World History
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318 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 pan-Africanism | movement for African people to unit economically and politically to solve common problems; developed as a response to slavery, imperialism, etc. |
| Kwame Nkrumah | first president of Ghana and big proponent of pan-Africanism |
| pan-Arabism | similar to pan-Africanism, but applied to Arabs |
| ethnic cleansing | euphemism for genocide, first applied in the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia |
| Dayton Accords | peace agreement reached in 1994 to bring peace to the former Yugoslavia in the Balkans |
| Genocide | the mass destruction of an entire race of people |
| Terrorism | the use of force to frighten people and to force governments to change their policies |
| Tutsis and Hutus | the main ethnic groups in Rwanda; in 1994, the minority _____ went on a rampage and tried to eradicate all ______ in the country |
| Shining Path | communist terrorist group in Peru in 1970s and 1980s |
| Red Brigade | Marxist group in Italy during the 1970s and 1980s that tried to form a separate state |
| Hamas | Palestinian Fundamentalist Organization, which incorporates a military arm dedicated to Palestinian sovereignty. This group is extreme in its beliefs criticizing the more moderate stand the PLO has taken on the development of a Palestinian state. |
| Al Qaeda | One of the most active and dangerous of the terrorist organizations of today, it is a fundamentalist Islamic Organization dedicated to the destruction on non-Islamic governments. The group was founded and funded by Osama bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian citizen who was born in one of the most influential and wealthy families of the region. It has been responsible for some of the most violent terrorist attacks worldwide. |
| Golda Meir | former prime minister of Israel; governed the country during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 |
| Indira Gandhi | prime minister of India (1966-74, 1980-84), world's longest serving female prime minister and India's only female prime minister |
| Margaret Thatcher | prime minister of Great Britain, 1979-1990; followed conservative principles, close relationship w/ Ronald Reagan |
| multinational corporation | a business that manages production and/or delivers services in more than one country |
| Internet | a linkage of different computer networks that enables people around the world to exchange information and communicate with one another |
| surfing the Web | browsing different Internet sites |
| Globalization | the interaction of people around the world as they form wider networks in politics, economy, and society |
| developing nations | countries whose economies and quality of life are in the process of improving, but are not among the highest in the world; there is no set definition or criteria to differentiate between these and developed nations |
| Third World Countries | term often used to describe developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America |
| United Nations | international organization established after WWII designed to negotiate disputes of member nations |
| OPEC | group of oil producing countries who work together to maintain production and prices |
| World Trade Organization | international body dealing with the rules of trade between nations |
| Mesoamerica | the geographic region made of Mexico and Central America; location of significant ancient civilizations of the Americas (Olmecs, Mayas, Aztecs) |
| maize | corn; a major crop in ancient America |
| Olmec | civilization in MesoAmerica around 1200 B.C.E.-400 B.C.E. |
| Maya | MesoAmerican civilization around 250 C.E.-900 C.E., known for highly developed cities and mathematical achievements such as their calendar |
| hieroglyphs | pictures that stand for words, ideas, or sounds; Mayan written language was composed of glyphs |
| chinampa | "floating gardens" of Aztec society; used to increase agricultural production |
| Aztec | MesoAmerican civilization founded in Mexico around 1200 C.E.; civilization fell under Spanish rule in 1521 |
| Tenochtitlan | capital city of the Aztec empire; present day Mexico City was built on top of its ruins |
| Inca | Andean civilization that flourished in the 15th and early part of the 16th century C.E. |
| quipu | system of knotted ropes used by the Inca for accounting purposes |
| conquistador | a Spanish conqueror of the Americas |
| encomienda | colonial agricultural system used by the Spanish in the New World; a Spanish settler would receive a grant of land and Native Americans to work it |
| Hernan Cortés | Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztecs |
| mestizo | a person of mixed European and Native American descent |
| Zheng He | Chinese explorer responsible for the Ming Dynasty's brief attempt to expand its empire overseas; the withdrawal of these voyages represented a major turning point in world history. As the Chinese withdrew from exploration, Western Europe stepped in and conquered areas all over the world, thereby becoming a world power. |
