roman family in Carthage. Her refusal to renounce her faith made her an inspiration for other early Christians

Quran

Also transliterated as Qur'án and Koran, this is the most holy text of Islam, recording the revelations given to the prophet Muhammad.

Ulama

Islamic religious scholars, both Sunni and Shia, who shaped and transmitted the core teachings of Islamic civilization.

Madrassas

Formal colleges for higher institutions in the teaching of Islam as well as in secular subjects like law, founded throughout the Islamic world in beginning in the 11th century

Sand Roads

A term used to describe the routes of the trans-Sahara trade in Africa, which lniked interior West Africa to the Mediterranean and North African world

Paleolithic Era

The long period during which human societies sustained themselves through gathering, hunting, and fishing without the practice of agriculture. Such ways of living persisted well after the advent of agriculture in many places.

Pastoral Societies

Based on an alternative kind of food-producing economy focused on the raising of livestock, pastoral societies emerged in the Afro-Eurasian world where settled agriculture was difficult or impossible. Pastoral peoples often led their animals to seasonal grazing grounds rather than settling permanently in a single location.

Upanishads

Indian mystical and philosophical works, written between 800 and 400 B.C.E.

Moksha

Becoming liberated for the cycle of reincarnation in Hinduism.

Mahayana Buddhism

"Great Vehicle," the popular development of Buddhism in the early centuries of the Common Era, which gives a much greater role to supernatural beings and to compassion and proved to be more popular than Theravada Buddhism.

Tibetan Buddhism

Form of Buddhism that gave special authority to Lamas (teachers), emphasized awareness of and preparation for death.

Vaishyas

The artisan and merchant varna of the caste system. 3rd spot in caste system

Bhakti Movement

Meaning "worship," this Hindu movement began in south India and moved northward between 600 and 1000 C.E.; it involved the intense adoration of and identification with a particular deity through songs, prayers, and rituals.

Han Dynasty

The Chinese dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) that emerged after the Qin dynasty collapsed, establishing political and cultural patterns that lasted into the twentieth century.

Filial Piety

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

Laozi

Founder of Daoism

Yin/Yang

two forces in the universe, according to Chinese Theory: Yin(female) is the passive, negative force, and Yang(male) the active, positive force

Judaism

The monotheistic religion developed in the Middle East by the Hebrews, emphasizing a sole personal god (Yahweh) with concerns for social justice.

Saint Paul

An early convert and missionary (ca. 6-67 C.E.) and the first great popularizer of Christianity, especially to Gentile (non-Jewish) communities.

Muhammad

The prophet and founder of Islam whose religious revelations became the Quran, bringing a radically monotheistic religion to Arabia and the world.

Umma

The community of all believers in Islam, bound by common belief rather than territory, language, or tribe.

Sufism

An understanding of the Islamic faith that saw the worldly success of Islamic civilization as a distraction and deviation from the purer spirituality of Muhammad's time. By renouncing the material world, meditating on the words of the Quran, chanting the names of God, using music and dance, and venerating Muhammad and various "saints," Sufis pursued an interior life, seeking to tame the ego and achieve spiritual union with Allah.

Song Dynasty

The Chinese dynasty (960-1279) that rose to power after the Tang dynasty. During the Song dynasty, an explosion of scholarship gave rise to Neo-Confucianism, and a revolution in agricultural and industrial production made China the richest and most populated country on the planet.

China's Economic Revolution

A major rise in prosperity that took place in China under the Song dynasty (960-1279), which was marked by rapid population growth, urbanization, economic specialization, the development of an immense network of internal waterways, and a great increase in industrial production and technological innovation.

Hangul

A phonetic alphabet developed in Korea in the fifteenth century in a move toward greater cultural independence from China

Bushido

The "way of the warrior," referring to the martial values of the Japanese samurai, including bravery, loyalty, and an emphasis on death over surrender.

Tale of Genji

a Japanese novel written by the woman author Murasaki Shikibu around 1000, provides an intimate picture of the intrigues and romances of court life.

Chu Nom

A variation of Chinese writing developed in Vietnam that became the basis for an independent national literature; "southern script."

Madjapahit

A significant Southeast Asian state that assimilated Hindu religious ideas. It was located primarily on the island of Java and was at the peak of its power in the fourteenth century.

Abbasid Caliphate

An Arab dynasty of caliphs (successors to the Prophet) who governed much of the Islamic world from its capital in Baghdad beginning in 750 C.E. After 900 C.E. that empire increasingly fragmented until its overthrow by the Mongols in 1258.

Caliph

successor to the Prophet(Islam)

Al-Andalus

Arabic name for Spain, most of which was conquered by Arab and Berber forces between 711 and 718 C.E. Muslim Spain represented a point of encounter between the Islamic world and Christian Europe.

