AP® World History: The Global Tapestry to Globalization

This set of flashcards covers vocabulary and key concepts from AP World History Units 1 through 9, including state building, trade networks, land-based and maritime empires, industrialization, and global conflicts.

Song Dynasty

A Chinese ruling power that maintained its authority through cultural traditions based on Neo-Confucian principles and a system of regional trade networks.

Neo-Confucianism

Long-held cultural traditions and principles that formed the basis of rule and social order in the Song Dynasty.

Majapahit

A Hindu-Buddhist empire of $98$ tributary cities centered on the island of Java in Southeast Asia.

Dar al-Islam

The world of Islam, which encompassed states that fostered intellectual activity, medicine, and the preservation of Greek philosophy from classical antiquity.

Abbasid Caliphate

A once-powerful Muslim caliphate that began to decline as new Muslim powers emerged through military excursion and trade.

Feudalism

A system in medieval Europe that led to distinct social and economic hierarchies featuring lords, vassals, knights, and serfs.

Manorialism

The dominant system of organizing rural economies in medieval Europe by utilizing large estates managed by lords.

Tenochtitlán

The capital city of the Aztec empire in Mexico, known for architectural monuments and complex networks of trade.

Inca

A South American power in the Andes mountains that developed a united monarchy and a powerful military before the $15\text{th}$ century.

Swahili

A language created from the mixing of native Bantu with the language of Arab traders along the east coast of Africa.

Caravanserai

An improvement in business practices that provided inns or rest stations for merchants crossing regional boundaries along the Silk Roads.

Pax Mongolica

A period of relative ease and safety for trade during the expanse of the Mongol Empire across Afro-Eurasia.

Astrolabe

A technological innovation that allowed navigators to more easily determine their location while traveling maritime routes.

Sultanate of Malacca

A powerful center of commerce and trade city that emerged in Southeast Asia after the year $1200$.

Lateen sails

A navigational technology that, along with the astrolabe, enabled easier maritime travel in the Indian Ocean.

Gunpowder Empires

Land-based empires such as the Mughal, Safavid, and Ottoman that expanded using sophisticated weaponry, cannons, and gunpowder.

Devshirme

The practice used by the Ottoman Empire to recruit soldiers and bureaucrats to exercise control over populations.

Divine Right

A philosophy promoted by European rulers asserting that their authority to rule was granted by God.

Zamindars

Military leaders in South Asia whose duties included collecting taxes on behalf of the Mughal Empire.

Protestant Reformation

A movement initiated by German monk Martin Luther that reshaped Christianity through new worship practices and theological identities.

Sikhism

A new syncretic religion that emerged in South Asia from the intermingling of Hindu and Muslim cultures.

Mercantilism

An economic ideology that motivated European nations to accumulate gold and silver and dominate political relationships.

Columbian Exchange

The extensive exchange of plants, animals, and diseases between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres starting in the late $15\text{th}$ century.

Encomienda

A labor system in the Spanish Americas used to organize agricultural and plantation labor.

Joint-stock companies

Economic organizations used by maritime empires to finance trade and exploration using shared capital.

The Enlightenment

An ideological shift in the Atlantic world that promoted empiricist thinking and reexamined the role of religion in public life.

Adam Smith

An intellectual whose ideas moved Western Europe away from mercantilism and toward laissez-faire capitalism.

Social Darwinism

A theory used to justify imperialism by applying Charles Darwin's biological concepts of 'survival of the fittest' to society and politics.

Five Year Plans

A series of aggressive economic programs initiated by the Soviet Union to force rapid industrialization.

The Holocaust

A mass atrocity during World War II in which the Nazi Party systematically killed Jewish people and other targeted groups.

Proxy wars

Conflicts fought by superpowers in postcolonial locations during the Cold War to avoid direct military engagement between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

Mohandas Gandhi

A leader who utilized nonviolent resistance to help India achieve independence from British colonial rule.

United Nations

An international organization formed in the $20\text{th}$ century to ensure world peace and facilitate international cooperation.