World History Exam 2 Terms

Ashoka

Leader of the Mauryan dynasty of India who conquered most of India but eventually gave up violence and converted to Buddhism.

Achaemenid Dynasty (558-330 BC)

The Royal line that began with Cyrus the Great and ends with Darius II. They fought the Greeks in the Greco-Person War.

Agora

a public open space used for assemblies and markets in ancient Greece

Ahriman/Angra Mainyu

-Creator in Zoroastrianism (Devil of the religion)

-Christianity equal is to satan

Ahura Mazda

Main god of Zoroastrianism who represented truth and goodness and was perceived to be in an eternal struggle with the malign spirit Angra Mainyu.

Alexander of Macedon

The son of King Philip who inherited all of his father's army. A very powerful and successful leader. He and his army conquered all of Persia and into India. He neglected to appoint a successor so all his conquered land was split up and distributed.

Analects

The book that Kong Fuzi wrote and that stresses the values and ideas of Confucianism.

Aristotle

- believed that philosophers could use their senses to figure out the truth and then use reasoning to figure out mysteries

Buddhism

Siddhartha Gautama created Buddhism

-achieve enlightenment after 49 days of meditation

-understand the cause of suffering and how to end it

-Buddha "the enlightened one"

Four noble truths:

- all life is suffering

- the cause of all suffering is desire

- you can eliminate suffering by training yourself to lose all desire

- the way to achieve the end of desire is by following 8-fold path

Buddhism has several appeals:

- no caste recognition

- life of moderation

- Nirvana can be achieved in one lifetime

Cambyses (530-522 BC)

Son of Cyrus, expanded Persian empire by conquering Egypt

Carthage

- principal power of western Mediterranean during the 4th and 3rd centuries

- strategic for trade

- Punic wars between Carthage and Rome

- struggle for regional supremacy and eventually Rome won

Cleisthenes

Clientage (Patron-Client System)

Confucius

(551-479 BCE) A Chinese philosopher known also as Kong Fuzi and created one of the most influential philosophies in Chinese history.

Cyrus the Great (559-530)

- extraordinary expansion

- conquered Babylon in 539BC

- toleration and enlightened view of empire, allowed peoples to keep their culture and religion

- Cyrus made Persia vs. God blessed Cyrus to make Persia

Consul

An elected official who led the Roman Republic

Daoism

- developed in response to the turbulence of the late Zhou dynasty

- wanted to learn how to live in harmony with the natural principles of the world

- dao: "the way of nature"

- represented by water

- let things happen

- wealth creates greed

- laws create criminals

Delian League

an alliance headed by Athens that says that all Greek city-states will come together and help fight the Persians

- one of the few times that Greece worked together

Democracy

created by Athenians

- demo = "people"

Draco (621 BC)

- Athenian lawmaker

- organizes existing laws and displays them in the agora

- law code meant for EVERYONE

"Eyes and Ears of the King"

These were the imperial spies in Persia that traveled throughout the empire with military forces and conducted surprise audits of accounts and procedures in the provinces.

- lack of trust

Four Noble Truths

- truths of Buddhism

1. life is suffering

2. the cause of all suffering is desire

3. Nirvana comes from the ending of desire

4. follow the 8-fold path to end desire

Greco-Persian Wars

Two major Persian invasions of Greece, in 490 B.C.E. and 480 B.C., in which the Persians were defeated on both land and sea.

- united Greece for once

Han Dynasty

- created by Liu Bang

- 206 BC-220 AD

- strong central government

- imperial expansion!

- engagement with Eurasia for the first time

Han Wudi

141-87 BC

- energetic reign

- centralized power and expanded heavily

- legalist; taxed agriculture, trade, craft

- supported Confucianism

- created a university to form the Junzi

- cultivated silk worms which led to the silk roads

- developed paper

Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890)

Discovered Troy in Turkey. He ravaged the site so that he could prove it was Troy. He also found Mycenae in 1876.

Homer

A Greek poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey

Iliad

Homer's great epic that tells the story of the Trojan War

Jainism

a religion founded in India in the sixth century BC, whose members believe that everything in the universe has a soul and therefore shouldn't be harmed. Vardhamana Mahavira founded this religion.

- Ahimsa: extreme non-violence

- caste doesn't matter, jati

Junzi

Superior individuals in Confucianism

- didn't let personal interests influence their judgement

Laozi

Chinese Daoist philosopher; taught that governments were of secondary importance and recommended retreat from society into nature.

