World History Midterm Exam Vocab.

  1. Civilization: an advanced stage of human society marked by a well-organized government and high levels of culture, science, and industry

  2. Steppe: sparse, dry, treeless grassland

  3. Cultural Diffusion: the spread of ideas, customs, and technologies from one people to another

  4. City-State: a political unit that includes a city and its surrounding lands and villages

  5. Empire: a state containing several countries

  6. Citizen: legal member of a country

  7. Monarchy: a form of government in which the state is ruled by a monarch

  8. Oligarchy: government in which ruling power belongs to a few people

  9. Democracy: a form of government in which citizens hold political power

  10. Legislature: lawmaking body

  11. Direct Democracy: system of government in which citizens participate directly in the day-to-day affairs of government rather than through elected representatives

  12. Messiah: savior sent by God

  13. Christian Bible: the sacred writing of the Christian religion

  14. Apostle: leader or teacher of a new faith or movement

  15. Martyr: a person who suffers or dies because of his or her beliefs

  16. Clergy: the body of people who conduct Christian services

  17. Pope: head of the Roman Catholic Church; in ancient Rome, bishop of Rome who claimed authority over all other bishops

  18. Heresy: religious belief that is contrary to the official teachings of a church

  19. Sacrament: sacred ritual of the Roman Catholic Church

  20. Benedictine Rule: rule drawn up in 530 by Benedict, a monk, regulating monastic life. Emphasizes obedience, poverty, and chastity and divides the day into periods of worships, work, and study

  21. Secular: having to do with worldly, rather than religious, matters; nonreligious

  22. Papal Supremacy: the claim of medieval popes that they had authority over all secular rulers

  23. Canon Law: body of laws of a church

  24. Excommunication: exclusion from the Roman Catholic Church as a penalty for refusing to obey Church law

  25. Anti- Semitism: prejudice against Jews

  26. Schism: a split or divide

  27. Icon: holy image of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church

  28. Great Schism: the official split between the Roman Catholic and Byzantine churches that occurred in 1054; another event was the Great Western Schism, a period when rival popes fought for exclusive power and divided the Roman Catholic Church from 1378-1417

  29. Crusades: a series of wars from the 1000s through 1200s in which European Christians tried to win control of the Holy Land from Muslims

  30. Holy Land: Jerusalem and other places where Christians believe Jesus had lived and preached

  31. Gothic Style: type of European architecture that developed in the Middle Ages, characterized by flying buttresses, ribbed vaulting, thin walls, and high roofs

  32. Black Death: an epidemic of the bubonic plague that ravaged Europe in the 1300s

  33. Epidemic: outbreak of a rapidly spreading disease

  34. Humanism: an intellectual movement at the heart of the Renaissance that focused on education and the classics

  35. Humanities: study of subjects such as grammar, rhetoric, poetry, and history that were taught in ancient Greece and Rome

  36. Patron: a person who provides financial support for the arts

  37. Perspective: artistic technique used to give paintings and drawings a three-dimensional effect

  38. Utopian: idealistic or visionary, usually used to describe a perfect society

  39. Indulgence: in the Roman Catholic Church, pardon for sins committed during a person's lifetime

  40. Predestination:  Calvinist belief that God long ago determined who would gain salvation

  41. Theocracy: government run by religious leaders

  42. Sect: a subgroup of major religious group

  43. Canonize: recognize a person as a saint

  44. Council of Trent: a group of Catholic leaders that met between 1545 and 1563 to respond to Protestant challenges and direct the future of the Catholic Church

  45. Ghetto: separate section of a city where members of a minority group are forced to live

  46. Heliocentric: based on the belief that the sun is the center of the universe

  47. Scientific Method: careful, step-by-step process used to confirm findings and to prove or disprove a hypothesis

  48. Hypothesis: an unproved theory accepted for the purposes of explaining certain facts or to provide a basis for further investigation

  49. Calculus: a branch of mathematics in which calculations are made special symbolic notations, developed by Isaac Newton

  50. Gravity: force that pulls objects in Earth's sphere to the center of Earth

  51. Leonardo da Vinci: was an Italian artist considered the ideal Renaissance man due to his varied talents. His interests included botany, anatomy, optics, music, architecture, and engineering. His sketches for flying machines and undersea boats resembled the later inventions of airplanes and submarines. His paintings, such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, remain famous today

