Environmental History, Global Trade, and Historiography Practice Review

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture review notes covering topics in environmental history, trade networks, Mongol conquests, and key historiographical terms.

Tenochtitlan Dual-Pipe Aqueduct

An engineering system used by the Aztecs to supply freshwater to Tenochtitlan while separating saltwater from Lake Texcoco.

Maya Slash-and-Burn Agriculture

An intensive land-clearing method used by the Maya to cultivate crops, which ultimately caused deforestation, soil degradation, and atmospheric carbon release.

Song Dynasty Agricultural Intensification

Agricultural adaptation in response to Yellow River flooding and land scarcity, utilizing wet-field rice cultivation via intentional land flooding, terracing, and natural fertilizers.

Dar al-Islam Agricultural Revolution

The widespread diffusion of crops like cotton, sugar cane, and eggplant across North Africa and Spain, supported by advanced irrigation systems.

Qanat

An underground irrigation system used in the Islamic world to maintain agricultural production through cooling climate trends like the Big Chill.

The Big Chill

A cooling climate trend that posed agricultural challenges, successfully countered in regions like Morocco through qanat irrigation and crop diffusion.

Great Famine Ecological Response

The construction of river dams in Europe to catch fish during climate-driven crop failures, which disrupted aquatic ecosystems and collapsed fish stocks by blocking migration routes for species like cod.

13th-Century World System

Janet Abu-Lughod's concept of interconnected Eurasian trade networks that exchanged goods such as French stained glass, Iranian glazed bowls and gold leaf, African ivory carvings, and Chinese silk and porcelain.

Islamic Maritime Control

Control of key Indian Ocean and Red Sea trade routes by Islamic empires, which restricted direct European sea access to India and compelled Europeans to seek Atlantic trade routes.

Song Paper Money

Printed paper currency pioneered by Song China to enhance commercial transactions alongside credit instruments and capital-pooling merchant partnerships.

Mansa Musa's Gold Distribution

The introduction of massive quantities of gold into local economies during Mansa Musa's pilgrimage, causing inflation and currency devaluation.

Mongol Pastoral Diet

A high-protein, calorie-dense diet consisting primarily of meat and mare's milk that sustained Mongol warriors on long migrations without heavy supply trains.

Kamikaze Typhoons

Severe natural storms that wrecked Mongol invasion fleets attempting to conquer Japan.

Battle of Ain Jalut

A battle in which Mamluk forces defeated the Mongols, halting Mongol expansion into the Middle East and shifting regional geopolitical balances.

Environmental Determinism

The theory that physical geography directly dictates human cultural and social outcomes, a claim disproven by complex civilizations built in tropical or lake environments.

Paradigm

A shared theoretical framework of scientific or historical assumptions used to interpret evidence.

Eurocentrism

The historical perspective positioning European technology and culture as the main engine of global progress, challenged by innovations in Song China, Mesoamerica, and Dar al-Islam.

Proxy Data

Indirect physical evidence stored in natural archives—such as tree rings, ice cores, lake sediment, or charcoal deposits—used to reconstruct past environments and climates.

Hydraulic Empire

A government that maintains central political authority and defense capabilities through exclusive control over water management and irrigation systems.

Codices

Pictographic or written manuscripts compiled by Mesoamerican societies, such as the Maya and Aztec, to track astronomical cycles, weather predictions, and cosmological events.