Post-Classical Trade, Urbanization, and Technological Diffusion

Vocabulary flashcards covering key cities, technological advancements, agricultural innovations, and causes of urban growth and decline from Topic 2 of AP World History: Modern.

Champa rice

An agricultural crop that spread from India to Vietnam and China, improving agricultural efficiency, securing food supply, and supporting population growth and industries such as porcelain, silk, steel, and iron.

Papermaking

A Chinese technology that reached Europe in the 13th century and, alongside printing technology, contributed to an increase in literacy.

Seafaring technology

Maritime innovations including lateen sails, the stern rudder, the astrolabe, and the magnetic compass, advanced by expanding astronomical knowledge in China, India, and Southwest Asia.

Hangzhou

A large southern Chinese trade and cultural center of approximately one million people, situated at the southern end of the Grand Canal, documented by Marco Polo and home to a thriving Arab community.

Chang'an

A Chinese city that had approximately two million people, making it larger than Hangzhou.

Lu Yu and Xin Qiji

Notable poets who resided in Hangzhou, the cultural center of southern China.

Grand Canal

A major Chinese waterway at whose southern end the trading city of Hangzhou was located.

Samarkand and Kashgar

Silk Road cities known as centers of Islamic scholarship, bustling marketplaces, and providers of fresh water and plentiful food for traveling merchants.

Factors Contributing to Growth of Cities

Five key conditions: political stability and decline of invasions, safe and reliable transportation, rise of commerce, plentiful labor supply, and increased agricultural output.

Tamerlane

The ruler whose forces ravaged the declining city of Kashgar in 1389–90 following nomadic conquests.

Fourth Crusade (1204)

A military expedition during which mutinous Crusader armies attacked and weakened the city of Constantinople.

Constantinople

A heavily walled city in present-day Turkey that suffered attacks in 1204, lost about half of its population to the bubonic plague in 1346 and 1349, and fell to the Ottomans in 1453 after a 53-day siege.

Fall of Constantinople (1453)

The capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans following a 53-day siege, viewed by some historians as marking the end of the High Middle Ages.