Developments in East Asia, Dar al-Islam, South/Southeast Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Europe

Key vocabulary terms and definitions from the Developments in East Asia, Dar al-Islam, South/Southeast Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Europe lecture notes.

Ming Dynasty “Prohibition Ordinance”

Ordinances will be properly enforced and the morality of our people will be restored.

Song Dynasty

Replaced the Tang in 960 and ruled for more than three centuries.

Imperial Bureaucracy

A vast organization in which appointed officials carried out the empire’s policies

Meritocracy

China’s bureaucratic system because officials obtained their positions by demonstrating their merit on civil service exams.

Grand Canal

An inexpensive and efficient internal waterway transportation system that extended over 30,000 miles.

Champa Rice

A fast-ripening and drought-resistant strain of rice from the Champa Kingdom in present-day Vietnam, greatly expanded agricultural production in China.

Proto-industrialization

A set of economic changes in which people in rural areas made more goods than they could sell.

Scholar Gentry

A new social class created by the bureaucratic expansion. Educated in Confucian philosophy and became the most influential social class in China.

Foot Binding

A distinctive constraint on women’s activities in China that became common among aristocratic families during the Song Dynasty which restricted women’s ability to move and hence to participate in the public sphere.

Woodblock Printing

A system of printing developed in the 7th century that allowed people to make multiple copies of art or written texts without laboriously copying each by hand.

Neo-Confucianism

Evolved in China between 770 and 840. It was a syncretic system, combining rational thought with the more abstract ideas of Daoism and Buddhism that emphasized ethics rather than the mysteries of God and nature.

Prince Shotoku Taishi

Promoted Buddhism and Confucianism along with Japan’s traditional Shinto religion.

Daimyo

Landowning aristocrats that battled for control of land, while the majority of people worked as rice farmers.

Bushido

The code in Japan that stressed frugality, loyalty, the martial arts, and honor unto death.

Shogun

A military ruler installed by the Minamoto clan in 1192 to reign.

Kowtow

A ritual in which anyone greeting the Chinese emperor must bow his or her head until it reached the floor.

Polygyny

The practice of having more than one wife at the same time.

Dar al-Islam

A term that can refer either to the practice of dressing modestly or to a specific type of covering.

Mamluks

Enslaved people who were frequently ethnic Turks from Central Asia that served as soldiers and later as bureaucrats.

Seljuk Turks

Central Asian Muslims who began conquering parts of the Middle East, eventually extending their power almost as far east as Western China.

Sultan

The Seljuk leader, thereby reducing the role of the highest-ranking Abbasid from caliph to chief Sunni religious authority.

Crusaders

European Christian groups of soldiers that organized to reopen access to the holy sites in and around Jerusalem.

Shariah

Islamic law

Hijab

A term that can refer either to the practice of dressing modestly or to a specific type of covering.

Sufis

Emphasized introspection to grasp truths that they believed could not be understood through learning.

Bhakti Movement

Beginning in the 12th century, some Hindus began to draw upon traditional teachings about the importance of emotion in their spiritual life focusing on developing a strong attachment to a particular deity that was appealing to many believers because it did not discriminate against women or people of low social status.

Srivijaya Empire

A Hindu kingdom based on Sumatra that built up its navy and prospered by charging fees for ships traveling between India and China.

Majapahit Kingdom

Based on Java had 98 tributaries at its height that sustained its power by controlling sea routes; was Buddhist.

Khmer Empire

Was situated near the Mekong River and did not depend on maritime prowess for its power as complex irrigation and drainage systems led to economic prosperity.

Sinhala Dynasties

In Sri Lanka that had their roots in the arrival of early immigrants, most likely merchants, from north India. Buddhists arrived in the 3rd century B.C.E. and the island became a center of Buddhist study.

Mississippian Culture

The first large-scale civilization in North America that emerged in the 700s or 800s in what is now the eastern United States.

Matrilineal Society

Social standing was determined by the woman’s side of the family.

City-State

Each ruled by a king and consisting of a city and its surrounding territory.

Tribute

Payments from the conquered to the conqueror such as crops, labor, or, in rare cases, coins.

Mexicas

Hunter-gatherers who migrated to central Mexico from the north in the 1200s that founded their capital Tenochtitln in 1325.

Theocracy

Rule by religious leaders.

Chinampas

Floating gardens built by the Aztecs to increase the amount of space for food production.

Inca

People of the sun' whose rulers were considered to be Inti’s representative on the earth.

Mit’a System

Mandatory public service where men between the ages of 15 and 50 provided agricultural and other forms of labor, including the construction of roads.

Carpa Nan

A massive roadway system that had some 25,000 miles of roads used mainly by the government and military.

Kin-based Networks

Communities where families governed themselves with a male head of the network, a chief, mediated conflicts and dealt with neighboring groups.

Trans-Saharan Trade

A network of trading routes across the great desert.

Swahili

In East Africa, traders blended Bantu and Arabic to develop a new language spoken by various groups in the African Great Lakes region as well as other parts of Southeast Africa.

Great Zimbabwe

Capital city surrounded by a massive wall of stone, 30 feet tall by 15 feet thick, that was the first large one on the continent that people built without mortar.

Age Grades/Sets

Communities divided work according to age.

Griots

Storytellers in Sub-Saharan Africa who were the conduits of history for a community.

Feudalism

A decentralized political organization based on a system of exchanges of land for loyalty.

Fiefs

Tracts of land granted by a monarch to lords.

Vassal

A person who owed service to another person of higher status.

Manorial System

Provided economic self-sufficiency and defense.

Serfs

While not enslaved, were tied to the land meaning they could not travel without permission from their lords, nor could they marry without their lord’s approval.

Three-Field System

Crops were rotated through three fields.

Estates-General

A body to advise the king that included representatives from each of the three legal classes, or estates, in France: the clergy, nobility, and commoners.

Magna Carta

Required the king to respect certain rights, such as the right to a jury trial before a noble could be sentenced to prison.

Reconquista

Christians wanting to reconquer Spain that was finally completed in 1492.

Great Schism

The Christian Church in Europe divided into two branches in 1054.

Usury

Charging interest on loans to other Christians.

Renaissance

Was a period characterized by a revival of interest in classical Greek and Roman literature, art, culture, and civic virtue.

Humanism

The focus on individuals rather than God.