AP WORLD 1.4-1.7 VOCAB

Mississippian

The first large-scale civilization in North America, emerging in the 700s or 800s in the Mississippi River Valley; known for building enormous earthen mounds.

Cahokia

The largest of the Mississippian mounds, located in southern Illinois; some mounds were as tall as 100 feet and covered an area the size of 12 football fields.

Matrilineal Society

A social system, used by the Mississippians, in which social standing was determined by the woman's side of the family (e.g., when the Great Sun died, the title passed to a sister's son, not his own son).

Chaco & Mesa Verde

Two cultures that emerged in the southwestern United States after the Mississippian civilization; the Chaco built large stone-and-clay housing structures, while the people of Mesa Verde built multi-story homes into cliffsides using sandstone bricks. Both declined in the late 13th century as the climate became drier.

City-state

The main form of Mayan government; each was ruled by a king and consisted of a city and its surrounding territory. Mayans rarely fought to control territory, more often fighting for tribute and captives for human sacrifice.

Mexicas

Another name for the Aztecs, originally hunter-gatherers who migrated to central Mexico from the north in the 1200s and founded their capital, Tenochtitlan, in 1325.

Theocracy

Rule by religious leaders; the form of Aztec government, in which the emperor (the Great Speaker) was both the political ruler and a divine representative of the gods.

Inca

A South American civilization founded in 1438 by Pachacuti, which grew into the Incan Empire stretching from present-day Ecuador to Chile.

Pachacuti

The tribal leader whose name means "transformer" or "shaker" of the earth; he began conquering tribes near present-day Cuzco, Peru, in 1438, combining them into the Incan Empire.

Mit'a System

The Incan system of mandatory public service; instead of paying tribute like Aztec subjects, conquered peoples under the Inca provided labor, such as agricultural work and road construction, mainly performed by men ages 15-50.

Animism

The belief that elements of the physical world—called huaca by the Inca—such as rivers, mountains, stones, or built objects, could have supernatural powers.

Carpa Nan

The massive Incan roadway system, built using captive labor, consisting of about 25,000 miles of roads used mainly by the government and military, with especially important bridges in the mountainous terrain.

Kin-based networks

The way most Sub-Saharan African communities governed themselves in the absence of centralized power; families governed themselves, with a male head (chief) mediating conflicts, and groups of villages forming districts.

Chief

The male head of a kin-based network in Sub-Saharan Africa who mediated conflicts and dealt with neighboring groups.

Hausa Kingdoms

Seven states formed by the Hausa ethnic group in what is now Nigeria before 1000 CE; loosely connected through kinship ties with no central authority, they benefited from the trans-Saharan trade.

Ghana

A West African kingdom located between the Sahara and the tropical rain forests, reaching its peak influence from the 8th to 11th centuries; its rulers sold gold and ivory to Muslim traders in exchange for salt, copper, cloth, and tools from the capital, Koumbi Saleh.

Mali

The West African kingdom that rose after Ghana's decline in the 12th century, founded by Sundiata, who cultivated a thriving gold trade; his nephew Mansa Musa made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca displaying great wealth.

Zimbabwe

A powerful East African kingdom between the 12th and 15th centuries, situated between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, that built its prosperity on agriculture, grazing, trade, and gold, and traded through the Indian Ocean network.

Swahili

A new language developed in East Africa by traders who blended Bantu and Arabic; today it is spoken across the African Great Lakes region and parts of Southeast Africa.

Great Zimbabwe

The capital city of the kingdom of Zimbabwe, surrounded by a massive stone wall (30 feet tall, 15 feet thick) built without mortar; nearly 20,000 people lived there before it was abandoned by the end of the 1400s due to overgrazing.

Ethiopia (Abyssinia/Axum)

An East African kingdom that developed from Axum; became an island of Christianity from the 12th through 16th centuries, with rulers ordering the construction of 11 massive rock-hewn churches, and developed its own distinct form of Christianity.

Zanj Rebellion

A series of revolts (869-883) by enslaved East Africans (zanj) and Arab workers who captured the city of Basra and held it for ten years; considered one of the most successful slave revolts in history.

Griots/Griottes

Oral storytellers in Sub-Saharan Africa who preserved a community's history and family lineages;

Roman Catholic Church

The most powerful institution in medieval Europe, dominating most of Western Europe from Roman times to the 16th century; it established the first universities, led education and art, and held great political power in the feudal system.

Great Schism

The 1054 split of the Christian Church into two branches: the Roman Catholic Church, which dominated Western Europe, and the Orthodox Church, which was powerful farther east from Greece to Russia.

Orthodox Church

The eastern branch of Christianity that split from the Roman Catholic Church in the Great Schism of 1054; it was dominant from Greece to Russia and maintained closer ties with Byzantium.

Pope

The supreme bishop in Rome, head of the Roman Catholic Church, to whom regional bishops owed allegiance.

Bishops

Regional religious leaders in the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy who owed allegiance to the pope and selected and supervised local priests.

Primogeniture

The medieval European inheritance rule under which the eldest son in a family inherited the entire estate, leaving younger sons with little access to wealth and land—a factor that contributed to the Crusades.

Crusades

A series of European military campaigns in the Middle East between 1095 and the 1200s, driven by religious, social, and economic pressures, aimed at reclaiming the Holy Land from Muslim control.

Antisemitism

Anti-Jewish sentiment that was widespread among Christians in medieval Europe; Jews were treated as outsiders, blamed as scapegoats during crises, and expelled from England (1290), France (1394), Spain (1492), and Portugal (1497).

Feudalism

A decentralized political and social system in medieval Europe based on exchanges of land for loyalty; monarchs granted fiefs to lords, who provided land to knights and peasants in exchange for military service and labor.

Estates-General

A body in France, first convened by Philip IV, that advised the king and included representatives from the three legal classes (estates): the clergy, nobility, and commoners; it had little real power since the upper two estates were not regularly taxed.

Magna Carta

A document forced upon King John of England by English nobles in 1215, requiring the king to respect certain rights, such as the right to a jury trial, limiting royal power.

Manorial System

The economic system of large feudal estates (manors) that provided self-sufficiency and defense, producing everything needed by the people living on it and limiting the need for outside trade or contact.

Serfs

Peasants in the manorial system who, while not slaves, were tied to the land and could not travel or marry without their lord's permission, in exchange for protection.

Three-Field System

An agricultural technique in which crops were rotated through three fields—one for wheat or rye, one for nitrogen-restoring legumes, and one left fallow each year—improving farming efficiency near the end of the Middle Ages.