AP World History Ultimate Vocabulary Set

Archduke Francis Ferdinand

(1863-1914); Heir apparent to Austro-Hungarian throne who was killed on June 28, 1914. Significance: His and his wife, Sophie's, assassination in Sarajevo set in motion the events that started World War 1.

Communist Bloc

AKA "Eastern Bloc"; Nations favorable to the Soviet Union in eastern Europe during the cold war. Significance: Includes Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and East Germany.

Danzig

Capital port-city of northern Poland, situated at the mouth of the Vistula River on the Baltic Sea. Significance: Hitler used minor historical claims to the port as an excuse to invade Poland, prompting action from the Allied Powers.

Rock Church

Carved rock structures that have been a feature of Ethiopian religious structures since the 2nd millennium BCE. Significance: Attracted Christian followers and encouraged the conversion to Christianity.

Ashoka Maurya

Chandragupta's grandson (269-232 BCE) who lived a lavish life and served as a governor for 2 provinces before adopting Buddhism as the Mauryan emperor. Significance: Work as a Buddhist emperor caused Buddhism beliefs to spread across India and into south and east Asia.

Julius Caesar

Charismatic patrician general with great sway over his soldiers. Significance: Became a part of the first triumvirate before declaring himself dictator over Rome.

Fedualism

Complex system of political and military loyalties that linked lords together. Significance: Was a new social hierarchy that first appeared in Rome, transforming the area into Feudal Europe, and later developed in Japan.

Fulgencio Batista

Dictator of Cuba from 1934 to 1944 who returned to presidency in 1952. Significance: Ousted from government by revolution led by Fidel Castro.

Partitions of Poland

Division of Polish territory among Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1772, 1793, and 1795. Significance: Eliminated Poland as an independent state and was also a part of the expansion of Russian influence in eastern Europe.

Dutch Trading Empire

Dutch system extending into Asia w/ fortified towns and factories, warships on patrol, and a monopoly control of a limited number of products. Significance: The Dutch had a greater quantity of heavily armed ships and held a monopoly in a systematic fashion.

Romanov Dynasty

Dynasty elected in 1613 at the end of the Time of Troubles. Significance: Ruled Russia until 1917.

Sufis

An Islamic mystical tradition that emphasizes a desire for a personal union with Allah, manifesting as divine love through the use of intuition rather than physically studying. Significance: Asserts the practices of Muslims as socio-political law.

Time of Troubles

Period that followed the death of Russian tsar Ivan IV without a selected heir early in 17th century in which the boyars attempted to use the vacuum of power to reestablish their authority. Significance: Ended with selection of Michael Romanov as tsar in 1613.

Zoroastrianism

Persian monotheistic religion that viewed life as a battle between the divine forces of Good and Evil, emphasizing the importance of moral choices. Significance: One of the oldest religious foundations for monotheism, influencing Judaism and Christianity.

Satrap

Persian representatives who supervised the various conquered territories of Darius I's subjects. Significance: Demonstrates a form of administrative institutions.

Timbuktu

Port city of commercial exchange in Mali, located just beyond the flood plain on the Great Bend in the Niger River. Significance: With a population of 50,000+, a library, and a university, it was a center of learning and trade along the Trans-Saharan route.

Goa

Portuguese factory or fortified town located at the southern end of the Persian Gulf. Significance: A site for the forcible entry of Europeans into the Asian sea trade network.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Portuguese prince responsible for the direction of a series of expeditions along the African coast in the 15th century. Significance: Work marked the beginning of Western European expansion.

Human Sacrifice

Practice of killing one or more humans, usually though a ritual/ceremony, as an offering to a deity. Significance: Practiced by many Mesoamericans, including the Aztecs.

Dadu

Present-day Beijing; so-called when Kublai Khan ruled China. Significance: Kublain Khan adopted the local Chinese culture into his own Mongol court at Dadu.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Foundational document of international human rights law adopted unanimously by the UN after minor changes as a "common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations." Significance: Encouraged the investigation of human right abuses such as genocide, war crimes, government oppression, and crimes against its women.

Huguenots

French Calvinists/Protestants freed from persecution in France by the Edict of Nantes (1598). Significance: Revocation of the edict caused hundreds of thousands of Huguenots to flee elsewhere, including areas such as the Americas.

Napoleonic Code

French civil code enacted on March 21, 1804, and still extant, with revisions, upon Napoleon's coming to power. Significance: Became the main influence on the 19th-century civil codes of most countries of continental Europe and Latin America.

New France

French colonies in North America. Significance: Extended from the St. Lawrence River along the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River valley system.

Athens

Greek city-state that was a leader in the arts, sciences, philosophy, democracy, and architecture. Significance: Encouraged a flexible government among Greek poleis.

Johannes Gutenberg

Introduced a movable type printing to Western Europe in 15th century. Significance: Credited with greatly expanding the availability of printed books and pamphlets.

Harem

Living quarters reserved for wives, concubines, and female relatives of a Muslim household; developed during Abbasid dynasty. Significance: Symbolizes the increasing subjugation of women in this period.

Mita System

Labor extracted for lands assigned to the state and the religion. Significance: Was essential to the imperial control of the Inca, as all communities were expected to contribute to public projects, working land, or mining.

Ziggurats

Large multi-story pyramids constructed by bricks and approached by ramps and stairs. Significance: Functioned as altars or temples dedicated to the local Mesopotamian patron god, revealing the belief that deities interfered in human affairs.

Iconoclastic Policy

Leo III, a Byzantine emperor, who claimed the order for the removal and destruction of all sacred pictures in churches in 730 CE. Significance: Further divided the empire between accusations of idolatry.

Han Wudi

Most famous Han ruler from 140-87 BCE who argued for support of Confucianism. Significance: He enforced peace throughout Asia with methods similar to that of the later Roman Empire, but with larger territory and population.

School of National Learning

New ideology that laid emphasis on Japan's unique historical experience and the revival of the indigenous cultures. Significance: Typical for Japan in the 18th century and was done at the expense of Chinese imports such as Confucianism.

Mombasa

One of many trading cities on the east African coast, containing mosques, raw materials, exotic animals, etc. for trade. Significance: Demonstrates the practice of eastern trading in which people who dominated the city became wealthy due to their access to trade routes.

Il-Khanate

One of the 4 regional khanates of the Mongol Empire after Genghis Khan's death; established south of Golden Horde by Hulegu and conquered much of the Abbasid Empire. Significance: Their expansion stopped at Ain Jalut by Egyptian Mamluk forces, preventing the assimilation of Islamic lands/culture into Mongol rule.

Safavids

Originally a Turkish nomadic group whose family originated from Sufi Mystic group and espoused Shi'ism. Significance: Conquered territory and established a kingdom in regions equivalent to modern Iran, lasting until 1722.

Salvador Allende

President of Chile who nationalized industries and banks, as well as sponsoring peasant and worker expropriations of lands and foreign-owned factories. Significance: Overthrown in 1973 by revolt of Chilean military with the support of the United States.

Cash Crop

Readily salable crop produced and gathered primarily for a profit in the market. Significance: Europeans depended on the harvest of New World cash crops to accumulate wealth.

Taiping Rebellion

Rebellion that broke out in south China in the 1850s and early 1860s and was led by Hong Xiuquan, a semi-Christianized prophet. Significance: Sought to overthrow Qing Dynasty and Confucian basis of scholar-gentry.

Caravanserai

Rode-side inns found along trade routes, particularly the Royal Road, where caravaners could rest and recover from a day's journey. Significance: Encouraged trade and territorial expansion.

Gestapo

Secret police in Nazi Germany known for brutal tactics. Significance: Arrested hundreds of thousands of political opponents.

Patrician and Plebian

The patricians were members of the land-holding upper-class while the plebeians were members of the lower-class (farmers, merchants, artisans, traders). Significance: Demonstrated the existence of a social hierarchy in Rome.

Crop Rotation

The successive cultivation of different crops in a specified order on the same fields, in contrast to a one-crop system or to haphazard crop successions. Significance: Prevented the depletion of soil nutrients, land erosion, and the buildup of pests and diseases inhabiting around the crop or in the ground.

Magnetic Compass

A Chinese invention originating from the Hand Dynasty but was used most predominantly during the Song Dynasty that acted as a navigational instrument used to determine direction. Significance: Allowed ships to travel without hugging shores.

European-style Family

A lifestyle for western families that originated in the 15th century among peasants and artisans, featuring late marriage ages. Significance: Emphasized on the nuclear family, and a large minority never married.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

AKA "AIDS";

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

AKA "ASEAN";

National Liberation Front

AKA "FLN";

Kenyan African National Union

AKA "KANU";

Organization of African United

AKA "OAU";

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty

AKA "SALT"; Negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union that were aimed at curtailing the manufacture of strategic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Significance: First suggested by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, strategic arms limitation talks were agreed on by the two superpowers in the summer of 1968, and full-scale negotiations began in November 1969.

Hydrogen Bombs

AKA "Thermonuclear Bomb" or "H-Bomb"; weapon of nuclear fusion whose enormous explosive power begins the high temperatures produced from an atomic bomb catalyzes the chain combination of hydrogen isotopes into helium. Significance: Significantly more powerful than atomic bombs, which utilize nuclear fission as a destructive force.

Catherine II

AKA Catherine the Great; GERMAN-BORN Russian tsarina in the 18th century who ruled after hte assassination of her husband, giving appearance of enlightened rule. Significance: Accepted the cultural influence of western Europe and maintained nobility the as service aristocracy by granting them new power over the peasantry.

Genghis Khan

AKA Chinggis Khan or Temujin (at birth); was a Mongol warrior and military leader who defeated his Mongol rivals and was elected khagan. Significance: Launched an attack to conquer Eurasia.

Qin Shihuangdi

AKA First Chinese emperor; deposed the last Zhou dynasty emperor and became a brutal, sole ruler within 35 years. Significance: Bringing many innovations during his dynasty rule, he was the foundation of Chinese culture by uniting China, building a Great Wall, and supporting Legalism.

White Huns

AKA Hephthalites; race of largely nomadic people who were a part of the Hunnic tribes of central Asia. Significance: Their warlike nature was their motivation to conquer civilizations in the India subcontinent, thereby integrating themselves into Indian culture.

Peter I

AKA Peter the Great; Son of Alexis Romanov that ruled from 1689-1725, continuing the growth of absolutism and Russian conquest. Significance: Included more definite interest in changing selected aspects of the Russian economy and culture through imitation of western European models.

Suleiman I

AKA Suleyman (the Magnificent); one of the most celebrated of sultans for the Ottoman empire. Significance: Oversaw the construction of the Suleiman Mosque and led a siege into Vienna in 1529.

Second Industrial Revolution

AKA Technological Revolution; a phase of rapid industrialization in western Europe and the United States during the final third of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Significance: Witnessed the expansion of metallurgy, electrical/internal combustion engines, oil (petroleum) production, and a new chemical industry.

Aztec

AKA the Mexica, the replaced the declining Toltec state. Significance: Founded the Tenochtitlan.

St. Basil's Cathedral

AKA. Cathedral of Intercession; Russian Orthodox Church in the Red Square of Moscow. Significance: Commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan by Ivan III.

U-Boat

Abbreviation of Unterseeboot, ("undersea boat"), a German submarine. Significance: Repeated attacks by U-Boats on ships carrying civilians, including Americans, caused growing resentment against the Germans.

Civil Service Exam

Administrative system of traditional Chinese government where bureaucratic members are selected by a competitive exam that tested a candidate's knowledge of Confucian classics. Significance: Demonstrates a major method for social mobility in Chinese society.

Vodun

African religious ideas and practices among the descendants of African slaves in Hati. Significance: African religious practices were held in high regard by the community and continue to flourish today despite attempts by the national government/state churches to suppress them.

Lend-Lease Act

Agreement in 1941 where the United States gave-up all pretensions of neutrality by aided its World War II allies (primarily Britain) with war materials, such as ammunition, tanks, airplanes, and trucks, and with food and other raw materials. Significance: Asserted the United States' devotion to materially aiding the opponents of fascism, but ultimately led to Great Britain's growing debt.

Holy Alliance

Alliance among Russia, Prussia, and Austria in defense of religion and the established order. Significance: Formed at Congress of Vienna by most conservative monarchies of Europe.

Spinning Jenny

An early hand-powered, multiple-spindle machine for spinning wool or cotton that was patented by James Hargreaves in 1770. Significance: Significance factor in the industrialization of the textile industry, though its product was inferior to that of R. Arkwright's waterframe.

Royal Road

Ancient "highway" rebuilt by Darius I during the 5th century BCE to facilitate trade and rapid communication across Persia. Significance: Expedited the diffusion of news like never before.

Indian Ocean Sea Lane

Ancient water trade route across the Indian Ocean that was used when the Silk Road declined from invasions and the start of Mongolian threats. Significance: Allowed for a continuation of trade for goods (pottery, spices, ivory for gems, pigments, pearls, fruit) and information with Africa and China.

Tanks

Any heavily armed and armored combat vehicle that moves on two endless metal chains called tracks with mounted weapons that are made effective by their cross-country mobility and by the protection they provide for their crews. Significance: Allowed armies to move across vast areas of difficult terrain, and even over trenches.

The Thousand and One Nights

Arab compilation of folk takes describing the luxury and intrigue of lifestyles during the rule of Harun's court in Baghdad. Significance: Reflects the culture's love for story telling, informing historians about the elite societary development in the Abbasid's Golden Age.

Pan-Arabism

Arab nationalist notion of cultural and political unity among countries in North Africa and Southwest Asia. Significance: Contributed to political agitation and led to the independence of most Arab states from the Ottoman Empire (1918) and from the European powers (by the mid-20th century).

Ernest "Che" Guevara

Argentine revolutionary who aided Fidel Castro in overthrow of Fulgencio Batista regime in Cuba. Significance: Died while directing guerrilla movement in Bolivia in 1967.

The Crusades

Armed Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land of Jerusalem to recover it from Muslim rule. Significance: Brought an end to western Europe's centuries of intellectual and cultural isolation through the facilitation of trade along the Mediterranean coast.

Italian Renaissance

Artistic movement during 1300-1450 in Italy that challenged Medieval intellectual values and styles, encouraging the reexamination of unfamiliarity and old truths. Significance: Focused on the development of human abilities, particularly in classical styles.

Labor Unions

Association of workers in a particular trade, industry, or company, created for the purpose of securing improvements in pay, benefits, working conditions, or social and political status through collective bargaining. Significance: Stressed the massed power of workers.

guild

Associations of people who worked in the same occupation and could dominate their fields of specialty for profit. Significance: As guilds, such as ones for craftsmen/merchants, grew larger in numbers, they were able to control local trade and could train apprentices for the production of large amounts of high-quality goods.

Socialist Realism

Attempt within the U.S.S.R. to related formal culture to the masses in order to avoid the adoption of western European cultural forms. Significance: Begun under Joseph Stalin as a fundamental method of Soviet fiction, art, and literary criticism.

Victoriano Huerta

Attempted to reestablish centralized dictatorship in Mexico following the removal of Madero in 1913. Significance: Forced from power in 1914 by Villa and Zapata.

ANZAC

Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, combined corps that served with distinction in World War I. Significance: Functioned prominently during the ill-fated 1915 Gallipoli Campaign, an attempt to capture the Dardanelles from Turkey.

Tenochtitlan

Aztec city founded on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco that became the center of Aztec rule. Significance: Formed a powerful alliance with Tlacopan and Texcoco that allowed the group to rule Mesoamerica.

St. Petersburg

Baltic port city that functioned as the new capital of Russia after Moscow. Significance: Movement of the Russian capital was Peter's commemoration of Russia's shift in interests.

tumens

Basic fighting units of the Mongol forces, consisting of 10,000 cavalry men, each unit further divided into consistently smaller groups. Significance: Allowed Genghis Khan to conquer Eurasia and establish an empire through their superiority at military organization.

Plassey

Battle in 1757 between troops of the British East India Company and an Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah, the ruler of Bengal. Significance: British victory marked the rise of British control over northern India.

Battle of Tours

Battle on October 10, 732 CE between Franks and Islamic invaders. Significance: Frank' victory against Muslims ended Islamic expansion into Europe.

Zimbabwe

Batu confederation of Shona-speaking poeple located between Zambezi and Limpopo rivers at 15th century; king took the title of Mwene Mutapa. Significance: Its dominance over extensive sources of minerals such as gold gave it economic power in Afro-Eurasian trade.

Beijing

Became the capital of China during the Ming Dynasty as a result of Yongle Emperor. Significance: Centralized location.

Chinampas

Bed of aquatic weeds, mud, and earth place into frames and of cane and rooted in lakes to create "floating gardens." Significance: It became a source of irrigated agriculture used by the Aztecs.

White Racial Supremacy

Belief in the inherent mental, moral, and cultural superiority of whites that was supported by social science doctrines of social Darwinists such as Herbert Spencer. Significance: Peaked in acceptance in decades before World War 1.

African National Congress

Black political organization within South Africa that pressed for an end to the policies of apartheid. Significance: Sought open democracy leading to black majority rule, which was declared illegal in South Africa until the 1990s.

Upanishads

Blend of Aryan beliefs and Dravidian work that appeared in the late Vedic Age (800-400 BCE), speaking about a universal spirit called Brahman. Significance: Demonstrates the blending of religions to form a new work (religious syncretism).

Religious Syncretism

Blending of two or more religions into a new system, or the incorporation of religious traditions from unrelated traditions. Significance: Relates to the Hellenistic age in which Greek culture spread and was adopted into Africa and Asia.

The Wealth of Nations

Book written by Adam Smith in 1776 that set forth a number of principles for economic behavior as he argued for abandoning mercantilism in favor of free trade. Significance: One of Smith's many works that were followed by the physiocrats (economic thinkers).

Rio de Janeiro

Brazilian port located close to the mines of Minas Gerais. Significance: Its importance grew with the number of gold strikes, ultimately becoming colonial capital in 1763.

British Raj

British political establishment in India. Significance: Developed as a result of the rivalry between France and Britain in India.

Xuanzang

Buddhist monk during the Tang era who was famous for traveling to India and returning with hundreds of Buddhist texts. Significance: Popularized Buddhism in China.

Reichstag

Building in Berlin that is the meeting place of the Bundestag ("Federal Assembly"), the lower house of Germany's national legislature.

