Ch. 6

Yucatan Peninsula

A peninsula in Central America extending into the Gulf of Mexico between the Bay of Campeche and the Caribbean Sea.

Haudenosaunee Confederacy

An alliance of six First Nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora.

Aksum Empire

An ancient kingdom and trading empire centered in Northern Ethiopia, and Eritrea.

Muscat

Capital of Oman

75-200 million

How many people died from the Black Death?

Cheyenne

One of the indigenous people of the Great Plains whose language is of the Algonquian language family.

Mansa Musa (c. 1280- c. 1337)

Ruler of Mali, wealthiest individual in history. His extravagant pilgrimage through Egypt to Mecca in 1324-1325 established the empire's reputation for wealth in the Mediterranean world.

Tawantinsuyu (and the Incas)

- Inca empire of 4 provinces - Military expansion: it was centered on Cusco, superior organization, aided by roads, inns, storehouses, and fortresses. - made stairs that went up mountains and grass bridges - Quipu (writing system): kept series of numbers, kept track of information. lacked the ability to tell narrative stories, mainly used for numbers. - Three Field System - taxes paid in labor (Mita) - FINAL CRISIS= civil war - other problems: problems: no animal power, no metallurgy, varying levels or state formation, lack of disease immunities, changing climates, divisions with indigenous cultures.

What came over to the Americas with the Columbian Exchange?

- bananas - citrus fruits - coffee beans - smallpox - influenza - typhus - measles - malaria - diptheria - whooping cough - grains - grapes - honeybees - pigs - sheep - cattle - horses - olives - onions - peaches - pears - sugarcane - turnips

What came over to Afro-Eurasia in the Columbian Exchange?

- beans - corn - cocoa - peanuts - peppers - pineapples - potatoes - pumpkins - sweet potatoes - squash - tomatoes - tobacco - turkeys - vanilla - cassava

Kiowa

A Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries, and finally into the Southern Plains by the early 19th century.

Francisco Pizarro

A Spanish conquistador, best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of Peru.

Quipus

A system of knotted cords of different sizes and colors used by the Incas for keeping records

Tributary Empire

An empire in which subjects rule themselves but make payments called tribute, to an imperial governement in return for protection and services.

Battle of Ain Jalut (1260)

Fought between the Bahri Mamluks of Egypt and the Mongol Empire on 3 September in southeastern Galilee in the Jezreel Valley near the Spring of Harod. The battle marked the height of the extent of Mongol conquests, and was the first time a Mongol advance had ever been permanently beaten back in direct combat on the battlefield.

Guild

In medieval Europe, an association of men (rarely women), such as merchants, artisans, or professors, who worked in a particular trade and created an organized institution to promote their economic and political interests.

Mit'a System

Incan system for payment of taxes with labor

Lake Texcoco

Lake where the capital city of the ancient Aztecs Tenochtitlan was built

Livy

Roman historian whose history of Rome filled 142 volumes (of which only 35 survive) including the earliest history of the war with Hannibal (59 BC to AD 17)

Pachacuti (1418-1472)

Ruler of Inca society from 1438 to 1471; launched a series of military campaigns that gave Incas control of the region from Cuzco to the shores of Lake Titicaca

Aztecs

(1200-1521) 1300, they settled in the valley of Mexico. Grew corn. Engaged in frequent warfare to conquer others of the region. Worshiped many gods (polytheistic). Believed the sun god needed human blood to continue his journeys across the sky. Practiced human sacrifices and those sacrificed were captured warriors from other tribes and those who volunteered for the honor.

Common characteristics of an empire include:

1. Large territory 2. Core/periphery hierarchy 3. Resource extraction 4. Cultural domination 5. Multiethnic assimilation 6. Geographic borders 7. Central government 8. Unifying belief system 9. Large subjugated population 10. Monumental architecture (note: not all empires have all of these characteristics, these are COMMON, not REQUIRED)

What two metrics do historians generally use to measure the health of empires?

1. Money/resources. Healthy empires are wealthy, but as time goes on, they tend to be more expensive to maintain. Eventually, the costs add up and something big happens and they are unable to overcome it. 2. Cohesion. As time goes on, people in the center of the empire tend to lose their sense of belonging to something bigger, shifting their focus to self-interest, whereas border peoples have a stronger sense of cohesion. New groups on the edge rise up while the center weakens.

What 8 regions did the Silk Road connect?

1. The Persian Gulf 2. Central Asia's Northern Passage 3. Southeast Asia 4. The Arabian Sea 6. North Africa 7. The Eastern Mediterranean 8/ Western Europe

Maya

A Mesoamerican civilization noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system.

