AP World Modern ALL VOCAB

Ancestor veneration

Ritual practice based on the belief that deceased family members have a continued existence, take an interest in the affairs of the world, and possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living. The goal is to ensure the dead's continued well-being and positive disposition towards the living and sometimes to ask for special favors or assistance. The social or nonreligious function of it is "to cultivate kinship values like filial piety, family loyalty, and continuity of the family lineage.

Champa rice

Quick-maturing, drought resistant rice that can allow two harvests of sixty days each in one growing season. Originally introduced from Vietnam it was later sent to China as a tribute gift.

Tibetan

Form of Buddhism that combines the essential teachings of Mahayana Buddhism with Tantric and Shamanic, and material from an ancient religion called Bon. Practices feature rituals and spiritual practices such as the use of mantras and yogic techniques. It spread primarily due to the influence of the Mongol Yuan dynasty.

Khmer Empire

Powerful state in South East Asia, formed by people of the same name, lasting from 802 CE to 1431 CE. At its peak, it covered much of what today is Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and southern Vietnam.

Bakufu

The military government established in Japan in which the emperor became a religious figurehead, while real power was concentrated in the military under the shogun.

Mandate of Heaven

The Chinese concept that the deity granted a dynasty the right to rule and took away that right if the dynasty did not rule wisely.

Bhakti Movement

A medieval change in Hinduism that saw an increased emphasis on the mutual intense emotional attachment and love of a devotee toward a personal god and of the god for the devotee. It empowered those on the lowest rungs of Indian society, provided impetus for the growth of vernacular literature, and influence the development of Sikhism.

Bureaucracy

A group of government officials headed by an administrator.

Bushido

The code of honor of the samurai of Japan

Delhi Sultanates

Muslim dynasties that existed between the 13th and 16th centuries. The territory was mainly confined to the northern part of India, though at its peak, it was in control of much of the Indian subcontinent. It came to an end with the foundation of the Mughal Empire.

Independent invention

The rare development of innovation or technology independent of cultural diffusion.

Jinshi

Title granted to students who passed the most difficult Chinese examination on all of Chinese literature; they became immediate dignitaries and eligible for high office.

Mahayana

Collection of Buddhist traditions (I.e. Zen, Pure Land, Nichiren, and Tibetan) that teach anyone can aspire to achieve awakening and thereby become a Bodhisattva (a potential Buddha). As it spread beyond India, it typically adopted the distinct local cultural characteristics of China (like Confucianism and Daoism), Japan, Mongolia, Tibet, and Korea.

Syncretism

A blend of two or more cultures or cultural traditions.

Shogun

Japanese military leaders under the bakufu.

Patriarchal

Pertaining to a social system in which the father is the head of the family.

Daimyo

A Japanese feudal lord in charge of an army of samurai.

Filial piety

In China, respect for one's parents and other elders.

Dynasty

A series of rulers from the same family.

Footbinding

In China, a method of breaking and binding women's feet was seen as a sign of beauty and social position and that confined them to the household.

Grand Canal

Series of waterways in eastern and northern China built to enable successive Chinese regimes to transport surplus grain from the agriculturally rich Yangtze (Chang) and Huai river valleys to feed the capital cities and large standing armies in northern China.

Flying Money

Paper money that was first used in China in the 9th century AD. Originally it was called 'flying monkey' (fei-chien) because it could blow out of your hand. To start with it was used by merchants as a note of forwarding tax payments. Real paper money backed by deposited money started in the 10th century

Ming Dynasty

The ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty; it was the last dynasty in China led by ethnic Hans.

Seppuku

The Japanese formal language term for ritual suicide. Hara-kiri is the common language term. Hara-kiri, which literally means "stomach cutting", is a particularly painful method of self-destruction.

Shinto

The traditional Japanese religion based on veneration of ancestors and spirits of nature.

Junks

Large Chinese sailing ships especially designed for long-distance travel during the Tang and Song dynasties

Theravada

Major form of Buddhism prevalent in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. The name literally means the Way of the Elders and is so named because of its strict adherence to the original teachings and rules of monastic discipline expounded by the Buddha.

Sati

Custom in Hinduism of a higher caste widow throwing herself on the funeral pyre of her husband.

Rajput Kingdoms

Patrilineal clans that rose to prominence during the 6th to 12th centuries in large parts of India and some parts of Pakistan. Several of them played a significant role in many regions of central and northern India until the 20th century.

Neoconfucianism

A philosophy that blended Confucianism with Buddhism and Daoism.

