AP World Unit 1 Study Guide

Imperial bureaucracy

Chinese governmental system, characterized by a strong imperial court and a thorough civil service exam based on Confucian principles.

Meritocracy

A political system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement.

Champa rice

A quick-maturing, drought resistant rice that can allow two harvests per growing season. It was sent to China as a tribute gift from the Champa state during the Song Dynasty.

Grand Canal

A vast waterway system connecting northeastern and central-eastern China. Construction began in the 7th century CE and by the 13th century, consisted of over 1100 miles of canals.

Proto-industrialization

A set of economic changes in which people in rural areas made more goods than they could sell, which established the basis of a merchant economy in China for centuries.

Tributary system

Countries that wanted to trade with China would pay money or goods to the Chinese emperor for the privilege of trading with China.

Scholar gentry

Members of China’s landowning families, reflecting their wealth from the land and the privilege that they derived as government officials.

Foot binding

Chinese practice of tightly wrapping girls’ feet to keep them small, begun in the Tang dynasty; an emphasis on small size and delicacy was central to views of female beauty.

Filial piety

In Confucian thought, one of the virtues to be cultivated, a love and respect for one’s parents and ancestors.

Neo-Confucianism

The revival of Confucian thinking while adding in Buddhist and Daoist elements during the Song Dynasty.

Polygyny

A form of marriage where a man has more than one wife at a time.

Muhammad

Founder and main prophet of Islam.

Abbasid Caliphate

Descendants of the Prophet Muhammad’s uncle, al-Abbas, they overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate and ruled an islamic empire from their capital in Baghdad (founded 762) from 750 to 1258.

Baghdad

Capital of the Abbasid dynasty located in Iraq near ancient Persian capital of Ctesiphon.

House of Wisdom

Combination library, academy, and translation center in Baghdad established in the 800s.

Mamluk Sultanate

Islamic empire of warrior-slaves who established an Islamic sultanate throughout Egypt and North Africa from 1250 to 1517

Seljuk Turks

Nomadic invaders from central Asia via Persia; staunch Sunnis; ruled in name of Abbasid caliphs from mid 11th century.

Aishah al-Bauniyyah

One of the most prolific female Muslim writers before the 20th century whose work heavily influenced the Sufi movement.

Sufis

Mystical muslim group that believed they could draw closer to God through prayer, fasting, & simple life.

Hijab

A head covering worn in public by some Muslim women.

Rajput kingdoms

Hindu kingdoms led by leaders of numerous clans that were often at war with each other after the fall of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century.

Delhi Sultanate

The first Islamic government established within India from 1206-1520. Controlled a small area of northern India and was centered in Delhi.

Proselytize

To actively seek converts to a religion.

Caste system

A set of rigid social categories that determined not only a person’s occupation and economic potential, but also their position in society in Hinduism.

Qutub Minar

Highest stone tower in India, showing both Hindu and Islamic influences.

Urdu

A new language that combined Persian, Arabic, and the Indian language spoken in Delhi.

Bhakti Movement

Indian movement that attempted to transcend the differences between Hinduism and Islam.

Srivijaya Empire

A Hindu kingdom from Sumatra that prospered by charging feed for ships traveling between India and China

Majapahit Empire

A Buddhist kingdom based in Java from 1293-1520 that maintained its power by controlling sea routes.

Khmer Empire

The most powerful and longest-lasting kingdom on the mainland of southeast Asia, centering in what is today Cambodia (802-1431).

Angkor Wat

Hindu temple in the Buddhist Cambodia. Is a good example of how Hinduism spread to Southeast Asia.

Mississippian culture

Last of the mound-building cultures of North America; flourished between 800 and 1300 CE; featured large towns and ceremonial centers; lacked stone architecture of Central America.

Cahokia

Mississippian settlement near present day East St. Louis, home to as many as 25,000 Native Americans.

Matrilineal society

A social system in which family descent and inheritance rights are traced through the mother.

Mesa Verde

The largest complex of Anasazi cliff-dwellings in the United States Southwest, built between about AD 1150 and AD 1300.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Its population was about 150,000 on the eve of Spanish conquest. Mexico City was constructed on its ruins.

Theocracy

A government controlled by religious leaders. Seen in Aztec government.

Mit’a system

An economic system in Incan society where people paid taxes with their labor and what they produced.

Temple of the Sun

Inca religious center located at Cuzco; center of state religion; held mummies of past Incas.

Animism

The belief that elements of the physical world could have supernatural powers.

Quipu

An arrangement of knotted strings on a cord, used by the Inca to record numerical information.

Carpa Nan

The Inca massive roadway system, consisting of 25,000 miles of road built using captive labor that connected Cuzco with the outlying parts of the empire. Was used mostly by government officials, messengers, and the military.

Kin-based network

A political structure where families govern themselves. Used in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Hausa kingdoms

A group of small independent city-states in northern central Africa between the Niger River and Lake Chad which flourished from the 15th to 18th century CE.

Great Zimbabwe

A powerful state in the African interior that apparently emerged from the growing trade in gold to the East African coast; flourished between 1250 and 1350 CE.

Indian Ocean Slave Trade

A trade of slaves across the Indian Ocean, where they were used for different tasks.

Zanj Rebellion

A series of revolts by slaves working on sugar plantations in Mesopotamia, led by Ali bin Muhammad.

Griots

Professional oral historians (storytellers) who served as keepers of traditions and advisors to kings within the Mali Empire.

Feudalism

A political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to their king, in exchange for their loyalty, military service, and protection of the people who live on the land.

Fiefs

An estate granted by a lord to a vassal in exchange for service and loyalty.

Vassals

Lesser lords who pledged their service and loyalty to a greater lord — in a military capacity.

Code of chivalry

A code of behavior that governed the aspect of all knights’ behavior.

Manors

A large estate, often including farms and a village, ruled by a lord.

Serfs

People who gave their land to a lord and offered their servitude in return for protection from the lord.

Three-field system

A system of farming developed in medieval Europe, in which farm land was divided into three fields of equal size and each of these was successively planted with a winter crop, planted with a spring crop, and left unplanted.

Estates-General

An assembly of representatives from all three of the estates, or social classes, in France.

Estates

Three classes in French society: the clergy, nobility, and commoners.

Magna Carta

A charter of freedoms that king John “Lockland” of England was forced to sign; it made the king obey the same laws as the citizens in his kingdom.

English Parliament

First established in 1265, England’s chief law-making body. It was a key institution in the development of representative democracy as it provided some voice and recognition of the rights and interests of various groups in society.

Antisemitism

Prejudice and hatred towards Jews.

Humanism

A Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied classical texts and focused on human potential and achievements.

Ivan the Great

Ruler who was Russia’s first czar.