Studied by 1281 peopleBuddhism
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.
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.
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.
Jesus
A Jew from Galilee in northern Israel who sought to reform Jewish beliefs and practices. He was executed as a revolutionary by the Romans. He is the basis of the world's largest monotheistic religion.
Mansa Musa
Ruler of Mali (r.1312-1337 CE) who made a hajj to Mecca. On the way there, he spread enormous amounts of gold demonstrating the wealth of Mali. On the way back, he brought back education and Islamic culture.
Ibn Battuta
A Moroccan Muslim scholar. He was the most widely traveled individual of his time. He compiled a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan.
Berbers
Indigenous people of western North Africa. Primarily Muslim, these people lived with settled or nomadic tribes from Morocco to Egypt.
Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
An extensive trade route across the Sahara Desert. This route traded gold and salt, created caravan routes while camels played an immense role in the trade activities.
Caravanserai
A roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey. These locations supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of trade routes covering Asia, North Africa, and southeastern Europe, especially along the Silk Road.
Stirrups/Camel Saddles
An invention which gives camel and horse riders riders more stability on the animals. These inventions enabled long-distance land based trade
Mediterranean Sea Lanes
Trade routes that connected the Mediterranean civilizations together. The need for a sea rout for trade in the region. Trade increased and diffusion of cultures occurred
Indian Ocean Trade Routes
The world's richest maritime trading network that was essential for the prosperity of East Africa. It connected Europe, Africa and China fueling rapid Muslim expansion.
Lateen Sails
triangular sail that made it possible to sail against the wind; used in the Indian Ocean trade
Monsoon Winds
The seasonal wind of the Indian Ocean and southern Asia, blowing from the southwest in summer and from the northeast in winter. Commonly marked by heavy rains and a rainy season.
Diasporic Communities
Widely dispersed community as a result of natural disaster, politics or other reasons.
Marco Polo
Venetian merchant and traveler (1254-1324). He made numerous trips to China and returned to Europe to document his trips. He is responsible for much of the knowledge exchanged between Europe and China during this time period.
Chinese Buddhism
This religion was China's only large-scale cultural borrowing before the twentieth century. It entered China from India in the first and second centuries C.E. but only became popular in 300-800 C.E. through a series of cultural accommodations. At first this religion was supported by the state, but suffered persecution during the ninth century yet it continued to play a role in Chinese society.
Mandate of Heaven
claim of divine rule used to legitimize Chinese emperors
Dynastic Cycle
rise and fall of Chinese dynasties according to the Mandate of Heaven
Confucianism/Neo-Confucianism
A philosophy that emerged in East Asia (China) - emphasized respecting your elders, patriarchy, and moral behavior; it revived Confucian thinking while adding in Buddhist and Daoist elements.
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.
Filial Piety
In Confucian thought, one of the virtues to be cultivated, a love and respect for one's parents and ancestors.
Samurai
Class of warriors in feudal Japan who pledged loyalty to a noble in return for land.
Shogun(ate)
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.
Chinese Grand Canal
Constructed under Sui Dynasty, it linked northern and Southern China. It was 1240 miles long; included parallel roads, serving as best way of economical transport.
Kowtow
a a Chinese custom of touching the ground with the forehead as a sign of respect or submission. Foreigners had to perform this as part of the Chinese Tribute System.
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. This practice came into place with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism.
Tribute System
A system in which people were forced to pay a tax in the form of goods and labor in return for protection. This forced transfer of food, cloth, and other goods subsidized the development of large cities.
Justinian/Justinian’s Code
Byzantine emperor in the 6th century CE who reconquered much of the territory previously ruler by Rome, initiated an ambitious building programs, including Hagia Sofia, and instituted a new legal code.
Eastern Orthodox
The Christian religion of the Byzantine Empire in the Middle East that formed from Christianity's schism between the remains of the western and eastern Roman Empire.
