AP World History Review Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards for AP World History review.

Confucianism

Philosophy that taught that human society is naturally hierarchical (unequal relationships).

Mamluk

A Turkish enslaved person.

Caste System

A five-tier hierarchical system practiced in Hinduism in India; one couldn't move up in status in life but had a chance to with good behavior when reincarnated.

Human Sacrifice

The Mayans and Aztecs believed in sacrificing humans to their Gods.

Mit'a System

The Incan state required labor for state-funded projects like mining or military service instead of tributary systems.

Bureaucracy

Government officials who work to carry out the will of the Emperor through vast empires.

Civil Service Exam

Based on Confucian classics, it was a merit-based test used to staff the bureaucracy with educated men (elites who could afford education).

Filial Piety

Honoring one's ancestors, parents, and elders.

Feudalism

A social, political, and economic order that was based on allegiances between lords, knights, and monarchs through the exchange of land.

Manorialism

Peasants (serfs) were bound to the land and worked it in exchange for protection from the lord and his military forces.

Sharia Law

Code of laws established in the Quran.

Sufi Muslim

Mystical, spiritual form of Islam.

Hinduism

A polytheistic religion that believes in reuniting the soul with Brahman through reincarnation.

Tributary relationship

The tributary relationship with Korea + Vietnam influenced culture (Had a civil service exam, adopted Confucian ideals, marginalized women [In Korea, not Vietnam]).

Bhakti Movement

Encouraged the worship of ONE Hindu god; rejected Hinduism's hierarchy and promoted spirituality for all despite social status.

Caravanserai

Inns and guesthouses along trade routes for merchants to stop and rest. They protected merchants from thieves and facilitated the spread of culture, religion, and diseases like the plague.

Devshirme System

System employed by the Ottoman Empire where they staffed their bureaucracy with highly trained individuals who were often enslaved (Example: Christian boys from the Balkans).

Janissaries

Elite Ottoman military known for skill and often comprised of Christian boys from the Devshirme system.

Divine Right of Kings

Legitimized the rule of European monarchs by claiming their rule was supported by God.

Zamindar System

The tax system in the Mughal Empire that taxed people through Zamindars.

Tax Farming

Employed in the Ottoman Empire to collect taxes; more money was taken than necessary, enriching the tax collectors' profit.

Hacienda System

A system of landownership and labor exploitation in Spanish colonial America that involved large estates that relied on coerced labor, often indigenous peoples, to produce cash crops like sugar and tobacco.

Encomienda System

Spanish labor system in the Americas where Spanish colonists were granted the right to demand labor from indigenous people in exchange for protection and conversion to Christianity.

Chattel Slavery

People, often Africans, were bought and sold as property through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Casta System

The Spanish system ranked people into a hierarchy by race and heredity.

Maroon societies

Communities of free blacks and slaves that escaped enslavement.

Mercantilism

A state-driven economic system that emphasizes the buildup of mineral wealth (Gold + Silver) by maintaining a healthy balance of trade (More exports than imports).

Joint-Stock Companies

A limited liability business, often chartered by the state, which was funded by a group of investors.

Nationalism

A sense of commonality among a people based on a shared language, religion, and social customs, often linked with the desire for territory.

Ideas of Individualism

The most basic element of society is the individual, not the collective groups.

Natural Rights

Rights that people are born with that cannot be taken away by a government or external entity.

Natural Contract

Human societies, endowed with natural rights, must construct governments of their own will to protect their natural rights.

Popular Sovereignty

The right to govern lies in the hands of the people (Democracy, right to vote)

Liberalism

Economic + Political Ideology emphasizing the protection of civil rights, representative governments, the protection of private property, and economic freedom.

Enlightenment

Ideological movement that applied new ways of understanding, such as rationalism, and empiricist approaches to both the natural world and human relationships.

Rationalism

Reason is the most reliable source of true knowledge over emotion or other external forces.

