Vocabulary Flashcards
Monarchy
A form of government in which supreme authority is vested in a single and usually hereditary figure, such a as a king.
Oligarchy
A government in which a small group exercise control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.
Autocracy
A government in which the ruler has unlimited power and uses it in an arbitrary manner.
Despotism
A form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. May be as an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group, as in an oligarchy.
Absolutism
A system of government in which the ruler claims sole and incontestable power
Liberalism
Political philosophy of the 18th century that advocated representative government dominated by the propertied classes, minimal government interference in the economy, religious toleration, and civil liberties such as freedom of speech
Conservatism
Political philosophy of the 18th century that supported legitimate monarchies, landed aristocracies, and established churches. Gradual change in the established social order.
Totalitarianism
A political system in which the government has total control over the lives of individual citizens.
Balance of Power
A strategy to maintain an equilibrium, in which weak countries join together to match or exceed the power of a stronger country.
Capitalism
An economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production, with the goal of making a profit.
Socialism
An economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy.
Communism
A revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless, money-less and stateless social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production.
Patronage
The support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another.
Mercantilism
Economic philosophy calling for close government regulation of the economy. Maximize exports and limit imports. Accumulation of gold and silver.
Columbian Exchange
The interchange of plants, animals, diseases, and human populations between the Old World and the New World
Entrepreneur
An individual who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on financial risk to do so.
Medieval/Middle Ages
5 th to the 15 th Century. Began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and was followed by the Renaissance
Feudalism
A system for structuring society. Three estates of the realm: The nobility, the clerics, and the peasantry bonds of manorial-ism.
Aristocracy
The highest social class in a particular social order
Renaissance
Rebirth. A cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and spreading to the rest of Europe.
Gentry/nobility
A social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges than members of most other classes in a society, membership typically being hereditary. Denotes “well-born and well-bred people.” Connected to landed estates.
Peasantry
A member of a traditional class of farmers, either laborers or owners of small farms.
Anti-Semitism
A prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage.
The Classics
The study of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity (BC 600 – AD 600)
Vernacular
The everyday language of a region or country
Iberian Peninsula
Located in the extreme southwest of Europe (Spain / Portugal)
Balkan Peninsula
Located in Southeast Europe. (Greece)
Baltics
Countries east of the Baltic Sea (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
Low Countries
The coastal regions of north western Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)
Papacy
The Office of the Pope
Reconquista
The centuries-long Christian “reconquest” of Spain from the Muslims.
Inquisition
A group of institutions within the judicial system of the Roman Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy (formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith/Catholicism)
