World History - 496-1550
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breuddwydiol on May 4, 2011
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89 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Aztecs | They were a Mesoamerican civilization who ruled Mexico and the surrounding areas before the Spanish conquered the region in the 1521. |
| Francis Bacon | He was an English philosopher of the Renaissance period who developed the scientific method. He believed that instead of relying on the ideas of ancient authorites, scientists should use inductive reasoning to learn about nature. |
| Vasco Nunez de Balboa | This Spanish explorer of the 1500s led an expedition across Panama discovered the Pacific Ocean. |
| Thomas a Becket | This English Bishop was the archbishop of Canterbury and the leader of the Church in England. He was murdered following his opposition to Henry II's attempts to control the clergy. |
| Canterbury | The most important episcopal seen in England in the 6th century and the site of St. Augustines mission. It became a popular pilgrimmage destination when Saint Thomas a Becket's shrine was established there. |
| Black Death | This disease killed nearly half of the people in Western Europe in the 14th century. |
| Bubonic Plague | Known also as the Black Death, this disease was caused by yersinia pestis, and is characterized by swollen lymph nodes, fever, shock, and seizures. |
| Anne Boleyn | She was the second wife of King Henry VIII of England and the mother of Elizabeth I. Henry divorced his wife Catherine of Aragon to marry her, but then had her executed on charges of adultery. |
| Cesare Borgia | This Italian Renaissance politician was the younger son of Pope Alexander VI and was known for his treachery and cruelty. He had ambitions to bring all of Italy under his control. |
| Lucrezia Borgia | This Renaissance woman was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, who used her as a pawn in his attempts to gain political power. He married her first to the duke of Milan, then to the illegitimate son of the King of Naples, and finally to the duke of Ferarra, where she became an influential member of the court. |
| Charlemagne | He was the King of the Franks from 768-814, and he became Holy Roman Emperor in 800. Through a series of military conquests he established the Carolingian Empire, which encompassed all of Gaul and parts of Germany and Italy. Although he was illiterate, he started a great literary revival. |
| Carolingian Empire | This was Charlemagne's empire, which covered much of western and central Europe. This Holy Roman Empire was the largest single holding until Napoleon in 19th century. |
| chivalry | This was the methods of training and standards of behavior for Knights in the Middle Ages. This code emphasized bravery, military skill, generosity in victory, piety, and courtesy to women. |
| courtly love | An idealized and often illicit form of love celebrated in the literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in which a knight or courtier devotes himself to a noblewoman who is usually married. |
| Christopher Columbus | This Italian explorer was responsible for the European discovery of America in 1492. |
| 1492 | This was the year in which Columbus discovered America as well as the year of the Reconquista. |
| Reconquista | The Reconquering of Spain from the Muslims in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella. This unified Spain into a powerful nation-state. |
| Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria | Name Columbus' three ships. |
| conquistadores | They were Spanish military leaders who established Spanish rule in the New World by overthrowing Native American governments. |
| Nicolaus Copernicus | This Polish astronomer who produced a workable model of the solar system with the sun in the center (1473-1543). |
| Hernando Cortes | This Spanish explorer and conquiestador overthrew the Aztec rulers of Mexico and established the authority of Spain over the country. |
| Crusades | These were a series of wars fought from 1096 to 1270 in which European kings and warriors set out to gain control of the Holy Land which were then held by Muslims. |
| Dark Ages | This is a term sometimes applied to the early middle ages, the first few centuries after the fall of Rome. The term suggests prevailing ignorance and barbarism. |
| Desiderius Erasmus | This Dutch humanist and theologian was the leading Renaissance scholar of northern Europe. His criticisms of the Church led to the Reformation, but he opposed violence and condemned Martin Luther. He wrote "The Praise of Folly," and translated the New Testament from Greek to Latin (1466-1536). |
| The Praise of Folly | an essay written by Erasmus that uses satire to point out corrupt practices of the Church. |
| Leif Ericson | This Norwegian explorer lived around the year 1000. He discovered a place in North America which he called Vinland. |
| Vinland | means "Land of Wine", given by Leif Ericsson to the present-day Canadian province of Newfoundland |
| Ferdinand and Isabella | This king and queen of Spain united their country in 1479 with their marriage. They completed the Reconquista, supported the Inquisition, and sponsored Christopher Columbus journey to the New World. |
| Aragon, Castille | The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella united these two kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula to form the modern-day country of Spain. |
| feudalism | This was a system of obligations and customs that bound lords and their subjects in Medieval Europe. |
| fief | Under feudalism, this was a landed estate given by a lord to a vassal in return for the vassal's service to the lord. |
