Unit 1: The Global Tapestry

Song Dynasty

Chinese dynasty (960 - 1279 CE) that could be considered their "golden age" when China saw many important inventions. There was a magnetic compass; had a navy; traded with India and Persia; paper money, gun powder

Confucianism

A philosophy that adheres to the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It shows the way to ensure a stable government and an orderly society in the present world and stresses a moral code of conduct.

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 Confucian response to Buddhism by taking Confucian and Buddhist beliefs and combining them into this. However, it is still very much Confucian in belief.

Theravada Buddhism

the oldest of the two major branches of Buddhism. Practiced mainly in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia, its beliefs are relatively conservative, holding close to the original teachings of the Buddha

Mahayana Buddhism

"Great Vehicle" branch of Buddhism followed in China, Japan, and Central Asia. The focus is on reverence for Buddha and for Bodhisattva, enlightened persons who have postponed Nirvana to help others attain enlightenment. It was a more "user friendly" Buddhism that developed as Buddhism spread into East and Southeast Asia.

Tibetan Buddhism

a Buddhist doctrine that includes elements from India that are not Buddhist and elements of preexisting shamanism, a tradition of Buddhism that teaches that people can use special techniques to harness spiritual energy and can achieve nirvana in a single lifetime

Champa Rice

Quick-maturing rice that can allow two harvests in one growing season; led to increased populations in Song Dynasty China. Originally introduced into Vietnam from India, it was later sent to China as a tribute gift by the Champa state (as part of the tributary system.)

Grand Canal

The 1,100-mile (1,700-kilometer) waterway linking the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers. It was begun in the Han period and completed during the Sui Dynasty.

Flying Money

Chinese credit instrument that provided credit vouchers to merchants to be redeemed at the end of the voyage; reduced danger of robbery; early form of currency

Seljuk Empire

Turkic empire ruled by sultans in Persia and modern-day

Iraq (11th and 12th centuries); Established Turks as major ethnic group carrying Islam across Eurasia, along with Arabs and Persians; Demonstrated weakness of Abbasid caliphate in its later

years; sultans held real power in the empire; Helped to spread the influence of Islam throughout the region

Mamluk Sultanate

• A political unit in Egypt established by Mamluks

• Defeated the Mongols and the Ayyubid Sultanate

• Did not set up a consistent, hereditary line of succession, which hurt them greatly

• Failed to adapt to new warfare and were eventually defeated by the Ottomans, who brought guns

• Disinterest in trade also contributed to their downfall

Delhi Sultanate

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

Abbasid Caliphate

(750-1258 CE) The caliphate, after the Umayyads, who focused more on administration than conquering. Had a bureaucracy that any Muslim could be a part of.

House of Wisdom in Baghdad

Large Islamic-based Library and learning center. Focus of conversion of Greek and Roman classics and Indian learning into Arabic. Preserved knowledge.

Bhakti Movement

An immensely popular development in Hinduism, advocating intense devotion toward a particular deity.

Sufism

An Islamic mystical tradition that desired a personal union with God--divine love through intuition rather than through rational deduction and study of the Shari'a. Followed an ascetic routine (denial of physical desire to gain a spiritual goal), dedicating themselves to fasting, prayer, meditation on the Qur'an, and the avoidance of sin.

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

Vassal

a person under the protection of a feudal lord to whom he or she owes allegiance

Serf

an agricultural laborer bound under the feudal system to work on their lord's estate.

Manorialism

Economic system during the Middle Ages that revolved around self-sufficient farming estates where lords and peasants shared the land; the economic side of feudalism

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 C.E.

Cahokia

The dominant center of an important Mississippi valley mound-building culture, located near present-day St. Louis, Missouri; flourished from about 900 to 1250 C.E.

Maya city-states

Classical culture in Southern Mexico and Central America; contemporary with Teotihuacan; extended over broad region; featured monumental architecture, written language, calendar system, mathematical system

woodblock printing

a type of printing in which text is carved into a block of wood and the block is then coated with ink and pressed on the page; invented during the Song Dynasty period of China and allowed to the quick creation and distribution of texts; would later spread to Europe via trade and Mongol expansion allowing Europeans to develop the printing press c. 1440 CE

Meritocracy

government or the holding of power by people selected on the basis of their ability; used in China via the Civil Service Exam

Syncretism

The unification or blending of opposing people, ideas, or practices, frequently in the realm of religion. For example, when Christianity or Buddhism was adopted by people in a new land, they often incorporate it into their existing culture and traditions.

Zen Buddhism

(also called Chen) a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and intuition; illustrates the adaptations Buddhism made as it spread to new areas and interacted with different cultures

Aishah al-Ba'uniyyah

A Sufi master and poet. She is one of few medieval female Islamic mystics to have recorded their own views in writing, and she "probably composed more works in Arabic than any other woman prior to the twentieth century". She was born and died in Damascus in the 16th century.

Nasir al-Din Tusi

(1201-1274) Persian mathematician and cosmologist whose academy near Tabriz provided the model for the movement of the planets that helped to inspire the Copernican model of the solar system.

