World Civ Hell Midterm 2

Xia Dynasty

Traditional first Chinese dynasty (c. 2070-1600 BCE), founded by Yu. Archaeological evidence (Erlitou) is debated.

Yellow River (Huang He)

Cradle of northern Chinese civilization. Fertile loess soil, millet farming, and devastating floods ("China's Sorrow").

Shang Dynasty

c. 1600-1046 BCE. First dynasty with written records. Known for bronze work, chariots, oracle bones, and a warrior aristocracy.

Zhou Dynasty

c. 1046-256 BCE, the longest dynasty. Overthrew the Shang, ruled through a feudal system, and introduced the Mandate of Heaven.

Yangzi River

Central China's major river. Center of rice cultivation and the southern core of Chinese civilization.

King Yu

Legendary founder of the Xia. Said to have controlled floods by dredging channels rather than building dikes.

King Wu

Founder of the Zhou. Defeated the Shang at Muye. His brother, the Duke of Zhou, served as regent for his son.

Ancestor veneration

Rituals honoring dead ancestors, who were believed to influence the living. Central to Shang religion and Chinese family life.

Mandate of Heaven

Zhou belief that Heaven grants the right to rule to just rulers and withdraws it from corrupt ones. Gave rise to the dynastic cycle.

Oracle bones

Shang turtle shells and ox bones heated until they cracked, used to ask ancestors questions. Earliest known Chinese writing.

Confucius

(551-479 BCE) Teacher who stressed ethics, ritual, hierarchy, education, and virtuous rulers as the path to social harmony.

Legalists

Thinkers who held that humans are selfish and need strict laws, harsh punishments, and strong state power.

Warring States

(475-221 BCE) Era when Zhou authority collapsed and rival states fought. Produced the Hundred Schools of Thought. Ended by Qin.

Shang Yang

Qin minister (d. 338 BCE) and Legalist reformer. Rewarded military and farming merit, used collective punishments, and weakened the aristocracy.

Qin Dynasty

(221-206 BCE) First unified Chinese empire. Legalist, centralized, and standardized, but short-lived and resented.

Laozi

Legendary founder of Daoism and traditional author of the Daodejing.

Analects

Collection of Confucius's sayings compiled by his followers.

Mencius

Confucian thinker who taught that human nature is inherently good and that rulers who lose the people's support lose their mandate.

Han Feizi

Leading Legalist thinker (d. 233 BCE) who stressed law, strong rulers, and state control. Admired by Qin Shi Huangdi.

Qin Shi Huangdi

"First Emperor." Unified China in 221 BCE, standardized writing, weights, and currency, built walls and roads, burned books, and was buried with the terracotta army.

Junzi

Confucian "gentleman" or "superior person," a morally cultivated ideal who leads by virtue.

Filial piety

Respect and obedience toward parents, elders, and ancestors. The foundation of Confucian social order.

Daoism

Philosophy centered on following the Dao ("the Way"), wu wei (effortless action), simplicity, and harmony with nature.

Gaozu / Liu Bang

Peasant-born founder of the Han Dynasty (202 BCE). Softened Qin harshness.

Han Dynasty

(206 BCE-220 CE) Made Confucianism the state ideology. Expanded the Silk Road and invented paper. A model of imperial greatness.

Xunzi

Confucian thinker who argued human nature is flawed and needs education and ritual. Teacher of Han Feizi.

Shi

The educated scholar-gentleman class. Originally lower aristocratic warriors, later scholar-officials.

Daodejing

"Classic of the Way and Its Power," the central Daoist text attributed to Laozi.

Han Wudi

(r. 141-87 BCE) Expanded the empire, made Confucianism official, founded an imperial academy, set up state monopolies, and fought the Xiongnu.

Xiongnu

Nomadic steppe confederation north of China. Raided the Han, which first paid them tribute and later fought them.

Etruscans

Civilization of north-central Italy. Their kings ruled early Rome until 509 BCE. Influenced Rome with arches, the alphabet, togas, and gladiatorial games.

