AP European History: A History of Western Society (ALL VOCAB)

Great Famine

a terrible famine in 1315-1322 that hit much of Europe after a period of climate change

Black Death

plague that first struck Europe in 1347 and killed perhaps one-third of the population

flagellants

people who believed that the plague was God's punishment for sin and sought to do penance by flagellating (whipping) themselves

Hundred Years' War

a war between England and France from 1337 to 1453, with political and economic causes and consequences

Representative Assemblies

deliberative meetings of lords and wealthy urban residents tat flourished in many European countries between 1250 and 1450

Babylonian Captivity

the period from 1309 to 1376 when the popes resided in Avignon rather than in Rome. The phrase refers to the seventy years when the Hebrews were held captive in Babylon

Great Schism

The division, or split, in church leadership from 1378 to 1417 when there were two, then three, popes

concilliarists

People who believed that the authority in the Roman Church should rest in a general council composed of clergy, theologians, and laypeople, rather than in the pope alone

confraternities

voluntary lay groups organized by occupation, devotional preference, neighborhood, or charitable activity

Jacquerie

a massive uprising by French peasants in 1358 protesting heavy taxation

English Peasants' Revolt

revolt by English peasants in 1381 in response to changing economic conditions

Statute of Kilkenny

law issued in 1366 that discriminated against the Irish, forbidding marriage between the English and the Irish, requiring the use of the English language, and denying the Irish access to ecclesiastical offices

Renaissance

a French word meaning "rebirth," used to describe the rebirth of the culture of classical antiquity in Italy during the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries

patronage

financial support of writers and artists by cities, groups, and individuals, often to produce specific works or works in specific styles

communes

Sworn associations of free men in Italian cities led by merchant guilds that sought political and economic independence from local nobles

popolo

disenfranchised common people in Italian cities who resented their exclusion from power

signori

government by one-man rule in Italian cities such as Milan; also refers to these rulers

courts

magnificent households and palaces where signori and other rulers lived, conducted business, and supported the arts

humanism

a program of study designed by Italians that emphasized the critical study of Latin and Greek literature with the goal of understanding human nature

virtú

the quality of being able to shape the world according to one's own will

Christian humanists

Northern humanists who interpreted Italian ideas about and attitudes toward classical antiquity and humanism in terms of their own religious traditions

debate about women

debate among writers and thinkers in the Renaissance about women's qualities and proper role in society

New Christians

a term for Jews and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula who accepted Christianity; in many cases they included Christians whose families had converted centuries earlier

anticlericalism

opposition to the clergy

indulgence

a document issued by the Catholic Church lessening penance or time in purgatory, widely believed to bring forgiveness of all sins

Protestant

the name originally given to followers of Luther, which came to mean all non-Catholic Western Christian groups

Spanish Armada

the fleet sent by Philip II of Spain in 1588 against England as a religious crusade against Protestantism. Weather and the English fleet defeated it

The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Calvin's formulation of Christian doctrine, which became a systematic theology for Protestantism

predestination

the teaching the God has determined the salvation or damnation of individual based on his will and purpose, not on their merit or works

Holy Office

the official Roman Catholic agency founded in 1542 to combat international doctrinal heresy

Jesuits

members of the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius Loyola, whose goal was the spread of the Roman Catholic faith

Huguenots

French Calvinists

politiques

Catholic and Protestant moderated who held that only a strong monarchy could save France from total collapse

Edict of Nantes

a document issued by Henry IV of France in 1598, granting liberty of conscience and of public worship to Calvinists, which helped restore peace in France

Union of Utrecht

the alliance of seven northern provinces (led by Holland) that declared its independence from Spain and formed the United Provinces of the Netherlands

conquistador

Spanish for "conqueror"; Spanish soldier-explorers, such as Hernando Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, who sought to conquer the New World for the Spanish crown

caravel

a small, maneuverable, three-mast sailing ship developed by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century that gave the Portuguese a distinct advantage in exploration and trade

Ptolemy's Geography

a second-century A.D. work that synthesized the classical knowledge of geography and introduced the concepts of longitude and latitude. Reintroduced to Europeans in about 1410 by Arab scholars, its ideals allowed cartographers to create more accurate maps