| Vasco da Gama | 1st European to sail around the southern tip of Africa to India |
| Christopher Columbus | his explorations led to the European colonization of the New World |
| Ferdinand Magellan | Spanish explorer who led the first expedition to sail around the world |
| James Cook | English explorer who opened much of the Pacific to Europe (Australia, Hawaii) |
| Samuel de Champlain | French explorer who mapped much of North America, particularly in Canada and the northeastern U.S. |
| Columbian Exchange | exchange of goods, diseases, ideas, etc., that took place when the Western and Eastern hemispheres met for the first time after Columbus' voyage to the Americas |
| astrolabe | instrument used to determine latitude; the Europeans gained this instrument from the Muslims, and this and other advances allowed the Europeans to embark on the many sea expeditions |
| Cold War | ideological conflict between the US and Soviet Union in the late 20th century |
| iron curtain | name given to the communist Eastern Bloc countries in the late 20th century; these countries were said to reside "behind an ____ _______" |
| Truman Doctrine | US policy of giving economic and military aid to free nations threatened by internal or external opponents |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | confrontation between the US and Soviet Union in October, 1962, when the Soviet Union set up missile bases in Cuba; the US responded by blockading Cuba until the Soviets agreed to take the bases down; one of the hottest moments in the Cold War |
| NATO | formed by Western European and North American countries as a defense agreement against the Soviet Union and its allies |
| Warsaw Pact | the Soviet Union's military alliance with its satellite countries in Eastern Europe; the Soviet counterpart to NATO |
| Korean War | 1950-53; Communist North Korea v. Democratically supported South Korea; the US was involved under a policy of containment |
| SALT Treaty | 1972 arms reduction treaty between the US and Soviet Union in which both sides agreed to freeze the number of ballistic missiles in their arsenal; representative of the period of Détente during the Cold War |
| Nikita Khrushchev | Soviet leader who followed Stalin; implemented a policy of deStalinization; also oversaw the Cuban Missile Crisis |
| Mikhail Gorbachev | Soviet leader in the 1980s who implemented glasnost and perestroika reforms in an attempt to strengthen the communist Soviet Union; these measures didn't work, and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 |
| perestroika | Gorbachev's reforms designed to restructure the Soviet economy to allow more free market transactions |
| glasnost | reforms designed to allow openness in the Soviet Union; allowed more freedom of speech and press |
| Berlin Wall | built in 1961, a symbol of the Cold War; built to keep people under communist rule in East Berlin out of democratic West Berlin |
| Mohandas Gandhi | non-violent leader of the Indian independence movement; his non-violent tactics helped gain support against the British colonizers and eventually resulted in an independent Indian state |
| Jawaharlal Nehru | first leader of independent India; instrumental in the Indian independence movement |
| Kwame Nkrumah | nationalist leader and first president of an independent Ghana |
| Mao Zedong | communist ruler in China who took power in 1949 by beating the rival nationalists |
| Chiang Kai-shek | Chinese nationalist leader in the early 20th century; when the nationalist forces were defeated by Mao, ______ fled to Taiwan and set up a government there |
| 38th Parallel | dividing line between communist North and democratic South Korea |
| Ho Chi Minh | Vietnamese nationalist who led Vietnam's independence movement against first the French and then the US; established communism in Vietnam once he became the country's leader |
| Six Day War | 1967 war against Israel and Arab countries around it; Israel seized large amounts of territory, but was forced by the UN to return it to the Arabs |
| Palestine | area in the Middle East that has declared itself a state with Arab speaking people; the area claimed as _________ is currently in the state of Israel; this conflict between Israel and _______ has continued since Israel was established in 1948 |
| Zionist Movement | Jewish movement to establish a Jewish homeland in the Middle East |
| Balfour Declaration | proclamation made by British official in 1917 offering support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine |
| Tiananmen Square | public gathering area in Beijing, China; it was the site of 1989 student protests for civil freedoms that resulted in violence when the Chinese Red Army removed the protesters; the international community was appalled by the violence and civil rights violations by the Chinese government during the protests |
