AP World History Terms

volta do mar

"Returning through the sea," a fifteenth-century Portuguese sea route that took advantage of the prevailing winds and currents.

Yongle

(1403-1424) Chinese Emperor who launched a series of naval expeditions that sailed throughout the Indian Ocean. He compiled the Encyclopedia -- a collection of Chinese philosophical, literary, and historical texts. Significance - He expanded China's maritime trade and made China known in the Indian Ocean and around the world, though his descendants ended his naval expeditions.

Ignatius Loyola

(1491-1556) Spanish churchman and founder of the Jesuits (1534); this order of Roman Catholic priests proved an effective force for reviving Catholicism during the Catholic Reformation.

Thirty Years War

(1618-48) A series of European wars that were partially a Catholic-Protestant religious conflict. It was primarily a batlte between France and their rivals the Hapsburg's, rulers of the Holy Roman Empire.

Kangxi

(1661-1722) Chinese Emperor who was both a scholar and a conqueror. He studied Confucian teachings and sought to apply them through his policies. He organized flood-control and irrigation projects. Taiwan was one of the new territories added to the Qing Empire during his reign. Significance - He was one of the two most effective emperors of Qing China. He looked after the welfare of his subjects by promoting agriculture and establishing Confucian schools.

Dahomey

(ca. 1650- 1894) African kingdom in present day southern Benin, reaching its height of influence in the eighteenth century. Its leaders sought regional power by raiding for slaves in other kingdoms and then selling the, for firearms and other European goods

Tokugawa Ieyasu

(reigned 1600-1616) United Japan under his leadership as shogun. He established a military government known as the Tokugawa bakufu ("tent government") Significance - He was able to bring peace and stability to Japan after a century of civil war. His descendents ruled Japan until 1868.

Francis Xavier

A Jesuit who traveled to Japan in 1549 to open a Catholic mission. His efforts and those of other Jesuits were successful in convincing many Japanese to become Christians. However the popularity of Christianity in Japan declined dramatically in the early 1600s. Significance - The popularity of Christianity generated a backlash from Japanese government officials and moralists seeking to preserve Japanese religious and cultural traditions. Many Japanese Christians were persecuted for their beliefs.

absolutism

A form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

Encomienda

A grant of land made by Spain to a settler in the Americas, including the right to use Native Americans as laborers on it.

smallpox

A highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever and weakness and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs that slough off leaving scars

Melaka

A thriving spice trade port on the Malay Peninsula controlled by the Portuguese

northwest passage

A water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific through northern Canada and along the northern coast of Alaska. Sought by navigators since the 16th century.

African slave trade

African peoples captured and taken as slaves to South America (sugar cane plantations) and North America (cotton plantations)

joint-stock company

An association of individuals in a business enterprise with transferable shares of stock, much like a corporation except that stockholders are liable for the debts of the business

witch-hunting

An investigation carried on with much publicity, supposedly to uncover dangerous activity but actually intended to weaken the political opposition.

Dona Marina

Aztec woman who became an interpreter for Hernando Cortes during his conquest of the Aztec empire

Creoles

Born in the Americas with Iberian parents

Issac Newton

British scientist who defined the laws of motion, discovered gravity, experimented with optics, invented differential calculus and wrote "Principia"

Francis Drake

British sea captain who raided Spanish ships and ports as privateer and scouted the west coast of North America in conjunction with his attacks on Spanish interests in Latin America

eunuchs

Castrated males who served the Chinese state. Some were allowed to live inside the Forbidden City in Beijing to serve the Emperor and his family. Since they could have no family of their own, it was assumed that they would serve the emperor with greater devotion. The admiral Zheng He is probably the best known example of this group. Significance - The Chinese emperors put too much trust into the eunuchs, unintentionally giving them power. The power of the eunuchs contributed to the cause for the decline of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Cristoforo Colombo

Christopher Colombus, began the Colombian exchange.

Great Zimbabwe

City, now in ruins (in the modern African country of Zimbabwe), whose many stone structures were built between about 1250 and 1450, when it was a trading center and the capital of a large state. (p. 385)

Pero Alvares Cabral

Claimed Brazil for the Portuguese in 1500

Afonso d'Alboquerque

Commander of Portuguese forces in the Indian Ocean (16th century). Seized several strategic islands (Hormuz, Goa, and Melaka) and forced passing ships to have a pass from Portugal or have their cargo confiscated. Violators were executed or de-handed. Portugal eventually lost its tight hold on the Indian Ocean basin. (even when it was strong, it didn't have enough vessels to strictly enforce its laws—other civilizations were still prominent in trade)

Audiencias

Courts appointed by the king who reviewed the administration of viceroys serving Spanish colonies in America.

