AP World History Unit 1: State Building (Circa 1200–1450)

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key civilizations, belief systems, and economic developments of AP World History Unit 1 ($$1200$$–$$1450$$).

State

A territory that is politically organized under a single government.

Song Dynasty

The Chinese dynasty in power from $960$ to $1279$ that maintained rule through Confucianism and an expanded imperial bureaucracy.

Neo-Confucianism

A revival of Confucian philosophy that sought to remove the influence of Buddhism while emphasizing social hierarchy.

Filial Piety

The Confucian idea emphasizing the necessity and virtue of children obeying and honoring their parents and ancestors.

Foot Binding

A practice in Song China where young girls' toes were broken and bound to make feet smaller, serving as a status symbol among the elites.

Bureaucracy

A government entity arranged in a hierarchical fashion that carries out the will of the emperor.

Civil Service Examination

A test heavily based on Confucian classics used to recruit qualified men for bureaucratic jobs on the basis of merit.

Theravada Buddhism

A branch of Buddhism that originated in India and was practiced primarily by monks and monasteries in Sri Lanka.

Mahayana Buddhism

A branch of Buddhism in East Asia that encouraged broader participation and believed in bodhisattvas helping others achieve enlightenment.

Champa Rice

A strand of rice from the Champa Kingdom that matured early, resisted drought, and could be harvested multiple times a year, leading to population growth in China.

Grand Canal

An expanded transportation innovation that facilitated trade and communication across China's various regions.

Dar al-Islam

The 'house of Islam,' referring to places where the Islamic faith was the organizing principle of civilization.

Abbasid Caliphate

An ethnically Arab caliphate centered in Baghdad that began to lose power around $1200$ as turkic empires rose.

Seljuk Empire

An empire established in the $11^{th}$ century by turkic pastoralists who eventually took political power from the Abbasids.

Sharia Law

A legal code based on the Quran used as the organizing principle of the legal systems in many Islamic states.

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

A Muslim scholar who made significant advances in mathematics and invented trigonometry.

House of Wisdom

A library and scholarly center in Baghdad where Arab scholars preserved and translated ancient Greek works during the Golden Age of Islam.

Sufi

A sect of Islam that emphasized mystical experience and was instrumental in spreading the faith due to its adaptability to local beliefs.

Bhakti Movement

A Hindu movement in Southern India that focused on devotion to a single god, challenging traditional social and gender hierarchies.

Vijayanagara Empire

A Hindu kingdom established in Southern India in $1336$ as a resistance to the expansion of the Delhi Sultanate.

Majapahit Kingdom

A sea-based Buddhist kingdom in Java ($1293$–$1520$) that maintained influence by controlling sea routes for trade.

Khmer Empire

A land-based empire in Southeast Asia that converted from Hinduism to Buddhism, represented by the Angkor Wat temple complex.

Tribute System

The system used by the Aztecs where conquered states were required to provide labor and goods like food, animals, and building materials.

Mita System

A mandatory labor system used by the Incas that required conquered people to work on state projects like farms, mines, or construction.

Mississippian Culture

The first large-scale civilization in North America, known for building monumental mounds like those found at Cahokia.

Swahili Civilization

A series of independent East African city-states organized around commerce and influenced by Muslim traders, leading to a hybrid language.

Great Zimbabwe

A powerful African state that grew wealthy through agriculture, cattle, and the gold trade while maintaining indigenous shamanistic religion.

Kievan Rus

A state that emerged in Eastern Europe following the adoption of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in $988$. Roman Catholic Church.

Feudalism

A decentralized political and social system in Europe where lords granted land (fiefs) to vassals in exchange for military service.

Manorialism

An economic system in Europe where peasants or serfs lived on a lord's land and worked in exchange for protection.

Serfs

Peasants who were bound to the land they worked; they were not personal property but stayed with the land even if the lord moved.