Unit 1 Vocab Flashcards
a vast organization in which appointed officials carried out the empire’s policies (imperial China)
Bureaucracy
a bureaucratic system wherein officials obtained their positions by demonstrating their merit on civil service exams (imperial China, confucianism)
Meritocracy
a fast-ripening and drought-resistant strain of rice from the _____ Kingdom in present-day Vietnam, greatly expanded agricultural production in China, this rice and other strains developed through experimentation allowed farming to spread to lands where once rice could not grow, such as lowlands, riverbanks, and hills, in some areas, it also allowed farmers to grow two crops of rice per year, a summer crop and a winter crop
Champa rice
a set of economic changes in which people in rural areas made more goods than they could sell, relied more on home/community-based production using simple equipment
Proto-industrialization
an arrangement in which other states had to pay money or provide goods to honor the Chinese emperor, cemented China’s economic and political power over several foreign countries, but also created stability and stimulated trade for all parties involved (kowtow)
Tributary system
a ritual in which anyone greeting the Chinese emperor must bow his or her head until it reached the floor
Kowtow
the duty of family members to subordinate their desires to those of the male head of the family and to the ruler
Filial piety
China, syncretic system, combining rational thought with the more abstract ideas of Daoism and Buddhism, emphasized ethics rather than the mysteries of God and nature, became immensely popular in the countries in China’s orbit, including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam
Neo-Confucianism
landowning aristocrats, battled for control of land (Japanese feudalism)
Daimyo
samurai code that stressed frugality, loyalty, the martial arts, and honor unto death
Bushido
renowned center of learning in Baghdad that scholars traveled to, the Islamic community helped transfer knowledge throughout Afro-Eurasia
House of Wisdom
enslaved people (often ethnic Turks from Central Asia) who Arabs often purchased to serve as soldiers and later as bureaucrats, they had more opportunities for advancement than most enslaved people, in Egypt they seized control of the government and est. the Mamluk Sultanate, they facilitated trade in cotton and sugar between the Islamic world and Europe
Mamluks
what the Seljuk leader called himself, thereby reducing the role of the highest ranking Abbasid from caliph to chief Sunni religious authority
Sultan
a term that can refer either to the practice of dressing modestly or to a specific type of covering, most women observed it under Islam
Hijab
unlike Muslims who focused on intellectual pursuits, such as the study of the Quran, these people emphasized introspection to grasp truths that they believed could not be understood through learning, missionaries played an important role in the spread of Islam, they tended to adapt to local cultures and traditions, sometimes interweaving local religious elements into Islam, and in this way they won many converts
Sufis
gradually formed in Northern India and present-day Pakistan after the fall of the Gupta Empire, Hindu kingdoms led by leaders of numerous clans who were often at war with one another, no centralized government arose, demonstrating the diversity and regionalism of South Asia, the lack of centralized power left the kingdoms vulnerable to Muslim attacks
Rajput kingdoms
a new language developed among Muslims of South Asia, melded the grammatical pattern of Hindi (the language of Northern Indians), and with the vocabulary of Arabic and some elements of Farsi (the language of the Persians), today it is the official language of Pakistan
Urdu
aka the Angkor Kingdom, complex irrigation and drainage systems led to economic prosperity, making it one of the most prosperous kingdoms in Southeast Asia, irrigation allowed farmers to harvest rice crops several times a year, and drainage systems reduced the impact of the heavy monsoon rains, Hindu and Buddhist influence
Khmer Empire
aka the Aztecs, originally hunter-gatherers who migrated to central Mexico from the north, they then founded their capital Tenochtitlán on the site of what is now Mexico City, over the next 100 years, they conquered the surrounding peoples and created an empire that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean
Mexicas
rule by religious leaders (Aztec government)
Theocracy
mandatory public service, as opposed to paying tribute, men between the ages of 15 and 50 provided agricultural and other forms of labor, including the construction of roads (Incan Empire)
Mit’a system
the belief that elements of the physical world could have supernatural powers, called Huaca, they could be large geographical features such as a river or a mountain peak, or they could be very small objects such as a stone, a plant. or a built object, such as a bridge (Inca)
Animism
communities governed themselves, not centralized, group of chiefs led group of villages or district (Inland/Sub-Saharan Africa)
Kin-based networks
storytellers of Sub-Saharan Africa, the conduits of history for a community, knew lineages, lives and deeds, music, the women provided women with a sense of empowerment in a patriarchal society
Griots
decentralized political organization based on a system of exchanges of land for loyalty, lacking a strong government, people needed protection from bandits, rival lords, and invaders such as the Vikings from northern Europe, monarch gave land to lords for service, lords then gave land to knights for service, lords gave to peasants also for farming (Europe)
Feudalism
the tracts of land a monarch granted a lord (European feudalism)
Fiefs
a person who owed service to another person, a monarch or noble, of higher status (European feudalism)
Vassal
provided economic self-sufficiency and defense, the manor (large fiefs or estates) produced everything that people living on it required, limiting the need for trade or contact with outsiders, many serfs spent their entire lives on a single manor, little aware of events in the rest of Europe
Manorial system
peasants, while not enslaved, they were tied to the land, they could not travel without permission from their lords, nor could they marry without their lord’s approval, in exchange for protection provided by the lord of the manor, they paid tribute in the form of crops, labor, or, in rare cases, coins, children born to them also became them (Europe)
Serfs
a body to advise the king that included representatives from each of the three legal classes, or estates, in France: the clergy, the nobility, and commoners, they had little power
Estates-General
dispute over whether a secular leader, rather than the pope, could invest bishops with the symbols of office, resolved when the Church achieved autonomy from secular authorities (Holy Roman Empire)
Lay investiture controversy
widespread among Christians in Europe, thought of these people as outsiders and untrustworthy, expelled from England, France, Spain, Portugal throughout the years, many had to move to Eastern Europe
Antisemitism
required the king to respect certain rights, such as the right to a jury trial before a noble could be sentenced to prison, won the right to be consulted on the issue of scutage (a tax paid on a knight who wanted to pay money instead of provide military service), English Parliament formed, increased the rights of nobility, but not the general population
Magna Carta
the Christian Church in Europe divided into two branches, Roman Catholic Church (most of Europe) and Orthodox Church (farther east, Greece to Russia)
Great Schism
the eldest son in a family inherited the entire estate, left a generation of younger sons with little access to wealth and land (Europe)
Primogeniture
middle class between elite nobles and clergy and the mass of peasants, included shopkeepers, merchants, craftspeople, and small landholders (Europe)
Bourgeoisie
a period characterized by a revival of interest in classical Greek and Roman literature, art, culture, and civic virtue (Europe)
Renaissance
the focus on individuals rather than God, sought education and reform, secular literature, characteristic of the Renaissance (Europe)
Humanism