Manioc

Crop that came to Africa as a result of the Colombian Exchange

Hottentots

Dutch term for native South African people

Henry VIII

English king who created the Church of England after the Pope refused to annul his marriage (divorce with Church approval)

James Cook

English navigator who claimed the east coast of Australia for Britain and discovered several Pacific islands (1728-1779)

Benardino de Sahagun

Franciscan missionary in Mexico who preserved Native culture before Spanish arrived

Saint-Domingue

French colony in modern day Haiti, site of slave rebellion

Voltaire

French, perhaps greatest Enlightenment thinker. Deist. Mixed glorification and reason with an appeal for better individuals and institutions. Wrote Candide. Believed enlightened despot best form of government.

Martin Beaim

German cartographer who is believed to have created the earliest surviving globe in 1492.

Martin Luther

German theologian who led the Reformation

Zheng He

He was the admiral who led seven massive maritime expeditions under the Ming emperor Yongle. His journeys took place from 1405 to 1433 and included visits to Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Arabia, and east Africa. His fleets included as many as 317 vessels and 28,000 men. Some historians contend that he also led journeys to Australia and the Americas but there is little evidence to support their theories. Significance - He established a Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean. His expeditions indicate the wealth and power of Ming China. They also serve as a contrast to later Chinese policies regarding travel and foreign trade.

Charles V

Holy Roman Emperor and Carlos I of Spain, tried to keep Europe religiously united, inherited Spain, the Netherlands, Southern Italy, Austria, and much of the Holy Roman Emperor from his grandparents, he sought to stop Protestantism and increase the power of Catholicism. He allied with the pope to stamp out heresy and maintain religous unity in Europe. He was preocuppied with struggles with Turkey and France and could not soley focus on the rise of Protestantism in Germany.

Peninsulares

Immigrants to Latin America born in Spain or Portugal

Middle Passage

Journey of slaves from Africa to Americas

Charles I

King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1625-1649). His power struggles with Parliament resulted in the English Civil War (1642-1648) in which Charles was defeated. He was tried for treason and beheaded in 1649

Louis XIV

King of France from 1643 to 1715; his long reign was marked by the expansion of French influence in Europe and by the magnificence of his court and the Palace of Versailles (1638-1715)

Seven Years War

Known in America as French and Indian war. It was the war between the French and their Indian allies and the English that proved the English to be the more dominant force of what was to be the United States both commercially and in terms of controlled regions.

King Afonso I

Kongolese ruler (r. 1506 - 1542) who converted to Christianity and tried, unsuccessfully, to save his realm from the depredations of Portuguese slave raiders and merchants

Gullah

Language spoken by slaves in South Carolina

Francisco Pizzaro

Led conquest of Inca Empire of Peru beginning in 1535; by 1540, most of Inca possessions fell to the Spanish

Sao Jorge de Mina

Location of fortified Portuguese trading posts in modern Ghana. Exchanged horses, leather, textiles, and metal wares for gold and slaves

Prince Henry "The Navigator"

Member of the royal family of Portugal in the 15th century who sponsored a series of voyages along the west coast of Africa. These journeys eventually led to the success of Bartholomeu Dias and Vasco de Gama who rounded the southern tip of Africa in the late 1400's

Zambos

Mixed African and Native American heritage. Usually slaves

Mulattoes

Mixed Spanish and African heritage. Many were slaves

Mestizos

Mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry

Tainos (Arawaks)

Most prominent Native American people in the Caribbean region in the 1400's. First to interact with Spanish explorers.

Chamorro

Natives of Guam and Mariana Islands who were taken over by the Spanish

astrolabe

Navigational instrument that helped to determine latitude by using the position of the sun

"Dream of the Red Chamber"

One of the most popular novels published in China during the Qing Dynasty. It tells the story of cousins deeply in love who could not marry because of their families' wishes. Scholars use this work to shed light on the dynamics of wealthy scholar-gentry families. Significance - The popularity of this novel and others like it illustrated the desire for entertainment felt by literate merchants. The development of printing technology made it possible to produce books cheaply and in mass quantities so that such novels flooded Chinese cities during the Ming and Qing eras.

Versailles

Palace constructed by Louis XIV outside of Paris to glorify his rule and subdue the nobility.

Engenho

Plantation in Brazil dedicated to sugar production

Nicolaus Copernicus

Polish astronomer who produced a workable model of the solar system with the sun in the center (1473-1543)

Treaty of Tordesillas

Pope sponsored agreement between Spain and Portugal to divide the world so that Africa and Asia would come under Portuguese control and the Americas would come under Spanish. (1494)

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese (Sailed for Spain on the trip around the world). Died in the Philippines but his crew made it all the way around the world.

Goa

Portuguese base on the west coast of India from which they aided Hindus and trade with the interior.

Bartolomeu Dias

Portuguese explorer who rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488. Never made it to the Indian Ocean

Vasco de Gama

Portuguese explorer who sailed around Africa and made his way to India where he traded for spices. Began the Portuguese dominance of the spice trade.

