AP World Ch. 4 Vocab

Hernán Cortés

Cortes’ conquest of the Aztec Empire helped future conquistadors dominate parts of Central/South America, like Pizarro and also brought Spanish influence to Mexico.

Great Dying

Since it wiped out many populations, it also stopped the practice of burning to manage forests, allowing plants to grow and pulling in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, contributing to global cooling.

Little Ice Age

It led to shorter growing seasons, affecting global food scarcity and caused environments to be less hospitable.

General Crisis

The General Crisis caused famines and wars; it basically caused a lot of disorder.

Columbian Exchange

It finally connected the Americas with other parts of the world, but also disadvantaged them greatly, as they experienced slavery, disease, and many deaths, while Europeans gained many valuable resources.

Mercantilism

It fueled European colonialism, being the reason as to why many parts of the Americas have European influence.

Mestizo

It showed the poor treatment of native people in that time, as there were many mestizos because women wanted to be married to Spanish people so that they and their children would not be subject to the abuse placed on natives.

Mulattoes

It represents the racist ideas in colonial Brazil and how common mixed couples were as the largest group of people at the time were African-Europeans.

Settler Colonies

Settler colonies had a large influence over European influence in areas they colonized, for example, the colonization of Mexico by Spaniards spread Spanish culture and the Spanish language, which is also what Mexicans speak today.

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire’s colonization of nearby land forced or coerced native people in a way to convert into Christianity, demanded yasak, motivating Siberians to produce more fur, and its stability and thorough colonization made it so that colonized territories are still part of Russia.

yasak

It fueled fur production, as the Siberians were forced to pay yasak either through cash or unique goods, like fur, and also encouraged conversion to Christianity, as they would be exempt from paying yasak.

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty helped China recover from post-Mongolian rule: it grew richer through tax, rebuilt destroyed architecture, created a more centralized government, but also reinforced gender roles.

Qing expansion

The Qing expansion gave China even more land, added small but important minorities into the population, and established boundaries for contemporary China.

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire gave women in conquered areas better rights than they had before under their former rulers and was quite tolerant with different religions; Jewish and Christian people were still able to practice their religions and become part of the elite without converting, but was still a threat to Christendom ultimately, as they also practiced devshirme.

devshirme

Many of the boys became Muslims in the process, and devshirme helped the Ottoman Empire gain even more power.

Safavid Empire

The Safavid Empire had military conflict with the Ottoman Empire, particularly over religious differences, and so the Safavid Empire and the spread of Shia Islam represents a divide between Muslims.

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire helped unify India and was built on multicultural ideologies, but its religious policies is what ultimately led to its downfall, and is an important example of conflict between two of the largest religions.

zamindars

Zamindars significantly helped expand Mughal power, as the tax collected made it richer and also forced local citizens to obey their rule.

Akbar

Akbar’s policies reduced division among the Mughal Empire and helped unify India better and fostered cross-cultural relations, ultimately creating a stronger empire.

Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb’s policies greatly diminished Mughal rule and spread a lot of conflict, ultimately leading to the downfall of the empire and gave way for the British to take over.

Songhay Empire

It was very powerful and large, dominated much of the Sand Roads and under its rule, major cities, like Timbuktu greatly flourished.

Pueblo Revolt

The Pueblo Revolt was technically successful as it gave Native Americans independence for twelve years.