AP World History: Unit 3 (Land-Based Empires, 1450–1750) Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering empires, administration, belief systems, and military structures from Unit 3 of AP World History.

Gunpowder Empires

Empires that combined advanced firearms with centralized government control, including the Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, and Russian empires.

Cossacks

Self-governing, militarized communities of East Slavic people in Russia.

Volga River

A strategic river controlled by Russia to gain direct access to the lucrative fur trade and to hire fierce warriors.

Manchu

An ethnic group from Manchuria that established the Qing Dynasty after the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Kangxi

A Qing emperor with one of China's longest reigns who presided over stability and incorporated Taiwan, Mongolia, and Central Asia into China's rule.

Emperor Qianlong

A Qing ruler whose reign saw massive territorial expansion as well as military campaigns that led to mass casualties of local populations.

White Lotus Society

A society reinstated in China due to high taxes and a desire to restore the Ming Dynasty, whose peasant rebellion was suppressed by the Qing government, killing over 100,000 peasants.

Tamerlane

A Mongol-Turkic ruler who conquered Persia and Central Asia but failed by not leaving durable political structures in many areas.

Ghazi Ideal

A model for warriors participating in military expansion and holy war through the use of gunpowder.

Mehmed II

The Ottoman ruler under whom Constantinople was conquered and renamed Istanbul, marking the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

Safavid Empire

An empire originating from the Safavid order of Sufism in northern Azerbaijan (modern-day Iran) that lacked a real navy and natural defensive geographic barriers.

Harem Politics

High-stakes political power struggles in the Ottoman Empire where wives and concubines pushed their own sons to take the throne, often leading to weak, inexperienced rulers.

Divine Right of Kings

A political doctrine used by King James I asserting that authority was given directly by God, making the monarch accountable only to God and above earthly political challenge.

Justices of the Peace

Officials in Tudor England who maintained peace in counties, enforced royal laws, and extended central monarchical rule.

English Bill of Rights

A document that assured individual civil liberties and guaranteed protection against monarchical tyranny and illegal taxation.

Intendants

French tax overseers, also called tax farmers, who oversaw the collection of various government taxes to fund the centralized state.

Oprichnina

A secret police force created by Tsar Ivan IV that was loyal to him, punished boyars, and confiscated noble land.

Devshirme System

An Ottoman selection system that enslaved Christian boys from the Balkans, converted them, and trained them to staff the government and elite military.

Janissaries

Enslaved Christian conscripts who served as the Ottoman Sultan's elite infantry unit and preserved imperial authority.

Daimyo

Powerful feudal warlords in Japan who commanded private armies of samurai and controlled distinct regional territories.

Alternate Attendance

A policy used by the Tokugawa Shogunate to control daimyos by forcing them to maintain residences both in their home domains and in the capital city (Edo).

Zamindars

Paid officials in the Mughal Empire's centralized bureaucracy who collected taxes and eventually built up local military power.

Askia the Great

Ruler of the Songhai Empire who promoted Islam throughout the realm and supported a centralized bureaucracy to legitimize his rule.

Grand Bazaar

A massive covered market in Istanbul that served as the commercial hub of the Ottoman Empire.

Versailles

The French court palace where Louis XIV entertained nobles to keep them occupied with ritual and court life to prevent them from interfering in state business.

Inquisition

A system used during the Counter-Reformation to detect, try, and punish heretics and non-believers.

Jesuits

The Society of Jesus, created during the Counter-Reformation to oppose the spread of Protestantism through education and missionary work.

Council of Trent

A Counter-Reformation body that reaffirmed traditional Catholic doctrines while correcting severe administrative abuses.

Peace of Augsburg

An agreement that allowed each German prince or state to choose whether their lands would be Lutheran or Catholic.

Edict of Nantes

A decree that allowed French Protestants (Huguenots) to practice their faith with religious tolerance.

Din-i Ilahi

A syncretic religious ideal (the Divine Faith) promoted by Akbar to ease tensions between Hindus and Muslims in the Mughal Empire.

Empiricism

A scientific approach emphasizing empirical evidence, logical reasoning, and systemic observation, championed by Francis Bacon over unverified inherited authority.

Ghulams

Enslaved elite soldiers recruited in the Safavid Empire to protect the Safavid Shah from internal rival military factions.