AP World History - Chapters 15, 18, 19, and 20 Vocabulary

Peace of Augsburg

In 1546 and 1547, the forces of Charles V fought the German Lutheran Schmalkaldic League. Conflict between Lutherans and the Holy Roman Empire resulted in this 1555 peace, which allowed each German state to choose whether its ruler would be Catholic or Lutheran. As a result, churches and inhabitants were forced to practice the state religion. People who refused could move to another state where their preferred religion was practiced.

Edict of Nantes

In France, Catholics and Huguenots fought for nearly half a century. Then, in 1593, King Henry IV, who had been raised as a Protestant, tried to unify the country by becoming a Catholic, reportedly saying that "Paris is well worth a Mass." Five years later, in another step to bring peace, Henry issued this, which allowed the Huguenots to practice their faith. This provided religious toleration in France for the next 87 years. In 1685, Louis XIV of France issued the Revocation of this. As a result, France experience social and economic effects. For example, many skilled craftsmen left France, taking knowledge of important industry techniques and styles with them.

Versailles

Louis XIV, the Sun King, kept nobles close to him in his palace at this city outside of Paris, making it difficult for them to act independently or plot against him. It glorified his rule and subdued the nobility. Louis and his successors, refusal to share power eventually weakened the French government.

Indulgences

Martin Luther objected to the sale of these, which granted a person absolution from the punishments for sin.

Simony

Martin Luther objected to this, the selling of church offices.

Daimyo

Military leaders called shoguns ruled Japan in the emperor's name from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Yet conflict between these landholding aristocrats left Japan in disarray. Each of these people had an army of warriors known as samurai, ambition to conquer more territory, and power to rule his fiefdoms as he saw fit. The samurai were salaried, paid first in rice and later in gold, which gave them significant economic power. Finally, just as gunpowder weapons enabled the rise of new empires in Turkey, Persia, and India, gunpowder weapons helped a series of three powerful people of this type to gradually unify Japan. Those three people were Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu in chronological order.

Taj Mahal

Mughal India produced a number of magnificent architectural accomplishments, including this, built by Shah Jahan, who ruled from 1628 to 1658, as a tomb for his wife.

Kangxi

One of China's longest-reigning emperors, this man, who ruled from 1661 to 1722, presided over a period of stability and expansion during the Qing Dynasty in China. He sent forces into Taiwan, Mongolia, and Central Asia, incorporating those areas into the empire. China also imposed a protectorate over Tibet, the mountainous land north of India, a policy reflected in China's control of the region today.

Pogroms

Organized massacres of a particular ethnic group, in particular those of Jews in Russia or eastern Europe.

Martin Luther

A monk by this name in Wittenberg, a German city in the Holy Roman Empire, concluded that several traditional Church practices violated biblical teachings. He objected to the sale of indulgences and to simony. As A result, he wrote the 95 Theses. The Church reacted harshly. It, and the local political ruler, needed the money these practices generated. He persisted. In January 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicated him. Several German political leaders saw an opportunity to free themselves from the power of the pope. They sided with this man. Soon, what had begun as a minor academic debate became a major split in the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire. This man was not a political or social revolutionary. When German peasants rebelled, he did not support them. But his theological ideas had social impact of the clergy as well as on women. He taught that women could have direct access to God just as men could. His emphasis promoted women's literacy. He believed that women had significant roles in the family, particularly teaching their children to read the Bible. However, Protestants generally did not organize convents. As a result, Protestant women did not have the opportunity to become leaders in a vital institution the way Roman Catholic women did.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

After the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1598, the center of power shifted to the city of Edo (Tokyo), controlled by this daimyo, who ruled from 1600 to 1616 and was declared shogun in 1603. His successors would continue to rule Japan into the mid-19th century in an era known as the Period of Great Peace.

Sikhism

Akbar provided land grants for this relatively new religion, which developed from Hinduism and may have been influenced by the Islamic mysticism known as Sufism. This is a monotheistic faith that recognized the rights of other faiths to exist and became the fifth most popular religion in the world by the 21st century.

