Ancient History Honors Semester 2 Final

Feudalism

A medieval European political system that defines the military obligations and relations between a lord and his vassals and involves the granting of fiefs.

Saint Benedict

Patron Saint of students. his supreme achievement was to provide a succinct and complete directory for the government and the spiritual and material well-being of a monastery

Middle Ages

The period of European history from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West (5th century) to the fall of Constantinople (1453), or, more narrowly, from c. 1100 to 1453.

Interdict

An authoritative prohibition

Charlemagne

Among other things, he was responsible for uniting most of Europe under his rule by power of the sword, for helping to restore the Western Roman Empire and becoming its first emperor

Primogeniture

the state of being the firstborn child. The right of succession belonging to the firstborn child, especially the feudal rule by which the whole real estate of an intestate passed to the eldest son.

Inquisition

a period of prolonged and intensive questioning or investigation.

Magna Carta

Charter of English liberties granted by King John on June 15, 1215, under threat of civil war.

Thomas Becket

​​A 12th-century Saint who was the Archbishop of Canterbury and was murdered by knights in the church

Manorialism

The economic system that governed rural life in medieval Europe, in which the landed estates of a lord were worked by the peasants under the lord's jurisdiction in exchange for his protection.

Alfred the Great

Known for the valiant defense of his kingdom against a stronger enemy, for securing peace with the Vikings and for his farsighted reforms in the reconstruction of Wessex and beyond

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Queen of France and England, and one of the wealthiest women in Europe.

Mosque

A Muslim place of worship

Caliph

successor to Muhammad as political and religious leader of the Muslims

Moors

Spanish Muslims

Muhammad

the Arab prophet who founded Islam - claimed to have received numerous dreams and visions from Allah, the Islamic god

Bedouins

Arab nomads

Muslims

Followers of Islam

Al Razi

Greatest Muslim physician, philosopher, and alchemist

Minaret

A distinctive feature of mosque architecture, a tower from which the faithful are called to worship.

Hijrah

Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina

Jihad

A holy struggle or striving by a Muslim for a moral or spiritual or political goal

Tariq

Berber general who led a Muslim army across the Mediterranean and conquered Spain

Quran

The holy book of Islam

Crusades

A series of holy wars from 1096-1270 AD undertaken by European Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

Agincourt

English victory near Arras in Flanders (1415) that led to English reconquest of Normandy.

Great Schism

the official split between the Roman Catholic and Byzantine churches that occurred in 1054

Joan of Arc

French heroine and military leader inspired by religious visions to organize French resistance to the English and to have Charles VII crowned king

Scholasticism

A philosophical and theological system, associated with Thomas Aquinas, devised to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy and Roman Catholic theology in the thirteenth century.

Urban II

Pope that called the First Crusade in 1095; appealed to Christians to mount military assault to free the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Geoffrey Chaucer

English poet remembered as author of the Canterbury Tales (1340-1400)

Domestic System

Early industrial labor system in which workers produced goods at home

Dante Alighieri

an Italian poet famous for writing the Divine Comedy that describes a journey through hell and purgatory and paradise guided by Virgil and his idealized Beatrice (1265-1321)

John Wycliffe

English scholar who argued that the Bible was the final authority for Christian life

Shakespeare

A popular English playwright and poet in the 16th century.

Craft Guilds

associations of artisans organized to regulate the quality, quantity, and price of the goods produced as well as the number of affiliated apprentices and journeymen

Renaissance

"rebirth"; following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome

Humanists

European scholars, writers, and teachers associated with the study of the humanities (grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, languages, and moral philosophy), influential in the fifteenth century during the Renaissance.

Niccolo Machiavelli

a statesman of Florence who advocated a strong central government. He also wrote "The Prince."

Leonardo Da Vinci

A well known Italian Renaissance artist, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, and scientist. Known for the Mona Lisa.

Johannes Gutenberg

German who invented the printing press

Standard of Living

Quality of life based on ownership of necessities and luxuries that make life easier.

Michelangelo

An Italian sculptor, painter, poet, engineer, and architect. Famous works include the mural on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and the sculpture of the biblical character David.

Martin Luther

a German monk who became one of the most famous critics of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1517, he wrote 95 theses, or statements of belief attacking the church practices.

Counter Reformation

the reaction of the Roman Catholic Church to the Reformation reaffirming the veneration of saints and the authority of the Pope (to which Protestants objected)

Broadsides

Single printed sheets, distributed by publishers, that might contain a royal decree, news of a crime, or some other event

Almanacs

book-length collections of useful facts, calendars, and advice

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.

Galileo

Italian astronomer and mathematician who was the first to use a telescope to study the stars

Astrolabe

An instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the position of the stars and planets

Drake

Discovered that Tierra del Fuego, the land south of the Magellan Strait, was not another continent as Europeans believed, but instead a group of islands

Ducat

formerly a gold coin of various European countries - Venice

Heliocentric

Theory that the sun is at the center of the solar system/universe

Florin

A gold coin minted by the city of Florence

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese navigator who led the Spanish expedition of 1519-1522 that was the first to sail around the world.

Christopher Columbus

An Italian sailor who believed he could find an all-water route to Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic, but actually landed in the Americas.

Vasco Da Gama

Portuguese explorer. In 1497-1498 he led the first naval expedition from Europe to sail to India, opening an important commercial sea route.

Geocentric

Theory that the earth is at the center of the solar system/universe

Joint Stock Company

A company made up of a group of shareholders. Each shareholder contributes some money to the company and receives some share of the company's profits and debts.