APWH Ch. 13 Vocab

Unit 3

Akbar

(1556-1605) The third Mughal Emperor, expanding the empire across India through military and strategic strength, utilized marriage alliances, established centralized gov., fostered cultural fusion, religious tolerance and inclusion, abolishing discriminatory taxes (jizya), peak of Mughal power.

Aurangzeb

Columbian Exchange

Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage, the vast transfer of plants, animals, diseases, people, technology, and ideas between the Old Word (Europe, Africa, Asia) and the New World (Americas), reshaped ecosystems, economies, cultures, demographics, causing Native American population collapse and European growth through New World crops like potatoes and maize.

Constantinople 1453

The fall of ____. When the Ottoman Empire, led by Sultan Mehmed II, conquered the Byzantine capital, ended the Byzantine Eastern Roman Empire, and established the city as Istanbul. Ottoman dominance in Southeast Europe.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico, marking a crucial moment in European colonization, the Columbian Exchange, and the Age of Exploration. Establishing Spanish rule and aggressive expansion of European power.

Devshirme

Ottoman system of taking Christian boys from the Balkans, converting them to Islam, training them as elite soldiers/administrators, creating a loyal force for the Sultan.

Dona Marina

(AKA La Malinche or Malintzin) (16th century) A vital indigenous Nahua woman who was an interpreter, translator, negotiator, advisor, and intermediary for Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes during his conquest of the Aztec Empire. Allowed alliances, etc.

The Great Dying

(after 1492) catastrophic population collapse of Indigenous Americans, following European contact, caused by Old Word diseases (smallpox, measles), lead to social disruption and 90% of indigenous population decrease.

Mestizo

Person of mixed European (primarily Spanish/Portuguese) and Indigenous American ancestry. Latin American identity.

Mughal Empire

(16th-19th cent.) powerful Islamic empire in South Asia, known for unifying much of India, cultural synthesis, architectural wonders, economic prosperity, and complex rule under Akbar (tolerance) and Aurangzeb (orthodoxy).

Mulattoes

People of mixed African and European ancestry.

Ottoman Empire

long-lasting Islamic empire ruling parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, known for its military (Janissaries), cultural diversity (Millet System), powerful sultans, role in global trade and politics, interactions with European powers leading to WWI. Founded by Osman in Anatolia, captured Constantinople (renamed it Istanbul), force in the Balkans, Middle East, and North Africa.

Peninsulares

People born in Spain (Iberian Peninsula) who lived in the Spanish colonies of the Americas, holding the highest social rank and controlling top government.

Plantation Complex

Large-scale agricultural system that developed in the Americas, based on the production of cash crops (sugars) for export to Europe, enslaved African labor, and established social hierarchy of wealthy white elite (the planter class) and enslaved people.

Qing Dynasty

(1644-1912) China’s last imperial dynasty, established by Manchu people, territorial expansion, significant population growth, porcelain, Confucian-based society, declined bc of internal rebellions and external pressures.

Settler Colonies

territory where colonizers move in large numbers to establish permanent homes, aiming to replace/dominate indigenous populations and build a new society.

Siberia

region of Asian Russia conquered by expanding Russian Empire, resource extraction of furs, minerals, timber, and hydropower, geography, etc.

Yasak