History Final Flashcards
Reformation
The reform of the Church to Protestantism.
The Renaissance
The rebirth/awakening of urban society, secular (worldly) mindset, humanism, art, and intellect, particularly from ancient Greece and Rome ideals.
Absolutism
The idea of an absolute monarch ruling completely without government influence.
John Locke
A political author from England who argued against absolutism and believed in natural rights (life, liberty, property) and equality of people.
Inquisition
A Christian court that tried heretics for crimes against the church and God.
Spanish Armada
A fleet of Spanish ships that attempted to invade England but failed due to England’s superior defense and catastrophic storms.
Mecca
The holy city of Islam which contains the Kaaba (Black Stone). Muslims are supposed to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.
Feudalism
A social system in which people pledged their loyalty and services to their lord in exchange for protection and other benefits (such as land).
“God, gold, and glory”
The three primary reasons why European explorers wished to colonize in the Americas (god- conversion, gold- money, glory- fame)
Martin Luther
A German professor who noticed deficiencies in the church (corruption) and acted on them by writing the 95 Theses. By doing this, he created a new Protestant branch of Christianity called Lutheranism.
Peter the Great
A Russian czar of the Romanov Dynasty who established St. Petersburg, one of his many attempts to Westernize Russia with European influence as a great state with strong military power.
Samurai
Japanese knights who fought on horseback in order to protect their lords at all costs. They followed a strict code of law called Bushido.
Shogun
A powerful feudal Japanese military leader appointed in order to create a centralized government to strengthen the state.
Maya
A Mexican Mesoamerican society located on the Yucatan Peninsula who used hieroglyphics and established a dual-calendar system covering both lunar and solar cycles. They practiced human sacrifices and had brutal forms of sports.
Quran
The sacred book of the Muslims (Muslim bible).
Hajj
One of the six religious pillars in Islam that emphasizes the need to make a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city of Islam.
Kush
A major trading empire in the eastern African area between Egypt and Nubia. It was a mostly urban society and greatly influenced trade throughout all of Africa fro more than 1000 years.
Louis XIV
The epitome of the European Absolutist Era, Louis XIV ruled France in a very stern and absolutist way. He created the Court of Versailles to where he moved the capital of France and all of the nobles so that he could control the government and country completely. Economically, Louis XIV introduced mercantilism, the goal of exporting more than importing.
Wergild
A Germanic system based on a fine to avoid bloodshed. It was the amount, the value of the victim, paid by a wrongdoer to the family of the person he or she had injured or killed.
Charlemagne
Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, was a great king of the Frankish kingdom who established the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne unified the German, Roman, and Catholic by being elected by the Pope as the German king of the Roman Empire. He also preserved much Latin and Greek literature.
Magna Carta
The Great Charter, which was a document of rights which King John of England sealed. It was a feudal document which recognized that the relationship between king and vassals was based on mutual rights and obligations.
Byzantine Empire
The Eastern Roman Empire, a civilization with its own unique character that lasted until 1453. It was both a Greek and Chrisitan state, Greek was the main language, as opposed to Latin, and they had their own church. The capital was Constantinople, which was a great trading city, and had wonderful architecture.
Crusades
A series of medieval expeditions during the Middle Ages where many Catholic knights, or crusaders, went towards Jerusalem in an attempt to claim the Holy Land for Christians while converting as many people as possible. The crusaders brutally killed and destroyed many towns and cities along the way.
Serfs
Peasants who are at the bottom of the Manorial system and were legally bound to the land of their lord’s manor in agricultural labor.