Tribunes

Plebeian officials who protected common people and held veto power over magistrates.

Battle of Zama

(202 BCE) Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal, ending the Second Punic War.

Marius

General and seven-time consul. Let landless men enlist in the army, making soldiers loyal to generals rather than the state. Rival of Sulla.

Octavian

Caesar's adopted heir. Defeated Antony at Actium (31 BCE) and became Augustus.

Constantine

Emperor (306-337) who legalized Christianity, founded Constantinople, and presided over the Council of Nicaea.

Latifundia

Huge slave-worked estates that displaced small farmers and fueled social unrest.

Paul of Tarsus

Jewish Roman citizen who converted and became the key missionary to Gentiles. His letters shaped Christian theology.

Patricians

Aristocratic landowning families who held early political power in Rome.

Consuls

Two annually elected chief magistrates who led the government and army.

Hannibal

Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps (218 BCE) and won at Cannae (216 BCE) but lost at Zama.

Sulla

General and dictator (82-79 BCE). First to march an army on Rome. Used proscriptions and strengthened the senate.

Augustus

First Roman emperor (27 BCE-14 CE). Created the Principate and ushered in the Pax Romana.

Edict of Milan

(313 CE) Constantine and Licinius granted religious toleration, including for Christians.

Pax Romana

"Roman Peace" (c. 27 BCE-180 CE). Two centuries of stability, trade, and prosperity.

Jewish Revolt

(66-73 CE) Uprising against Roman rule. Titus destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. Masada fell in 73.

Senate

Council of Rome's elite (about 300 members). Powerful in the Republic, mostly advisory under emperors.

Punic Wars

Three wars (264-146 BCE) between Rome and Carthage. Rome won, gained Mediterranean dominance, and destroyed Carthage.

Tiberius Gracchus

Tribune (133 BCE) who pushed land reform for poor citizens. Killed by senatorial opponents.

Pompey

Powerful general, member of the First Triumvirate, and rival of Caesar. Defeated at Pharsalus (48 BCE) and killed in Egypt.

Equites

Wealthy "equestrian" business class, including tax collectors and merchants.

Mark Antony

Caesar's ally and member of the Second Triumvirate. Allied with Cleopatra, lost at Actium (31 BCE), and died by suicide.

Praetorian Guard

The emperor's elite bodyguard. Often made or unmade emperors.

Battle of Milvian Bridge (312)

Constantine defeated Maxentius after reportedly seeing a Christian sign. Led to imperial support for Christianity.

Plebeians

Common Roman citizens who fought the "Struggle of the Orders" for political rights, winning tribunes and written law.

Carthage

Phoenician-founded North African city and Rome's chief rival. Destroyed in 146 BCE.

Gaius Gracchus

Tiberius's brother, tribune 123-122 BCE. Supported grain subsidies and reforms. Died in 121 BCE.

Julius Caesar

Conquered Gaul, crossed the Rubicon (49 BCE), became dictator for life, and was assassinated on the Ides of March (44 BCE).

Tiberius

Second emperor (14-37 CE), Augustus's stepson and successor.

Cleopatra

Last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt. Allied with Caesar and then Antony. Died in 30 BCE, after which Egypt became a Roman province.

Essenes

Ascetic, communal Jewish sect, often linked to Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Olmecs

(c. 1200-400 BCE) Gulf Coast Mexico. Called the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica. Known for colossal stone heads, San Lorenzo, and La Venta.

Popol Vuh

Sacred K'iche' Maya text containing creation stories and the Hero Twins myth.

Chavín cult

Religious tradition centered at Chavín de Huántar (c. 900-200 BCE) in Peru, with jaguar imagery. First widespread Andean culture.

Maya

City-state civilization in Yucatán, Guatemala, and Belize. Developed writing, a calendar, astronomy, and the concept of zero. Classic Period c. 250-900 CE.