Zamindars

As Akbar's fame spread, capable men from many parts of Central Asia came to serve him. They helped Akbar create a strong, centralized government and an effective civil service. These paid government officials were in charge of specific duties, such as taxation, construction, and the water supply. Later, they were given grants of land rather than salaries but were permitted to keep a portion of the taxes paid by local peasants, who contributed one-third of their produce to the government. The system worked well under Akbar. Under the rulers who came after him, though, these people began to keep more of the taxes that they collected. With this money, they built person armies of soldiers and civilians loyal to them.

95 Theses

As a result of his discontent with the Church of the Holy Roman Empire, Martin Luther defiantly challenged the Church by nailing these charges to a church door. Luther advocated for "sola fide," faith alone, for the basis of salvation for the Christian believer.

Viziers

As sultans became increasingly ineffective and incapable, these strong advisors called gained influential positions in government, where they spoke for the sultan. However, the sultan still had considerable powers. These included timar, a system in which the sultan granted land or tax revenues to those he favored. The sultan also used timar to reward soldiers and keep them loyal.

Divine Right

Belief that a rulers authority comes directly from god. Jean Bodin, advisor to Henry IV of the House of Valois, advocated the divine right of the monarchy. Under this belief, a king was a political and religious authority. It was a common claim in the Middle Ages. England's King James I believed in this claim.

Cardinal Richelieu

Building on the ideas of Jean Bodin, advisor to Henry IV, Louis XIII and this minister moved to even greater centralization of government and development of the system of intendants. These intendants were royal officials, or bureaucratic elites, sent out to the provinces to execute the orders of the central government and were sometimes called tax farmers. This minister led France towards an absolute monarchy.

Ottoman Empire

By the 15th century, this empire was already becoming a major power. Extending into modern-day Turkey as well as to the Balkan areas of Europe and parts of North Africa and Southeast Asia, this empire was the largest and most enduring of the great Islamic empires of its time. It was founded by the Osman Dynasty in the 1300s and lasted until its defeat in 1918 by the Allies in World War I. They defeated Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul. They controlled trade on the Bosporus Strait. During their decline, they were plagued by weak sultans and were known as the Sick Man of Europe. Sultans were held hostage to "harem politics."

Mehmed II

Called the Conqueror, this man firmly established the empire's capital after his forces besieged Constantinople, once the center of the Byzantine Empire, in 1453. Despite its triple fortifications, the city fell as its walls crumbled under the bombardment of Ottoman cannons. The city - its name changed to Istanbul - prospered because of its location. A nexus for trade, the city controlled the Bosporus Strait, the only waterway linking the Aegean Sea with the Black Sea. The armies of this man next seized lands around the western edge of the Black Sea. Then they moved into the Balkans in Southeast Europe. To counter the power of Venice, an expanding state on the Adriatic Sea with a robust maritime trade, he strengthened the Ottoman navy and attacked various areas of Italy. Although he did not conquer Venice, he forced the city to pay him a yearly tax. In the early 16th century, the Ottomans added to their empire lands in present-day Syria, Israel, Egypt, and Algeria. When the Mamluk Dynasty's power declined, Istanbul became a center of Islam.

Shah Abbas

Called the Great, this man, who ruled from 1588 to 1629, presided over the Safavid Empire at its height. His troops included soldiers - often Christian boys pressed into service - from as far northwest as Georgia into Russia. He imported weaponry from Europe and also relied on Europeans to advise his troops about this newly acquired military technology. Slowly, the shahs came to control religion as well as politics.

Ming Dynasty

China's Yuan Dynasty, founded by Mongol invader Kublai Khan in 1271, was overthrown by this dynasty in 1368 after less than a century in power. Its rulers managed to stabilize the East Asian region for nearly 300 years. During its era, the Portuguese and other Europeans arrived, aiming to encroach on the Asian trade network. Then, in 1644, the powerful Manchu from neighboring Manchuria seized power and established the Qing Dynasty, which ruled until 1911. During this dynasty, Japan and Korea experienced parallel developments but with unique aspects. They also expanded the size of China, conquering lands in Mongolia and Central Asia. It did not hold them for long, however. In the 1440s, Mongol armies defeated their forces and took their emperor prisoners. In reaction to renewed Mongol power, China's leaders looked to the Great Wall of China for protection. The Wall had not been maintained under Mongol rule, but under this dynasty it was restored and expanded to help keep out invaders from the north. Yongle, an emperor of this dynasty, sent Zheng He on his maritime voyages.

