Final Exam Study Guide 2025 General Course Terms/Concepts

Flashcards for vocabulary review of key terms and concepts from the lecture notes.

Primary Sources

Original materials or accounts.

Secondary Sources

Materials that analyze or interpret primary sources.

BCE

Before Common Era

AD

Anno Domini

Paleolithic

The early phase of the Stone Age, lasting about 2.5 million years

Neolithic

The later part of the Stone Age

Polytheism

The belief in or worship of more than one god.

Monotheism

The belief in one God.

Equator

An imaginary line drawn around the earth equally distant from both poles, dividing the earth into the northern and southern hemispheres and constituting the parallel of latitude 0°.

Prime Meridian

The earth's zero of longitude, which by convention passes through Greenwich, England.

Hemispheres

The northern or southern half of the earth as divided by the equator or the eastern or western half as divided by the prime meridian.

Culture

The customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or group.

Cultural Diffusion

The spread of cultural beliefs and social activities from one group to another.

Civilization

A complex, highly organized social order.

Behistun Rock

A multilingual inscription and Persian Royal, helped in the decipherment of cuneiform.

Mesopotamia

An ancient region in Western Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, now part of Iraq.

Uruk

City in Sumer that had a population of about 50,000, which doubled in two centuries

Sumer

An ancient kingdom in Mesopotamia, comprising a major city-state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

Cleopatra

Ancient Egyptian queen, the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.

Ramesses II

Third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom.

Rosetta Stone

A stone slab inscribed with hieroglyphics. It played a crucial role in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Abraham

The common ancestor of the Patriarchs.

Covenant

An agreement.

Isaac

Abraham's son.

Ishmael

Abraham's first son.

Moses

Led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and received the Law on Mount Sinai.

Torah

The first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

Phoenicians

An ancient seafaring civilization located on the eastern Mediterranean coast.

Minoans

A Bronze Age civilization that flourished on the island of Crete.

Trojan War

A military conflict between the city of Troy and the Achaeans.

Pericles

An influential Greek statesman, orator, and general during the Golden Age of Athens.

Direct Democracy

A form of democracy in which the people vote firsthand.

Peloponnesian Wars

A war fought between Athens and Sparta. Sparta was the victor.

Athens

A state of ancient Greece, noted for its democratic system and cultural achievements.

Sparta

A state of ancient Greece, known for its military prowess.

Alexander the Great

The empire was one of the largest empires in world history.

Hellenism

The blending of Greek culture with Persian, Egyptian, and Indian influences.

Rome

A state in ancient Italy.

Republic

A form of government in which citizens choose their leaders by voting

Caesar

A Roman general and statesman.

Mark Antony

A Roman politician and general who was an ally and lover of Cleopatra.

Caesar Augustus (Octavian)

The first Roman emperor.

Battle at Actium

The decisive confrontation of the Final War of the Roman Republic.

Punic Wars

A series of wars fought between Rome and Carthage.

Scipio

A Roman general who defeated Hannibal.

Hannibal

A Carthaginian general who fought against Rome in the Second Punic War.

Pax Romana

A period of peace and prosperity in the Roman Empire.

Constantinople

The capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Paul

An apostle who spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.

Peter

One of the Twelve Apostles and regarded as the founder of the Christian Church.

Germanic Tribes

Nomadic groups from Germanic regions that migrated into the Roman Empire.

Fall of Western Rome Consequences

The western Roman Empire fell due to internal weaknesses, external pressures, and Germanic invasions.

Mongols

A nomadic group from Central Asia who created a vast empire.

Steppe

A vast grassland in Central Asia.

Ghengis Khan

The founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.

Khanates

Various Mongol empires

Russia

A country in Eastern Europe.

Islam

A religion that originated in Mecca.

Muhammad

The prophet of Islam.

Angel Gabriel

The angel who revealed the word of God to Muhammad.

Mecca

The holiest city in Islam.

Medina

A city in Saudi Arabia to which Muhammad and his followers emigrated in 622 to escape persecution in Mecca.

Five Pillars

The core beliefs and practices of Islam.

Hajj

The Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

Ka’aba

A black cube-shaped building in Mecca, and the most sacred Muslim pilgrim shrine; Muslims turn in its direction when praying.

Rightly Guided Caliphs

The first four caliphs after Muhammad's death.

Sunni

One of the two main branches of Islam.

Shia

One of the two main branches of Islam.

Shari’a

Islamic law.

Sunna

The body of traditional social and legal customs and practices of the Islamic community,

Abbasids

A caliphate that overthrew the Umayyad caliphate.

Umayyads

A caliphate that ruled the Islamic world from 661 to 750.

Arabesque

A complex pattern of geometric shapes and lines often found in Islamic art.

Qur’an (Koran)

The holy book of Islam.

Allah

God in Islam.

Europe

The continent of Europe.

Medieval Period/Middle Ages

Alternate term for the Middle Ages, a time period in European history from about A.D. 500 to about 1500.

Feudal System

A political and social system in which lords gave land to vassals in exchange for service and loyalty.

Manors

A lord's estate in feudal Europe.

Serfs

A peasant bound to the lord's land.

Chivalry

Code of conduct for knights during the Middle Ages.

Byzantine Empire

The Eastern Roman Empire.

Justinian

Compiled Roman law and created a single, uniform law code.

Great Schism

The split between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches.

Pope Urban II

The pope who called for the First Crusade.

Crusades

A series of religious wars.

Secular

Non-religious.

Bubonic Plague

A deadly disease that spread across Europe.

Consequences of the Plague

Decline in population, trade, and faith in the Church.