AP World Semester 1 Exam Review

Ch. 1: 600 BCE - 1250 CE

Achaemenid Persian Empire - the largest empire the ancient world had seen, extending from Anatolia and Egypt across western Asia to northern India and Central Asia.

Alexander the Great - (king of Macedonia) in his short life conquered almost all parts of the world that were known to his people and was born in 356 BCE in Pella, the capital of Macedonia, a kingdom to the north of the Greek states.

Hellenism  - Culture derived from the Greek civilization that flourished between 800 and 400 B.C.E. 

Augustus - (Octavian) the first emperor of ancient Rome set the standard for the 500 years of rule for the Roman Empire.

Pax Romana - “Roman peace,” refers to the period from 27 B.C.E. to 180 C.E. in the Roman Empire. This 200-year period saw unprecedented peace and economic prosperity throughout the Empire, spanned from England in the north to Morocco in the south and Iraq in the east.

Legalism - in ancient China was a philosophical belief that human beings are more inclined to do wrong than right because they are motivated entirely by self-interest and require strict laws to control their impulses.

Confucianism - a philosophical tradition that is an important part of Chinese philosophy and culture. The most famous aspect of his teachings is the golden rule: "Treat others as you want to be treated."

Hinduism - a polytheistic religion that believes in Brahma, the creator god, and his various incarnations including Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi. Bhakti is a popular practice in which followers are devoted to a particular deity. Believers think they will be reincarnated (reborn) after death.

Siddhartha Gautama - the founding figure of Buddhism. He lived in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. He dedicated his life to finding an end to human suffering.

Saint Paul of Tarsus - an apostle who taught the gospel of Christ to the 1st-century world.

Jesus of Nazareth - a Jewish teacher who claimed to be the Messiah. Jews had been waiting for the arrival of the Messiah for nearly two thousand years. Jesus taught about devotion to God and love for others.

Aristotle - a prominent Greek philosopher, noted for his philosophically based thoughts of "science" significance: his ideas were used in the Catholic Church for years.

Mauryan Empire - an empire that was located primarily in modern-day India. It was founded in 322 BCE by Chandragupta Maurya, who lived from 340 to 298 BCE. The empire quickly expanded across India, eventually consuming nearly the entire subcontinent. It only lasted for 137 years until 185 BCE but had nine emperors.

Han Dynasty - an imperial dynasty that ruled China (most of the time from 206 BC to AD 220) and expanded its boundaries and developed its bureaucracy; remembered as one of the great eras of Chinese civilization.

Qin Shihuangdi - A short (221-206 B.C.E.) but highly influential Chinese dynasty that succeeded in reuniting China at the end of the Warring States period. 

Judaism - A monotheistic religion developed among the ancient Hebrews. It is characterized by a belief in one transcendent God who revealed himself to Abraham, Moses, and the Hebrew prophets and by a religious life by Scriptures and rabbinic traditions.

Chapter 2: 1200-1450 CE

Swahili Civilization - An East African civilization that emerged in the 8th century C.E. from blending Bantu, Islamic, and other Indian Ocean trade elements.

Song Dynasty - A Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 960 to 1279. It followed the Tang Dynasty and was succeeded by the Yuan Dynasty. It was known for its cultural achievements and technological innovations, which had a significant impact on the development of China and East Asia.

Byzantine Empire - The eastern continuation of the Roman Empire after the Western Roman Empire's fall in the fifth century CE. It lasted from the fall of the Roman Empire until the Ottoman conquest in 1453.

Hangzhou - The capital during the Song Dynasty. This was described by many as a great and luxurious place. Observers said that they had specialized markets, luxurious inns, prostitutes, and more. It overall represented the prosperity of China during the  Song Dynasty.

Caesaropapism - a political system in which the head of the state is also the head of the church and supreme judge in religious matters. The term is most frequently associated with the late Roman, or Byzantine, Empire.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity - The third largest of the three main branches of this religion; originally based in the Byzantine Empire; found most often in Russia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and parts of Central Asia.

Ghana - an empire that existed in West Africa from 830 C.E. to 1235 C.E. The name of the empire means ''king of gold. '' The Kingdom ruled over a large part of Western Sudan (West Africa).

al-Andalus - Arabic name given to a nation in the parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims. This demonstrated the expansive realm of Islam.

