Vocab unit 2
Terms
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- Tang Empire
- Empire unifying China and part of Central Asia, founded 618 and ended 907. The Tang emperors presided over a magnificent court at their capital, Chang'an. (p. 282)
- Latin West
- Historians' name for the territories of Europe that adhered to the Latin rite of Christianity and used the Latin language for intellectual exchange in the period ca. 1000-1500. (p. 392)
- Holy Roman Empire
- Loose federation of mostly German states and principalities, headed by an emperor elected by the princes. It lasted from 962 to 1806. (pp. 267, 462)
- gunpowder
- A mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, in various proportions. The formula, brought to China in the 400s or 500s, was first used to make fumigators to keep away insect pests and evil spirits. In later centuries it was used to make explosives and grenades and to propel cannonballs, shot, and bullets. (p. 296)
- Umayyad Caliphate
- First hereditary dynasty of Muslim caliphs (661 to 750). From their capital at Damascus, the Umayyads ruled an empire that extended from Spain to India. Overthrown by the Abbasid Caliphate. (p. 236)
- Inca
- Largest and most powerful Andean empire. Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco. (p. 327)
- printing press
- A mechanical device for transferring text or graphics from a woodblock or type to paper using ink. Presses using movable type first appeared in Europe in about 1450. See also movable type. (p. 409)
- Aztecs
- Also known as Mexica, the Aztecs created a powerful empire in central Mexico (1325-1521 C.E.). They forced defeated peoples to provide goods and labor as a tax. (p. 314)
- manor
- In medieval Europe, a large, self-sufficient landholding consisting of the lord's residence (manor house), outbuildings, peasant village, and surrounding land. (p. 262)
- Cortes, Hernan (1485-1547)
- Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Mexico in 1519-1521 for Spain. (p. 436)
- Ferdinand Magellan (1480?- 1521)
- Portuguese navigator who led the Spanish expedition of 1519-1522 that was the first to sail around the world. (p. 431)
- Mongols
- A people of this name is mentioned as early as the records of the Tang Empire, living as nomads in northern Eurasia. After 1206 they established an enormous empire under Genghis Khan, linking western and eastern Eurasia. (p. 337)
- Muhammad (570-632 C.E.)
- Arab prophet; founder of religion of Islam. (p. 234)
- Ibn Battuta (1304-1369)
- Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan. (p. 370)
- Abbasid Caliphate
- Descendants of the Prophet Muhammad's uncle, al-Abbas, the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate and ruled an Islamic empire from their capital in Baghdad (founded 762) from 750 to 1258. (p. 238)
- Yuan Empire (1271-1368)
- Empire created in China and Siberia by Khubilai Khan. (p. 342)
- Maya
- Mesoamerican civilization concentrated in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and in Guatemala and Honduras but never unified into a single empire. Major contributions were in mathematics, astronomy, and development of the calendar. (p. 310)
- Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526)
- Centralized Indian empire of varying extent, created by Muslim invaders. (p. 370)
- Hanseatic League
- An economic and defensive alliance of the free towns in northern Germany, founded about 1241 and most powerful in the fourteenth century. (p. 398)
- Charlemagne (742-814)
- King of the Franks (r. 768-814); emperor (r. 800-814). Through a series of military conquests he established the Carolingian Empire, which encompassed all of Gaul and parts of Germany and Italy. Though illiterate himself, he sponsored a brief intellectual revival. (p. 254)
- Song Empire
- empire in central and southern China (960-1126) while the Liao people controlled the north. Empire in southern China (1127-1279; the "Southern Song) while the Jin people controlled the north. Distinguished for its advances in technology, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. (p. 292)
- Genghis Khan (ca. 1167-1227)
- or "universal leader. Genghis Khan was the founder of the Mongol Empire. (p. 337
- Grand Canal
- The 1,100-mile (1,700-kilometer) waterway linking the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers. It was begun in the Han period and completed during the Sui Empire. (p. 282)
- Great Western Schism
- A division in the Latin (Western) Christian Church between 1378 and 1417, when rival claimants to the papacy existed in Rome and Avignon. (p. 412)
- Byzantine Empire
- historians' name for the eastern portion of the Roman Empire from the fourth century onward, taken from "Byzantion, an early name for Constantinople, the Byzantine capital city. The empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453. (See also Ottoman Empire.) (p. 254)
