AP World Modern Unit 1 Terms

Vocabulary flashcards for AP World Modern Unit 1 covering terms, definitions, and concepts across East Asia, the Islamic World, South Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Europe.

Champa Rice

(East Asia) A fast-growing, drought-resistant crop from Southeast Asia adopted by Song China, allowing two harvests per season and driving rapid population growth.

Artisans

(East Asia) Skilled craftspeople in Chinese cities who produced specialized goods like silk, porcelain, and steel for expanding commercial markets.

Filial Piety

(East Asia) A core Confucian belief emphasizing respect, duty, and obedience toward parents and elders to maintain social harmony in China.

Grand Canal

(East Asia) A massive imperial waterway connecting northern and southern China, facilitating large-scale trade and political unity under the Sui and Song dynasties.

Meritocracy

(East Asia) A system of governance in China where civil servants earned government positions based on competitive imperial examination scores rather than noble birth.

Foot Binding

(East Asia) The practice of tightly wrapping young girls' feet among elite Song Dynasty families, serving as a sign of wealth and reinforcing patriarchal social norms.

Buddhism

(East Asia) A major world religion originating in India that spread to China, Korea, and Japan along trade routes, offering a path to spiritual enlightenment.

Syncretic Traditions

(East Asia) The blending of different religious traditions, such as Chan Buddhism in China, which combined Buddhist principles with native Daoist concepts.

Polygyny

(Islamic World) The practice of having multiple wives, permitted under Islamic law up to four wives under strictly defined conditions of equal financial and emotional support.

Mamluk Sultanate

(Islamic World) A powerful Muslim state in Egypt and Syria governed by military slave soldiers who stopped Mongol expansion at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.

Seljuk Turks

(Islamic World) A Sunni Muslim Turkic empire that gained control of the Middle East, captured Jerusalem, and exerted political authority over the Abbasid caliphs.

Abbasid Caliphate

(Islamic World) An influential Islamic caliphate based in Baghdad whose golden age saw major advancements in science, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy.

House of Wisdom

(Islamic World) A famous academic center and translation library in Abbasid Baghdad where scholars preserved and translated Greek, Persian, and Indian works.

Baghdad

(Islamic World) The capital of the Abbasid Caliphate that grew into a premier commercial, political, and intellectual hub of the medieval Islamic world.

Cordoba

(Islamic World) A major urban center in Muslim-controlled Spain (al-Andalus) known as a beacon of learning, trade, medicine, and architectural beauty.

Vijayanagara Empire

(South Asia) A powerful Hindu empire in southern India that prospered through Indian Ocean trade while resisting northern Islamic expansion.

Delhi Sultanate

(South Asia) A succession of Muslim Turkic and Afghan dynasties ruling northern India that introduced Islamic culture and administration to the region.

Caste System

(South Asia) A rigid, hereditary social hierarchy in India that organized individuals by occupation and social status alongside major religious traditions.

Bhakti Movement

(South Asia) A Hindu devotional movement emphasizing intense personal love for a specific deity, making spiritual practice accessible across caste barriers.

Urdu

(South Asia) A language that emerged in the Delhi Sultanate combining local Hindi grammar with vocabulary from Persian, Arabic, and Turkic sources.

Chinampas

(Americas) Raised agricultural beds built in shallow lakes by the Mexica around Lake Texcoco, generating high crop yields to feed urban populations.

Mexica / Aztecs

(Americas) A Mesoamerican empire centered at Tenochtitlan that maintained control over neighboring regions through military conquest and tribute demands.

Theocracy

(Americas) A system of government led by religious leaders or guided by divine authority, utilized by the Mexica to justify political conquest and ritual sacrifice.

Mit'a System

(Americas) A mandatory state labor service in the Inca Empire required of citizens to construct roads, terrace fields, and public buildings.

Carpa Nan / Qhapaq Ñan

(Americas) A vast network of roads and bridges traversing the Andes Mountains, allowing the Inca government to transport troops and goods efficiently.

Animism

(Africa & Americas) The spiritual belief that spirits reside within natural elements like plants, animals, and physical landforms, widespread in Indigenous societies.

Zanj Rebellion

(Islamic World & Africa) A major revolt from 869 to 883 CE led by enslaved East Africans in southern Iraq against the Abbasid Caliphate.

Great Zimbabwe

(Africa) A wealthy southeastern African kingdom famous for its massive stone wall enclosures and strong trade ties to Indian Ocean networks.

Ghana Empire

(Africa) An early West African empire that accumulated vast wealth by controlling and taxing trans-Saharan gold and salt trade routes.

Mali Empire

(Africa) A powerful West African Islamic empire that succeeded Ghana, famed for its gold trade, Mansa Musa's wealth, and the center of learning at Timbuktu.

Griots

(Africa) West African oral storytellers, musicians, and historians responsible for transmitting genealogies and community histories down generations.

Feudalism

(Europe) A decentralized political system in medieval Europe based on reciprocal relationships between lords who granted land and vassals who pledged military loyalty.

Manorial System

(Europe) The economic framework of medieval Europe centered on self-sufficient agricultural estates (manors) worked by peasants in exchange for protection.

Three-Field System

(Europe) An agricultural technique in medieval Europe rotating crops across three fields, leaving one fallow to boost soil fertility and crop yields.

Serfs

(Europe) Unfree peasants bound to a lord's land who performed mandatory agricultural labor in exchange for physical protection.

Estates-General

(Europe) A representative assembly in medieval France consisting of members from three social classes: clergy, nobility, and commoners.

Magna Carta

(Europe) A 1215 English charter signed by King John that restricted monarchical authority and established foundational legal principles.

Primogeniture

(Europe) An inheritance convention in medieval Europe where all land and property passed exclusively to the eldest son, preserving estate sizes.

Great Schism

(Europe) The formal split in 1054 CE between the Western Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire.

Crusades

(Europe & Middle East) A series of Christian military campaigns authorized by the Pope to capture Holy Land sites, increasing contact between Europe and the Islamic world.

Humanism

(Europe) A Renaissance intellectual movement focused on individual potential, civic duty, and the revived study of classical Greek and Roman texts.