  52. Michelangelo: was an Italian painter also known for his sculpture, engineering, architecture, and poems. His famous marble statue, David, shows the influence of ancient Greek traditions on Renaissance artists. He painted biblically themed ceiling murals for the Sistine Chapel in Rome. As an architect, he designed the dome of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, later a model for the US Capitol in Washington DC

  53. Raphael: a Renaissance painter who blended Christian and classical styles. His famous paintings include one of the Madonna, the mother of Jesus, and School of Athens, showing an imaginary gatherings of great thinkers, scientists, and artists including Michelangelo, Leonardo, and himself.

  54. Baldassare Castiglione: an Italian courtier, diplomat, and writer. His handbook, the Book of the Courtier, was widely read for its advice on the manners, skills, learning, and virtues that court members should display. He described an ideal courtier as well-mannered, well-educated, and multitalented.

  55. Niccolo Machiavelli: born in Florence. He was a Renaissance political philosopher, statesman, and writer. His most famous work was a guide for rulers on how to gain and keep power. The Prince was realistic about political power. Machiavelli argued that the end justified the means in politics. The term "Machiavellian" is still used today to describe deceitful politics.

  56. Albrecht Durer: born in Nuremberg, Germany. A painter, draftsman, and writer, his greatest artistic impact was in engraving. He traveled to Italy, studied the Italian masters, and helped spread Renaissance ideas to northern Europe. Many of his famous works, such as The Apocalypse, and Adam and Eve, had religious themes.

  57. Erasmus: a Dutch priest, writer, and scholar who promoted humanism. He wrote texts on various subjects produced a new Greek edition of the Christian Bible. He also called for a translation of the Bible. He also called for a translation of the Bible into the vernacular, or everyday language, to help spread learning, ideas, and education. He also wanted to reform Church corruption.

  58. Sir Thomas More: born in London. He became a lawyer, scholar, writer, and member of British parliament during the reign of Henry VIII. He wrote Utopia, describing an ideal society. The word utopian came to mean idealistic or visionary. In 1521, he was knighted.

  59. William Shakespeare: born in England, became a famous poet and playwright during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Between 1590 and 1613, he wrote 37 plays that are still performed around the world. He invented words and phrases still used today. Like other Renaissance writers, he took a humanist approach to his characters.

  60. Johannes Gutenberg: born in Germany, he became a goldsmith, printer, and publisher. His pioneering invention of a printing press with moveable type changed the world. Around 1455, Gutenberg printed the first complete edition of the Christian Bible using his press.

  61. Martin Luther: a German monk and theologian who was the catalyst of the Protestant Reformation. Trained to become a lawyer, he changed his path, joined a strict order of Roman Catholic monks, and studied theology. Seeking to reform abuses within the Church, Luther challenged Church teachings with his 95 theses. This led to his excommunication and development of Lutheranism, the first of several Protestant sects.

  62. Charles V: the Holy Roman emperor during the time of Martin Luther's reformation efforts. His immense empire included large areas of Europe. A staunch Catholic, he rejected Luther's doctrines. The Protestant upheaval, along with political pressures, led Charles to voluntarily give up his throne. He divided the empire between his son and his brother. Charles entered a Catholic monastery where he remained until his death.

  63. John Calvin: was a French theologian and lawyer. Influenced by the humanist philosophy of Erasmus, he became involved with the Protestant movement while a student at the University of Paris. He later moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where he set up a theocracy and wrote Institutes of the Christian Religion. His interpretation of Christian doctrine is called Calvinism

  64. Henry VIII: was a German king who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1084. His efforts to increase the power of the monarchy led him into conflict with Pope Gregory VIII over lay investiture. Gregory excommunicated him but later reinstated him in the church after Henry did penance

  65. Mary Tudor: was the first queen to rule England in her own right. The daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, she was a staunch Catholic who failed to turn back the tide of the Protestant Reformation in England. Her vigorous persecution of Protestants earned her the nickname "Bloody Mary”

  66. Elizabeth: became Queen Elizabeth I of England upon the death of Queen Mary. Shifting politics made her early years quite hazardous. She used her experiences to become a shrewd and powerful monarch. Under her reign, England became an important European power. England prospered both economically, and culturally. Her balanced handling of the English religious conflicts earned her the nickname Good Queen Bess

