Questions 200-300 Flashcards
What reason did the anthropologist, Marvin Harris, suggests as a reason for cannibalism in Aztec society, i.e., “cannibal kingdoms”?
Lack of protein; Aztecs lacked domesticated animals to substitute for human sacrifices.
Where was the capital of the Inca empire?
Cuzco
What is the term used to describe the system that required Inca communities to work on state projects?
Mita system
What economic occupation common to most civilizations was virtually absent in Inca society?
Merchants
The Incas did not have a writing system as we know it, but they did have a system of communicating information. Describe and name this system.
Quipu- knotted strings
Approximately how many Indians inhabited the Americans before the Spanish conquest?
72 million
Much like the Qin and Han dynasties, the reunification of China in the late 6th century began with a dynasty that reunited China, but was quickly replaced by a more long-standing dynasty that ruled for another 300 years. Name these two dynasties.
Sui and Tang
What were the capitals of the Sui and Tang dynasties?
Loyang and Changan
What great construction project was undertaken by the Tang?
Grand Canal
Name two regions conquered by the Tang that had never before been ruled by China.
Central Asia, Korea, Vietnam
What was the relationship between the Tang imperial family and the Turkic tribes on China’s frontier?
Li Yuan, Duke of Tang was of Chinese-nomadic origins.
China conquered many nomadic groups who had previously threatened the empire.
Frontier forces were recruited from Turkic nomads.
What title did the Tang emperors take?
Heavenly khan
Whose reign marked the height of Tang power and was characterized by the famously tragic love affair?
Xuanzong
Who founded the Song dynasty?
Zhao Kuangyin/ Emperor Taizu
What was the one rival in Northern China that the Song dynasty failed to conquer, and what group of people did represent?
Liao dynasty/ Khitan
What is the term used to describe peoples who are not Chinese, but adopt Chinese culture?
Sinified/sinification
Name two reforms introduced by Wang Anshi?
Loans Government irrigation projects Agricultural expansion Tax landlords and scholars Established mercenary military forces rather than peasants Reorganized university education
What group overthrew the Liao dynasty of the Khitan and established the Qin kingdom and forced the Song to flee to southern China?
Jurchens
What was the capital of the Southern Song dynasty?
Hangzhou
What financial innovations were developed during the Song dynasty?
Deposit shops (banks)
Paper money
Flying money
What school of thought is Zhu Xi most closely associated with?
Neo-Confucian
What practice best exemplifies the reduced status of women in the Song era?
Foot binding
What art forms are the Tang and Song eras famous for respectively?
Tang- poetry and short stories
Song- landscape painting
Name two innovations of the Tang and Song that are considered typical of Chinese civilization today.
Tea drinking
Upturned roofs
Rice terraces
Name inventions of world historical importance that developed during the Song era.
Compass for navigation
Abacus
Printing with movable type
Name two points Stearns made in his analysis of Chinese art of the Tang and Song eras.
Produced by amateurs rather than specialists.
Produced by people who were political leaders- scholars have more status than warriors (preference of civilian leaders rather than military leaders).
Individual art produced for pleasure and edification of the elite, not for moral instruction or religious message for the masses.
Chinese art was not employed to bridge the gap between the elites and the masses and legitimize the power of the elites; it accentuated the difference between the elites and the masses.
What group resisted the Taika reforms which sought to emulate Chinese institutions and customs to China and later became the major powers in Heian Japan?
Buddhists and aristocrats
What was the capital of Heian Japan?
Kyoto
Many claim that Lady Murasaki wrote the first novel in history. What was the title?
The Tale of Genji
What were the terms given to warrior leaders and their mounted troops in Heian Japan?
Bushi and samurai
What region of the world had political and social institutions most similar to those found in Japan?
Europe
What was the term given to Minamoto military government which translated literally means “tent government” and what were the leaders of this government called?
Bakufu; shoguns
What features does Peter Stearns consider essential to the definition of feudalism?