| Apartheid | segregation laws in South Africa separating blacks and whites; _______ was ended in the 1990s |
| Baltic States Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia | these states were part of the Soviet Union and stirred up nationalist sentiments when the Soviet Union weakened in the late 1980s; they were among the first Soviet republics to declare their independence as the Soviet Union crumbled |
| Franks | Germanic tribe who eventually became the most powerful in Europe in the Early Middle Ages; Charlemagne's tribe |
| Christendom | refers to all Christian kingdoms in Europe during the Middle Ages |
| Feudalism | political system that had its functions of government carried out at a local and decentralized level; power is concentrated locally |
| Knight | lowest noble in the feudal hierarchy |
| Lord | upper noble in the feudal relationship |
| Vassal | lower noble in the feudal relationship |
| Fief | unit of land given by a lord to a vassal in return for loyalty and military service |
| Manor | lord's estate in Medieval Europe |
| Serf | peasant who was not a slave, but was tied to a particular lord's manor |
| Monk | Christians who gave up their worldly possessions to dedicate themselves to a life of prayer and worship |
| Monastery | a religious community of monks |
| Excommunication | the act of being removed from the Catholic Church and forbidden from receiving any of the sacraments |
| lay investiture controversy | controversy that arose when Henry IV (Holy Roman Empire) tried to name men to church offices; Pope Gregory VII excommunicated him for this act and reaffirmed the political power of the Catholic Church |
| simony | the buying and selling of church offices |
| trade-fair | gathering of traders every so often throughout Europe to exchange goods; these fairs signaled the decline of manorialism and the re-emergence of trade and later cities |
| Hanseatic League | alliance of trading cities in northern Europe; these cities controlled northern European trade throughout much of the High Middle Ages |
| Charter | a document granted to medieval cities by kings outlining what rights the citizens had |
| Burgher | a city-dweller in the Middle Ages |
| Guild | a group of workers who performed the same jobs; they regulated everything about a particular trade, including price, materials used, and quantity produced |
| Charlemagne | king of the Franks and later crowned as "Emperor of the Romans" by the pope |
| Pope Gregory VII | pope who excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor during the lay investiture controversy |
| King Henry IV | Roman "holy" emperor involved in the lay investiture controversy |
| Florence | Italian city-state renowned for its banking; became the center of the Italian Renaissance |
| Renaissance | a time period in Europe about 1300 to 1500 that was marked by a revival of classical learning and great artistic achievement |
| Medici family | leading banking family in Florence; sponsored much of the Renaissance art projects there |
| Humanism | the study of classical Greek and Roman texts; also marked by a strong belief in human potential |
| Allied Powers | allies of the British, Soviet Union and US during WWII |
| Axis Powers | allies of Germany, Italy and Japan during WWII |
| Blitzkrieg | "lightning war" battle tactics used by Hitler that involved quick strikes with tanks; highly successful tactic early in the war |
| Pearl Harbor | Hawaiian port bombed by the Japanese; this attack prompted the US to enter WWII |
| El-Alamein | North African city where the British defeated Germany; provided a huge morale lift for the Allies |
| Stalingrad | the German army took control of the city, but got caught in the Russian winter; the Russians cut off supplies, and Germany was forced to surrender; this ended the German offensive in the east |
| D-Day | June 6, 1944 day that the Allies launched the counter-offensive to retake the European continent from the Germans by landing at Normandy, France |
| Guadalcanal | Pacific island where the Allies first employed island hopping; resulted in an Allied victory, though it was a hard-fought battle that lasted over six months |
| island hopping | US military strategy in the Pacific that involved attack less fortified islands and skipping well fortified ones in order to get closer to Japan itself |
| Hiroshima and Nagasaki | Japanese cities on which the United States dropped atomic bombs; these bombings prompted the Japanese to surrender |
| Manhattan Project | code name for the U.S. government project during WWII that worked to develop the atomic bomb |
| Final Solution | Nazi policy to eliminate all Jews via mass executions; Jewish genocide as a policy |
| Holocaust | the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. |
| Nuremberg Laws | series of German laws passed in 1935 designed to take away civil rights of Jews; these included taking away Jews' German citizenship and not allowing Jews to marry non-Jewish Germans |
| anti-Semitism | prejudice against Jews |
