4369370246 | diffusion | Is the spreading of other peoples ideas to different parts of the world. | 0 | |
4369374103 | conduit | a means by which something is transmitted (ex: religion, disease, technology via trade routes) | 1 | |
4369380103 | Swahili city-states | A number of commercial polities established mostly by Indian Ocean trade by Bantu descendants the Swahili, they rose to significant economic and political sapience between 700 and 1100 CE forming large trade ports with coral brick houses and a wealthy merchant and artisan class. Primarily traded gold and ivory but knowledge also traveled along these routes | ![]() | 2 |
4369383535 | Timbuktu | Mali trading city that became a center of wealth and learning; Muslim | ![]() | 3 |
4369387410 | Venice | An Italian town along with Pisa and Genoa that controlled the Mediterranean trade after 1200 CE bringing silks and spices from Asia to Europe. | ![]() | 4 |
4369398093 | luxury goods | Goods that have special qualities that make them more expensive than alternative goods (ex: silk, cotton textiles, porcelain, spices, precious gems/metals) | 5 | |
4369404104 | porcelain | a thin, beautiful pottery invented in China; China had a monopoly on porcelain for a long time, luxury good | ![]() | 6 |
4369411186 | astrolabe | An instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the position of the stars and planets; encouraged the growth of trade and exploration; invented by the Greek 220 BCE | ![]() | 7 |
4369427919 | paper money | legal currency issued on paper; it developed in China as a convenient alternative to metal coins | ![]() | 8 |
4369442063 | Hanseatic League | an organization of north German and Scandinavian cities for the purpose of establishing a commercial alliance. | 9 | |
4369445308 | Byzantine Empire | (330 CE-1453 CE) The eastern half of the Roman Empire, which survived after the fall of the Western Empire at the end of the 5th century C.E. Its capital was Constantinople, named after the Emperor Constantine. Christian, centralized, Hagia Sophia, ceasorpapism | ![]() | 10 |
4369472698 | caesaropapism | A political- religious system in which the secular ruler is also head of the religious establishment, as in the Byzantine Empire. | ![]() | 11 |
4369485130 | Bantu migration | The movement of the Bantu peoples southward throughout Africa, spreading their language and culture, iron metallurgy, and agricultural techniques from around 500 BCE to around 1000 CE | ![]() | 12 |
4369497083 | Polynesian migration | originating from somewhere in Southeast Asia, these people spread out to neighboring islands, bringing culture, trade, and agriculture with them via canoes. (spread domesticated animals like dogs, pigs, and chickens and crops like sugar cane, bananas, and taro) | ![]() | 13 |
4369658733 | diasporic community | a group (in this case, merchants) scattered far from home who settles together (examples: Muslim merchant communities in the Indian Ocean, Chinese merchant communities in SE Asia, Jewish communities in the Mediterranean) | 14 | |
4369668537 | Ibn Battuta | Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan. Was very judgmental of other cultures. | ![]() | 15 |
4369671630 | Marco Polo | Venetian merchant and traveler. His accounts of his travels to China offered Europeans a firsthand view of Asian lands and stimulated interest in Asian trade. | ![]() | 16 |
4369674980 | Neoconfucianism | term that describes the resurgence of Confucianism and the influence of Confucian scholars during the T'ang Dynasty; a unification of Daoist or Buddhist metaphysics with Confucian pragmatism | 17 | |
4369678503 | Tang and Song Dynasties | Two of the most famous dynasties in all of Chinese history, not just in the era c. 600 -c. 1450. Under these dynasties, China had the world's largest population, the most advanced technology and the most splendid cities. | 18 | |
4369834211 | moveable type | A system of printing in the Tang and Song that resulted in an increase in literacy and bureaucrats among the lower classes; spread from E. Asia to the Islamic empires and Western Europe during the 500 - 1450 CE time period. | ![]() | 19 |
4369847229 | gunpowder | Invented within China during the 9th century, this substance was became the dominate military technology used to expand European and Asian empires by the 15th century (1400s) | ![]() | 20 |
4369860712 | 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 (aka: decentralized political authority) - seen in Western Europe and Japan in period 3 (500 - 1450) | ![]() | 21 |
4369867751 | Black Death | A deadly plague with origins in East Asia that swept through Europe between 1347 and 1351; followed previously established trade routes | ![]() | 22 |