Latifundia

Legalism

- state is supreme; no ethics or morality

- small towns who mind their own business

- humans are ultimately evil by nature

- emphasis on law, severe penalties

- incentives for obeying laws

- emphasized agriculture and military

Liu Bang

- founded the Han dynasty

- used mandate of heaven to take over

- continued the tradition of centralization

Macedonia

An ancient kingdom north of Greece, whose ruler Philip II conquered Greece in 338 B.C

- then taken over by son, Alexander the Great

Magi

Priests of the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism who paid special attention to the stars

Mahavira

- founder of Jainism

- abandoned privileged family to find the afterlife and escape reincarnation

Polis

A city-state in ancient Greece.

- outer walls

- temples

- government buildings

- open space in the middle known as agora

- also had a judicial, legislative, and executive area

Monarchy

A government in which power is in the hands of a single person

Minoans (2200-1400 BC)

earliest Greek civilization that had developed on the island of Crete by 2000 B.C.

- central courtyard

- almost no evidence of weapons

- fresco paintings of marine life

- minimal fortification

- Navy

- Revered bull

- peaceful art scenes

- Linear A; can't decipher it but can sound it out

Mycenaeans (1600-1100 BC)

people from Greek mainland who conquered central Crete; warring people who grouped themselves into clans and tribes

- adopted Minoan practices

- no courtyard

- fortified

- WEAPONS!!!!!

- War focused

- frescos are militant and violent

- army

- Linear B; connected to Greek

Nirvana

The state of englightenment for Buddhists.

- perfect spiritual independence

- escape incarnation cycle

Oligarchy

a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.

Ostracism

deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups

- practice implemented by Cleisthenes

- happens when you get kicked out of office by the people

Octavian/Augustus

Odyssey (Homer)

Epic poem that chronicles Odysseus' 10 year struggle to return to his throne in Ithaca.

Themes: Reason, loyalty, love, heroism, polytheism.

Paterfamilias

Patricians

Peloponnesian War

(431-404 BCE) The war between Athens and Sparta that in which Sparta won, but left Greece as a whole weak and ready to fall to its neighbors to the north.

Persians

tolerant; bureaucracy; Cyrus the Great and Darius were the most famous rulers; Royal Road was their trade route and united empire; Zoroastrianism

Phillip II

336 BC, was an ancient Greek king of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336. He was the father of Alexander the Great.

- Set up Alexander for success

Plato (430-347 BC)

- student of Socrates

- systemized Socratic thought

- Theory of Forms or Ideas "allegory of the cave"

- Founded the Academy

Punic Wars (264-146 BC)

series of 3 wars between Rome and Carthage in which Hannibal famously led elephants to attack Rome

Qin Dynasty

the Chinese dynasty (from 246 BC to 206 BC) that established the first centralized imperial government and built much of the Great Wall

- replaced by Han dynasty

Qin Shihuangdi

(r.221-210 BCE) The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty who believed strongly in Legalism and sought to strengthen the centralized China through public works

- ignored nobility and ruled through a centralized imperial rule

Satrap

A governor of a province in ancient Persia

Satrapy

one of the 20 provinces into which Darius divided the Persian Empire

Senate

In ancient Rome, the supreme governing body, originally made up only of aristocrats.

Siddhartha Gautama

Prince who founded Buddhism

Sir Arthur Evans

(1851 - 1941): British archeologist who unearthed the remains of the Minoan civilization (Knossos) on the island of Crete., excavated Knossos

Socrates (470-399 BC)

An Athenian philosopher who thought that human beings could lead honest lives and that honor was far more important than wealth, fame, or other superficial attributes.

- encouraged critical thinking

Solon

Early Greek leader who brought democratic reforms such as his formation of the Council of Four Hundred

Sparta

A powerful Greek military polis that was often at war with Athens. Used slaves known as helots to provide agricultural labor.

Stupa

Buddhist shrine that is shaped like a dome or mound

Terracotta Soldiers

an army built to help the emperor Qin rule again in after life, protection for when he dies

The Middle Path

Buddhist path of moderation, avoidance of extremes of vulgar materialism or a life of self-torture

The Persian Royal Road

Major road of the Persian empire; it stretched from Lydia to Susa and allowed for the king to travel and communicate quickly with his empire.

- post office type thing

- Sardis to Susa

Tribune

Trojan War

Tyranny

Cruel and oppressive government or rule

Twelve tables

Xerxes

son of Darius; became Persian king. He vowed revenge on the Athenians. He invaded Greece with 180,000 troops in 480 B.C.

Zoroaster/Zarathustra

Founder of Zoroastrianism, which taught devotion to the monotheistic god, Ahura Mazda.

Zoroastrianism

- salvation based faith

- Angra Mainyu = evil spirit

= ethical dualism

- henotheism; 1 god above others

- last judgment