AP World History Modern Time Period 2 (1450-1750) Flashcard Set

Ottoman Empire

Sunni Turkic Islamic empire that arose in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southern Europe following the collapse of the IL Khanate.

Safavid Empire

Shia Islamic empire that occupied modern day Iran/ Persia from 1450-1750.

Russian Empire

Powerful Slavic empire that arose out of the city of Moscow following the period of the Golden Horde

Qing Dynasty

The ruling empire in China began in the period 1630-1912, during which the Manchu ruled China.

Mughal Empire

Sunni Turkic Empire that ruled south Asia from 1500 until the late 18th century

Devshirme System

Taxation policy used by the Ottoman Empire on Christian populations in the Balkans, in which Christian boys were taken as a tax and forced to convert to Islam and serve the Ottoman state for life.

Janissaries

Ottoman elite infantry comprised of enslaved Christians under the Devshirme

Viziers

Ottoman government officials who were instituted based on the devshirme.

Siege of Constantinople (1453)

The Ottoman capture of the Byzantine capital marking the official end of the Roman Empire and demonstrating the military success of gunpowder based weapons.

Louis XIV

French monarch who exerted increasing control over the French nobility and French society.

Divine Right

Argument proposed by European monarchs that justified their absolute control over their state because their authority was derived from God. Because of this, no one in their kingdom was entitled to challenge the king's authority.

Absolute Monarchies

A type of hereditary monarchy where the monarch has virtually unlimited control over their country. Became very common in Europe from 1450-1750.

Versailles Palace

Home of the French royal family and created by Louis XIV to house all of France's nobility in order to distract them with games and festivities while he ran France unhindered.

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

Decision by Louis XIV to cancel any religious freedom in France, instead forcing all practicing protestants to either convert to Catholicism or lave France.

Huguenots

French protestants that practiced Calvinism. Due to the actions of Louis XIV, these individuals were forced to convert back to Catholicism or leave France.

Manchu

Ethnic tribe of modern day Manchuria that ruled China from 1600-1912.

Protestant Reformation

Time period in Europe when individuals began challenging the Catholic Church, resulting in a decrease of power in the Catholic Church and the creation of new Christian denominations.

Martin Luther

German monk who began Protestant Reformation, with the writing of the 95 Theses.

95 Theses

A collection of arguments against the Catholic practice of selling indulgences with the intention of seeking reform of corruption in the Catholic Church

Sola Fide

Argument used by Martin Luther and other reformers who argued that salvation has already been earned through the sacrifice of Jesus, thus the Catholic Church was not necessary to salvation.

Sola Scriptura

Argument used by many reformers during the Protestant Reformation which argued that the bible is the highest authority of the Christian faith, instead of the pope.

Henry VIII

English monarch who created the Church of England, after being denied an annulment to his marriage by the pope.

Act of Supremacy

Law passed by the English Parliament that ended the Catholic church in England, creating the Anglican church, and establishing the monarch as the head of the church of England.

Guttenberg Printing Press

Invention that pressed ink onto paper, making it easier to duplicate written works. The invention was pivotal in the success of the reformation because it gave reformers and critics of the Catholic Church to voice their opinions and arguments to a broader audience.

Indulgence

A grant of forgiveness for sin. One of the corrupt practices of the church, was clergy were selling these to people.

Simony

The act of corruption in the Catholic Church, where top positions in the church were given based on monetary donations.

Papal Supremacy

The idea that the pope is the highest authority in the church and can not be wrong about interpretations of the bible or church practices and doctrine.

The Counter Reformation

Term used identify the Catholic Church's response to the Reformation movement in Europe.

Council of Trent

Meeting of top Catholic Officials with the aim of addressing Protestant arguments in the Reformation. At the meeting, the clergy refuted Sola Fide, denounced the selling of indulgences, and reaffirmed the pope as the head of the Christian faith.

Index of Forbidden Books

Passed at the Council of Trent, in which a list of books were banned from being owned by a Catholic with the punishment of excommunication.

Akbar

Mughal Emperor who promotes more tolerant policies towards Hindus, such as abolishing the Jizya, allowing Hindus work in the government, and patronizing arts and literature by Hindus.

Aurangzeb

Mughal Emperor who increased persecution of Hindus, which ultimately contributed to the decline of the Mughal Empire.

Sikhism

Monotheistic religion that developed during the period of the Mughal Empire, which blended religious elements of both Hinduism and Islam.

Tokugawa Japan

Last feudal government of Japan, that ruled Japan from 1603-1868.

Edo

Also known as Tokyo, it was the capital of the Tokugawa Shogunate

Shogun

The chief executive of Japan who ruled Japan in the place of the emperor.

Samurai

Warrior elite of Feudal Japan, who worked for local nobles in exchange for rice or silver.