Winter Palace

Built in St. Petersburg under Peter the Great of Russia, largely under the influence of Versailles. Significance: Royal residence of the Russian tsars.

Suez Canal

Canal built across Isthmus of Suez to connect Mediterranean Sea with Red Sea in 1869 that was financed by European investors. Significance: With increasing indebtedness of khedives, it permitted intervention of British into Egyptian politics to protect their investment.

Edo

Capital city of Tokugawa (modern-day Tokyo). Significance: Center of influence for the Tokugawa shogunate.

Cuzco

Capital city of the Incan empire, located in Southern America in present-day Peru. Significance: Became a center of expansion and communication, linking with a myriad of roads and suspension bridges.

Baghdad

Capital of Abbasid Dynasty located in Iraq near the ancient Persian capital of Ctesiphon. Significance: Abbasid center of trade with access to various key trade routes, quickly exchanging information or goods such as gold.

Cordoba

Capital of Al-Andalus (Umayyad territory in Spain) that was established by Abd al Rahman. Significance: Center for Umayyad learning and intellectual life due to numerous libraries; demonstrated religious tolerance for People of the Book.

Karakorum

Capital of Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan from 1162-1227. Significance: Home of Genghis Khan, as well as his favorite of the wisest/cleverest scholars across the Mongol Empire.

Kaifeng

Capital of Song Dynasty since 960 CE for 166 years located just south of the Yellow River. Significance: Became a center of manufacturing (cannons, mobile printing, water mills, porcelain, and looms).

Guomindang

Chinese Nationalist party founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1919, drawing support from local warlords and Chinese criminal underworld, and initially forged alliance with Communists in 1924. Significance: Dominated by Chiang Kai-shek after 1925.

Deng Xiaoping

Chinese communist leader, who was the most powerful figure in the People's Republic of China from the late 1970s until his death in 1997. Significance: Abandoned many orthodox communist doctrines and attempted to incorporate elements of the free-enterprise system and other reforms into the Chinese economy.

Flying Cash

Chinese credit instrument that provided credit vouchers to merchants to be redeemed at the end of a voyage. Significance: Reduced the danger of robbery while traveling along trade routes and exemplified an early form of currency.

Eastern Orthodox Church

Christian Church of the Byzantine Empire, or the Greeks, created in the east after the Great Schism with the Patriarch as leader. Significance: Developed ideological differences from the Roman Catholics such as the priests' ability to marry, leavened bread, and the ban of icons.

Hagia Sophia

Church of Holy Wisdom located in Constantinople. Significance: Considered to be an important display of Christian architecture in the Roman empire.

Moscow

City in Russia that profited from the invasion and influence of the Mongols. Significance: Initially the capital of the Russian empire before being moved to St. Petersburg.

Alexandria

City on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt founded by Alexander, becoming the capital of the Hellenistic kingdom of Ptolemies. Significance: Containing the famous Library/Museum, it was a center for leading in the arts, sciences, and literature with many influential figures.

Shogun

Clan leader who was installed as military governor in place of the emperor. Significance: Became hereditary dictators of Japan, which fractured imperial rule.

Proletariat

Class of paid working people, typically manufacturing workers, in an agricultural economy or urban poor without access to producing property. Significance: Occurred in Europe as a result of economic changes of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Shariah Law

Collection of beliefs made into law based on the info/inscription in the Quran and Hadith. Significance: Evolved the basic, founding beliefs of Muslims into a true way of life.

Collection of Books

Collection of novels and texts that outlined the beliefs and principles of the Confucian philosophy. Significance: Books described how the government should rule China and were used to aid in the studies for the civil service exams.

Tropical Dependencies

Colonies with substantial indigenous populations that are ruled by small European political and military minorities with the assistance of colonized bureaucrats, soldiers, clerks, and servants. Significance: Was the greater portion of European colonial order.

Popular Front

Combination of socialist and communist political parties in France, winning election in 1936 before falling from power in 1938. Significance: Unable to take strong measures of social reform because of continuing strength of conservatives.

Liberation Theology

Combined Catholic theology and socialist principles in effort to bring about improved conditions for the poor in Latin America in 20th century. Significance: Stressed social equality as a form of personal salvation.

Triangular Trade

Commerce linking Africa, the New World colonies, and Europe. Significance: Slaves were carried along these maritime routes to the Americas for the production of sugar and tobacco, which would be transported to Europe.

Coffeehouses

Common places where men gathered to drink, smoke tobacco from the Americas, gossip, do business, and play chess. Significance: Pivotal to the social and cultural life of Constantinople.

Terakoya

Commoner schools founded during the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan to teach reading, writing, and the rudiments of Confucianism. Significance: Resulted in high literacy rates, approaching 40 percent of Japanese males.

Long March

Communist escape from Hunan province during civil war with Guomindang in 1934, in which the center of Communist power moved to Shanxi province. Significance: Firmly established Mao Zedong as head of the Communist party in China.

Diasporic Communities

Communities scattered across territory in grouped populations, also referring to the movement of population from its homeland. Significance: Hebrews were a notable group who suffered through this because of the Roman force in 2nd century BCE.

Luftwaffe

Component of the German armed forces tasked with the responsibility of air defense of Germany and fulfillment of the country's air-power commitments abroad. Significance: Air force used by Hitler as part of his July 1940 campaign to weaken Britain, the last major holdout against Nazi power.

Propaganda

Component of total war that refers to a system of communication that is meant to influence the attitudes and opinions of a community around a particular subject by spreading inaccurate or slanted information. Significance: Governments invested heavily in army and navy recruitment campaigns and other wartime propaganda, depicting the enemy crudely in posters/articles.

Indentured Servitude

Compulsory labor of English middle colonies where a person was bound by a contract to work a certain period in exchange for their payment of voyage to the New World. Significance: Were not slaves and were ethically similar to freedmen of the Americas.

Deism

Concept of God present during the Scientific Revolution. Significance: Belief that divinity simply set natural laws in motion and did not interfere or cause miracles in the world.

Persian Wars

Conflicts between Greek poleis and the Persian Empire throughout early 5th century BCE over expansion in Anatolia. Significance: United the independent Greek city-states and encouraged them to militarily organize for war.

Kangxi

Confucian scholar and Manchu emperor of Qing dynasty from 1661 to 1722. Significance: Established high degree of Sinification among the Manchus.

Fidel Castro

Cuban revolutionary who overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1958 and initiated series of socialist reforms. Significance: Came to depend almost exclusively on Soviet Union.

Scientific Revolution

Culminated in 17th century, a period of empirical advances associated with the development of wider theoretical generalizations. Significance: Changed the traditional beliefs of the Middle Ages.

Northern Renaissance

Cultural and intellectual movement of northern Europe, centered in France, England, Germany, and Low Countries, that began after the Italian Renaissance (1450). Significance: Featured greater emphasis on religious development than before.

Kowtow

Deep bow before the emperor where the forehead touched the ground. Significance: Foreigners who performed this action in the court of the Chinese emperor demonstrated their submission as part of the tributary agreement.

Legalism

Dependence on morals, laws, or formalities rather than on a religious faith. Significance: Concept was applied to many civilizations in the form of law codes or philosophy.

Khedives

Descendants of Muhammad Ali in Egypt after 1867. Significance: Formal rulers of Egypt despite French and English intervention until overthrown by military coup in 1952.

eunuch

Describes men who have been castrated. Significance: They were personal servants of ruling elites, occasionally wielding enormous wealth and power due to their relationships.

polis

Development of Greek homelands as city-states due to geographic complications. Significance: Led to the independent development of politics and culture between each city, despite their universal Greek background.

Interchangeable Parts

Development of the machine-tool industry by a series of 19th-century innovators in which identical components can be easily substituted one for another. Significance: Transformed the organization of work with precision equipment, allowing large numbers of identical parts to be produced at low cost and with a small workforce.

Destroyers-for-Bases Agreement

Document signed between the United States and Britain in President Roosevelt's attempt to avoid becoming an isolationist by helping the British. Significance: Promised Britain the delivery of 50 destroyers in exchange for 8 British air and naval bases in the Western Hemisphere.

Parthenon

Doric temple of Athena built on the acropolis at Athens in 5th century BCE. Significance: Demonstrates the Greek connection in the arts to its own religion.

Tennis Court Oath

Dramatic act of defiance by representatives of the Third Estate classes of the French nation during the meeting of the Estates-General (traditional assembly) at the beginning of the French Revolution. Significance: Revolutionary idea was supported by all underprivileged classes of France, calling for a constitution that limits the king's power.

Ottoman Empire

Dynasty established beginning in 13th century by Turkic people from Central Asia. Significance: With most of its territory is located in Asia minor, it captured Constantinople, making it the capital of an empire spanning 3 continents for 600+ years.

Mercantilism

Economic theory stressing governments' promotion of limitation of imports from other nations and internal economies in order to improve tax revenues. Significance: Popular during the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe, as it benefited the government/mother country.

Banner Armies

Eight armies of the Manchu tribes that were created by Nurhaci in early 17th century, and they were identified by separate flags. Significance: Utilized to defeat Ming emperor and establish the Qing Dynasty.

Emperor Qianlong

Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Significance: Eliminated Turkic and Mongol threats, expanded the empire, and reinforced Chinese authority.

Good Neighbor Policy

Established by Franklin D. Roosevelt for dealing with Latin America in 1933. Significance: Intended to halt direct intervention in Latin American politics.

Romanticism

European artistic and literary movement of the 19th century that espoused emotion and impression, not reason, as the keys to the mysteries of human experience and nature. Significance: Sought to portray passions, not calm reflection.

Champa Rice

Fast maturing rice introduced by emissaries from Champa (southern Vietnam) when they brought it as tributary payment for the Song court. Significance: Allowed the South to focus on agricultural needs while the north became industrial, thus causing a population boom in China.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Federal system of socialist republics established in 1923 in various ethnic regions of Russia, firmly controlled by the Communist party. Significance: Diminished nationalities protest under Bolsheviks, eventually dissolving in 1991.

Potsdam Conference

Final meeting in Germany on July 1945 between the Big Three, but with Harry Truman as representative of the United States and Clement Atlee as representative of Britain. Significance: Truman's insistence on free elections in Eastern Europe conflicted with Stalin and his occupation of the region with Soviet troops; their distrust began the aggressive rhetoric that would develop into the Cold War.

Ghettos

Formerly a street, or quarter, of a city set apart as a legally enforced residence area for Jews during the spread of Jewish forced-segregation throughout Europe beginning in the 14th/15th centuries. Significance: Continued throughout World War II under the Nazi party.

Opium Wars

Fought between the British and Qing China beginning in 1839 to protect British trade in Opium. Significance: Resulted in resounding British victory, and the opening of Hong Kong as British port of trade.

Protestantism

General wave of religious dissent against the Catholic Church that is believed to have begun with Martin Luther's attack on Catholic beliefs/practices in 1517. Included many varieties of religious beliefs.

Giuseppe Mazzini

Genoese propagandist, revolutionary, and uncompromising Republican that founded the secret revolutionary society Young Italy (1832) and became a champion of the movement for Italian Unity known as the Risorgimento. Significance: Led the Red Shirts military force, which was fighting farther south in the Kingdom of Naples, whom allied with Cavour to join a unified southern Italy with the north.

Martin Luther

German monk who initiated the Protestant Reformation in 1517 by nailing his "95 Theses" to the door of Wittenberg Church. Significance: Emphasized primacy of faith over works stressed in Catholic Church, and accepted state control of the church,

Axis Powers

Germany's alliances with Italy and Japan that was forged from separate, minor alliances. Significance: Opposed the Allied Powers in World War II.

Anti-Comintern Pact

Germany's military alliance with Japan based on mutual distrust of communism. Significance: Provided Germany and Japan with their needed support from militaries, as well as forging a bond between their shared political ideologies and economic interests.

Columbian Exchange

Global diffusion of crops, other plants, humans, animals, and diseases that occurred after the European expeditions to the New World in the 15th/16th century. Significance: Connected the hemispheres of the world, simultaneously introducing radically different biological species.

Toltec

Group that migrated from northwestern Mexico and established a capital at Tula in about 968. Significance: First to unify Mexico after the Teotihuacan.

Zapatistas

Guerrilla movement named in honor of Emiliano Zapata that originated in 1994 in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas. Significance: Government responded with a combination of repression and negotiation.

Viziers

Heads of Abbasid government that are directed by the caliph and the state council. Significance: Demonstrated a technique form the administration of Islamic territory.

Hebrew Monotheism

Hebrew concept that there is only one true and all-knowing God. Significance: The belief in a single God united a whole group of people into a nation with a common cause.

Brahman

Highest level of the Hindu caste system (priesthood), serving as a source of power and prayer. Significance: Foundation of the Hinduism social structure and leads into a category for all gods.

Smallpox

Highly contagious virus unique to humans that is characterized by fever, weakness, and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs. Significance: Began in Europe before spreading to the Americas via conquest/Columbian Exchange, killing many Native Americans.

Kremlin

Historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River, St. Basil's Cathedral, the Red Square, and the Alexander Garden.

Rome-Berlin Axis

Hitler's new military pact with Fascist Italy. Significance: Allies provided the military support Hitler needed to acquire "Lebensraum" (living space) for the new German empire.

Third Reich

Hitler's next step for the establishment of a new German empire/regime. Significance: With various militaries and alliances at hand, Hitler was confident in commencing an invasion into Austria, his birthplace.

Zaibatsu

Huge industrial combines created in Japan in the 1890s as part of the process of industrialization. Significance: Result of accumulations of capital and far-flung merchant and industrial operations.

95 Theses

Ideas written by Martin Luther to display his displeasure with the Church clergy's abuses, particularly in the sale of indulgences. Significance: Primary catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.

Mahdi

In Sufi belief system, a promised deliverer. Significance: Name given to Muhammad Ahmad, leader of the late 19th century revolt against Egyptians and British in Sudan.

Sphere of Influence

In international politics, the claim by a state to exclusive or predominant control over a foreign area or territory. Significance: May refer to a political claim to exclusive control, which other nations may or may not recognize as a matter of fact, or it may refer to a legal agreement by which another state or states pledge themselves to refrain from interference within the sphere of influence.

Silla Kingdom

Independent Korean kingdom ruling Korea by 668 that was located in the southeastern part of the peninsula. Significance: By submitting to the Tang emperor as a vassal and agreeing to tributary payment, the Silla were able to use the alliance to defeat the Koguryo.

League of Nations

International diplomatic and peace organization created in the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I but did not include the United States as a member. Significance: One of the chief goals of President Woodrow Wilson of the United States in the peace negotiations.

Deshima

Island in the Nagasaki Bay. Significance: The only port open to non-Japanese, particularly the Chinese and the Dutch, after the closure of the islands in the 1640s.

British East India Company

Joint stock company that obtained government monopoly over trade in India. Significance: Acted virtually as an independent government in the regions it claimed.

Philip 2

King of Macedon from 359-336 BCE who conquered and united all of Greece in just over 10 years. Significance: Able to united both his home country and all of Greece, uniting their political and economic development.

Palmares

Kingdom of runaway slaves located in Brazil during the 17th century. Significance: Had an Angolan leadership with a population of 8000-10,000 people.

Quechua

Language of the Inca Empire, now spoken in the Andes Highlands. Significance: Spread intentionally by the Incas as method for unifying the empire.

Pericles

Leader of the Delian League city-states during the Peloponnesian War. Significance: United incongruous Greek city-states into a powerful Athenian empire.

Tang Taizong

Li Yuan's second son who reconquered the northern and western territories of China lost as a result of the decline of the Han dynasty. Significance: Began the achievements of the Tang Dynasty alongside his father.

Monastic Life

Lifestyle for monks, nuns, or common folk to serve under religious vows or live in religious buildings. Significance: Allowed people to fully devote to a religion, altering people's lifestyle.

Hunter-forager

Lifestyle or culture where food is obtained by hunting, fishing, and foraging in nomadic groups. Significance: Describes the lifestyles of humans prior to the Neolithic Revolution.

Steam Engine

Machine that utilizes steam power to perform mechanical work through the agency of heat. Significance: Gradually displaced human and animal power as it increased manufacturing outputs and transportation availability/efficiency.

monarchy

Main political form in Greek poleis dealing with hereditary rule. Significance: Led to the development of most city-states.

Mecca

Major Arab trading city founded and dominated, politically and commercial economically, by the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh Bedouin tribe. Significance: Became an origin center of Islamic faith.

Dar al-Islam

Major division of Islamic faith meaning "house/abode of Islam" in Arabic; a religious conceptualization of the expansive Islamic world where Muslims can practice their religion as the ruling sect. Significance: Provides the reason for expeditions to/from other countries to be facilitated.

Qing Dynasty

Manchu dynasty that seized control of China in the mid-17th century after the decline of the Ming. Significance: Forced the submission of nomadic peoples far to the west and compelled tribute from Vietnam and Burma to the south.

Hangzhou

Massive Song Dynasty capital located near the East China Sea with a population of over 1 million. Significance: Over sea trade was permitted, making it a wealthy and noble Chinese city.

Great Wall

Massive mud/stone wall extending for thousands of miles while being wide enough for chariots to move along its crest. Significance: Built mainly through forced labor, it became one of humanity's largest fortifications that was conscripted by a central bureaucracy among the peasantry.

Seleucids

Members of the Seleucid Empire, which was a Hellenistic state ruled by the Seleucid Dynasty. Significance: Major center of Greek culture that maintained preeminence of Greece in areas dominated by Greek elites.

Bessemer Process

Metallurgy method that automatically mixed alloys with molten iron. Significance: Greatly increased the production of steel.

Achaemenid Empire

Migration of Medes and Persians from central Asia before 1000 BCE, and Cyrus' capitalization of the weakened Assyrian/Babylonian Empires. Significance: Led to the development of the first Persian Empire, which came great and ruled over the world.

Vassals

Military elites who received land or a benefice from feudal lords in exchange for service and protection. Significance: Vassals could govern peasants and collect tributes to support the monarchy.

Red Army

Military organization constructed under leadership of Leon Trotsky, Bolshevik follower of Lenin. Significance: Made use of people of humble backgrounds.

Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand

Monarchs of the largest Christian kingdoms in Iberia. Significance: Their marriage created united Spain, was responsible for the reconquest of Granada, and initiated explorations of the New World.

Ibn Battuta

Moroccan Muslim scholar who was the most traveled individual of his time. Significance: Detailed accounts of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and western Sudan.

