unit1 vocab

Song dynasty

A historical Chinese dynasty that ruled from 960 to 1279 after Tang known for neo-confucianism, agricultural and industrial revolution, and made China richest and most populated country.

China's economic revolution

The period during the Song dynasty characterized by rapid population growth, urbanization, economic specialization, immense network of internal waterways, + great increase in industrial production and tech innovation.

Hangzhou

Song dynasty capital w/ >1m ppl @ its peak

foot binding

A Chinese cultural practice that involved the tightly binding the feet of young girls to restrict their growth, often leading to deformities, emphasizing being smol and petite and delicate.

hangul

15th century korean phonetic alphabet in a move towards greater independence from China

bushido

“way of the warrior”. martial values of Japanese samurai, including, bravery, loyalty, + death>surrender

tribute system

practices requiring show of subordination from all non-chinese authorities + the payment of tribute 2 chinese emperor. in return, they got trade rights 4 foreigners and gifts better than the tribute paid

chu nom

Varitation of chinese writing that became the basis for an independent national literature, “southern script”, used by Viet ppl

Srivijaya

A Malay kingdom that dominated the critical choke point in Indian Ocean trade at the Strait of Melaka between 670 and 1025 c.e. Like other places in Southeast Asia, Srivijaya absorbed various cultural influences from India.

Madjapahit

A significant Southeast Asian state that assimilated Hindu religious ideas. It was located primarily on the island of Java and was at the peak of its power in the fourteenth century

Angkor Wat

The largest religious structure in the premodern world, this temple was built by the powerful Angkor kingdom (located in modern Cambodia) in the twelfth century c.e. to express a Hindu understanding of the cosmos centered on a mythical Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hindu tradition. It was later used by Buddhists as well

Abbasid caliphate

An Arab dynasty of caliphs (successors to the Prophet) who governed much of the Islamic world from its capital in Baghdad beginning in 750 c.e. After 900 c.e. that empire increasingly fragmented until its overthrow by the Mongols in 1258

Seljuk Turkic Empire

An empire of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, centered in Persia and present-day Iraq. Seljuk rulers adopted the Muslim title of sultan (ruler) as part of their conversion to Islam

Ottoman Empire

Major Islamic state centered on Anatolia that came to include the Balkans, parts of the Middle East, and much of North Africa; lasted in one form or another from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century

Constantinople

New capital for the eastern half of the Roman Empire; Constantinople’s highly defensible and economically important site helped ensure the city’s cultural and strategic importance for many centuries

jizya

Special tax paid by dhimmis (protected but second-class subjects) in Muslim-ruled territory in return for freedom to practice their own religion

al-Andalus

Arabic name for Spain, most of which was conquered by Arab and Berber forces between 711 and 718 c.e. Muslim Spain represented a point of encounter between the Islamic world and Christian Europe

Swahili civilization

An East African civilization that emerged in the eighth century c.e. as a set of commercial city-states linked into the Indian Ocean trading network. Combining African Bantu and Islamic cultural patterns, these competing city-states accumulated goods from the interior and exchanged them for the products of distant civilizations

West African civilization

A series of important states that developed in the region stretching from the Atlantic coast to Lake Chad in the period 500 to 1600 c.e. Developed in response to the economic opportunities of trans-Saharan trade (especially control of gold production), it included the states of Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and Kanem-Bornu, as well as numerous towns and cities

Mali

A prominent state within West African civilization; it was established in 1235 c.e. and flourished for several centuries. Mali monopolized the import of horses and metals as part of the trans-Saharan trade; it was a large-scale producer of gold; and its most famous ruler, Mansa Musa, led a large group of Muslims on the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324–1325

trans-Saharan slave trade

A fairly small-scale commerce in enslaved people that flourished especially from 1100 to 1400, exporting enslaved West Africans across the Sahara for sale in Islamic North Africa

Timbuktu

A major commercial city of West African civilization and a noted center of Islamic scholarship and education by the sixteenth century

Byzantine Empire

One of the main centers of Christendom during the medieval centuries, the Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the eastern portion of the Roman Empire. It lasted for a thousand years after the collapse of Roman rule in the West, until its conquest by Muslim forces in 1453

Ottoman seizure of Constantinople

The city of Constantinople, the capital and almost the only outpost left of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the army of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II “the Conqueror” in 1453, an event that marked the end of Christian Byzantium

Kievan Rus

A culturally diverse civilization that emerged around the city of Kiev in the ninth century c.e. and adopted Christianity in the tenth, thus linking this emerging Russian state to the world of Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Branch of Christianity that developed in the eastern part of the Roman Empire and gradually separated, mostly on matters of practice, from the branch of Christianity dominant in Western Europe; noted for the subordination of the Church to political authorities, a married clergy, the use of leavened bread in the Eucharist, and a sharp rejection of the authority of Roman popes

Western Christendom

Western European branch of Christianity, also known as Roman Catholicism, that gradually defined itself as separate from Eastern Orthodoxy, with a major break occurring in 1054 c.e.; characterized by its relative independence from the state and its recognition of the authority of the pope

feudalism

A highly fragmented and decentralized society in which power was held by the landowning warrior elite. In this highly competitive system, lesser lords and knights swore allegiance to greater lords or kings and thus became their vassals, frequently receiving lands and plunder in return for military service

Roman Catholic Church

Western European branch of Christianity that gradually defined itself as separate from Eastern Orthodoxy, with a major break occurring in 1054 c.e. that still has not been overcome. By the eleventh century, Western Christendom was centered on the pope as the ultimate authority in matters of doctrine. The Church struggled to remain independent of established political authorities

European Renaissance

A “rebirth” of classical learning that is most often associated with the cultural blossoming of Italy in the period 1350–1500 and that included not just a rediscovery of Greek and Roman learning but also major developments in art, as well as growing secularism in society. It spread to Northern Europe after 1400

Maya civilization

A major civilization of Mesoamerica known for the most elaborate writing system in the Americas and other intellectual and artistic achievements; flourished from 250 to 900 c.e.

Aztec Empire

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

Inca Empire

The Western Hemisphere’s largest imperial state in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Built by a relatively small community of Quechua-speaking people (the Incas), the empire stretched some 2,500 miles along the Andes Mountains, which run nearly the entire length of the west coast of South America, and contained perhaps 10 million subjects