APWH Exam Review 3 Flashcards
guild
In medieval Europe, an association of men (rarely women), such as merchants, artisans, or professors, who worked in a particular trade and created an organized institution to promote their economic and political interests.
Gujarat
Region of western India famous for trade and manufacturing.
gunpowder
The formula, brought to China in the 400s or 500s, was first used to make fumigators to keep away insect pests and evil spirits. In later centuries it was used to make explosives and grenades and to propel cannonballs, shot, and bullets.
Guomindang
Nationalist political party founded on democratic principles by Sun Yat-sen in 1912. After 1925, the party was headed by Chiang Kai-shek, who turned it into an increasingly authoritarian movement.
Gupta Empire
Powerful Indian state based, like its Mauryan predecessor, in the Ganges Valley. It controlled most of the Indian subcontinent through a combination of military force and its prestige as a center of sophisticated culture.
Habsburg
A powerful European family that provided many Holy Roman Emperors, founded the Austrian (later Austro-Hungarian) Empire, and ruled sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain.
hadith
A tradition relating the words or deeds of the Prophet Muhammad; next to the Quran, the most important basis for Islamic law.
Hammurabi
Amorite ruler of Babylon (r. 1792-1750 B.C.E.). He conquered many city-states in southern and northern Mesopotamia and is best known for a code of laws, inscribed on a black stone pillar, illustrating the principles to be used in legal cases.
Han
A term used to designate (1) the ethnic Chinese people who originated in the Yellow River Valley and spread throughout regions of China suitable for agriculture and (2) the dynasty of emperors who ruled from 206 B.C.E. to 220 C.E.
Hanseatic League
An economic and defensive alliance of the free towns in northern Germany, founded about 1241 and most powerful in the fourteenth century.
Harappa
Site of one of the great cities of the Indus Valley civilization of the third millennium B.C.E. It was located on the northwest frontier of the zone of cultivation, and may have been a center for the acquisition of raw materials.
Hatshepsut
Queen of Egypt (1473-1458 B.C.E.). Dispatched a naval expedition down the Red Sea to Punt (possibly Somalia), the faraway source of myrrh. There is evidence of opposition to a woman as ruler, and after her death her name was frequently expunged.
Hebrew Bible
A collection of sacred books containing diverse materials concerning the origins, experiences, beliefs, and practices of the early Hebrew people. Most of the extant text was compiled by members of the priestly class in the fifth century B.C.E.
Hellenistic Age
Greek culture spread across western Asia and northeastern Africa after the conquests of Alexander the Great. The period ended with the fall of the last major Hellenistic kingdom to Rome, but Greek cultural influence persisted until the spread of Islam.
Helsinki Accords
Political and human rights agreement signed in Helsinki, Finland in 1975 by the Soviet Union and western European countries.
Henry the Navigator
(1394-1460) Portuguese prince who promoted the study of navigation and directed voyages of exploration down the western coast of Africa.
Hernan Cortes
Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Mexico in 1519-1521 for Spain.
Herodotus
Greek Historian, considered the father of History. He came from a Greek community in Anatolia and traveled extensively, collecting information in western Asia and the Mediterranean lands.
The Mahdi
Last imam in a series of twelve descendants of Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali, whom Shi’ites consider divinely appointed leaders of the Muslim community. In occlusion since ca. 873, he is expected to return as an apocolyptic messiah at the end of time.
hieroglyphics
System of writing in which pictorial symbols represented sounds, syllables, or concepts. Used for official and monumental inscriptions in ancient Egypt.
Hinduism
Term for a wide variety of beliefs and ritual practices that have developed in the Indian subcontinent since antiquity. It has roots in ancient Vedic, Buddhist, and south Indian religious concepts and practices.
Hiroshima
City in Japan, the first to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, on August 6, 1945. The bombing hastened the end of World War II.
Hittites
A people from central Anatolia who established an empire in Anatolia and Syria in the Late Bronze Age. With wealth from the trade in metals and military power based on chariot forces, they vied with New Kingdom Egypt over Syria.
Holocaust
Nazis’ program during World War II to kill people they considered undesirable. Some 6 million Jews perished during the Holocaust, along with millions of Poles, Gypsies, Communists, Socialists, and others.