Taj Mahal

Most famous architectural achievement of Mughal India. Significance: Originally built as a mausoleum for the wife of Shah Jahan, Mambaz Muhal.

Jamal al-Din al-Afghani

Muslim thinker at the end of the 19th century that stressed the need for adoption of Western scientific learning and technology. Significance: Recognized importance of tradition of rational inquiry.

nabobs

Name given to British representatives of the East India Company. Significance: Were satirized because they went briefly to India to make fortunes through graft and exploitation.

Golden Horde

Name refers to the use of a Golden Tent, it is one of the 4 subdivisions of the Mongol Empire after Genghis Khan's death. Significance: Originally ruled by Batu, its territory covered much of modern south-central Russia.

Black Death

Named in Europe for one of history's worst pandemics that started in Southwestern China before hitting the Mongols and spreading along trade routes to other states/nations. Significance: Decimated 1/3 of Europe's population and discouraged trade along the Mediterranean area.

Battle of the Coral Sea

Naval and air engagement in which a U.S. fleet turned back a Japanese invasion force that had been heading for strategic Port Moresby in New Guinea. Significance: First Allied victory in May 1942 against Japan.

Battle of Midway Island

Naval battle, fought almost entirely with aircraft, in which the United States destroyed four of Japan's first-line carrier strength and most of its best trained naval pilots. Significance: Together with the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Battle of Midway ended the threat of further Japanese invasion in the Pacific and allowed Allied forces to demonstrate their superiority in the Pacific.

Adolf Hitler

Nazi leader of Nazi Germany, from 1933 to his suicide in 1945, who eliminated all rivals, created a strongly centralized state in Germany, and was responsible for genocide of European Jews. Significance: Launched Germany on aggressive foreign policy leading to WWII.

Democracy

New form of popular government where citizens either have a direct say in the formulation of laws/policies or vote for a representative to express their concerns. Significance: Foundation for modern-day political systems that is not related the social hierarchical classifications.

Kushan Empire

New invaders who successfully pushed into central India while it was declining after Ashoka's rule. Significance: Their greatest king, Kanishka, converted to Buddhism, only to decrease its popularity in India as it became associated to foreign rule.

Totalitarian State

New kind of government in the 20th century that exercised massive, direct control over virtually all the activities of its subjects. Significance: Existed in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union.

Firebombing

Offensive bombing technique involving the use of an incendiary bomb on urban areas to cause a fire rather than the immense explosive force of large bombs. Significance: Became a controversial action as the Allies carried out firebombings on German cities such as Hamburg and Dresden.

Porfirio Diaz

One of Juarez's generals that was elected president of Mexico in 1876. Significance: Dominated Mexican politics for 35 years, imposing a strong central government.

Kilwa

One of many trading cities on the east African coast (Zenj). Significance: Demonstrates eastern trading in which Indian merchants have the best chance of traveling there.

Suleimani Mosque

One of the many grand mosques built in Constantinople for its beautification. Significance: Represented some of the most sublime contributions of the Ottomans to Islamic and human civilization.

Quran

Originally written in Arabic language, it is the holy/sacred book of Islam; believed to be directly God's words, as told to Muhammed by the archangel Gabriel. Significance: Establishes the customs and laws that are to be fulfilled by Muslim believers.

Abdul Hamid

Ottoman sultan who attempted to return to despotic absolutism during his reign starting in 1878 before being deposed in a coup in 1908. Significance: Nullified the constitution and restricted civil liberties.

The Communist Manifesto

Pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to serve as the platform of the Communist League. Significance: Became one of the principal programmatic statements of the European socialist and communist parties in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Supreme Soviet

Parliament of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics elected by universal suffrage. Significance: Actually controlled by Communist party, serving to ratify party decisions.

Zambos

Part African and part Native American mixed people.

Mulattoes

Part European and part African mixed people.

Mestizos

Part European and part Native American mixed people. Significance: Spanish men took Native wives/mistresses when Spanish women did not come to the New World (miscegenation).

Mestizos

Part European and part Native American mixed people. Significance: Spanish men took Native wives/mistresses when Spanish women did not come to the New World.

Collectivization

Part of Stalin's economic and political planning, often adopted in other communist regimes, that involved the creation of large, state-run farms rather than individual housings. Significance: Allowed more efficient control over peasants, although often lowering food production rates.

Treaty of Versailles

Peace document signed at the end of World War I by the Allied and associated powers and by Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919, taking force on January 10, 1920. Significance: Its idea for the establishment of the League, as promoted by Wilson, was voted against by the U.S. Senate.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Peace treaties signed at Brest-Litovsk (now in Belarus) by the Central Powers with the Ukrainian Republic (Feb. 9, 1918) and with Soviet Russia (March 3, 1918), which concluded hostilities between those countries during World War I. Significance: Ended Russia's involvement in WWI, calling for it to hand over to Germany an enormous amount of land, including most of Ukraine.

Cossacks

Peasants recruited to migrate to newly seized lands in Russia, particularly in the south. Significance: They combined agriculture with military conquests, spurring additional frontier conquests and settlements.

Serfs

Peasants who lived on and were tied to self-sufficient agricultural estates within the manorial system of the European Middle Ages but were not owned by a person. Significance: As a class of peasant-slave laborers, they circulated the economy through their exchange of agricultural produce for protective and judicial services.

Iron Curtain

Phrase coined by Winston Churchill to describe division between free and communist societies taking shape in Europe after 1946. Significance: Britain lacked the power to resist Soviet pressure, leaving initiative to the United States while under the Labour government.

Berlin Airlift

Plan implemented by the United States and Great Britain to airlift about one million tons of supplies (food, clothing, medicine, and fuel) into Berlin until the Soviets finally ended their blockade in May 1949. Significance: Soviet Union recognized it could not win this battle, and the West deemed the airlift operation a success.

Nuremberg Laws

Policies enacted by Hitler as chancellor, which reflected his anti-Semitic views, that were approved by the Nazi Party at a convention in Nürnberg on September 15, 1935. Significance: Two race-based measures that deprived Jews of rights from certain professions and certain schools.

Corporatism

Political ideology that emphasize the organic nature of society and made the state a mediator, adjusting the interests of different social groups. Significance: Appealed to conservative groups in European and Latin American societies and to the military.

Mein Kampf

Political manifesto written by Adolf Hitler. It was his only complete book and became the bible of National Socialism (Nazism) in Germany's Third Reich. Significance: Declared his extreme anti-Semitic views.

Socialism

Political movement originating in western Europe during the 19th century that wanted state control of means of production and an end to the capitalist exploitation of working men. Significance: Urged an attack on private property in the name of equality.

Boxer Rebellion

Popular outburst in 1898 aimed at expelling foreigners from China that failed because of intervention of armies of Western powers in China. Significance: Defeat of Chinese enhanced control by Europeans and the power of provincial officials.

Malacca

Powerful mainland trading city in Southeast Asia whose smaller trading empire had replaced the fallen Shrivijaya. Significance: Its conversion to Islam, a result of trade with Muslims, allowed for the widespread of Islam into other port cities.

Foot Binding

Practice in Chinese society of mutilating women's feet to make them smaller; produced pain and restricted movement. Significance: Made it easier to confine women to the household.

Female Infanticide

Practice of killing female infants, which was prohibited by Islamic faith as it was considered to be murder. Significance: Female infanticide was frequent during pre-Islam Arabia.

Proto-Industrialization

Prelude to the Industrial Revolution where the European economy shifted away from agriculture. Significance: Workers became full/part-time producers of textiles and metal products, working at home in a capitalist system that ultimately depended on urban merchants.

New Deal

President Franklin Roosevelt's precursor of the modern welfare state (1933-1939) with programs to combat economic depression that enacted a number of social insurance measures and used government spending to stimulate the economy. Significance: Increased power of the state and the state's intervention in U.S. social and economic life.

David Lloyd George

Prime minister of Great Britain who headed a coalition government through much of World War I and the turbulent years that followed. Significance: Attempted with little success to mediate between Clemenceau and Wilson and to win enough reparations to satisfy a disgruntled electorate at home.

Decolonization

Process by which colonies become independent of the colonizing country. Significance: Was looked forward to by nationalists in Africa and Asia that hoped that the blood they had shed for their "home countries" would gain them some respect from Western Europe.

Reincarnation

Process were the soul periodically returns to the physical realm in a new body/person after entering the spiritual realm. Significance: Answers the question to the phenomenon after death for Hindus and Buddhists.

Putting-out System

Production system widespread in 17th-century western Europe in which merchant-employers "put out" materials for the cottage industry. Finished products were returned to the employers for payment on a piecework or wage basis. Significance: Undermined the restrictive regulations of the urban guilds and brought the first widespread industrial employment of women and children. Also, it allowed for lower wage costs and increased efficiency due to a more extensive division of labor within the craft.

griot

Professional oral historians in the form of poets, musicians, and storytellers who served as keepers of traditions and advisers to the kings of the Mali Empire. Significance: Preserved historical detail in the form of communication as they traveled.

Samurai

Professional warriors who provide police and military services to governing/landowning lords in exchange for food, clothing, and shelter. Significance: Like knights/vassals, the protected leaders and their territories.

Marshall Plan

Program of substantial loans initiated by the United States in 1947 designed to aid Western nations in rebuilding from the war's devastation. Significance: Vehicle for American economic dominance.

Maximilien Robespierre

Radical Jacobin leader and one of the principal figures in the French Revolution who led the Committee of Public Safety. Significance: Sought to quell opposition by imposing the death penalty on opponents and the mass male conscription into military service (levée en masse).

Trans-Siberian Railroad

Rail line constructed in 1870s to connect European Russia with the Pacific that was completed by the end of the 1880s. Significance: Brought Russia into a more active Asian role.

Witchcraft Persecution

Reflected resentment against the poor to answer uncertainties about religious truth. Significance: Resulted in the death of over 100,00 Europeans between 1590 and 1650, particularly common in the Protestant areas.

Lord Charles Cornwallis

Reformer of the East India Company administration of India in the 1790s. Significance: Reduced power of the local British administrators and checked widespread corruption.

Bartolome de Las Casas

(1484-1566); Dominican friar who supported the peaceful conversion of Native American populations in the Spanish colonies. Significance: Opposed forced labor and advocated for Native American rights.

Jacques Cartier

(1491-1557); French explorer who began the 1st of his voyages to Canada in search of the Northwest Passage, sailing up the St. Lawrence river as far as present-day Quebec city by his 2nd expedition. Significance: Established French claims to North America.

Louis XIV

(1638-1715); French monarch of the late 17th century. Significance: Personified absolute monarchy.

Issac Newton

(1643-1727); English scientist and author of Principia Mathematica. Significance: Drew together astronomical and physical observations and wider theories into a neat framework of natural laws, establishing the principles of motion and defining the forces of gravity.

Louis XVI

(1754-1793) Bourbon monarch of France who was executed during the radical phase of the French Revolution. Significance: Caved to the Enlightenment-inspired middle-class representatives' favor on turning the traditional parliament assembly into a modern parliament.

Mary Wollstonecraft

(1759-1797); Enlightenment feminist thinker in England. Significance: Argued that the new political rights should extend to women.

Viceroys

(Also used temporarily by the Portuguese); Senior government officials in Spanish America who are usually high-ranking Spanish nobles with previous military/governmental experience. Significance: Ruled as direct representatives of the king over the principal administrative units of viceroyalties.

Johannes Kelper

(December 27, 1571 - November 15, 1630); Astronomer and mathematician who resolved issues with planetary motion, worked on optics, practice astrology and horoscopes. Significance: Prominent figure in the Scientific Revolution.

Fourteen Points

(Jan. 8, 1918); Declaration by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson during World War I outlining his proposals for a postwar peace settlement, despite Clemenceau's protests. Significance: Wanted to create a League of Nations.

Francis Bacon

(January 22, 1561 - April 9, 1626); English philosopher, statesmen, author, and scientist who became an influential member of the Scientific Revolution. Significance: Best known for his work on the Scientific Method.

Grand Canal

1100 mile man-made water channel during the Sui dynasty connecting the Yellow and Yangzi Rivers. Significance: Facilitated internal trade between North and South China.

Frederick the Great

18th century Prussian king who attempted to introduce Enlightenment reforms into Germany. Significance: Built on military and bureaucratic foundations of his predecessors, introducing religious freedom as well as increasing state control of the economy.

Battle of El Alamein

1942 turning-point where the first half that ended in a stalemate led to the comprehensive defeat of the charismatic Field Marshal Erwin Rommel by the British Eighth Army, and Allied material superiority meant that he had little chance of rallying his broken forces. Significance: Marked the beginning of the end for the Axis in North Africa.

Hongwu

1st Ming emperor in 1368 who was originally of peasant lineage with the name of Zhu Yuanzhang. Significance: Drove out Mongol influence, thus restoring the position of the scholar-gentry class.

Vasco De Balboa

1st Spanish captain to begin settlement on the mainland of Mesoamerica in 1509. Significance: His initial settlement eventually led to the conquest of the Aztec ad Inca empires through the work of other captain.s

Woodrow Wilson

28th president of the United States (1913-21), an American scholar and statesman best remembered for his legislative accomplishments and his high-minded idealism. Significance: Led the U.S.A. into World War I and became the creator and leading advocate of the League of Nations, for which he was awarded the 1919 Nobel Prize for Peace. Also supported Treaty of Versailles.

Battle of Leningrad

3 year siege by Germans on the Soviet city of Leningrad that led to the deaths of a million men, women, and children. Significance: Its long duration spread the German army too thin over the vast areas of western and southern Soviet Union, in addition to Germany's unfavorably lengthy supply routes.

Water Frame

Spinning machine powered by water that was patented in 1769 by R. Arkwright and used in textile manufacturing to produce a cotton yarn suitable for war (lengthwise threads). Significance: Represented an improvement on James Hargreaves's spinning jenny, which produced weaker thread suitable only for weft (filling yarn).

Ming Dynasty

Succeeded the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in 1368 and lasted until 1644. Significance: Initially mounted huge trade expeditions to Southern Asia and elsewhere but later focused on the encouragement of internal Chinese developments.

Abu Bakr

Successor of Muhammad who ordered Muhammad's secretaries to organize the Prophet's revelations into a book, the Quran, which achieved its final form in 650 CE. Significance: His actions led to the belief of the Quran's writing as Allah's own words.

Selim III

Sultan who ruled Ottoman empire from 1789 but was toppled by Janissaries in 1807, ending his reign. Significance: Aimed at improving administrative efficiency and building a new army and navy.

Sunnis/Shias

Sunnis were majority of Muslims (til modern day) who believed in the legitimacy of non-Muhammad related caliph rule. Shias were minority that disclaimed the authority of the first 3 caliphs for not being relatives of Muhammad. Significance: Form the distinct split in Muslim ideology of Islamic society.

Pearl Harbor

Surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. Significance: Precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II, as much of the U.S. Pacific fleet was in the harbor.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and political theorist who expanded on the idea of the social contract as passed down through the work of Hobbes and Locke. Significance: Often considered a pre-Romantic because his work rebels against the social and political priviledges of the French aristocracy as well as against scientific rationalism.

Tribute System

System imposed by the Aztecs that forced conquered people to contribute resources to support the main city of Tenochtitlan. Significance: Example of administrative institution used by the Aztecs to display military superiority.

Three-field System

System of agricultural cultivation by the 9th century in Western Europe that is centered around dividing a field into 1/3 spring grains and 1/3 fallow. Significance: Allowed parts of land to remain temporarily uncultivated to restore nutrients in the soil.

Banana Republics

Term given to governments supported or created by the United States in Central America. Significance: Believed to be either corrupt or subservient to U.S. interests.

Four Noble Truths

The 4 central beliefs in Buddhist teachings. Significance: Provides Buddhists with an explanation to human condition and the purpose of life.

Glorious Revolution

The English overthrow of James II in 1688. Significance: Resulted in the affirmation of Parliament as having basic sovereignty over the king.

Monotheism

The belief in one god. Significance: Describes the basis of many major world religions, including Zoroastrianism and Judaism.

Vernacular Languages

The common people's oral language that originated with Dante Alighieri's, "Divine Comedy" (Italian), an important development in medieval literature. Significance: Grew to replace the old Roman language since a greater amount of people, regardless of education, could understood what is said.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The consecutive nuclear/atomic bombings by the U.S. Air Force on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by Nagasaki 3 days later. Significance: Led to the immediate deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in total, forcing Japan to unconditionally surrender on August 14.

"The White Man's Burden"

The duty of European, as encouraged by 19th century British writers, to bring civilization to nonwhite peoples through beneficent imperialism. Significance: Supported by early 20th century scientific and intelligence testings that revealed major intellectual differences between races.

Self-Determination

The idea that people of the same ethnicity, language, culture, and political ideals should be united and should have the right to form an independent nation state. Significance: Supported by Woodrow Wilson with white ethnic groups in mind like the Poles, not Arabs or Vietnamese.

patriarch

The leader (Pope) of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Also refers to the (eldest) male head of a family, tribe, or society. Significance: One of the two leaders of the Byzantine Christian churches after the Great Schism; the other is the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

Influenza Epidemic

The mass spread of the flu virus that began in 1918 when millions of soldiers returned home as the war ended, facilitating its spread to loved ones and ultimately forming a pandemic in 1919. Significance: Major cause of war-related deaths continuing past Armistice Day, killing 20 million in Europe, the U.S., and elsewhere; India alone may have lost 7 million.

Polygyny

The practice of having more than one wife or mate at the same time. Significance: Establishes the dominance and freedom of males in societies, particularly Islam, in which females are unable to practice this.

Allah

The single, omnipotent God of Islamic faith. Significance: He is the central-most foundation for Islamic ideologies and its principle beliefs (Five Pillars).

Mutual Assured Destruction

Theory of military science that states both oppositions would be obliterated by the end of a war if it were to involve full usage of nuclear weapons. Significance: Deterred the United States and the Soviet Union from starting a war and rather, they began to encourage local improvement of technology.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Took power in Egypt following a military coup in 1952, enacting land reforms and using state resources to reduce unemployment. Significance: Ousted Britain from the Suez Canal zone in 1956.

Constantinople

Town established by the Roman emperor Constantine as the second capital in the east in order to have better connections in the area and escape invading nomads. Significance: Became the official capital of the Byzantine Empire after the Roman Empire fell.

