AP World Unit 2 - Vocab List 3

Creoles

People of European descent born in the Americas.

Daimyo

Powerful regional lords in Japan who controlled land and samurai armies.

Encomienda

A Spanish labor system granting colonists the right to forced Indigenous labor.

Gentry

The educated landowning class (especially in China and Europe).

Hacienda

Large agricultural estates in Spanish America where Indigenous and mixed-race laborers worked.

Indentured Servitude

A labor system where people worked for several years in exchange for passage to the Americas.

Manchus

A northeastern Asian group who conquered China and founded the Qing Dynasty.

Mestizo

People of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in Latin America.

Mulatto

People of mixed European and African ancestry.

Peninsulare

Spaniards born in Spain.

Plantations

Large-scale farms (sugar, tobacco, cotton) relying on African slave labor.

Siberia

The vast region east of Russia conquered for fur.

Silk textile production

A major Chinese industry based on raising silkworms.

Textiles

Woven fabrics—one of the most important global trade goods.

Zamindars

Local Indian tax collectors under the Mughal Empire.

Atlantic piracy

Raiders who attacked Atlantic trade routes during the rise of European empires.

Devshirme

The Ottoman system of taking Christian boys, converting them, and training them as Janissaries.

Divine Right

The belief that monarchs received authority from God, justifying absolute rule.

Gunpowder

Explosive powder used in weapons.

Human sacrifice

Practiced by the Aztecs as religious devotion and political legitimacy.

Samurai

Warrior elite of feudal Japan who served daimyo.

Songhai Empire

A powerful West African empire controlling trans-Saharan trade in the 1400s-1500s.

Taj Mahal

A massive Mughal mausoleum built by Shah Jahan.

Thirty Years' War

A devastating European conflict (1618-1648) involving religion, politics, and state power.

Tribute collection

A system where conquered peoples paid goods or money to an empire.

Versailles

The luxurious palace of French kings (Louis XIV).

Portuguese Empire

Maritime empire built on trading posts in Africa, India, and Brazil.

Spanish Empire

Conquered the Americas, extracting silver and enforcing Catholicism.

Dutch Empire

A commercial empire based on the Dutch East India Company (VOC).

French Empire

Focused on North America and the Caribbean.

British Empire

Expanded through North America, the Caribbean, and India.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Nurhaci

Manchu leader who united the tribes and began the conquest of China.

Shah Abbas I

Led the Safavid Empire during its golden age.

Ana Nzinga

Queen of Ndongo and Matamba who resisted Portuguese expansion.

René Descartes

French philosopher of the Scientific Revolution.

Rembrandt

Dutch painter representing the Dutch Golden Age.

Leeuwenhoek

Scientist who perfected microscopes and discovered microorganisms.

Metacom (King Philip)

Wampanoag leader who led a major Native American rebellion against English settlers.

King Louis XIV

Absolute monarch of France ("Sun King").

Kangxi Emperor

Long-ruling Qing emperor who stabilized China.

King Charles II

English monarch restored to the throne after the English Civil War.

Peter the Great

Russian czar who modernized and westernized Russia.

Queen Nanny

Leader of the Jamaican Maroons who resisted British control.

Pugachev

Leader of a massive Russian peasant rebellion against Catherine the Great.