Monsoon

In Asia, a seasonal wind that brings warm, moist air from the oceans in the summer and cooler, dry air from inland in winter.

Monasticism

The mode of life pertaining to persons living in seclusion from the world, under religious vows and subject to a fixed rule, such as monks, friars, and nuns. Some Buddhists and Christians continue the practice.

Kamikaze

The 'divine wind" credited by the Japanese with preventing the Mongol invasion of Japan during the thirteenth century

Malay sailors

Southeast Asians who traveled the Indian Ocean; by 500 C.E., they had colonized Madagascar, introducing the cultivation of the banana.

Shogunate

The rule of the shoguns.

Yuan Dynasty

The Mongol led dynasty of China from 1271 to 1368.

Abbasid Caliphate

Second of the two great dynasties of the Muslim empire. It overthrew the Umayyad caliphate in 750 CE and reigned until it was destroyed by the Mongol invasion in 1258. The Abbasid capital was Baghdad.

Al Andalus

A Muslim ruled region in what is now Spain, established in the 8th century A.D.

Arabesque

Complex designs typical of Islamic art, combining intertwining plants and geometric patterns.

Astrolabe

A navigational instrument used to determine latitude by measuring the position of the stars.

Ayllus

In Incan society, a clan or community that worked together on projects required by the ruler.

Cahokia

Pre-Columbian settlement located on the Mississippi River (near modern day St. Louis) that was the largest city in North America north of Mexico, with as many as 20,000 people living there at its peak. The city fell into decline after 1200, around the time that a flood occurred, becoming abandoned by 1400.

Caliph

The chief Muslim political and religious leader.

Calpulli

Aztec clans that supplied labor and warriors to leaders.

Chinampas

Platforms of twisted vines and mud that served the Aztecs as floating gardens and extended their agricultural land.

Chaco

Pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the San Juan Basin of the American Southwest from the 9th to the 12th century CE. They built epic works of public architecture - a feat which required long-term planning and significant social organization.

Dar al Islam

A term representing the political and religious unity of various Islamic groups.

Dhow

Arab sailing vessels with triangular or lateen sails; strongly influenced European ship design.

Dhimmi

Literally "people of the book"; applied as inclusive term to Jews and Christians in Islamic territories; later extended to Zoroastrians and even Hindus & Buddhists.

Hadith

A collection of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad.

House of Wisdom

The Grand Library of Baghdad that became one of the greatest centers of learning in the medieval world. Built primarily as a library, it became the home of ancient and modern wisdom during the Islamic Golden Age, preserving important works of scholarship from across Europe and the Middle East.

Jihad

Islamic holy war.

Jizya

Head tax paid by all nonbelievers in Islamic territories.

Mamluks

Turkic military slaves who formed part of the army of the Abbasid Caliphate in the ninth and tenth centuries.

Mawali

Non-Arab converts to Islam.

Mexica

The name given to themselves by the Aztec people.

Mesa Verde

Place (in modern day Colorado) where Native Americans survived using a combination of hunting, gathering, and subsistence farming of crops such as corn, beans, and squash. They built their first pueblos sometime after 650, and by the end of the 12th century, they began to construct the massive cliff dwellings.

Mississippians

Were a Chalcolithic (copper age) mound-building Native American culture that flourished in the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 to 1500 A.D., varying regionally.

Mita

A labor system used by Andean societies in which community members shared work owed to rulers and the religious community.

Mound builders

Name given to those people who built mounds in a large area from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mts. The greatest concentrations of mounds are found in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys.

People of the Book

A term applied by Islamic governments to Muslims, Christians, and Jews in reference to the fact that all three religions had a holy book.

Quechua

Andean society also known as the Inca.

Quipus

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

Seljuk Empire

Ruling military family of the Oğuz Turkic tribes that invaded southwestern Asia in the 11th century and eventually founded a Sunni Muslim empire that included Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and most of Iran. Their advance marked the beginning of Turkish power in the Middle East.

Shariah

The body of law that governs Muslim society.

Shi'ite

The branch of Islam that holds that the leader of Islam must be a descendant of Muhammad's family.

Sufis

Muslims who attempt to reach Allah through mysticism. By educating the masses and deepening the spiritual concerns of the Muslims, they have played an important role in the formation of Muslim society and have been further responsible for a large-scale missionary activity all over the world.

Sunni

The branch of Islam that believes that the Muslim community should select its leaders; they are the largest branch of Islam.

Terraced farming

Type of farming invented by the Inca people that made the cultivation of crops in hilly or mountainous regions possible. It is commonly used in Asia by rice-growing countries now such as Vietnam, Philippines, and Indonesia.