Khanate of the Golden Horde

A Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire after 1259 it became a functionally separate khanate. It is also known as the Kipchak Khanate or as the Ulus of Jochi. After the death of Batu Khan in 1255, his dynasty flourished for a full century, until 1359, though the intrigues of Nogai instigated a partial civil war in the late 1290s. The Horde's military power peaked during the reign of Uzbeg Khan, who adopted Islam. The territory of was at its peak extended from Siberia and Central Asia to parts of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the Danube in the west, and from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea in the south, while bordering the Caucasus Mountains and the territories of the Mongol dynasty known as the Ilkhanate. Controlled early Russian rulers, though they later rebelled and established an independent government.

Gildas (c. 500-570 CE)

A 6th-century British monk best known for his scathing religious polemic De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, which recounts the history of the Britons before and during the coming of the Saxons. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during the sub-Roman period, and was renowned for his Biblical knowledge and literary style. In his later life, he emigrated to Brittany where he founded a monastery.

Hundred Years War (1337-1453)

A series of conflicts in Western Europe waged between the House of Plantagenet and its cadet House of Lancaster, rulers of the Kingdom of England, and the House of Valois over the right to rule the Kingdom of France.

Machu Picchu

Abandoned city high in the Andes mountains that showcases the architectural genius of the Inca

English Wool Trade

One of the most important factors in the medieval English economy. 'No form of manufacturing had a greater impact upon the economy and society of medieval Britain than did those industries producing cloths from various kinds of wool'. The trade's liveliest period, 1250-1350, was 'an era when trade in wool had been the backbone and driving force in the English medieval economy'.

Aztec Triple Alliance

Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, Tlacopan

The Great Dying

Term used to describe the devastating demographic impact of European-borne epidemic diseases on the Americas.

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

This Saudi city is known for its Ottoman buildings, tourism and boardwalk.

Chagatai Khanate

A Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan, second son of Genghis Khan and his descendants and successors. At its height in the late 13th century, the khanate extended from the Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea to the Altai Mountains in the border of modern-day Mongolia and China, roughly corresponding to the defunct Qara Khitai Empire. Initially the rulers of the Chagatai Khanate recognized the supremacy of the Great Khan, but by the reign of Kublai Khan, Ghiyas-ud-din Baraq no longer obeyed the emperor's orders. During the mid-14th century, the Chagatais lost Transoxania to the Timurids. The reduced realm came to be known as Moghulistan, which lasted until the late 15th century when it broke off into the Yarkent Khanate and Turpan Khanate.

Shoshone

A Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: - Eastern: Wyoming - Northern: southern Idaho - Western: Nevada, northern Utah - Goshute: western Utah, eastern Nevada. Sometimes called the Snake Indians by neighboring tribes and early American explorers. Their peoples have become members of federally recognized tribes throughout their traditional areas of settlement, often co-located with the Northern Paiute people of the Great Basin.

Comanche Empire

A Native-American nation from the Great Plains whose historic territory consisted of most of present-day northwestern Texas and adjacent areas in eastern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, western Oklahoma, and northern Chihuahua. Became the dominant tribe on the southern Great Plains in the 18th and 19th centuries. They are often characterized as "Lords of the Plains." Their power depended on bison, horses, trading, and raiding. They hunted the bison of the Great Plains for food and skins; their adoption of the horse from Spanish colonists in New Mexico made them more mobile; they traded with the Spanish, French, Americans and neighboring Native-American peoples; and (most famously) they waged war on and raided European settlements as well as other Native Americans. They took captives from weaker tribes during warfare, using them as slaves or selling them to the Spanish and (later) Mexican settlers. They also took thousands of captives from the Spanish, Mexican, and American settlers and incorporated them into their society. Decimated by European diseases, warfare, and encroachment by Americans, most were forced into life on the reservation; a few however sought refuge with the Mescalero Apaches in New Mexico, or with the Kickapoos in Mexico.

Qashani Tiles

A Persian decorative art which had been popular in Iran in the 16th to 18th century, and then moved to Turkey in the time of the Ottomans with the transfer of many Persians artists to Turkey, becoming the basis for decorating the walls of mosques, palaces, shrines and tombs.

Hernan Cortes (1485-1547)

A Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. He was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Cusco/Cuzco

A city in the Andes in southern Peru; pop. 275,000; ancient capital of the Inca empire.

Empire

A group of states or territories controlled by one ruler

Sand Creek Massacre (1864)

A massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people by the U.S. Army in the American Indian Wars that occurred on November 29,when a 675-man force of the Third Colorado Cavalry under the command of U.S. Volunteers Colonel John Chivington attacked and destroyed a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho people in southeastern Colorado Territory, killing and mutilating an estimated 70-500 Native Americans, about two-thirds of whom were women and children.

