AP World History Exam Review

Flashcards for Period 2, 3, and 4 review

Joint-stock companies

Companies in which shares are sold to investors to raise capital for ventures.

Astrolabe

An instrument formerly used to make astronomical measurements, typically of the altitudes of celestial bodies, and calculate latitude.

Colonies/Colonization

Territories under the immediate and complete political control of a sovereign state.

Conquistadors

Spanish conquerors.

Creoles

People of Spanish ancestry born in the Americas.

Atlantic slave trade

The trade of African peoples by Europeans. Europeans transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.

Sugarcane

A tall grass with a thick, jointed stem from which sugar is extracted.

Zamindar

An aristocratic landowner in India, especially during the period of Mogul rule.

Repartimiento

A colonial forced labor system imposed upon the indigenous population of Spanish America and the Philippines.

Triangular trade

A pattern of trade involving the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

Edict of Nantes

A law granting religious freedom to Huguenots in France.

Versailles

The lavish palace of the French monarchy, symbolizing absolutist rule.

Inquisition

A period of intense religious persecution and trials in the Catholic Church.

Forbidden City

The Chinese imperial palace complex during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Deyshime

The policy of strict governmental control of foreign trade in Japan, led by the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Divine Right

The belief that a monarch's power comes directly from God.

Monopoly

Exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market.

Viceroys

Royal officials who govern as a representative of the monarch in a colony or province.

Encomienda

A Spanish labor system that rewarded conquerors with the labor of particular groups of subject people.

Thirty Years War

A series of wars in Central Europe, primarily involving Catholics and Protestants.

95 Theses

Martin Luther's critiques of the Catholic Church.

Philosophes

Intellectuals of the Enlightenment.

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.

Huguenots

French Protestants.

The Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith's book that promoted free markets and capitalism.

Plantations

Large-scale agricultural operations often relying on slave labor.

The Enlightenment

An intellectual movement emphasizing reason and individualism.

Hacienda

Large estates in Spanish America.

Jesuits

A Roman Catholic order of priests founded to do missionary work.

The Counter-Reformation

The Catholic Church's response to the Protestant Reformation.

Galleons

Large, multi-decked sailing ships used primarily by the Spanish.

Mercantilism

An economic system advocating that countries should simultaneously encourage exports and discourage imports.

The Reformation

A 16th-century movement for religious reform, leading to the founding of new Christian churches.

Mestizo

A person of mixed European and indigenous ancestry.

Mulattoes

A person of mixed European and African ancestry.

Indentured servitude

A system in which individuals enter into a contract to work for a specified period of years in exchange for transportation to America.

Janissaries

Elite infantry units in the Ottoman army.

Scientific Revolution

The emergence of modern science during the early modern period.

Vodun (Voodoo)

An African diasporic religion practiced in Haiti.

Absolutism

The principle of complete and unrestricted power in government.

English Civil War

A series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists.

Indulgences

Certificates issued by the Catholic Church that could reduce a person's time in purgatory.

Peninsulares

Spanish-born individuals who came to the Americas.

Smallpox

A disease that devastated indigenous populations.

Council of Trent

The Catholic Church's assembly that addressed the Protestant Reformation.

Westernization

The adoption of western ideas, technology, and culture.

Middle Passage

The stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans were forcibly transported to the New World.

Glorious Revolution

A bloodless revolution in England that overthrew James II and established William and Mary as joint rulers.

Predestination

The belief that God has already decided who will be saved.

Commercial Revolution

A period of European economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism.

Tsar/Czar

Russian term for ruler or emperor.

Protestantism

A branch of Christianity that separated from the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation.

Pearema

A system of governance that was used by the Ottoman Empire. It involved selling particular taxation rights to the highest bidder, who would then collect taxes within that region and remit a portion to the central government.

Social Contract

An implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits.

East India Company

A British joint-stock company that traded with India and China.

English Bill of Rights

A British law passed by Parliament in the 17th century that declared the rights and liberties of the people.

Tokugawa shogunate

The final period of traditional Japan, a time of internal peace, political stability, and economic growth under the shogunate founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Orthodox Church

The established Christian church of Russia.

Taj Mahal

A mausoleum in Agra, India, built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal.

Spanish Armada

A Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from Corunna in August 1588, with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England.

Abolition

The action or an act of abolishing a system, practice, or institution

The Communist Manifesto

An 1848 political pamphlet by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London just as the Revolutions of 1848 began to erupt, the Manifesto was later recognised as one of the world's most influential political documents.

Emancipation

The freeing of someone from slavery.

Freedom of Independence

The formal act or process of freeing from restraint, control, or the power of another.

Bourgeoisie

The middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes.

Capitalism

An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Boxer Rebellion

A violent anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising that took place in China between 1899 and 1901, toward the end of the Qing dynasty.

Enclaves

A portion of territory within a larger country whose inhabitants are culturally or ethnically distinct.

Raw materials

Basic material from which a product is made.

French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen

A fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human and civil rights; influenced by Thomas Jefferson; declared that all men are equal under the law.

Social Darwinism

The application of Darwinian ideas to politics and sociology.

Realpolitik

A system of politics or principles based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations.

Opium Wars

The Opium Wars were two wars waged between the Qing dynasty and Western powers in the mid-19th century.

Taiping Rebellion

A large-scale conflict that occurred in China from 1850 to 1864. It was a civil war, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan.

Industrial Revolution

A period of major industrialization that took place during the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Reform movements:
Suffrage, Labor, Tanzimat,
Self-Strengthening, Melji
Restoration

A series of social movements that aimed to address various societal ills.

Suez Canal

An artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez.

Spheres of Influence

A country or area in which another country has power to affect developments although it has no formal authority.

Communism

A political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.

Xhosa Cattle-Killing

A millenarian movement in 1856–7 by the Xhosa people in present-day Eastern Cape, South Africa, led by the teenage prophetess Nongqawuse, that led them to destroy their own livestock and crops in the belief that it would bring about supernatural assistance in their struggle against European settlers.

Anti-imperialism

Opposition to colonialism, neocolonialism, and all forms of imperial rule.

American Declaration

Declaration of Independence; an assertion by a nation to govern itself without outside interference.

Socialism

A political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Imperialism

A policy of extending a country's power and influence through colonization, use of military force, or other means.

Laissez-faire

A policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering.

Indian Revolt of 1857 or Sepoy Rebellion

A major, but ultimately unsuccessful, uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown.

Zionism

A movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel.

Urbanization

The growth of cities.

Scramble for Africa

The rush to colonize Africa by European powers.

Penal colony

A settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory.

Apartheid

A system of racial segregation and discrimination that was enforced in South Africa.

White Australia Policy vs. Aborigines

A series of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders (primarily Melanesians) from immigrating to Australia.

Chinese Exclusion Act

A United States federal law signed into law on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers.

Factory system

A system of manufacturing that concentrates labor and machines in a single location.

Millenarianism

The belief in a coming fundamental transformation of society.

Liberal

An ideology that emphasizes individual rights and liberties.

Bastille

A French prison that was stormed by revolutionaries in 1789.

Cottage industry

A small-scale industry in which family members work at home using their own equipment.

Boer Wars

Conflicts between the British Empire and the Afrikaners (Boers) in South Africa.