AP World Unit 3 Vocab Words

Vanguard

First line of military defense or attack.

Contagion

The spread of disease by contact, or the harmful spread of ideas or emotions.

Esoteric

Knowledge, teaching or doctrine reserved for inner circles

Adroit

Skillful and clever, especially if handling situation.

Usurp

To take power or a position illegally or by force

Bellicose

Aggressive and eager to fight or start conflicts.

Reparation

Compensation or payment made for a wrong or injury.

Nihilism

The belief that life has no meaning, purpose, or value.

Capricious

Changing suddenly and unpredictably in behavior or decisions .

Relegate

To assign someone or something to a lower rank or less important position.

Rapport

A close and positive relationship based on trust and understanding.

Mollify

To calm, sooth, or reduce someone’s anger.

Exacerbate

To make a problem, situation, or condition worse.

Derive

To obtain or receive something from a source.

Constitute

To make up, from, or compose something.

Catholic Church: Simony

The buying forgiveness form god and the removal of sins.

Divine Right of Kings

The belief that the king’s authority comes directly from God and that the king is not accountable to the people.

England: Bill of Rights

A 1689 document that limited the power of the English monarch and protected certain rights of parliament and citizens

France: Absolutism

A system of government in which a ruler holds complete and unrestricted power.

Inquisition

A church established by the catholic Church to find, question, and punish people accused of heresy (beliefs against church teachings).

Janissaries

Elite soldiers of the Ottoman Empire, often recruited through the Devshirme system.

Japan: Daimyo

Powerful Japanese feudal lords who controlled large areas of land and commanded samurai warriors.

Mughal Empire: Zamindars

Landowners and tax collectors who manage land and collected taxes from peasants on the Mughal Empire.

Ottoman Empire: Devshirme

A system on which Christian boys were taken from conquered territories, converted to Islam, and trained for government or military services.

Peace of the Westphalia

A series of treaties signed in 1648 that ended the Thirty Years’ War and established the idea that each state could govern itself without outside influence.

Russia: Boyars

Wealthy land-owning nobles who advised the Russian ruler and held significant political power.

Scientific Revolution

A period (roughly 1500s-1700s) when new discoveries and methods transformed science and challenged traditional beliefs.

Empiricism

The idea that knowledge comes from observation, experimentation, and experience.

Sikhism

A monotheistic religion founded in India that teaches devotion into one God, equality, and services to other.

Tamerlane (Timur)

A central Asian conqueror who built a large empire.

Tokugawa Shogunate

The military government that ruled Japan under the Tokugawa family.