Sweating Sickness (1485-1551)

A mysterious and contagious disease that struck England and later continental Europe in a series of epidemics beginning in 1485. The last outbreak occurred in 1551, after which the disease apparently vanished. The onset of symptoms was sudden, with death often occurring within hours. These epidemics were unique compared to other disease outbreaks of the time. Where other epidemics were typically urban and long-lasting, cases of this disease spiked and receded very quickly and heavily affected rural populations. Its cause remains unknown, although it has been suggested that an unknown species of hantavirus was responsible.

Feudalism

A political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to their king, in exchange for their loyalty, military service, and protection of the people who live on the land

Chavin

A pre-Incan South American civilization developed in Peru; famous for their style of architecture and drainage systems to protect from floods.

Tarascan Empire

A state in pre-Columbian Mexico, roughly covering the geographic area of the present-day Mexican state of Michoacán, parts of Jalisco, and Guanajuato. At the time of the Spanish conquest, it was the second-largest state in Mesoamerica. The state was founded in the early 14th century and lost its independence to the Spanish in 1530.

Nation-state

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality

Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368)

A successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division and a ruling dynasty of China established by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongol Borjigin clan, lasting from 1271 to 1368. In Chinese historiography, this dynasty followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty.

Azcapotzalco

A town on the west side of the lake, occupied by Nahuatl-speaking people called Tepanecs, noted as a bird- and slave-trading center and known for its silverwork. It was one of the two most powerful polities around the lake until destroyed by the Triple Alliance.

Aztec Empire

An alliance of three Nahua altepetl city-states: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. These three city-states ruled the area in and around the Valley of Mexico from 1428 until the combined forces of the Spanish conquistadores and their native allies under Hernán Cortés defeated them in 1521. By the time the Spanish arrived in 1519, the lands of the Alliance were effectively ruled from Tenochtitlan, while the other partners in the alliance had taken subsidiary roles. The alliance waged wars of conquest and expanded rapidly after its formation.

Gupta Empire

An ancient Indian empire existing from the mid-to-late 3rd century CE to 543 CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Golden Age of India by historians. The ruling dynasty of the empire was founded by the king Sri Gupta.

Nationalism

An idea and movement that promotes the interests of a particular nation, especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining the nation's sovereignty over its homeland. Holds that each nation should govern itself, free from outside interference, that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity and that the nation is the only rightful source of political power.

Timbuktu, Mali

Ancient trade center in Maghreb founded by Tuareg herders. Today the word Timbuktu means any faraway place (middle of nowhere). Trans-saharan trade route station.

Culhuacan

Banished the Mexica to Lake Texcoco after myth of Mexican priest wearing their princess's skin. A city founded by the Toltecs.

Palembang

Capital of Sumatra/Srivijaya; Buddhist

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Its population was about 150,000 on the eve of Spanish conquest. Mexico City was constructed on its ruins.

Kaffa

City that Mongols attacked on the Black Sea. This is where the Black Death met Western Europe.

The House of Wisdom

Combination library, academy, and translation center in Baghdad established in the 800s. Afro-Eurasian center of thought and academics.

Genghis Khan (1155/1162-1227)

First Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of Northeast Asia. He launched the Mongol invasions that conquered most of Eurasia, reaching as far west as Poland in Europe and the Levant in the Middle East.

Jin Dynasty (1115-1234)

Followed the Three Kingdoms period, which ended with the conquest of Eastern Wu, culminating in the reunification of China proper.

Calicut

Great spice port of India where da Gama landed and traded

Malacca Strait

Important "choke point" in Indian Ocean Trade. Control of this passage meant wealth and power.

Samarkand and Bukhara

Important Central Asian trade centers on the Silk Road

Quanzhou, Hangchow, and Guangzhou

Important Chinese Silk Road trading centers

Where was the Black Death the worst?

In Europe, which had crowded, damp, poorly sanitized cities.

Marco Polo (1254-1324)

Italian explorer and author. He made numerous trips to China and returned to Europe to write of his journeys. He is responsible for much of the knowledge exchanged between Europe and China during this time period.

Tintagel

King Mark's castle in Cornwall; castle where Igrayne was tricked by Uther. Center of thought and culture in the Middle Ages.

Ilkhanate

Known to the Mongols as Hülegü Ulus was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. Officially known as Iranzamin, it was ruled by the Mongol House of Hulagu. ts core territory lies in what is now part of the countries of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. At its greatest extent, the Ilkhanate also included parts of modern Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, part of modern Dagestan, and part of modern Tajikistan. Ravaged by the Black Death in the 1330s.

