Unit 1: The Global Tapestry (1200-1450) Practice Flashcards

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the historical developments, belief systems, and state-building processes across East Asia, Dar al-Islam, South Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe between 1200 and 1450.

Paleolithic Era

A period comprising over $95\%$ of human history where people lived as nomadic gatherers and hunters using stone tools.

Agricultural Revolution

The transition beginning around $10000\text{ B.C.E.}$ to $2000\text{ B.C.E.}$ characterized by the domestication of plants and animals, leading to settled civilizations.

Confucianism

A Chinese philosophy founded by Confucius that emphasizes social harmony through unequal relationships and moral responsibility.

Filial Piety

The Confucian practice of honoring parents and ancestors, serving as a training ground for loyalty and reverence to the state.

Daoism

A belief system founded by Laozi focusing on spontaneity and living in alignment with the Dao (the Way of nature), often used by elites to balance public Confucian duties.

Song Dynasty

A "Golden Age" in China from $960$ to $1279$ known for political stability, a centralized bureaucracy, and an economic revolution.

Civil Service Examination System

A rigorous set of tests based on Confucian texts used to select officials for the imperial bureaucracy, allowing for modest social mobility.

Mandate of Heaven

The Chinese belief that a ruler's legitimacy was granted by the heavens; disasters or famines were signs that a dynasty had lost this favor.

Champa Rice

A fast-ripening, drought-resistant strain of rice from Vietnam that led to a population boom in China to $120\text{ million}$ by $1200$.

Foot Binding

A status symbol in Song China involving the breaking of young girls' feet to restrict their movement, reflecting a tightening of patriarchy.

Tribute System

A ritualized trade arrangement where weaker states gave gifts to China to maintain peace and secure trade relations.

Hangul

A phonetic alphabet developed by Korea to establish a cultural identity independent from Chinese writing characters.

Bushido

The "way of the warrior" followed by the Japanese Samurai, emphasizing martial skill, honor, and loyalty over intellectualism.

Umma

The unified community of all Muslim believers, intended to replace tribal or ethnic loyalties with a shared religious identity.

Sunni-Shia Split

A permanent religious fracture in Islam originating from a dispute over who should succeed Muhammad as the leader of the faith.

Abbasid Caliphate

A once-powerful Islamic empire centered in Baghdad that fragmented by $1200$ into regional sultanates dominated by Turkic peoples.

Sultan

A secular title meaning "ruler" adopted by Turkic leaders, such as the Seljuks, to signal military and political authority.

House of Wisdom

A premier library and research center in Baghdad where scholars preserved classical Greek, Roman, and Persian knowledge by translating it into Arabic.

Sufism

The mystical dimension of Islam that pursues a direct personal experience of the Divine and was instrumental in spreading the faith to frontier regions.

Al-Andalus

The Arabic name for Muslim-ruled Spain, which served as a vibrant center of cultural exchange between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Hinduism

The oldest religious tradition in India, characterized by the pursuit of moksha (liberation) to join the World Soul (Brahman).

Caste System

A ranked social structure in India where karma determines an individual's social and spiritual status across lifetimes.

Theravada Buddhism

An early branch of Buddhism that views the Buddha as a wise teacher and model, focusing on rigorous meditation and monastic life.

Mahayana Buddhism

A branch of Buddhism that portrays the Buddha as a god-like savior and introduces bodhisattvas who help others achieve enlightenment.

Bhakti Movement

A devotional trend in Hinduism involving intense adoration of specific deities like Vishnu or Shiva, making salvation accessible to lower castes and women.

Sultanate of Delhi

A series of Muslim dynasties that ruled northern India starting in $1206$, bringing Turkic rule to the subcontinent.

Vijayanagar Empire

A powerful Hindu kingdom in southern India established specifically to resist Muslim incursions from the north.

Srivijaya Empire

A Malay maritime kingdom that grew wealthy by controlling trade through the Strait of Melaka between $670$ and $1025$.

Khmer Empire

A prosperous inland kingdom in Cambodia known for the construction of Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious structure.

Aztec Empire

A loosely structured conquest state in Mesoamerica governed by a Triple Alliance and supported by a tribute system.

Chinampas

Artificial islands known as "floating gardens" built by the Aztecs in swamplands to provide highly productive agriculture for urban populations.

Inca Empire

A highly centralized bureaucratic empire in the Andes that utilized the Quechua language and a massive road network.

Mita System

A mandatory labor service required of Inca households for state projects such as farming, mining, and construction.

Quipus

Knotted cords used by the Inca as an accounting and recording device for population data and tribute in the absence of a written alphabet.

Gender Parallelism

A social system in both the Aztec and Inca empires where men and women operated in separate but equivalent spheres.

Mansa Musa

The world's wealthiest sovereign and King of Mali whose $1324$ hajj to Mecca flooded the Egyptian economy with gold.

Timbuktu

A world-renowned center for Islamic learning and trade in Mali, famous for its extensive libraries and manuscript trade.

Swahili Civilization

A set of commercial city-states along the East African coast that blended Bantu foundations with Islamic culture.

Great Zimbabwe

A Southeastern African civilization known for massive stone monuments built without mortar and its role in the Indian Ocean gold trade.

Griots

Professional West African storytellers and historians responsible for maintaining a community’s oral traditions and cultural memory.

Great Schism of 1054

The formal break between the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire.

Feudalism

A decentralized political system where vassals swore military allegiance to lords in exchange for land (fiefs).

Manorialism

An economic system based on self-sufficient estates where lords ruled over serfs who were bound to the land.

Serfdom

A labor system where peasants owed labor and payments to a lord in exchange for physical protection and a small farm.

Black Death

A devastating plague in the mid-$14\text{th}$ century that killed nearly half of Europe's population and led to the decline of serfdom.

Renaissance

A cultural "rebirth" beginning in Italy around $1350$ where elite citizens turned to ancient Greco-Roman art and literature for inspiration.