Patterns in World History and Varieties of Civilizations (Before 1200 - 1500 C.E.)

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering world history patterns before 1200 and Eurasian and American civilizations.

Paleolithic Era

The long period during which human societies sustained themselves through gathering, hunting, and fishing without the practice of agriculture.

Patriarchy

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

Siddhartha Gautama

The Indian prince (ca. 566-ca. 486 B.C.E.) whose exposure to human suffering led him to develop a path to Enlightenment that became the basis for Buddhism.

Eightfold Path

A path in Buddhism that emphasized a modest and moral lifestyle, mental concentration practices including meditation, and wisdom or understanding of reality as it is to reach Enlightenment.

Theravada Buddhism

"Teaching of the Elders" - An early form of Buddhism according to which the Buddha was a wise teacher but not divine, emphasizing practices and meditation rather than beliefs.

Mahayana Buddhism

"Great Vehicle" - A popular development of Buddhism in the early centuries of the Common Era that gave a greater role to supernatural beings, compassion, and viewed the Buddha as divine.

Bodhisattvas

Deities in Tibetan Buddhism.

Analects

A short book written by Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.) that later became the foundation for Confucianism.

Han Dynasty

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

Daoism

A Chinese philosophy or popular religion founded by Laozi that advocates a simple and unpretentious way of living and alignment with the natural world.

Yin/Yang

The ancient Chinese concept expressing a belief in the unity or complementarity of opposites, where yin is female and yang is male.

Judaism

A monotheistic religion developed in the Middle East by the Hebrews, being the first in the region to produce the idea of a single supreme deity (Yahweh) concerned with social justice.

Muhammad

The Prophet and founder of Islam whose religious revelations became the Quran, bringing a radically monotheistic religion and unifying Arabia under Islam by 630 C.E.

Madrassas

Formal colleges that offered advanced instruction in the Quran, sayings of Muhammad, grammar, rhetoric, law, mathematics, medicine, theology, and philosophy.

Silk Roads

Land-based trade routes named after their most famous product that linked China and the Mediterranean world across Eurasia.

Sand Roads

A term used to describe the routes of the trans-Saharan trade, which linked interior West Africa to the Mediterranean and North African world.

Agricultural Revolution

The domestication of plants and animals generating surplus resources and reliable food supply, allowing transition from nomadic lifestyles to permanent settlements, specialized labor, and complex political systems.

Hinduism

A religion based on many beliefs, practices, sects, rituals, and philosophies in India, incorporating concepts like karma, reincarnation, meditation, and ordinary life as an illusion.

Nirvana

The achievement of enlightenment expected by those who followed the Buddhist path most fully.

Bhakti Movement

A Hindu movement beginning in south India and moving northward between 600 and 1300 C.E. involving intense adoration of and identification with a particular deity through songs, prayers, and rituals.

Confucianism

A secular or humanistic Chinese philosophy advocating practical human ethics, social order, and the moral example of superiors over supernatural religion or divine salvation.

Filial Piety

The honoring of one's ancestors or parents.

Laozi

A legendary sixth-century-B.C.E. archivist associated as the founder of Daoism.

Abrahamic Faiths

Three monotheistic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) emerging on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea that all revere the biblical character Abraham.

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 Christianity.

Quran

The most holy text of Islam, which records the words of God through revelations given to the Prophet Muhammad.

Sufism

An understanding of the Islamic faith that pursued an interior life to tame the ego and achieve spiritual union with Allah through renouncing the material world, meditation, music, dance, and chanting.

Sea Roads

Transoceanic trade routes in the Indian Ocean with lower transport costs that accommodated large amounts of cargo at a time.

Song Dynasty

The Chinese dynasty (960-1279) known as China's economic revolution and cultural golden age, marked by commercial growth, urbanization, agricultural advances, and Neo-Confucian scholarship.

Hangzhou

The capital during the Song dynasty with over a million people, described by Marco Polo as "beyond dispute the finest and noblest city in the world."

Hangul

A phonetic alphabet created in Korea that provided cultural independence from China and took hold especially in private correspondence.

Silla, Koryo, Joseon Kingdoms

Korean dynasties located adjacent to northeastern China: Silla (688-900), Koryo (918-1392), and Joseon (1392-1910).

Madjapahit

A significant Southeast Asian state on the island of Java that assimilated Hindu religious ideas with Javanese ideas, peaking in the mid-1300s to dominate much of Indonesia and Malaya.

Abbasid Caliphate

An Arab dynasty of caliphs that ruled the Islamic world from Baghdad starting in 750 C.E. until overthrown by the Mongols in 1258 C.E.

Al-Andalus

The Arabic name for Spain, conquered by Arab and Berber forces between 711 and 718 C.E., representing a point of encounter between the Islamic world and Christian Europe.

Ibn Battuta

A widely traveled Arab scholar, merchant, and public official who visited the Swahili coast in the early fourteenth century.

Mali

A West African state established in 1235 C.E. that drew wealth by taxing trans-Saharan trade, monopolized horse and metal imports, produced gold, and was ruled by Mansa Musa.

Timbuktu

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

Kievan Rus

A culturally diverse civilization emerging around Kiev in the ninth century C.E. that adopted Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the tenth century.

Roman Catholic Church

The Western European branch of Christianity centered on the pope that split from Eastern Orthodoxy in 1054 C.E.

Aztec Empire

A Mesoamerican state developed in the 14th and 15th centuries by the Mexica, which left local rulers in power provided they paid large tributes.

Chinampas

"Floating gardens" - artificial islands of fertile soil created from swamplands that supported highly productive agriculture surrounding Aztec cities.

Chinese Examination System

An elaborate system of civil service exams used by the Chinese imperial government to select officials for prestigious appointments.

Footbinding

The Song dynasty practice of tightly wrapping girls' feet to keep them small, reflecting elite cultural views of female beauty.

Srivijaya

A Malay kingdom (670-1025 C.E.) that dominated the critical choke-point in Indian Ocean trade at the Strait of Melaka and absorbed cultural influences from India.

Angkor Wat

The largest religious structure in the premodern world, built in the 1100s C.E. by the Angkor kingdom in Cambodia expressing a Hindu understanding of the cosmos centered on Mount Meru.

Caliph

Successor to the Prophet Muhammad.

Swahili Civilization

An East African coastal civilization (800-1500 C.E.) engaged in Indian Ocean trade.

West African Civilization

A series of important states (500-1600 C.E.) including Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and Kanem-Bornu that developed in response to trans-Saharan trade opportunities.

Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

A commerce flourishing from 1100 to 1400 exporting enslaved West Africans across the Sahara for sale in Islamic North Africa.

Byzantine Empire

The continuation of the eastern portion of the Roman Empire that lasted for a thousand years after the collapse of Roman rule in the West, until its conquest by Muslim forces in 1453.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

The branch of Christianity developed in the eastern Roman Empire noted for subordinating the Church to political authorities, married clergy, and rejecting papal authority.

Maya Civilization

A major Mesoamerican civilization (250-900 C.E.) known for creating the most elaborate writing system in the Americas.

Tenochtitlan

The capital city of the Mexica people, a metropolis with a population of 150,000 to 200,000 people.

Inca Empire

An empire stretching 2,500 miles along the Andes (1438-1533) containing 10 million subjects, governed by an intrusive imperial structure with labor taxes and emperors descended from Viracocha and Inti.