Cahokia

Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, home to as many as 25,000 Native Americans

Yam System

Mongol trade/communication system, rider rides to different stations, gets what they need and continue on to the next station with more messages

Atlatl

Notched throwing stick used by hunters to propel spears farther and faster.

Worshipful Company of Woolmen

One of the Livery Companies in the City of London. It is known to have existed in 1180, making it one of the older Livery Companies of the City. It was officially incorporated in 1522.

Champagne, France

One of the most famous Afro-Eurasian trade fairs.

Arapaho

People of Native Americans historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. Involved in the Sand Creek Massacre.

Comancheria

The area in the present day US controlled by the Comanches

nʉmʉnʉʉ

The autonym of the Comanche people, means "the human beings" or "the people."

Columbian Exchange

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

Kublai Khan

The fifth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire, reigning from 1260 to 1294. He also founded the Yuan dynasty in China as a conquest dynasty in 1271, and ruled as the first Yuan emperor until his death in 1294. He was the fourth son of Tolui and a grandson of Genghis Khan. Had to defeat his younger brother Ariq Böke in the Toluid Civil War lasting until 1264. This episode marked the beginning of disunity in the empire. His real power was limited to China and Mongolia, though as Khagan he still had influence in the Ilkhanate and, to a significantly lesser degree, in the Golden Horde. If one counts the Mongol Empire at that time as a whole, his realm reached from the Pacific Ocean to the Black Sea, from Siberia to what is now Afghanistan.

Olmec

The first Mesoamerican civilization. Between ca. 1200 and 400 B.C.E., these people of central Mexico created a vibrant civilization that included intensive agriculture, wide-ranging trade, ceremonial centers, and monumental construction.

Inca Empire

The largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilization arose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century. Its last stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572. From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined Peru, western Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, a large portion of what is today Chile, and the southwesternmost tip of Colombia into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia. Its official language was Quechua.

Black Death/Yersinia pestis (1346-1353)

The most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the death of 75-200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351.

Smallpox

The overall deadliest known disease in the history of the world. In the 20th century alone there were approximately 500,000,000 people who died of this disease.

Pax Mongolica

The period of approximately 150 years of relative peace and stability created by the Mongol Empire.

Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 CE)

The second imperial dynasty of China, established by the rebel leader Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. Considered a golden age in Chinese history, and influenced the identity of the Chinese civilization ever since. Meritocracy through civil service examinations.

Miasma Theory

The theory that diseases were caused by miasma or bad air arising from organic decay, filth, or other conditions of the local environment.

Ögedei Khan (c. 1186-1241)

The third son of Chingis Khan and second khan-emperor of the Mongol Empire, succeeding his father. He continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun, and was a world figure when the Mongol Empire reached its farthest extent west and south during the Mongol invasions of Europe and East Asia. Like all of Genghis' primary sons, he participated extensively in conquests in China, Iran, and Central Asia.

Flanders, Belgium

The trading center of the Northern coast of Europe.

Three Kingdoms Period (220-280 CE)

The tripartite division of China among the states of Wei, Shu, and Wu. This period started with the end of the Han dynasty and was followed by the Jin dynasty. The short-lived Yan kingdom in the Liaodong Peninsula, which lasted from 237 to 238, is sometimes considered as a "4th kingdom".

Manila Galleon Trade

Trade between Manila and Acapulco. Goal was to have Asian and New Spain markets linked together to further trade. Spanish focused on this rather than exploring the Pacific Islands.

Archipelago of Trade

Viewing trade as routes between islands in the sea, rather than a continuous thread.

Schistosomiasis

a disease that is caused by a parasitic blood fluke of the genus Schistosoma and that affects the skin, intestines, liver, vascular system, or other organs

The Silk Road

a network of trade routes connecting the East and West, and was central to the economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between these regions from the 2nd century BCE to the 18th century.

Kurultai

a political and military council of ancient Mongol and Turkic chiefs and khans

Patrilineal Kinship

a system of descent in which persons are related to their kin through the father only

Chasquis

a system of runners that traveled the Inca roads as a kind of postal service, carrying messages from one end of the empire to the other.

Mongol Empire

an empire founded in the 12th century by Genghis Khan, which reached its greatest territorial extent in the 13th century, encompassing the larger part of Asia and extending westward to the Dnieper River in eastern Europe.

Zanzibar

an island in Tanzania; once a major trading center

Septicemic Plague

fever, prostration, hemorrhagic or thrombotic phenomena, progressing to acral gangrene

Pneumonic Plague

high fever, overwhelming pneumonia, cough, bloody sputum, chills

Yersinia pestis

plague

Black Death

the epidemic form of bubonic plague experienced during the Middle Ages when it killed nearly half the people of western Europe