General Terms 1.

The History 100

Economy refers to the organized way in which people produce, sell, and buy goods and services. Archaeology is the study of past based on materials that people have left behind. A primary source is a written observation of an event recorded by a person who directly witnessed or participated in the event described. A secondary source is a written account by a person who did not directly observe or participate in the event described. A bureaucracy is an organized group of unelected government workers with varying levels of authority. A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred site. An empire is a large territory in which several groups of people are ruled by a single leader or government. A dynasty is a succession of rulers from the same family. The aristocracy is the upper class in a civilization or culture. A monopoly is the total control by one person, group, or company of a specific resource, product, or trade.

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Rome 11. Augustus Caesar was the first emperor of the Roman Empire; his rule began a 200 year period of peace and prosperity known as the Pax Romana (Roman Peace). Barbarians were people of cultures that seemed uncivilized or primitive; their invasions contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. Inflation is a rapid increase in prices and/or loss of value of money. (Emperor) Diocletian began the division of the Roman Empire into two halves in an attempt to make it easier to manage and defend.

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(Emperor) Constantine legalized and converted to Christianity, helping to ensure its survival. He also contributed to the division of Eastern and Western Roman empires by creating a new Roman capital at Byzantium.

Islam 16. Muhammad was the prophet (and founder) of Islam, a monotheistic religion that shares many of the beliefs and teachings of Judaism and Christianity. On the Arabian peninsula, the harsh desert climate caused nomads to move from place to place in search of food, water, and grazing land for their herds. The Quran is the most sacred book of Islam and is believed to contain the revelations made to Muhammad by Allah (God). The Sunnah are guiding rules and principles for Muslims based on the words and deeds of Muhammad. The Five Pillars of Faith are five acts of worship which all faithful Muslims are supposed to perform. Caliph was a title taken by Muslim rulers who also claimed religious authority. Sunni Muslims follow the caliphs elected to succeed Muhammad as the political and religious leader of the Muslim community. They make up 80% of all Muslims. Shia (Shiite) Muslims believe that only people directly related to Muhammad or his son-in-law Ali can be caliph. The Umayyad dynasty ruled from 661 to 750 C.E. and greatly expanded the Islamic Empire into northern Africa, Spain, and even into western India. The Abbasid dynasty ruled the Islamic Empire from 750 to 1258 C.E. and presided over the Golden Age, during which Muslims achieved great advances in such areas as science, mathematics, and medicine.

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Africa 26. The first and smallest of western Africas trading empires, Ghana was ideally located to control and tax trade of salt and gold. In Western African societies, power was traditionally passed on through the female bloodlines in a process known as matrilineal succession.

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Mali was the 2nd of western Africas great trading empires, becoming a major crossroad of the Islamic world. Mansa Musa, Malis greatest ruler, was a devout Muslim who made a pilgrimage to Mecca and made Mali a center of trade and learning. The trans-Saharan trade brought Muslim ideas and influences all the way from the Arabian Peninsula to western Africa, along with goods and wealth. Ghana, Mali, and Songhai used their location to tax and control the salt and gold trade between northern and western Africa, thereby becoming very rich and powerful. For many centuries, verbal artists known as griots entertained and educated people, using oral tradition to pass along history, beliefs, and values.

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China 33. The Tang and Song governments practiced meritocracy, picking the best qualified candidates for jobs. Buddhism, which originated in India, became the most prevalent religion practiced in China in the Middle Ages. Confucianism provided an important link to ancient Chinese customs and practices and emphasized such values as respect and obedience towards authority. The Silk Road was a trade route that stretched from China to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It helped pass along religious, cultural, and technological ideas. The Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty, the only foreign dynasty in Chinas history, strengthened links to the rest of the world but created great hardships for the Chinese people. The Ming Dynasty abandoned great voyages of trade and exploration in favor of a policy of isolation because they feared corrupting foreign influences that might threaten their power. Using ships ten times larger than European ships, Zheng He led a series of trade and exploration voyages as far away as Africa during the early Ming Dynasty.

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The spread of cultural elements from one society to another, such as from China to Japan, is called cultural diffusion. Shinto, the early religion of Japan, celebrated life and nature and taught that the world is filled with divine spirits called kami. Prince Shotoku, who ruled Japan as regent, wrote a constitution and began the process of adopting a Chinese style of government. Lady Murasaki Shikobu wrote Tales of Genji, considered the worlds first novel, which shows much about court life in Japan. From around 1182 to 1863 C.E., Japan was ruled by a shogun, a supreme military commander whose power made the emperors largely ceremonial. Daimyo were local warlords who ruled local territories and fought amongst themselves for power, sometimes fighting to become shogun. The samurai were warriors who pledged allegiance and fought for daimyo in return for land; these warriors became an entirely new class in Japanese society. Zen Buddhism became popular in Japan and among samurai because it emphasized self-control, meditation, and discipline.

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Middle Ages 48. Feudalism was an economic and political system that developed during the Middle Ages, responding to the need for protection and stability in an otherwise chaotic time. As a teenage king, Clovis expanded the kingdom of the Franks and helped spread and strengthen Christianity in Europe. Monasteries were religious communities devoted to specific causes such as copying ancient or classical writings or helping the poor; they helped strengthen Christianity in Europe. Charles Martel defeated Muslim invaders from Spain at the Battle of Tours, a turning point that helped preserve Christianity as the dominant religion in Europe.

