AP World Vocab 2026-2027

Unit 0,1,2,3,4

Paleolithic Era

The earliest period of human history from about 2.6 million years ago to 10,000 BCE. It was distinguished by the hunter-gatherer´s nomadic lifestyle and the use of basic stone tools.

Pastoral Society

Hybrid groups of people that were nomadic but also farmed.

Chiefdom

A political organization where a village or community is led by a chief. The role of chief is passed down by blood, and there are distinct social classes.

Patriarchy

A social system where men are the head of the family, government, or main authority.

Hinduism

An evolving family of traditions from India centered on dharma (duty), karma (consequences), samsara (rebirth), and moksha (liberation).

Upanishads

A collection of sacred Indian philosophical texts from c.800 to 400 BCE that formed the foundation of Hinduism.

Siddhartha Gautama

The Buddha - A historical prince who founded Buddhism in South Asia during 6th century BCE.

Theravada Buddhism

An older branch of Buddhism that emphasizes strict adherence to the original teachings of the Buddha, sees him only as an enlightened man. Practices Monastic Discipline.

Mahayana Buddhism

A major branch of Buddhism that emphasizes universal salvation, devotion, and the path of the Bodhisattva (an enlightened being who delays Nirvana to help others).

Confucianism

A Chinese ethical and philosophical system founded by Confucius in 6th-5th century BCE, focused on social harmony, filial piety, and virtuous behavior. Education was a major part in achieving this.

Han Dynasty

The second major imperial dynasty. Established a centralized Confucian government, the civil service exam, and the Silk Road.

Daoism

An ancient Chinese belief system that teaches people to live in harmony with the natural flow of the universe.

Judaism

The oldest foundational Abrahamic monotheistic religion, belief in a sacred covenant between God and the Jewish people as written in the Torah and the Hebrew Bible.

Quran

The sacred text of Islam. Believed to be the word of God through the Prophet Muhammed

Circa

“Approximately” or “around” a date which may not be exactly known.

Conduit

A channel, network, or intermediary that transmits goods, people, technology, or ideas from one region to another.

Syncretism

The blending of different religious, cultural, or philisophical traditions that create a new system.

Surplus

Producing more food than a community needs to survive. Extra/Excess

Agrarian

A community whose economy and social structure are centered on farming, crop cultivation, and animal domestication.

Elite

A small, privileged group of people that hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, status, political power, or authority in a society.

Neolithic Revolution

The pivotal transition from hunter-gatherer societies to settled agricultural communities that began around 10,000 BCE.

Specialization

When people within a society or economy focus on one specific task or job instead of trying to provide everything for themselves.

Social Hierarchy

The ranked order of people or groups in a society based on wealth, power, status, birth, or occupation. Showed power distribution.

Mesopotamia

An ancient historical region located in the Tigris and Euphrates river valley. A foundational blueprint for human civilization.

Code of Hammurabi

A collection of 282 written laws established around 1750 BCE by Hammurabi, the Babylonian king. Principle of retaliation, social inequity, divine right.

Zoroastrianism

An ancient monotheistic Iranian religion founded in Persia by Zarathustra in 6th century BCE. Ethical dualism, free will→heavily influenced Abrahamic faiths.

Caste

A rigid, hereditary social hierarchy where a person’s rank, occupation, and marriage options are determined entirely by birth.

Diaspora

The dispersion of a group of people from their original homeland into foreign regions while they maintain their distinct cultural, religious, or linguistic identity.

City-state

An independent, sovereign state consisting of a single urban center and its surrounding agricultural territories.

Song Dynasty’s Commercial Revolution

A period of massive economic growth and market expansion in China (960 - 1279 CE) driven by agricultural surpluses, technological innovations, ad a shift from local consumption to a market-based commercialized economy.

Hangzhou

The wealthy, highly populated capital of the Song dynasty located at the south end of the Grand Canal.

