AP World Modern Unit 1

Monotheism

Belief in one God

Polytheism

Belief in many gods

Song Dynasty

(960-1279 CE) The Chinese dynasty that placed much more emphasis on civil administration, industry, education, and arts other than military.

Grand Canal in China

The 1,100-mile (1,700-kilometer) waterway linking the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers. It was begun in the Han period and completed during the Sui Empire.

Footbinding

Practice in Chinese society to mutilate women's feet in order to make them smaller; produced pain and restricted women's movement; made it easier to confine women to the household.

Filial Piety

In Confucian thought, one of the virtues to be cultivated, a love and respect for one's parents and ancestors.

Gunpowder

Invented within China during the 9th century, this substance was became the dominate military technology used to expand European and Asian empires by the 15th century.

Champa Rice

a quick-maturing, drought resistant rice that can allow two harvests, of sixty days each in one growing season.

paper money

legal currency issued on paper; it developed in China as a convenient alternative to metal coins

porcelain

a thin, beautiful pottery invented in China

Confucianism

The system of ethics, education, and statesmanship taught by Confucius and his disciples, stressing love for humanity, ancestor worship, reverence for parents, and harmony in thought and conduct.

Neo-Confucianism

A philosophy that emerged in Song-dynasty China; it revived Confucian thinking while adding in Buddhist and Daoist elements.

Umayyad Dynasty

An Islamic Dynasty based on succession rather than election following the first period of caliphates. Continued advances in the kingdom, venturing as far as China in the East. Fell apart in 750 CE due to internal tensions.

Abbasid Caliphate

(750-1258 CE) The caliphate, after the Umayyads, who focused more on administration than conquering. Had a bureaucracy that any Muslim could be a part of.

Seljuk Empire

An empire formed by Turkish and Persian Sunnis, lasting from 1037 to 1194 .

Christianity

A monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior.

Judaism

A religion with a belief in one god. It originated with Abraham and the Hebrew people. Yahweh was responsible for the world and everything within it. They preserved their early history in the Old Testament.

Islam

A religion based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed which stresses belief in one god (Allah), and a body of law written in the Quran. Followers are called Muslims.

Delhi Sultanate

The first Islamic government established within India from 1206-1520. Controlled a small area of northern India and was centered in Delhi.

Nasir al-Din Tusi

Persian mathematician and cosmologist who inspired Copernican model of the solar system

'A'ishah al-Ba'uniyyah

Female Arabic poet who wrote The Principles of Sufism

centralized government

A government in which power is concentrated in a central authority to which local governments are subject

Meritocracy

a system in which promotion is based on individual ability or achievement

Bureaucracy

a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives.

Imperial Bureaucracy

Division of an empire into organized provinces to make it easier to control

Civil Service Exam

In China, it was an exam based on Confucian teachings that was used to select people for various government service jobs in the bureaucracy.

Syncretic

A religion that combines several traditions

Patriarchy

a form of social organization in which a male is the family head and title is traced through the male line

Theraveda Buddhism

closely followed Buddha's original teachings; oldest form of Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

Practiced in Tibet

Mahayana Buddhism

Also known as popular Buddhism, is allows people more ways to reach enlightenment and Bodhisattva can help you reach enlightenment.

Chan Buddhism

Known as Zen in Japan; stressed meditation and appreciation of natural and artistic beauty; popular with members of elite Chinese society

Silk Road

Caravan routes connecting China and the Middle East across Central Asia and Iran.

4 Noble Truths of Buddhism

suffering us universal, cause of suffering is desire, only way to end suffering is to crush desire and when you end desire you follow the Noble Eight fold Path

Eight-fold Path

Eight steps to end suffering and attain enlightenment according to Buddhist tradition.

Metallurgy

The science and technology of metals

Silk

a valuable cloth, originally made only in China from threads spun by caterpillars called silkworms

Hinduism

A religion and philosophy developed in ancient India, characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being who takes many forms

Crusades (1095-1291)

The religious wars between Western Catholic Europe and the Islamic Turks over the holy lands in Jerusalem

Holy Roman Empire

Loose federation of mostly German states and principalities, headed by an emperor elected by the princes. It lasted from 962 to 1806.

Feudalism

A political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to their king, in exchange for their loyalty, military service, and protection of the people who live on the land

Serf

A person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

Manor

A large estate, often including farms and a village, ruled by a lord.

Hanseatic League

an organization of north German and Scandinavian cities for the purpose of establishing a commercial alliance.

Byzantine Empire

Eastern half of the Roman Empire that survived the fall of the Western half.

The Black Death

A deadly plague that swept through Europe between 1347 and 1351

Hundred Years War

Series of campaigns over control of the throne of France, involving English and French royal families and French noble families.