| vassal | a person under the protection of a feudal lord to whom he or she owes allegiance; a subordinate or dependent |
| Genghis Khan | This Mongolian general and emperor who lived from 1162-1227, was known for his military leadership and great cruelty. He conquered vast portions of northern China and southwestern Asia. His empire stretched from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean. |
| Lady Godiva | This English noblewoman supposedly rode naked through the town of Coventry to save thepeople from an oppressive tax in the 11th century. |
| guild | This was an organization of artisans in the Medieval Period. They sought to regulate the price and quality of products such as weaving and ironwork. |
| journeyman | In the medieval guild system, this was person who has learned a particular trade or craft but has not become an employer, or master. |
| apprentice | In the medieval guild system, this was a person who lived and worked with an artisan's family for several years, learning a skill in order to earn a living. |
| Johann Gutenberg | German printer who was the first in Europe to print using movable type and the first to use a press (1400-1468). |
| Battle of Hastings | This battle took place in southeastern England in 1066. Invaders from Normandy led by William the Conqueror defeated English forces under King Harold, thus bringing about the Norman conquest of England. |
| 1066 | What year marked the Norman conquest of England? |
| Harold | This Saxon leader fought against William the Conqueror and his Norman knights in the Battle of Hastings. |
| Henry VIII | Famous for having six wives, he was King of England from 1509 to 1547. His desire to annul his marriage led to a conflict with the pope, and ultimately to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church, and its embrace of Protestantism. He established the Church of England in 1532. |
| Catherine of Aragon | She was the first of Henry VIII and the mother of Mary I. She was later devoiced by Henry when she couldn't bear a male heir after he established the Church of England. |
| Holy Roman Empire | This major political institution in Europe lasted from 9th until the 19th centuries. It included great amounts of territory inthe central and western parts of Europe and Charlemagne was its first empire. |
| homage | Under feudalism, this was the personal submission of a vassal to a lord, by which the vassal pledged to serve the lord and the lord to protect the vassal. |
| Hundred Years' War | This was a war between France and England that lasted from 1337 until 1453 inrone of which the kings of England claimed the throne of France. In the end, France expelled the English who only retained possession of Calais. |
| Huns | This was a tribe from western Asia who conquered much of central and eastern Europe during the 5th century. They were known for their cruelty and destructiveness. |
| Attila the Hun | 405-453, was the Emperor of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire which stretched from Germany to the Ural River and from the River Danube to the Baltic Sea. |
| Incas | This South American people built a notable civilization in South America in the Andes. The center of their empire was present-day Peru. They were conquered by Francisco Pizarro of Spain. |
| indulgence | In the Roman Catholic Church, this is a pardon for sins committed during a person's lifetime. |
| Inquisition | This was a court established by the Roman Catholic Church in the 13th century to try cases of heresy and other offenses against the Church. |
| knight | In the Middle Ages this was originally a person of noble birth trained to arms and chivalry. |
| Ferdinand Magellan | He was a Portuguese navigator who led the Spanish expedition of 1519-1522 that was the first to sail around the world, although he died before the end of the voyage. |
| Magna Carta | This Charter was forced upon King John of England by his barons in 1215. It established that the power of the monarchy was not absolute and guaranteed trial by jury and due process of law to the nobility. |
| Mali Empire | This huge territorial empire flourished in western Africa during the 13th and 14th centuries. It's capital was Timbuktu, which became a great center of Islamic learning and culture. Under Sundiata and Mansa Munsa, it controlled the important sub-Saharan trade routes. |
| Mayas | This Native American civilization flourished in southern Mexico and Central America from around until 1600, when it was conquered by the Spanish. They were known for their astronomical observations, accurate calendars, sophisticated hieroglyphics and pyramids. |
| Medici | This Italian family of powerful merchants and bankers ruled Florence in the 15th century. |
| Lorenzo de Medici | Known as il Magnfico, this Italian statesman and scholar supported many artists and humanists including Michelangelo and Leonardo and Botticelli. |
| medieval | This term is used to describe people, objects, events and institutions of the Middle Ages. |
| Ming Dynasty | A major dynasty that ruled China from 1363 until 1644. It was marked by a great expansion of Chinese commerce into East Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. |
| Montezuma | This Aztec emperor was overthrown by the Spanish Conquistadors under Hernando Cortes. |
| Thomas More | This English statesman and scholar wrote Utopia and was a trusted advisor of Henry VIII until he refused to sign the Act of Succession which recognized Henry VIII as head of the Church. He was beheaded in 1535. |
| Norman Conquest | In 1066 this was the overthrow of Saxon England. |
