WHAP Chapter 12- What's the Significance?

Aztec Empire

Central American empire constructed by the Mexica and expanded greatly during the fifteenth century during the reigns of Itzcoatl and Motecuzoma I.

Safavid Empire

Turkish-ruled Iranian kingdom (1502-1722) established by Ismail Safavi, who declared Iran a Shi'ite state.

Timbuku

founded in the 11th century by the Tuareg, it became a major trading center (primarily for gold and salt) by the 14th century

Zheng He

Chinese admiral during the Ming Dynasty, he led great voyages that spread China's fame throughout Asia

Ming Dynasty China

Chinese dynasty (1368-1644) that succeeded the Yuan dynasty of the Mongols; noted for its return to traditional Chinese ways and restoration of the land after the destructiveness of the Mongols.

Malacca

Flourishing trading city in Malaya; established a trading empire after the fall of Shrivijaya.

Ottoman Empire

Islamic state founded by Osman in northwestern Anatolia. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire was based at Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) from 1453-1922. It encompassed lands in the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, and eastern Europe.

Timur

Member of a prominent family of the Mongols' Jagadai Khanate, Timur through conquest gained control over much of Central Asia and Iran. He consolidated the status of Sunni Islam as orthodox, and his descendants, the Timurids, maintained his empire.

Iroquois

A later native group to the eastern woodlands. They blended agriculture and hunting living in common villages constructed from the trees and bark of the forests

Songhay Empire

A state located in western Africa from the early 15th to the late 16th centuries following the decline of the Mali Empire.

Igbo

People whose lands were east of the Niger River in what is now southern Nigeria in West Africa; they built a complex society that rejected kingship and centralized statehood and relied on other institutions to provide social coherence.

European Renaissance

The era was marked by a revival of the art, architecture, thought, and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.

Inca Empire

The Western Hemisphere's largest imperial state in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries; built by a relatively small community of Quechua-speaking people (the Inca), the empire stretched some 2,500 miles along the Andes Mountains, which run nearly the entire length of the west coast of South America, and contained perhaps 10 million subjects.

Seizure of Constantinople (1453)

The capital and almost the only outpost left of the Byzantine Empire that fell to the army of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II "the Conqueror," an event that marked the end of Christian Byzantium.

Paleolithic persistence

The continuance of gathering and hunting societies in substantial areas of the world despite millennia of agricultural advance.

Fulbe

West Africa's largest pastoral society, whose members gradually adopted Islam and took on a religious leadership role that led to the creation of a number of new states.