Ibn Battuta

Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan.

Feudalism

A highly fragmented and decentralized society in which power was held by the landowning warrior elite. In this highly competitive system, lesser lords and knights swore allegiance to greater lords or kings and thus became their vassals, fequenly receiving lands and plunder in return for military service.

High Middle Ages

the period from 1000 to 1300 in which the church had a key role shaping the new world

Triple Alliance (Mesoamerica)

Aztecs, Texcoco, and Tlacopan alliance

Inca Empire

The Western Hemisphere's largest imperial state in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries; built by a relatively small community of Quechua-speaking people (the Inca), the empire stretched some 2,500 miles along the Andes Mountains, which run nearly the entire length of the west coast of South America, and contained perhaps 10 million subjects.

Quechua

Incan language

Chinese Examination System

Scholar-bureaucrats took state-sponsored exams in order to become government scribes and serve in other capacities to help emperors run the affairs of state. In this system, it was possible-but rare-for even low-born citizens to rise to political prominence.

Silla, Koryo, Joseon Kingdoms

a succession of dynasties in Korea that allowed it to maintain its political independence while participating in a tributary relationship with China

Kami

Any sacred being worshipped in Shinto including nature spirits and ancestors

Tribute System

A set of practices that required a show of subordination from all non-Chinese authorities and the payment of tribute -- products of value from their countries -- to the Chinese emperor. In return, China would grant trading rights to foreigners and offer gifts even more valuable than the tribute itself.

Srivijaya

A Malay kingdom that dominated the critical choke point in Indian Ocean trade at the Straits of Malacca between 670 and 1025 C.E. Like other places in Southeast Asia, Srivijaya absorbed various cultural influences from India.

Angkor Wat

The largest religious structure in the premodern world, this temple was built by the powerful Angkor kingdom (located in modern Cambodia) in the twelfth century C.E. to express a Hindu understanding of the cosmos centered on a mythical Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hindu tradition. It was later used by Buddhists as well.

Seljuk Turkic Empire

An empire of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, centered in Persia and present-day Iraq. Seljuk rulers adopted the Muslim title of sultan (ruler) as part of their conversion to Islam.

Jizya

Special tax paid by dhimmis(protected but second-class subjects) in Muslim-ruled territory in return for freedom to practice their own religion.

Swahili Civilization

An East African civilization that emerged in the eighth century C.E. as a set of commerical city-states linked into the Indian Ocean trading network. Combiining African bantu and Islamic cultural patterns, these competing city-states accumulated goods from the interior and exchanged them for the products of distant civilizations.

West African Civilization

A series of important states that developed in the region stretching from the Atlantic coast to Lake Chad in the period 500 to 1600 C.E. Developed in response to the economic opportunities of trans-Saharan trade (especially control of gold production), it included the states of Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and Kanem, as well as numerous towns and cities.

Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

A fairly small-scale commerce in enslaved people that flourished especially from 1100 to 1400, exporting West African slaves across the Sahara for sale in Islamic North Africa.

Byzantine Empire

One of the main centers of Christendom during the medieval centuries, this empire was a continuation of the eastern portion of the Roman Empire, It lasted for a thousand years after the collapse of Roman rule in the West, until its conquest by Muslim forces in 1453

Kievan Rus

A culturally diverse civilization that emerged around the city of Kiev in the ninth century C.E. and adopted Christianity in the tenth, thus linking this emerging Russian state to the world of Eastern Orthodoxy.

Western Christendom

Western European branch of Christianity, aka Roman Catholicism that gradually defined itself as separate from Eastern Orthodoxy, with a major break in 1054 C.E. Western Christendom defined itself in centralized terms, with the bishop of Rome (the pope) as the ultimate authority in matters of doctrine.

Maya Civilization

A major civilization of Mesoamerica known for the most elaborate writing system in the Americas and other intellectual and artistic achievements; flourished from 250 to 900 C.E.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Its population was about 150,000 on the eve of Spanish conquest. Mexico City was constructed on its ruins.

Chinampas

floating farming islands made by the Aztec to increase agricultural yields.

Quipus

A system of knotted cords of different sizes and colors used by the Incas for keeping records

Mita

Andean labor system based on shared obligations to help kinsmen and work on behalf of the ruler and religious organizations.

Homo Sapiens

Human beings essentially similar to ourselves

Atman

The individual human soul in Hinduism

Lamas

In Tibetan Buddhism, teachers and often heads of monasteries

Confucianism

The Chinese philosophy first enunciated by Confucius, advocating the moral example of superiors as the key element of social order.