Aristocratic lords who controlled peasants.
Mutual ties and obligations.
Rituals and obligations that went beyond casual local deeds and compromises.
Highly militaristic nature.
What differences between feudalism in Western Europe and Japan does Stearns identify and what institution in Western Europe does he suggest resulted from this difference?
Western Europe stresses contractual ideas between individuals more strongly than the Japanese.
Parliamentary institutions
What similarities in the development of Japan and the West in the 20th century does Stearns suggest might be attributed to a common history of feudalism?
Industrial development
What was the term given to the local warlord that ruled in Japan during the civil war that followed the end of the Minamoto period?
Daimyo
What form of Buddhism came most closely identified with the Japanese military elite?
Zen Buddhism
What or who provided the key links between China and its surrounding states like Japan, Korea, and Vietnam?
Buddhists
With which Korean kingdom did the Tang form an alliance with and later make a vassal kingdom of the Chinese empire?
Silla
What processes/institutions became the major channel of trade and intercultural exchange between China and Korea (her neighbors)?
Tribute system
What was name of the Korean dynasty that ruled between the 13th and 20th centuries?
Yi
What was the first Chinese dynasty to invade what is not Vietnam?
Qin
In what ways was Vietnamese society typically Southeastern Asian, and it different from the Chinese?
Spoken language not related
Strong tradition of village autonomy
Favored nuclear rather than extended family
Never developed clan network
Women had more freedom and influence in both family and society
Dressed differently
Enjoyed cockfighting
Scholar gentry never enjoyed as much power as in China
What kind of groups did Stearns label as “getkeepers” and what was their function?
Pivotal elite groups who are critical to the persistence of a culture over time.
Often they do not rule in their own right.
Shape dominant social values and world views.
Set fashion; norms
Role models
Scholar gentry, brahmans, samurai, Aztec warriors, European knights (chivalry)
Who were the famous sisters who were children of a deposed local leader who led a famous uprising of the Vietnamese against the Chinese?
Trung sisters
What generalization can one make of the extent and duration of Chinese influence in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam prior to 1400?
Peaked during the Tang era, and led to independent kingdoms highly influenced by the Chinese, yet stubbornly independent.
What is the traditional capital and the ancient palace of the Vietnamese emperors?
Hanoi and Hue
What are the two great rivers in Vietnam?
Red River and Mekong
What was the basic unit of the Mongol military organization?
Tumen- 10,000 warriors
What was the primary weapon of the Mongols?
Short bow
What kind of army did the Mongols have?
Cavalry/ mounted archers
What was the capital of the Mongol empire?
Karakorum
What was the Mongols policy towards religion?
The Mongols were animistic but tolerated all religions.
What was the favorite battle tactic of the Mongols?
Cavalry attacked the main force then feigned a retreat drawing the forces out of formation. They then counterattack from a pincer formation.
What was the main positive benefit from the Mongol conquest that Stearns points?
Growth of trade; peace in Asia
What was the name of the Russian prince who saved Novogorod from the fate of Kiev?
Alexander Nevskii
What was the name of the Mongol army that conquered and ruled Russia?
The Golden Horde
What happened to the Russian peasantry under Mongol rule?
Forced to become serfs
What city in Russia benefited the most from Mongol rule and how did it accomplish that?
Moscow; tax collection (tribute)
In what ways was (2) was Mongol rule in Russia a turning point in Russian history?
Russian isolation from Europe; influenced Russian princes to establish a centralized absolutist state.
What was the name of the mythical Christian monarch whose kingdom had been cut off from Europe by the spread of Islam?
Prester John
What prompted the Mongols to retreat from Europe without conquering it?
The death of Khagan Ogedel
What was name of Chinggis Khan’s grandson who invaded Muslim lands?
Hulegu
What Islamic group finally stopped the Mongols in the Middle East?
Mamluks
What was the name of the grandson of Chingghis Khan who invaded and conquered China?
Kubilai Khan
What was name of the Mongol dynasty that ruled China?