4369874711 | syncretism | The unification or blending of opposing people, ideas, or practices, frequently in the realm of religion. For example, when Christianity was adopted by people in a new land, they often incorporate it into their existing culture and traditions. | 23 | |
4369885716 | Islam | 622 C.E. A religion based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed which stresses belief in one god (Allah), Paradise and Hell, and a body of law written in the Quran. Followers are called Muslims. Expanded through the use of merchants and missionaries and military expansion. | ![]() | 24 |
4369886887 | mosque | A Muslim place of worship; has several distinct architectural elements such as minarets (towers that call Muslims to prayer), and a qibla wall that indicates the direction of Mecca | ![]() | 25 |
4369890068 | caliphate | Islamic empire ruled by those believed to be the successors to the Prophet Muhammad. (examples: Umayyad, Abbasid) | 26 | |
4369905174 | chinampa field system | a method of ancient Mesoamerican agriculture which used small, rectangle-shaped areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico | ![]() | 27 |
4369907653 | Aztecs | Also known as Mexica, they created a powerful empire in central Mexico (1325-1521 C.E.). They forced defeated peoples to provide goods and labor as a tax (tribute system). Practiced human sacrifice and used religion to justify their rule. Capital was Tenochtitlan in modern-day Mexico City. | ![]() | 28 |
4369911954 | horse collar | Harnessing method that increased the efficiency of horses by shifting the point of traction from the animal's neck to the shoulders; increased agricultural production in Europe b/c soil was harder there and required more work to plow | ![]() | 29 |
4369918817 | Little Ice Age | A century-long period of cool climate that began in the 1590s. Its ill effects on agriculture in northern Europe were notable. | ![]() | 30 |
4369921219 | Vikings | one of a seafaring Scandinavian people who raided the coasts of northern and western Europe from the eighth through the tenth century. | ![]() | 31 |
4369924802 | urbanization | Movement of people from rural areas to cities | ![]() | 32 |
4369929401 | guild | A medieval organization of crafts workers or trades people. | ![]() | 33 |
4369933045 | coerced labor | When people are forced to work either as slaves or serfs. | ![]() | 34 |
4369935833 | serfs | men of women who were the poorest members of society, peasants who worked the lord's land in exchange for protection | ![]() | 35 |
4369941104 | mit'a | Labor extracted for lands assigned to the state and the religion; all communities were expected to contribute; an essential aspect of Inca imperial control. | ![]() | 36 |
4369977335 | Muhammad | The last prophet believed by Muslims who talked to the Archangel Gabriel and whose life teachings is compiled in the Hadith. | 37 | |
4369984861 | Mongols | A people of this name is mentioned as early as the records of the Tang Empire, living as nomads in northern Eurasia. After 1206 they established an enormous empire under Genghis Khan, linking western and eastern Eurasia. | ![]() | 38 |
4369988717 | caliph | A supreme political and religious leader in a Muslim government | ![]() | 39 |
4369998577 | Crusades | Armed pilgrimages to the Holy Land by Christians determined to recover Jerusalem from Muslim rule. The Crusades brought an end to western Europe's centuries of intellectual and cultural isolation. | ![]() | 40 |
4370039594 | Ming Dynasty | Succeeded Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1368; lasted until 1644; initially mounted huge trade expeditions to southern Asia and elsewhere, but later concentrated efforts on internal development within China. | ![]() | 41 |
4370045753 | Zheng He | An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa. | ![]() | 42 |
4370067257 | caravels | Slender, long-hulled vessels utilized by Portuguese; highly maneuverable and able to sail against the wind; key to development of Portuguese trade empire | ![]() | 43 |
4370073505 | mercantilism | An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought | ![]() | 44 |
4370081308 | joint-stock companies | Formed in the absence of support from the British Crown, these accrued funding for colonization through the sale of public stock. These companies dominated English colonization throughout the seventeenth century. | ![]() | 45 |
4370088931 | Columbian Exchange | The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages. | ![]() | 46 |
4370091845 | the great dying | The name given to the near extinction (90% mortality rate) of the indigenous people of the Americas due to smallpox and measles brought via the Columbian Exchange | 47 | |
4370096575 | Sunni Muslim | Majority of the Muslims; believe successor of Muhammad can be an elected caliph. | 48 | |