Kiev

Trade city in southern Russia established by Scandinavian traders in the 9th century. Significance: Became the focal point for the kingdom of Russia, which flourished to the 12th century.

Mamluks

Turkish military slaves who became prominent in the Abbasid armed forces. Significance: Later formed their own state, ruling Egypt and Syria, and were the first notable group to defeat the Mongols.

Viceroyalties

Two major divions of Spanish colonies in the New World where one is based in Lima and the other in Mexico City, Significance: Function as direct representatives of the king.

Cultural Revolution

Upheaval launched by Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong during his last decade in power (1966-76) to renew the spirit of the Chinese Revolution and lead society into a Communist future. Significance: Fearing that China would develop along the lines of the Soviet model and concerned about his own place in history, Mao threw China's cities into turmoil in a monumental effort to reverse the historic processes underway.

madrasas

Urban universities established by the Islam caliphs. Significance: Actively translated and preserved the literature of the ancient Greeks and the Indians.

Tokugawa Leyasu

Vassal of Hideyoshi that succeeded him as the most powerful military figure in Japan. Significance: Granted title of Shogun in 1603, thus establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate and bringing a political unity into Japan.

Marco Polo

Venetian explorer, author, and merchant that made numerous trips to China and later returning to Europe to document them. Significance: Responsible for much of the knowledge exchanges between Europe and China at that time.

Filial Piety

Virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors in Confucian philosophy. Significance: Provides a behavioral standard for society, similarly to law codes.

Northwest Passage

Water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific going through northern Canada and along the northern coast of Alaska. Significance: Route was sought by many navigators since the 16th century.

Ayan

Wealthy landed elite that emerged in early decades of Abbasid rule. Significance: Colluded with provincial officials to cheat the sultan out of a good portion of taxes.

Inca

Well-organized civilization with a vast imperial state during the 15th century; chief ruler is called Inca. Significance: Controlled the majority of South America, building roads to connect the rough geographical terrain.

Yellow Peril

Western term for perceived threat of Japanese imperialism around 1900. Significance: Met by increased Western imperialism in region.

Creoles

Whites born in the New World that dominated local Latin American economies and ranked just beneath peninsulares in the New World social hierarchy. Significance: Considered themselves to be superior to mestizos and wanted independence from Spain and its mercantilist policies.

Creoles

Whites born in the New World. Significance: Dominated local Latin American economies and ranked just beneath peninsulares in the New World social hierarchy.

Yokes

Wooden bar or frame used to join draft/domesticated animals so they can pull together. Significance: First development into using tamed animals to pull heavy loads, but became inferior to the horse collar because it tends to choke the animal.

Disseminator

Role played in which information, practices, or culture is spread widely across an area. Significance: Relates to the human migration starting in East Africa and the diffusion of agricultural practices/goods.

Lateen Sails

Roughly triangular sails with squared off points that are attached to Indian vessels to ease maneuverability in strong winds. Significance: Increased the efficiency of sea trade by outperforming manual oar labor.

Audiencia

Royal court of appeals established in the Spanish colonies of the New World, with 16 located throughout Spanish America. Significance: Part of the colonial administrative system that was staffed with professional magistrates.

Emperor Wudi

Ruler between 140-87 BCE who issued a royal decree that forced all nobles to dive their land between all sons, breaking up large estates. Significance: His decrees often demonstrated the concept of "checks and balances" in governing systems.

Batu

Ruler of Golden Horde and one of Genghis Khan's grandsons. Significance: Responsible for the invasion into Russia beginning in 1236.

Great Speaker

Ruler of Tenochtitlan with a magnificent court a leading elaborate rituals. Significance: Considered a living god, thus enforcing a theocracy.

Hulegu

Ruler of the Ilkhan Khanate, and the grandon of Genghis Khan. Significance: Responsible for the capture and destruction of Baghdad in 1257.

Haciendas

Rural estates in Spanish colonies of the New World that produced agricultural products for consumers in America. Significance: Basis of wealth and power for the local aristocracy.

Dhows

Sailing vessels with lateen sails that carry goods on Indian Ocean trade routes. Significance: Increased the volume of sea trade, allowing for Abbasid-Muslim merchants to easily grow wealthy.

Bantu Migrations

Series of migrations of the Bantu people, starting as early as 2000 BCE as a result of desertification, famine, and over-sized population. Significance: Bantu diffused their customs and language for many centuries, combining languages and starting the first formative events for Africa.

Berlin Conference

Series of negotiations (Nov. 15, 1884-Feb. 26, 1885) at Berlin, in which the major European nations met to decide all questions connected with the Congo River basin in Central Africa. Significance: Held not to divide Africa among Western powers but to set rules for establishing colonies.

Tienanmen Square

Series of peaceful student-led protests and demonstrations in China in the spring of 1989 that culminated on the night of June 3-4 with a government crackdown on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Significance: Although the demonstrations and their subsequent repression occurred in cities throughout the country, the events in Beijing—and especially in Tiananmen Square, historically linked to such other protests as the May Fourth Movement (1919)—came to symbolize the entire incident.

Tanzimat Reforms

Series of reforms in Ottoman empire between 1839 and 1876 that established a Western-style university, estate postal system, railways, and extensive legal reforms. Significance: Resulted in the creation of a new constitution in 1876.

Arabic Numberals

Set of ten symbols (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0) originating in India during the 6th/7th century that represent numbers in the decimal system. Significance: Breakthrough from previous methods of counting, such as the abacus, leading to the development of algebra.

Great Zimbabwe

Site of many stone structures built between 1250 and 1450, when it was a center of trade and capital of Zimbabwe, to house local rulers and sub-chiefs. Significance: Led to the development of centralized state in the 15th century.

Zanj Rebellion

Slave revolt of the Bantu with about 15,000 slaves led by Ali ibn-Muhammad for 14 years until it was finally ceased by the Abbasids in 883 CE.

Caravel

Slender, long-hulled vessels used by the Portuguese that were highly maneuverable and able to sail against the wind. Significance: Key to the development of the Portuguese trade empire in Asia.

Scholar Gentry

Social class of civil servants appointed by the emperor of China through the use of the Civil Service Exam to help perform daily governance. Significance: Caused much of the artistic and literacy creativity during the Tang and Song Dynasty.

Agrarian

Social system where agriculture and the farmers who cultivate land are the sustaining foundation of the settlement. Significance: Agriculture was the central food source of many permanently settled societies.

Cape of Good Hope

Southern tip of Africa. Significance: Was first circumnavigated in 1488 by the Portuguese in search of a direct route to India.

Conquistadores

Spanish "conqueror" or soldier in the New World. Significance: Motivated by the 3 G's (god, glory, and gold).

Ferdinand Magella

Spanish captain who initiated the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1519 but died later during the voyage. Significance: Efforts allowed Spain to claim the Philippines.

World Trade Organization

AKA "WTO";

Politburo

Executive committee of the Soviet Communist party. Significance: Includes 20 members.

Castas

Middle-level status formed by the combination of mestizos and mulattoes.

Jainism

Non-theistic religion from 6th century BCE India that emphasizes equality and nonviolence towards all living things.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Signed in 1494 between Castile and Portugal and clarified spheres of influence and rights of possession in the New World. Significance: Reserved Brazil and all newly discovered lands east of Brazil for the Portuguese while granting all lands west of Brazil to Spain.

Tet Offensive

Simultaneous attacks by some 85,000 troops under the direction of the North Vietnamese government on January 31, 1968, against give major South Vietnamese cities, dozens of military installations, and scores of towns/villages. Significance: Despite it not being a military success, it demonstrated the difficulty the United States was having with the war.

Saltwater slaves

Slaves transported from African who are almost in variably black. Significance: Their women birthed mulattoes due to European sexual exploitation.

Tsar

Slavic version of the word "Caesar," who functions as the autocrat of all Russians. Significance: People designated under this title were equivalent to an empire.

Cottage Industry

Small and often informally organized industry whose labor force consists of family units or individuals working at home with private equipment. Significance: Focused on the production of labor-intensive goods but faced a significant disadvantage when competing with factory-based manufacturers that mass-produce goods.

Miniature paintings

Small painting popular in the Middle East/South Asian during the 15th-16th centuries, often depicting scenes from the Qur'an. Significance: Paintings were privately owned and were cheap; thus, even peasants could afford them in their homes.

Satellites

Small states that are economically or politically dependent on a larger more powerful state. Significance: Typically applies to dictatorial countries under Soviet influence who were forced to import/export goods only from the Soviet Union.

Salons

Social gatherings of European intellectuals that took lace in the homes of the rich and famous, uniting 18th century artists, politicians, philosophers, and popular writers who took the progressive ideas of the Enlightenment to the public. Significance: Became centers of the new economic thinking that changed radically in the 18th century and allowed women that functioned as hostesses to influence the gathered intellectuals.

Aristocracy

Social/political system where society is ruled by leading families (wealthy minority). Significance: Many civilizations are structured around social classes with the most labor leniency and wealth in the upper-most class.

Alexander the Great

Son of Philip II who carried out his father's plans to invade Persia. Possessing great ambitions and using a disciplined military, he conquered most of the world known to Greece. Significance: Conquests led to the Hellenistic period of Afro-Eurasia.

Akbar

(1542-1605); Grandson of Babur, son and successor of Humayan that oversaw the building of military administrative systems that became typical of Mughal rule in India. Significance: Pursued a policy of cooperation with Hindu princes, attempting to create a new religion to bind the Muslim and Hindu populations of India.

John Locke

(1632-1704) English philosopher who argued that people could learn everything through sense and reason and that power of government came from the people, not divine right of kings. Significance: He offered the possibility of revolution to overthrow tyrants.

Robert Clive

(1725-1774); Architect of British victory at Plassey in 1757. Significance: Established foundations of British Raj in northern India (18th century).

Lin Zexu

(1785-1850); Distinguished Chinese official charged with stamping out opium trade in southern China and was sent into exile following the Opium War. Significance: Ordered the blockade of European trading areas in Canton and the confiscation of Opium shipments.

Murad

(1790-1820); Head of coalition of Mamluk rulers in Egypt that opposed the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt and suffered devastating defeat. Significance: Failure destroyed the Mamluk government in Egypt and revealed the vulnerability of Muslim core.

Hong Xiuquan

(1812-1864); Leader of the Taiping rebellion that converted to a specifically Chinese form of Christianity. Significance: Attacked traditional Confucian teachings of Chinese elite.

Karl Marx

(1818-1883) German socialist who blasted earlier socialist movements as Utopian and preached necessity of social revolution to create proletarian dictatorship. Significance: Saw history as defined by a class struggle between groups out of power and those controlling the means of production.

Francisco Madero

(1873-1931); Moderate democratic reformed in Mexico who proposed moderate reforms in 1910 but was arrested by Porfirio Diaz. Significance: Initiated revolution against Diaz when released from prison, temporarily gaining power, but was quickly removed and assassinated in 1913.

Pancho VIlla

(1878-1923); Mexican revolutionary and military commander in northern Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. Significance: Succeeded along with Emiliano Zapata in removing Diaz from power in 1911, also participating in campaigns that removed Madero and Huerta.

Alvaro Obregon

(1880-1928); Emerged as leader of the Mexican government in 1915. Significance: Elected president in 1920.

Alexander Kerensky

(1881-1970); Liberal revolutionary leader during the early stages of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Significance: Sought development of parliamentary rule and religious freedom.

Jose Clemente Orozco

(1883-1949); Mexican muralist of the period after the Mexican Revolution. Significance: Like Rivera's, his work featured romantic images of the Indian past with Christian symbols and Marxist ideology.

Diego Rivera

(1886-1957); Mexican artist of the period after the Mexican Revolution famous for murals painted on walls of public buildings. Significance: Mixed romantic images of the Indian past with Christian symbols and Marxist ideology.

Paris Peace Conference

(1919-20), the meeting that inaugurated the international settlement after World War I. Soviet Russia was not invited due to its Communist Revolution in which many Western leaders were terrified of its spreading. Significance: Left many nations unhappy, including Italy (did not get Fiume, town they had been promised), and Afro-Eurasian colonies of the Allied Powers (were not decolonized).

Balfour Declaration

(November 2, 1917); British minister Lord Balfour's promise of support for the "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." Significance: Was made in a letter from Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary, to Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (of Tring), a leader of British Jewry.

Denis Diderot

(October 5, 1713 - July 31, 1784); French Enlightenment figure. Significance: Best known for his editorial work on the first encyclopedia.

Francisco Franco

(born December 4, 1892, El Ferrol, Spain—died November 20, 1975, Madrid); General and leader of the Nationalist forces that overthrew the Spanish democratic republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Significance: Was the head of the government of Spain until 1973 and head of state until his death in 1975.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

(born January 30, 1882, Hyde Park, New York, U.S.—died April 12, 1945, Warm Springs, Georgia); 32nd president of the United States (1933-45) and the only president elected to the office four times. Significance: Led the United States through two of the greatest crises of the 20th century: the Great Depression and World War II. In doing so, he greatly expanded the powers of the federal government through a series of programs and reforms known as the New Deal, and he served as the principal architect of the successful effort to rid the world of German National Socialism and Japanese militarism.

Heinrich Himmler

(born October 7, 1900, Munich, Germany—died May 23, 1945, Lüneburg, Germany); German National Socialist (Nazi) politician, police administrator, and military commander who became the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. Significance: Functioned as leader of the Nazi special police, the SS, that oversaw Hitler's policies during the Holocaust.

Cubist Movement

20th century art style that is best represented by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Significance: Rendered familiar objects as geometrical shapes.

John F. Kennedy

35th president of the United States (1961-63), who was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Significance: Faced a number of foreign crises (Cuban Missile Crisis, the Race for Space, and the construction of the Berlin Wall), especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress.

Ronald Reagan

40th president of the United States (1981-89), noted for his conservative Republicanism, his fervent anticommunism, and his appealing personal style, characterized by a jaunty affability and folksy charm. Significance: The only movie actor ever to become president, he had a remarkable skill as an orator that earned him the title "the Great Communicator." His policies have been credited with contributing to the demise of Soviet communism.

Constantine

4th century Christian-Roman emperor who established Constantinople as a secondary capital in the east in hopes of reuniting Rome. Significance: His adoption, support, and legalization of Christianity as the ruling ideology popularized the religion among the Romans.

Five Pillars

5 basic principles of Islamic faith (faith, prayer, charity, fasting, and hajj/pilgrimage to Mecca). Significance: Reflects its status as a universal religion that appeals to people of diverse backgrounds.

Estate System

A French system appearing under the Ancien Regime (before the French Revolution) that organized society into 3 estates. Significance: The First Estate (clergy); the Second Estate (nobility); and the Third Estate (commoners). The king was not considered to be a part of any estate.

Catholic Reformation

AKA "Counter Reformation"; Restatement of traditional Catholic beliefs in response to the Protestant Reformation (16th century). Significance: Established councils that revived Catholic doctrine and refuted Protestant beliefs.

Domino Theory

AKA "Domino Effect"; theory in U.S. foreign policy, first proposed after World War II by President Truman, stating that the "fall" of a noncommunist state to communism would precipitate the fall of noncommunist governments in neighbouring states. Significance: One of the main arguments used in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations during the 1960s to justify increasing American military involvement in the Vietnam War.

Capitalism

AKA "Free-Market Economy" or "Free-Enterprise Economy"; an economic system, in which most of the means of production are privately owned and production is guided and income distributed largely through the operation of markets. Significance: Dominant in the Western world since the breakup of feudalism.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus

AKA "HIV";

International Monetary Fund

AKA "IMF";

Irish Republican Army

AKA "IRA"; Republican paramilitary organization consisting of Catholics who sought the establishment of a republic, the end of British rule in Northern Ireland, and the reunification of Ireland. Significance: Took their campaign to England itself by engaging in acts of terrorism, using violence to achieve political ends.

John Calvin

AKA "Jean" Calvin; French Protestant (16th century) who stressed the doctrine of predestination, encouraging wider access to the government and wider focus on public education. He established centers of his group at the Swiss Canton of Geneva. Significance: "Calvinism" spread from Switzerland to northern Europe and North America.

Sundiata

AKA "Lion Prince"; brilliant leader and member of Keita clan whose exploits were celebrated in a great oral tradition. Significance: He created a unified state that later became the Mali Empire; died around 1260 CE.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

AKA "NATO"; Created in 1949 under U.S. leadership to group most of western European powers plus Canada in a defensive alliance against possible Soviet aggression. Significance: Soon legitimated some rearmament of West Germany in the context of resistance to communism and the continued maintenance of a substantial U.S. military presence.

Kristallnacht

AKA "Night of Broken Glass" or "November Pogroms"; in 1938 when Nazi followers throughout Germany and Austria attacked/looted Jewish persons and property. Significance: The violence continued during the day of November 10, and in some places acts of violence continued for several more days.

Young Turks

AKA "Ottoman Society for Union and Progress"; Organization of political agitators in opposition to rule of Abdul Hamid. Significance: Decided to restore 1876 constitution.

Palestinian Liberation Organization

AKA "PLO";

PRI

AKA "Party of the Institutionalized Revolution"; dominant political party in Mexico that developed during the 1920s and 1930s, later controlling other Mexican political organizations. Significance: Incorporated labor, peasant, military, and middle-class sectors.

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

AKA "SEATO"; Regional-defense organization from 1955 to 1977, created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defence Treaty, signed at Manila on Sept. 8, 1954, by the representatives of Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Significance: Formation was a response to the demand that the Southeast Asian area be protected against communist expansionism, especially as manifested through military aggression in Korea and Indochina and through subversion backed by organized armed forces in Malaysia and the Philippines.

Viet Cong

AKA "Viet Nam Cong San"; English Vietnamese Communists, the guerrilla force that, with the support of the North Vietnamese Army, fought against South Vietnam (late 1950s-1975) and the United States (early 1960s-1973). Significance: The name is said to have first been used by South Vietnamese Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem to belittle the rebels.

Ottoman Society for Union and Progress

AKA "Young Turks"; Organization of political agitators in opposition to rule of Abdul Hamid. Significance: Decided to restore 1876 constitution.

Chinese Communist Party

AKA (CCP) or Communist Party of China (CPC); Political party of China. Significance: Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the CCP has been in sole control of that country's government.

