Unit 1 Vocab

Question 1

a vast organization in which appointed officials carried out the empire’s policies (imperial China)

Answer 1

Bureaucracy

Question 2

a bureaucratic system wherein officials obtained their positions by demonstrating their merit on civil service exams (imperial China, confucianism)

Answer 2

Meritocracy

Question 3

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

Answer 3

Champa rice

Question 4

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

Answer 4

Proto-industrialization

Question 5

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)

Answer 5

Tributary system

Question 6

a ritual in which anyone greeting the Chinese emperor must bow his or her head until it reached the floor

Answer 6

Kowtow

Question 7

the duty of family members to subordinate their desires to those of the male head of the family and to the ruler

Answer 7

Filial piety

Question 8

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

Answer 8

Neo-Confucianism

Question 9

landowning aristocrats, battled for control of land (Japanese feudalism)

Answer 9

Daimyo

Question 10

samurai code that stressed frugality, loyalty, the martial arts, and honor unto death

Answer 10

Bushido

Question 11

renowned center of learning in Baghdad that scholars traveled to, the Islamic community helped transfer knowledge throughout Afro-Eurasia

Answer 11

House of Wisdom

Question 12

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

Answer 12

Mamluks

Question 13

what the Seljuk leader called himself, thereby reducing the role of the highest ranking Abbasid from caliph to chief Sunni religious authority

Answer 13

Sultan

Question 14

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

Answer 14

Hijab

Question 15

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

Answer 15

Sufis

Question 16

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

Answer 16

Rajput kingdoms

Question 17

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

Answer 17

Urdu

Question 18

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

Answer 18

Khmer Empire

Question 19

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

Answer 19

Mexicas

Question 20

rule by religious leaders (Aztec government)

Answer 20

Theocracy

Question 21

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)

Answer 21

Mit’a system

Question 22

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)

Answer 22

Animism

Question 23

communities governed themselves, not centralized, group of chiefs led group of villages or district (Inland/Sub-Saharan Africa)

Answer 23

Kin-based networks

Question 24

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

Answer 24

Griots

Question 25

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)

Answer 25

Feudalism

Question 26

the tracts of land a monarch granted a lord (European feudalism)

Answer 26

Fiefs

Question 27

a person who owed service to another person, a monarch or noble, of higher status (European feudalism)

Answer 27

Vassal

Question 28

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

Answer 28

Manorial system

Question 29

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)

Answer 29

Serfs

Question 30

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

Answer 30

Estates-General

Question 31

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)

Answer 31

Lay investiture controversy

Question 32

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

Answer 32

Antisemitism

Question 33

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

Answer 33

Magna Carta

Question 34

the Christian Church in Europe divided into two branches, Roman Catholic Church (most of Europe) and Orthodox Church (farther east, Greece to Russia)

Answer 34

Great Schism

Question 35

the eldest son in a family inherited the entire estate, left a generation of younger sons with little access to wealth and land (Europe)

Answer 35

Primogeniture

Question 36

middle class between elite nobles and clergy and the mass of peasants, included shopkeepers, merchants, craftspeople, and small landholders (Europe)

Answer 36

Bourgeoisie

Question 37

a period characterized by a revival of interest in classical Greek and Roman literature, art, culture, and civic virtue (Europe)

Answer 37

Renaissance

Question 38

the focus on individuals rather than God, sought education and reform, secular literature, characteristic of the Renaissance (Europe)

Answer 38

Humanism