Global History Flashcards: African Kingdoms, Imperial China, and Feudal Japan

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the transition of power in Africa, the Ming and Qing dynasties of China, and the unification of Japan as detailed in the lecture transcript.

Oyo

A kingdom located in the Bight of Benin with a high population density where most slaves were taken from.

Kongo

A kingdom on the Angolan coast that came under Portuguese control and whose royalty converted to Christianity.

Afonso I

A Kongolese ruler who attempted to resist the enslavement of Kongolese nobles but ultimately failed.

Tupac Amaru's Rebellion

A rebellion that ended with the leader's defeat at the Battle of Cuzco and his execution.

Haiti

The site of the most successful slave revolt, which defeated the French and created a new country.

Po'Pay

The leader of the Pueblo Revolt who forced Spain out of the Pueblos in Nuevo Mexico.

Maroon Societies

Groups of escaped slaves who refused to return to slavery.

Queen Nzinga

An African Queen from the Kingdom of Ngongo who resisted Portuguese slave raiding with assistance from the Dutch.

Rebellion

The act of open, violent resistance to the government or ruler.

Revolt

To rise in rebellion, or an attempt at rebellion.

Tribute System

A Chinese method of trade which assumed foreign lands were subordinate to China.

Single-whip tax system

A Ming Dynasty system that replaced a yearly tax of rice with a yearly tax of silver.

Mandarin

A high-ranking government official who passed the civil service exam and acted as a rival faction to the eunuchs.

Eunuch

A man castrated as punishment who served in the imperial court and competed for power with Mandarins.

Confucianism

A Chinese philosophy emphasizing social hierarchy, reinstated by the Hongwu Emperor.

Imperial Exam System

An examination requiring scholars to memorize the Five Classics; passing led to government recruitment.

Yongle Emperor

The third Ming Emperor who fought Jianwen for the throne and emphasized monument building to prove his Mandate of Heaven.

Zheng He

A Muslim eunuch and advisor who led the Treasure Fleets and facilitated trade through his ability to speak classical Arabic.

Treasure Fleets

A fleet used to show Ming strength, project power in the Indian Ocean, and gather goods to fund the empire.

Manchus

The group that took over China after the fall of the Ming, establishing the Qing Dynasty in $1636$.

Banner system

The military organization of the Qing founded by Nurhachi, using unique colors such as yellow, blue, red, or white.

Canton system

A trading system used by the Qing where European nations were restricted to trading in the Canton region of southern China.

Kangxi Emperor

The emperor who began Qing imperial expansion into Russia, Xinjiang, and Taiwan.

Qianlong Emperor

The ruler under whose reign the Qing Dynasty held the most territory.

Opium Wars

Conflicts caused by the British selling opium to fix a trade deficit and China attempting to ban the trade.

Treaty of Nanking

An unequal treaty where the Qing gave the UK $5$ treaty ports, including Shanghai, and a $99$-year lease on Hong Kong.

Treaty of Tientsin

The treaty ending the Second Opium War, granting Russia trade rights and requiring the Qing to pay millions of taels of silver.

Feudal

A period where land ownership and use were exchanged for military service and loyalty.

Shogun

A military dictator of Japan.

Daimyo

Japanese lords who were subordinate to the Shogun.

Samurai

The military nobility in Japan who were loyal to their master, Daimyo, or Shogun.

Ronin

A samurai without a master, often acting as a bandit or mercenary.

Ukiyo

A term describing the urban lifestyle in the Edo period of Japan.

Ukiyo-e

An artwork style associated with urban districts that depicted city life.

Oda Nobunaga

The first unifier of Japan who took the imperial city of Kyoto before being assassinated.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

The second unifier of Japan who led a failed war in Korea.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

The third and final unifier who maintained the unity of Japan.

Battle of Sekigahara

The battle considered the start of Tokugawa's reign as Shogun.

Edo

A fishing village chosen as Tokugawa's capital, which later became Tokyo.

Ukiyo districts

Leisure districts where the traditional social order was flipped and merchants were treated better than samurai.