5 Confucian Relationships

ruler/subject; father/son; husband/wife; older brother/younger brother; friend/friend

Jesus of Nazareth

A peasant/artisan "wisdom teacher" and Jewish mystic (ca. 4 B.C.E.-29 C.E.) whose life, teachings, death, and alleged resurrection gave rise to the new religion of Christianity.

Silk Roads

Land-based trade routes that linked many regions of Eurasia. They were named after the most famous product traded along these routes.

Caste System

A Hindu social class system that controlled every aspect of daily life

Hinduism

A religion based on the many beliefs, practices, sects, rituals, and philosophies in India; in the thinking of nineteenth-century Indian reformers, it was expressed as a distinctive tradition, an Indian religion wholly equivalent to Christianity.

Karma

The belief that actions in this life, whether good or bad, will decide your place in the next life.

Buddha

Means "Enlightened One." He is said to have found a path for overcoming suffering.

Nirvana

The state of englightenment for Buddhists.

Analects

a record of the words and acts of the central Chinese thinker and philosopher Confucius and his disciples

Sharia

Islamic law, dealing with political, economic, social, and religious life. It literally translates as "a path to water," which is considered the source of all life.

Sea Roads

The world's largest sea-based system of communication and exchange before 1500 C.E. Centered on India, it stretched from southern China to eastern Africa.

Footbinding

Chinese practice of tightly wrapping girls' feet to keep them small, begun in the Tang dynasty; an emphasis on small size and delicacy was central to views of female beauty

Ottoman Empire

Major Islamic state centered on Anatolia that came to include the Balkans, the Near East, and much of North Africa; lasted in one form or another from the fourteenth century to the early twentieth century.

Mali

A prominent state within West African civilization; it was established in 1235 C.E. and flourished for several centuries. Mali monopolized the import of horses and metals as part of the trans-Saharan trade; it was a large-scale producer of gold; and its most famous ruler, Mansa Musa, led a large group of Muslims on the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324-1325.

Timbuktu

A major commercial city of West African civilization and a noted center of Islamic scholarship and education by the sixteenth century.

Ottoman Seizure of Constantinople

The city of Constantinople, the capital and almost the only outpost left of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the army of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II "the Conqueror" in 1453, an event that marked the end of Christian Byzantium.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Branch of Christianity that developed in the eastern part of the Roman Empire and gradually separated, mostly on matters of practice, from the branch of Christianity dominant in Western Europe; noted for the subordination of the Church to political authorities, a married clergy, the use of leavened bread in the Eucharist, and a sharp rejection of the authority of Roman popes.

European Renaissance

A "rebirth" of classical learning that is most often associated with the cultural blossoming of Italy in the period 1350-1500 and that included not just a rediscovery of Greek learning but also major developments in art, as well as growing secularism in society.

Aztec Empire (Mexica)

Major state that developed in what is now Mexico in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; dominated by the semi-nomadic Mexica, who had migrated into the region from northern Mexico.

Hangzhou

China's capital during the Song dynasty, with a population of more than a million people.

Samurai

Class of warriors in feudal Japan who pledged loyalty to a noble in return for land.

Constantinople

New capital for the eastern half of the Roman Empire; Constantinople's highly defensible and economically important site helped ensure the city's cultural and strategic importance for many centuries.

Roman Catholic Church

Western European branch of Christianity that gradually defined itself as separate from Eastern Orthodoxy, with a major break in 1054 C.E.; "Roman Catholic" was not commonly used until after the Protestant Reformation, but the term is just because, by the eleventh century, Western Christendom defined itself in centralized terms, with the bishop of Rome (the pope) as the ultimate authority in matters of doctrine.

Black Death

A deadly plague that swept through Europe between 1347 and 1351 Aka bubonic plague

Agricultural Revolution

Perhaps the most transformative process in all of human history, these terms refer to the domestican of plants and animals, which led both to farming and pastoral societies.

Civilization

societies based in cities, even though most people remained in rural areas

Patriarchy

A social system in which women have been made subordinate to men in the family and in society; often linked to the development of plow-based agriculture, intensive warfare, and private property.

Brahmin

A priestly caste of Hinduism. The highest caste

Samsara

rebirth/reincarnation in Hinduism

Siddhartha Gautama

The Indian prince whose exposure to human suffering led him to develop a path to Enlightenment that became the basis for the emerging religious tradition of Buddhism; lived ca. 566-ca 486 BCE

Eightfold Path

In Buddhism, the basic rules of behavior and belief leading to an end of suffering. Emphasizes a moral and modest lifestyle, mental concentration practices, and wisdom of reality as it is.

Therevada Buddhism

"Teaching of the Elders," the early form of Buddhism according to which the Buddha was a wise teacher but not divine; emphasizes practices rather than beliefs.