- Swahili Coast
- ast African shores of the Indian Ocean between the Horn of Africa and the Zambezi River; from the Arabicsawahil, meaning "shores. (p. 383)
- Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
- Series of campaigns over control of the throne of France, involving English and French royal families and French noble families. (p. 413)
- Henry the Navigator (1394-1460)
- Portuguese prince who promoted the study of navigation and directed voyages of exploration down the western coast of Africa. (p. 425)
- Black Death
- An outbreak of bubonic plague that spread across Asia, North Africa, and Europe in the mid-fourteenth century, carrying off vast numbers of persons. (p. 395)
- Renaissance (European)
- period of intense artistic and intellectual activity, said to be a "rebirth of Greco-Roman culture. Usually divided into an Italian Renaissance, from roughly the mid-fourteenth to mid-fifteenth century, and a Northern (trans-Alpine) Renaissance, from roughly the early fifteenth to early seventeenth century. (pp. 406, 449)
- Sasanid Empire
- Iranian empire, established ca. 226, with a capital in Ctesiphon, Mesopotamia. The Sasanid emperors established Zoroastrianism as the state religion. Islamic Arab armies overthrew the empire ca. 640. (p. 230)
- Mansa Kankan Musa
- Ruler of Mali (r. 1312-1337). His pilgrimage through Egypt to Mecca in 1324-1325 established the empire's reputation for wealth in the Mediterranean world. (p. 372)
- Toltecs
- Powerful postclassic empire in central Mexico (900-1168 C.E.). It influenced much of Mesoamerica. Aztecs claimed ties to this earlier civilization. (p. 313)
- conquistadors
- Early-sixteenth-century Spanish adventurers who conquered Mexico, Central America, and Peru. (See Cortés, Hernán; Pizarro, Francisco.) (p. 436)
- monasticism
- Living in a religious community apart from secular society and adhering to a rule stipulating chastity, obedience, and poverty. It was a prominent element of medieval Christianity and Buddhism. Monasteries were the primary centers of learning and literacy in medieval Europe. (p. 268)
- Dias, Bartolomeu
- Portuguese explorer who in 1488 led the first expedition to sail around the southern tip of Africa from the Atlantic and sight the Indian Ocean. (p. 428)
- Great Zimbabwe
- City, now in ruins (in the modern African country of Zimbabwe), whose many stone structures were built between about 1250 and 1450, when it was a trading center and the capital of a large state. (p. 383)
- Zheng He (1371-1433)
- An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa. (pp. 356, 422)
- Mali
- Empire created by indigenous Muslims in western Sudan of West Africa from the thirteenth to fifteenth century. It was famous for its role in the trans-Saharan gold trade. (See also Timbuktu and Mansa Kankan Musa.) (p. 372)
- Pizarro (1475?- 1541)
- Spanish explorer who led the conquest of the Inca Empire of Peru in 1531-1533. (p. 440)
- Indian Ocean Maritime System
- In premodern times, a network of seaports, trade routes, and maritime culture linking countries on the rim of the Indian Ocean from Africa to Indonesia. (p. 213)
- Khubilai Khan (1215-1294)
- Last of the Mongol Great Khans (r. 1260-1294) and founder of the Yuan Empire. (p. 352)
- Gama, Vasco da (1460?-1524)
- Portuguese explorer. In 1497-1498 he led the first naval expedition from Europe to sail to India, opening an important commercial sea route. (p. 428)
- Columbus, Christopher (1451-1506)
- Genoese mariner who in the service of Spain led expeditions across the Atlantic, reestablishing contact between the peoples of the Americas and the Old World and opening the way to Spanish conquest and colonization. (p. 430)
- neo-Confucianism
- Term used to describe new approaches to understanding classic Confucian texts that became the basic ruling philosophy of China from the Song period to the twentieth century. (p. 296)
- Mamluks
- Under the Islamic system of military slavery, Turkic military slaves who formed an important part of the armed forces of the Abbasid Caliphate of the ninth and tenth centuries. Mamluks eventually founded their own state, ruling Egypt and Syria (1250-1517). (p. 239)
- Crusades (1096-1291)
- Armed pilgrimages to the Holy Land by Christians determined to recover Jerusalem from Muslim rule. The Crusades brought an end to western Europe's centuries of intellectual and cultural isolation. (p. 275)
- Ming Empire (1368-1644)
- Empire based in China that Zhu Yuanzhang established after the overthrow of the Yuan Empire. The Ming emperor Yongle sponsored the building of the Forbidden City and the voyages of Zheng He. The later years of the Ming saw a slowdown in technological development and economic decline. (pp. 354, 557)