APWH - T&E Part #2 Vocabulary (AP Units #3-4, c. 1450-c.1750)

Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer and navigator who made four transatlantic voyages to the islands off North America, which in turn opened the way for European colonization of the Americas.

Eunuch

Castrated males, originally in charge of the harem, who grew to play major roles in government; were common in China and other societies.

Hongwu

1328-1398 C.E. Personal name of Zhu Yuanzhang, was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty in China. Reigned 1368-1398.

Humanist

Scholars interested in the humanities; literature, history, and moral philosophy.

Hundred Years War

1337-1453 C.E. Series of intermittent wars between France and England over the control of modern France.

Ibn Battuta

Born in 1304 in Morocco. He was the greatest Muslim traveler of his time. He covered 75,000 miles and visited almost every Muslim country and China.

Leonardo da Vinci

1452-1519 C.E. Noted Italian painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer for the Renaissance period.

Little Ice Age

Period beginning about 1300 CE when global temperatures declined for around 500 years.

Mandarin

A Chinese bureaucrat-scholar who worked for the government in Imperial China.

Marco Polo

1254-1324 C.E. Italian merchant whose account of his travels to China and other lands became legendary.

Melaka

Southeast Asian kingdom that was predominantly Islamic.

Ming Dynasty

1368-1644 C.E. Chinese Dynasty founded by Hongwu and known for its cultural brilliance.

Qadi

Islamic judge.

Qing dynasty

1644-1911 C.E. Chinese dynasty that reached its peak during the reigns of Kangxi and Qianlong.

Renaissance

The French word for 'rebirth', refers to a period of artistic and intellectual creativity that took place from the 14th - 16th century and that reflected the continuing development of a sophisticated urban society, particularly in Western Europe.

Sharia

The Islamic holy law, drawn up by theologians from the Quran and accounts of Muhammads' life.

Sufis

Islamic mystics who put more emphasis on emotion and devotion then on a strict adherence to the rules.

Tsar

Old Russian term for king which is derived from caesar.

Yongle

Chinese Ming emperor (r. 1403-1424 C.E.) who pushed for foreign exploration and promoted cultural achievements such as an encyclopedia.

Zheng He

1371-1433 C.E. Chinese mariner, explorer, and admiral during the early Ming dynasty who traveled as far as Malindi in East Asia.

Astrolabe

Navigational equipment for determining latitude.

Captain James Cook

1728-1779 C.E. British explorer, navigator, and cartographer who served in the British Royal Navy. Famous for his expeditions to the Pacific Ocean in the eighteenth century.

Columbian Exchange

A global diffusion of plants, food crops, animals, human populations, and disease pathogens that took place after the voyages of Christopher Colombus and other European mariners.

East India Company

British joint-stock company that eventually became a state within a state in India; it possessed its own armed forces.

Ferdinand Magellan

1480-1521 C.E. Portuguese explorer famous for organizing the first circumnavigation of the globe, by ship, from 1519 to 1522 C.E.

Joint stock company

Early forerunner of the modern corporation; individuals who invested in a trading or exploring venture could make huge profits while limiting their risk.

Manila galleons

Sleek, fast, heavily armed ships capable of carrying large cargoes that linked the Philippines to Mexico.

Seven Years' War

(1756-1763) a global conflict that took place in Europe, India, the Caribbean, and North America that led to 150 years of British imperial hegemony.

Taino

A Caribbean tribe who were the first indigenous peoples from the Americas to come into contact with Christopher Columbus.

VOC

A Dutch trading company that was granted by the Dutch government to have a monopoly on all Dutch trade between Europe and Asia.

Absolutism

Political philosophy that stressed the divine right theory of kingship: French king Louis XIV was the classic example.

Anglicans

A Protestant community that emerged in 16th-century England during the reign of Henry VIII. It combined elements of Catholicism and Reformation theology, establishing the Church of England as independent from papal authority.

Calvinists

A protestant community that uses a strict code of morality and discipline. Founded by John Calvin who advocated for predestination.

Capitalism

An economic system with origins in early modern Europe in which private parties make their goods and services available on a free market.

