AP world unit 1-2

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.

Caesaropapism

A political-religious system in which the secular ruler is also head of the religious establishment, as in the Byzantine Empire.

Eastern Orthodox Church

Christian followers in the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire); split from Roman Catholic Church and shaped life in eastern Europe and western Asia

Cyril and Methodius

Byzantine missionaries sent to convert eastern Europe and Balkans; responsible for creation of Slavic written script called Cyrillic.

East-West Schism

The split between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches in 1054

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 Quran. Followers are called Muslims.

Mohammed

570-632. Born in Mecca, died in Medina. Founder of Islam. Regarded by Muslims as a prophet of God. Teachings make up the Qu'ran, the Muslim holy book.

Five Pillars of Islam

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

Ummah

The collective community of Islamic peoples, which is thought to transcend ethnic and political boundaries.

Sultanate

similar to a monarchy, but a government in which the supreme power is in the hands of a sultan (the head of a Muslim state); the sultan may be an absolute ruler or a sovereign with constitutionally limited authority.

Caliphate

Islamic empire ruled by those believed to be the successors to the Prophet Muhammad.

Quran

The holy book of Islam

Sunni

A branch of Islam whose members acknowledge the first four caliphs as the rightful successors of Muhammad

Shiite

a member of the branch of Islam that regards Ali as the legitimate successor to Mohammed and rejects the first three caliphs

Jizya

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

Dhimmis

"the people of the book"-- Jews, Christians; later extended to Zoroastrians and Hindus which offered state protection under an Islamic state but still reduced the individual to a second-class citizen

Muslim Diaspora

spread of Islam via trade through the Indian Ocean and East Africa in the Post-Classical Era

Arab Migrations

movement from the Arabian peninsula; spread of Islam; invaded/settled/ruled Middle East, Africa and southern Europe; mixed with native cultures

Mansa Musa

Emperor of the kingdom of Mali in Africa. He made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca and established trade routes to the Middle East.

Delhi Sultanate

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

Guru Nanak

Indian religious leader who founded Sikhism in dissent from the caste system of Hinduism

Sikhism

the doctrines of a monotheistic religion founded in northern India in the 16th century by Guru Nanak and combining elements of Hinduism and Islam

Mali Empire

From 1235-1400, this was a strong empire of Western African. With its trading cities of Timbuktu and Gao, it had many mosques and universities. The Empire upheld a strong gold-salt trade.

Timbuktu

As part of the Mali empire, this city became a major major terminus of the trans-Saharan trade and a center of Islamic learning.

caravan

group of traveling merchants and animals

Sui Dynasty

The short dynasty between the Han and the Tang; built the Grand Canal, strengthened the government, and introduced Buddhism to China

Grand Canal

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.

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.

Neoconfucianism

term that describes the resurgence of Confucianism and the influence of Confucian scholars during the T'ang Dynasty; a unification of Daoist or Buddhist metaphysics with Confucian pragmatism

Edicts on Buddhism

A series of anti-Buddhist laws enacted in Tang China during the 9th century CE

Song Dynasty

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

Middle Kingdom (China)

Term that ancient China used to refer to themselves. The believed they were the center of the Earth, or the Middle Kingdom.

tribute system

Chinese method of dealing with foreign lands and peoples that assumed the subordination of all non-Chinese authorities and required the payment of tribute—produce of value from their countries—to the Chinese emperor (although the Chinese gifts given in return were often much more valuable).

Zheng He

(1371-1433?) Chinese naval explorer who sailed along most of the coast of Asia, Japan, and half way down the east coast of Africa before his death.

Foot Binding

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.

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

Taika Reforms

Attempt to remake Japanese monarch into an absolute Chinese-style emperor; included attempts to create professional bureaucracy and peasant conscript army.

fealty

obligated loyalty or faithfulness

Carolingian Empire

Charlemagne's empire; covered much of western and central Europe; largest empire until Napoleon in 19th century

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.

Vikings

one of a seafaring Scandinavian people who raided the coasts of northern and western Europe from the eighth through the tenth century.

Longboats

sturdy boats built by Vikings that could survive in the oceans and navigate in rivers

Daimyo

A Japanese feudal lord who commanded a private army of samurai

Shogun

A general who ruled Japan in the emperor's name

Mongolian Empire

One of the largest empires in the history of the world; established by Genghis Khan.

Khanate

one of several separate territories into which Genghis Khan's empire was split, each under the rule of one of his sons

Ghengis Khan

The title of Temujin when he ruled the Mongols (1206-1227). It means the 'universal' leader. He was the founder of the Mongol Empire.

Kublai Khan

(1215-1294) Grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China.

Ogedei Khan

Third son of Genghis Khan. Sent Mongol armies to invade Kiev/Russia, Hungary, Poland and Northern China.

Yuan Dynasty

(1279-1368 CE) The dynasty with Mongol rule in China; centralized with bureaucracy but structure is different: Mongols on top->Persian bureaucrats->Chinese bureaucrats.

Ming Dynasty

Succeeded Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1368; lasted until 1644; initially mounted huge trade expeditions to southern Asia and elsewhere, but later concentrated efforts on internal development within China.

Black Death/Bubonic Plague

This killed between one-third and two-thirds of the population in less than five years. The epidemic spanned from China to England to North Africa, transmitted along the Silk Road and other trade routes.

Aztec Empire

Major state that developed in what is now Mexico in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; dominated by the seminomadic Mexica, who had migrated into the region from northern Mexico.

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; conquered by Pizarro

Quipos

A system of knots used for record keeping by the Incas

Venice

An Italian trading city on the Ariatic Sea, agreed to help the Byzantines' effort to regain the lands in return for trading privileges in Constantinople.

Chinampas

Raised fields constructed along lake shores in Mesoamerica to increase agricultural yields.

Waru Waru

agricultural techniques of south america; combines raised beds with irrigation channels to prevent erosion

Terracing

creating flat platforms in the hillside that provide a level planting surface, which reduces soil runoff from the slope.

Swahili city-states

Waring states that were always competing for control of trade routes and each other. Many of these city-states were Muslim and very cosmopolitan.

Ibn Battuta

Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan.

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.

Astrolabe

An instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the position of the stars and planets

compass

an instrument containing a magnetized pointer that shows the direction of magnetic north and bearings from it.

Junks

Chinese ships, particularly from the 1400s, are often called these. It was a sturdy Chinese ship design and the largest of its kind were treasures ships that could carry a thousand tons of cargo.

Turkic Migration

migration of Turks from Central Asia to Turkey

Angkor Wat

A temple complex built in the Khmer Empire and dedicated to the Hindu God, Vishnu.

peasant agriculture

small subsistence farms, commercial farms or sharecropping.

Mita System

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

Hanseatic League

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