Treaty of Tordesillas

the 1494 agreement giving Spain everything to the west of an imaginary line drawn down the Atlantic and giving Portugal everything to the east

Mexica Empire

also known as the Aztec Empire, a large and complex Native American civilization in modern Mexico and Central America that possessed advanced mathematical, astronomical, and engineering technology

Inca Empire

the vast and sophisticated Peruvian empire centered at the capital city of Cuzco that was at its peak from 1438 until 1532

viceroyalties

the name for the four administrative units of Spanish possessions in the Americas: New Spain, Peru, New Granada, and La Plata

ecomienda system

a system whereby the Spanish crown granted the conquerors the right to forcibly employ groups for Indians in exchange for providing food ,shelter, and Christian teaching

Columbian exchange

the exchange of animals, plants, and diseases between the Old and the New Worlds

Peace of Westphalia

the name of a series of treaties that concluded the Thirty Years' War in 1648 and marked the end of large-scale religious violence in Europe

Fronde

a series of violent uprisings during the early reign of Louis XIV triggered by growing royal control and increased taxation

mercantilism

a system of economic regulations aimed at increasing the power of the state based on the belief that a nation's international power was based on its wealth, specifically its supply of gold and silver

Peace of Utrecht

a series of treaties, from 1713 to 1715, that ended the War of the Spanish Succession, ended French expansion in Europe, and marked the rose of the British Empire

Junkers

the nobility of Brandenburg and Prussia, they were reluctant allies of Frederick William in his consolidation of the Prussian state

boyars

the highest-ranking members of the Russian nobility

Cossacks

free groups of outlaw armies originally comprising runaway peasants living on the borders of Russian territory from the fourteenth century onward, By the end of the sixteenth century they had formed an alliance with the Russian state

sultan

the ruler of the Ottoman Empire; he owned all the agricultural land of the empire and was served by an army and bureaucracy composed of highly trained slaves

janissary corps

the core of the sultan's army, composed of slave conscripts from non-Muslim parts of the empire; after 1683 it became a volunteer force

millet system

a system used buy the Ottomans whereby subjects were divided into religious communities, with each millet (nation) enjoying autonomous self-government under its religious leaders

constitutionalism

a form of government in which power is limited by law and balanced between the authority and power of the government, on the one hand, and the rights and liberties of the subjects or citizens on the other hand; could include constitutional monarchies or republics

republicanism

a form of government in which there is no monarch and power rests in the hands of the people as exercised through elected representatives

Puritans

members of a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England that advocated purifying it of Roman Catholic elements, like bishops, elaborate ceremonials, and wedding rings

Protectorate

the English military dictatorship (1652-1658) established by Oliver Cromwell following the execution of Charles I

Test Act

legislation, passed by the English Parliament in 1673, to secure the position of the Anglican Church by stripping Puritans, Catholics, and other dissenters of the right to vote, preach, assemble, hold public office, and teach at or attend the universities

stadholder

the executive officer in each of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, a position often held by the princes of Orange

natural philosophy

an early modern term for the study of the nature of the universe, its purpose, and how it functioned; it encompassed what we would call "science" today

Copernican hypothesis

the idea that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe

experimental method

the approach, pioneered by Galileo, that the proper way to explore the workings of the universe was through repeatable experiments rather than speculation

law of intertia

a law formulated by Galileo that states that motion, not rest, is the natural state of an object, and that an objects continues in motion forever unless stopped by some external force

law of universal gravitation

Newton's law that all objects are attracted to one another and that the force of attraction is proportional to the objects' quantity of matter and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them

empiricism

a theory of inductive reasoning that calls for acquiring evidence through observation and experimentation rather than deductive reason and speculation

Cartesian dualism

Descartes's view that all of reality could ultimately be reduced to mind and matter

