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River valley civilizations |
the earliest civilizations, developed along the banks of rivers where fertile land was abundant |
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Peloponnesian War |
a war in which Athens and its allies were defeated by Sparta and its allies |
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Alexander the Great |
Macedonian leader who created a vast empire including Greece, Persia, Egypt, and parts of India |
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Golden Age |
An idyllic, often imaginary past time of peace, prosperity, and happiness. |
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Pericles |
leader of Athens during its Golden Age of democracy |
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Plebians |
in ancient Rome, one of the common farmers, artisans, and merchants who made up most of the population |
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Patricians |
in ancient Rome, a member of the wealthy, privileged upper class |
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Tribunes |
in Ancient Rome, an official elected by the plebians to protect their rights. |
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Julius Caesar |
Roman leader who brought an end to the Roman Republic after being named "dictator for life" by the senate. Was assassinated, paving the way for the Roman Empire to be formed. |
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Fall of Rome |
collapse of Roman civilization from a variety of internal and external pressures |
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Monotheism |
a belief in one god |
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Islam |
a monotheistic religion that developed in Arabia in the 7th century AD |
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Mosque |
Islamic place of worship |
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Muhammad |
the founder of the Islamic religion |
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Historian |
a person who studies, records, and analyzes events in the past |
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Excommunicate |
to Officially exclude someone from participation in the sacraments and services of the Christian Church. |
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Qur’an |
the holy book of Islam |
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Five Pillars of Islam |
The five duties expected of every Muslim: profession of the faith in a prescribed form, observance of ritual prayer, giving alms to the poor, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and performing a pilgrimage to Mecca |
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Ka’aba |
the most sacred site in Islam, located in Mecca |
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Sunni and Shi’a |
the two branches of the Islamic religion |
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Mansa Musa |
Emperor of the kingdom of Mali in Africa. He made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca and established trade routes to the Middle East. |
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Islamic achievements |
advancements in science, medicine, algebra, and astronomy during the Islamic Empire |
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Caste system |
in India the caste system consisted of four social classes (Brahmin, Kshatriya , Vaishya, Shudra). Every aspect of one’s life was controlled by membership in a particular caste. |
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Hinduism |
A major religious and cultural tradition of the Indian subcontinent, developed from Vedic religion |
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Buddhism |
A widespread Asian religion or philosophy, founded by Siddartha Gautama in northeastern India in the 5th century bc |
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Karma |
(in Hinduism and Buddhism) The sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences |
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Charlemagne |
"Charles the Great", king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor |
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Manor |
a lord’s estate in feudal Europe |
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Franks |
a Germanic people who settled in the Roman province of Gaul (modern-day France) and established a great empire during the Middle Ages |
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Feudal system |
a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour. |
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Vassal |
a person who pledges loyalty to a lord in exchange for land |
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Battle of Hastings |
1066, when William the Conqueror defeated the Saxons to become King of England |
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Chivalry |
a code of behavior for knights in Medieval Europe, stressing ideals such as courage, loyalty, and devotion. |
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Magna Carta |
a document guaranteeing basic political rights in England, signed by King John in 1215 |
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Crusades |
a series of expeditions in which medieval Christian warriors sought to recover control of the Holy Land from the Muslims |
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Hundred Years’ War |
a feudal conflict between England and France at the end of the Middle Ages |
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Joan of Arc |
French heroine and military leader inspired by religious visions to organize French resistance to the English during the Hundred Years’ War; she was later tried for heresy and burned at the stake (1412-1431) |
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Black Death |
The great epidemic of bubonic plague that killed a large part of the population of Europe in the mid 14th century. |
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Parliament |
legislative body of medieval England |
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Ghana |
a West African kingdom that grew rich from taxing and controlling trade that established an empire in the 9-th-11th centuries |
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Mali |
a West African empire that flourished from the 1200s to 1400s and grew rich from trade |
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Songhai |
a West African empire that conquered Mali and controlled trade from the 1400s to 1591 |
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Gold-salt trade |
the basis of wealth for West African Empires |
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Aksum |
a Christian kingdom in East Africa which flourished between the 1st and 6th centuries |
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Chinese achievements |
block printing, smallpox vaccine, gunpowder, paper, magnetic compass |
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Shihuangdi |
the first emperor of China, unified China in 221 BC under the Qin dynasty |
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Mandate of Heaven |
in Chinese history, the divine approval thought to be the basis of royal authority |
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Confucianism |
A system of philosophical and ethical teachings founded by Confucius and developed by Mencius, emphasizes social order and filial piety |
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Legalism |
a Chinese political philosophy based on the idea that a highly efficient and powerful government is the key to social order |
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Daoism |
philosophy based on the ideas of the Chinese thinker Laozi, who taught that people should be guided by a universal force called the Dao |
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Filial piety |
respect shown by children for their parents and elders |
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Kublai Khan |
Mongol emperor of China; grandson of Genghis Khan, founder of the Yuan dynasty |
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Marco Polo |
Italian traveler who lived at the court of Kublai Khan for 17 years, later wrote a book about his travels in China |
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Renaissance |
period of European history (approx. 1300-1600) when renewed interest in classical culture led to far-reaching changes in art, learning, and views of the world |
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Medici |
A powerful Italian family of bankers and merchants whose members effectively ruled Florence for much of the 15th century. Patrons of the arts. |
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Raphael |
painted the School of Athens |
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Thomas More |
Author of Utopia |
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Machiavelli |
Author of The Prince, a political treatise about maintaining power |
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Johan Gutenberg |
inventor of the printing press |
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Savannah |
dry, grassy plains in Africa |
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Griot |
A member of a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa |
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Jesuits |
a Roman Catholic religious order founded with the goal of spreading Catholicism and Catholic education |
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John Calvin |
religions thinker during the Reformation, founder of Calvinism, proponent of the doctrine of predestionation |
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Martin Luther |
founder of Lutheranism, began the Reformation by writing his 95 Theses |
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Predestination |
the doctrine that God has decided all things beforehand, including which people will be eternally saved |
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Henry VIII |
King of England who broke with the Roman church to establish the Anglican church |
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Prince Henry the Navigator |
educated captains and crews for long sea voyages, financed sea voyages |
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Bartholomeu Dias |
first European explorer to round the Cape of Good Hope |
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Declaration of Independence |
A document declaring the US to be independent of the British Crown, signed on July 4, 1776, by the congressional representatives of the Thirteen Colonies, |
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Johannes Kepler |
astronomer who used mathematics to prove that the planets move in elliptical orbits around the sun |
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Montesquieu |
Enlightenment thinker who supported the idea of separation of powers |
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Isaac Newton |
English scientist who discovered and explained gravity |
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Francis Bacon |
Enlightenment thinker who encouraged using observation and experimentation to understand the world, his ideas led to the development of the scientific method |
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Scientific method |
a logical procedure for gathering information about the natural world, in which experimentation and observation are used to test hypotheses |
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Three Estates |
three classes in France before the Revolution |
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Reign of Terror |
the period when Robespierre ruled France nearly as a dictator and thousands of political figures and ordinary citizens were executed |
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National Assembly |
a French Congress established by representatives of the Third Estate in 1789 to enact laws and reforms in the name of the French people. Its formation marked the beginning of the French Revolution. |
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Committee for Public Safety |
the government of France during the Reign of Terror, effectively ruled by Robespierre |
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Bastille |
French prison that was attacked by peasants at the start of the French Revolution |
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Revolution |
A forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system |
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