Holy Roman Empire
Loose federation of mostly German states and principalities, headed by an emperor who had little control over the hundreds of princes who elected him. It lasted from 962 to 1806.
hoplite
Heavily armored Greek infantryman of the Archaic and Classical periods who fought in the close-packed phalanx formation. Hoplite armies-militias composed of middle- and upper-class citizens supplying their own equipment. Famously defeated superior numbers of opponents by fighting as a unit.
horse collar
Harnessing method that increased the efficiency of horses by shifting the point of traction from the animal’s neck to the shoulders; its adoption favors the spread of horse-drawn plows and vehicles.
House of Burgesses
Elected assembly in colonial Virginia, created in 1618.
Humanists
European scholars, writers, and teachers associated with the study of the humanities (grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, languages, and moral philosophy), influential in the fifteenth century and later.
Humanism
a worldview and a moral philosophy that considers humans to be of primary importance. It is a perspective common to a wide range of ethical stances that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns, and capabilities, particularly rationality. A major component of the Italian Renaissance.
Hundred Years War
Series of campaigns over control of the throne of France, involving English and French royal families and French noble families.
Ibn Battuta
Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan.
Ibn Khaldun
Arab historian. He developed an influential theory on the rise and fall of states. Born in Tunis, he spent his later years in Cairo as a teacher and judge. In 1400 he was sent to Damascus to negotiate the surrender of the city.
Inca
Largest and most powerful Andean empire. Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco.
Indian Civil Service
The elite professional class of officials who administered the government of British India. Originally composed exclusively of well-educated British men, it gradually added qualified Indians.
Indian National Congress
A movement and political party founded in 1885 to demand greater Indian participation in government. Its membership was middle class, and its demands were modest until World War I. Led after 1920 by Mohandas K. Gandhi, appealing to the poor.
Indian Ocean
This area possessed the biggest network of sea-based trade in the postclassical period prior to the rise of Atlantic-based trade.
indulgence
The forgiveness of the punishment due for past sins, granted by the Catholic Church authorities as a reward for a pious act. Martin Luther’s protest against the sale of these is often seen as touching off the Protestant Reformation.
Industrial Revolution
The transformation of the economy, the environment, and living conditions, occurring first in England in the eighteenth century, that resulted from the use of steam engines, the mechanization of manufacturing in factories, transit, and communications
investiture
controversy Dispute between the popes and the Holy Roman Emperors over who held ultimate authority over bishops in imperial lands.
iron curtain
Winston Churchill’s term for the Cold War division between the Soviet-dominated East and the U.S.-dominated West.
Iroquois Confederacy
An alliance of five northeastern Amerindian peoples (after 1722 six) that made decisions on military and diplomatic issues through a council of representatives. Allied first with the Dutch and later with the English, it dominated W. New England.
Islam
Religion expounded by the Prophet Muhammad (570-632 C.E.) on the basis of his reception of divine revelations, which were collected after his death into the Quran.
Israel
A Jewish state on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, both in antiquity and again founded in 1948 after centuries of Jewish diaspora.
Jacobins
Radical republicans during the French Revolution. They were led by Maximilien Robespierre from 1793 to 1794.
James Watt
invented the condenser and other improvements that made the steam engine a practical source of power for industry and transportation. The watt, an electrical measurement, is named after him.
Janissaries
Infantry, originally of slave origin, armed with firearms and constituting the elite of the Ottoman army from the fifteenth century until the corps was abolished in 1826.
Nehru
Indian statesman. He succeeded Mohandas K. Gandhi as leader of the Indian National Congress. He negotiated the end of British colonial rule in India and became India’s first prime minister (1947-1964).
Jesuits
Members of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic order founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534. They played an important part in the Catholic Reformation and helped create conduits of trade and knowledge between Asia and Europe.
Jesus
A Jew from Galilee in northern Israel who sought to reform Jewish beliefs and practices. He was executed as a revolutionary by the Romans. He is the basis of the world’s largest religion.
Joesph Stalin
Ruled the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953. Ruled with an iron fist, using Five-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crush opposition.
joint-stock company
A business, often backed by a government charter, that sold shares to individuals to raise money for its trading enterprises and to spread the risks (and profits) among many investors.
Jose Morelos
Mexican priest and former student of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, he led the forces fighting for Mexican independence until he was captured and executed in 1814.
Josiah Wedgwood
English industrialist whose pottery works were the first to produce fine-quality pottery by industrial methods.
Juan Peron
President of Argentina (1946-1955, 1973-1974). As a military officer, he championed the rights of labor. Aided by his wife Eva Duarte Peron, he was elected president in 1946. He built up Argentinean industry, became very popular among the urban poor.
junk
A very large flatbottom sailing ship produced in the Tang and Song Empires, specially designed for long-distance commercial travel.
kamikaze
The ‘divine wind,’ which the Japanese credited with blowing Mongol invaders away from their shores in 1281.