Janissaries

The Christian boys in the devshirme system were taught various skills in politics, the arts, and the military and received a very high level of education. This most famous group formed elite forces in the Ottoman army. Other boys were groomed to become administrators of the newly conquered territories; some were scribes, tax collectors, and even diplomats. They were indoctrinated to be fiercely loyal to the sultan - some served as bodyguards. In some ways, becoming one of these provided a path of upward mobility in the Ottoman Empire, even though they continued to be called "slaves of the state." Some parents even wanted their sons to be recruited into the service.

Ghazi

The Eurasian steppes were the birthplace of this ideal of Tamerlane, a model for warrior life that blended the cooperative values of nomadic culture with the willingness to serve as a holy fighter for Islam. According to some historians, this ideal served as the model for warriors who participated in the rise of the Gunpowder Empires, and it was a model that fit Tamerlane well.

Suleiman

The Ottoman Empire reached its peak under this man, who ruled from 1520 to 1566. His armies overran Hungary in 1526 and, by 1529, were hammering at the gates of Vienna, the main city in Austria. Their attempt to take Vienna failed twice, but the ability of the Ottomans to send troops so far into Christian Europe caused great fear there. In 1522, his navy captured the island of Rhodes, now part of Greece, in the eastern Mediterranean, which had long been a stronghold of Christian knights. IN the 1550s, the Ottoman navy took control of Tripoli in North Africa. The Ottoman Empire would experience a transformation as the state adapted to new internal and external pressures. A period of reform would follow by the 18th century. Challenges in defending Ottoman territory against foreign invasion and occupation led to the Ottoman defeat and dissolution by 1922.

Tsar

The Russian term for ruler or king; taken from the Roman word caesar.

Peace of Westphalia

The Thirty Years War culminated in this peace, which allowed each area of the Holy Roman Empire to select one of three religious options: Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, or Calvinism. After this settlement, France, Spain, and Italy were predominantly Catholic. Northern Europe was either Lutheran or Calvinist. England was Protestant with a state church. Allowing rulers of various areas of the Holy Roman Empire to choose a denomination had important political effects. It gave the countries and duchies much more autonomy that they previously had. Consequently, the states of Prussia, now part of Germany, and Austria began to assert themselves, although they still formally belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. Prussia, after suffering tremendous destruction during the Thirty Years War, developed a strong military to protect itself. The Prussian military tradition would become a key factor in European politics into the 20th century.

Thirty Years War

The final great religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Europe culminated in this war, which lasted from 1618 to 1648 and led to economic catastrophe for most of the continent. This war was initially the result of religious conflict within the Holy Roman Empire; it gradually developed into a more general conflict involving European powers. Much of the destruction was caused by troops who were allowed to loot as part of their compensation. The war resulted in widespread famine, starvation, and disease. The war culminated in the Peace of Westphalia.

Boyars

The grand prince of Kievan Rus was elected by a council of these, or Russian nobles. These people, who had to be Viking military leaders, also served as a war council. Since these people represented the people they governed, they are sometimes viewed as an early democratic body. They conflicted with Ivan IV the Terrible.

Forbidden City

The walled section of Beijing where emperors lived between 1121 and 1924. A portion is now a residence for leaders of the People's Republic of China. Civilians were not allowed to enter. It was a stunning monument in Beijing built for Yonglo.

John Calvin

This French theologian broke with the Catholic Church around 1530. In 1536, he authored The Institutes of the Christian Religion and helped reform the religious community in Geneva, Switzerland. The elect, those predestined to go to heaven, ran the community, which was based on plain living, simple church buildings, and governance by the elders of the church. His followers in France were called Huguenots. Other offshoots of his religion included the Reformed Church of Scotland, led by John Knox, and the Puritans in England and later in Boston, who wanted to purify the Church of England of Catholic remnants. Historian and sociologist Max Weber pointed out that an important socioeconomic impact of this man's religion is contained in the phrase "Protestant work ethic." They were encouraged to work hard and reinvest their profits; prosperity ostensibly showed that God favored their obedience and hard work. Prosperity also indicated their position among the elect. They viewed their work ethic as righteous living that elevated them to positions of secular leadership. Together, the various reform efforts are known as the Protestant Reformation.

