AP World History Unit 1 Vocabulary

Flashcards for AP World History Unit 1 Exam Review

State

A territory that is politically organized under a single government.

Song Dynasty

Chinese dynasty in power from 960 to 1279, known for its state-building efforts.

Neo-Confucianism

Revival of Confucianism during the Song Dynasty, incorporating Buddhist influences.

Hierarchical Society

The idea that the nature of society is hierarchical.

Filial Piety

Emphasized the necessity and virtue of children obeying and honoring their parents, grandparents, and ancestors.

Bureaucracy

A government entity arranged in a hierarchical fashion that carries out the will of the emperor.

Civil Service Examination

Examination system used in China to select officials for bureaucratic positions.

Dar al-Islam

The house of Islam; refers to all the places in the world where Islamic faith was the organizing principle of civilizations.

Sharia Law

Legal code based on the Quran that was used as the organizing principle of legal systems in the new Turkic empires.

Nasir al-din al-Tusi

Muslim scholar who made significant advances in mathematics and even invented trigonometry.

The House of Wisdom

Library with a metric butt load of scholarly works established under the Abbasid Empire during the Golden Age of Islam.

Sufi

A new sect of Islam which emphasized mystical experience and was far more open to adapting itself to local beliefs.

Bhakti Movement

Started in the southern part of India as an innovation on traditional polytheistic Hinduism; Devotion to one of the Hindu gods was emphasized.

Vijayanagara Empire

Kingdom established in 1336 as a Counterpoint to Muslim rule in the North.

Majapahit Kingdom

Buddhist Kingdom based in Java from 1293 to 1520; one of the most powerful states in southeast Asia that maintained its influence by controlling sea routes for trade.

Khmer Empire

Empire founded as a Hindu Kingdom but at some point the leadership converted to Buddhism.

Aztec Empire

Empire founded in 1345 by the meshika people and entered an alliance with two other Mesoamerican States and established an Empire with an aggressive program of expansion.

Tenochtitlan

Capital city of the Aztec empire that was magnificent and the largest city in the Americas before the Europeans arrived.

Tribute States

Where the people that they conquered were required to provide labor for the Aztecs and regular contributions of goods like food and animals and building materials.

Midas System

The midas system, which required all people under their rule to provide labor on state projects like large State Farms or mining or military service or state construction projects.

Mississippian Culture

First large-scale civilization in North America that grew up around the Mississippi River Valley.

Swahili Civilization

A series of cities organized around Commerce, which is to say trading along the east African coast.

Swahili

A hybrid language between indigenous African Bantu languages and Arab.

Great Zimbabwe

African state whose capital city was built sometime between 1250 and 1450. it contained massive structures covering almost 200 acres and held a population of about 18 thousand; rulers and people never converted to Islam but rather maintained their indigenous shamanistic religion

Kingdom of Ethiopia

State that grew and flourished because of trade, especially with other states around the Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula, but was set apart from many other African States by their religion, Christianity.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Version of Christianity was practiced by the byzantine empire.

Roman Catholic church

Western Europe had split into a bunch of tiny decentralized States after the fall of the Roman Empire around the 5th Century that linked every state together in the region cultural.

Feudalism

A system whereby powerful Lords and Kings gained Allegiance from lesser Lords and Kings.

Manorialism

A huge piece of land owned by a lord which was then rented out to peasants who worked the land.