Shah Abbas I

AKA Abbas the Great; Safavid ruler for 1587-1629 that extended his domain to the greatest extent. Significance: Created slave regiments based on captured Russians, and monopolized firearms within Safavid armies by incorporating western military technology.

Qanat

AKA Canat; technology developed in Ancient Persia/Iran involving a gently sloping underground channel used to transport water from an aquifer/water-well to the surface. Significance: Allowed people to obtain and manage water usage with only gravity.

Voltaire

AKA Francois-Marie Arouet; a French author best known for his social satire, Candide (1762). He was famous for his wit, advocacy of civil liberties, and appreciation of England's constitutional monarchy. Significance: Brought back his ideas to France where he campaigned for religious liberty and judicial reform after his 3-year exile.

Ivan III

AKA Ivan the Great; the prince of Duchy of Moscow who took the title of tsar, or Caesar, which is equivalent of emperor. Significance: Claimed descent from Rurik and was responsible for freeing Russia from the Mongols after 1462.

Ivan IV

AKA Ivan the Terrible; Confirmed the power of tsarist autocracy by attacking the authority of boyars (aristocrats). Significance: Continued the policy of Russian expansion and established contacts with western European commerce and culture.

Justinian 1

AKA Justinian "the Great"; early Byzantine emperor who ruled from 527-565 CE. Significance: Spent a great deal of time reviving Constantinople with the construction and renovation of magnificent public buildings like the Hagia Sohpia.

Muhammad Ahmad

AKA Mahdi; Head of Sudanic Sufi brotherhood who claimed descent from prophet Muhammad and took Khartoum in 1883. Significance: Proclaimed both Egyptians and British as infidels, launching a revolt to purge Islam of impurities.

Mukden Incident

AKA Manchurian Incident; Controversial "claim" that Chinese forces attacked a railway near Mukden owned by Japan, which was either carried out by Chinese dissidents or agents of the Japanese military. Significance: League of Nations' condemnation of Japan only encouraged it to give up its membership in the league and followup with a full invasion of Manchuria.

Mehmed II

AKA Mehmed "the Conqueror"; an Ottoman sultan responsible for the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Significance: Destroyed what remained of the Byzantine empire.

Nanking Massacre

AKA Nanjing Massacre or "Rape of Nanking"; 6-week mass killing and ravaging of Chinese citizens/ capitulated soldiers by soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army after its seizure of Nanjing, China, on December 13, 1937. Significance: Occurred during the Sino-Japanese War that preceded World War II with 100,000 - 300,000+ Chinese already killed.

Ogedei

AKA Ogodei; third son of Genghis Khan who was not considered the best military leader but definitely a crafty diplomat and deft manipulator. Significance: Succeeded his father, Genghis Khan, as khagan of the Mongols.

"Scramble for Africa"

AKA Partition/Conquest of Africa; invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers. Significance: Occurred during the period of New Imperialism, between 1881 and 1914, without the consent of African representatives.

Sepoy Rebellion

AKA Sepoy Mutiny; widespread but unsuccessful rebellion against British rule in India in 1857-58 by soldiers who believed that their rifle cartridges had been greased with the fat of cows and pigs (animals of religious significance). Significance: Often called the First War of Independence and other similar names in India.

Knights

AKA Vassals, they were members of the gentry (above peasants but not always considered nobles). Significance: Being the actual soldiers of the feudal military, they exemplify a method for social mobility as trainees gain knighthood.

V-E Day

AKA Victory in Europe Day; The official end of war in Europe on May 8, 1945, when Germany finally surrendered to the Allies after Hitler's suicide.

Vittorio Orlando

AKA Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, (born May 19, 1860, Palermo, Italy—died December 1, 1952, Rome); Italian statesman and prime minister during the concluding years of World War I. Significance: Head of his country's delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference.

Yellow Turban Rebellion

AKA Yellow Scarves Rebellion; peasant revolt in China against the Eastern Han Dynasty in 184 CE. Associated with Taoist beliefs (yellow = earth), the name was derived from the yellow cloth rebels wore on their heads. Significance: The suppression of the rebellion required much of the Han Dynasty's resources, causing its collapse.

Blitzkrieg

AKA lightning war; Military tactic calculated to create psychological shock and resultant disorganization in enemy forces through the employment of surprise, speed, and superiority in "matériel" (firepower). Significance: Enacted by Hitler to swiftly acquire territory, particularly in the subduing of Poland, after war broke out in Europe.

Bay of Pigs

Abortive invasion of Cuba at the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), or Playa Girón (Girón Beach) to Cubans, on the southwestern coast by some 1,500 Cuban exiles opposed to Fidel Castro. Significance: Invasion was financed and directed by the U.S. government with Kennedy in support, but only cemented the Cuba-Soviet alliance.

Westernization

Adoption/conversion into European ideologies, technologies, and culture (assimilation into western European traditions). Significance: Transformation occurred to the Russian empire.

Kulaks

Agricultural entrepreneurs who utilized the Stolypin and later NEP reforms to increase agricultural production and buy additional land.

Alliance for Progress

Alliance begun in 1961 by the United States to develop Latin America as an alternative to radical political solutions, but it enjoyed only limited success. Significance: Failure of development programs led to renewal of direct intervention.

Warsaw Pact

Alliance organized by Soviet Union with its eastern European satellites to balance formation of NATO by Western powers in 1949.

Dresden

Allied firebombing raids on February 13-15, 1945, that almost completely destroyed the German city of Dresden, causing large casualties to civilians. Significance: Became a symbol of the "terror bombing" campaign against Germany, which was one of the most controversial Allied actions of the war.

Matthew Perry

American commodore who visited Edo Bay with American fleet in 1853 and insisted on opening ports to American trade on threat of naval bombardment. Significance: Won rights for American trade with Japan in 1854.

Eli Whitney

American inventor, mechanical engineer, and manufacturer, best remembered as the inventor of the Cotton Gin. Significance: Led the development for the concept of mass producing interchangeable parts.

Sociedad de Castas

American social system based on racial origins. Significance: Europeans/whites were at the top of the hierarchy, black slaves and Native Americans at the bottom, and mixed races in the middle.

Creole slaves

American-born descendants of saltwater slaves. Significance: Result of the sexual exploitation of slave women and the process of miscegenation.

Mandate System

An authorization granted by the League of Nations to a member nation to govern a former German or Turkish colony. The territory was called a mandated territory, or mandate. Significance: Ignorance of Allies' promises following the peace conference insulted Arab rebels of the former Ottoman Empire who fought with the Allies.

Utopia

An ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Significance: Used to denote visionary reform that tends to be impossibly idealistic.

Stock Market

An organized market for the sale and purchase of securities such as shares, stocks, and bonds. Significance: As a ready market for securities, it ensures their liquidity and thus encourages people to channel savings into corporate investment.

Muhammad

An orphan of a former powerful Meccan family who worked as a trader before dedicating himself to spreading the revelations of God/Allah. Significance: He was the founder of the religion, Islam.

Chang'an

Ancient (but new for that time) capital of the Tang dynasty with a large amount of staff to run the imperial household and surrounding palaces. Significance: With a population over 2 million, it was the largest city-capital at that time in the world.

Pataliputra

Ancient Indian city built by Magadha ruler Ajatashatru in 490 BCE as a small fort near the Ganges River. Significance: Represented the strategic placement of capitals because it was secured by water, located near metal ores for mining, occasional flooding, and was navigable by water for trade/transport.

Trans-Saharan Trade Route

Ancient caravan routes across the Sahara, connecting trade centers in West Africa, North Africa, and East Africa in the inter-regional exchange of gold and salt. Significance: Allowed for a massive exchange of raw materials, technology, and ideologies.

Vedic Religions

Ancient religion of the Aryan people who entered northwestern India from Persia. Significance: Precursor to Hinduism; represented one of the oldest religions with written activities based on the collections of sacred texts.

Silk Road

Ancient trade route that connected Asia with Europe. Significance: Allowed for a massive exchange of information, goods, and people across a vast amount of space.

Indian Ocean Trade Route

Ancient water trade route across the Indian Ocean that became most prominent after the decline of the Silk Road because of nomadic invasions. Significance: Allowed for the continuation of trade with Africa and China.

Shinto

Animistic religion native to Japan that emphasizes nature and spirits, or Kami, that inhabit inside of nature. Significance: Beliefs in the power/strength of nature are encouraged to promote community prosperity.

Submarines

Any naval vessel/warship that is capable of propelling itself beneath the water as well as on the water's surface. Significance: Briefly used in the American Civil War, they played a larger part in World War I, causing havoc on the shipping lanes of the Atlantic Ocean.

Sputnik

Any of a series of 10 artificial Earth satellites whose launch by the Soviet Union beginning on Oct. 4, 1957, inaugurated the space age. Significance: Sputnik 1, the first satellite launched by man, was a 83.6-kg (184-pound) capsule that achieved an Earth orbit with an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 940 km (584 miles) and a perigee (nearest point) of 230 km (143 miles), circling Earth every 96 minutes and remaining in orbit until early 1958, when it fell back and burned in the Earth's atmosphere.

Muhammad ibn Qasim

Arab general who, at the age of 17, led a campaign with 10,000+ horse/camel-mounted riders into Sind to avenge the Sind assault on Arab shipping. Significance: Expanded Islamic influence into the Indus Valley and regions in the northeast, declaring them provinces of the Umayyad Empire.

Medina

Arabian trading town (in addition to Mecca) located close to the Red Sea, serving as organizational points along extensive trade networks for caravans. Significance: Became an origin center of Islamic faith.

Al-Andalus

Arabic name given to Islamic nation in the parts of Spain's Iberian peninsula; ruled/governed by Muslims. Significance: Demonstrates the expansive realm of Islamic territory and influence.

Forbidden City

Area where the emperor lives in which only the family, the servants, and the closest advisers have the permission to be inside its boundaries. Significance: An indication of China's social hierarchy, as the upper-class tend to live closer to the palace.

Forbidden City

Area where the emperor lives in which only the family, the servants, and the closest advisers have the permission to be inside its boundaries. Significance: After the 1st Ming Emperor's rule from Nanjing, the Chinese government later returned to Beijing to expand their "city" and the house at which the emperor lives.

Theodore Herzl

Austrian journalist and Zionist that formed World Zionist Organization in 1897. Significance: Promoted Jewish migration to Palestine and the formation of a Jewish state.

Theodor Herzl

Austro-Hungarian Jew with roles such as organizer, propagandist, and diplomat that founded the political form of Zionism, a movement to establish a Jewish homeland. Significance: His pamphlet, The Jewish State (1896), his organization of a world congress of Zionists, and his presidency of the World Zionist Organization contributed to Zionism becoming a worldwide political influence.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Author of "The Prince" (16th century), which emphasized realistic discussions on how to seize and maintain power. Significance: He is one of the most influential authors of the Italian Renaissance.

Animism

Belief that a supernatural power (spirit/soul) organizes and animates the physical universe. Significance: Allows religions to be described and categorized based on its founding beliefs.

Queues

Braided ponytails that began during the Qing Dynasty. Significance: Manchurians forced the Chinese to shave their foreheads and braid the remaining hair at the back as a sign of submission to their rule.

Pastoralism

Branch of agriculture where semi-nomadic humans domesticated animals and led hordes to fresh grazing lands. Significance: Livestock were a vital addition to societal food surplus, also helping with heavy village labor.

Metallurgy

Branch of science and technology concerned with properties of metals and their production or purification. Significance: Improved the tools of hunter-foragers and farmers, and thus making the completion of tasks more efficient.

Cecil Rhodes

British entrepreneur in South Africa around 1900 who manipulated political situation in South Africa to gain entry to resources of Boer republics. Significance: Encouraged the Boer War as means of destroying Boer independence.

Lusitania

British ocean liner carrying more than 100 U.S. citizens among its passengers that was sunk by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915. Significance: Contributed indirectly to the entry of the United States into World War I.

Neville Chamberlain

British prime minister who met with Hitler in Munich, along with France and Italy, to discuss Hitler's demands. Significance: Mistakenly argued that a policy of appeasement would keep the peace and put an end to Hitler's demands for more land.

Great Schism

Buildup of Church conflicts in Constantinople where, in 1054, the Roman Pope excommunicated the Patriarch and his followers from Christianity, and vice versa. Significance: Split the Christian Church into two variants, Eastern Orthodox and Western/Roman Catholic.

Waru Waru

South American agricultural technique that combines raised beds with irrigation channels in between each row of fields. Significance: Prevented soil erosion and frost damage to crops overnight.

Tributary System

Chinese method for managing foreign relationships with conquered/neighboring lands that demanded gifts as a sign of submission to the "natural order" of Chinese domination. Significance: China usually returned gifts of their own, thus establishing diplomatic contracts and encouraging trade, especially with friendly nomads.

Confucius

Chinese philosopher who emphasized the importance of harmonious, hierarchical relationships in order to create an orderly society. Significance: His teachings became a fundamental part of Chinese philosophical and religious writing.

Junk

Chinese ships equipped with watertight bulkheads, stern-post rudders, compasses, and bamboo fenders. Significance: Allowed China to temporarily dominate Asian seas east of the Malayan Peninsula.

White Dominions

Colonies, typical of British holdings in North America and Australia with growing independence in the 19th century, where European settlers made up the overwhelming majority of the population. Significance: Small numbers of native inhabitants were typically reduced by diseases and wars of conquest.

Royal African Company

Company based in Africa that chartered in 1660s to establish a monopoly over the slave trade among British merchants. Significance: Supplied African slaves to colonies in Barbados, Jamaica, and Virginia.

Absolute Monarchy

Concept of government developed during the rise of nation-states in 17th century western Europe. Significance: Featured monarchs who passed laws without parliaments, appointed professionalized armies and bureaucracies, established state churches, and imposed state economic policies.

Korean War

Conflict fought by the United States and its allies to prevent Communist North Korea from taking over the government of South Korea. Significance: War ended in a stalemate after 3 years of fighting and some four million civilian/military casualties in which the two parts of Korea remained divided with a demilitarized zone in between.

English Civil War

Conflict from 1640 to 1660 that featured religious disputes mixed with constitutional issues concerning the powers of the monarchy. Significance: Ended with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 following the execution of the previous king.

Cristeros

Conservative peasant movement during the 1920s that was most active in central Mexico. Significance: Movement attempted to halt slide toward secularism, resulting in armed violence.

Mexican Constitution of 1917

Constitution that promised land reform, limited foreign ownership of key resources, guaranteed the rights of workers, and placed restrictions on clerical education. Significance: Marked formal end of Mexican Revolution.

Shaduf

Counter-balance sweep used in ancient times, especially in Egypt, for raising water (as irrigation). Significance: Helped farms transport water for crops after the seasonal flooding.

Simon Bolivar

Creole military officer in northern South America that won a series of victories in Venezuela, Columbia, and Ecuador between 1817 and 1822. Significance: His military success led to the creation of the independent state of Gran Columbia.

Hellenism

Culture derived from the expansion of Greek civilization, which flourished between 800 and 400 BCE. Significance: Defines the diffusion of Greek culture across the Mediterranean world.

Ancestor Veneration

Custom of honoring deceased ancestors who are still considered to be a part of the family. Significance: Particularly in Chinese culture, it is the main and crucial concept of filial piety.

Hijab

Custom of some Islamic societies that encourages women to dress modestly in front of men outside the privacy of their home (veils and headscarves). Significance: Symbolizes the person's devotion to Islam.

Declaration of Rights of Man

Document adopted during the liberal phase of the French Revolution (1789) that stated the fundamental equality of all French citizens. Significance: Later became a political source for other liberal movements.

Declaration of Independence

Document approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 that expressed the philosophy behind the Patriots' fight against British troops in America. Significance: Demonstrated ideas/practices from Enlightenment leaders such as John Locke with phrases such as "unalienable rights."

Zimmerman Telegram

Document intercepted by the United States in which the German government offered to help Mexico reclaim territory it had to lost to the U.S.A. in 1848 if Mexico allied with Germany in the war. Significance: Final event that pushed the United States into joining World War I.

Sanskrit Scriptures

Documents, texts, and literature written in Sanskrit (regional Indian languages). Significance: Used by many ancient/medieval Hindu texts, including the Vedas, which became the precursor to Hinduism.

Abbasid Dynasty

Dynasty after Umayyads, favored by the Shias, who claimed to be descendants of Muhammad's uncle, devoting efforts to trade, scholarships, and the arts. Significance: Encouraged the period of Dar al-Islam, in which military campaigns for expansion was no longer the focus.

Tang Dynasty

Dynasty influence by the Sui that expanded to Vietnam and Manchuria, ruling for almost 300 years. Significance: Restored China's governing authority, territory, and education levels on a scale as grand as the Han Dynasty.

Slavophilism

Early 19th advocacy for the favoring of traditional peasant values and institutions of the Slavic people, rather than that of western Europe influences.

Plato and Socrates

Early Greek philosophers (love for wisdom) who were mainly interest in investigating the physical world. Significance: Their philosophical methods are a constant demonstration of tradition religious values clashing with the human capability to think logically.

Mycenaean Civilization

Early group of Greek mainlanders who were apart of the Late Bronze Age great trade networks, possessing a war-like attitude (often at war w/ Troy). Significance: Their collapse lead to a "Dark Age" until 800 BCE.

Syndicalism

Economic and political system, based on the organization of labor, that was imported in Latin America from European political movements. Significance: Militant force in Latin American politics.

Great Leap Forward

Economic policy of Mao Zedong introduced in 1958 that proposed industrialization of small-scale projects integrated into peasant communes. Significance: Led to an economic disaster that ended in 1960.

Manorial System

Economic system in which peasants were tied to the land to supply labor for their lords. Significance: Gave all legal power to landowners while workers were essentially slaves.

Mercantillists

Economic thinkers who argue that a ruler's and the kingdom's power depends on the amount of precious metals they control. Significance: Emphasized the use of manufactured goods, rather than precious minerals, in commercial exchanges with other nations and empires.

Social Contract

Either a physical or hypothetical agreement among members of an organized society or between a community and its ruler. Significance: Defines and limits the rights and duties of each opposing party.

Getulio Vargas

Elected president of Brazil in 1929, launching centralized political programs by imposing federal administrators over state governments, holding off coups by communists in 1935 and fascists in 1937. Significance: Imposed a new constitution based on Mussolini's Italy, leaning to communists after 1949 before committing suicide in 1954.