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As king of the Franks, Charlemagne promoted education and spread Christianity; the pope crowned him Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 C.E. Most medieval European monarchs believed in divine right, the idea that God had given them the right to rule. William the Conqueror, the French Duke of Normandy, conquered England at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 C.E. and brought feudalism to England. Something of value, usually land, granted by a lord to a vassal in exchange for loyalty and service was called a fief. In feudalism, a vassal was any person who took an oath of loyalty in return for protection and land. A serf was a peasant who was bound to the feudal estate (he could not legally leave) and controlled as if owned by the feudal lord. Medieval knights lived by a strong code of behavior called chivalry that was similar to the Japanese samurai code called bushido. In 1215 C.E., English lords forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, a document which limited the kings power, protected the rights of nobles, and served as a model for the United States Bill of Rights. The Crusades were a series of holy wars in which European Christians tried to win the Holy Land back from Muslims. Jerusalem was a city in the Holy Land that was (and still is) sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Saladin was a powerful Muslim military leader who fought against European crusaders, most notably King Richard of England during the Third Crusade. The Byzantine Empire, once the eastern half of the Roman Empire, survived and thrived for nearly 1,000 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire A guild was an association of particular craftsmen, artisans, or tradesmen who worked to protect their livelihood, very much like modern unions today. Many towns later gained independence from feudal lords by purchasing royal charters, which helped weaken the lords and strengthen monarchs. Thomas Aquinas was an Italian theologian (scholar of religion) who tried to connect both religious faith and reason in a Christian world.

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In the mid-1300s, the Black Plague killed approximately 1/3 of Europes population and caused great social and economic change. The Hundred Years War between England and France marked the rise of strong monarchies and new ways of fighting. The Reconquista refers to Christian efforts (much like the Crusades) to reclaim Spain and Portugal from Muslim control. The Spanish Inquisition (a kind of religious court system) used brutal means, including torture, to try and rid the land of Muslims and Jews.

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Renaissance 70. Humanism was a Renaissance attitude that was concerned with human beings and their values, potential, and achievements. Renaissance painters began to use perspective, giving the appearance of distance, dimension, and depth on flat surfaces. The Medici family were a powerful Florentine banking family who influenced all aspects of life in the city for nearly three hundred years! Florence is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Renaissance, and it acted as a leading cultural center, giving rise to some of the greatest artists and thinkers of the time. City-states, such as Florence and Venice in Italy, were small states controlled by a city and run like a small country. A republic is a state or country with a form of government where power is in the hands of representatives elected by the people. Because of his talents in such diverse fields as painting, engineering, and human anatomy, Leonardo da Vinci is considered a true Renaissance Man. Michelangelo is best known for painting the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and sculpting the statue of David, but he was also an architect and even a poet. Johannes Gutenberg improved movable type printing, which led to an increase in literacy and contributed to the transition from Middle Ages to Renaissance and Reformation. William Shakespeare, a Renaissance era English playwright and poet, is best known for such works as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.

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Reformation 80. Excommunication, the act of expelling one from Church membership and thereby denying him entrance into Heaven, was used by the Church to maintain power. The Catholic Church used excommunication and even torture against heretics, especially those who publicly proclaimed their controversial religious opinions. The Catholic Churchs selling of indulgences, certificates of forgiveness for sins, helped contribute to the movement known as the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther was a German priest who challenged some of the Catholic Churchs practices, especially the selling of forgiveness for sins. Martin Luther believed in justification by faith, which said a persons true faith in God was all that was required to receive forgiveness and salvation. John Calvin believed in predestination, the idea that God has pre-chose who will receive salvation, and that earthly conduct cannot affect that fact. King Henry VIII of England started the Anglican Church (also known as the Church of England) when the pope refused to grant him a divorce. The Counter-Reformation, designed to counteract the Protestant Reformation, was the Catholic Churchs attempt to stop the spread of Protestantism and fix some of the abuses within its own church.

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Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment 88. Rationalism was founded by Rene Descartes and was the belief that reason is the chief source of human knowledge. Nicolaus Copernicus studied the motion of the planets and published his theory of a sun centered solar system just before his death. Galileo, an Italian astronomer and physicist, helped prove the Copernican theory and was persecuted by the Catholic Church as a heretic. Sir Isaac Newton, an English scientist and mathematician, proved the law of gravity and first explained the nature of light. The work of Sir Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes led to the scientific method, an approach to science emphasizing observation, hypothesis, and testing of the hypothesis to reach a conclusion.

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John Locke believed that the purpose of every government is to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens, and he argued that when a government breaks this social contract, the citizens are justified in revolting. Montesquieu published a book supporting the idea of separation of powers within a government. Voltaire wrote novels, plays, essays, and letters in which he argued in favor of religious freedom and against government support of a particular religion.

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Age of Exploration & The Americas 96. Mercantilism was the idea that a country could increase its power by increasing its wealth. This could be accomplished by exporting more goods to other countries than were imported. The term Columbian Exchange refers to the exchange of people, goods, technology, ideas, and diseases, especially between Europe and the Americas, beginning with Columbus voyages. The Aztec Empire in Mexico and Central America eventually fell to Hernando Corts and the Spanish. The Inca Empire, which stretched nearly 2,000 miles along the Pacific coast of South America, was conquered in the 1500s by Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish. The Maya civilization in Central America included achievements in astronomy, mathematics, art, and architecture.

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