Karl Marx
German journalist and philosopher, founder of the Marxist branch of socialism. He is known for two books: The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (Vols. I-III, 1867-1894).
karma
In Indian tradition, the residue of deeds performed in past and present lives that adheres to a ‘spirit’ and determines what form it will assume in its next life cycle. Used in India to make people happy with their lot in life.
keiretsu
Japanese business groups after the post-WWII dismantling of the zaibatsu. They are Alliances of corporations each often centered around a bank. They dominate the post-WWII Japanese economy.
khipu
System of knotted colored cords used by preliterate Andean peoples to transmit information. These knots are interesting because the Inca are notable for being a relatively sophisticated empire and civilization, but they had no written language (very unusual). Some have gone so far as to suggest that these knots were themselves a language, but this probably isn’t true.
Khubilai Khan
Last of the Mongol Great Khans (r. 1260-1294). Ruled the Mongol Empire from China and was the founder of the Yuan Empire in China after finishing off the Song Dynasty.
Kievan Russia
Government established at Kiev in Ukraine around 879 CE by Scandinavian adventurers asserting authority over a mostly Slavic farming population.
King Leopold II
King of Belgium (r. 1865-1909). He was active in encouraging the exploration of Central Africa and became the infamous ruler of the Congo Free State (to 1908).
Korean War
Conflict that began with North Korea’s invasion of South Korea and came to involve the United Nations (primarily the United States) allying with South Korea and the People’s Republic of China allying with North Korea.
labor union
An organization of workers in a particular industry or trade, created to defend the interests of members through strikes or negotiations with employers.
laissez faire
The idea that government should refrain from interfering in economic affairs. The classic exposition of laissez-faire principles is Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776).
lama
In Tibetan Buddhism, a teacher.
League of Nations
International organization founded in 1919 to promote world peace and cooperation but greatly weakened by the refusal of the United States to join. It proved ineffectual in stopping aggression by Italy, Japan, and Germany in the 1930s.
Legalism
In China, a political philosophy that emphasized the unruliness of human nature and justified state coercion and control. The Qin ruling class invoked it to validate the authoritarian nature of their regime.
liberalism
A political ideology that emphasizes rule of law, representative democracy, rights of citizens, and the protection of private property. This ideology, derived from the Enlightenment, was especially popular among the property-owning middle classes.
Little Ice Age
A century-long period of cool climate that began in the 1590s. Its ill effects on agriculture in northern Europe were notable.
loess
Fine yellowish light silt deposited by wind and water. It constitutes the fertile soil of the Yellow River Valley in northern China. Because of the tiny needle-like shape of its particles, it can be easily shaped and used for underground structures (but vulnerable to earthquake)
Long March
The 6,000-mile (9,600-kilometer) flight of Chinese Communists from southeastern to northwestern China. The Communists, led by Mao Zedong, were pursued by the Chinese army under orders from Chiang Kai-shek.
ma’at
Egyptian term for the concept of divinely created and maintained order in the universe. Reflecting the ancient Egyptians’ belief in an essentially beneficent world, the divine ruler was the earthly guarantor of this order.
Macartney Mission
The unsuccessful attempt by the British Empire to establish diplomatic relations with the Qing Empire in 1793.
Mahabharata
A vast epic chronicling the events leading up to a cataclysmic battle between related kinship groups in early India. It includes the Bhagavad-Gita, the most important work of Indian sacred literature. Mahayana Buddhism,Branch of Buddhism followed in China, Japan, and Central Asia. The focus is on reverence for Buddha and for bodhisattvas, enlightened persons who have postponed nirvana to help others attain enlightenment.
Malay
A designation for peoples originating in south China and Southeast Asia who settled the Malaysian Peninsula, Indonesia, and the Philippines, then spread eastward across the islands of the Pacific Ocean and west to Madagascar. (p. 190)
Mali
Empire created by indigenous Muslims in western Sudan of West Africa from the thirteenth to fifteenth century. It was famous for its role in the trans-Saharan gold trade.
Mamluks
Under the Islamic system of military slavery, Turkic military slaves who formed an important part of the armed forces of the Abbasid Caliphate of the ninth and tenth centuries. Mamluks eventually founded their own state, ruling Egypt and Syria (1250-1517)
