AP World History Exam Review

Proto-industrialization

A set of economic changes in which people in rural areas made more goods than they could sell.

artisans

Skilled workers who make goods by hand.

Scholar gentry

The Chinese class of well-educated men from whom many bureaucrats were chosen.

filial piety

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

Grand Canal

An inexpensive and efficient internal waterway transportation system that extended over 30,000 miles.

Song Dynasty

Replaced the Tang in 960 and ruled for more than three centuries.

imperial bureaucracy

A vast organization in which appointed officials carried out the empire's policies.

meritocracy

Government or the holding of power by people selected on the basis of their ability.

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.

foot binding

Chinese practice of tightly wrapping girls' feet to keep them small, begun in the Tang dynasty.

Buddhism

A religion based on the teachings of the Buddha.

Theravada Buddhism

Focused on personal spiritual growth through silent meditation and self-discipline. It became strongest in Southeast Asia.

Mahayana Buddhism

Focused on the spiritual growth for all beings and service. It became the strongest in China and Korea.

Tibetan Buddhism

Focused on chanting. It became strongest in Tibet.

syncretic

A religion that combines several traditions.

Chan (Zen) Buddhism

Emphasized direct experience and meditation as opposed to formal learning based on studying scripture.

Neo-Confucianism

It was a syncretic system, combining rational thought with the more abstract ideas of Daoism and Buddhism.

Heian period (794-1185 CE)

Japan emulated Chinese traditions in politics, art, and literature.

nuclear families

A family made up of parents and their children.

Mamluk Sultanate

In Egypt, the Mamluks seized control of the government from 1250-1517. They prospered by facilitating trade in cotton and sugar between the Islamic world and Europe. However, when the Portuguese and other Europeans developed new sea routes for trade, the Mamluks declined in power.

Seljuk Turks

Muslims who were from central Asia. Starting in the 11th century, they began conquering parts of the Middle East, eventually extending their power almost as far east as Western China.

sultan

A Muslim ruler. Title of the Seljuk leader.

Abbasid Caliphate

Led by Arabs and Persians, but the later Islamic states were shaped by Turkic peoples who descended from people in Central Asia.

Muhammad

Founder of Islam

Crusaders

Organized group of European Christian soldiers.

Sufis

This group emphasized introspection to grasp truths that they believed could not be understood through learning.

House of Wisdom

Scholars traveled from far away to Baghdad to study at a renowned center of learning.

Baghdad

Capital of Abbasid dynasty located in Iraq near ancient Persian capital of Ctesiphon.

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

One of the most celebrated Islamic scholars. He contributed to astronomy, law, logic, ethics, mathematics, philosophy, and medicine.

'A'ishah al-Ba'uniyyah

Maybe the most prolific female Muslim writer before the 20th century. Many of her works describe her journey toward mystical illumination.

Vijayanagara Empire (Southern India)

The second kingdom, which took its name from "victorious city" that was created by two brothers, Harihara and Bukka from the Delhi Sultante in north-central India.

Rajput kingdoms (North India)

Gradually formed in northern India and present day Pakistan. These were Hindu kingdoms led by the leaders of numerous clans, no centralized government arose, once again demonstrating the diversity & the regionalism of South Asia. The lack of a centralized power left the kingdoms vulnerable to Muslim attacks.

Delhi Sultanate

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

Srivijaya Empire (Sumatra)

A Buddhist kingdom based in Sumatra. It built up its navy and prospered by charging fees for ships traveling between India & China.

Majapahit Kingdom (Java)

Based on Java had 98 tributaries at its height. Like Srivijaya, it maintained its power by controlling sea route. Unlike Srivijaya, it was Buddhist.

Sinhala dynasties (Sri Lanka)

These were located in Sri Lanka and had their roots in the arrival of early immigrants, most likely merchants, from north India.

Khmer Empire (Cambodia)

Also known as the Angkor Kingdom (802-1431) was situated near the Mekong River & also did not depend on maritime prowess for its power. The kingdoms complex irrigation and drainage system led to economic prosperity, making it one of the most prosperous kingdoms in Southeast Asia.

Sukhothai Kingdom (Thailand)

Invaded and forced all Khmers out.

proselytize

Actively seek converts.

Bhakti Movement

An immensely popular development in Hinduism, advocating intense devotion toward a particular deity.

Qutub Minar

World's tallest brick minaret. built during the Delhi Sultanate, it is a famous example of the melding of Hindu art with the geometric patterns preferred by Islamic architecture. It is an example syncretism in architecture.

Mississippian

A Native Indian culture that flourished in the modern day Midwest. They resided in the Mississippi river valley.

matrilineal society

A society in which descent & inheritance come through the mother's kinship line.

Cahokia

An ancient settlement of southern Indians, located near present day St. Louis, it served as a trading center for 40,000 at its peak in A.D. 1200.

city-states

A city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state.

Mexica

The name given to themselves by the Aztec people.

human sacrifice

Killing of humans for a purpose like worshiping a god, practiced widely by the Aztecs.

