World History 2

Penninsulares

Spanish people who were appointed by the king to have political authority over everyone in their colonies.

Creoles

In colonial Spanish America, term used to describe someone of European descent born in the New World. Elsewhere in the Americas, the term is used to describe all nonnative peoples.

Mestizo

The term used by Spanish authorities to describe someone of mixed native American and European descent.

Mulatto

The term used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies to describe someone of mixed African and European descent.

Plantation Economy

Economic system using slave laborers in the Americas. These large estates produced crops, especially sugar, cotton and tobacco.

Taj Mahal

A tomb built by the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan to honor his wife.

Akbar

The most famous Muslim ruler of India during the period of Mughal rule. Famous for his religious tolerance, his investment in rich cultural feats, and the creation of a centralized governmental administration, which was not typical of ancient and post-classical India.

Wahhabism

A conservative form of Islam that is practiced in Saudi Arabia.

Sufism

An Islamic mystical tradition that desired a personal union with God--divine love through intuition rather than through rational deduction and study of the shari'a. Followed an ascetic routine (denial of physical desire to gain a spiritual goal), dedicating themselves to fasting, prayer, meditation on the Qur'an, and the avoidance of sin.

Tokugawa Shogunate

A semi-feudal government of Japan in which one of the shoguns unified the country under his family's rule. They moved the capital to Edo, which now is called Tokyo. This family ruled from Edo 1868, when it was abolished during the Meiji Restoration.

"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.

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.

Protestant Reformation

A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches.

Catholic Counter-Reformation

An internal reform of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. The Council of Trent (1545-1563), encouraged Catholic leaders to clarify doctrine, corrected abuses and corruption, and put a new emphasis on education and accountability.

Martin Luther

In 1517, he authored the 95 Thesis that led to religious reform in Germany. These concerns denied papal power and absolutist rule. He also claimed there were only 2 sacraments: baptism and communion. Leader of Reformation.

95 Theses

Martin Luther's ideas were posted on the door at Wittenburg Church questioning the Roman Catholic Church. His arguments lead to the Protestant Reformation.

Jesuits

Also known as the Society of Jesus; founded by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) as a teaching and missionary order to resist the spread of Protestantism.

Suleiman I

The most illustrious sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1520-1566); also known as 'The Lawgiver.' He significantly expanded the empire in the Balkans and eastern Mediterranean.

Devshirme

'Selection' in Turkish. The system by which boys from Christian communities were taken by the Ottoman state to serve as janissaries.

Janissaries

Christian boys taken from families, converted to Islam, and then rigorously trained to serve the sultan.

Jizya

A tax paid by Christians and Jews who lived in Muslim communities that allowed them to continue to practice their own religion.

Sultans

Military and political leaders with absolute authority over a Muslim country.

Sikhism

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

"God, Glory, Gold"

The primary motives of age of exploration and conquest by Europeans.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Portuguese Prince that gave financial and moral support to the navigators.

Trade Post Empire

Commerce based cities that countries (primarily western) controlled both economically and sometimes politically in the hope of gaining access to the rich goods and resources of civilizations existing in those areas.

Joint Stock Companies

Businesses formed by groups of people who jointly make an investment and share in the profits and losses.

Mercantilism

An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than purchased.

Silver

Due to the changes in the growing Atlantic economy, by 1581 China was requiring that all land taxes were to be paid for with this form of currency, also considered the first global currency.

Dutch East India Company

A company founded by the Dutch in the early 17th century to establish and direct trade throughout Asia. Government-chartered joint-stock company that controlled the spice trade in the East Indies. Richer and more powerful than England's company, they drove out the English and Established dominance over the region. It ended up going bankrupt and being bought out by the British.

British East India Company

A joint stock company that controlled most of India during the period of imperialism. This company controlled the political, social, and economic life in India for more than 200 years.

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.

Christopher Columbus

An Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish Government to find a passage to the Far East. He is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his death he believed he had made it to India. He made four voyages to the "New World." The first sighting of land was on October 12, 1492, and three other voyages until the time of his death in 1503.

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in the exploration of the Atlantic.

Lanteen Sail

A triangular sail used to sail against the wind.

Gunpowder

Invented within China during the 9th century, this substance was became the dominate military technology used to expand European and Asian empires by the 15th century.

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.

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.

The Great Dying

Term used to describe the devastating demographic impact of European-borne epidemic diseases on the Americas.

Conquistador

A Spanish conqueror of the Americas.

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.

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.

Casta System

A system in colonial Spain of determining a person's social importance according to different racial categories.

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.

Scientific Revolution

The intellectual movement in Europe, initially associated with planetary motion and other aspects of physics, that by the seventeenth century had laid the groundwork for modern science.

Galileo

An Italian who provided more evidence for heliocentrism and questioned if the heavens really were perfect. He invented a new telescope, studied the sky, and published what he discovered. Because his work provided evidence that contradicted the Bible, he was arrested and ended up on house arrest for the rest of his life.