4370098129 | Shiite Muslim | Accept only the descendants of Ali as the true leaders of Islam | 49 | |
4370101860 | Reformation | A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches | ![]() | 50 |
4370103660 | Martin Luther | 16th century German monk and professor who is considered to be the person who started the Protestant Reformation; he began by criticizing Church practices (mainly indulgences) and ultimately broke with the Catholic Church to form his own new religious faith | 51 | |
4370106342 | Counter Reformation | the reaction of the Roman Catholic Church to the Reformation reaffirming the veneration of saints and the authority of the Pope (to which Protestants objected) | 52 | |
4370108507 | Jesuits | Also known as the Society of Jesus; founded by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) as a teaching and missionary order to resist the spread of Protestantism. | ![]() | 53 |
4370110969 | Sikhism | the doctrines of a monotheistic religion founded in northern India in the 16th century by Guru Nanak and combining elements of Hinduism and Islam | ![]() | 54 |
4370116178 | wood block prints | Japanese artform, Ukiyo-e school, depict nature and landscapes,historical tales | ![]() | 55 |
4370120931 | Renaissance | "rebirth"; following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome; began in Florence, Italy | ![]() | 56 |
4370123615 | Vodun | Or voodoo is a syncretism faith that combines the animist faith of West Africa with Christianity. | 57 | |
4370130916 | indentured servitude | A worker bound by a voluntary agreement to work for a specified period of years often in return for free passage to an overseas destination. Before 1800 most were Europeans; after 1800 most indentured laborers were Asians. | ![]() | 58 |
4370134066 | chattel slavery | A system of bondage in which a slave has the legal status of property and so can be bought and sold like property. | ![]() | 59 |
4370140710 | 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 | ![]() | 60 |
4370143926 | Manchus | Northeast Asian peoples who defeated the Ming Dynasty and founded the Qing Dynasty in 1644, which was the last of China's imperial dynasties. | ![]() | 61 |
4370146144 | creoles | Descendents of Spanish-born but born in Latin America; resented inferior social, political, economic status. | ![]() | 62 |
4370148054 | castas | middle-level status between Europeans and pure minorities (made up of mezitos and mulattoes) | ![]() | 63 |
4370149497 | peninsulares | Spanish-born, came to Latin America; ruled, highest social class. | ![]() | 64 |
4370152114 | daimyo | A Japanese feudal lord who commanded a private army of samurai | ![]() | 65 |
4370155528 | gentry | A class of powerful, well-to-do people who enjoy a high social status; usually wealthy and land-owning existing in Europe | ![]() | 66 |
4370159625 | Divine right | Belief that a rulers authority comes directly from god. (Used by European kings to justify their rule) | ![]() | 67 |
4370166691 | millet system | Divided regions in the Ottoman Empire by religion (Orthodox Christians, Jews, Armenian Christians, Muslims). Leaders of each millet supported the Sultan in exchange for power over their millet. | 68 | |
4370174901 | devshirme | Ottoman policy of taking boys from Christian peoples to be trained as Muslim soldiers | ![]() | 69 |
4370177278 | janissaries | Infantry, originally of slave origin, armed with firearms and constituting the elite of the Ottoman army from the fifteenth century until the corps was abolished in 1826. | ![]() | 70 |
4370181925 | Civil Service Exam | In Imperial China starting in the Han dynasty, it was an exam based on Confucian teachings that was used to select people for various government service jobs in the nationwide administrative bureaucracy. | ![]() | 71 |
4370186692 | samurai | a member of a powerful military caste in feudal Japan, especially a member of the class of military retainers of the daimyos. | ![]() | 72 |
4370194973 | maritime | of, relating to, or adjacent to the sea. | ![]() | 73 |
4370197805 | Dutch Empire | Dominated by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Established Cape Town, New Amsterdam in Manhattan, Batavia on Java and displaced the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. Also had Ceylon and some colonies in the West Indies. Most wealth came from SE Asian spices and tea from plantations in Ceylon. | ![]() | 74 |
AP World History Exam Review (Unit 3 & 4) Flashcards
Primary tabs
Need Help?
We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.
For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.
If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.
Need Notes?
While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!