Daimyo

Regional lords of Japan who governed Hans or districts.

Alternate Attendance Policy

Policy used by the Tokugawa shoguns that required Daimyo to live parts of the year in Edo and once they left, would have to leave behind a wife and heir as hostage to ensure their loyalty to the Shogun.

Ghazis

Term used in Islam to identify a frontiersman in the Dar-Al-Islam who fights to spread Islam into new locations. This was use to justify expansion, particularly by the Ottomans in the period 1450-1750.

Gunpowder

Discovery of the ancient Chinese that was used to launch projectiles. Spread during the Pax Mongolica, the use of this substance was crucial to state expansion in the time period 1450-1750.

Pax Mongolica

The term that denotes a period from 1200-1450 when the Mongols controlled the Silk Roads. Due to their policies, the Mongols promoted trade through the Yam System leading to more trade on the Silk Roads and more technological diffusion.

Crusades

A set of Holy Wars between Catholic Europe and the Arabic and Turkic medieval Middle Eastern world during the period 1200-1450. Due to the increased European presence in the Middle East they acquired many valuable pieces of maritime technology and brought it back to Europe.

Renaissance

A time period in Europe from 1400-1600, that was marked by an increased interest in learning, arts, and culture.

Humanism

A philosophy that spawned out of the Renaissance, in which philosophers argued that humans were the most important individuals in shaping their own environment. Because of the value in humans positively shaping their environment, these thinkers encouraged the learning of math and sciences to help. This focus on secular education helped Europeans understand Chinese and Arabic technology as well as engineer better ships and build better maps.

Astrolabe

Muslim astronomical invention that uses constellation patters scaled to a flat disk that can help an individual calculate their latitude.

Magnetic Compass

Chinese invention that uses the Earth's magnetic poles to find cardinal directions.

Cartography

The art of map making. Due to cross-cultural interactions from 1200-1450, Europeans gained access to more efficient world maps, leading to a better understanding of the world and locations. They also learned techniques for making better maps.

Caravel

A Portuguese ship that had a large cargo area and used two or three masts which utilized square and lateen sails as well as a stern rudder.

Lateen

special type of sails used on Arabic dhows but later incorporated into European ships, which helped sailors sail against the wind.

Mercantilism

Economic philosophy associated with Europe during the time period 1450-1750. It stressed the importance of accumulating as much gold and silver as possible, as a means to increase state power.

Positive Balance of Trade

In economics this is where your exports exceed your imports.

Negative Balance of Trade

In economics, this is where your imports exceed your exports.

Portugal

The first European state to finance and sponsor exploration efforts in the Atlantic Ocean, eventually being the first European country to find a viable sea route to Asia, by going underneath Africa.

Spain

The second European nation to sponsor maritime exploration, paying Christopher Columbus to sail west across the Atlantic, thereby discovering the Americas. While there this country discovered the Potosi mine.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Portuguese monarch who used funds to build a school for sailing and money to build Caravels and explore the African coastline.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who discovered the Americas for Spain.

Cartaz System

Portuguese system, where they built trading-posts on the Indian Ocean and required all merchants to carry a pass to trade. Those without the pass would be sunk and cargo seized. If anyone wanted to trade in the Indian Ocean, it would have to go through the Portuguese, making them very wealthy off taxes.

Potosi

The largest silver mine discovered in human history in modern day Peru by the Spanish.

The Philippines

Spain's major colony in the Pacific. The Spanish would ship major ships called Galleons loaded with Silver to this location and exchange that silver for luxury goods from the east such as silk, porcelain, and spices. They would ship those items back to Mexico, ship them over land to the Atlantic and then send those items to Spain.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Agreement between Spain and Portugal over territorial rights in the Americas. The pope drew a vertical line down the middle and Spain would be able to have everything west of the line and Portugal, everything east of the line. Portugal was able to keep Brazil and would agree not to colonize further in the Americas, and Spain agreed to stay out of the Indian Ocean network, which Portugal owned.

Brazil

Portugal's sole colony in the Americas that became a major destination for slaves, because of the large sugar and coffee plantations there.

Columbian Exchange

During the discovery of the Americas, Europeans introduced new crops, animals, diseases, and plant species and returned back to Europe with new animals, crops, and plants from the Americas.

Potato

Tuber that was discovered in the Americas by Europeans that was shipped back to Europe. Due to its ability to grow in cold environments, its abundance of calories, and ability to be grown and harvested multiple times a year, it became a major food source in the Europe after the colonization of the Americas, which led to widespread population growth in Europe leading up to the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century.

Smallpox

Virulent disease introduced to the Americas by Europeans that decimated Indigenous population numbers during the 16th century.

Jesuits

Catholic missionaries that were created initially during the Counter-Reformation, but took oaths to spread Catholicism globally, travelling to the Americas and East Asia spreading Catholicism.

