World History Review

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to World History for review and exam preparation.

Bastille Day

Armory/prison attacked by urban poor, marking the start of the French Revolution.

Machiavelli

Political scientist and writer of the Renaissance, stated 'I am the Revolution.'

Copernicus

Introduced the heliocentric theory during the Scientific Revolution.

Potosi

Productive South American silver mine.

Encomienda System

Feudal-like labor system used by the Spanish in the Americas.

Thirty Years' War

Early 17th-century war that started as a battle between German Catholics and Protestants.

Peter the Great

Introduced reforms to make Russia a major European power.

Columbian Exchange

The hemispheric diffusion of smallpox, potatoes, and sugarcane named after a great explorer.

Enlightenment

Intellectual movement pursuing natural laws that govern society, including government and economics.

Great Trek

Migration of Dutch South African settlers into the interior following the British abolition of slavery.

Sunni

Majority Muslim sect that supported the rule of the Umayyads and Abbasids.

Safavid Empire

Persian empire and archrival of the Ottomans.

Cahokia

Large Mississippian mound-building community located near St. Louis.

Caravel

Early European sailing vessel utilized by explorers and merchants of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Magna Carta

Document that limited the power of the king of England by granting certain rights to the nobles.

Mansa Musa

Powerful ruler of the Mali Empire, famous for his pilgrimage to Mecca.

Louis XIV

The 'Sun King' during the height of French absolutism.

Ferdinand Magellan

His expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe, although he never actually made it back.

Kublai Khan

Conquered the Southern Song Dynasty and founded the Yuan Dynasty.

Griot

African oral historians.

Feudalism

Term for the economic system associated with medieval European feudalism.

Maritime Trade

Diffusion of ideas and commodities from India and Southeast Asia shaping Afro-Eurasian history.

Akbar the Great

Mughal ruler who ended the jizya and discouraged sati.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Religion of the Byzantine world.

Syncretism

Blending systems of belief, such as Vodun and the cults of saints.

Isfahan

Capital of the Safavid empire, rebuilt by Shah Abbas.

Maya Civilization

Decentralized pre-Columbian civilization of Central America and the Yucatan.

Animism

Belief in animal and/or ancestral worship.

Mandate of Heaven

Chinese emperors' spiritual claim to authority.

Triangle Trade

Trade network of slaves, raw materials, and manufactured goods between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

Mercantilism

Economic system promoting a favorable balance of trade and exploitation of colonies.

Great Zimbabwe

Southern African kingdom that traded gold to the Swahili coast.

Joint Stock Company

These organizations, a Dutch innovation, enabled middle-class merchants to fund voyages of exploration and trade.

Marco Polo

Merchant who traveled from Venice to China to meet with Kublai Khan.

Tokugawa Shogunate

Shogun responsible for persecuting Christians and expelling Europeans.

First Estate

Privileged class of French society made up of clergy.

Ilkhanate

Established by the Mongol conquest of Persia.

Deism

Belief in a clockmaker god following the Scientific Revolution.

Robespierre

Led the Committee of the Public Safety during the Reign of Terror.

Mehmed II

Ottoman sultan famous for the conquest of Constantinople.

Srivijaya

Trading maritime empire in Southeast Asia with a government dominated by Buddhists.

Samsara

Hindu belief that one's soul repeatedly returns to this world.

John Locke

Enlightenment thinker known for the phrase 'Life, liberty, and property.'

Romanov

Ruling family of Russia.

Chinampas

Productive man-made islands used for agriculture by the Aztecs.

Francisco Pizarro

Conquistador responsible for the conquest of the Inca.

Reformation

Christian split prompted by the Catholic use of indulgences leading to questioning the Pope's authority.

Hangzhou

Capital of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Guilds

Organizations of merchants and craftsmen that regulated economic activities in the absence of powerful governments.

Grand Canal

Engineering project of the Sui Dynasty that connected all of China.

Imam

Title given to leaders who descend from Muhammad in Shi’a Islam.

Johannes Gutenberg

Created the first modern printing press.

Creoles

People of European descent who were born in Spanish America.

Slavery

Coercive labor system in which people are bought and sold like property, as in the Atlantic slave trade.

Isaac Newton

Identified the laws of motion and gravity.

Sati

Example of Indian patriarchy, where a woman was burned alive with her husband's corpse.

Battle of Trafalgar

Naval battle that ended Napoleon's hopes of invading Britain.

Shogunate

Military leaders who claimed to rule in the name of the Japanese emperors.

Swahili

East African language combining Bantu and Arabic.