AP World History Semester 1 Final MCQ Flashcards

Columbian Exchange

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

Inca

Largest and most powerful Andean empire. Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco.

Aztecs

Also known as Mexica, they created a powerful empire in central Mexico (1325-1521 C.E.). They forced defeated peoples to provide goods and labor as a tax.

Bantu Migration

The movement of the Bantu peoples southward throughout Africa, spreading their language and culture, from around 500 BCE. to around CE 1000

Council of Trent (1545-1563)

The congress of Roman Catholic authorities that met to reform abusive church practices and reconcile with the Protestants.

Jesuits (Society of Jesus)

Religious organization that became the "spiritual arm" for the Catholic Counter-Reformation through education and missionary work.

Deism

The religion of the Enlightenment (1700s). Followers believed that God existed and had created the world, but that afterwards He left it to run by its own natural laws. They used the metaphor of God as a watchmaker to explain.

Enlightenment

A philosophical movement which started in Europe in the 1700's and spread to the colonies. It emphasized reason and the scientific method. Writers of the enlightenment tended to focus on government, ethics, and science, rather than on imagination, emotions, or religion. Many members of the Enlightenment rejected traditional religious beliefs in favor of Deism, which holds that the world is run by natural laws without the direct intervention of God.

Protestant Reformation (1517)

A religious movement of the 16th century led by Martin Luther that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches.

Indulgence

A pardon given by the Roman Catholic Church in return for repentance for sins. Martin Luther despised these in particular.

Purgatory

The state of purification that takes place after death for those who need to be made clean and holy before meeting the all-holy God in Heaven.

Louis XIV (The Sun King)

(1638-1715) Known as the Sun King, he was an absolute monarch that completely controlled France. One of his greatest accomplishments was the building of the palace at Versailles.

Peter the Great

This was the tsar of Russia that sought to modernize and westernize Russia and who built a showcase "window on the west" city at St. Petersburg.

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

An agreement between Portugal and Spain which declared that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal.

Encomienda System

A system whereby the Spanish crown granted the conquerors the right to forcibly employ groups of Indians;

Triangle Trade System

1. Ships travel to Africa to deliver European goods (guns/cloth) in exchange for slaves. 2. Slaves taken to America in exchange for tobacco, molasses, sugar. 3. Tobacco, molasses, sugar shipped to Europe to be sold.

Succession

The plan for new political rulers to take over when the time comes. Having a clear plan of succession make it more likely to have peaceful transfers of power.

Dutch Learning

A metaphor for any western learning embraced by some Japanese in the 18th century as introduced by Dutch traders at the port of Nagasaki/Deshima.

Constitutional Monarchy

A form of government in which the king retains his position as head of state, while the authority to tax and make new laws resides in an elected body. Henry VIII of England is a good example of a constitutional monarch.

Absolute Monarchy

Concept of government developed during rise of nation-states in Western Europe during the 17th century; featured monarchs who ruled based on "divine right" concept ("God appointed me to be your king ..."). Louis XIV is a great example of an absolute monarch.

Manilla Galleon Trade

The very profitable trade between Manila in the Philippines and the west coast of the Americas from the 1500 through 1700s was fueled by New World silver that was traded for luxury good that were then transported back to Europe.

Janissaries

Christian boys forced in the service of the Sultan through the devshirme system and made into one of the finest militaries at the times, known as the Janissaries.

Devshirme

Ottoman policy of taking boys from Christian peoples to be trained as Muslim soldiers

Sugarcane

One of the primary crops of the Americas, which required a tremendous amount of labor (engenho system) to cultivate and thus fueled the slave trade.

Engenho

Brazilian sugar mills; term symbolized entire complex world of everything relating to the production of sugar.

Mita System

The system recruiting workers for particularly difficult and dangerous chores that free laborers would not accept.

English East India Company

An early joint-stock company; were granted on English royal charter with the intention of favoring trade privileges in India.

Dutch VOC (Dutch East India Co)

The Dutch East India Company, another example of an early joint-stock company that facilitated Dutch trade in the East Indies

Scientific Revolution

A major change in European thought, starting in the mid-1500s, in which the study of the natural world began to be characterized by careful observation and the questioning of accepted beliefs, all leading to the scientific method.

Social Contract

An agreement between the people and their government signifying their consent to be governed in exchange for basic rights. Based off of Rousseau's famous pamphlet of the same name.

Heliocentric Universe

A sun-centered universe postulated by Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

Gallileo Galilei

Italian scientist and mathematician who created a telescope to prove that Copernicus was correct in his heliocentric theory.

John Locke

17th century English philosopher who opposed the Divine Right of Kings and who asserted that people have a natural right to life, liberty, and property.

Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith)

Considered the founding father of economics, Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. His most famous concept was that markets guide economic activity and act like an "invisible hand" - allocating resources through prices, which rise when there is a shortage of a commodity and fall when it is plentiful.

Chinampas

Raised fields constructed along lake shores in Mesoamerica to increase agricultural yields.

Quipu

An arrangement of knotted strings on a cord, used by the Inca to record numerical information.

Casta System

Strict social hierarchy structured on racial components, designed to ensure Spanish-European dominance in the New World.

Virgin of Guadalupe

An apparition of the Virgin Mary said to have appeared to a Mexican farmer (Juan Diego) in 1531. She exerted a powerful attraction to Mesoamerica's surviving Amerindians and became an icon of Mexican religious identity.

Alternate Attendance

Required Daimyos to spend every other year at the Tokugawa court, keeping their power in check. Weakened in two ways: their wealth was affected by having two households, and their ability to establish separate power bases was impaired

Daimyo

A Japanese feudal lord who commanded a private army of samurai

Zheng He

An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa. The fleet was later destroyed as they started closing their doors.

Canton System

Trading pattern that developed between Chinese and foreign merchants, especially British, in the South China trading city of Guangzhou (Canton) from the 17th to the 19th century.

Yongle Encyclopedia

A collection of Chinese philosophical, literary, and historical texts ordered by Ming emperor Yongle that represented support of native Chinese cultural traditions after Mongol Yuan Dynasty.

Civil Service Examination System

Exams that Chinese bureaucrats passed to serve in state, based on Confucian concepts, which created a meritocracy.

Floating Worlds (Ukiyo)

Describes the urban lifestyle, especially the pleasure-seeking aspects, of Edo-period Japan (1600-1867), during which urban culture and traditions thrived and flourished due to stability and isolation ... a kind of golden age for Japan, if you will.

Mansa Musa

Emperor of the kingdom of Mali in Africa. He made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca and established trade routes to the Middle East.

Swahili Coast

East African city-states that emerged in the 8th century CE from a blending of Bantu, Islamic, and other Indian Ocean trade elements.

Atlantic Slave Trade

Lasted from 16th century until the 19th century. Trade of African peoples from Western Africa to the Americas. One part of a three-part trade system known as the Middle Passage of the Triangular Trade.

Istanbul/Constantinople

Capital of the Ottoman Empire once they conquered Byzantines and changed name from Constantinople to Istanbul. Maybe they just liked it better that way?

Tenochtitlan (Mexico City)

Old Capitol of the Aztec empire/Current Capital of the country of Mexico.