Pachacuti

Inca ruler (1438-1471) who began military campaigns that marked the creation of an Inca empire.

mit'a system

The system recruiting workers for particularly difficult and dangerous chores that free laborers would not accept.

Carpa Nan

During Incan rule, this is a massive roadway system made possible by captive labor, stretched 25,00 miles.

Temple of the Sun

Inca religious center located at Cuzco; center of state religion; held mummies of past Incas.

animism

Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life.

kin-based networks

When families governed themselves.

Zanj Rebellion

A series of revolts by slaves working on sugar plantations in Mesopotamia.

Indian Ocean trade

This connected trade to Europe, Africa, and China. It was the worlds richest maritime trading network and an area of rapid Muslim expansion.

Indian Ocean slave trade

A trade of slaves across the Indian Ocean.

Great Zimbabwe

A city, now in ruins (in the modern African country of Zimbabwe), whose many stone structures were built between about 1250 and 1450, when it was a trading center and the capital of a large state.

chief

Meaning leader.

Hausa Kingdoms

These states were loosely connected through kinship ties, though they too had no central authority. People established prospering city-states, each with a specialty. These city-states were located in present-day Nigeria.

Ghana

First known kingdom in sub-Saharan West Africa between the sixth and thirteenth centuries C.E. Also the modern West African country once known as the Gold Coast. gold and salt trade.

Zimbabwe

A country of southern Africa where various Bantu peoples migrated into the area during the first millennium, displacing the earlier San inhabitants.

Ethiopia

A Christian kingdom that developed in the highlands of eastern Africa. It retained Christianity in the face of Muslim expansion elsewhere in Africa.

Magna Carta

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

English Parliament

England's chief law-making body. It was a key institution in the development of representative democracy as it provided some voice and recognition of the rights and interests of various groups in society.

manors

Large farm estates of the Middle Ages that were owned by nobles who ruled over the peasants living in the land.

manorial system

An economic system in the Middle Ages that was built around large estates.

three-field system

A rotational system for agriculture in which one field grows grain, one grows legumes, and one lies fallow.

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

serfs

A person who lived on and farmed a lords land in feudal times.

primogeniture

Right of inheritance belongs exclusively to the eldest son.

burghers

Merchant class town dwellers.

Estates-General

An assembly of representatives from all three of the estates, or social classes, in France.

estates

The social classes in France.

Otto I

10th century ruler who became emperor of the German states through close ties with the Catholic church.

Crusades

A series of holy wars from 1096-1270 AD undertaken by European Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

Renaissance

Meaning, "rebirth," this occurred following the Middle Ages. It was a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome.

humanism

A Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied classical texts and focused on human potential and achievements.

lay Investiture controversy

A dispute over whether a secular leader, rather than the pope, could invest bishops with the symbols of office.

Great Schism

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

antisemitism

Prejudice against those of the Jewish faith.

Little Ice Age

A century-long period of cool climate that began in the 1590s. Its ill effects on agriculture in northern Europe were notable.

rudder

Steering device, usually a vertical blade attached to a post at, or near, the stern of the boat.

junk

A very large flat bottom sailing ship produced in the Tang and Song Empires, specially designed for long-distance commercial travel.

Mongol Empire

An empire founded in the 12th century by Genghis Khan, which reached its greatest territorial extent in the 13th century, encompassing the larger part of Asia and extending westward to the Dnieper River in eastern Europe.

Cities

Served as centers of trade, public performance, and political administration (for example Athens, Carthage, and Teotihuacan).

caravanserai

An inn in some Eastern countries with a large courtyard that provides accommodation for caravans.

money economy

An economic system based on money rather than barter.

flying cash

Enabled merchants to deposit good or cash at one location and draw the equivalent in cash or merchandise elsewhere in China.

paper money

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

banking houses

An establishment or office in which, or a firm by whom, banking is done.

bill of exhange

A document stating the holder was legally promised payment of a set amount on a set date.

Hanseatic League

An economic and defensive alliance of the free towns in northern Germany, founded about 1241 and most powerful in the fourteenth century.

Mongols

A people of this name is mentioned as early as the records of the Tang Empire, living as nomads in northern Eurasia. After 1206 they established an enormous empire under Genghis Khan, linking western and eastern Eurasia.

khan

A Mongol ruler

kuriltai

Meeting of all Mongol chieftains at which the supreme ruler of all tribes was selected.

Genghis Khan

Founder of the Mongol Empire.

khanates

Four regional Mongol kingdoms that arose following the death of Chinggis Khan.

Pax Mongolica

The period of approximately 150 years of relative peace and stability created by the Mongol Empire.

Batu

Ruler of the golden horde. One of Chinggis Khan's grandsons. He responsible for the invasion of Russia beginning in 1236.

Golden Horde

Mongol khanate founded by Genghis Khan's. It was based in southern Russia and quickly adopted both the Turkic language and Islam. Also known as the Kipchak Horde.