WHAP Final

Great Zimbabwe

A stone-walled enclosure found in Southeast Africa. Have been associated with trade, farming, and mining.

Zoroastrianism

One of the first monotheistic religions, particularly one with a wide following. It was central to the political and religious culture of ancient Persia.

legalism

A school of Chinese philosophy. Prominent during Warring States Period. Had great influence on the policies of the Qin dynasty. Based on a pessimistic view of human nature. Social harmony could only be attained through strong government control and the imposition of strict laws, enforced absolutely.

assimilation

The process by which people are gradually absorbed and integrated into another culture.

Tang

Continuing the imperial revival started by the Sui Dynasty this dynasty that followed restored the Chinese imperial impulse four centuries after the decline of the Han, extending control along the silk route. Trade flourished and China finally reached its western limits when its forces were defeated by the imperial armies of the Muslim Abbasid Empire at the Talas River--which stopped future expansion by both empires.

Dharma

the fulfillment of one's social and religious duties in Hinduism

Siddhartha Gautama

The prince who is said to have founded Buddhism.

Caste system

India's traditional social hierarchy.

Nirvana

Within several Indian religious this is the peace of mind that comes from ending the cycle of rebirth. For some it is from overcoming suffering while for others it comes from joining with Brahman.

Four Noble Truths

1. Suffering is always present in life
2. Desire is the cause of suffering
3. Freedom from suffering can be achieved in nirvana
4. The Eightfold Path leads to nirvana

Mahayana

The name of the more mystical and larger of the two main Buddhist sects. This one originated in India in the 400s CE and gradually found its way north to the Silk road and into Central and East Asia.

Silk Road

Connected China, India, and the Middle East. Traded goods and helped to spread culture.

Olmec

Mesoamerican civilization in lower Mexico around 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE focused. Most remembered for their large stone heads.

Maya

Never an empire but an extensive and culturally advanced Mesoamerican society with many cities in the Yucatan.

Shinto

"Way of the Kami"; Japanese worship of nature spirits

Buddha

Means "Enlightened One." He is said to have renounced his worldly possessions and taught of a way to overcome suffering.

Diaspora

any group migration or flight from a country or region; dispersion. Particularly used in relation to Jews scattered by Romans in 70 CE or to Africans spread to new places during the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Mandate of Heaven

A political theory developed during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China in which those in power were believed to have the the right to rule from divine authority.

Diffusion

The spread of ideas, objects, or traits from one culture to another

Confucianism

Chinese ethical and philosophical teachings of Confucius which emphasized education, family, peace, and justice

Constantine

Roman emperor who adopted Christianity for the Roman Empire and who founded Constantinople as a second capital

Byzantine Empire

Eastern half of the Roman Empire that survived the fall of the Western half.

Warring States Period

the period from 475 BC until the unification of China under the Qin dynasty, characterized by lack of centralized government in China. It followed the Zhou dynasty.

urbanization

the movement of people to Urban areas in search of work.

Safavid

The _________ Empire that ruled Persia (Iran) between 1502-1736.

Jizya

Poll tax that non-Muslims had to pay when living within a Muslim empire

syncretism

The unification or blending of opposing people, ideas, or practices, frequently in the realm of religion. For example, when Christianity was adopted by people in a new land, they often incorporate it into their existing culture and traditions.

Sikh

A member of a religious community founded in the Punjab region of India. Developed in the 15th century. They believe in One Immortal Being and the teachings of ten Gurus, starting with Guru Nanak.

Constantinople

A large and wealthy city that was the imperial capital of the Byzantine empire and later the Ottoman empire, now known as Istanbul

Mestizo

A new racial concept that develops in Latin America following the intermixing that occurred between European colonists and the native American population.

95 Theses

It was nailed to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517 and is widely seen as being the catalyst that started the Protestant Reformation. It contained Luther's list of accusations against the Roman Catholic Church.

Indulgence

Within the Catholic Church, this is the remission punishment for ones sins. Such as for a sin that has already been forgiven by God but which still carries with it some kind of punishment. Centuries ago the Church would sell certificates that would get a person out of purgatory. This practice contributed to the Protestant reformation.

Bartholomew Dias

Portuguese navigator that discovered the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Afica.

Cortes

The Spanish conqueror of Mexico.

Enconmienda

A labor system set up by the Spanish government where Spanish colonists could work the native Americans on their land while compensating them and agreeing to educate some of them and teach them about Christianity. The system was meant to curb exploitation but actually made the exploitation of Native Americans worse.

Mita System

When colonists were allowed to use Indians for forced labor in colonial South America as a form of taxation. The Inca had previously used a similar practice.