Carolingian

Germanic dynasty that was named after its most famous member, Charlemagne.

Catherine the Great

1729-1796 C.E. was the longest-serving female ruler of Russia (1762 to 1796). She came to power by overthrowing her husband, Peter II, in a coup.

Catholic Reformation

16th century attempt to cure internal ills and confront Protestantism; it was inspired by the reforms of the Council of Trent and the actions of the Jesuits.

Charles V

Reigned 1519-1556. Emperor who inherited the Hapsburg family's Austrian territories as well as the Kingdom of Spain. When he became emperor in 1519, his empire stretched from Austria to Peru.

Council of Trent

1545-1563 Assembly of high Roman Catholic church officials which met over a period of years to institute reforms in order to increase morality and improve the preparations of priests.

English Civil War

1642-1649. A series of armed conflicts between the English crown and the English Parliament over political and religious differences.

Galileo Galilei

1564-1642, Italian astronomer, engineer and physicist from the town of Pisa, whose observations had huge impacts on the development of modern science.

Glorious Revolution

1688-1689, The events that led to the replacement of the Catholic English King James II by his protestant daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband William of Orange.

Habsburgs

A prominent European dynasty that rose to power in the late Middle Ages, known for its extensive territorial control and strategic marriages. The family ruled over the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and Austria, shaping European politics for centuries.

Issac Newton

1643-1727, English mathematician, physicist, and astronomer who played a key role in the Scientific Revolution.

Johannes Gutenberg

1395-1468. German inventor who introduced the movable type printing press to Europe, revolutionizing the dissemination of information and contributing to the spread of the Renaissance and Reformation.

Johannes Kepler

1571-1630. German astronomer and mathematician who developed the three laws of planetary motion, demonstrating that planets move in elliptical orbits around the sun.

Louis XIV

1638-1715 C.E. Also known as the Sun King, his seventy-two-year reign was the longest of any monarch in European history.

Martin Luther

1483-1546. German monk and Catholic priest who became a central figure in the Protestant Reformation after challenging the corruption of the church in his Ninety-Five Theses, published in 1517.

Nicolaus Copernicus

1773-1543 C.E. Polish astronomer who theorized that the Sun, rather than the Earth, lay at the center of the universe.

Ninety-Five Theses

A document written by Martin Luther in 1517, challenging the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences and other practices, sparking the Protestant Reformation.

Peace of Westphalia

A series of treaties signed in 1648 that ended the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War, establishing the modern system of sovereign states and territorial integrity.

Peter the Great

Reigned 1682-1725. Russian tsar of the Romanov family who sought to modernize Russia based on the model established by western European states.

Protestant Reformation

Sixteenth-century European movement where Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others broke away from the Catholic Church.

Protoindustrialization

Also called the 'putting out system', in which entrepreneurs bring raw materials to countryside families who turn them into sellable products, then the entrepreneurs pay the families, collect the materials, and sell them to the market.

Romanov dynasty

Russian dynasty (1610-1917) founded by Mikhail and ending with Nicholas II.

Scientific revolution

A period from the 16th to 18th century marked by major advances in science and mathematics, emphasizing observation, experimentation, and the questioning of traditional beliefs.

Serfs

Peasants who, though not chattel slaves, were tied to the land and who owed obligation to the lords on whose land they worked.

Spanish Inquisition

A judicial institution established in 1478 by Ferdinand and Isabella that was created to combat heresy and the practice of Judaism or Islam.

Thirty Years' War

1618-1648. A devastating conflict fought primarily in the Holy Roman Empire, involving religious and political disputes between Protestant and Catholic states, ending with the Peace of Westphalia.

Versailles

Palace of the French King Louis XIV.

Witch-hunts

Period in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in which about 110,000 people (mainly women) were put on trial in western Europe.

Atahualpa

1502-1533. The last emperor of the Inca Empire, captured and executed by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro during the conquest of Peru.

Audiencias

Spanish courts in Latin America.

Conquistadors

Spanish adventurers such as Cortés and Pizarro who conquered Central and South America in the sixteenth century.