Roman Catholic Church
The Christian Church based in the Vatican and presided over by a pope and an episcopal hierarchy.
Monasticism
A way of life in which men and women withdraw from the rest of the world in order to devote themselves to their faith. Important in Catholicism and Buddhism.
Bubonic Plague/Black Death
A deadly disease that spread across Asia, North Africa through Europe killing one out of every three between 1347-1351.
Crusades
A series of holy wars from 1096-1270 CE undertaken by European Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule.
Feudalism
The dominant social system in medieval Europe and Japan, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the serfs were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection.
Manorial System
A self sufficient, economic structure that is the relationship between the lord and the peasants or serfs who produced all the necessary goods to keep the manor running.
Knights
A warrior in medieval Europe who fought on horseback.
Serfdom
A type of labor commonly used in feudal systems in which the laborers work the land in return for protection. They are bound to the land and are not allowed to leave or to peruse their a new occupation. This was common in early medieval Europe as well as in Russia until the mid 19th century.
Guild
In medieval Europe, an association of men (rarely women), such as merchants, artisans, or professors, who worked in a particular trade and created an organized institution to promote their economic and political interests.
Charlemagne
King of the Franks; emperor. Through a series of military conquests he established the Carolingian Empire, which encompassed all of Gaul and parts of Germany and Italy.
Vikings
Scandinavian peoples whose sailors raided Europe from the 700s through the 1100s.
Islam/Muslims
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.
Dar-al-Islam
An Arabic term that means the "house of Islam" and that refers to lands under Islamic rule.
Muhammad
The Arab prophet who founded Islam.
Astrolabe
An instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the position of the stars and planets.
Quran
Holy book of Islam; regarded by Muslims as the direct words of Allah, revealed to Mohammed through the archangel Gabriel.
Sunni/Shia Split
Two branches of Islam - split over disagreement over who would lead the Islamic community after Muhammad’s passing.
Sharia Law
The system of Islamic law, based on varying degrees of interpretation of the Qu'ran.
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.
Kaaba
A black stone building in Mecca that is shaped like a cube and that is the most sacred Muslim pilgrim shrine.
Umma
The community of all Muslims. A major innovation against the background of seventh-century Arabia, where traditionally kinship rather than faith had determined membership in a community.
Sufis/Sufism
Muslim mystics who seek communion with God through meditation, fasting, and other rituals. They played a significant role as missionaries, spreading Islam throughout AfroEurasia
Caliph(ate)
Political and religious leader of the Islamic Empire - Dynasty
Caste System
A Hindu social class system that controlled every aspect of daily life
Pastoral Nomads
A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.
Chinggis (Genghis) Khan
Born in 1170s in decades following death of Kabul Khan; elected khan of all Mongol tribes in 1206; responsible for conquest of northern kingdoms of China, territories as far west as the Abbasid regions; died in 1227, prior to conquest of most of Islamic world.
Khanates
Four regional Mongol kingdoms that arose following the death of Chinggis Khan. Ruled by his descendants.
Pax Mongolica
The period of approximately 150 years of relative peace and stability created by the Mongol Empire.
Silk Roads
A system of ancient caravan routes across Asia, along which traders carried silk and other luxury goods.
Champa Rice
Quick-maturing rice that can allow two harvests in one growing season. Spread from Vietnam to China as a tribute gift by the Champa state as part of the tributary system.
Gunpowder
The formula, brought to China in the 400s or 500s, was first used to make fumigators to keep away insect pests and evil spirits. In later centuries it was used to make explosives and grenades and to propel cannonballs, shot, and bullets.
Human Sacrifice
Lacerating, disemboweling, and decapitating humans in order to appease the gods. Common in Aztec culture
Chinampas
Raised fields constructed along lake shores in Mesoamerica to increase agricultural yields.
Pochteca
Special merchant class in Aztec society; specialized in long-distance trade in luxury items.
Incan Road System
System of infrastructure developed in the Incan Empire. All roads lead to Cuzco; allowed armies and news to spread quickly. Runners were stationed throughout empire to carry messages.