| Teheran Conference | 1943 meeting of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill to discuss strategy; all three agreed to launch an attack across the English Channel by May, 1944 (this became D-Day and they moved it back to June 6), and they agreed in principle to the establishment of the UN |
| Yalta Conference | 1945 meeting between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill where they agreed again to form the UN and to divide Germany into occupation zones after the war was over |
| Potsdam Conference | 1945 between Stalin, Truman and Churchill where boundaries for Poland and German occupation zones were set up; Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan, and Truman told him about a new weapon that the US had developed (the atomic bomb) |
| Winston Churchill | British prime minister during WWII, one of the "Big Three" with Roosevelt and Stalin |
| Joseph Stalin | leader of the Soviet Union during WWII; one of the "Big Three" |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | leader of the US during WWII; one of the "Big Three" |
| Harry Truman | became president when Roosevelt died in April, 1945; made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan |
| Marshall Plan | US program that provided money to European nations to rebuild after WWII; Western Europe took the money, Eastern Europe did not |
| Douglas MacArthur | US general in the Pacific during WWII; led the reconquest of the Philippines |
| Nuremberg Trials | trials held to prosecute the Nazis for their war crimes |
| Night of Broken Glass | 1938 pogrom against Jews in Germany secretly organized by the Nazis; Germans burned synagogues and Jewish shops and killed and injured Jews |
| Industrialization | the shift from making products by hand to making products using machines |
| Cottage industry | small scale production carried on at home, rather than in a factory |
| Capitalism | economic system decisions are determined by the buyers and sellers in the market; developed fully during the Industrial Revolution |
| Industrial Revolution | time period in the 19th century characterized by a shift from making goods by hand to making goods using machines |
| Adam Smith | often considered the Father of modern capitalism; author of Wealth of Nations |
| Karl Marx | often considered the father of modern communism; author of The Communist Manifesto, with Frederic Engels |
| Socialism | economic system where the factors of production are owned by everyone; economic decisions are usually made by the government |
| Communism | theoretically, an economic system where all property is shared and means of production are owned by the people; government does not exist in perfect Marxist __________. |
| Bourgeoisie | according to Marx, the class of factory owners that would eventually be overthrown by the working class in a communist revolution |
| Proletariat | working class that would rise up against the factory owners and seize the means of production, according to Marx |
| Laissez-faire | philosophy in which the government does not interfere in the workings of the economy; popular during the Industrial Revolution |
| Urbanization | the movement of people from the country to the cities; great deal of urbanization took place during the Industrial Revolution, as people moved to find jobs in factories |
| Otto von Bismarck | statesman responsible for the unification of Germany in 1871 |
| Camillo Cavour | statesman responsible for the unification of Italy in 1861 |
| Meiji Emperor | Japanese emperor who led Japan's 19th century modernization program in which the country became an industrial, imperial, and military power; It was during the Meiji Restoration that the samurai were disbanded and the shogun was overthrown |
| Unions | groups of workers who band together to lobby their employers for better working conditions and higher wages |
| Imperialism | policy in which a country attempts to dominate the political, economic and social institutions of another region |
| 1884 Berlin Conference | conference in which the European powers carved up Africa and distributed colonial empires among themselves |
| Sphere of influence | a foreign region in which a country has influence over trade and other economic activities; China in the late 19th century would be an example of a situation where western countries had a sphere of influence |
| Mandate system | after WWI, several regions in the Middle East, such as Palestine, were designated as mandates of European countries; this made them essentially pseudo-colonies; the European countries exercised political control over their mandates |
| Nation-state | an independent, self-governing territory whose people share a common culture |
| Nationalism | a strong loyalty and/or love toward a person's shared culture group |
| Young Turks | Turkish nationalist group who led a revolution against the Ottoman sultan at the turn of the 20th century |
