World History Lecture Review

Flashcards covering key historical concepts, empires, economic systems, and revolutionary movements from global history notes.

Global Perspective

The understanding of world history that provides skills for global workforce needs, critical thinking, and a sense of self and place in the global community.

Primary Sources

First-hand evidence with which historians form a foundation of knowledge of the past, requiring interpretation of author, audience, intent, and context.

Secondary Sources

Offer valuable starting points for inquiry and context, but students must be aware of any bias they contain.

Causation in History

The historian’s main job to discover why history happened as it did, applying rigorous interpretative methodology rooted in the search for immediate causation and contributing factors.

Mughal Empire

A Muslim empire founded by Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, which under Akbar grew to incorporate Indian and Persian, Hindu and Muslim elements across much of India.

Akbar

Grandson of Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, who forged a culture incorporating Indian and Persian, Hindu and Muslim elements, and expanded the Mughal Empire.

Aurangzeb

A Mughal emperor who attempted an Islamic revival and was largely intolerant of the Hindu population, which led to the empire's weakening as it battled for dominance.

Malaccan Sultanate

Established around 1400 by Parameswara, a city whose strategic location on the Malaccan Straits destined it for success as a wealthy trading hub.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Became the shogun of a united Japan in 1603, prohibiting Christianity, banning the entry of the Portuguese and Spanish, and restricting Japanese from leaving the country.

Ming Dynasty

The Chinese dynasty that initially forbade foreign trade under Emperor Hongwu, later permitted trade with Europeans for money, bringing prosperity before its overthrow in 1644.

Qing Dynasty

The Manchu dynasty that attempted to reassert traditional Confucian values in China while still trading with Europe.

Malian Empire

Established in the thirteenth century by Sundiata Keita, which prospered from its control of the Bure goldfields and made cities like Timbuktu and Djenné centers of Islamic scholarship.

Askia the Great

A Songhai emperor who used Islam to further his control, bringing the empire into its golden age and making it an unparalleled center of Islamic learning and study in West Africa.

Swahili Coast City-states

City-states on the east coast of Africa that grew in size and prosperity by participating in Indian Ocean trade, united by a shared religion (Islam) and language (Swahili).

Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

A trade network that, by the eighteenth century, reoriented away from traditional markets to coastal West Africa due to European demand for enslaved captives, emphasizing their acquisition and transport.

Millet System

An administrative system within the Ottoman Empire where each religious community had its own leader, regulated its own affairs, and educated its own children.

Suleiman I

Ottoman Sultan known as 'the Magnificent' in the West and 'the lawgiver' among Ottomans, under whom the empire reached its greatest heights, science flourished, and a comprehensive legal code was created.

Safavid Empire

A Shi‘ite Islamic state established under Shah Ismail I in 1501, which forcibly converted Sunni Muslims in its territories and saw a flourishing of art.

Protestant Reformation

A 16th-century movement begun by Martin Luther that challenged practices within the Catholic Church, leading to the spread of ideas such as salvation by faith alone and scripture as the sole authority.

Martin Luther

A German monk who began the Protestant Reformation by publicly objecting to the Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences, advocating faith alone for salvation and scripture as the only Christian authority.

Council of Trent

Called by the Roman Catholic Church in 1545, it reaffirmed aspects of church doctrine while also passing reforms to address problems that contributed to the Reformation.

Columbian Exchange

The flow of animals, foods, and other resources that traveled in both directions between the Old and New Worlds, profoundly altering cultures and economies, but also introducing devastating diseases to Indigenous peoples.

Mercantilist Theory

An economic theory adopted by European governments to achieve national power by maximizing their store of precious metals through limiting imports, profitably exporting, and acquiring colonies for resources and markets.

Atlantic Slave Trade (Middle Passage)

The forced shipment of approximately twelve million enslaved African people across the Atlantic Ocean by European nations from the late fifteenth through the early nineteenth centuries to meet labor needs in the Americas.

Triangular Trade

A three-legged exchange system where agricultural cash crops were shipped from the Americas to Europe, finished products were sent from Europe to Africa, and these goods were exchanged for captives in Africa to be transported to the Americas.

Seven Years' War

(1754–1763) A global conflict that established Britain as the dominant empire, resulting in significant territorial changes in North America and India.

Canton System

A Chinese Qing dynasty trade policy that increased trade with Europe and improved China’s economy, while rejecting most European goods and insisting on payment in silver, leading to a favorable balance of trade for China.

Capitalism

An economic system, alongside industrialization, that created tremendous wealth for business owners and professionals, but often at a high cost to low-paid, unskilled laborers who lost control over working conditions.

Marxism

A theory proposed by Karl Marx and his followers in response to the excesses of capitalism, arguing that the bourgeoisie exploit labor and predicting society would eventually replace current economic systems with socialism.

Bourgeoisie

In Marxist theory, members of the social class that owned the means of production, primarily motivated by the desire to exploit labor and accrue political influence from excess value.

Socialism

A system, predicted by Karl Marx, in which the public, not private companies or individuals, owns the means of production.

Enlightenment

An 18th-century European intellectual movement centered on the role of reason, generating optimism in philosophical principles such as liberty, rights, and the rejection of tyranny.

Public Sphere

An increasingly important component in the spread and development of Enlightenment ideas during the 17th and 18th centuries, facilitated by informal networks like coffeehouses, salons, academies, and print shops.

American Revolution

Initiated the revolutionary era, founding the United States of America, but established a paradoxical model of political liberty that coexisted with the institution of slavery.

French Revolution

Inspired by the American Revolution, it established a political model based on principles of democratic rights and equality, but faced significant challenges due to political factionalism and ongoing economic crises.

Haitian Revolution

The most radical break from the past, toppling the French colonial government, successfully challenging slavery, and creating the new nation of Haiti, though it faced long-term economic challenges.

Nationalism

An ideology that, as revolutionary fervor faded, sometimes prioritized the desire for unification over individual freedom, as seen in the birth of new states like Italy and Germany.

Liberalism

Political principles such as religious toleration and equality before the law that continued to exert a powerful influence on the rise of the modern nation-state.

Conservatism

An ideology that desired to restore order and stability following the revolutionary fervor of the eighteenth century, representing an approach to protecting societal structures and traditional institutions.