Foot binding

A historical Chinese practice of tightly wrapping young girl’s feet with cloth bandages to break their bones and stop normal growth. Status symbol - women could not do labour, showed family had servants.

Abbasid Caliphate

The third major Islamic empire (750 - 1258 CE) centered in Baghdad that presided over the Islamic Golden Age before fragmenting politically and falling to the Mongols.

Ottoman Empire

A vast Turkic, Sunni Muslim land-based empire that lasted from c. 1299 to 1922 across southeast Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Byzantine Empire

The surviving eastern half of the Roman Empire centered at Constantinople characterized by Greek culture, centralized bureaucratic government, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

Constantinople

The capital of the Byzantine Empire and a vital Eurasian trade hub that fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. (Modern-day Turkey)

Crusades

A series of religious military campaigns launched by western European Christians from the 11th - 13th centuries to reclaim Jerusalem and the Holy land from Muslim control.

Roman Catholic Church

The Pope-led branch of Christianity that acted as the primary unifying, political, and cultural institution in Western Europe during the post-classical and early modern eras.

European Renaissance

A 14th - 17th century cultural and intellectual movement that marked a “rebirth” of classical Greek and Roman art, learning, and humanist thought bridging the medieval and early modern eras.

Maya Civilization

A decentralized Mesoamerican network of competing, independent city-states rather than a single unified empire.

Aztec Empire

A powerful Mesoamerican state in central Mexico that lasted from the 1300’s until Spanish conquest in 1521, expanding through military conquest and ruling via a decentralized tribute system.

Inca Empire

A vast, centralized Andean state that stretched along the mountains of western South America from 1400’s to 1530’s. (Spanish conquest)

Bureaucracy

An organised system of appointed, non-elected officials and administrators who carry out laws, collect taxes, and manage day-to-day governance.

Innovation

The human discovery, creation, or adaptation of new tools, ideas, and methods that increase efficiency, security, and comfort, often driving major shifts in trade, welfare, and society.

State

An organized political community living under a single government and occupying a definite territory.

Tribute

Wealth, goods, labour, or symbolic gifts given by a weaker state or conquered people to a dominant imperial power as a sign of submission, respect, or allegiance.

Feudalism

The decentralized political and social system in medieval Europe (c. 1200 - 1450) where kings and lords granted land to vassals in exchange for military service and loyalty.

Decentralized Monarchy

A form of governance where a king or queen shares political power and authority with regional lords, nobles, and local authorities rather than holding absolute control.

Manorial System

The economic and social organization of Medieval Europe (c. 1200 - 1450) in which lords controlled self-sufficient estates called manors, worked by peasants and serfs who exchanged labour for protection and access to land. (Engine behind Feudalism)

Serfdom

A semi-coerced labour system where peasants are legally bound to work a specific plot of land under a lord.

Silk Roads

An interconnected network of overland trade routes that spanned Afro-Eurasia, connection East Asia to the Mediterranean.

Caravan

Organized groups of merchants and travelers who crossed dangerous terrain together, especially the Sahara, pooling camels, supplies, and protection.

Caravanserai

A roadside inn along Silk Road trade routes that gave merchants, animals, and goods a safe place to rest, eat, and trade.

Mongol Empire

A vast transcontinental empire established by Mongol expansion in the 13th and 14th centuries that facilitated extensive interregional contacts and exchanges.

Zheng He

A 15th century Chinese Muslim eunuch admiral who led 7 massive state-sponsored treasure fleet expeditions across the Indian Ocean between 1405-1433 during the early Ming Dynasty.

Monsoon Winds

Predictable seasonable wind patterns over the Indian Ocean that reverse direction twice a year, blowing toward Asia in the summer and away from Asia in the winter.

Timbuktu

A West African city in he Mali Empire that grew into a major hub of trans-Saharan trade and Islamic scholarship.

Trans-Saharan trade network

The commercial caravan routes crossing the Sahara Desert that connected West Africa with North Africa and Mediterranean world.