| Opium War | two wars fought between Britain and China over the British right to sell opium within China's borders; the crushing British victory demonstrated how industrial Europe had overtaken the East |
| Open Door Policy | policy endorsed by the US in which all countries would have equal opportunities to trade in China |
| Taiping Rebellion | mid-19th century rebellion against the Qing Dynasty in China; demonstrated the people's dissatisfaction with the Qing |
| Commodore Mathew Perry | American admiral who forced Japan to open to western trade in 1854; his arrival prompted the Japanese to begin the modernization of the Meiji Restoration |
| Militarism | the glorification of armed strength; an emphasis on ________ by European countries in the 19th century helped increase tensions that led to WWI |
| Triple Entente | the pre-WWI alliance of Great Britain, Russia, and France |
| Triple Alliance | the pre-WWI alliance of Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary |
| the Balkans | European peninsula on which reside the countries of Greece, Croatia, Serbia, et al; ___ _______ has been for centuries a locale of serious ethnic and nationalist tensions, and these tensions made it the site of the assassination that launched WWI |
| total war | the idea that all of a country's resources, both military and civilian, should go toward the war effort; in a ____ ___, everyone contributes to the war effort, including men, women, and children |
| trench warfare | the type of warfare that typified the western front in WWI; both sides dug trenches and spent much time and energy trying to charge across an empty field to dislodge the enemy from their trenches. This type of warfare resulted in a stalemate during WWI because modern weapons like the machine gun made successful capture of enemy territory very difficult |
| Battle of Verdun | WWI battle that exemplified the carnage of trench warfare; during this battle, casualties of over 700,000 were amassed, while very little territory was gained by either side |
| Homefront | reference to the total war concept that the civilians at home were helping fight the war as much as the soldiers |
| Treaty of Versailles | treaty that ended WWI; very harsh on Germany and created much discontent within Europe during the 1920s |
| League of Nations | international organization proposed by President Woodrow Wilson that was designed to negotiate disagreements between countries; not very successful, largely because the US did not join |
| Reparations | payments for damages; Germany was forced to pay huge ________ as part of the Treaty of Versailles |
| war guilt clause | clause in the Treaty of Versailles that forced Germany to accept full blame for the war; this clause caused great resentment among the German people toward the Allies |
| propaganda | information spread to advance a cause or damage an opponent's cause; an important part of total war because governments need buy-in from all citizens to mobilize the war effort |
| Byzantine Empire | A continuation of the Roman Empire in the Middle East after its division in 395. |
| Justinian Code | Compilation of the complex system of Roman laws; became the system of laws for the Byzantine Empire. |
| Theodora | Justinian's wife; helped him run the empire. |
| patriarch | Title for the heads of the Eastern Orthodox Churches (in Istanbul, Alexandria, Moscow, and Jerusalem) |
| icon | a visual representation (of an object, scene, person, or abstraction) produced on a surface to aid in religious devotion. |
| Eastern Orthodox Christianity | A branch of Christianity that developed in the Byzantine Empire and that did not recognize the Pope as its supreme leader. |
| Cyril | Byzantine missionary that was sent to Russia to spread Orthodoxy; created Slavic Cyrillic script. |
| Constantinople | The capital of the eastern Roman Empire and later of the Byzantine Empire. |
| Vikings | Any of the Scandinavian seafaring pirates and traders who raided and settled in many parts of northwestern Europe in the 8th-11th centuries. |
| Slavs | Early people of Russia; they came from an area around the Black Sea. |
| Ivan III | Grand duke of Muscovy whose victories against the Tartars laid the basis for Russian unity (1440-1505). |
| Kiev | Capital of medieval Russia and of present day Ukraine; it established political and social relations with the Byzantine Empire. However, it was later taken over by Mongols. |
| Genghis Khan | Mongolian Emperor whose empire stretched from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean (1162-1227). |
| Yurt | A circular domed dwelling that is portable and self-supporting. |
| Mecca | City in western Arabia; birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, and ritual center of the Islamic religion. |
| Qur'an | The sacred writings of Islam revealed by God to the prophet Muhammad during his life at Mecca and Medina. |
| Dar al Islam | An Arabic term that means the "house of Islam" and that refers to lands under Islamic rule where Muslims may practice their religion freely. |
