World History Practice Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering major civilizations, leaders, and global events from the Neolithic Revolution to the modern era, based on the provided lecture notes.

First Agricultural Revolution (Neolithic Revolution)

The shift from hunting and gathering to settled farming villages, domestication of plants and animals, population growth, and development of permanent civilizations.

Sumerian civilization

Considered the first civilization in history, beginning around $5000\,\text{BCE}$ in Mesopotamia.

Sargon of Akkad

The Mesopotamian ruler who built the first empire in $2350\,\text{BCE}$ by conquering several city-states in the Fertile Crescent.

Hammurabi’s Code

Considered the first written law code in world history.

Analects

The work where Confucius explains an ordered society as one where people respect hierarchy, family loyalty, and fulfill their roles.

Mandate of Heaven

The concept used by early Zhou monarchs, such as Wu, to explain their right to rule.

Hittites

A group that was using iron weapons and tools by $1700\,\text{BCE}$.

Assyrians

A group that created a large military empire using terror and advanced warfare.

Akhenaten

The Egyptian pharaoh who instituted religious reform and attempted to impose monotheism on Egypt.

Satraps

Provincial governors used by Darius I to administer Persian provinces.

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

Greek philosophers who challenged traditions and created schools that expanded education.

Alexander the Great

The ruler who built and controlled a vast empire until his death in $323\,\text{BCE}$.

Punic Wars

Conflict between Rome and Carthage that resulted in Rome gaining control of the Mediterranean.

Augustus Caesar (Octavian)

The leader who reorganized the Roman government by naming Rome an empire in $31\,\text{BCE}$.

Qin Shi Huangdi

The founder of the Qin dynasty and the first ruler to unite all of China, bearing the title 'First Emperor'.

Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu)

The leader who founded the Han dynasty in $206\,\text{BCE}$.

Confucianism

The belief system adopted by Han rulers to organize the governmental bureaucracy.

Siddhartha Gautama

The founder of Buddhism who articulated the 'Four Noble Truths', including the precept that suffering is caused by desire.

Ashoka

The Mauryan Emperor who converted to Buddhism and pursued a policy of non-violence after being horrified by the Kalinga War.

Silk Road

The trade route connecting China and the Mediterranean/Roman Empire.

Indian Ocean Maritime Network

Referred to as a bicultural society because traders spread and blended cultures, religions, and ideas across regions.

Trans-Saharan trade routes

The most important African trade routes for fostering cultural exchange.

Hijra

The migration of Muhammad to Medina in $622$, which serves as a foundation date for Islam.

Byzantines

The empire that preserved Greek and Roman knowledge and Christianity after the fall of Rome.

Feudalism

A decentralized European system based on land ownership, loyalty, and protection.

Magna Carta

The English document signed by John I that had the largest impact on future government activity in the West.

Battle of Tours ($732$)

Event where Europeans stopped Muslim expansion into Western Europe, serving as a precursor to the Crusades.

Samurai

A new social warrior class that appeared during the Kamakura Shogunate in Japan.

Genghis Khan

The title taken by Temujin, whose greatest accomplishment was uniting the Mongol tribes.

Kublai Khan and Batu Khan

Mongol leaders who led the Yuan China and Golden Horde khanates, respectively.

Zheng He

The leader of naval expeditions sponsored by Ming rulers to expand China's long-distance trade networks.

Ibn Battuta

A traveler who recorded detailed observations of Afro-Eurasian societies.

Renaissance

The rebirth of Greco-Roman learning, art, and humanism.

Johannes Gutenberg

The inventor of the printing press.

Leif Erikson

The Norwegian navigator who founded the colony of Vinland in present-day Canada around $1000$.

Ferdinand Magellan

The Portuguese navigator sailing for Spain who was the first to circumnavigate the globe.

Christopher Columbus

The Italian navigator sailing for Spain who reached the Americas in $1492$.

Vasco da Gama

The navigator who sailed around the southern tip of Africa and opened a sea-route to India.

Louis XIV

The French monarch considered the model absolute European ruler.

Cortes and Pizarro

Leaders whose conquests of the Aztec and Inca empires gave Spain a strong foothold in Latin America.

Martin Luther

Individual who started the Protestant Reformation in $1519$ by posting the Ninety-Five Theses.

Scientific Revolution

A period that emphasized observation, experimentation, and reason, weakening traditional authority.

Enlightenment

A movement of the $1700\text{s}$ promoting reason, natural rights, and limited government.

Capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership and profit.

Toussaint Louverture

A former slave who led a successful independence movement in Haiti and helped create the Haitian Republic in $1804$.

Adam Smith

The thinker who espoused laissez faire, the idea that government should refrain from interference in business.

Karl Marx

The nineteenth-century philosopher who developed the theories of communism and 'scientific socialism'.

Meiji Restoration

The period during which Japan became the first nation in East Asia to modernize its economy and westernize its military.

New Imperialism

The nineteenth-century expansion where industrialized nations established overseas colonies for resources and markets.

Spheres of influence

Systems established by Western nations in East Asia to control Chinese commerce following the Boxer Rebellion.

Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky

The two leaders most closely associated with the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War.

Treaty of Versailles

The $1919$ treaty considered a failure because its harsh treatment of Germany helped cause World War II.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

The leader who modernized and westernized Turkey in the $1920\text{s}$.

Mahatma Gandhi

The Indian nationalist who advocated nonviolent resistance and led the Indian independence movement after WWI.

Mao Zedong

The founder and eventual leader of the Chinese Communist Party.

United Nations

An organization formed in $1945$ to promote peace and prevent future world wars.

Space Race

A Cold War competition won by the United States when Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface in $1969$.

ARPANET

A communication tool designed for the Department of Defense in the $1980\text{s}$ that served as the basis for the internet.

Alexander Fleming

Revolutionized health care by discovering penicillin in $1928$.

Earth Day

Founded by American environmentalists in $1970$ to raise awareness of global environmental issues.

Martin Cooper

The individual who invented the cell phone in $1974$.