Aztec Empire - A major state that developed in what is now Mexico in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; dominated by the Semi Nomadic Mexica, who had migrated into the region from Northern Mexico.

Seljuk Turks - Nomads from Asia who conquered Baghdad in 1055 and allowed the caliph to remain only as a religious leader; they governed strictly. 

Roman Catholic Church - established in Western Europe during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages with its head being the bishop of Rome or pope.

Bushido - 'way of the warrior". The strict code of conduct for samurais. The values were: bravery, loyalty, honor, endurance, great skill in martial arts, and a preference for death over surrender. 

American Web - the network of trade that linked parts of the pre-Columbian Americas; although less intense and complete than the Afro-Eurasian trade networks, this nonetheless provided a means of exchange for luxury goods and ideas over large areas.

Inca Empire - The Western Hemisphere's largest imperial state in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries; built by a relatively small community of Quechua-speaking people (the Inca), the empire stretched some 2,500 miles along the Andes Mountains, which run nearly the entire length of the west coast of South America.

Western Christendom - Western European branch of Christianity that gradually defined itself as separate from Eastern Orthodoxy, with a major break in 1054 C.E. that still needs to be healed.

Maya civilization - a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known for its ancient temples and glyphs (script). Its script is the pre-Columbian Americas' most sophisticated and highly developed writing system.

Ottoman Empire - Islamic state founded by Osman in northwestern Anatolia ca. 1300. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire was based in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) from 1453 to 1922. It encompassed lands in the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe.

Constantinople - the capital of the Byzantine Empire and has been significant in world history for centuries, being the center of several countries and empires and housing the emperor at one point in history.

Chapters 3-4: 1200-1450 CE

Temujin - Mongolian emperor whose empire stretched from the Black Sea to the Pacific. Universal ruler, hardships as a kid led him to be a powerful ruler.

Mongol World War - half a century of military campaigns, massive killing, and empire-building pursued by Chinggis Khan and his successors in Eurasia after 1209.

Khubilai Khan - the grandson of Genghis Khan, the first emperor of the 13th-century Mongol Empire. He established the great Yuan Dynasty and was the first non-Chinese leader to rule over China, Korea, and Mongolia. He had great influence and power in Europe and the Middle East.

Yuan Dynasty - the first foreign-ruled dynasty in Chinese history to commandeer all of China. With no experience running such a large and complex empire, the Mongols gradually adopted many Chinese cultural and bureaucratic models.

Ming Dynasty - ruled China from A.D. 1368 to 1644, during which China's population would double. Known for its trade expansion to the outside world that established cultural ties with the West, this dynasty is also remembered for its drama, literature, and world-renowned porcelain.

Great Zimbabwe - a medieval African city known for its large circular wall and tower. It was part of a wealthy African trading empire that controlled much of the East African coast from the 11th to the 15th century C.E.

Zheng He - a Muslim Chinese navigator, diplomat, and explorer who served the Yongle Emperor and Xuande Emperor of the Ming dynasty during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He was a major tool of the empire when it strove to create beneficial, tributary relationships with other countries, such as India.

The Safavid Empire - marks the beginning of modern Iranian history. This empire replaced the Timurid Empire, a dynasty of Turkicized Mongols, and reunified a politically fragmented Iran, ruling from 1501 to 1736. It was the first native dynasty since the seventh century.

Khanate of the Golden Horde - a Mongol and later Turkish khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire after 1259 it became a functionally separate khanate. It is also known as the Kipchak Khanate.

Srivijaya - A Malay kingdom that dominated the straits of Malacca between 670 and 1025 C.E.; noted for its creation of a native/Indian hybrid culture. 

Timbuktu - Great city of West Africa, noted in the fourteenth-sixteenth centuries as a center of Islamic scholarship.

Angkor Wat - an enormous Buddhist temple complex located in northern Cambodia. It was originally built in the first half of the 12th century as a Hindu temple. Spread across more than 400 acres, it is said to be the largest religious monument in the world.

Khutulun - A Mongol princess (ca. 1260-1306) whose exploits in battle and wrestling, along with her choice of husbands, provide insight into the relative freedom and influence of elite Mongol women in their societies.

Chaco Phenomenon - The ancestors of the Pueblo building people, inherited their architecture and made their civilization and structure in a canyon for around 350 years. The houses of the Canyon are somewhat similar to that of the Pueblo building people.

