Early Modern Empires and Belief Systems (1450-1750)

Vocabulary flashcards covering belief systems, administrative consolidation, and imperial expansion across European, East Asian, and Islamic empires from 1450 to 1750.

Indulgences

Practices sold by the Roman Catholic Church that granted a person absolution from the punishments for sin.

Simony

The selling of church offices within the Roman Catholic Church.

Sola Fide

The theological stance advocated by Martin Luther asserting that faith alone is the basis of salvation for a Christian believer.

Counter-Reformation

A three-pronged strategy embarked upon by the Roman Catholic Church to fight Protestant attacks, utilizing the Inquisition, the Jesuits, and the Council of Trent.

Peace of Augsburg

A 1555 agreement resulting from conflict between Lutherans and the Holy Roman Empire that allowed each German state to choose whether its ruler would be Catholic or Lutheran.

Edict of Nantes

A 1598 sanction issued by French King Henry IV that allowed Huguenots (French Calvinists) to practice their faith, providing religious toleration in France for 87 years.

Peace of Westphalia

The settlement concluding the Thirty Years' War in 1648 that permitted each area of the Holy Roman Empire to choose one of three religious options: Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, or Calvinism.

Holy Synod

A Russian government department created by Peter the Great to replace the patriarch, composed of clergymen overseen by a secular official answering directly to the tsar.

Din-i Ilahi

The "divine faith" promoted by Mughal Emperor Akbar to reconcile and blend Hinduism and Islam among his subjects.

Empiricism

An early scientific method developed in 1620 by Francis Bacon that insisted upon the collection of data to back up a hypothesis.

Divine Right of Kings

A claim common in Europe that the right to rule was granted to a monarch directly by God, making the ruler a political and religious authority outside of earthly law.

Justices of the Peace

Officials selected by the landed gentry in England under Tudor rule to maintain peace in counties, settle legal matters, and enforce the monarch's laws.

English Bill of Rights

A 1689 document signed by William and Mary that assured civil liberties and required Parliament's consent for taxation and raising an army.

Intendants

French royal bureaucratic elites sent to provinces to execute central government orders and oversee tax collection, sometimes referred to as tax farmers.

Oprichnina

A paramilitary force established by Ivan IV, drawn from lower-level bureaucrats and merchants, dressed in black and loyal to the tsar to control the boyars.

Devshirme

An Ottoman selection system where conquered Christian boys aged 8 to 20 were forcibly recruited to serve in the military or government administration.

Janissaries

An elite military force in the Ottoman army formed from Christian boys recruited through the devshirme system.

Daimyo

Landholding Japanese aristocrats who commanded personal armies of salaried samurai and ruled their fiefdoms independently before unification.

Tokugawa Shogunate

A government established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu that centralized control over Japan's feudal system by requiring daimyo to maintain dual residences in Edo.

Zamindars

Paid Mughal government officials responsible for specific duties such as taxation, construction, and water supply who later received land grants instead of salaries.

Gunpowder Empires

Large, multiethnic states in Southwest, Central, and South Asia—specifically the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires—that relied on firearms to conquer and control territory.

Cossacks

Bands of fierce peasant warriors hired by the Stroganov family to fight local tribes and help Russia gain control of the Volga River basin.

Ghazi Ideal

A model for warrior life originating in the Eurasian steppes that blended cooperative nomadic values with willingness to serve as a holy fighter for Islam.

White Lotus Rebellion

A peasant uprising from 1796 to 1804 against high Qing taxes and bureaucracy corruption aimed at restoring the Ming Dynasty, resulting in the death of about 100,000 peasants.

Castes (Jatis)

Strict social groupings designated at birth in Hindu society that divide people into four main categories, plus the Dalits, forming the basis of social and vocational roles.

Harem Politics

The efforts of wives and concubines of Ottoman sultans to promote their own children as heirs to the throne, exerting political power behind the scenes.