Quipu
an arrangement of knotted strings on a cord, used by the Inca to record numerical information.
Mita System
Economic system in Incan society where people paid taxes with their labor and what they produced.
City-State v. Empire
system of decentralized states (ex: Swahili coast) vs. centralized governance system (ex: Tang Dynasty")
Zheng He
An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa. These voyages abruptly ended with his death.
Peninsulares
Spanish people who were appointed by the king to have political authority over everyone in their colonies. They were born in Spain but resided in the Western Hemisphere.
Creoles
In colonial Spanish America, term used to describe someone of European descent born in the Americas.
Mestizo
The term used by Spanish authorities to describe someone of mixed native American and European descent.
Encomienda System
A system whereby the Spanish crown granted the conquerors the right to forcibly employ groups of Indians; it was a disguised form of slavery.
Hernan Cortes
Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico (1485-1547)
Conquistadors
A Spanish conqueror of the Americas.
Mulattos
The term used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies to describe someone of mixed African and European descent.
Casta System
A system in colonial Spain of determining a person's social importance according to different racial categories.
Hacienda System
Rural estates in Spanish colonies in New World; produced agricultural products for consumers in America; basis of wealth and power for local aristocracy.
Settler Colonies
Colonies in which the colonizing people settled in large numbers, rather than simply spending relatively small numbers to exploit the region; particularly noteworthy in the case of the British colonies in North America.
Maroon Societies
Runaway slaves in the Caribbean who established their own communities to resist slavery and colonial authorities
Ana Nzinga Resistance
African leader who resisted Portuguese encroachment on her land and their practices of enslavement.
Plantation Economy
Economic system using enslaved labor in the Americas. These large estates produced cash crops, especially sugar, cotton and tobacco.
Pilgrims
Group of English Protestant dissenters who established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620 to seek religious freedom after having lived briefly in the Netherlands.
Indentured Servitude
A worker bound by a voluntary agreement to work for a specified period of years often in return for free passage to an overseas destination.
Colonies
A group of people who leave their native country to form in a new land a settlement subject to, or connected with, the parent nation.
Great Dying
Term used to describe the devastating demographic impact of European-borne epidemic diseases on the Americas.
Triangular Trade
Trade between Africa, the Americas and Europe for slaves, sugar, and rum. Raw materials were sent to Europe from the Americas to be turned into finished products that were then sold to African kingdoms. Africa provided the enslaved laborers to work on the plantations in the Americas.
Atlantic Slave Trade
Lasted from 16th century until the 19th century. Trade of African peoples from Western Africa to the Americas. One part of a three-part economical system known as the Middle Passage of the Triangular Trade.
Middle Passage
A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies
Columbian Exchange
The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Old and New World following Columbus' voyages.
Potatoes and Maize
good examples of Cash Crops grown in North and Latin America
Soft Gold
Nickname used in the early modern period for animal furs, highly valued for their warmth and as symbols of elite status; in several regions, the fur trade generated massive wealth for those engaged in it.
Silver
This becomes the first global currency. Initially, it’s main source is mined by the Spanish in Latin America. By 1581 China was requiring that all land taxes were to be paid for with this form of currency.
Smallpox
Disease spread by Europeans in the Americas. Led to the deaths of millions of Native Americans in North and South America.
Cash Crops
Agricultural production, often on a large scale, or crops for sale in the market, rather than for consumption by the farmers themselves.
Renaissance
Following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome. Known as a "rebirth".
Secularism
A doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations.
Humanism
A Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied classical texts and focused on human potential and achievements.
Johann Gutenberg
German printer who was the first in Europe to print using movable type and the first to use a press. This invention revolutionized access to information and literacy rates rose.
Leonardo de Vinci
Italian Renaissance artist that painted The Last Supper and Mona Lisa, he was also an engineer, architect, sculptor, and scientist.
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