Triangular Trade

Trade between Africa, New World and the Old World for slaves, sugar, and rum. Raw materials were sent to the Old World to be turned into finished products that were then sold to African kingdoms. Africa provided the slave laborers to work on the plantations in the New World.

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.

Maroon Societies

Runaway slaves in the Caribbean who established their own communities to resist slavery and colonial authorities

Ana Nzinga Resistance

17th century Angolan queen who fought off the Portuguese colonizers by pretending to accept Christianity, but actually was partnered with their enemies, the Dutch, and also developed a powerful trade nation instead of waging internal war.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Old and New World following Columbus' voyages.

Cash Crop

Agricultural production, often on a large scale, or crops for sale in the market, rather than for consumption by the farmers themselves.

Small Pox

Disease spread by Europeans in the Americas. Led to the deaths of millions of Native Americans in North and South America.

Mughal Empire

An Islamic imperial power that ruled a large portion of Indian subcontinent which began in 1526. This empire invaded and ruled most of South Asia by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century.

Safavid Empire

Shi'ite Muslim dynasty that ruled Persia between 16th and 18th centuries.

Ottoman Empire

Islamic state founded by Osman in northwestern Anatolia. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire was based at Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) from 1453-1922. It encompassed lands in the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, and eastern Europe.

Spanish America

By the end of the sixteenth century, Spain possessed an American empire. Indigenous people were converted to Christianity and became subjects of the Spanish king. King of Spain governed American empire though a Council of the Indies in Spain and through viceroys in Mexico City and Lima, Peru.

British America

English territories in North America (including Bermuda), Central America, the Caribbean, and Guyana from 1607 to 1783.

Aztec Empire

This empire settled in the valley of Mexico. They grew corn and engaged in frequent warfare to conquer others of the region. They were polytheistic and believed the sun god needed human blood to continue his journeys across the sky. Practiced human sacrifices and those sacrificed were captured warriors from other tribes and those who volunteered for the honor.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire.

Incan Empire

A Native American civilization in the Andes Mountains in South America. By the end of the 1400s, it was the largest empire in the Americas including much of what is now Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile. Later conquered by Pizarro.

Asante

African kingdom on the Gold Coast that expanded rapidly after 1680. A major participant in the Atlantic economy, trading gold, slaves, and ivory. It resisted British imperial ambitions for a quarter century before being absorbed into Britain.

Kingdom of Kongo

A powerful kingdom that once ruled much of Central Africa in the 15th Century. Based on agriculture and formed on the lower Congo Rive; ruled by a hereditary monarchy.

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.

Qing Dynasty

The last imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Ming Dynasty and succeeded by the people's republic. Formed the territorial base for the modern Chinese state. Founded in 1644 by the Manchus and ruled China for more than 260 years, until 1912. Expanded China's borders to include Taiwan, Tibet, Chinese Central Asia, and Mongolia.

Russian Empire

The beginnings of the empire was due to Muscovite princes after the defeat of the Mongols in the late 1400s. In doing so, the princes absolved the authority of local princes. Ivan III used the Cossacks, the Russian version of the American western settlers, to expand and take over additional land. Meanwhile, Ivan solidified a centralized rule and claimed divine ordination. He proclaimed Moscow to be the new capital of the new empire.

Leonardo da Vinci

Italian Renaissance artist that painted The Last Supper and Mona Lisa, he was also an engineer, architect, sculptor, and scientist.

Yasak

A form of fur tribute required by the Russian government from Siberian territories.

Little Ice Age

A century-long period of cool climate that began in the period after the late Middle Ages. Its ill effects on agriculture in northern Europe were notable.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico (1485-1547)

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.

Chinampas

Raised fields constructed along lake shores in Mesoamerica to increase agricultural yields. Used by the Aztecs

Mita System

Labor tribute required in Incan Empire

Pochteca

Special merchant class in Aztec society; specialized in long-distance trade in luxury items

Middle Passage

A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies

Potatoes and Maize

good example of Cash Crops grown in North and Latin America

Indulgences

Selling of forgiveness by the Catholic Church. It was common practice when the church needed to raise money. The practice led to the Reformation.

Potosi

Located in Bolivia, one of the richest silver mining centers and most populous cities in colonial Spanish America.

Cossaks

Peoples of the Russian Empire who lived outside the farming villages, often as herders, mercenaries, or outlaws. Cossacks led the conquest of Siberia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Dhimmis

A term meaning "protected peoples"; they included Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians within Islamic Empires

Bhakti

Hindu devotional movement that flourished in the early modern era, emphasizing music, dance, poetry, and rituals as means by which to achieve direct union with the divine. Some influence from Islam.

Constantinople

Capital of the Ottoman Empire, fell to the Ottomans in 1453