World History Lecture Reviews: Middle Ages to the Cold War

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering major historical concepts from the Middle Ages to the Cold War based on lecture notes.

Banca

The Italian word meaning 'bench,' referring to the table used by moneychangers; the modern word 'bank' is derived from it.

Silk Road

The northern trade route used to bring goods from the Orient to the Mediterranean, crossing overland through Central Asia.

Charter

A legal document in which a feudal lord wrote down specific privileges and basic freedoms granted to a town.

Guild

An organization established to regulate the business activity of a given town.

Apprentice

A young boy training in a trade whose class of membership within a craft guild lasted between 2 and 7 years.

Journeyman

A 'day laborer' who had finished an apprenticeship but was not yet a master within a craft guild.

Master

A craftsman who passed an oral exam, presented a 'masterpiece' of workmanship, and took an oath to follow guild regulations.

Hanseatic League

An association of more than seventy German cities in northwestern Europe formed to promote and protect mutual commercial interests.

Just price

The church concept that a seller should charge a price including material costs, a fair return for labor, and a reasonable profit.

Usury

The economic practice of charging interest for lending money, which was prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church.

Trivium

The medieval liberal arts curriculum group consisting of grammar, rhetoric, and logic.

Quadrivium

The medieval liberal arts curriculum group consisting of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.

Scholasticism

A medieval intellectual movement that attempted to harmonize faith and reason.

Vernacular

The common spoken language of a region, which writers began using instead of Latin by the 12th century.

Romanesque

Draft architectural style (1050–1150) meaning 'Roman-like,' characterized by thick stone walls and heavy arches.

Gothic

Architectural style beginning in the 13th century that used external 'flying buttresses' to support high stone vaults and stained-glass windows.

Excommunication

The spiritual weapon of depriving an individual of the sacraments and fellowship with the Church.

Interdict

The suspension of public church services and sacraments in an entire geographic location as a form of spiritual punishment.

Inquisition

A special church court commissioned specifically to stamp out heresy.

Magna Carta

The 'Great Charter' (1215) forced upon King John of England to protect feudal rights and limit the king's absolute power.

Power of the purse

The ability of the English Parliament to withhold approval of new taxes until the king heard their grievances.

Estates-General

The French assembly representing the church, nobility, and townspeople that did not limit the king's power.

Reconquista

The centuries-long effort by Christian states to drive the Moors (Spanish Muslims) out of the Iberian Peninsula.

Humanism

An intellectual focus on man's unique capacities, abilities, individuality, and dignity.

Sola fide

The Protestant rallying cry meaning 'Justification by faith alone.'

Indulgences

Certificates granted by the church that purportedly granted pardon from the punishment of sin.

Sola scriptura

The principle that Scripture is the only reliable and supreme authority.

Anabaptists

A religious group, originally called the Swiss Brethren, who opposed infant baptism and advocated for believer's baptism.

Act of Supremacy (1534)

An act passed by the English Parliament making the King the 'supreme head' of the Church of England.

Puritans

Individuals who wished to 'purify' the Anglican Church of its remaining Roman Catholic practices.

Separatists

Individuals who completely removed themselves from the Anglican Church.

Edict of Nantes

A decree issued by Henry IV of France granting a degree of religious toleration to the Huguenots.

Jesuits

The Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius Loyola to suppress heresy and promote Roman Catholic education.

Divine right

The religious concept asserting that God established a ruler's authority and they are answerable only to Him.

Thirty Years' War

A conflict that began in the Holy Roman Empire and transitioned from a religious to a political struggle involving major European powers.

Peace of Westphalia (1648)

The settlement that recognized the independence of the Protestant Netherlands and Swiss Confederacy and acknowledged over 300 independent German states.

Taille

A permanent land tax in France used to fund a strong standing army and increase royal power.

Czar

A Russian title for 'emperor' derived from the Roman title Caesar.

Pragmatic Sanction

A document drawn up by Charles VI of Austria to ensure his neighbors respected the rule of his daughter, Maria Theresa.

Balance of power

The European policy of forming strategic alliances to ensure no single nation could dominate the continent.

Federalism

The constitutional principle of delegating specific powers to the national government while reserving others for states or the people.

Old Regime

The political and social order in France prior to the French Revolution.

Corvée

A form of forced labor that the French Third Estate was required to perform for the nobility.

Cahiers

Lists of grievances compiled by the Three Estates and given to King Louis XVI's deputies.

Tennis Court Oath

A pledge by the National Assembly not to disband until they had established a written constitution for France.

Jacobins

A radical political group in France that advocated for extreme changes and stirred up urban mobs.

Committee of Public Safety

A twelve-man committee led by Robespierre that directed the everyday affairs of the French revolutionary government.

Levée en masse

An August 1793 decree that mobilized the entire French nation into a unified citizen army.

Directory

The French constitutional government established in 1795 after the fall of the National Convention.

Enclosure movement

The consolidation of small landholdings into larger, fenced-in farms in Britain, increasing efficiency.

Domestic system

The pre-industrial method where workers produced goods in their own homes with their own tools.

Factory system

The manufacturing method where workers moved to urban areas and used tools provided by factory owners under strict supervision.

Laissez-faire

An economic policy advocating that the government should not interfere in business and trade.

Chartism

A movement by British workers advocating for universal manhood suffrage and the secret ballot.

Welfare state

A system where the government assumes responsibility for the social and material well-being of every citizen.

Proletariat

The Marxist term referring to the working class.

Bourgeoisie

The Marxist term referring to the capitalist factory owners.

Realism

The 19th-century artistic and literary movement based on the belief that life should be portrayed exactly as it is.

Impressionism

An artistic movement that replaced photographic realism with a focus on shifting light and color.

Militarism

The underlying cause of WWI involving massive military buildups and the domination of civil government by the military.

Schlieffen Plan

Germany's strategy to defeat France via neutral Belgium before the Russian army could fully mobilize.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's blueprint for a moderate, revenge-free settlement ending World War I.

League of Nations

An international organization established in 1920 to maintain global peace through arms reduction and arbitration.

Mandates

Former German colonies and Arabian territories administered by Britain and France under League of Nations supervision.

Appeasement

The policy of attempting to halt an aggressor by making concessions, demonstrated at the Munich Conference.

Blitzkrieg

'Lightning war' tactics combining rapid panzer divisions and Luftwaffe air support.

Vichy France

The collaborative French government established in southern France following the 1940 surrender to Germany.

Lend-Lease Act (1941)

U.S. law authorizing the president to sell or lease military supplies to nations vital to American defense.

Holocaust

The systematic Nazi slaughter of millions of European Jews and others, also known as the Shoah.

Island-hopping

The American military strategy in the Pacific to recapture strategic islands for airbases.

Containment

The primary objective of the Truman Doctrine to thwart the global expansion of communism.

Marshall Plan

The European Recovery Act of 1948 that provided $5.3\,billion$ in economic assistance to rebuild Western Europe.

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization; a regional military defense alliance formed by Western democracies.

Warsaw Pact

The Soviet Union's military alliance that legally bound Eastern European satellite states to Moscow.

Domino Theory

The belief that if Vietnam fell to communism, the rest of Asia would follow.

Détente

A deliberate relaxation of tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Nixon administration.

Perestroika

Mikhail Gorbachev's reform concept meaning 'restructuring' of the Soviet system.

Glasnost

Mikhail Gorbachev's reform concept meaning 'openness' in discussing the flaws of Soviet society.