Maroon Societies

Towns and villages created by escaped slaves in the Americas, usually in inhospitable environments. There these escaped slaves integrated into Native American societies not yet discovered by Europeans or created their own distinct states.

Encomienda System

Labor system used in Latin America by the Spanish, where a conquistador would be entrusted with a piece of land and the natives on that land. This conquistador would have to protect the natives and educate them in Christianity and in return, the natives on the land would have to work the Conquistadors land. These estates would later develop into Haciendas.

Mita/ Repartimiento System

Although initially an Inca labor system, the Spanish used the system in Potosi, forcing Natives to pay their taxes in the form of labor in the silver mines.

Voodoo

Syncretic religion that developed in the Americas due to the Slave trade in which African spirit worship merged with Christianity to create this religion that adopted elements of both religions.

Chattel Slavery

Labor system in which beings were owned as property including the children of said property.

Indentured Servitude

Labor system in which workers must labor in order to pay off a debt or contract. Mostly used in British North America, poor people in England would secure travel to the Americas by agreeing to work for a set time to cover the cost of travel and lodgings once there.

Haciendas

Large agricultural estates in South America in which poor individuals of African and Native American descent would work land for low wages in order to pay rent. Because of the low wages, workers were dependent on their land holders for necessities, leading to perpetual debt by the workers to the landholders.

Pieces of Eight

Sometimes called doubloons, these coins were minted by the Spanish in South America, and became the world's first global currency after the Spanish discovery of Potosi.

Great African Diaspora

The movement of over 12 million slaves to the Americas.

Sakoku

The policy adopted by the Tokugawa Shogunate towards Europeans from 1450-1750, which cut off all trade with the west in an attempt to stop the spread of Christianity in Japan.

Canton System

the policy by the Qing Dynasty towards Europeans from 1450-1750, which forced all European merchants to trade only with government officials in one city, the southern port of Canton.

Peter the Great

Russian tsar whose reforms westernized Russia and turned it into one of Europe's great military powers.

Boyars

Members of the Russian aristocracy

Tsar

Term used by Russian monarchs to signify themselves as the heir to the Byzantine Empire, signaling they were in charge of the third Rome.

Holy Synod

A council of Russian Orthodox Bishops created by Peter the Great to replace the Patriarch of Moscow, which had once been the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Under the system, a council of priests selected by the tsar would run ecclesiastical matters in Russia. However to be in the council you had to be selected by the tsar, so inevitably the council became an extension of the Tsar.

Westernization

The process of changing one's culture to be more like Europe. During the reign of Peter the Great, all members of Russian society were forced to wear European clothes, men were required to shave their beards, and he hired the best experts to help modernize the Russian educations system, economy, and military.

Table of Ranks

System of promotion in Russia by Peter the Great, in which criteria was setup for promotion in every job in the Russian state. All citizens in Russia were allowed to participate and everyone started at the bottom, giving peasants a path of social mobility, while also forcing Boyars to serve the state in order to keep their ranks and lands.

St. Petersburg

The new Russian capital city during the Reign of Peter the Great gave Russia access to the warm waters of the Baltic, where they could dock their navy and engage in trade with Europe year-round. The city was also built in Western European style architecture, showing Russia's move towards Westernization.

Casta System

A social classification system used by the Spanish in South America in which a person's social ranking was determined how much European blood and individual possessed. The system was designed to keep the Spanish in control, but also a means of getting indigenous and African people to marry Spaniards as a way to Social mobility and accepting Spanish culture and Catholicism.

Northwest Passage

An attempt by the British, French, and Dutch to find a new sea route to Asia by going through Canada's northern rivers and tributaries. Although they did not find a viable route, it did start the early colonization of North America.

Joint-Stock Companies

Created by Britain and other countries as a privatized way of trading and exploring. Examples include the British East India Company and the Virginia company. Under the plan, investors could buy shares of a company giving them rights to that percentage of the profit the company accrues.

Peninsulares

Spaniards who were born in Spain and served in top government positions in the Spanish South American colonies such as generals, viceroys, and Magistrates.

Creoles

Term for racially pure Spaniards that were born in the Americas. These individuals could own land and serve in small government positions in the colonies.

Mestizos

Under the Casta System, an individual who is at least part Spanish and part Native American

Indio

Someone who is 100% Native American.

Mulattoes

People of African and European descent

Factorias/ Trading Posts

Fortified outposts built by the Portuguese on major ports in the Indian Ocean, which would be supply sources for luxury goods for merchants on the Indian Ocean.

Proselytism

The act of spreading religion to new locations and peoples. During the age of exploration, maritime empires justified their exploration and colonization of the Americas under the guise of spreading Christianity, because they believed it was saving people from eternal damnation in hell.