AP®︎ World History: Unit 1 Flashcards

Chinese dynasty, 960–1279, that expanded Confucian civil government and oversaw major commercialization; the Southern Song ruled from Hangzhou after losing northern China in 1127

Belief that Heaven granted a dynasty authority while it governed properly and transferred that authority when misrule led to successful replacement

Ethical and political tradition emphasizing education, moral cultivation, hierarchy, reciprocal duties, and social harmony through proper relationships

Confucian duty to respect, obey, support, and honor parents and ancestors, making the orderly family a model for the state

Centralized system of appointed officials who administered taxation, law, censuses, public works, grain transport, and local government for the emperor

Confucian examinations used to recruit educated male officials, reducing reliance on hereditary nobles while favoring families able to afford extensive schooling

Elite class whose status rested on Confucian education, examination success, government office, landownership, and mastery of literary culture

Song-era reformulation of Confucianism that addressed Buddhist and Daoist ideas while reaffirming moral cultivation, family hierarchy, education, and public service

Diplomatic framework in which foreign rulers acknowledged the Chinese emperor and offered tribute in return for recognition, gifts, and access to trade

Process by which non-Chinese peoples adopted Chinese language, Confucian values, political institutions, and other cultural practices

Asian religious tradition teaching that craving causes suffering and that ethical and spiritual practice, shaped by karma and rebirth, can lead to nirvana

Buddhist tradition teaching broad access to enlightenment and emphasizing bodhisattvas who help others, predominant in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam

Buddhist tradition emphasizing monastic discipline, early teachings, and the individual path to enlightenment, strongest in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia

Esoteric Buddhist tradition emphasizing tantric rituals, mantras, mandalas, meditation, and guidance from a teacher as paths toward enlightenment

Chinese Mahayana school emphasizing meditation, discipline, and direct insight; transmitted to Japan as Zen

Practice that spread among elite Han Chinese families of binding girls’ feet as a sign of refinement and respectability, restricting mobility and reinforcing patriarchy

Fast-ripening, drought-resistant rice from Vietnam that increased harvests, food surpluses, population, urbanization, and market production in China

Waterway linking southern rice-producing regions with northern centers, lowering transport costs and moving grain, taxes, officials, troops, and commercial goods

Growth of market production, monetary and credit transactions, regional specialization, urban consumption, and interconnected trade in Song China

Production of goods for markets by households and small workshops before mechanized factory industrialization

Government-backed Song currency that facilitated large transactions by reducing the need to transport heavy copper coins

Large-scale Song manufacture of metals for farm tools, construction, weapons, and household goods, using improved furnaces and specialized workshops

The “abode of Islam”: regions where Muslims ruled or Islamic institutions substantially shaped public life, not a single empire

Monotheistic faith based on one God, Muhammad’s prophethood, the Quran, and membership in the Muslim community

Shahada, profession of faith; salat, five daily prayers; zakat, charitable giving; sawm, fasting during Ramadan; and hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca when able

The ideal body of Islamic moral and legal principles interpreted from the Quran and hadith by legal scholars

The division originating in disagreement over legitimate leadership after Muhammad, with continuing religious and political importance

The Baghdad-based caliphate whose political authority fragmented into regional states while its caliphs retained symbolic prestige

Sunni Turkic states that used Persian administrators, supported madrasas, and left practical authority to sultans while honoring the Abbasid caliph

A caliph claimed leadership of the Muslim community, while a sultan held practical political and military power

The military-elite state that ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517 and made Cairo a major Islamic center

Successive Muslim dynasties that ruled much of northern India from 1206 to 1526 using military expansion and Persian administrative practices

Protected but subordinate Jews and Christians under Muslim rule who retained communal religious institutions while generally paying a tax imposed on adult non-Muslim men

Islam’s mystical and devotional tradition, emphasizing closeness to God and helping spread Islam through adaptable teaching and Sufi communities

Period of flourishing scholarship and culture in the Islamic world marked by the preservation and expansion of knowledge in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy, and literature

Abbasid-era scholarly center in Baghdad associated with the collection, translation, and study of Greek, Persian, and Indian knowledge

Persian mathematician and astronomer who directed the Maragha observatory, advanced trigonometry, and devised the Tusi couple

Muslim-ruled Iberian territory that transmitted Islamic and Greek learning into Latin Europe while gradually losing land to Christian kingdoms

Diverse South Asian tradition centered on dharma, karma, reincarnation, and moksha that shaped caste, kingship, temples, and social duties

Hindu concepts of religious and social duty, actions shaping future rebirths, the cycle of death and rebirth, and liberation from that cycle

South Asian hierarchy in which broad varnas defined ideal status while numerous local jatis organized occupation, marriage, and social interaction

Hindu devotional movement emphasizing personal love of a deity through vernacular poetry, song, pilgrimage, and worship open to broader participation

Competing Hindu warrior states of northern and northwestern India that relied on forts, cavalry, marriage alliances, and temple patronage