Safavids

This dynasty had its origin in an order of Sufism, established in the northern Azerbaijan region, or Iran. An early military hero named Ismail conquered most of Persia and pushed into Iraq, Although only 14 or 15 years old, he soon conquered all of Iran and was proclaimed shah in 1501. This empire had two problems, first despite being on the Arabian Sea, part of the Indian Ocean, the empire did not have a real navy. Second, they lack natural defenses. Nevertheless, they rose to power in the 1500s due to their land-based military might and strong leadership.

Romanov Dynasty

This dynasty took control of Russia in 1613 after a period of turmoil following Ivan's death in 1584. Under the autocratic control of this dynasty, three main groups in Russian had conflicting desires and agendas: the Church, bent on conserving traditional values and beliefs; the boyars, desiring to gain and hold power; and the members of the tsar's royal family. The rise to power of Peter I, also known as Peter the Great, illustrates these conflicting ambitions.

Catherine the Great

This empress, the second of her name, set out to expand the Russian Empire in all directions during her reign from 1762 to 1796, annexing about half of Poland as well as territory won from the Ottoman Empire. Her grandson, Alexander I, annexed Finland, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and part of Armenia during his reign from 1815 to 1825.

Council of Trent

This group from 1545 to 1563, part of the Counter-Reformation to fight against the Protestant attacks, corrected some of the worst of the Church's abuses and concentrated on reaffirming the rituals such as marriage and other sacraments improving the education of priests. This group also published the Index of Prohibited Books, a list of writings that the Church banned, including Protestant copies of the Bible and the writings of Copernicus.

Emperor Qianlong

This important Qing emperor, who ruled from 1736 to 1796, was a poet and was also knowledgeable in art and calligraphy. At the beginning of his reign, the country was well administered and government tax collections were at an all-time high. He initiated military campaigns in lands west of China, which led to the annexation of Xinjiang accompanied by the mass killings of the local population. Even today, parts of Xinjiang remain troubled. The local Muslim population, called Uighurs, has never fully become incorporated into the rest of Chinese culture. He also sent armies into Tibet to install the Dalai Lama on the throne there. A campaign against the Nepalese was successful, forcing them to submit to Chinese rule. However, campaigns against Burma and Vietnam were unsuccessful and costly, resulting in the emptying of the empire's treasury. He responded to the British's request for more trading rights in 1793 with a letter to King George III stating that the Chinese had no need for British manufactured goods. During the later part of his reign, the traditionally efficient Chinese bureaucracy became corrupt, levying high taxes on the people. In response to these high taxes and a desire to restore the Ming Dynasty, a group of peasants organized the White Lotus Rebellion from 1796 to 1804. The Qing government suppressed the uprising brutality, killing around 100,000 peasants.

Peter I

This man ruled from 1682 to 1725. First, to gain full control of the throne, he had to defeat his half-sister Sophia and her supporters, a boyar-led elite military corps called the Streltsy. He consolidated power by forcing Sophia into a convent. Later, the Streltsy rebelled against his reign, so he temporarily disbanded them and then integrated them into Russia's regular army. He was known as the Defender of Orthodoxy, participating closely in ecclesiastical church affairs. However, he would eventually lose the support of the Russian clergy over his reforms. Later in his reign, he reorganized the Russian government by creating provinces. Provincial officials received a salary, replacing the old system of local officials "feeding off the land" through bribes, fees, and taxes. Another government reform was the creation of a senate, a council to advise government officials when he was away.

Oda Nobunaga

This man was the first of the powerful Japanese daimyo who gradually unified Japan. Armed with muskets purchased from Portuguese traders, he and his samurai took over Kyoto in 1568. He then began to extend his power, forcing daimyo in the lands around Kyoto to submit. He had unified about one-third of what is today Japan when he was assassinated in 1582. His successor was Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Akbar

This man, Babur's grandson, achieved grand religious and political goals. The Mughal Empire under this man was one of the richest and best-governed states in the world. Overseas trade flourished during the relatively peaceful period; Arab traders conducted most of the commerce. Traded goods included textiles, tropical foods, spices, and precious stones, all of which were often exchanged for gold and silver. Trade within the borders of the empire was carried on by merchant castes. Members of the merchant castes were allowed to participate in banking and the production of handicrafts. He ruled from 1556 to 1605 and proved to be the most capable of the Mughal rulers. For the first 40 years of his rule, he defeated Hindu armies and extended his empire southward and westward. From his capital in Delhi, he established an efficient government and a system of fairly administered laws. For example, all his people had the right to appeal to him for final judgment in any lawsuit.