| Caliph | The civil and religious leader of a Muslim state considered to be a representative of Allah on earth. |
| Sunni | A member of the branch of Islam that accepts the first four caliphs as rightful successors to Muhammad. |
| Shi'a | the branch of Islam whose members only acknowledge Ali and his descendants as the rightful successors of Muhammad. |
| Ibn Sina | The famous Islamic scientist and philosopher who organized the medical knowledge of the Greeks and Arabs into the Canon of Medicine. |
| Ibn Battuta | Moroccan Muslim scholar that wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan. |
| Crusades | A series of holy wars from 1096-1270 AD undertaken by European Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule. |
| Bantu | A large group of central and southern Africans who speak related languages. |
| Ghana | The first West African kingdom based on the gold and salt trade. |
| 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. |
| Songhai | A West African empire that conquered Mali and controlled trade from the 1400s to 1591. |
| Mansa Musa | Ruler of Mali in the 1300s; his pilgrimage through Egypt to Mecca in 1324-1325 established the empire's reputation for wealth in the Mediterranean world. |
| Sundiata | The founder of the Mali empire who crushed his enemies and won control of the gold trade routes. |
| syncretism | A blending of two or more religious traditions. |
| Swahili | A Bantu language with Arabic words, spoken along the East African coast. |
| animism | The doctrine that all natural objects and the universe itself have souls. |
| Timbuktu | Mali trading city on the Niger river that became a center of wealth and learning. |
| Pax Mongolica | Era of relative peace and stability created by the Mongol Empire. |
| Glorious Revolution | 1689 event in which King James II fled and Parliament invited William and Mary to become monarchs of England; William and Mary had to agree to sign the Bill of Rights; signaled the creation of a constitutional monarchy in England |
| English Bill of Rights | document signed by William and Mary that limited their power as monarchs; said that the monarch must gain parliamentary approval to pass laws |
| William and Mary | first constitutional monarchs in England, 1689 |
| constitutional monarchy | government where the king's power is limited by law |
| James II | Stuart monarch who attempted to rule without Parliament and was overthrown because people feared he was trying to make England Catholic |
| Stamp Act law | passed by British Parliament on the American colonies that required all written documents, this was a tax passed to try and pay for the debt accumulated from the French and Indian War |
| Sugar Act | passed by British Parliament in 1764; this law put a tax on sugar that would be enforced in the American colonies in an effort to pay for the French and Indian War; angered many colonists and contributed to the American Revolution |
| Tea Act | (1773) gave the British East India Company a monopoly to sell tea in the American colonies; angered the colonists and led to the Boston Tea Party |
| Townshend Acts | (1767) British Parliament levied a tax on household items such as paint, lead, paper, glass, and tea |
| Intolerable Acts | (1774) passed to punish the American colonies for the Boston Tea Party, included closing the port of Boston and allowing British troops to be quartered in private homes |
| Declaration of Independence | document written by Thomas Jefferson that explained why the American colonies had decided to break away from Great Britain |
| Constitution of the United States | supreme law of the U.S., written after the country broke away from Britain |
| Thomas Jefferson | author of the Declaration of Independence and 3rd president of the US; one of the key leaders of the American Revolution |
| George Washington | general of the colonial troops during the American Revolution and 1st president of the US |
| First, Second and Third Estates | in pre-revolutionary France, the First Estate was the clergy, the Second Estate was the nobles, and everyone else made up the Third Estate; the disparity between the Third Estate and the other two was a contributing factor to the French Revolution |
| Louis XVI | French king at the time of the French Revolution; although an absolute monarch, he was a weak leader and was eventually beheaded by revolutionaries |
| National Assembly | In 1789, the Third Estate declared themselves the _______ ________ and gave them the authority to pass laws for the French people; this signaled the end of absolute monarchy and the beginnings of a legislature. |
| Bastille | fortress/prison in Paris stormed by the commoners in 1789; the storming of the ______ was the symbolic beginning of the French Revolution |
| Declaration of the Rights of Man | Document that outlined the revolutionary ideals of the French Revolution; guaranteed civil rights to all citizens |
| Reign of Terror | Robespierre's rule as a dictator during the French Revolution (1793-1794) in which he had thousands of "counter-revolutionaries" executed |