Juan Jose Arevalo

Elected president of Guatemala in 1944 who began socialist reforms including land reforms. Significance: Nationalist program directed against foreign-owned companies such as United Fruit Company.

Mansa Musa

Emperor of the Mali Empire from 1312-1337. Significance: He promoted of Islam through tales of his fabulous pilgrimage to Mecca, ordered the construction of the Great Mosque of Jenne, and contributed to the distribution of large amounts of gold, thus causing its inflation.

Mali

Empire centered between Senegal and Niger rivers who broke away from Ghana control in the 13th century. Significance: With an economy of agriculture and dependence on juula, it became a model for other Islamicized kingdoms, expanding its borders throughout West Africa.

Gunpowder Empires

Empires such as Russia, Ming/Qing China, Japan, Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal, who relied on guns to effectively subjugate enemies and build control. Significance: Firearms allowed the 3 later states to become the height of Islamic/Muslim military and political power in world history.

Treaty of Westphalia

Ended the Thirty Years War in 1648. Significance: Granted the right for individual rulers within the Holy Roman Empire to chose either Protestant or Catholic as their religion.

John Cabot

English explorer sent by Henry VII to explore the New World in 1497 and believed one cannot reach Asia by sailing west. Significance: His discovery of Newfoundland for England introduced fishing as a possible profit, opening opportunities for other explorers to travel to the New World for other discoveries of new land/resources.

James Hargreaves

English inventor of the spinning jenny, the first practical application of multiple spinning by a machine. At the time he devised the machine, he was a poor, uneducated spinner and weaver living at Stanhill, near Blackburn, Lancashire.

Thomas Paine

English-American writer and political pamphleteer who was militant in his defense of Deism in the book, The Age of Reason (1794), and was made popular in America through his previous work, Common Sense (1776), where he advocated for liberty from Britain. Significance: His works contributed to his reputation as one of the greatest political propagandists, particularly during the American Revolution.

Oliver Cromwell

English/British military, political, and religious figured based on meritocracy who ruled as a virtual dictator and lord protector of England (1653-1658). Significance: Led the Parliamentarian victory in the English Civil War (1642-1649).

Hellenistic Influences

Epoch following the conquests of Alexander from 323-30 BCE that spread Greek culture to northeastern Africa and western Asia. Significance: Greek culture was preserved as a result of the diffusion of its beliefs and practices to foreign areas.

Heian

Era between 794 and 1185 that was ruled by the Fujiwara family who appreciated Confucian learning and Chinese classics, painting, poetry, and interior decoration. Significance: Was the height of Chinese influence in Japanese development.

World Economy

Established by Europeans by the 16th century that was based on the control of seas like the Atlantic and Pacific. Significance: Created the international exchange of foods, diseases, and manufactured products.

Sui Dynasty

Established by members of a prominent north Chinese noble family that rose at the end of the 6th century, Significance: United China to rise, allowing it to rise again despite past setbacks, and preventing it from completely declining.

Mauryan Empire

Established in 4th century BCE as a sequence of rulers that sympathize or are related to Chandragupta Maurya, who seized power along the Ganges River as a young soldier. Significance: Was the first dynasty to unify most of the Indian subcontinent under a centralized government.

Adam Smith

Established liberal economics (Wealth of Nations, 1776). Significance: Argued that the government should avoid the regulation of the economy in favor of the operation of market forces.

factories

European trading fortresses and compounds with resident merchants. Significance: Utilized throughout the Portuguese trading empire to assure secure landing places and profitable commerce.

Carpa Nan

Extensive Inca network of roadways and bridges built by slaves/captive laborers for military movement and communication (little to no trade). Significance: The 25,000 miles of road assisted the influence and expansion of Inca military and government, later unifying the Spanish empire.

Justinian Plague

Extreme plague outbreak in 542 CE in Constantinople during the reign of Justinian (527-565 CE). Significance: Contributed to the fall of the Byzantine Empire, disrupting trade as it spread through infected cargo and travelers.

Harun al-Rashid

Famous Abbasid caliph (786-809). Significance: Able to impress Christians with his luxurious construction projects to Baghdad, as well as sending presents to Christian-dedicated cities such as Constantinople.

Laissez-faire

Famous phrase stated by Adam Smith in his book, The Wealth of Nations, that translates from French to "leave alone." Significance: Supports his idea that governments should minimize their intervention in the economy, thus opposing mercantilism.

Cyrus the Great

First Persian warrior-king who overcame other rulers to extend his empire with superior military leadership and organization. Significance: Established one of the first largest empires in the world.

Caribbean

First area of Spanish exploration and settlement that served as an experiment region for nature of Spanish colonial experience. Significance: Ecomienda system of colonial management initiated here.

Code of Hammurabi

First five known written (on a black stone pillar) systematic set of rules that can be administered by a government for court procedures, crime punishments, property rights, and family duties. Significance: Set standards for later government and judicial systems.

Delhi Sultanate

First great centralized Islamic empire in the Indian subcontinent created by Muslim invaders and migrating nomadic Turks. Significance: Signaled the blending of Hindu and Islamic social life (religious syncretism).

Hispaniola

First island in the Caribbean settled by the Spaniards that was founded by Columbus on his 2nd voyage to the New World. Significance: Spanish base of operations for further discovery in the New World.

Ghana

First known sub-Saharan West African kingdom between the 6th and 13th century. Significance: Once known as the Gold Coast because of its dependence on the gold/salt trade, the taxing of these goods within its borders allowed it to gain exponential power.

Michelangelo

Florentine sculptor, painter, and architect. Significance: Led the way for Renaissance master artists with his David sculpture and his painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Humanism

Focus on human kind as center of intellectual and artistic endeavor. Significance: Emphasized the superiority of classical forms over medieval styles, particularly in the study of ancient languages.

Anglican Church

Form of Protestantism established in England after 1534 by Henry VIII with himself as the head, partly to obtain a divorce from his first wife. Significance: Became increasingly Protestant after Henry's death.

An Lushan Rebellion

Former prominent military command of the Tang Dynasty who mounted a rebellion and captured the capital of Chang'an and secondary capital at Luoyang. Significance: Weakened the Tang, leading to the loss of China's western territories.

Mexican Revolution

Fought over a period of almost ten years from 1910, including opposition forces led by Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Significance: Resulted in ouster of Porfirio Diaz.

Yuan Dynasty

Founded by Kublai Khan in 1279-1368 , overthrowing the Song Empire and capturing Hangzhou. Significance: Dismantled the Confucian-based bureaucratic system and reduced the significance of the scholar-gentry class in China.

Umayyad Dynasty

Founded by Muawiya and his Sunni successors as 1st Islamic caliphate; continued aggressive military campaigns for expansion with Damascus as its capital. Significance: Dynasty spanned large areas and facilitated local trade as well as the unity of Islamic society.

Tokugawa Shogunate

Founded in 1603 by Tokugawa Leyasu when he was made Shogun by the Japanese emperor. Significance: Ended tribe civil wars and brought unity to Japan.

Jesus of Nazarerth

Founder of Christianity, a Jewish prophet, and teacher that Christians regard to as the son of God. Significance: He popularized Christian religion through his preachings and introduced a new form of monotheism to Rome.

Vichy Government

France under the regime of Marshal Philippe Pétain from the Nazi German defeat of France to the Allied liberation in World War II. Significance: Used to run the southern half on France on Germany's behalf.

Samuel de Champlain

French explorer who sailed to West Indies, Mexico, and Panama, writing many books of his trips to Mexico City/Niagara Falls. Significance: Explored the St. Lawrence River and later established settlement in Quebec.

Georges Clemenceau

French premier in last years of World War I and during Versailles Conference of 1919. Significance: Pushed for heavy reparations from Germans.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

General under Nobunaga that succeeded as the leading military power in central Japan and continued efforts to break the power of daimyos. Significance: Constructed a series of alliances that made him the military master of Japan in 1590 before dying in 1598.

Napoleon Bonaparte

General who rose within the French army during the wars of the French Revolution. He was eventually defeated and deposed in 1815. Significance: Led a coup that ended the French Revolution before establishing the French empire under his rule.

Christopher Columbus

Genoese (Italian) captain and navigator in service of the king and queen of Castile and Aragon. Significance: Successfully sailed to the New World and returned in 1492, initiating a period of European discoveries in the Americas.

Friedrich Engels

German socialist philosopher, the closest collaborator of Karl Marx in the foundation of modern communism. Significance: Coauthored The Communist Manifesto (1848), and edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital after Marx's death.

Divine Right

God's blessing of the king's authority that was cultivated by the French's strong bureaucracy. Significance: Legitimacy of royalty across Europe was enhanced with this reasoning.

Weimar Government

Government of Germany from 1919 to 1933, so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar from February 6 to August 11, 1919. Significance: Their agreement to the WW1 Treaty terms set the stage of an extreme and militaristic political party know as the Nazis to take power.

Agricultural Revolution

Gradual transformation of the traditional agricultural system that began in Britain in the 18th century. Significance: Another prelude to the Industrial Revolution that included the reallocation of land ownership to make farms more compact and an increased investment in technical improvements, such as new machinery, better drainage, scientific methods of breeding, and experimentation with new crops and systems of crop rotation.

Kublai Khan

Grandson of Genghis Khan who became khagan in 1260 and later established the sinicized Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China in 1271. Significance: Commander of the Mongol forces responsible for completing the conquest of China.

Encomienda

Grant of Indian laborers made to Spanish conquerors and settlers in Mesoamerica and South America. Significance: Basis for the earliest forms of coerced labor in the Spanish colonies.

Edict of Nantes

Grant of tolerance to Protestants in France in 1598. Significance: Grant occurred only after a lengthy civil war between the Catholic and Protestant factions.

Sparta

Greek city-statesruled by oligarchy, discouraged the arts, and focused on military and slave usage for expansion/agriculture. Significance: Established a powerful army that influenced Greek expansion.

Persepolis

Greek name for the ancient Persian city of Parsa, located 75 miles NE of Shiraz in present day Iran. Significance: Became new Persian captial under King Darius I's rule.

Horse Collar

Harnessing method originating in China but modified centuries later to increase the efficiency of horse labor by distributing weight and traction to the shoulders rather then the neck. Significance: Encouraged the development, use, and spread of horse-drawn vehicles and plows.

Sun Yat-sen

Head of Revolutionary Alliance, organization that led 1911 revolt against Qing Dynasty in China. He was briefly elected president in 1911, but yielding in favor of Yuan Shikai in 1912. Significance: Created the Nationalist party of China (Guomindang) in 1919 before dying in 1925.

Bhaktic Cults

Hindu religious groups that greatly emphasized strong emotional bonds between its devotees and the religion's deities. Significance: Membership was uncommonly open to all including women and the untouchables, thus appealing to the majority of society.

Astrolabe

Instrument used to make astronomical measures such as the altitudes of certain celestial bodies. Significance: Allowed Muslims to find the direction of Mecca and for merchants to determine location of an area by finding a "landmark" celestial body.

Enlightenment

Intellectual movement centered in 18th century France that featured scientific advances and the application of the Scientific Method to the study of human society. Significance: Was a belief that natural laws could describe human behavior.

Great Depression

International economic crisis following WWI that began with the collapse of the American stock market in 1929, contradicting optimistic assumptions of the 19th century. Significance: Actual causes included collapse of agricultural prices in 1920s, collapse of banking houses in the United States and western Europe, and massive unemployment.

Comintern

International office of communism under U.S.S.R dominance. Significance: Established to encourage the formation of Communist parties in Europe and elsewhere.

United Nations

International organization formed in the aftermath of World War II that included all of the victorious Allies. Significance: Primary mission was to provide a forum for negotiating disputes.

Green Revolution

Introduction of improved seed strains, fertilizers, and irrigation as a means of producing higher yields in crops such as rice, wheat, and corn. Significance: Particularly important in the densely populated countries of Asia.

Camel Saddle

Invention strapped to camels to provide more stability for the camel riders as well as allowing the camel itself to carry a larger load of goods; spread along the Trans-Saharan trade route. Significance: Made camels very versatile, as they could transport a large volume of goods/people quickly, be used in battle or military campaigns, and expedite communication and the spread of information.

Shrivijaya

Isolated trading empire centered on the Strait of Malacca (between Malaya and northeast Sumatra) that later became open for the widespread development of Islam. Significance: As the Buddhist officials of Shrivijaya lost control over their territories, Muslims took advantage to establish trade centers, converting and uniting everyone under Islam.

Benito Mussolini

Italian fascist leader after World War I. Significance: Created first fascist government (1922-1943) based on aggressive foreign policy and new nationalist glories.

Leonardo da Vinci

Italian painter, engineer, musician, and scientist. Significance: Most versatile genius of the Italian Renaissance who was best known for the Last Supper ( c. 1495) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503).

Zen Buddhism

Japanese form of Buddhism that appealed to educated classes; known as "Chan Buddhism" in China. Significance: Stressed meditation and the appreciation of natural/artistic beauty.

Diet

Japanese parliament established as part of the new constitution of 1889 during the Meiji reforms. Significance: Could pass laws and approve budgets and able to advise government, but not control it.

Dutch East India Company

Joint stock company that obtained government monopoly over trade in Asia. Significance: Acted virtually as an independent government in the regions it claimed.

Nzinga Mvemba

King of the Kongo empire, which is south of the Zaire River, from 1507-1543 that converted to Christianity and took the title of "Alfonso". Significance: Attempted to Christianize all of the Kongo kingdom while under the encouragement and influence of Portugal.

Kongo Kingdom

Kingdom based on agriculture that formed on the lower Congo river by late 15th century and was ruled by a hereditary line of monarchs. Significance: Point of major agricultural advancements.

Hermit Kingdom

Kingdom or state that willfully walls itself off from foreign influences.

Matram

Kingdom that controlled interior regions of Java in 17th century where the Dutch East India company paid tribute to it for rights of trade at Batavia. Significance: Weakness of kingdom after 1670's allowed Dutch to exert control over all of Java.

Lake Texcoco

Lake located in the central valley of Mexico that is surrounded by a marshy area of land. Significance: Became the home for the migrating Aztecs.

manors

Large farming estates during the Middle Ages owned by nobles who ruled over peasants living off the land. Significance: Use of workers to cultivate the lands of the manor creates a self-sustaining home, reducing the need for trade at that period of time.

Civilization

Large group of people with an economic/agricultural surplus, extensive social stratification, labor specialization, and a centralized political system. Significance: Increased the complexity of human lifestyle through interdependence rather than sole survival as hunter-foragers.

Galleons

Large, heavily armed ships used to carry silver from the New World colonies to Spain. Significance: Basis for the convoy system utilized by Spain for the transportation of bullion.

Puyi

Last emperor of China. Significance: Deposed as emperor while still a small boy in 1912.

Battle of the Bulge

Last major German offensive to push the Allies back from German home territory during the winter of 1944 on the Western Front in the Ardennes Forest across parts of France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Significance: Allied victory left Germany with no realistic expectation of winning the war.

Chongzhen

Last of the Ming Dynasty emperors. Significance: Committed suicide in 1644 in the face of a Jurchen capture of the Forbidden City at Beijing.

Self-Strengthening Movement

Late 19th-century movement in China to counter the challenge from the West. Significance: Led by provincial leaders.

Klemens von Metternich

Leader of the European powers at the Congress of Vienna who is a conservative Prime Minister of Austria that formed the victorious alliance against Napoleon I and restored Austria as a leading power. Significance: Exiled Napoleon to the island of Elba.

Toussaint L'Ouverture

Leader of the slave rebellion on the French island of St. Domingue in 1791. Significance: Led the creation of the independent republic of Haiti in 1804.

Augusto Sandino

Led a guerrilla resistance movement against U.S. occupation forces in Nicaragua before being assassinated by Nicaraguan National Guard in 1934. Significance: Became national hero and symbol of resistance to U.S. influence in Central America.

Francisco Pizarro

Led conquests of the Inca Empire of Peru beginning in 1543. Significance: By 1540, most of Inca possessions fell to the Spanish.

Hernan Cortes

Led the expedition of 600 to the coast of Mexico in 1519. Significance: Conquistador responsible for the defeat of the Aztec empire, capturing Tenochtitlan in the process.

Bolsheviks

Literally, the majority party and the most radical branch of the Russian Marxist movement that was led by V.I. Lenin and dedicated to his concept of social revolution. Significance: Actually a minority in the Russian Marxist political scheme until its triumph in the 1917 revolution.

Zamindars

Local officials that received control of plots of land to "lease" to peasants in exchange for providing the taxes they receive to the central government or the imperial court. Significance: Considered to be a part of the aristocratic nobility of the Mughal Empire.

Suriname

Location of runaway slave kingdom in the 18th century that was formerly a Dutch plantation colony on the coast of South America. Significance: Despite attempts to crush the guerrilla resistance, it was able to retain its independence.

Nelson Mandela

Long-imprisoned leader of the African National Congress party who worked with the ANC leadership and F.W. de Klerk's supporters to dismantle the apartheid system from the mid-1980s onward. Significance: Became the first black prime minister of South Africa in 1994 after the ANC won the first genuinely democratic elections in the country's history.

aristocracy

Main political form in Greek poleis dealing with the rule of leading/upper-class families. Significance: Emphasized the power and distinction between social hierarchy divisions, establishing the limits of each class.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Major confrontation on October, 1962, that brought the United States and the Soviet Union close to war over the presence of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba in response to the Bay of Pigs invasion. Significance: Khrushchev justified his armament in Cuba because the Untied States had placed nuclear missiles in Turkey, a U.S. ally bordering the Soviet Union.

Qing

Manchu dynasty that seized control of China in mid-17th century after decline of Ming. Significance: Force submission of nomadic peoples far to the west and compelled tribute from Vietnam and Burma to the south.

Neolithic Revolution

Marker event in which human lifestyles were centered around agriculture in permanent villages, gradually developing concepts of private property, surplus, and job specialization. Significance: It was a wide-scale transition or evolution in human culture.

Daimyo

Meaning "private land"; Largest and most powerful landholding magnates in Japan beginning from the 10th century. Significance: Commanded the samurai and created an economy of service exchanges; thus, feudal Japan.

Corpus Juris Civilis

Means "Body of Civil Law," which is the modern interpretation for Justinian's codification of Roman Law. Significance: Demonstrated Justinian's influence in the development of law codes, even for modern judiciary concepts.