Yuan
What was the name of the Turkish leader whose capital was the Samarkands and who led raids into India?
Timur
Name the events or developments that ended the rule of nomadic empires.
Black Death
Military technology especially artillery
Demographic advantage of sedentary societies
Centralization of power and administration
What groups rose to dominate the Islamic World of the Mediterranean following the destruction of Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad?
Ottoman Turks
What Chinese dynasty replaces the Mongols Yuan dynasty, and what is the translation of its name?
Ming- “brilliant”
What was the name of the Chinese admiral who sailed to the Indian Ocean and as far as the Swahili coast of the Africa and what was noteworthy about his personal background?
Cheng Ho/Zheng He, Muslim eunuch
What African animal inspired the unicorn of Chinese fables?
Giraffe
What was the geographic center of the early Renaissance, and provide the name of the one early Renaissance personality.
Italian city states; Petrarch, Dante, Giotto, Columbus, Machiavelli
What are the two Spanish provinces that united to form the kingdom of Spain and which two rulers married to form the alliance?
Castile and Aragon; Ferdinand and Isabella
Prior to Columbus, which European leader pioneered naval technology and exploration in the early phase of European world exploration?
Prince Henry and the Navigator of Portugal
What were the two major Polynesian groups that Stearns chose to discuss in his “Outside the Network” section?
Hawaiians and Maoris (New Zealand)
What major theme of world history virtually disappeared in the period 1450-1750?
The impact of nomadic societies
Identify the three international trends or themes that distinguish the early modern period between 1450 and 1750.
Western expansion, intensification and globalization of trade networks, military and political impact of gunpowder.
What was distinctive about European family structure?
Late marriage age, emphasis on nuclear family rather than extended families, closely linked with individual property holdings- birth control
What were the primary sources of conflict in Western Europe in the late 16th and 17th century?
Religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants; peasant uprisings
What European King said “I am the state,” and what kind of political institution does this quote reflect?
Louis XIV of France; absolute monarchy
Identify and describe the reigning economic theory of European states in the premodern period.
Mercantilism; limit import and maximize export to gain money
What was the name of King Louis XIV’s palace?
Versailles
What was the term used to describe 18th century European rulers who introduced greater reforms that included freedom of religion and new agricultural technologies and crops, etc.?
Enlightened despots
Who wrote The Wealth of Nations?
Adam Smith
What was Denis Diderot best known for?
The Encyclopedia
Who was the British feminist thinker of the late 18th century?
Molly Wollstonecraft
Which American crop became the most important addition to agriculture of Northern Europe?
Potato
In which European country did parliamentary monarchy develop?
England
Name two technologies that made European maritime exploration possible.
Compass, deep draft round hulled vessels, gunpowder (guns and cannons)
Who was the first European sailor to reach India and what country was he from?
Vasco de Gama; Portugal
Who was the first person to lead an expedition that sailed around the world?
Ferdinand Magellan
What northern European states began exploration and colonization in the second phase of European expansion?
England and Holland
Name two major European trading companies involved in oversees trade and identify the regions the regions that they controlled?
Dutch East India Company- Southeast Asia
British East India Company- India
What Spanish conquistador conquered the Inca Empire?
Francisco Pizarro
Stearns mentions a “new world system” that emerges in the 16th century. Name one of the “core nations” in this new world system, and name one of the peripheral or dependent nations of this new world system, and name of country or region that lied outside this new world system.
Western European countries.
sub-Saharan Africa (slaves), the Americas (silver and sugar).
China, Japan, Russia, Mughal, Ottoman, Safavid, most of African peasants almost anywhere.
What nations came into direct conflict with African tribes and states in sub-Saharan Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries and where did they establish colonies/trading stations?
Portugal and Holland (Angolia and South Africa)
Which European countries came into conflict in India in the 18th century?
Britain and France
What is the term for Russian pioneers or peasant-adventurers who settled much of Central Asia and Siberia?
Cossacks