| Robespierre | French revolutionary, presided over the Reign of Terror |
| Toussaint L'Overture | leader of the Haitian Revolution |
| Peninsulares | colonists in Latin America who were born in Europe; in colonial Latin America, they were at the top of the social structure |
| Creoles | colonists in Latin America who were born in Latin America, in contrast to Peninsulares; they spearheaded most of the South American Revolutions |
| Father Miguel Hidalgo | leader of the Mexican independence movement; supported the natives and lower class in their efforts to gain a voice in government |
| Augstin de Iturbide | man who engineered Mexican independence in 1821 |
| Simon Bolivar | creole revolutionary leader in South America; liberator of Venezuela, Colombia, etc. |
| Jose de San Martin | leader who led the independence movement in southern South America |
| Bernardo O'Higgins | independence leader who helped free Chile from Spanish control |
| Viceroy | Spanish governor in colonial Latin America |
| Dom Pedro | Portuguese prince who was declared the ruler of Brazil when the country gained its independence |
| Napoleonic Code | set of laws passed under Napoleon that re-established order in France after the revolution |
| Congress of Vienna | meeting of European leaders after Napoleon's reign; purpose of the Congress was to restore Europe to its pre-French Revolution state (borders and rulers) |
| Polis | Greek city-state. |
| Hellenism | The principles and ideals associated with classical Greek civilization. |
| Parthenon | The main temple of the goddess Athena. |
| direct democracy | A form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through representatives. |
| Persian Wars | A series of wars between Greek city-states and the Persian Empire (5th century B.C). |
| Pericles | Athenian leader noted for advancing democracy in Athens and for ordering the construction of the Parthenon. |
| Socrates | Greek philosopher who believed in an absolute right or wrong; asked students pointed questions to make them use their reason, later became Socratic method. |
| Plato | Student of Socrates; philosopher who wrote The Republic about the perfectly governed society. |
| Aristotle | Greek philosopher; pupil of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great; knowledge based on observation of phenomena in material world. |
| Alexander the Great | Successor of Philip of Macedon; 1st global empire, but no lasting bureaucracy; spread of Hellenism is greatest achievement. |
| Philip II | King of Macedonia and father of Alexander the Great. |
| Euclid | He is the father of geometry and wrote a book explaining geometry that was used as a text book until the 1900's. |
| Archimedes | Greek mathematician and physicist noted for his work in hydrostatics, mechanics, and geometry; best known for the lever and pulley. (287-212 BC) |
| Homer | Ancient Greek epic poet who is believed to have written the Iliad and the Odyssey (circa 850 BC). |
| Republic | A form of government whose head of state is not a monarch. |
| Civil War | A war between factions in the same country. |
| Succession | Acquisition of property by descent or by will. |
| Twelve Tables | The earliest written collection of Roman laws, drawn up by patricians about 450B.C., that became the foundation of Roman law. |
| Triumvirate | A group of three men responsible for public administration or civil authority. |
| Punic Wars | A series of three wars between Rome and Carthage (264-146 B.C.); resulted in the destruction of Carthage and Rome's dominance over the western Mediterranean. |
| Empire | A group of countries under a single authority. |
| Tribune | In ancient Rome, an official elected by the plebeians to protect their rights. |
| Senate | In ancient Rome, the supreme governing body, originally made up only of aristocrats. |
| Consul | In the Roman republic, one of the two powerful officials elected each year to command the army and direct the government. |
| Pax Romana | 200 year period of peace in Rome. |
| Mercenary | A person hired to fight for another country other than their own, usually with pecuniary motivations. |
| Inflation | A general and progressive increase in prices. |
| Legion | A large military unit. |
| aqueducts | Bridge-like stone structures that carry water from the hills into Roman cities. |
| Christianity | The religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. |
| Jesus | Religious leader and the founder of Christianity. |
| Bishop | High-ranking church official with authority over a local area. |
| Martyrs | People who are willing to suffer or die for their religious beliefs. |
| Paul | Follower of Jesus who helped spread Christianity throughout the Roman world. |
| Romulus | The founder and first king of Rome. |
| Hannibal | A general who commanded the Carthaginian army in the second Punic War. |
| Julius Caesar | Roman general and dictator. He was murdered by a group of senators who hoped to restore the normal running of the republic. |