Teotihuacan

Huge central Mexican city with the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon. Peaked around 450 CE and influenced the Maya.

Mochica / Moche

(c. 100-800 CE) Coastal Peruvian culture known for irrigation, adobe pyramids, and realistic portrait pottery.

Palenque

Maya city in Chiapas, famous for the Temple of Inscriptions and the ruler Pakal.

Tikal

One of the largest Maya cities (Guatemala), with towering temple-pyramids.

Andes

South American mountain chain. Home to vertical agriculture, potatoes, llamas, and early civilizations.

Pakal

Ruler of Palenque (615-683). Buried in the Temple of Inscriptions.

Mesoamerica

Cultural region of Mexico and Central America sharing maize farming, calendars, pyramids, and the ball game.

Tiwanaku

Highland Bolivian state near Lake Titicaca (c. 500-1000 CE). Known for raised-field farming and the Gateway of the Sun.

Bantu

Language family and peoples whose migrations spread from West-Central Africa across the south and east, carrying farming and ironworking.

Tsetse fly

Spreads sleeping sickness, killing livestock and limiting cattle, horses, and pack animals in parts of Africa. Shaped settlement and states.

Swahili

East African coastal culture and language blending Bantu and Arabic. Trading cities included Kilwa and Mombasa.

Mansa Musa

Mali's emperor (c. 1312-1337). His 1324 hajj, with lavish gold, made Mali famous worldwide.

Sahara Desert

World's largest hot desert. Camel caravans carried the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade.

Jenne (Djenné)

Niger River trading and Islamic learning city, known for its mud-brick Great Mosque.

Mali

West African empire (c. 1235-1600) founded by Sundiata. Wealthy from gold and Muslim-ruled.

Axum / Aksum

Ethiopian Red Sea trading kingdom. King Ezana adopted Christianity (c. 330). Known for stone stelae. Conquered Kush.

Meroë

Late capital of Kush (Nubia), famed for iron smelting and pyramids. Declined after Axum's attack (c. 350 CE).

Sundiata

Founder of Mali. Defeated the Sosso king at Kirina (c. 1235). Subject of the Epic of Sundiata.

Timbuktu

Trading and Islamic scholarship hub in Mali and Songhai, home to Sankore.

Ghana

First major West African trading empire (c. 300-1100). Controlled the gold-salt trade. Capital Koumbi Saleh.

Celts

Iron Age peoples of western and central Europe (Gaul, Britain, Ireland). Had druid priests and were conquered by Rome.

Rurik

Varangian leader who founded a ruling dynasty at Novgorod (c. 862).

St. Methodius

Byzantine missionary to the Slavs who, with his brother Cyril, helped create a Slavic script.

Cimmerians

Nomads north of the Black Sea, displaced by the Scythians (c. 700 BCE).

Kiev

Capital of Kievan Rus on the Dnieper River.

Vladimir

Prince Vladimir I (r. 980-1015), who converted to Orthodox Christianity c. 988 and made it Rus's religion.

Slavs

Eastern European Indo-European peoples, divided into East, West, and South branches.

Kievan Rus

First East Slavic state (9th-13th c.), a trade link between the Baltic and the Black Sea. Fell to the Mongols (1240).

Varangians

Scandinavian Vikings who traveled Russia's rivers as traders and rulers.

St. Cyril

Missionary who created the Glagolitic alphabet with Methodius, the basis for Cyrillic.

Sassanids

Persian dynasty (224-651 CE), Zoroastrian rivals of Rome and Byzantium. Fell to Arab Muslims.

Huns

Central Asian nomads whose westward push drove Germanic peoples into Rome's territory.

Visigoths

Germanic people who won at Adrianople (378) and sacked Rome (410) under Alaric.

Tetrarchy

Diocletian's "rule of four": two senior emperors (Augusti) and two juniors (Caesars).

Attila

Hun king (r. 434-453). Raided the Balkans, Gaul, and Italy.