World History: Renaissance, Reformation, Empires, and Exploration

Humanism

Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied classical texts and focused on human potential and achievements

Secularism

The belief that religion and government should be kept separate

Religious tolerance

The idea that people of different religions can live in peace together

Religious unity

The idea that all members of an empire should follow the same religious doctrine (beliefs)

Printing press

Mechanical device for transferring text or graphics from a woodblock or type to paper using ink

Indulgences

Selling of forgiveness by the Catholic Church, which led to the Protestant Reformation

Ninety-Five Theses

Document written by Martin Luther and posted on a church door that listed flaws with the Catholic Church's practices

Predestination

Religious theory that God has already planned a person's fate

Huguenots

French Protestants, influenced by John Calvin

Edict of Nantes

Document that granted religious freedom to the Huguenots

Act of Supremacy

Declared England separate from the Catholic Church and created the Church of England, naming Henry VIII its supreme leader

Council of Trent

Meeting of Catholic leaders to change practices criticized by Protestant reformers

Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

Catholic group founded to spread the church through missionary works and education

Sultan

Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire

Jizya

Tax paid by religious minorities to allow them to continue to practice their own religion

Shah

Persian word for king (used by the Safavids)

Sikhism

Religion in India combining elements of Hinduism and Islam, with an emphasis on social equality

Edo period

Prosperity and peace in Japan, led by the Tokugawa Shogunate

Shogun

Military ruler in Japan

Sakoku

Japan's self-imposed isolation from global trade which lasted over 200 years

Encomienda system

System in Spanish America that enabled settlers to tax Natives and demand their labor

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and Europe

Atlantic Slave Trade

The buying and selling of African people for forced manual labor in the Americas

Niccolo Machiavelli

Renaissance intellectual who argued "the ends justify the means"

Martin Luther

German monk who became one of the most famous critics of the Roman Catholic Church by writing the Ninety-Five Theses

Charles V

Leader of the Holy Roman Empire who called for the Diet of Worms and tried to crush the Reformation in its early years

John Calvin

Religious reformer in France who believed in predestination and a strict sense of morality

Henry VIII

English king who created the Church of England after the Pope refused to annul his marriage

Elizabeth I

English queen who united Protestants and Catholics through compromise and tolerance

Suleiman the Magnificent

Ottoman sultan who expanded the empire's land area and restructured system of law

Shah Abbas

Leader of the Safavid Empire during its golden age

Akbar the Great

Mughal leader known for religious tolerance and building the Taj Mahal

Zheng He

Chinese admiral during the Ming Dynasty, who led voyages connecting China throughout Asia

Tokugawa leyasu

Founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate which reunified Japan and led it into its prosperous Edo period

Vasco da Gama

The first known European to reach India by sea sailing around the tip of Africa

Christopher Columbus

The first known European to reach the Americas (though he initially believed it was Asia)

Hernando Cortez

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Incas in what is now Peru

Ferdinand Magellan

The first known person to circumnavigate the globe

Montezuma II

The last Aztec emperor in Mexico who was overthrown and killed by Hernando Cortes

Treaty of Tordesillas

Agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and those to the east would belong to Portugal

Conquistadors

Spanish soldiers who led military expeditions in the Americas and captured land for Spain

Mercantilism

An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by selling more goods than they bought

Caste system

In Latin America, a social structure in which classes are determined by a person's heredity and race