Hindu empire founded in southern India in 1336 that used armies, agricultural revenue, trade, subordinate chiefs, and temple patronage to maintain power

Sri Lankan ruling houses that legitimized fragmented regional rule by protecting Theravada Buddhism, monasteries, Pali learning, and the Buddha’s tooth relic

Sumatra-centered Mahayana Buddhist maritime state that profited from its location near the Strait of Malacca through naval power, port alliances, tribute, and trade-related taxes

Angkor-centered mainland Southeast Asian empire supported by rice agriculture, tribute, military power, waterworks, and Hindu-Buddhist royal patronage

Monumental Khmer temple originally dedicated to Vishnu whose Mount Meru design, scale, and cosmic layout proclaimed sacred royal authority

Hindu-Buddhist state founded on Java in 1293 that combined agricultural wealth with naval force, tribute, alliances, and commercial influence

Thirteenth-century Thai state that used rice wealth, local alliances, and Theravada Buddhist righteous kingship as Khmer influence weakened

Selective Southeast Asian adaptation of Indian religions, Sanskrit titles, epics, architecture, and political ideas to local purposes

Independent, competing urban states ruled by sacred dynasties; shared Maya culture never produced a unified empire

Major Mississippian urban and ceremonial center near present-day St. Louis whose mounds show chiefly coordination of labor; declined and was largely abandoned by about 1350

The Mexica founded Tenochtitlan and dominated the empire conventionally called the Aztec Empire

Mexica island capital founded in Lake Texcoco in 1325 and developed into the Aztec Empire’s political and ceremonial center

Highly productive raised agricultural plots built from mud and vegetation in the shallow lakes around Tenochtitlan

The Inca “land of the four quarters,” a territorially integrated Andean empire centered on Cusco

Compulsory rotating labor owed by Andean households for state farming, armies, mining, textiles, and public works

The basic Andean kinship and economic community that organized members’ access to land and reciprocal labor

A state network of roads and suspension bridges that integrated provinces and moved officials, armies, labor, and information

Colored, knotted cords used by Inca specialists to record populations, labor obligations, and stored goods numerically

Belief that spirits or sacred forces inhabit natural objects, places, plants, animals, and other parts of the physical world

Societies in which families, clans, and lineages organize political authority, social identity, landholding, and reciprocal obligations

West African empire founded in the thirteenth century that grew wealthy by controlling gold-producing regions and taxing trans-Saharan commerce

Founder of the Mali Empire who defeated regional rivals in the thirteenth century and established a powerful Mandinka state

Mali ruler whose wealthy 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca displayed the empire’s gold resources and strengthened its connections to the Islamic world

Independent East African coastal trading cities that connected the African interior to Indian Ocean commerce and blended Bantu and Islamic cultures

Shona-built tributary state and stone capital supported by farming, cattle, gold, ivory, and trade with the Indian Ocean coast

Christian highland monarchy that used Aksumite continuity, church institutions, sacred genealogy, tribute, and military expansion to build and legitimize royal power

Independent but culturally connected West African city-states supported by farming, crafts, fortified cities, trade, and authority over nearby villages

Monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus, whom Christians regard as the Messiah and Son of God, and on salvation through him

Pope-led western Christian institution that shaped worship, education, law, social life, landholding, and politics across European kingdoms

Christian tradition influential in Byzantium and eastern Europe, associated with icons, local liturgies, the patriarch of Constantinople, and imperial involvement in religion

Formal 1054 division between the Roman Catholic Church in western Europe and the Eastern Orthodox Church centered on Constantinople

The office and institution of the pope, who claimed supreme spiritual authority over the Latin Catholic Church

Political and military system in which a lord granted a vassal a fief in return for homage, loyalty, counsel, and usually military service

Political and military relationship in which a vassal pledged loyalty and service to a lord in return for protection and usually a fief

Local economic and social system organizing an estate’s land, agricultural production, peasant obligations, and the lord’s judicial authority

Legally restricted agricultural labor binding peasants to a lord’s estate and requiring labor, rent, crops, or fees; obligations could be inherited, but serfs retained customary household and land rights

Idealized social order of those who prayed, those who fought, and those who worked: clergy, nobles, and commoners

Church-sanctioned military campaigns that joined religious aims to warfare in the eastern Mediterranean, Iberia, and the Baltic

Loosely organized central European realm whose princes, bishops, and free cities acknowledged an emperor while retaining substantial autonomy

1215 charter forced on King John by English barons, affirming that the king was subject to law and certain obligations required consultation

Representative institution that developed from royal meetings with nobles and clergy to include county and town representatives, especially for taxation

Eastern continuation of the Roman Empire centered on Constantinople that preserved Roman government and Greek culture and promoted Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Political system in which a secular ruler exercises strong authority over both the state and the church

East Slavic federation centered on Kyiv that prospered through river trade and adopted Eastern Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium

Dispersion of Jewish communities outside their ancestral homeland while maintaining shared religious, cultural, and communal traditions

Prejudice, hostility, discrimination, or violence directed against Jews because of their religion, ethnicity, or identity