Umma

The community of all Muslims believers.

Waru waru

Agricultural technique developed by pre-Hispanic people in the Andes region of South America. The system ensures both the collection of water and its subsequent drainage, combines raised beds with irrigation channels to prevent damage by soil erosion during floods, and creates a microclimate that prevents damage from insects and frosts.

Mamluk Sultanate

Generals who founded their own state in Egypt and Syria from the thirteenth to early sixteenth centuries.

Banking houses

Institutions that handled the financial transactions of a variety of merchants as well as of ecclesiastical and secular officials. They specialized in money changing, loans, and investments and encouraged the exchange of money and goods over a large distance. The largest of them were in Italy, Southern Germany, the Low Countries, France, and Britain were capitalistic, meaning they were controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Bantu Speaking Peoples

Name given to a group of sub-Saharan African peoples whose migrations altered the society of sub-Saharan Africa through language, iron technology, and farming.

Black Death

The European name for the outbreak of bubonic plague that spread across Asia, Europe, and North Africa in the fourteenth century.

Caravan

A group of travelers, usually merchants or pilgrims, journeying together for safety in numbers while passing through deserts, hostile territory, etc.

Caravanserai

Roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey. They supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of trade routes covering Asia, North Africa, and southeastern Europe, especially along the Silk Road.

Chivalry

A knight's code of honor in medieval Europe.

Excommunication

The practice of the Roman Catholic and other Christian churches of prohibiting participation in the sacraments to those who do not comply with church teachings or practices.

Feudalism

A political, economic, and social system based on the relationship between lord and vassal in order to provide protection.

Fief

In medieval Europe, a grant of land given in exchange for military or other services.

Geocentric theory

The belief held by many before the Scientific Revolution that the earth is the center of the universe.

Gothic Architecture

Architecture of the twelfth-century Europe, featuring stained-glass windows, flying buttresses, tall spires, and pointed arches.

Great Zimbabwe

Ancient city that supported a Bantu-speaking Shona population of 10,000 to 20,000. With an economy based on cattle husbandry, crop cultivation, and the trade of gold on the coast of the Indian Ocean, it was the heart of a thriving trading empire from the 11th to the 15th centuries.

Griots

Storytellers and historians of sub-Saharan Africa who carried on oral traditions.

Hanseatic League

Organization founded by north German towns and German merchant communities abroad to protect their mutual trading interests. The league dominated commercial activity in northern Europe from the 13th to the 15th century.

Hausa Kingdoms

Collection of states situated between the Niger River and Lake Chad (modern day northern Nigeria) that were occasionally interconnected through loose alliances. They had no central authority, were never combined in wars of conquest, and were therefore frequently subject to domination from outside. Isolated until the 14th century, they were then introduced to Islam by missionaries from Mali.

Kashgar

Oasis city located in modern day western China that for over 2000 years served as a trading post and commanded historical caravan routes along the Silk Road. At the convergence point of widely varying cultures and empires, the city has been under the rule of the Chinese, Turkic, Mongol, and Tibetan empires and has also been the site of a number of battles between various groups of people on the steppes.

Khan

A Mongol ruler

Lateen Sail

A triangular sail attached to a short mast.

Luxury goods

Commodities traded along the Silk Roads that were typically compact with high value due enormous demand and high prices that were ideal for trade and long-distance transportation.

Magna Carta

A document written in England in 1215 that granted certain rights to nobles; later these rights came to be extended to all classes.

Manorial system

Economic and social system of medieval Europe under which peasants' land tenure and production were regulated, and local justice and taxation were administered.

Mongol Peace (Pax Mongolica)

The period from about 1250 to 1350 in which the Mongols ensured the safety of Eurasian trade and travel

Parliament

A representative assembly.

Renaissance

The revival of classical art and learning in Europe beginning about 1300 and continuing to about 1600.

Samarkand

City that became the capital of the empire of Timur (Tamerlane), who made the it the most important economic and cultural center in Central Asia. The city prospered from its location on the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean and was noted for being an Islamic center for scholarly study.

Serf/Serfdom

A peasant tenant farmer in medieval Europe/Condition in which a peasant tenant farmer was bound to a hereditary plot of land and to the will of his landlord.

Stateless Society

A society that is based on the authority of kinship groups rather than on a central government

Steppe/Steppe Diplomacy

A dry grassland/The skill of political survival and dominance in the world of steppe nomads; it involved the knowledge of tribal and clan structure and often used assassinations to accomplish its goals.