WHAP Vocab unit 1

Little ice age

14th to 18th centuries period of cooling that lowered the crop yields due to climate change

Ottoman Empire

14th to 20th century Islamic Empire centered in the Middle East...one of the Gunpowder Empires that controlled the “heart” of the Islamic world.

Ming Empire

14th-17th century Dynasty in China.  Reunified China after defeating the Mongol, worked to erase much of the Mongol culture from the Yuan dynasty and Mongol control...sent expeditions into the Indian Ocean in the 15th century but later embraced isolationist ideas in the later centuries.

Mita System

system of labor tribute used by Inca Empire & then adopted by the Spanish to force natives to work, such as in Spanish mines & encomiendas 

Kingdoms of Asante and Kongo

West Africa kingdoms that grew in power and wealth through their connections to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Casta System

system of racial hierarchy in Spanish controlled Americas that ordered the European, Natives, slaves, and mixed-races of the region after European conquest

Zheng He

leader of Ming Expeditions throughout the Indian Ocean to demonstrate Chinese power and bring the Indian Ocean into the Chinese tribute system.  Records of the voyages were destroyed soon after as the Ming turned inward.

Columbian Exchange

environmental transfer of plants, animals, and diseases from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas (16th century)

Encomienda system

16th - 18th century system of land ownership and usage in the Americas by Spanish conquerors.  Spanish “landlords” oversaw native workers in agriculture.

Mughal Empire

16th - 18th century Islamic Empire in South Asia ruling over a mostly Hindu population 

Trading Post Empire

16th-17th c Portuguese control of cities and ports along the Indian Ocean trade network that competed with Muslim, Hindu, and other merchants of the trade networks

Protestant Reformation

16th-17th c schism in European Christianity dividing “Protestant” and “Catholic” Christianity and leading to political and cultural tension in Europe and European Christianization of the Americas and elsewhere

Dutch East India Company

late 16th century joint stock company used to control spice trade in regions of Southeast Asia.  Made high profits and was allowed to conquer, make treaties, and trade in the name of the Dutch government.

Tokugawa Shogunate

17th century rulers (Shoguns) of a recently unified Japan.  Promoted cultural isolation while developing a commercial economy and silver mining.  (Rejected European missionaries.)

Manchu (Qing) Empire

17th -20th c  Initially the Manchus were a group from Northern China but invaded and conquered all of China taking over from the Ming and ruled China for 3 centuries..  

Safavid Empire

16th to mid 18th century Empire in Persia (Iran).  Shi’a Islamic Empire of the gunpowder empires.  Had conflict with the Sunni Empires. 

Devshirme

system used by Ottoman rulers in a small region of their empire in which rulers took non-Muslim youth as “slaves” and converted and trained them to become leading military and bureaucratic elites loyal to the sultan

Supernatural sanction to Rule

in Europe “divine right to rule” in China “Mandate of Heaven” - idea that a ruler had legitimacy because of a god or gods’ support

Palace of Versailles

European example of ruler legitimizing power through architecture in the French king’s construction of a giant royal palace

Tax Farming

taxation system used especially in the Ottoman state in which the government auctioned taxation rights to the highest bidder, who then collected the state taxes and made payments in fixed installments, keeping a part of the tax revenue for his own use.  Example of economic strategy to consolidate power.

tribute

tax in some form (goods, “money”, work)

Renasissance

cultural revival in Western Europe centered on a revival of classical (Greek and Roman) culture and ideas

Counter reformation

Catholic Church response to the Protestant Reformation, elements of corruption were eliminated and the basis of Catholicism was confirmed.  Also, renewed interest in punishing “heresy” (ideas that went against the church’s teachings).  Jesuit order formed for increased missionary efforts

Sikhism

belief system beginning in the 1500s in South Asia.  “Blend” of Hinduism and Islam and was “Monotheistic” & relatively tolerant.  example of syncretism.

Great Dying

large percentage of Amerindians died due to diseases such as measles and small pox, caused by the Columbian Exchange and disease transmission from Europeans coming to the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries 

Trans-Atlantic slave trade

16th - 19th century humans trafficked from West Africa to the Americas to work in plantation agriculture.  West African states were built of the trade and European wealth was increased due to the plantation exports

Mercantilism

economic system from 16th -18th century, many European nations attempted to accumulate the largest possible share of that wealth by maximizing imports of precious metals and raw materials and exported finished goods (especially to their colonies).  System the discouraged “free trade” and encouraged protectionism.

Joint-Stock companies

economic innovation in which European companies in which a group of investors supported trade activity and commerce

Syncretism

mixing of cultures / beliefs

Peninsulares, Creoles, Mestizos, Natives, Mulattos

racial hierarchy of Latin America and the Caribbean in the casta system in which the Europeans connections tended to dominate at the top.