Lecture Notes: A Journey Through History

Vocabulary-based flashcards covering world history from prehistoric times to the late 19th century based on lecture notes.

Homo sapiens

A species of early humans that appeared between $200\,000$ and $300\,000$ years ago and lived in tribes.

Neanderthals

Direct contemporaries of early Homo sapiens who lived until approximately $40\,000\, \text{BCE}$ and interbred with them.

Thebes (Waset)

The capital of Upper Egypt around $3200\, \text{BCE}$, which began as a small trading post while pharaohs resided in Memfis.

Tutankhamun

An Egyptian pharaoh who ruled from $1332$ to $1323\, \text{BCE}$, restored polytheism after rejecting Atenism, and died at age $18$ or $19$.

Ramesses II

The greatest pharaoh of the New Kingdom, known in Greek texts as Ozymandias, who ruled in the mid-$13\text{th}$ century BCE.

Battle of Thermopylae

A $480\, \text{BCE}$ conflict where $7\,000$ Greeks led by Leonida I blocked a Persian force led by Kserkso I for three days.

Alexander the Great

A Macedonian ruler and student of Aristotel who conquered Egypt and Babilon and rode a horse named Bukefal.

Archimedes

A famous mathematician who invented defensive weapons for the city of Syracuse during the Roman siege in $213$-$212\, \text{BCE}$.

Pompey

A Roman general who occupied Jeruzalem in $63\, \text{BCE}$ and was later killed in Egypt by Lucije Septimije in $48\, \text{BCE}$.

Julius Caesar

A Roman leader who crossed the Rubicon in $49\, \text{BCE}$ and was assassinated on the Ides of March in $44\, \text{BCE}$ by Brutus and Kasije.

Second Triumvirate

A political alliance between Oktavijan, Marko Antonije, and Marko Lepid that divided the Roman Republic into three parts.

Augustus

The title and name taken by Oktavijan in $27\, \text{BCE}$ when he became the first official Roman emperor.

Londinium

A Roman settlement built on the river Temza around $47\, \text{CE}$ that served as a major trade center until the $5\text{th}$ century.

Vespazijan

The final ruler in the Year of the Four Emperors ($69\, \text{CE}$) who founded the Flavijan dynasty and began the Colosseum.

Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)

The destruction of Jeruzalem and the Second Jewish Temple by Roman forces led by Tit, the son of Vespazijan.

Hadrian's Wall

A defensive barrier and customs border built across Britain starting in $122\, \text{CE}$ under the orders of Emperor Hadrijan.

Marcus Aurelius

A Roman emperor who spent his later years fighting the Marcomannic Wars and writing his personal reflections titled Meditacije.

Commodus

The son of Marcus Aurelius who ruled as a dictator from $177$ to $192\, \text{CE}$ and participated in gladiatorial games.

Hypatia

An influential scientist and philosopher in Aleksandrija who was brutally murdered by a mob of Christians in $415\, \text{CE}$.

Romulus Augustulus

The last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, who was deposed in $476\, \text{CE}$ and sent into exile in Napulj by Odoakar.

Hagia Sophia

The 'Church of Holy Wisdom' in Konstantinopol, extensively rebuilt by Emperor Justinijan between $532$ and $537\, \text{CE}$.

Year of the Elephant

The year $570\, \text{CE}$, marking both the birth of Muhamed and the failed invasion of Mecca by the Ethiopian king Abraha.

Hijra

The $622\, \text{CE}$ migration of Muhamed and his followers from Meka to Medina, marking the start of the Islamic calendar.

Glagolitic Script

The oldest Slavic alphabet, created by Konstantin \text{\ Ćiril} in $863\, \text{CE}$ to spread Christianity; its first letter 'A' is shaped like a cross.

Tomislav

The first King of the Croats, crowned in $925\, \text{CE}$, who allied with Rome against the Bulgarian Kingdom.

Avicenna (Ibn Sina)

A prominent scholar of the Islamic Golden Age in Bagdad known for his significant contributions to medicine.

Petar Snaćić

The last native king of Croatia who died in $1097\, \text{CE}$ at the Battle of Gvozd fighting the forces of Koloman Arpadović.

Saladin

The Sultan of Egypt and Syria who recaptured Jeruzalem from the Crusaders in $1187\, \text{CE}$ after the siege defended by Balian of Ibelin.

Magna Carta

A document signed by King John in $1215\, \text{CE}$ that guaranteed specific rights to English barons, though it was later declared invalid by the Pope.

Yuan Dynasty

The Mongol-led dynasty in China established by Kublaj-kan in $1271\, \text{CE}$, which lasted until $1368\, \text{CE}$.

Scholasticism

A period of European Christian philosophy from $1100$ to $1500\, \text{CE}$ centered on Aristotel and practiced by figures like Toma Akvinski.