  67. Nicolaus Copernicus: was a Polish astronomer who concluded that the sun is the center of the universe around which Earth and the other planets revolve. This contradicted the religious and scientific belief that Earth was the center of the universe. Although he did not suffer immediate challenges from the Church, his most important work did not appear in print until after his death

  68. Galileo: was an Italian astronomer and mathematician whose discoveries using a telescope supported the heliocentric universe theories of Copernicus. His discoveries challenged established scientific and religious thinking. He was an important contributor to the development of the scientific method used by modern scientists

  69. Francis Bacon: was a distinguished English philosopher, statesman, and lawyer. A man of many talents, he promoted rational thought. Bacon was held in high regard by philosophers and scientists in Europe as well as England

  70. Rene Descartes: was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. He was one of the first to abandon traditional methods of thought based on Aristotle's teachings. Instead, he promoted a new science based on observation and experiments. For this, he has been called the father of modern philosophy

  71. Robert Boyle: was one of the leading minds of the late 1600s. An English-Irish philosopher and writer, he focused on chemistry, physics, and natural history. His work with pressurized air led to the development of Boyle's Law, which describes the relationship between pressure and the volume of gas. Boyle was one of the founders of the Royal Society of London

  72. Isaac Newton: was one of the most important figures of the Scientific Revolution. An English mathematician and physicist, his three laws of motion form the basic principles of modern physics and led to the formulation of the universal law of gravity. His 1687 book, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, is considered one of the most important works in the history of modern science

  73. Moluccas: an island chain in present-day Indonesia, which Europeans in the 1400s called the Spice Islands because it was the chief source of spices

  74. Cartographer: a person who makes maps

  75. Line of Demarcation: line set by the Treaty of Tordesillas dividing the non-European world into two zones, one controlled by Spain and the other by Portugal

  76. Treaty of Tordesillas: treaty signed between Spain and Portugal in 1494, which divided the non-European world between them

  77. Circumnavigate: to travel completely around the world

  78. Cape Town: the first permanent European settlement in Africa, established by the Dutch in 1652

  79. Mughal Empire: Muslim empire that ruled most of northern India from the mid-1500s to the mid-1700s; also known as the Mogul empire

  80. Goa: a coastal city seized in 1510 that became the commercial and military base of Portugal's India trade

  81. Malacca: city located on the Malay Peninsula near the strategic Straits of Malacca

  82. Outpost: a distant military station or a remote settlement

  83. Dutch East India Company: a trading company established with full sovereign powers by the Netherlands in 1602 to protect and expand its trade in Asia

  84. Sovereign: having full, independent power

  85. Sepoy: Indian soldier who served in an army set up by the French or English trading companies

  86. Manchus: people originally from Manchuria, north of China, who conquered the Ming dynasty and ruled China as the Qing dynasty from the mid-1600s to the early 1900s

  87. Qing: dynasty established by the Manchus in the mid-1600s that lasted until the early 1900s; China's last dynasty

  88. Tokugawa: shoguns, descended from Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) who were supreme military leaders; ruled Japan from 1603 through 1869; reunified Japan and reestablished order following a century of civil war and disturbance

  89. Nagasaki: Japanese city; on an island in its harbor, the Tokugawa shoguns in the 1600s permitted one or two Dutch ships to trade with Japan each year

  90. Conquistador: "conqueror" in Spanish; a leader in the Spanish conquests of America, Mexico, and Peru in the sixteenth century

  91. Tenochtitlan: capital city of the Aztec empire, on which modern-day Mexico City was built

  92. Alliance: formal agreement between two or more nations or powers to cooperate and come to one another's defense

  93. Moctezuma: was the last Aztec emperor, who mistakenly thought that the conquistador Cortés might be the god-king Quetzalcoatl. He was defeated by Cortés and forced to sign over his land and treasure. He was taken prisoner and killed as the Aztecs attempted to drive the Spanish from Tenochtitlán

  94. Civil War: a war fought between groups of people in the same nation

  95. Viceroy: representative of the king of Spain who ruled colonies in his name

  96. Encomienda: the right, granted by Spanish monarch ot conquistadors, to demand labor or tribute from Native Americans in a particular area