Mercantilism

Economic policy common to many absolute monarchies. Government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the military security of the country. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade and desires new sources of gold and silver bullion, thus fueling more colonialism.

Hacienda

Spanish estates in the Americas that were often plantations. They often represent the gradual removal of land from peasant ownership and a type of feudalistic order where the owners of Haciendas would have agreements of loyalty to the capital but would retain control over the actual land. This continued even into the 20th century.

Leonardo da Vinci

A well known Italian Renaissance artist, architect, musician, mathemetician, engineer, and scientist. Known for the Mona Lisa.

Shogun

In feudal Japan, a noble similar to a duke. They were the military commanders and the actual rulers of Japan for many centuries while the Emperor was a powerless spiritual figure.

Samurai

A member of the warrior class in premodern feudal Japan

Janissary

A slave soldier of the Ottoman Army

Dar al-Islam

a term used by Muslims to refer to those countries where Muslims can practice their religion freely.

Sufi

A member of the more mystical third sect of Islam famous for their dance and their poetry.

Martin Luther

The German monk who is widely regarded as the leader of the Protestant Reformation. He was excommunicated by the Catholic church due to his opposition to certain practices and he began his own sect of Christianity in the 16th century.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, found in East Virginia

Hundred Years War

War between France and Britain, lasted 116 years, mostly a time of peace, but it was punctuated by times of brutal violence (1337 to 1453)

Colombian Exchange

The trading of various animals, diseases, and crops between the Eastern and Western hemispheres

triangle

From the 16th to 19th centuries, the flow of goods between the Americas, Europe in Africa is often described with what geometric shape?

Colonization

The expansion of countries into other countries where they establish settlements and control the people

Scientific Revolution

period in the 16th and 17th centuries where many thinkers rejected doctrines of the past dealing with the natural world in favor of new scientific ideas.

Ming

Chinese dynasty between 1368-1644. Economy flourished and the government even explored the Indian Ocean through many expeditions led by Zheng He. Ultimately they were taken over by the Manchurians from the North in 1644.

Gunpowder

Invented within China during the 9th century, this substance was became the dominate military technology used to expand European and Asian empires by the 15th century.

Christopher Columbus

He mistakenly discovered the Americas in 1492 while searching for a faster route to India.

creole

Descendants of the Europeans in Latin America, usually implies an upper class status.

Delhi Sultanate

The first Islamic government established within India from 1206-1520. Controled a small area of northern India and was centered in Delhi.

Timur

Sometimes known as Tamerlane, this was the Central Asian leader of a Mongol tribe who attempted to re-establish the Mongol Empire in the late 1300's. His empire included Persia (Iran) and many surrounding lands. He is the great great grandfather of Babur. who later founds the Mughal Empire in India.

Pax Mongolica

The period of approximately 150 years of relative peace and stability created by the Mongol Empire.

Ghana

West African state that supplied the majority of the world's gold from 500 CE-1400's

Humanism

Philosophy that celebrates human cultural achievements and emphasizes human reason and ethics.

Marco Polo

Italian explorer who wrote about his travels to Central Asia and China.

Mongol Empire

Largest land empire in the history of the world, spanning from Eastern Europe across Asia.

Henry The Navigator

This Portuguese prince who lead an extensive effort to promote seafaring expertise in the 14th century. Sent many expedition to the coast of West Africa in the 15th century, leading Portugal to discover a route around Africa, ultimately to India.

Abbasid CalIphate

descendants of the Prophet Muhammad's uncle, al-Abbas, they overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate and ruled an Islamic empire from their capital in Baghdad (founded 762) from 750 to 1258.

Akbar

Most illustrious sultan of the Mughal Empire in India (r. 1556-1605). He expanded the empire and pursued a policy of conciliation with Hindus.

Alexander the Great

Between 334 and 323 B.C.E. he conquered the Persian Empire, reached the Indus Valley, founded many Greek-style cities, and spread Greek culture across the Middle East.

aqueduct

A conduit, either elevated or under ground, using gravity to carry water from a source to a location-usually a city-that needed it. The Romans built many of these in a period of substantial urbanization.

Asoka

Third ruler of the Mauryan Empire in India (r. 270-232 B.C.E.). He converted to Buddhism and broadcast his precepts on inscribed stones and pillars, the earliest surviving Indian writing.

Atahualpa

Last ruling Inca emperor of Peru. He was executed by the Spanish.

Bantu

A major African language family. Collective name of a large group of sub-Saharan African languages and of the peoples speaking these languages. Famous for migrations throughout central and southern Africa.