Greek Philosophy

the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics; distinguished by the ideas of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; preserved by the Arabs after the Roman Empire collapsed

Mita System

economic system in Inca society where people paid taxes with their labor and what they produced; men and women were expected to contribute this labor to the state yearly

Chinampas

Floating gardens constructed along lake shores by the Mexica/Aztecs to increase agricultural yields.

Waru Waru Agriculture

A form of farming used in the Inca Empire; divided the hills into terraces or flat steps almost like steps; they could then control the amount of water being put into those places; led to vastly improved agriculture for the Incas

three-field system

A rotational system for agriculture in which one field grows grain, one grows legumes, and one lies fallow. Restores nutrients to the soil to improve crop yields. It gradually replaced two-field system in medieval Europe.

Crusades

A series of holy wars from 1096-1270 AD undertaken by European Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule; ultimately spread culture and increased trade but were not successful

Renaissance

"rebirth"; following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome; began in Florence, Italy and spread throughout Europe

Great Schism

in 1054, divided medieval Christianity into (Greek) and Western (Latin) branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Relations between East and West had long been embittered by political and ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes.

coercive labor

Any labor system that involves force (slavery, chattel slavery, serfdom, and indentured labor)

Ethiopia

Previously known as Axum, a Christian kingdom that developed in the highlands of eastern Africa under the dynasty of King Lalaibela; retained Christianity in the face of Muslim expansion elsewhere in Africa; facilitated trade

Fief

land granted by a lord to a vassal in exchange for loyalty and service

Buddhist Monks

religious communities where Buddha's followers stayed, studied, and meditated; both men and women could join monasteries as monks or nuns; often exempt from taxation which put strains on Chinese political systems

ecclesiastical

having to do with the church or the clergy (Catholic)

Great Schism of 1054

the official split between the Western Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church in the East

Kievan Rus

State that emerged around the city of Kiev in the ninth century C.E.; a culturally diverse region that included Vikings and Slavic peoples. The conversion of Vladimir, the grand prince of Kiev, to Orthodox Christianity tied Russian culture to the Byzantine Empire

Magna Carta (1215)

An English document that nobles forced King John I to sign, limiting the power of the king.

Hundred Years' War

War between France and Britain over lands in France and the French throne. Britain had early victories, due in part to their use of the long bow. France ultimately won, but the war increased a sense of nationalism and separate British and French identities and strengthened the monarchies.

Monastic orders of the Middle Ages

new monastic orders emerged, some out of a sense that reform was needed. The Franciscans and Dominicans were both involved in the Inquisition, while the Cistercians helped spread new technological and economic innovations

Timbuktu, Mali

One of the central trade and learning centers in the Kingdom of Mali under Mansa Musa, heavily influenced by Islam

Mansa Musa

Ruler of Mali (r. 1312-1337). His extravagant pilgrimage through Egypt to Mecca in 1324-1325 established the empire's reputation for wealth. His rule also expanded the influence of Islam in West Africa

Borobudur Temple

A massive Buddhist temple built during the Sailendra Dynasty. It contains over 500 Buddha statues

Angkor Wat

A temple complex built in the Khmer Empire and dedicated to the Hindu God, Vishnu.

Khmer Empire

a powerful empire that lasted roughly from the 9th to the 15th centuries in what is now Cambodia. Rulers were seen as god kings and used either Hinduism or Buddhism to legitimate their rule and unite society

Srivijaya Empire

Grew wealthy by taxing trade, included parts of Java, Borneo, and Sumatra, and its capital, Palembang, became a great center of Buddhist learning

Aztec Empire

Major state that developed in what is now Mexico in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; built their capital in the center of Lake Tenochtitlan and controlled a wide area of tribute states. Known for rituals sacrifice and grand temples

Cahokia

Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home to as many as 25,000 Native Americans. Built large pyramid mounds on which priests lived and relied on maize cultivation and trade

Inca Empire

The vast and sophisticated Peruvian empire centered at the capital city of Cuzco that was at its peak from 1438 until 1532. They had an elaborate system of roads, an organized bureaucracy to control resources, and terrace farming.

The Holy Roman Empire

A medieval and early modern central European Germanic empire, which often consisted of hundreds of separate Germanic and Northern Italian states. Its emperors often clashed with the church, contributing to its fragmentation

Avignon Papacy (Babylonian Captivity)

following a disagreement between Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip the Fair of France, Philip fixed the election of French Pope Clement V and moved the papacy to Avignon. When Gregory XI reestablished the papacy in Rome, the Great (Western) Schism ushered in a period of two popes: one in Avignon and one in Rome. It was finally resolved in 1417 when the Council of Constance dismissed the Avignon pope's claims

Chaco Canyon

An urban center established by Anasazi located in southern New Mexico. There, Pueblo people built a walled city with dozens of three-story adobe houses with timbered roofs. Community religious functions were carried out in two large circular chambers called kivas.

Mesa Verde

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