Black Death - The name given to the massive epidemic that swept Eurasia in the fourteenth century 

House of Wisdom - also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, refers to either a major public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad or to a large private library during the Islamic Golden Age.

Chapter 5: 1450-1750 CE

Hernan Cortes - a Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of the Aztec Empire in Mexico in 1519. Taking the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521, Cortés plundered Mesoamerica as he became the first ruler of the new colony of New Spain.

The Great Dying - The widespread epidemics, along with warfare, famine, and slavery killed off an estimated 54.5 million people — approximately 90% of the indigenous population. 

Little Ice Age - a period of widespread cooling from around 1300 to around 1850 CE when average global temperatures dropped by as much as 2°C (3.6°F), particularly in Europe and North America.

Devshirme - a system of forced labor, probably begun in the late 14th century, in which Christian boys, mostly from the Balkans, were taken from their homes to serve the Ottoman government.

Columbian Ex. - Transfer of people, animals, plants, and diseases between a new and old world.

Mercantilism - The belief that trade increases wealth and a government should protect it. It is the reason for much of European expansionism.

Mestizo - mixed in Spanish, and is generally used throughout Latin America to describe people of mixed ancestry with a white European and an indigenous background.

Settler colonies - where the colonizing people settled in large numbers, rather than simply spending relatively small numbers to exploit the region; particularly noteworthy in the case of the British colonies in North America.

Mulattoes - the term used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies to describe someone of mixed African and European descent.

Yasak - a Turkic word for "tribute" that was used in Imperial Russia to designate fur tribute exacted from the indigenous peoples of Siberia.

Qing expansion - dramatic expansion was made possible by the use of gunpowder/cannons and formed the territorial base for the modern Chinese state. China's borders expanded to include Taiwan, Tibet, Central Asia, Manchuria, and Mongolia.

Mughal Empire - a Muslim dynasty that ruled over a majority Hindu population. By 1750, they had dominated much of South Asia for several centuries. Muslims were already living in India when this empire first arrived. During their rule, Muslims averaged only about 15 percent of the population.

Akbar - Mughal emperor of India (1556-1605) who conquered most of northern India and exercised religious tolerance. one of the most prominent personalities in the history of medieval India. He was the third king in the Mughal Dynasty.

Aurangzeb - Mughal emperor in India and great-grandson of Akbar 'the Great', under whom the empire reached its greatest extent, only to collapse after his death.

Chapter 6: 1450-1750 CE

Benin - Territorial state that emerged by the Fifteenth century in the region that is now southern Nigeria; ruled by a warrior king who consolidated his state through widespread conquest.

Maroon societies - people who escaped slavery to create independent groups and communities on the outskirts of slave societies.

African diaspora - the communities throughout the world that are descended from the historic movement of peoples from Africa, predominantly to the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, among other areas around the globe.

Transatlantic slave trade - the transportation of 10 million to 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century.

“Soft gold” - Nickname used in the early modern period for animal furs, highly valued for their warmth and as symbols of elite status; in several regions, the fur trade generated massive wealth for those engaged in it.

Fur trade - started around the 1500s as the Europeans slowly interacted with the Native Americans more and more. The Europeans who had lots of tools and weapons, gave these items to the Indians in exchange for something they wanted. It was used for warmth, decorations, and ceremonies, and symbolized pride.

Potosi - City that developed high in the Andes (in present-day Bolivia) at the site of the world's largest silver mine and that became the largest city in the Americas, with a population of some 160,000 in the 1570s.

Pieces of Eight - Standard Spanish coin that became a medium of exchange in North America, Europe, India, Russia, and West Africa as well as in the Spanish Empire.

“Silver drain” - the siphoning of money from Europe to pay for the luxury products of the East, a process exacerbated by the fact that Europe had few trade goods that were desirable in Eastern markets.

Dutch East India Co. - a major corporation in business from 1602 until 1799. During those years, the government of this country granted it a monopoly on trade between Europe and Asia. The spice trade in particular brought immense profit.

British East India Co. -  a joint-stock company set up in 1600 to pursue trade with the Indian subcontinent. It was in operation from 1600-1874. The company was founded by royal charter, and wealthy aristocrats made up the company's shareholders.

Manila - Capital of the Spanish Philippines and a major multicultural trade city that already had a population of more than 40,000 by 1600