Empiricism

True knowledge is gained through the senses and experimentation.

Deism

God created all things and then no longer intervened with the natural order.

Atheism

Complete rejection of all religion and divine beings.

Liberalism

Economic freedom.

Transnational corporations

A company that has established and is controlled in one country but also has large operations in many other countries.

Indentured Servitude

An arrangement in which a laborer would sign a contract to work for a certain number of years, usually between 3 and 7, in exchange for free passage to their destination. This system largely replaced the slave trade when slavery was largely abolished later in the period.

Ethnic Enclave

A geographic area with a high concentration of people of the same ethnicity and culture within a foreign culture, leading to cultural diffusion.

Settler Colony

A colony in which an imperial power claims an already inhabited territory and sends its people to set up an outpost of their society.

Nativism

In states with ethnic enclaves and diverse populations due to immigration, exclusionary acts based on Nativism (Priority of native populations over immigrants) arose.

Social Darwinism

The application of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection to human societies, arguing that certain groups or races are naturally superior and destined to dominate others. It was used to justify imperialism, racism, and social inequality in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Manifest Destiny

The belief that the United States had a divine right to expand its territory westward, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and spread American values like democracy and liberty across the continent, further displacing indigenous populations.

Export Economies

Economies primarily focused on the export of raw materials or goods for distant markets.

Total War

Governments use all their tools, material, and domestic resources to win the war.

Fascism

An authoritarian and nationalistic system of government and social organization.

Laissez-faire

Little government intervention in economics; the economy will correct itself.

Mandate System

Middle Eastern territories would become mandates administered by the League of Nations.

Lenin's New Plan

Marked a shift from the radical War Communism policies, allowing for some market-oriented practices and private enterprise after the Bolshevik revolution.

Stalin's Five-Year Plan

Plans aimed to rapidly industrialize the country and collectivize agriculture.

Cold War

A state of hostility between two states, chiefly characterized by an ideological struggle rather than open warfare.

Truman Doctrine

This doctrine promised military aid to any nations attacked by the Soviets and reinforced the idea of containment.

MAD

Mutual Assured Destruction kept the USSR and USA from firing atomic or hydrogen weaponry at one another because both were aware neither would be victorious amid mass destruction.

Non-Aligned Movement

Newly independent African and Asian nations represented developing nations unwilling to participate in the Cold War.

Proxy Wars

The USA + USSR opposed each other by supporting opposite sides in localized or small conflicts.

Reeducation camps

Camps in China where those who opposed the Communist government were sent to be "reeducated" to realize that Mao's policies were good. If the camp was unsuccessful, the person was killed.

Caste Reservation System

Reserved spots in jobs and higher education for the lowest castes that had long been oppressed.

NAFTA

Mexico produces goods and exports them tariff-free to the USA and Canada.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Sought to protect those who had been oppressed, like women and refugees, and states that every human has natural rights by being human.

The UN

An intergovernmental organization established in 1945, primarily to foster international cooperation and maintain global peace and security. It replaced the League of Nations and aims to prevent conflict, promote human rights, and address global challenges.

The Green Revolution

Scientists applied genetic modification to crops to feed more people in areas like Indonesia and Mexico to support their large populations.

Paris Agreement

World leaders agreed to limit the use of fossil fuels to encourage lowering the global temperature + halt global warming.

Transnational Free Trade Organization

An Agreement between nations that eliminates trade barriers.

WTO

Established in 1995; an international organization that deals with the rules of trade between countries to make trade more efficient.

Free Market Economy

Free Market Economy: The prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand, with minimal government intervention. Fiercely enforced by the United States and Great Britain under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

Negritude Movement

In French West Africa, the movement celebrated blackness and black culture.

Knowledge economy

An economy that depends on the quality and quantity of information available, which can be monetized as a commodity. People don't make things, they think about things (Japan).

Multinational Corporations

An entity that is incorporated in one country but manufactures and sells goods in other countries.