Rosie the Riveter

Media icon associated with female defense workers during World War II as women were needed to fill the positions of men, who were recruited for the war effort, in factories. Significance: Since the 1940s Rosie the Riveter has stood as a symbol for women in the workforce and for women's independence.

Yalta Conference

Meeting in February 1945 in Yalta, Crimea between the Big Three to plan the final defeat and occupation of Nazi Germany. Significance: Revealed Stalin's distrust of his Allies, as they all had different ideas of Germany's fate after it finally surrendered.

Tehran Conference

Meeting in November 1943 between the Big Three in Tehrān where the chief discussion centered on the opening of a "second front" in western Europe. Significance: Mutual agreement where the Soviet Union would focus on freeing Eastern Europe, while Britain and the United States concentrated on Western Europe. Also, Britain and the United States agreed to shift some Polish territory to the Soviet Union in compensation from Poland gaining territory from Germany.

Congress of Vienna

Meeting in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars (1815). Significance: Encouraged the restoration of political stability in Europe and settled diplomatic disputes.

Terrace Farming

Method for farming that uses the digging/mining of steps into a mountain or hillside to cultivate land or plant crops. Significance: Incas needed it to preserve the amount of arable land, as it reduced soil erosion.

Code of Chivalry

Methods for training and standards for the behavior of knights during the Middle Ages. Significance: Acted as a law code for the knights and vassals.

Emiliano Zapata

Mexican revolutionary and military commander of peasant guerrilla movement, after 1910, centered in Morelos, that demanded sweeping land reforms. Significance: Succeeded along with Pancho Villa in removing Diaz from power, also participating in campaigns that removed Madero and Huerta.

Bourgeoisie

Mid to lower class in the Estate System composed of French common people such as peasants and urban workers. Significance: Much of the burden of taxation fell on them and the Third Estate as a whole.

Indo-European Migrations

Migrations from people speaking Proto-Indo-European language as a result of population explosions. Significance: Brought expansion into Europe and west/south Asia with the diffusion of culture.

Juan D. Peron

Military leader in Argentina who became dominant political figure after military coup in 1943, using his position as Minister of Labor to appeal to working groups and the poor. Significance: Became president in 1946, forced into exile in 1955, and finally, returning to win presidency in 1973.

Chiang Kai-shek

Military officer who succeeded Sun Yat-sen as leader of Guomindang or Nationalist party in China in the mid-1920s. Significance: Became most powerful leader in China in the early 1930s, but his Nationalist forces were defeated and driven from China by Communists after WWII.

Island-hopping

Military strategy enacted on the Allied forces in the Pacific under U.S. General Douglas MacArthur that attacked the weaker Japanese islands while skipping those where Japan was strong. Significance: At great human cost, the Allies slowly moved through the Philippines, getting closer to Japan itself.

Total War

Military strategy in which the contenders are willing to make any sacrifice in lives and other resources to obtain a complete victory, as distinguished from limited war. Significance: Millions of civilians, particularly, women, worked in factories producing war materials with entire economies centered around winning wars.

Potosi

Mine located in upper Peru (modern Bolivia). Significance: Largest of the New World silver mines, producing 80% of all Peruvian silver.

Cyril

Missionaries sent by the Byzantine government to Easter Europe and the Balkans to convert southern Russian and Balkans to Orthodox Christianity. Significance: Work led to the development of a Slavic written script called Cyrillic.

Zoroastrianism

Monotheistic religion that emphasizes the importance of moral choices between good and evil. Significance: Being one of the oldest monotheistic religions, it inspired new meanings about human life in Persia with the concept of higher beings.

Palace of Versailles

Monument built by Louis XIV to serve as an example of the power of the French absolute monarchy. Significance: The court of Louis XIV was moved to this palace to keep nobles, foreigners, and common folk under control (away from interfering with state affairs), and to escape the social catastrophe in Paris.

Mahayana Buddhism

More lenient division of Buddhism that includes the majority of Buddhist devouts who believed in Bodhisattva, a state in which a person reaches perfection but stays away from Nirvana to help others. Significance: Often absorbed by other native religions as it spread due to its leniency in enforcing its beliefs and practices.

United Fruit Company

Most important foreign economic concern in Guatemala during the 20th century. Significance: Attempted land reform aimed at United Fruit caused U.S. intervention in Guatemalan politics leading to ouster of reform government in 1954.

El Mina

Most important of early Portuguese trading factories in the forest zone of Africa. Significance: Forts allowed Portugal to exercise some control while having few personnel in the area.

Prague Spring

Movement for reform in Czechoslovakia that peaked during 1968 where Alexander Dubcek, first secretary of the Communist Party, acceded to the demands of the people by increasing freedom of speech and the press and allowing great freedom to travel. He also agreed to make the political system more democratic and rehabilitated victims of political purges during the Joseph Stalin era. Significance: Hardline communists retook positions of power soon after a successful armed Soviet invasion on August 20, deposing Dubcek the following April.

Zionists

Movement originating in eastern Europe during the 1860s to 1870s whose leaders argued that the Jews must return to a Middle Eastern holy land. Significance: Eventually identified with the settlement of Palestine

Zionism

Movement originating in eastern Europe during the 1860s to 1870s whose leaders argued that the Jews must return to a Middle Eastern holy land. Significance: Eventually identified with the settlement of Palestine.

Rock Edicts

Narrative histories and announcement carved into cliffs, pillars, and caves throughout India by Ashoka. Significance: Exposed India to Ashoka's interpretation of Buddhist morals/lessons in order to guide and inspire his people.

Bosporus Strait

Narrow body of water connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, all of which are connected to the Mediterranean Sea. Significance: Location of Constantinople.

Duma

National parliament created in Russia in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1905 that progressively stripped power during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II. Significance: Failed to forestall further revolution.

Augustus Caesar

Nephew of Julius who defeated Antony in a battle for control over Rome; senate declared him Augustus (from Octavian), thereby founding the Roman Principate. Significance: Became Rome's first official emperor.

Atlantic Trade System

Network of trading links after the 1500s from around the Atlantic Basin, particularly between Africa and the Americas, that moved goods, people, and riches. Significance: African slaves, a major group of people moved to the Americas, contributed greatly to the labor force of European colonists.

Jesuits

New religious order founded during Catholic Reformation. Significance: Active in politics, education, and missionary work, sponsoring missions to South America, North America, and Asia.

Gupta Empire

New sequence of kings who established an empire in 320 CE after the collapse of the Kushan state in 220 CE. Significance: Expanded influence through negotiation with local princes and intermarriage with minimal attempts of violence or conflict.

Sandinista Party

Nicaraguan socialist movement named after Augusto Sandino. Significance: Successfully carried out a socialist revolution in Nicaragua during the 1980s.

Lords

Nobles that own fiefs (land) granted by the King. Significance: At the top of society, they oversee the cultivation of the land and ensure the vassals have proper equipment for defense.

Seljuk Turks

Nomadic group of people originating from central Asia who live primarily on Abbasid lands. Significance: Skilled horse-riders that were often hired as cavalry soldiers.

Xiongnu

Nomadic group of people who had long threatened China's northern borders. Significance: Contributed to the collapse of the Han Dynasty when they invaded while China's central control was weakened by the chaos of peasant rebellions and past invasions.

The Golden Lotus

Novel written during the Ming period. Significance: Recognized by the Chinese as a classic and established standards for Chinese prose literature.

Poison Gas

One of the most insidious weapons of the new style of warfare during World War 1, consisting of chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas, that encouraged soldiers to be trained and deployed with gas masks. Significance: Because of long-lasting painful effects and permanent damage to veterans' lungs, its use was outlawed by international treaties.

Guanzhou (Canton)

One of the two port cities in which Europeans were permitted to trade in China during the Ming Dynasty. Significance: Despite trade restrictions, China was able to contribute significantly to the growing process of proto-globalization.

Macao

One of the two ports in which Europeans were permitted to trade in China during the Ming Dynasty. Significance: Despite trade restrictions, China was able to contribute significantly to the growing process of proto-globalization.

Ho Chi Minh

Original name Nguyen Sinh Cung, AKA Nguyen Tat Thanh or Nguyen Ai Quoc, (born May 19, 1890, Hoang Tru, Vietnam, French Indochina—died September 2, 1969, Hanoi, North Vietnam); founder of the Indochina Communist Party (1930) and its successor, the Viet-Minh (1941), and president from 1945 to 1969 of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). As the leader of the Vietnamese nationalist movement for nearly three decades, Ho was one of the prime movers of the post-World War II anticolonial movement in Asia and one of the most influential communist leaders of the 20th century.

Viziers

Ottoman equivalent of the Abbasid wazir, which is the head of the Ottoman bureaucracy. Significance: After the 5th century, the vizier often gained more power than even the sultan.

Janissaries

Ottoman infantry divisions, who were forcibly conscripted as boys in the conquered areas of the Balkans, that dominated Ottoman armies and were legally slaves. Significance: Translated military service into political influence, particularly after the 15th century.

Mahmud II

Ottoman sultan who ruled 1785-1839 that built a private, professional army and initiated the reform of Ottoman Empire on Western precedents. Significance: Fomented revolution of Janissaries and crushed them with his private army, destroying the power of the Janissaries and their religious allies.

German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union on August 23, 1939, a few days before the start of World War I, which the divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence as the two nations pledged not to attack one another. Significance: Hitler secretly offered Stalin control of eastern Poland and the Baltic States if Stalin would stand by during a German invasion of western Poland.

Serfs

Peasants who lived on and were tied to self-sufficient agricultural estates within the manorial system but were not owned by a person. Significance: Harsh conditions and regulations caused serfs to flee, leading to labor shortages. The influence of serfs was opposite to western Europe where serfdom eased up.

Gallipoli

Peninsula in northwestern Turkey that was the location of the bloody year-long campaign of the ANZACs. Significance: Resulted in heavy Allied losses with little to show for the effort.

Peninsulares

People living in the New World Spanish colonies but were originally born in Spain. Significance: Make up the highest social class.

Puritans

People of a religious reform movement intent on removing any Roman Catholic "popery" influence from the Church of England after the religious settlement reached early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Significance: Their efforts contributed to the English Civil War and the founding of American colonies.

Minoan Civilization

People on the island of Crete who controlled most of the Mediterranean area by about 1600 BCE and was conquered by the Mycenaeans. Significance: First successful civilization on European soil.

Missionaries

People sent on a religious mission with the goal to promote their religion in a foreign country. Significance: Played a major role in the diffusion of religion, particularly Christianity and Islam.

Bedouins

People who live around desert scrub-zones in nomadic, kinship-based tribes/clans, herding goats or camels and sparring over natural resources. Significance: The growth of their tribes later led to the establishment of Mecca.

Period of Great Peace

Period of Japanese peace under the Tokugawa Shogunate that lasted around 2 centuries. Significance: Japan fell behind other nations in terms of technology while its farmer/merchant class gained power in Japanese society.

Pax Mongilica

Period of Mongol peace established after the initial shock of Mongol attacks, similar to the Roman heyday. Significance: Lines of quick, direct communication opened between Asia and Europe.

Pax Romana

Period of Roman peace that lasted until late 2nd century CE. Significance: Roman Empire went unchallenged an experienced a great amount of wealth accumulation and technological advancements.

Age of Revolution

Period of political upheaval beginning roughly with the American Revolution in 1775 and continuing throughout the French Revolution of 1789 and other movements for change up to 1848. Significance: Created many social groups with diverse motions ranging from full reformations of political-economic systems to a reversion into traditional values. Also helped establish a context for early stages of industrialization.

D-Day

Period on June 6, 1944 where Allied forces numbering about 150,000 launched an amphibious invasion from England and landed on the beaches of Normandy in northern France. Significance: Despite high Allied casualties, even with air support, they eventually established a base to begin the march towards liberating Paris, leading to Germany's imminent defeat.

Appeasement

Policy followed by Britain that essentially gave in to all the demands of another country in hopes of keeping peace. Significance: Divided the British population as some believed Hitler was the strong, anti-Communist leader that central Europe needed for order, whereas others simply did not want another war.

New Economic Policy

Policy initiated by Lenin in 1921 that allowed food production to recover. Significance: State continued to set basic economic policies, but efforts were now combined with individual initiative.

Perestroika

Policy of Mikhail Gorbachev calling for economic restructuring in the U.S.S.R. in the late 1980s. Significance: More leeway for private ownership and decentralized control in industry and agriculture.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Polish monk and astronomer (16th century). Significance: Disproved the Hellenistic belief that the Earth was at the center of the universe.

Communism

Political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of, at least, the major means of production (e.g., mines, mills, and factories) and the natural resources of a society. Significance: Advocates claim it to be a higher and more advanced form of socialism.

Caliph

Political and religious successors to Muhammad. Significance: Acted as the governing system/authority of the Islamic Empire, following the path of Muhammad and his way of thinking.

Zemstvoes

Political councils, that had no impact on national policy, created as part of reforms of Tsar Alexander II (1860s). Significance: Gave some Russians, particularly middle-class professionals, some experience in government.

Anarchists

Political groups, formed in many parts of Europe and Americas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seeking abolition of all formal governments. Significance: Particularly prevalent in Russian, opposing tsarist autocracy and becoming a terrorist movement responsible for assassination of Alexander II in 1881.

Decembrist Uprising

Political revolt in Russia in 1825 that was later put down by Tsar Nicholas I. Significance: Led by middle-level army officers who advocated reforms.

Theocracy

Political system in which the states/empire are governed by priests or the ideologies of gods. Significance: System of government, aside form the common development of a monarchy.

conservatism

Political viewpoint originating in western Europe during the 19th century. Significance: Opposed revolutionary goals such as socialism and liberalism, and it advocated for the restoration of monarchy and defense of church.

Liberals

Political viewpoint originating in western Europe during the 19th century. Significance: Stressed limited state interference in individual life, the representation of propertied people in the government, and urged the importance of constitutional rule and parliaments.

Nationalism

Political viewpoint with origins in western Europe that urged the importance of national unity through feelings of intense loyalty towards those who share a common language and culture. Significance: Valued a collective identity based on culture, race, or ethnic origin.

Realpolitik

Politics based on practical and material factors rather than on theoretical or ethical objectives. Significance: Suggests a pragmatic, no-nonsense view and a disregard for ethical considerations

fiefs

Portions of land granted to nobles (lords/barons) for loyalty, protection, and service, or granted to knights (vassals) for military protection. Significance: Used as a form of currency during the Medieval period, an object for bartering goods and services in the feudal system.

Specialization of Labor

Practice of dividing work into specified categories for the people of the community to undertake as individuals. Significance: Increased efficiency and productivity of the community at completing tasks, allowing for food surpluses to build.

Fascism

Predominant Italian/German political philosophy during 1920s and 1930s that attacked the weakness of democracy and corruption of capitalism, promising vigorous foreign and military programs. Significance: Undertook state control of economy to reduce social friction.

Paleolithic Era

Prehistoric time period around 2 million years ago (AKA Old Stone Age) distinguished by the existence of humans and their use of primitive stone tools. Significance: It was the height of human migration due to the lifestyle of hunter-foragers.

Lazaro Cardenas

President of Mexico from 1934 to 1940 responsible for the redistribution of land. Significance: Primarily created ejidos (communal farms), as well as beginning program of primary and rural education.

Siddhartha Gautama

Prince born to a Kshatriya family in northern India and later founded Buddhism. Significance: His attainment of enlightenment became an example for all Buddhists.

Baron Montesquieu

Prominent French Enlightenment philosopher famous for his work, The Spirit of Laws (1748), which contributed to the political theory by praising the British government's use of checks on power through its Parliament. Significance: Influenced the American government system, which adopted his ideas by separating its executive branch from its legislative branch and both from its judiciary branch.

Truman Doctrine

Pronouncement by U.S. Pres. Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, declaring immediate economic and military aid to the governments of Greece, threatened by Communist insurrection, and Turkey, under pressure from Soviet expansion in the Mediterranean area. Significance: Soviet Union wanted military bases in Turkey to control Dardanelles (straight between Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea), while left-wing Communist groups were close to gaining control of the government.

Gao

Prosperous capital city of the kingdom of Songhai, centered along caravan trade routes. Significance: Reached imperial status under Sunni Ali before falling to Islamic control.

Vietnam War

Protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. Significance: War was also part of a larger regional conflict (Indochina wars) and a manifestation of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies.

Otto von Bismarck

Prussian leader/Prime Minister, who was a practical political like Cavour, that used nationalist feelings to engineer three wars in order to bring about German unification and become first chancellor. Significance: Succeeded in preserving peace throughout Europe for about 2 decades with the establishment of the German empire.

Galileo Galilei

Published Copernicus' findings (17th century) and added his own discoveries concerning the laws of gravity and planetary motion. Significance: Condemned by the Catholic Church for his work.

Vikings

Raiders from Scandinavia that began waves of attacks on Europe in 793 and continued for the next 2 centuries. Significance: Invasions facilitated trade in Northern Europe and allowed for the establishment of a Scandinavian colony.

Transcontinental Railroad

Rail line chartered by the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 in which the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad Companies were tasked to build a railroad linking the United States from east to west.

Pugachev Rebellion

Rebellion during the 1770s in the reign of Catherine the Great that was led by the cossack, Emelian Pugachev , who claimed to be the legitimate tsar but was eventually crushed. Significance: Exemplifies the typical unrest of peasants during the 18th century and thereafter.

Stolypin Reforms

Reforms introduced by the Russian interior minister Piotr Stolypin intended to placate the peasantry in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1905. Significance: Included reduction in redemption payments and an attempt to create market-oriented peasantry.

Daoism

Religion and philosophy that encourages people to retreat from society and develop an introspective/reflective consciousness ("Dao" meaning the way of nature). Significance: Shaped Chinese culture in an opposite way to Confucianism.

Shamanism

Religion practiced by indigenous people of northern Europe and Siberia that is characterized by the belief in an unseen world of spirits, demons, gods, and ancestors.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Religious ruler of Iran following revolution of 1979 to expel the Pahlavi shah of Iran. Significance: Emphasized religious purification, tried to eliminate western influences, and established a purely Islamic government.

Equal-field System

Restriction on the inheritance of land in which the land of a deceased farmer becomes government property and allotted to others based on land fertility and the needs of the people. Significance: Placed a check on the power of aristocratic landowning families, allowing on 1/5 of the land of a deceased farmer to be kept by his family.