Repartimiento

Replaced encomienda system, supposed to provide shorter work periods and fairer pay

Potosi

Richest silver mine in the Andes Mountains

Maroons

Runaway slaves who started their own communities

Galileo Galilei

Scientist who built the first telescope and proved that planets and moons move. Persecuted for supporting Copernicus' ideas

Adam Smith

Scottish economist who advocated private enterprise and free trade (1723-1790)

St. Teresa of Avila

Set up own convent of Carmelite Nuns and was asked to reorganize and reform convents and monasteries in Spain

Botany Bay

Site in Australia where James Cook dropped anchor in 1770, penal colony established in 1788

Mindanao

Southern island in the Philippines which resisted Portuguese control and stayed Muslim.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Mexico in 1519-1521 for Spain.

Quinto

Spanish gov't claimed 1/5 of silver produced in their colonies

Manila Galleons

Spanish ships that traded in between Manila, Asia and Mexico, stirring their cultures.

John Calvin

Swiss theologian (born in France) whose tenets (predestination and the irresistibility of grace and justification by faith) defined Presbyterianism (1509-1564)

Jan Pieterszoon Coen

The Dutch merchant Jan Pieterszoon Coen (ca. 1586-1629) founded Batavia as governor general of the Dutch East India Company. Possessed of great administrative and military ability, he contributed greatly to the expansion of Dutch influence in the East Indies.

Spanish Armada

The Spanish fleet that attempted to invade England, ending in disaster, due to the raging storm in the English Channel as well as the smaller and better English navy led by Francis Drake. This is viewed as the decline of Spains Golden Age, and the rise of England as a world naval power.

Council of Trent

The congress of learned Roman Catholic authorities that met intermittently from 1545 to 1563 to reform abusive church practices and reconcile with the Protestants.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

putting-out system

The merchant loans raw materials to several cottage workers, who processed the raw materials in their own homes and returned the finished product to the merchant.

urbanization

The movement of people from rural areas to cities

balance of power

The policy in international relations by which, beginning in the eighteenth century, the major European states acted together to prevent any one of them from becoming too powerful.

Deism

The religion of the Enlightenment (1700s). Followers believed that God existed and had created the world, but that afterwards He left it to run by its own natural laws. Denied that God communicated to man or in any way influenced his life.

bushido

This was a code that the samurai lived by in Japan from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. It was also known as "the way of the warrior." It emphasized unquestioning loyalty to one's daimyo. It also called for bravery and devotion to the development of military skills. Significance - The devotion of the samurai to their lords provided the basis for prolonged conflict between daimyos when there was no shogun. It also served as the basis for the authority of the shoguns after the daimyos was subjugated.

Spanish Inquisition

This was the harsh and violent conversion of Spain back into Catholicism. They used several versions of torture and fear tactics to convert people back to Catholicism

Lopez de Legazpi

Took over the Philippeans with little bloodshed because other Asian areas resisted; only the Muslims in this country resisted

Cape Town

Trading post in South Africa started by the Dutch in 1652

Peace of Westphalia

Treaty that ended the Thirty Years' War (1648) and readjusted the religious and political affairs of Europe.

lateen sail

Triangular sail developed by Arab or Indian merchants which was eventually adopted by Euroop, a triangular sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle on the mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction. Adopted in the Late Middle Ages, and Europeans were able to sail out of the Mediterranean

Fulani

West African group who obeyed strict Islamic laws

Olaudah Equiano

Wrote about the harshness of slavery in an attempt to abolish it

Rum

Yum ;) very important commodity in European-American trade

Matteo Ricci

an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th-18th centuries.

Gao

capital of Songhay empire

Sao Tome

controlled by portuguese, had perfect soil for growing sugar, producted much in demand in europe, used african american slaves to harvest sugar establishing the first modern colony dependant on slave labor

Queen Nzinga

led spirited resistance against portuguese forces (conquest of angola), thought of as a king rather than a queen, mobilized central african peoples against her portuguese adversaries and allied with Dutch mariners who traded on african coast. Her aim= drive portuguese from her land, then expel dutch, and finally create a vast African empire embracing the entire lower Congo basin

Dona Beatriz

proclaimed to be possessed by St. Anthony to communicate messages from God, taught her followers that Jesus was a black man, later burned at stake

Thomas Peters

spokesman for 200 black families, he went to london to petition for better treatment, he escaped to Nova Scotia with his family and many others, had escaped two times before

filial piety

the duties of children toward their fathers and the loyalty of subjects toward the emperor. This practice was encouraged by the government to promote peace and stability in Chinese society. Significance - It was the cornerstone of family values. Children had the obligation to look after their parents' happiness and well-being. A crucial obligation was for children to support their parents in their old age.

Sunni Ali

the leader of the Songhai, who in 1468, stormed into Timbuktu and drove out the Berbers beginning a campaign of conquest of the Sahara; by the time of his death in 1492 he had built the largest empire in west Africa

kowtow

traditional bow made in the presence of the Chinese emperor. It required three kneelings and nine head knockings. significance - This practice illustrated the supreme status of the emperor in China as the "Son of Heaven." European diplomats were sometimes reluctant to perform this ritual.