| Augustus Caesar | The first emperor of Rome and the adopted son of Julius Caesar who helped Rome come into Pax Romana, or the Age of Roman Peace. |
| Diocletian | Roman emperor who divided the empire in two and oversaw the eastern part; oversaw the persecution of Christians toward the end of his reign. |
| Constantine | Emperor of Rome who adopted the Christian faith and stopped the persecution of Christians. |
| Huns | Nomadic people from Asia who attacked the Roman Empire. |
| Prehistory | the time before the invention of writing around 3000 B.C.E. |
| Paleolithic Age | Old Stone Age (2.5 million B.C.E.-8000 B.C.E.), characterized by hunting and gathering and the use of stone tools |
| Neolithic Age | New Stone Age (8000 B.C.E.-3000 B.C.E.), characterized by permanent settlements and reliance on agriculture |
| Nomadic | having no permanent home |
| Neolithic Revolution | the shift from food gathering to food producing in the New Stone Age |
| Domestication | the taming of animals for human use |
| division of labor | dividing up tasks among different individuals (specialization) |
| civilization | a complex form of culture that usually includes characteristics such as writing, complex institutions, and advanced technology |
| cultural diffusion | the spreading of ideas or products from one society to another |
| dynasty | a family of rulers |
| pharaoh | the supreme ruler of ancient Egypt, considered a god by his subjects |
| scribe | a professional copyist responsible for recording government records in ancient times |
| monotheism | belief in one god |
| polytheism | belief in many gods |
| hieroglyphics | ancient Egyptian writing that used pictures as symbols for words and later sounds |
| Fertile Crescent | an arc of rich farmland in Southwest Asia stretching from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf |
| Cuneiform | ancient Mesopotamian writing; originally formed by pressing a wedge-shaped stick into clay |
| Hammurabi's Code | first written law code; ordered by the Babylonian king Hammurabi in the 18th century B.C.E.; based on the concept of an eye for an eye |
| Torah | first five books of the Old Testament and an important text in Judaism, and later, in Christianity |
| Mesopotamia | the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Southwest Asia |
| Zoroaster | founder of Zoroastrianism, a monotheistic religion of ancient Persia |
| Phoenicians | Eastern Mediterranean traders who spread their alphabet that became the basis for the current English alphabet |
| Harappa | (H) one of two capital cities in Harappan civilization in ancient India (2500 B.C.E-1500 B.C.E.) |
| Mohenjo Daro | (M) one of two capital cities in Harappan civilization in ancient India (2500 B.C.E-1500 B.C.E.) |
| Aryans | Indo-European people who entered the Indus River Valley around 1500 B.C.E. Many of their cultural traditions were incorporated into Indian civilization |
| Hinduism | major religion in India; |
| Karma | "what goes around, comes around" the Hindu belief that says what you do determines what kind of life you will have when you are reincarnated |
| dharma | an individual's moral duty in Hindu teaching |
| reincarnation | the cycle of being reborn into a new life; central to Hindu beliefs |
| Siddhartha Gautama | founder of Buddhism |
| Buddhism | religion founded in India; later became important in Southeast Asia and China |
| Four Noble Truths | main teaching of Buddhism that stated that suffering is caused by the want of material possessions |
| Silk Road | major trade route connecting China and the Southwest Asia |
| Mauryan dynasty | the first empire in India; founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 321 B.C.E. |
| Asoka | Mauryan ruler responsible for the spread of Buddhism in and around India in the 3rd century B.C.E. |
| Gupta dynasty | Indian empire who ushered in the Golden Age of Ancient India (320 C.E.-535 C.E.) |
| filial piety | respect and veneration for one's ancestors |
| Shang Dynasty | first historical dynasty in China, began the Bronze Age |
| Zhou dynasty | Chinese dynasty (1122 B.C.E.-256 B.C.E.) developed concept of the Mandate of Heaven |
| Qin dynasty | Chinese dynasty (221-202 B.C.E.) Chinese dynasty that unified China |
| Qin Shih Huangdi | ruler of the Qin Dynasty that unified China |
| Han dynasty | Chinese dynasty (202 B.C.E.220 C.E.) based on Confucian principles; established civil service exam and Silk Road |
| Mandate of Heaven | the idea that the Chinese emperor was given the right to rule from the gods; the collapse of an empire was explained by saying that the ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven |
| Chinese exam system | exams based on Confucian teachings; those who scored well on the exams were rewarded with government positions |
| Confucius | Chinese philosopher of the 6th century B.C.E. Confucian philosophy formed the basis of Chinese society; this philosophy emphasized virtue and filial piety |
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