Tokugawa Shogunate

This ruling body set about reorganizing the governance of Japan in order to centralize control over what was essentially a feudal system. Japan was divided into 250 hans, or territories, each of which was controlled by a daimyo who had his own army and was fairly independent. However, this government required that the daimyo maintain residences both in their home territory and also in the capital; if the daimyo himself was visiting his home territory, his family had to stay in Tokyo, essentially as hostages. This kept the daimyo under the control of the government, reducing them to landlords who managed the hans, rather than independent leaders.

Huguenots

This was the name for John Calvin's followers in France. The fighting between this group and French Catholics lasted for nearly half a century. It only ceased in 1593 when King Henry IV became Catholic. Five years later, he issued the Edict of Nantes in another effort to bring peace.

Devshirme

To ensure their control over large areas, the Ottoman sultans used this selection system to staff their military and their government. This system began in the late 14th century and expanded in the 15th and 16th centuries. Through this system, Christian boys who were subjects of the empire were recruited by force to serve in the Ottoman government. Boys ages 8 to 20 were taken each year from conquered Christian lands in Europe. This system developed from an earlier system of slavery in the Ottoman Empire. In both systems, slaves were considered tribute owed to the empire after conquest, which was typically one-fifth of the conquered land's wealth. Since Islamic Shariah Law prohibited enslavement of "people of the book" - Muslims and Jews - Christian boys were forcibly removed from their families, especially from Balkan territories.

Tax Farming

To finance an economy backed by a powerful military, the Ottomans levied taxes on the peasants and used this process to collect it. The local officials distant from the central government grew wealthy and corrupt from skimming money from the revenues in their areas, as some of the zamindars did in the Mughal Empire. Agricultural villages continued to be burdened with the upkeep of officers and troops. This burden of revenue and the military would eventually contribute to the economic decline of the empire. The intendants in Cardinal Richelieu's system also practiced this.

Cossacks

Wanting to expand east to control the fur trade, Ivan IV allowed the Stroganovs, major Russian landowners, to hire bands of fierce peasant warriors known as these to fight the local tribes and the Siberian khan. The Stroganovs' forces were successful, gaining control of the Volga River, which flows into the Caspian Sea. Possessing this outlet to the sea, Moscow could trade directly with Persia and the Ottoman Empire without having to deal with the strong forces of the Crimean Tartars.

St. Petersburg

When Peter the Great seized lands on the Baltic Sea from Sweden, the conquest gave Russia its own warm-water port on the Baltic - this city. Peter moved the Russian capital from Moscow to this city so he could keep watch of the boyars there, who were doing their required state service by working in his government. The new city became a testament to Peter's determination to have his own capital. Architects laid out streets in a rectangular grid, unlike the irregular pattern of Moscow and other cities. Peasants and Swedish prisoners of war were forced to work, draining marshes and building streets and government structures. In the mid-18th century, workers built the famous Winter Palace. It was designed in a European rather than a Byzantine style to show Peter's admiration of Europe and its rulers.

Ivan IV

When this man, who ruled from 1547 to 1584, called the Terrible, was crowned tsar in 1547, he immediately set about to expand the Russian border eastward, first by taking control of the khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia held by the descendants of the Golden Horde, the Mongolian conquerors. This expansion came to rely more and more upon the use of gunpowder. Wanting to expand east to control the fur trade, he allowed the Stroganovs, major Russian landowners, to hire bands of Cossacks. Boyars of Novgorod had opposed the expansionist policies of this man, so he punished them after his forces defeated Novgorod. He confiscated their lands and forced them and their families to move to Moscow. Like Louis XIV, he wanted to keep an eye on the nobility. To further control the boyars, he established a paramilitary force loyal to him called the oprichnina. Dressed in black and traveling quickly on horseback, the members showed fierce loyalty to him. They were drawn from lower-level bureaucrats and merchants to assure their loyalty to him rather than to the boyars. The oprichnina's methods would be reflected later in the development of the Russian secret police.