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Unit Quiz Study Guide: Asia, Africa, and the Americas

Terms in this set (58)

Shang Dynasty
(1766-1122 BCE) One of the first Chinese dynasties that rose to power due to bronze metallurgy. It was characterized as having ancestor worship and oracle bones. It was first to leave written records and had a major city named Anyang.
Zhou Dynasty
(1050BC-400BC) Longest dynasty in Chinese history. Established a feudal order with king at the highest level, then lords and warriors and then peasants. They introduced money and the concept of the Mandate of Heaven. They developed iron.
Qin Dynasty
a short-lived Chinese dynasty that replaced the Zhou Dynasty in the third century B.C. It utilized a legalist, central government with an autocracy, in which one person (Shi Huang Di) retained absolute power. Shi Huang Di created the Great Wall of China and standardized many things in China.
Han Dynasty
(202 BCE-220 CE) This dynasty continued the centralization of the Qin Dynasty, but focused on Confucianism and education instead of Legalism. It had a bureaucracy and oversaw the Silk Road.
Tang Dynasty
(618-907 CE) The Chinese dynasty that was much like the Han, who used Confucianism, but favored the aristocracy. It is often referred to as China's Golden age that revived trade on the Silk Road.
Song Dynasty
During this Chinese dynasty (960 - 1279 AD) China saw many important inventions. There was a magnetic compass; had a navy; traded with india and persia (brought pepper and cotton); paper money, gun powder; landscape black and white paintings. It is part of the golden age of China and was responsible for introducing elements of Buddhism and Daoism into government. It retained bureaucracy and civil service.
Yuan Dynasty
(1279-1368 CE) The dynasty with Mongol rule in China set up by Kublai Khan. centralized with bureaucracy but structure is different. Favored foreigners over the Chinese: Mongols on top->Persian bureaucrats->Chinese bureaucrats. They benefited maritime and land trade.
Ming Dynasty
Succeeded Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1368; lasted until 1644; initially mounted huge trade expeditions to southern Asia and elsewhere, but later became ISOLATIONIST and concentrated efforts on internal development within China.
Moveable Type
blocks of metal or wood, each bearing a single character, that can be arranged to make up a page for printing. Arose in China by the 1200s.
Bushido
The Feudal Japanese code of honor among the warrior class (samurais). Referred to as the way of the warrior and states that Samurais must protect the weak and die an honorable death. Lasted till 1945.
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. Under Kublai Khan, China itself would be under its control.
Gunpowder
Invented within China during the 9th century, this substance would result in the creation of bombs, fireworks, and guns in the 1200s.
Samurai
Class of warriors in feudal Japan who pledged loyalty to a noble in return for land. They followed the bushido.
Genghis (Chinggis) Khan
Founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. He came to power by uniting the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia and his empire became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. The empire also stabilized the Silk Road and facilitated trade along it.
Porcelain
a ceramic made of fine clay baked at very high temperatures. Arose in China by 1100.
Shogun
In feudal Japan, a noble similar to a duke. They were the military commanders and the actual rulers of Japan for many centuries while the Emperor was a powerless spiritual figure. They ruled through daimyos (nobles with power)
Mongol Exchange
method of warfare and trade developed by the Mongols
Currency
Coins and paper bills used as money. Developed in China around the time of the Zhou and standardized by Qin Shi Huang Di.
Archipelago
A chain of islands. Example: Japan
Kublai Khan
(1215-1294) Grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China. Attempted to invade Japan but failed to the Kamikaze (divine winds)
Magnetic Compass
Chinese invention that aided navigation by showing which direction was north. Invented around the third century BC, but updated by the Tang Dynasty in the 1100s to have a steel needle.
Shinto
"Way of the Kami"; Japanese worship of nature and ancestors.
Marco Polo
(1254-1324) Italian explorer and author. He made numerous trips to China and returned to Europe to write of his journeys. He is responsible for much of the knowledge exchanged between Europe and China during this time period. He served under Kublai Khan.
Bureaucracy
a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives. Used by the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming.
Kami
Any sacred being worshipped in Shinto including nature spirits and ancestors
Assimilation
the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another. Utilised by the conquistadors on the Native Americans.
Grand Canal
The 1,100-mile (1,700-kilometer) canal linking the Yellow and the Yangtze Rivers. It was begun in the Han period and completed during the Sui dynasty, which reunified China after centuries of civil conflict and was the dynasty before the Tang.
Tori
a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to sacred.
cultural diffusion
The spread of ideas, customs, and technologies from one people to another. Evident with civilizations throughout Africa. EG: Axum was Christian, Western African Empires and the Swahili States were Islamic.
Legalism, Confucianism, Daoism
in china, three philosophies developed that influenced the political and social order of that country.

