APWHM 2.5 Cultural Consequences of Trade

Angkor Wat

A temple complex built in the Khmer Empire and dedicated to the Hindu God, Vishnu.

House of Wisdom

An academic center for research and translation of foreign texts that was established in Baghdad in 830 C.E. by the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun.

Ibn Battuta

(1304-1369) Morrocan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan. His writings gave a glimpse into the world of that time period.

Margery Kempe

English Christian mystic, known for writing through dictation The Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. Her book chronicles her domestic tribulations, her extensive pilgrimages to holy sites in Europe and the Holy Land, as well as her mystical conversations with God.

Marco Polo

Venetian merchant and traveler. His accounts of his travels to China offered Europeans a firsthand view of Asian lands and stimulated interest in Asian trade.

Therevada Buddhism

A type of Buddhism which focuses mainly on individual freedom from suffering and reincarnation. Similar to early Buddhism, and says that only Siddhartha Gautama is the Buddha

Mahayana Buddhism

Buddhist sect that focuses on the compassion of the Buddha; also known as popular Buddhism, allows people more ways to reach enlightenment

Tibetan Buddhism

a Buddhist doctrine that includes elements from India that are not Buddhist and elements of preexisting shamanism, a tradition of Buddhism that teaches that people can use special techniques to harness spiritual energy and can achieve nirvana in a single lifetime

Tribute system

A system in which defeated peoples were forced to pay a tax in the form of goods and labor. This forced transfer of food, cloth, and other goods subsidized the development of large cities. An important component of the Aztec and Inca economies.

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 learning but also major developments in art, as well as growing secularism in society.