Mali Empire

A West African state that grew wealthy by controlling gold and salt along the trans-Saharan trade routes, adopted Islam through merchant networks. (Timbuktu)

House of Wisdom

An intellectual center in Abbasid Baghdad where scholars translated, preserved, and advanced knowledge in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy.

Temujin/Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan)

The nomadic leader who unified the warring tribes of the Mongolian steppe in 1206 and founded the Mongol Empire.

Mongol World War

The half century of unprecedented military campaigns, massive destruction, and rapid empire building perused by Genghis Khan and his successors across Eurasia starting c.1209

Yuan Dynasty

The Mongol - led dynasty founded by Kublai khan, the first time all of China was ruled by a foreign power. Sidelined civil service exam, imposed new hierarchy, and joined China into Mongol-protected Afro-Eurasia trade

Khanate of the Golden Horde

The northwest Khanate (state ruled by a Mongolian/Turkic ruler) of the Mongol Empire, ruling of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakh steppe from the 13th century. (Fragment of Mongol Empire)

Ibn Battuta

A 14th century Moroccan Muslim scholar who traveled over 75,000 miles across Dar-Al-Islam and beyond.

Marco Polo

A Venetian merchant who traveled the Silk Roads in late 1200s, spent years in China at Kublai Khan’s court. Had a travel account.

Black Death (bubonic plague)

A deadly 14th century pandemic that spread along Afro-Eurasian trade routes especially the Silk Roads, killing a huge share of the population.

Diaspora

The dispersion of a people from their original homeland into communities abroad that keep their cultural identity. -Merchants along trade routes

Maritime

Refers to sea-based activities, technologies, trade networks, and Empires.

Merchants

Individuals who bought, sold, and transported luxury and bulk goods across major trade routes like the Silk Roads, Trans-Saharan, and Indian Ocean.

Gunpowder

An explosive mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal that transformed warfare, state-building, and cross-cultural diffusion between 1450 and 1750.

Manchu Empire

The land-based empire built when the Manchus from NorthEast Asia conquered Ming China in 1644 and ruled as the Qing Dynasty - example of imperial expansion.

Ottoman Empire

A Turkic, Sunni Islam land-based empire that ruled South Europe, the Middle East, North Africa from c. 1299-1922.

Mughal Empire

Muslim land-based empire in South and Central Asia.

Safavid Empire

A major Persian Shi’a Muslim land-based empire centered in modern-day Iran. *Conflicts with Ottomans

Devshirme

The Ottoman Empire’s system of recruiting Christian Balkan boys, converting them, and training them as elite soldiers or bureacrats.

Tribute Collection

The systematic gathering of goods, resources, or payments from conquered or subject people. -Land-based empires generate revenue and demonstrate imperial power.

Martin Luther

A German theologian, wrote 95 theses, attacked Catholic Church and sparked the Protestant Reformation and split Christianity.

Printing Press

A mechanical device developed by Gutenburg that mass produced printed texts, speeding cultural and technological diffusion.

Protestant Reformation

A 16th century religious movement sparked by Martin Luther that broke Roman Catholic tradition, created new denominations, and drove the growth of Christianity.

Counter-Reformation

The Catholic Church’s response to the Protestant Reformation, reforming the church and reasserting Catholic doctrine and authority.

Sunni Islam

The largest branch of Islam formed after Muhammad’s death, over who should lead; Sunnis said consensus, not descent. -Ottoman Empire.

Shi’a Islam

The branch of Islam that says that leadership of the Muslim community belongs to Muhammad’s descendants. -Safavid Empire.

Sikhism

A monotheistic religion founded by Guru Nanak in the Punjab region of South Asia - syncretic belief system between Hinduism and Islam during the Mughal era.

Imperial

Describes something relating to an empire or the political, economic, and military extension of a state’s authority over territories and populations.

Tsar

The title of Russia’s emperor, an absolute ruler who used autocracy, serfdom, and military expansion to build the empire.

Absolutism / Absolute Monarchy