___________= a harsh government is key to order.
______________= strong respect for elders and strong relationships in the family is key to order.
_______= Natural order and non action is the key to order.
Lady Muraski Shikibu
author of Japan's oldest novel and perhaps the world's first true novel (the Tale of Genji) during the Heian Period (reminiscent to Europe's age of chivalry)
Silk Roads
A system of ancient caravan routes across Central Asia, along which traders carried silk and other trade goods. It connected East Asia to the Mediterranean Basin.
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, prosperous state reliant on gold trade routes.
Kush
an ancient Nubian kingdom whose rulers controlled Egypt between 2000 and 1000 B.C. Its capital, Napata, spread Egyptian culture throughout the continent (via trade). It would fall to Aksum.
Aksum
A kingdom in northwestern Ethiopia that was a sizable trading state and the center of Christian culture.
Swahili States
city-states that were inhabited by the Swahili (speakers of a combination of Bantu and Arabia known as Swahili) on the East African coast. They formed centers of trade and were responsible for immense cultural diffusion. Islam and Animism were the key religions in these states, which included Mogadishu, Mombasa, Sofala, and Kilwa. These states formed the beginnings of the slave trade.
Ghana
First known kingdom in sub-Saharan West Africa between the sixth and thirteenth centuries C.E. Also the modern West African country once known as the Gold Coast. Involved in Saharan gold and salt trade. Converted to Islam; muslim invaders would disrupt the kingdom's trade, leading to its downfall.
Mali
The kingdom in West Africa that followed the Kingdom of Ghana; its wealth is also based on trans-Saharan trade; this kingdom encouraged the spread of Islam. Sundiata and Mansa Musa were its main leaders. Sundiata established the empire and Mansa Musa expanded it and maintained control over its trade routes.
Songhai
a West African empire that conquered Mali and controlled trade from the 1400s to 1591. They set up an organized government but had inferior technology; the empire fell to the Moroccans.
griots
Professional oral historians who served as keepers of traditions and history and were also advisors to kings
Mansa Musa
Ruler of Mali (r. 1312-1337). His extravagant pilgrimage through Egypt to Mecca in 1324-1325 established the empire's reputation for wealth in the Mediterranean world. He constructed mosques in Timbuktu and spread Islam.
Timbuktu
City on the Niger River in Mali. As part of the Mali empire, it became a major city involved in the trans-Saharan trade and a center of Islamic learning with its library and university.
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. His writings gave a glimpse into the world of that time period.
Trans-Saharan Trade
route across the sahara desert. Major trade route that traded for gold, salt, and ivory. Created caravan routes that connected remote communities and kingdoms to other parts of the world.
Mesoamerica
"Middle America" the region extending from modern-day Mexico through Central America and home of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations.
Maya
Mesoamerican civilization concentrated in FORESTS in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula but never unified into a single empire. They were organized in city-states. They were polytheistic (built pyramids) and had an economy reliant on agriculture and trade. Utilised channels to grow maize. Major contributions were in mathematics, astronomy, and development of the calendar. Wrote using pictograms. CHICHEN ITZA
Chichen Itza
an ancient Mayan city located on the Yucatan Peninsula that gives a strong insight into Mayan culture and engineering.
Aztec
(1200-1521) 1300, they settled in the arid valley of Mexico. They were ruled by a single emperor. Grew corn and beans in floating gardens. Engaged in frequent warfare to conquer others of the region. Were polytheistic, built pyramids, and sacrificed humans who were POWs from other tribes and those who volunteered for the honor. Advancements in astronomy, math, and engineering. Wrote using pictograms. TENOCHTITLAN.
Tenochtitlan
Capital of the Aztec Empire, referred to as the largest city in Pre-columbian Mesoamerica. Its population was about 150,000 on the eve of Spanish conquest. Mexico City was constructed on its ruins.
Inca
Largest and most powerful Andean empire ( located in high elevations in the Andes Mountains). Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco. United under one emperor. Had step/terrace farming. Were polytheistic and built pyramids. Had a road system and advancements in calendars and engineering. They utilised quipus. MACHU PICCHU
quipu
an ancient Inca device for recording information, consisting of variously colored threads knotted in different ways.
Machu Picchu
a city built by the Inca people on a mountaintop in the Andes Mountains in present-day Peru--- Means "great peak"
calendar
A system of organizing time that defines the beginning, length, and divisions of a year under the solar system of 365 days. Developed by the Mayans, Incans, and Aztecs.
astronomy
The study of the moon, stars, and other objects in space. Several developments in it were made by mesoamericans and Incans.
terracing
creating flat platforms in the hillside that provide a level planting surface, which reduces soil runoff from the slope. Used commonly by the Incas.
human sacrifice
Killing of humans for a purpose like worshiping a god, practiced widely by the Aztecs and a little by the Mayans.
Mandate of Heaven
a political theory of ancient China in which those in power were given the right to rule from a divine source. Developed by the Zhou to justify the overthrowing of the Shang.
oracle bones
animal bones carved with written characters which were used for telling the future. The earliest known Chinese writing is found on these from the Shang period.
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