AP World History: Modern (Units 3 & 4) Vocabulary Review Guide

A set of 48 fill-in-the-blank practice flashcards covering key vocabulary, empires, labor systems, and maritime developments from AP World History: Modern (Units 3 & 4: Land-Based Empires and Transoceanic Interconnections, 1450–1750).

A ruler with complete, unrestricted control over the government and subjects, such as King Louis XIV of France, is an __________.

Absolute Monarch

Pirates who plied the Mediterranean and North African coast, capturing European ships and selling captives into slavery to Ottoman officials, were known as the __________.

Barbary Pirates

The strict racial hierarchy created by Spanish colonists in the Americas based on ancestry, place of birth, and skin color was the __________.

Casta System

Agricultural crops like sugar and tobacco grown specifically for commercial sale and export profit rather than local subsistence are known as __________.

Cash Crops

A system of bond servitude in which individuals are legally treated as personal property to be bought, sold, and owned permanently is called __________.

Chattel Slavery

The transition to a European trade-based economy driven by overseas colonization, joint-stock companies, and global bullion flow is the __________.

Commercial Revolution

The series of Catholic Church meetings held between 1545 and 1563 that corrected clergy abuses, improved priest education, and reaffirmed core Catholic doctrines during the Counter-Reformation was the __________.

Council of Trent

Landholding samurai aristocrats in feudal Japan who ruled vast private estates under the supreme authority of the Shogun were the __________.

Daimyo

A prominent British joint-stock company chartered to monopolize and manage trade routes across the Indian Ocean basin was the __________.

East India Company

A Spanish labor system compelling indigenous peoples to perform physical labor in exchange for food, shelter, and religious instruction was the __________.

Encomienda

The 1689 document limiting royal power, protecting Parliament's taxation authority, and guaranteeing rights to English citizens was the __________.

English Bill of Rights

Heavily armed, multi-decked Spanish sailing ships used to transport precious metals (such as silver), manufactured goods, and troops across oceans were called __________.

Galleons

Large, centralized states (Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal) that relied on military conquest using firearms and artillery to expand and consolidate power are known as the __________.

Gunpowder Empires

Large rural estates in Spanish colonies worked by coerced landless laborers (peons) to produce agricultural goods for domestic markets were part of the __________.

Hacienda System

In Muslim societies, the secluded residential quarters reserved for wives, concubines, and female relatives of a ruler or elite male is the __________.

Harem

The Caribbean island claimed by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage in 1492 (present-day Haiti and Dominican Republic) is __________.

Hispaniola

Commercial enterprises owned by multiple investors who purchased shares to split financial risk and share in global trade profits were __________.

Joint-Stock Companies

Armed conflicts between European colonial authorities and communities of escaped enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and Americas were called the __________.

Maroon Wars

The German monk whose 1517 Ninety-Five Theses challenged Catholic Church corruption and sparked the Protestant Reformation was __________.

Martin Luther

An economic theory emphasizing heavy government control, tariffs, raw material extraction from colonies, and maximizing silver and gold reserves is __________.

Mercantilism

The native Han Chinese dynasty (1368–1644) that overthrew Mongol rule, restored traditional civil service exams, and fortified the Great Wall was the __________.

Ming Dynasty

A wealthy, centralized Muslim state ruling India (1526–1857), known for religious tolerance under Akbar, flourishing trade, and magnificent architecture, was the __________.

Mughal Empire

Academic debate points posted by Martin Luther in 1517 criticizing Catholic Church practices, particularly the sale of indulgences, were titled the __________.

Ninety-Five Theses

The largest and longest-lasting Sunni Islamic empire (1299–1922), expanding across Southeast Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, was the __________.

Ottoman Empire

Spanish colonists born on the Iberian Peninsula who held the highest political posts and superior social standing in colonial Latin America were known as __________.

Peninsulares

Legal rules requiring landed estates to be inherited entirely by the eldest son, leaving younger sons to pursue military or colonial wealth, were called __________.

Primogeniture Laws

A 16th-century religious movement that split Western Christianity into Protestant and Catholic branches, emphasizing salvation by faith alone, was the __________.

Protestant Reformation

The Shi'a Islamic empire established in Persia (1501–1736) renowned for its cultural achievements and intense military rivalry with the Ottomans was the __________.

Safavid Empire

A 17th-century intellectual transformation emphasizing empirical observation, scientific testing, and modern planetary physics was the __________.

Scientific Revolution

A monotheistic syncretic religion founded by Guru Nanak in northern India that combined elements of Hinduism and Islam while preaching human equality is __________.

Sikhism

The blending of different religious beliefs, practices, or cultural traditions into a new, distinct synthesis is defined as __________.

Syncretism

The 14th-century Mongol-Turkic conqueror whose ruthless military campaigns inspired the ghazi warrior tradition for later Gunpowder Empires was __________.

Tamerlane

A network of fortified coastal ports established (primarily by the Portuguese) to control maritime trade routes and collect duties rather than govern large lands was a __________.

Trading-Post Empire

The Ottoman practice of forcibly recruiting young Christian boys from the Balkans to be educated, converted to Islam, and trained as elite military units or civil administrators was the __________.

Devshirme System

The elite infantry force of the Ottoman Empire, recruited through the devshirme system and directly loyal to the Sultan, were the __________.

Janissaries

The European political philosophy holding that a monarch's authority comes directly from God, making them immune to earthly accountability, is the __________.

Divine Right of Kings

A state revenue collection system (used by Ottomans and Mughals) where the government auctioned off tax rights to private individuals who kept excess collections was __________.

Tax Farming (Iltizam)

Local elite landholders in the Mughal Empire who acted as regional administrative officials and tax collectors for the central government were called __________.

Zamindars

The massive royal palace constructed outside Paris by Louis XIV to centralize executive power, control nobility, and display absolute wealth is __________.

Versailles

The military dictatorship that unified feudal Japan (1603–1867), imposing strict social control and enforcing national isolation (Sakoku), was the __________.

Tokugawa Shogunate

The massive, global exchange of plants, animals, human populations, communicable diseases, and technologies between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres starting in 1492 was the __________.

Columbian Exchange

An adapted Incan mandatory public service system used by Spanish colonizers to force indigenous populations into silver mining labor under dangerous conditions was the __________.

Mit'a System

The horrific transatlantic voyage taken by enslaved Africans bound for chattel slavery in the Americas as part of the Triangular Trade network was the __________.

Middle Passage

Among key maritime innovations enabling global navigation, the __________ was an angle-measuring celestial tool.

Astrolabe

People of European descent born in the Americas who were wealthy and landowning, but held beneath European-born Peninsulares in political power, were called __________.

Creoles (Criollos)

In the Spanish Casta System, individuals of European and Native American descent were known as __________.

Mestizos

A labor system in which workers signed contracts agreeing to uncompensated labor for a specific term (usually 4–7 years) in exchange for passage across the Atlantic was __________.

Indentured Servitude

A rich silver mining city in modern-day Bolivia that produced the bulk of Spanish global wealth and heavily expanded forced labor systems was __________.

Potosí