  97. Peon: a worker forced to labor for a landlord to pay off a debt that is impossible to pay off in his or her lifetime, which is incurred by food, tool, or seeds the landlord has advanced to him or her

  98. Creole: in Spanish colonial America, an American-born descendant of Spanish settlers

  99. Mestizo: in Spanish colonial America, a person of Native American and European descent

  100. New France: French possessions in present-day Canada from the 1500s to 1763

  101. Pilgrim: English Protestants who rejected the Church of England

  102. French and Indian War: war between Britain and France in the Americas that happened from 1754 to 1763; it was part of a global war called the Seven Years' War

  103. Treaty of Paris: treaty of 1763 that ended the Seven Years' War and resulted in British dominance of the Americas

  104. Plantation: large estate run by an overseer and worked by laborers who live there

  105. Missionary: someone sent to do religious work in a territory or foreign country

  106. Triangular trade: colonial trade routes among Europe and its colonies, the West Indies, and Africa in which goods were exchanged for enslaved people

  107. Middle Passage: the leg of the triangular trade route on which slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas

  108. Asante Kingdom: kingdom that emerged in the 1700s in present-day Ghana and was active in the trade in enslaved people

  109. Monopoly: complete control of a product or business by one person or a group

  110. Columbian Exchange: the global exchange of goods, ideas, plants and animals, and disease that began with Columbus's journey to the Americas

  111. Commercial Revolution: A period of European economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism which lasted from about the 1500s until the early 1700s. It included the growth of capitalism, banking, and investing

  112. Inflation: economic cycle that involves a rapid rise in prices linked to a sharp increase in the amount of money available

  113. Price Revolution: period in European history when inflation rose rapidly

  114. Capitalism: economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit

  115. Free Enterprise System: an economic system, also known as capitalism, in which private businesses are able to compete with each other with little control by government. Products, prices, and services are driven by free market laws of supply and demand rather than government regulations

  116. Entrepreneur: person who organizes and manages his or her own business

  117. Mercantilism: policy by which a nation sought to export more than it imported in order to build its supply of gold and silver

  118. Tariff: tax on imports or exports

  119. Vasco da Gama: was a Portuguese explorer and navigator who in 1498 was the first person to directly reach India by sailing around Africa. He returned to India in 1502, fought Arab Muslim ships along the way, and established trading posts along the East African coast. After serving as an advisor to Portugal's king for 20 years, he returned to India in 1524 with the title of viceroy, but fell ill and died soon after arriving

  120. Christopher Columbus: was an Italian explorer and navigator who went on Mediterranean and Africa expeditions, thought up a plan to sail west to reach India and China, and found support from the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. In 1492, he sailed west from Spain and reached the Caribbean Islands, which he mistakenly thought were the Indies of Asia. He made other voyages, but strained relations with the Spanish royal officials led to his arrest and dismissal as governor of the settlements on the island of Hispaniola

  121. Ferdinand Magellan: was a Portuguese navigator and explorer who as a young man went on Portuguese expeditions to India and Africa, and later won Spanish support for his September 1519 expedition to sail west to reach the Moluccas. Beginning with five ships and a crew of 270, the long voyage through unknown waters encountered rough weather, scurvy, starvation, and eventual mutiny. Magellan was killed in 1521 during a battle in the present-day Philippines, and only one of his ships, carrying spices and 18 of the original crew, circumnavigated the world and at last returned to Spain in September 1522

  122. Afonso de  Albuquerque: was a Portuguese admiral who helped found Portugal's trade empire in the East. He captured and built strategic forts at Goa, Calicut, Malacca, and Hormoz; reconstructed other forts; set up shipbuilding and other Portuguese industries in India; and built churches

  123. Hernan Cortes: was a Spanish landowner in Cuba and conquistador who in 1518 led an expedition to Mexico. Allied with some Native American groups, he conquered the Aztec empire, including its capital Tenochititlán in 1521. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1522 appointed him governor of New Spain, but Cortés was eventually removed from power and retired to Spain in 1540

  124. Jacques Cartier: is credited with naming Canada. He is also recognized for his limited exploration of the St. Lawrence River, stopped short by severe weather and hostile Iroquois Indians