Bartolomeu Dias

Portuguese explorer who in 1488 led the first expedition to sail around the southern tip of Africa from the Atlantic and sight the Indian Ocean.

Black Death

The common name for a major outbreak of plague that spread across Asia, North Africa, and Europe in the mid-fourteenth century, carrying off vast numbers of persons.

caliphate

Islamic empire ruled by those believed to be the successors to the Prophet Muhammad.

caravel

A small, highly maneuverable three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in the exploration of the Atlantic.

Champa Rice

Quick-maturing rice that can allow two harvests in one growing season. Originally introduced into Champa from India, it was later sent to China as a tribute gift by the Champa state (as part of the tributary system.)

Charlemagne

King of the Franks (r. 768-814); emperor (r. 800-814). Through a series of military conquests he established the Carolingian Empire, which encompassed all of Gaul and parts of Germany and Italy. Illiterate, though started an intellectual revival.

chinampas

Raised fields constructed along lake shores in Mesoamerica to increase agricultural yields.

conquistadors

Early-sixteenth-century Spanish adventurers who conquered Mexico, Central America, and Peru. (Examples Cortez, Pizarro, Francisco.)

Indentured servitude

A worker bound by a voluntary agreement to work for a specified period of years often in return for free passage to an overseas destination. Before 1800 most were Europeans; after 1800 most indentured laborers were Asians.

Cossacks

Peoples of the Russian Empire who lived outside the farming villages, often as herders, mercenaries, or outlaws. Cossacks led the conquest of Siberia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Crusades

Armed pilgrimages to the Holy Land by Christians determined to recover Jerusalem from Muslim rule. The Crusades brought an end to western Europe's centuries of intellectual and cultural isolation.

devshirme

'Selection' in Turkish. The system by which boys from Christian communities were taken by the Ottoman state to serve as Janissaries.

Solomon's Temple

A monumental sanctuary built in Jerusalem by King Solomon in the tenth century B.C.E. to be the religious center for the Israelite god Yahweh. The Temple priesthood conducted sacrifices, received a tithe or percentage of agricultural revenues.

Fransisco Pizarro

Spanish explorer who led the conquest of the Inca Empire of Peru in 1531-1533.

Golden Horde

Mongol khanate founded by Genghis Khan's. It was based in southern Russia and quickly adopted both the Turkic language and Islam. Also known as the Kipchak Horde.

Great Schism

A division in the Latin (Western) Christian Church between 1378 and 1417, when rival claimants to the papacy existed in Rome and Avignon.

Gupta Empire

Powerful Indian state based in the Ganges Valley. It controlled most of the Indian subcontinent through a combination of military force and its prestige as a center of sophisticated culture. Often associated with a Golden Age of classical India.

Ibn Battuta

Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan.

Khubilai Khan

Last of the Mongol Great Khans (r. 1260-1294). Ruled the Mongol Empire from China and was the founder of the Yuan Empire in China after defeating what was left of the Song Dynasty.

Jesuits

Members of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic order founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534. They played an important part in the Catholic Reformation and helped create conduits of trade and knowledge between Asia and Europe.

Mamluks

Under the Islamic system of military slavery, Turkic military slaves who formed an important part of the armed forces of the Abbasid Caliphate of the ninth and tenth centuries. Mamluks eventually founded their own state, ruling Egypt and Syria (1250-1517)

Mansa Musa

Ruler of Mali (r. 1312-1337). His extravagant pilgrimage through Egypt to Mecca in 1324-1325 established the empire's reputation for wealth in the Mediterranean world.

Middle Passage

The part of the Great Circuit involving the transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.

Montezuma II

The last Aztec emperor. Here he is on vacation at the beach, just days before being captured and killed by Cortés in 1520.

monasticism

Living in a religious community apart from secular society and adhering to a rule stipulating chastity, obedience, and poverty. (Primary Centers of Learning in Medieval Europe)

monotheism

Belief in a single divine entity. The Israelite worship of Yahweh developed into an exclusive belief in one god, and this concept passed into Christianity and Islam.

monsoon

These strong and predictable winds have long been ridden across the open sea by sailors, and the large amounts of rainfall that they deposit on parts of India, Southeast Asia, and China allow for the cultivation of several crops a year.

movable type

Type in which each individual character is cast on a separate piece of metal. It replaced woodblock printing, allowing for the arrangement of individual letters and other characters on a page. Invented in Korea 13th Century.

mulatto

The term used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies to describe someone of mixed African and European descent.

nomad

A person who lives a way of life, forced by a scarcity of resources, in which groups of people continually migrate to find pastures and water.