Criollos

People born in the Americas of Spanish or Portuguese ancestry.

Encomienda

System that gave the Spanish settlers the right to compel the indigenous peoples of the Americas to work in the mines or fields.

Engenho

Brazilian sugar mill; the term also came to symbolize the entire complex world relating to the production of sugar.

Francisco Pizarro

1478-1541 C.E. Spanish conquistador whose military expeditions led to the fall of the Inca Empire.

Hacienda

Large Latin American estates.

Hernan Cortes

1485-1587 C.E. Spanish conquistador whose military expeditions led to the fall of the Aztec Empire.

Indentured labor

Labor source for plantations; wealthy planters would pay the laboring poor to sell a portion of their working lives, usually 7 years, in exchange for passage.

Mestizo

Latin American term for children of Spanish and native parentage.

Metis

Canadian term for individuals of mixed European and indigenous ancestry.

Mita system

A labor system used by the Inca Empire and later adapted by the Spanish, requiring communities to provide workers for public projects or colonial enterprises, such as mining.

Motecuzoma II

1466-1520 C.E. Aztec emperor at the time of Hernan Cortes' invasion.

New Spain

A Spanish colonial territory established in 1521 following the conquest of the Aztec Empire, encompassing modern-day Mexico, Central America, and parts of the southwestern United States.

Peninsulares

Latin American officials from Spain or Portugal.

Potosi

City in the central highlands of modern-day Bolivia that became the world's largest silver-producing area after silver was discovered in 1545.

Quinto

The one-fifth of Mexican and Peruvian silver production that was reserved for the Spanish monarchy.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec empire, later Mexico City.

Zambos

Latin American term for individuals born of indigenous and African parents.

Ghana

Kingdom in west Africa during the fifth through the thirteenth century whose rulers eventually converted to Islam; its power and wealth was based on dominating the trans-Saharan trade.

Great Zimbabwe

Large sub-Saharan African kingdom in the fifteenth centuries C.E.

Kongo

Central African state that began trading with the Portuguese around 1500; although their kings, such as King Affonso (r. 1506-1543), converted to Christianity, they nevertheless suffered from the slave trade.

Mali Empire

West African kingdom founded in the thirteenth century by Sundiata, reached its peak during the reign of Mansa Musa.

Manioc

A starchy root crop originating in South America, widely cultivated in tropical regions and a staple food source in many indigenous and colonial societies.

Middle passage

The brutal transatlantic journey endured by enslaved Africans as they were forcibly transported to the Americas as part of the triangular trade.

Plantations

Large agricultural estates typically in the Americas, where enslaved or coerced laborers produced cash crops like sugar, tobacco, and cotton for export.

Santeria

A syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion that blends elements of Yoruba traditions with Catholicism, originating among enslaved Africans in the Americas.

Songhay Empire

A powerful West African state (15th-16th century) centered on the city of Gao, known for its wealth, trade networks, and promotion of Islam under rulers like Sonni Ali and Askia Muhammad.

Timbuktu

City in the Mali Empire known for its large population, wealth, and places of learning.

Triangular trade

Trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas that featured finished products from Europe, slaves from Africa, and American products bound for Europe.

Voudou

Syncretic religion practiced by enslaved Africans and their descendants in Haiti.

Analects

A collection of the sayings and teachings of the fifth century B.C.E. Chinese philosopher Confucius, collected by his students.

Civil service examinations

A battery of grueling tests given at the district, provincial, and metropolitan levels that determined entry into the Chinese bureaucracy during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Daimyo

Powerful territorial lords in early modern Japan.

Filial piety

A Confucian principle emphasizing respect, obedience, and care for one's parents and ancestors, central to East Asian social and family structures.

Foot binding

A Chinese tradition, primarily among elite women, starting in the Song Dynasty, symbolizing beauty and high social status.

Jesuits

A Catholic religious order founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola, dedicated to education, missionary work, and countering the spread of Protestantism.

Manchu

A Northeast Asian people who ended the Ming dynasty and established the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).