Monarchy

A government ruled by a king or queen

Al-Andalus

A Muslim-ruled region in what is now Spain

Alhambra

a palace and fortress built in Granada by the Muslims in the Middle Ages

Jewish Diaspora

the scattering of the Jewish people outside their homeland beginning about 586 BCE

Marco Polo

Venetian merchant and traveler. His accounts of his travels to China offered Europeans a firsthand view of Asian lands and stimulated interest in Asian trade.

Seljuk Turks

nomadic Turks from Asia who conquered Baghdad in 1055 and allowed the caliph to remain only as a religious leader. they governed strictly

Magna Carta

the royal charter of political rights given to rebellious English barons by King John in 1215

Renaissance

"rebirth"; following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome

Caste System

a set of rigid social categories that determined not only a person's occupation and economic potential, but also his or her position in society

Inca

Largest and most powerful Andean empire. Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco.

Mayans

A Mesoamerican civilization of Central America and southern Mexico. Achievements include mathematics, architecture, and a 365 day a year calendar. They flourished between the 4th and 12th centuries C.E..

Aztecs

Also known as Mexica, they created a powerful empire in central Mexico (1325-1521 C.E.). They forced defeated peoples to provide goods and labor as a tax.

Cahokia

Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home to as many as 25,000 Native Americans

Great Zimbabwe

A stone-walled enclosure found in Southeast Africa. Have been associated with trade, farming, and mining.

Hausa states/kingdom

people of northern Nigeria formed these states; formed following the demise of the Songhay Empire & combined Muslim & pagan tradition

Decentralized

governmental power is spread among more than one person or group

scholar gentry

elite, educated bureaucrats who ran the centralized gov't of China

filial piety

In Confucian thought, one of the virtues to be cultivated, a love and respect for one's parents and ancestors.

matriarchy

A society ruled or controlled by women

Theocracy

A government controlled by religious leaders

Kin-based societies

Society that governs itself through family and clan relationships

three-field system

a system of farming developed in medieval Europe, in which farm land was divided into three fields of equal size and each of these was successively planted with a winter crop, planted with a spring crop, and left unplanted.

Heian Period

The era in Japanese history from 794-1185, arts and writing flourished during this time, inspired by Chinese traditions

Mamluks

enslaved, ethnic turks from Central Asia who served as soldiers and bureaucrats in the Islamic world

Sufism

Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God

Vijayanagar Kingdom

Southern Indian kingdom (1336-1565) that later fell to the Mughals.

Rajput Kingdoms

Collection of kingdoms created by the Huns in northern India

Urdu

Syncretic religion in South Asia, melded Hindi, Arabic, and Farsi. Official language of Pakistan today

Bhakti Movement

Movement that tried to erase the gap between Hinduism and Islam, focused on developing a strong attachment to a particular deity (monotheism), and appealed to women and lower classes

Mississippian Culture

North American civilization of mound builders with a prosperous society

Great Schism

the official split between the Roman Catholic and Byzantine churches that occurred in 1054

Manorial System

an economic system in the Middle Ages that was built around large estates called manors

Mamluk Sultanate

Established by Mamluks who seized power in Egypt

Srivijaya Empire

Hindu Kingdom in Western Indonesia, had a navy and prospered by charging fees for ships traveling between India and China

Majapahit kingdom

Southeast Asian Buddhist kingdom (1293-1520) centered on the island of Java., controlled sea routes

Sinhala dynasties

Dynasty in Sri Lanka, settled by early merchant immigrants from North India. Center of Buddhist study

Khmer Empire

Also known as Angkor Kingdom. Situated near the Mekong River in SE Asia. Had a complex irrigation and drainage system that allowed it to flourish

Sukhothai King

Kingdom in Thailand from 1238-1438, forced the Khmer people out of Angkor Wat

Animism

The belief that bodies of water, animals, trees, and other natural objects have spirits

Incan Empire

a Mesoamerican civilization in the Andes Mountains in South America that by the end of the 1400s was the largest empire in the Americas including much of what is now Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile;

Mit'a System

economic system in Incan society where people paid taxes with their labor and what they produced

Tribute system

payment made by one nation to another in acknowledgment of submission.

woodblock printing

a type of printing in which text is carved into a block of wood and the block is then coated with ink and pressed on the page

Four Noble Truths of Buddhism

All life involves suffering; desire is the cause of suffering; elimination of desire brings an end to suffering; a disciplined life conducted life brings the elimination of desire.

Eightfold Path

In Buddhism, the basic rules of behavior and belief leading to an end of suffering

Shinto

The traditional religion of Japan

Daimyo

A Japanese feudal lord who commanded a private army of samurai

Shogun

A military general who ruled Japan in the emperor's name. Had all the power in feudal Japan

Five Pillars of Islam

Declaration of faith, prayer, alms, fasting, and pilgrimage

Shia Islam

minority branch of Islam; belief that only a descendant of Ali (Muhammad's Cousin) can be caliph.

Sunni Islam

Muslims who believe in the successorship of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali.

Jizya

Poll tax that non-Muslims had to pay when living within a Muslim empire