AP World History Unit 0: Foundations to 1200 CE

Hinduism

a major religious and cultural tradition, philosophy developed in ancient India, characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being who takes many forms, developed from Vedic religion.

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.

Buddhism

the teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth, Belief system that started in India in the 500s BC. Happiness can be achieved through removal of one's desires. Believers seek enlightenment and the overcoming of suffering.

Christianity

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

Confucianism

A philosophy that adheres to the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It shows the way to ensure a stable government and an orderly society in the present world and stresses a moral code of conduct.

Daoism

Chinese philosophical system developed by of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu advocating a simple honest life and noninterference with the course of natural events, emphasizes the removal from society and to become one with nature.

Islam

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

Dar al-Islam

an Arabic term that means the "house of Islam" and that refers to lands under Islamic rule

Shinto

"Way of the Kami"; A Japanese religion whose followers believe that all things in the natural world are filled with divine spirits

Roman Catholic Church

Church established in western Europe during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages with its head being the bishop of Rome or pope.

Orthodox Church

Eastern church which was created in 1053 after the schism from the western Roman church; its head is the patriarch of Constantinople. (also called the Byzantine Church), the church that followed the Eastern traditions of Christianity as opposed to the Western traditions

Patriarchy

A form of social organization in which males dominate females, a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line.

Civil Service Exam

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

diaspora

A dispersion of people from their homeland, for example the Jewish Diaspora, the African Diaspora, the Irish Diaspora

Entrepot

Big commercial center for importing and exporting commodities.

Shogun

In feudal Japan, a noble similar to a duke. They were the military commanders and the actual rulers of Japan for many centuries while the Emperor was a powerless spiritual figure.

Daimyo

A Japanese feudal lord who commanded a private army of samurai

Agricultural Revolution

The time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering

monsoon winds

seasonal wind in India, the winter monsoon brings hot, dry weather and the summer monsoon brings rain, these carried ships on the Indian Ocean between India and Africa

Teotihuacan

first major metropolis in Mesoamerica, collapsed around 800 CE. It is most remembered for the gigantic "pyramid of the sun".

Mayans

a member of a major pre-Columbian civilization of the Yucatán Peninsula that reached its peak in the 9th century a.d. and produced magnificent ceremonial cities with pyramids, a sophisticated mathematical and calendar system, hieroglyphic writing, and fine sculpture, painting, and ceramics.

Mississippian

A Native Indian culture that flourished in the modern day midwest. They resided in the Mississippi river valley, the last Mound Builder culture that lasted from AD 800 to the arrival of the Europeans in the 1500s.

Toltecs

Nomadic peoples from beyond the northern frontier of sedentary agriculture in Mesoamerica; established capital at Tula after migration into central Mesoamerican plateau; strongly militaristic ethic, including cult of human sacrifice.

Silk Roads

A system of ancient caravan routes across Central Asia, along which traders carried silk and other trade goods.

Indian Ocean Trade Route

A sea route of trade that connected India, China, the Middle East, and Eastern Africa.

Trans-Saharan Trade Route

gold-salt trade; linked North and West Africa; across Sahara Desert; spread Islam; land trade

city-state

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

Mauryan Empire

The first state to unify most of the Indian subcontinent. It was founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 324 B.C.E. and survived until 184 B.C.E. From its capital at Pataliputra in the Ganges Valley it grew wealthy from taxes.

Gupta Empire

Powerful Indian state based in the Ganges Valley. It controlled most of the Indian subcontinent through a combination of military force and its prestige as a center of sophisticated culture. Often associated with a Golden Age of classical India.

Mandate of Heaven

a political theory of ancient China in which those in power were given the right to rule from a divine source

Qin Dynasty

1st unified imperial Chinese dynasty, Chinese dynasty in 200s BCE. Lasted 15 years. Unified Chinese kingdoms, built the Great Wall and its emperor was the legalistic Shi Huangdi.

Han Dynasty

(202 BC - 220 AD) dynasty started by Lui Bang; a great and long-lasting rule, it discarded the harsh policies of the Qin dynasty and adopted Confucian principles; Han rulers chose officials who passed the civil service exams rather than birth; it was a time of prosperity

Persian Empire

Mesopotamian empire that conquered the existing Median, Lydian, and Babylonian empires, as well as Egypt and many others. Also known as the Achaemenid Empire., conquered by Alexander the Great

Greek city-states

- Ancient Greece was made up of city-states, also known as Polis

- they were developed out of the political chaos of the 1100's (BCE)

- each Polis was independent and so a range of political institutions developed across the Balkan Peninsula and Aegean Islands

- the largest city-states were Athens and Sparta

Roman Empire

an empire established by Augustus in 27 BC and divided in AD 395 into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern or Byzantine Empire, fall of the Western Roman Empire circa 500 CE marks the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe

Byzantine Empire

(330-1453) The eastern half of the Roman Empire, which survived after the fall of the Western Empire at the end of the 5th century C.E. Its capital was Constantinople, named after the Emperor Constantine. Historians' name for the eastern portion of the Roman Empire from the fourth century onward, taken from 'Byzantion,' an early name for Constantinople, the Byzantine capital city. The empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453.

Abbasid Caliphate

750-1258, Golden age of Islam, The third of the Islamic caliphates in 750 CE. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad, Iraq after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region.

Sui Dynasty

(589-618 CE) The Chinese dynasty that was like the Qin Dynasty in imposing tight political discipline; this dynasty built the Grand Canal which helped transport the rice in the south to the north.

Tang Dynasty

(618-907 CE) The Chinese dynasty that was much like the Han, who used Confucianism. This dynasty had the equal-field system, a bureaucracy based on merit, and a Confucian education system.

Song Dynasty

During this Chinese dynasty (960 - 1279 AD) China saw many important inventions. There was a magnetic compass; had a navy; traded with india and persia (brought pepper and cotton); paper money, gun powder; landscape black and white paintings

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.

Great Zimbabwe

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, emerged from the growing trade in gold to the East African coast; flourished between 1250 and 1350 C.E.

Filial Piety

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