Neo Confucianism

Revived ancient Confucian teachings in Song China. Significance: Emphasized tradition and hostility to foreign systems, making China and its bureaucrats less receptive to outside influences.

Miguel Hidalgo

Roman Catholic priest and revolutionary leader who called on Amerindians and mestizos for support in his 1810 drive for independence from Spain. Significance: Known as the father of Mexican independence.

Boyars

Russian aristocrats. Significance: Possessed less political power than their counterparts in western Europe, though Kievan princes still had to negotiate with them.

Battle of Kulikovo

Russian army victory over the forces of the Golden Horde. Significance: Contributed to the breaking of Mongol control over Russia.

Russian Orthodox Church

Russian form of Christianity that was imported from the Byzantine empire and combined with local religion. Significance: King characteristically controlled major appointments.

Sergei Witte

Russian minister of finance from 1892 to 1903 that was an economic modernizer responsible for high tariffs. Significance: Improved the banking system and encouraged Western investors to build factories in Russia.

Intelligentsia

Russian term denoting articulate intellectuals as a 19th century class/group bent on radical change in Russian political and social systems. Significance: Often wished to maintain a Russian culture distinct from that of the West.

Old Believers

Russians who refused to accept the ecclesiastical reforms of Alexis Romanov (17th century). Significance: Many were exiled to Siberia or southern Russia where they became part of Russian colonization.

Dhow Ships

Sailing vessels of Han China, Gupta India, and the Arabs; equipped with lateen sails to carry goods on Indian Ocean Sea Lanes. Significance: Connected nations together in other ways aside from land routes, thus increasing options for communication and cultural exchanges.

James Watt

Scottish instrument maker and inventor whose steam engine contributed substantially to the Industrial Revolution; elected fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1785. Significance: Allowed future inventions to transmit steam power in order to further manufacturing processes.

Settlement Colonies

Second portion of European colonial order where areas, such as North America and Australia, that were both conquered by European invaders and settled by large numbers of European migrants. Significance: Made colonized areas their permanent home and dispersed/decimated the indigenous inhabitants.

White Lotus Society

Secret religious society dedicated to overthrowing the Yuan Dynasty. Significance: Demonstrates the typical and frequent peasant resistance to Mongol rule.

Sikhism

Sect in northwest India whose leaders initially tried to bridge differences between Hindus and Muslims. Significance: Mughal persecution led to the anti-Muslim feelings in Sikhism.

Security Council International Court of Justice

Security Council is a United Nations organ whose primary responsibility is to act on issues voted by the General Assembly in order to maintain international peace and security. International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations that was set up by the original UN charter to settle disputes over international law brought to it by countries.

Assyrians and Babylonians

Semitic tribes of Mesopotamia. Significance: Led by Hammurabi, the Babylonians conquered Mesopotamia in the 1700s BCE; the Assyrians ruled in 900s BCE.

Qin Dynasty

Sequence of powerful, yet familial, rulers related to Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China who ruled from 221-207 BCE. Significance: Built a myriad of innovations such as the Great Wall, a national census, standardized coinage, and Chinese scripture.

Gavrilo Princip

Serbian nationalist and member of the Black Hand, a nationalist organization devoted to ending Austro-Hungarian presence in the Balkans, who assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand. In Yugoslavia—the South Slav state that he had envisioned—Princip came to be regarded as a national hero. Significance: Princip's act gave Austria-Hungary the excuse that it had sought for opening hostilities against Serbia and thus precipitated World War I.

New Spain

Spanish colonial administrative units including Central America, Mexico, and the southeast and southwest of present-day United States.

Pochteca

Special merchant class in Aztec society; specialized in the long-distance trade of luxury items. Significance: Wealthy and controlled the Aztec market economy, but was purposefully limited in political influence.

Five-year Plans

Stalin's plans to hasten industrialization of U.S.S.R. by constructing massive factories in metallurgy, mining, and electric power. Significance: Led to massive state-planned industrialization at cost of availability of consumer products.

Nikita Khrushchev

Stalin's successor as head of U.S.S.R. from 1953 to 1964 who attack Stalinism in 1956 for concentration of power and arbitrary dictatorship. Significance: Failure of Siberian development program and antagonism of Stalinists led to downfall.

Cold War

State of relations between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies between the end of World War II and 1990. Significance: Based on creation of political spheres of influence and a nuclear arms race rather than actual warfare.

Open Door Policy

Statement of principles initiated by the United States in 1899 and 1900 for the protection of equal privileges among countries trading with China and in support of Chinese territorial and administrative integrity. Significance: Received with almost universal approval in the United States, and for more than 40 years it was a cornerstone of American foreign policy in East Asia.

Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour

Statesman and Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia who is considered to be a classical liberal. Significance: Unified north Italy as a constitutional monarchy through his exploitation of international rivalries and of revolutionary movements.

Containment

Strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States in the late 1940s and the early 1950s in order to check the expansionist policy of the Soviet Union. Significance: The Truman Doctrine of 1947, with its guarantee of immediate economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey, was an initial application of the policy of containment.

Theravada Buddhism

Strict, fundamentalist version of Buddhism that emphasizes male and female monastic life, spreading mainly to southeast Asia. Significance: Claimed to be the pure form of Buddha's teachings, believing that Buddha was only a mortal.

Swahili City-states

String of Islamicized port cities located along the east African coast that are tied to Indian Ocean trade. Significance: The strong presence of African customs and Bantu-Swahili language fused with Islamic ideologies at the coast.

William and Mary

Strong Protestant couple selected to rule Parliament alongside Britain once James II was overthrown. Significance: Actions led to a constitutional monarchy with the drafting of the English Bill of Rights.

Red Guards

Student brigades utilized by Mao Zedong and his political allies during the Cultural Revolution to discredit Mao's political enemies. Significance: Liu Shaoqi was killed, Deng Xiaoping was imprisoned, and Zhou Enlai was driven into seclusion.

Mencius

Student of Confucius who was the most educated for his age, and the principal spokesmen for Confucian schooling. Significance: Traveled widely throughout China to offer influential Confucian-based advice/traditions to the Chinese.

Vasco Da Gama

Student of Henry who set out to find the tip of Africa and connect beyond it with trade in the Indian Ocean. Significance: Encouraged the Portuguese and Spanish to venture away from the coast and take to the high seas.

Dharma

Subcategory of karma that lists a set of duties that an individual must fulfill. Significance: Fulfilling these duties provide a method to move up the caste system after reincarnation.

Han Dynasty

Subsequent sequence of hereditary rulers that began with Han Wudi in 200 BCE, lasting til 220 CE. Significance: Centralized their administration around Qin Dynasty ideals but reduced the repression on society and developed the horse collar, stern-post rudder, watermill, paper, and compass.

Battle of Stalingrad

Successful Soviet counteroffensive against the cream of Hitler's military, the German Sixth Army, in the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Russia, U.S.S.R., after months of fighting. Significance: Stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies.

Battle of Britain

Successful defense of Great Britain against unremitting and destructive air raids conducted by the Luftwaffe from July through September 1940, after the fall of France. Significance: The initial targeting of military bases by Germans turned to the targeting of British cities after the British Royal Air Force conducted a raid on Berlin; withstood months of relentless bombing that would have otherwise exposed the British to land invasion.

Songhai

Successor state of Mali dominating the middle reaches of the Niger Valley that originally formed as an independent kingdom under the Berber Dynasty. Significance: Its capital at Gao was ruled by Muslim leaders from 1010, thus becoming a city of Islamic expansion.

Anwar Sadat

Successor to Gamal Abdel Nasser as ruler of Egypt who acted to dismantle costly state programs. Significance: Accepted peace treaty with Israel in 1973 and opened Egypt to investment by western nations.

Joseph Stalin

Successor to Lenin as head of the U.S.S.R. that died in 1953 with a strongly nationalist view of communism, representing anti-Western strain of Russian tradition and willing to crush the opposition of his rule. Significance: Established series of five-year plans to replace New Economic Policy, fostered agricultural collectivization, led U.S.S.R. through WWII, and furthered cold war with western Europe and the United States.

Monistic Belief System

Suggests that divine beings (God or other unknown force) exists in every aspect of nature but is not one with nature. Significance: Provides an explanation for the concept of all-knowing deities in religions.

Asian Sea Trading Network

System of exchange consisting of 3 zones prior to the intervention of Europeans. Significance: Arab zone is based on glass, carpets, and tapestries; Indian zone is based on cotton textiles; China zone is based on paper, porcelain, and silks.

Quipu

System of knotted strings used by the Incas in place of writing that could contain numerical and other value types. Significance: Allowed people to conduct censuses or keep financial records without an actual writing script.

Factory System

System of manufacturing that began in the 18th century and is based on the concentration of industry into specialized, and often large, establishments. Significance: Arose in the course of the Industrial Revolution.

Patriarchy

System of society/government where the father or eldest males held decision-making power that women were excluded from. Significance: Most, if not all, civilizations were centered around patriarchal values.

Table of Ranks

System that allowed officials to attain government positions based on merit rather than aristocratic status. Significance: Government officials of this program eliminated many titles of nobility, replacing the autonomous power of boyars.

Holocaust

Systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. Significance: The Germans called this "the final solution to the Jewish question" as Nazi persecution of Jews turned into mass murder.

Li Bo/Du Fu

Tang China's most loved and admired poets. Li Bo is known for blending images of the mundane world to philosophical muses while Du Fu became concerned with social injustice and the suffering of ordinary people. Significance: Focused their work on the common folk rather than Chinese emperors and aristocrats.

Woodblock Printing

Technique originating in China for reversing images or text into wood to create a "printed" page. Significance: Used as a method for quickly printing on textiles and later, paper.

African Diaspora

Term for the dispersion of millions of Africans to the Middle East, Europe, and especially across the Atlantic to the Americas. Significance: The growing bitter contacts of Africans and Europeans, as a result of slave trade, linked Africa to border external trends of the world economy.

Urbanization

Term relating to the process by which large numbers of people become permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities. Significance: Result of the Industrial Revolution that occurred across Europe.

Industrial Revolution

Term relating to the process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. Significance: Result of political revolutions that reformed the government and the economy in nations such as France and America.

Monopoly

Term that describes the ability for large and wealthy groups/corporations to gain exclusive control of a produced good or service through legal privileges. Significance: Many overseas trading companies are granted this title over certain areas of trade routes.

Stalemate

Term that refers to a drawn contest or conflict. Significance: Recurring result in battles during WWI due to the defensive measures of Trench Warfare that prevented nations from gaining ground.

Reparations

Term that refers to a payment of money for wrongs committed during periods of hostility between nations. Significance: Was part of the harsh terms of the Allied Powers' treaty with Germany, forcing it to pay billions of dollars for damage, give up all of its colonies, and restrict the size of its armed forces.

Zanj Coast

Term used by Muslim geographers and travelers to describe a certain portion of southeast Africa, including the Swahili Coast and areas of Bantu inhabitants. Significance: Classification of a location.

People of the Book

Term used by Muslims referring to Jews, Christians, Sabians, and sometimes Zoroastrians. Significance: Categorizes religions similar to that of Islam, because of the usage of a Holy Book, so that they are treated well but were still required to pay religious taxes.

Patriarch

The leader (Pope) of the Orthodox Church. Also refers to the (eldest) male head of a family, tribe, or society. Significance: One of the two leaders of the Byzantine Christian churches after the Great Schism; the other is the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

Big Three

The main Allied nations in World War II—Great Britain (Churchill), the United States (Roosevelt), and the Soviet Union (Stalin). Significance: Met in a series of conferences beginning in 1943 to discuss strategy for winning the war and for shaping the world after the war ended.

Darius 1

Third king of the Persian-Achaemenid Empire who ruled during Persia's peak influence. Significance: Organized the empire into satraps just as it was beginning to decline, thereby preserving Persian rule.

Transatlantic Slave Trade

Trade of humans taken from Africa and transported to Europe, the Caribbean, and primarily the Americas. Significance: Introduced African culture to European life, ultimate forcing slaves to indirectly contribute largely to economic development.

Code of Bushido

Traditional code meaning "the way of the warrior," which emphasized courage, self-discipline, simple living, and absolute loyalty to a lord. Significance: Acted as a law code that provided more time for samurai to better themselves individually rather than generically as a whole.

Boer Republics

Transvaal and Orange Free State in southern Africa that was established to assert independence of Boers from British colonial government in Cape Colony during the 1850s. Significance: Discovery of diamonds and precious metals caused British migration into the Boer areas in the 1860s.

Treaty of Nanking

Treaty that ended the first Opium War, the first of the unequal treaties between China and foreign imperialist powers. Significance: China paid the British an indemnity, ceded the territory of Hong Kong, and agreed to establish a "fair and reasonable" tariff. British merchants, who had previously been allowed to trade only at Canton were now permitted to trade at five "treaty ports" and with whomever they pleased.

sepoys

Troops that served the British East India Company. Significance: Recruited mainly from various warlike peoples of India.

Emancipation of the Serfs

Tsar Alexander II ended rigorous serfdom in 1861 but left the serfs with no political rights to be obtained. Significance: Serfs were required to stay in villages until they could repay aristocracy for land.

Benazir Bhutto

Twice prime minister of Pakistan in the 1980s and 1990s. Significance: First ran for office to avenge her father's execution by the military clique then in power.

Consuls

Two annually elected Roman officials who commanded the army and directed the government. Significance: The pair could play the role as king but without the risk of tyranny as a result of each other's "checks and balances."

Caste System

Type of social hierarchy that divides Hindus into four main categories: Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shrudas. Significance: Represented an organized concept for social division, revealing the Hindu's belief that humans are well-off being in different aspects of society.

Douglas MacArthur

U.S. general who commanded the Southwest Pacific Theatre in World War II, administered postwar Japan during the Allied occupation that followed, and led United Nations forces during the first nine months of the Korean War. Significance: Espoused the strategy of island-hopping for the Allied forces in order to gain an offensive advantage against Japan.

Mikhail Gorbachev

U.S.S.R. premier after 1985 who renewed attacks on Stalinism and urged reduction in nuclear armament. Significance: Proclaimed policies of glasnost and perestroika.

Cixi

Ultraconservative dowager empress who dominated the last decades of the Qing Dynasty. Significance: Supported Boxer Rebellion in 1898 as a means of driving out Westerners.

Haiku

Un-rhymed poetry with Japanese origins that is based on the syllable pattern of 5, 7, then 5. Significance: Poetry form was developed during the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Berlin Wall

Wall built in 1961 to halt the flow of immigration from East Berlin to West Berlin that was later torn down at the end of the cold war in 1991. Significance: Immigration was in response to lack of consumer goods and close Soviet control of economy/politics.

Russo-Japanese War

War between Japan and Russian (1904-1905) over territory in Manchuria that led to the defeat of the Russians, largely because of Japan's naval power. Significance: Japan annexed Korea in 1910 as a result of military dominance.

Punic Wars

War between Rome and Carthage over control of trade in the Mediterranean Sea. Significance: Rome's victory gave it dominance over the west Mediterranean Sea.

Crimean War

War fought between 1854 and 1856 that began with Russia attempting to attack Ottoman Empire but was opposed by France and Britain as well. Significance: Resulted in Russian defeat in the face of western industrial technology, leading to more Russian reforms under Tsar Alexander II.

Anglo-Boer War

War fought between 1899 and 1902 over the continued independence of Boer republics that resulted in British victory. Significance: Began the process of decolonization for whites in South Africa.

Sino-Japanese War

War fought between Japan and Qing China between 1894 and 1895 that resulted in Japanese victory. Significance: Frustrated Japanese imperial aims because of Western insistence that Japan withdraw from Liaodong peninsula.

Spanish Civil War

War pitting authoritarian and military leaders in Spain against republicans and leftists between 1936 and 1939, leading to the victory of royalist forces. Significance: Germany and Italy supported the royalists whereas the Soviet Union supported the republicans.

Thirty Years War

War within the Holy Roman Empire between German Protestants with their allies (Sweden, Denmark, France), and the emperor and his ally, Spain. Significance: The war ended in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia, but only after great destruction.

Trench Warfare

Warfare in which opposing armed forces attack, counterattack, and defend from relatively permanent systems of trenches dug into the ground with opposing systems of trenches located nearby. Significance: Was not a glorious way to fight war as they were cold, wet, muddy, and rat-infested, bringing upon diseases for many soldiers.

Compradors

Wealthy new group of Chinese merchants under the Qing dynasty that specialized in the import-export trade on China's south coast. Significance: Functioned as one of the major links between China and the outside world.

Cuneiform

Wedge-shaped pictograph symbols used as a system of writings by Mesopotamian scribes. Significance: Represented a culturally-advanced society in need of a method to record stories or economic transitions for organization purposes.

Muhammad Ali

Won power struggle in Egypt following fall of Mamluks, establishing mastery of all of Egypt by 1811 before dying in 1848. Significance: Introduced effective army based on Western tactics and supply and a variety of other reforms, allowing Egypt to be able to challenge Ottoman government in Constantinople by the 1830s.

Glasnost

Word in Russian meaning "openness" to describe Soviet policy of open discussion of political and social issues (political liberation) that was instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s and began the democratization of the Soviet Union. Significance: Brought fundamental changes to the political structure of the Soviet Union where the power of the Communist Party was reduced, and multicandidate elections took place. Also permitted criticism of government officials and allowed the media freer dissemination of news and information.

Detente

Word meaning "a relaxation of strained relations between nations" to describe the period of the easing of Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1979. Significance: The era was a time of increased trade and cooperation with the Soviet Union and the signing of the SALT treaties. Relations cooled again with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

immigration

Word that defines the process of traveling into another state or nation for the purpose of permanent residence. Significance: Allows for newly-formed countries to culturally diversify.

Militarism

Word that is defined as aggressive military preparedness in which a nation celebrates war and the armed forces. Significance: Exemplified by the European powers and their competition for dominance.

Aritisans

Workers living in permanent settlements who are specialized in one job category, particularly in tasks involving the use of hands. Significance: Plays an important role in the cultural development of a civilization when they construct advanced tools, mechanisms, and decorative arts for everyday use.

Central Powers

World War I coalition that consisted primarily of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, the "central" European states that were at war from August 1914 against France and Britain on the Western Front and against Russia on the Eastern Front. Significance: Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Central Powers on October 29, 1914. Bulgaria came in on October 14, 1915.