Enlightenment

the influential intellectual and cultural movement of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that introduced a new worldview based on the use of reason ,the scientific method, and progress

rationalism

a secular, critical way of thinking in which nothing was to be accepted on faith, and everything was to be submitted to reason

philisophes

a group of French intellectuals who proclaimed that they were bringing the light of knowledge to their fellow humans in the Age of Enlightenment

reading revolution

the transition in Europe from a society where literacy consisted of patriarchal and communal reading of religious texts to a society where literacy was commonplace and reading material was broad and diverse

salon

regular social gathering held by talented and rich Parisians in their homes, where philosophes and their followers met to discuss literature, science, and philosophy

rococo

a popular style in Europe in the eighteenth century, known for its soft pastels, ornate interiors, sentimental portraits, and starry-eyed lovers protected by hovering cupids

public sphere

an idealized intellectual space that emerged in Europe during the Enlightenment, where the public came together to discuss important issues relating to society, economics, and politics

enlightened absolutism

term coined by historians to describe the rule of eighteenth-century monarchs who, without renouncing their own absolute authority, adopted Enlightenment ideals of rationalism, progress, and tolerance

cameralism

view that monarchy was the best form of government, that all elements of society should serve the monarch, and that, in turn, the state should use its resources and authority to increase the public good

Haskalah

the Jewish Enlightenment of the second half of the eighteenth century, led by the Prussian philosopher Moses Mendelssohn

enclosure

the movement to fence in fields in order to farm more effectively, at the expense of poor peasants who relied on com,on fields for farming and pasture

proletarianization

the transformation of large numbers of small peasant farmers into landless rural wage owners

cottage industry

a stage of industrial development in which rural workers used hand tools in their homes to manufacture goods on a large scale for sale in a market

putting-out system

the eighteenth-century system of rural industry in which a merchant loaned raw materials to cottage workers, who processed them and returned the finished products to the merchant

industrious revolution

the shift that occurred as families in northwestern Europe focused on earning wages instead of producing goods for household consumption; this reduced their economic self-sufficiency but increased their ability to purchase consumer goods

guild system

the organization of artisanal production into trade-based associations, or guilds, each of which received a monopoly over its trade and the right to train apprentices and hire workers

economic liberalism

a belief in free trade and competition based on Adam Smith's argument that the invisible hand of free competition would benefit all individuals, rich and poor

Navigation Acts

a series of English laws that controlled the import of goods to Britain and British colonies

Treaty of Paris

the treaty that ended the Seven Years' War in Europe and the colonies in 1763, and ratified British victory on all colonial fronts

debt peonage

a form of serfdom that allowed a planter of rancher to keep his workers or slaves in perpetual debt bondage by periodically advancing food, shelter, and a little money

Atlantic slave trade

the forced migration of Africans across the Atlantic for slave labor on plantations and in other industries; the trade reached its peak in the eighteenth century and ultimately involved more than 12 million Africans

community controls

a pattern of cooperation and common action in a traditional village that sough to uphold the economic, social, and moral stability of the closely knit community

charivari

degrading public rituals used by village communities to police personal behavior and maintain moral standards

illegitimacy explosion

the sharp increase in out-of-wedlock births that occurred in Europe between 1750 and 1850, caused by low wages and the breakdown of community controls

wet-nursing

a widespread and flourishing business in the eighteenth century in which women were paid to breast-feed other women's babies

blood sports

events such as bullbaiting and cockfighting that involved inflicting violence and bloodshed on animals and that were popular with the eighteenth-century European masses

carnival

the few days of revelry in Catholic countries that preceded Lent and that included drinking, masquerading, dancing, and rowdy spectacles that upset the established order

just prce

the idea that prices should be fair, protecting both consumers and producers, and that they should be imposed by government decree if necessary

consumer revolution

the wide-ranging growth in consumption and new attitudes toward consumer goods that emerged in the cities of northwestern Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century

Pietism

a Protestant revival movement in early-eighteenth-century Germany and Scandinavia that emphasized a warm and emotional religion, the priesthood of all believers, and the power of Christian rebirth in everyday affairs

Methodists

members of a Protestant revival movement started by John Wesley, so called because they were so methodical in their devotion

Jansenism

a sect of Catholicism originating with Cornelius Jansen that emphasized the heavy weight of original sin and accepted the doctrine of predestination; it was outlawed as heresy by the pope

Estates General

a legislative body in prerevolutionary France made p of representatives of each of the three classes, or estates. It was called into session in 1789 for the first time since 1614