| Battle of Hastings | This was the decisive battle in which William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy) defeated the Saxons under Harold II in 1066 and thus left England open for the Norman Conquest. |
| Ottoman Empire | This empire was developed by the Turks between the 14th and 15th centuries. It was succeeded in the 1920s by the present day Republic of Turkey. |
| Oxford University | This is the 2nd oldest university in the world (after the University of Bologna in Italy). There was evidence of teaching there as early as the 11th century, and it grew rapidly in 1167 when Henry II of England banned English students from attending the University of Paris. For the past 100 years it has been the homes of the Rhodes Scholarship. |
| Cambridge University | This English university was founded by Oxford scholars who left Oxford after a dispute in which 2 scholars were killed in 1209. |
| Francisco Pizarro | This Spanish conquistador overthrew the rulers of the Incas and established the nation of Peru. |
| Marco Polo | This Italian explorer of the late 1200s and early 1300s was one of the first Europeans to travel across Asia. He visited the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler of China, and became a government official in China. His account of his travels was distributed after his return to Italy. |
| Juan Ponce de Leon | He was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who conquered Puerto Rico. He discovered and named Florida while searching for the legendary Fountain of Youth. |
| Reformation | This was a religious movement that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church. It resulted in the founding of many Protestant churches. Some of its early leaders were Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Knox. |
| Martin Luther | This German monk who became one of the most famous critics of the Roman Catholic Chruch. In 1517, he wrote 95 theses, or statements of belief attacking the church practices. |
| John Calvin | This French leader of Protestantism settled in Geneva where he founded a harsh theocratic government. His ideas led to a large following in France, known collectively as Huguenots. |
| Huguenots | They were French Protestants who were harshly persecuted in the French Wars of Religion until the Edict of Nantes freed them from persecution in France in 1598. When it was revoked in 1700, many thousands of them fled to America. |
| John Knox | This was the man who dominated the reform movement in Scotland. He established the Presbyterian Church of Scotland so that ministers ran the church, not bishops. |
| Renaissance | This period of European history, lasting from about 1300 to 1600, was marked by a renewed interest in classical culture and led to far-reaching changes in art, science, learning and views of the world. |
| Richard the Lion-Hearted | This son of Henry II led the Crusaders in an attempt to regain the Holy Land from Saladin during the 3rd Crusade during his reign from 1189-1199. |
| John Lackland | This son of Henry II was nicknamed "soft sword" and Lackland. he was Richard the Lionhearted's brother and is viewed as one of the weakest Kings in England. He was forced to sign the Magna Carta. |
| Henry II | In 1154, he became king of England. He broadened the system of royal justice by expanding accepted customs into law and establishing royal courts. He was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine. But he is most known for the murder of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. |
| Wars of the Roses | This was a series of wars fought by two English houses in the late 1400s for the rule of the country. The Houe of Lancaster had a red rose as its emblem while the House of York had a white rose. Ultimately the Lancastrians won, and their leader Henry Tudor became Henry VII of England. |
| Saladin | This Muslim Kurdish general who was famous for his military genius and generosity, conquered Egypt and Syria in the 12th century. His capture of Jerusalem precipitated the 3rd Crusade. |
| Savonarola | This Italian religious reformer of the 1400s spent most of his career in Florance, Italy where his fiery oratory whipped up popular fervor against corruption in the church and state and an attack on the art and learning of the Renaissance. |
| Bonfire of the Vanities | This was the notorious bonfire in Florence in 1497 in which supporters of Savonarola collected and burned thousands of paintings, books, and other temptations to sin. |
| serf | Under feudalism, this was a peasant bound to his lord's land and subject to his lord's will, but entitled to his lord's protection. |
| Spanish Inquisition | This was the harsh and violent conversion of Spain back into Catholicism under Ferdinand and Isabella. They used several versions of torture and fear tactics to convert people back to Catholicism. |
| Tomas de Torquemada | This was the first inquisitory-general of the Inquisition in Spain in the late 1400s. He was known for his severity, especially with persons who were charged with illegally practicing Judaism, and his name has come to symbolize ruthless persecution. |
| vassal | Under feudalism, this was a subordinate who placed himself in service to a lord in return for the lord's protection. |
| Vikings | These Scandinavian warriors raided much of coastal Europe during the 8th-10th centuries. They traveled in boats with high bows and sterns carefully designed to navigate rough seas and calm inland waters. |
| William the Conqueror | This duke of Normandy was the leader of the Norman conquest of France. He defeated English forces under Harold in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and became the first Norman king of England. |
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