Black Death

A bubonic plague pandemic from $1346$ to $1353\, \text{CE}$ that killed between $40\%$ and $60\%$ of the population in Western Europe and North Africa.

Jan Hus

A Czech priest who criticized the Catholic Church for diverging from Christ's teachings and was burned at the stake in $1415\, \text{CE}$.

Joan of Arc

A $17$-year-old French peasant who claimed divine visions, led the French to victory at Orlans in $1429\, \text{CE}$, and was burned for heresy in $1431\, \text{CE}$.

Johannes Gutenberg

The inventor from the Holy Roman Empire who created the movable type printing press around $1440\, \text{CE}$.

Hangul

The phonological Korean script created by Sejong the Great in $1443\, \text{CE}$ to increase literacy among the common people.

Fall of Constantinople

The conquest of the capital of the Roman Empire by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II on May $29$, $1453\, \text{CE}$.

Christopher Columbus

A Genoese explorer funded by Ferdinand II and Izabela I who landed on San Salvador in the Bahamas on October $12$, $1492\, \text{CE}$.

Spanish Inquisition

An ecclesiastical tribunal established in $1478\, \text{CE}$ by Spanish monarchs, notoriously led by the Grand Inquisitor Toms de Torquemada.

Martin Luther

A theology professor from Wittenberg who started the Reformation in $1517\, \text{CE}$ with his $95$ Theses against the sale of indulgences.

Hernn Corts

The Spanish conquistador who led the siege and fall of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in $1521\, \text{CE}$.

Henry VIII

The English king who broke with the Pope to become the head of the Church of England in $1534\, \text{CE}$ to facilitate his divorce from Catherine.

Elizabeth I

The final Tudor monarch whose reign from $1559$ to $1603\, \text{CE}$ is known as the Golden Age of England.

St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

The mass killing of Huguenots (French Protestants) by Catholic authorities in Paris in August $1572\, \text{CE}$.

Francis Walsingham

The 'spymaster' for Elizabeth I who uncovered conspiracies and helped secure the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Spanish Armada

A great fleet sent by Spain in $1588\, \text{CE}$ to invade England, which was defeated by faster British ships and poor weather.

Guy Fawkes

A Catholic extremist captured on November $5$, $1605\, \text{CE}$ while attempting to blow up the English Parliament with gunpowder.

Tulip Mania

The first recorded speculative bubble in history that occurred in the Netherlands between $1634$ and $1637\, \text{CE}$ over flower bulbs.

Beaver Wars

A series of bloody $17\text{th}$-century conflicts in North America where Iroquois tribes sought a monopoly on the fur trade against the Hurons.

Salem Witch Trials

A case of mass hysteria in Massachusetts in $1692$-$93\, \text{CE}$ resulting in the hanging of $19$ people accused of witchcraft.

Johann Friedrich Struensee

A German doctor and Enlightenment-influenced advisor to Christian VII of Denmark who introduced radical reforms before being executed in $1772\, \text{CE}$.

Declaration of Independence

The document drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted on July $4$, $1776\, \text{CE}$, by $13$ American colonies.

Estates General (1789)

The assembly of three classes (clergy, nobility, and commoners) called by Luj XVI, which triggered the French Revolution after the third estate formed the National Assembly.

Reign of Terror

A period during the French Revolution characterized by mass executions via guillotine, including the deaths of Danton and Robespierre in $1794\, \text{CE}$.

Napoleon Bonaparte

A military leader who became First Consul of France in $1799\, \text{CE}$ and was crowned Emperor in Notre-Dame in $1804\, \text{CE}$.

Simn Bolvar

A revolutionary leader known for liberating several South American nations, including Venezuela and Kolumbija, from Spanish rule after $1810\, \text{CE}$.

Peterloo Massacre

An incident in $1819\, \text{CE}$ in Manchester where cavalry charged into a crowd of radnićka klasa protesters, killing $18$ people.

Agojie

An all-female military regiment in the Kingdom of Dahomej, active until the late $19\text{th}$ century.

First Opium War

A conflict from $1839$ to $1842\, \text{CE}$ where Britain forced the Qing dynasty to continue the opium trade and cede Hong Kong.

13th Amendment

The constitutional amendment passed in the United States in $1865\, \text{CE}$ that officially abolished slavery.

Meiji Restoration

The period beginning in $1868\, \text{CE}$ when Japan ended the Tokugawa shogunate and rapidly modernized under the Meiji emperor.

War of Currents

A late $19\text{th}$-century rivalry between the direct current of Thomas Edison and the alternating current of George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla.

Dreyfus Affair

A political scandal involving Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French captain falsely accused of treason in $1894\, \text{CE}$ due to rampant antisemitism.