the complete idiot's guide to world history vocab section
Terms : Hide Images
| 381977406 | absolute monarchs | Type of government that arose in Europe during the seventeenth century in which the monarch controlled nation-state for the greater benefit of the people. | 0 | |
| 381977407 | alphabet script | Written communication in which symbols represent speech, sounds, and/or letters. | 1 | |
| 381977408 | animism | Belief that life is produced by a spiritual force that is separate from matter; Sometimes includes the belief in the existence of spirits and demons which inhabit particular objects. | 2 | |
| 381977409 | anti-Semitism | Hostility and discrimination toward the Jewish people. | 3 | |
| 381977410 | apartheid | Legal and institutional separation of black and whites that existed in South Africa during most of the twentieth century. | 4 | |
| 381977411 | authoritarianism | Enforcement of unquestioning obedience to authority without individual freedom; dictatorships characterize this type of rule. | 5 | |
| 381977412 | B.C.E. | Newer historical terms which replaces B.C. and stands for Before the Common Era. | 6 | |
| 381977413 | bureaucracy | Administrative system based on nonelected officials, policies, and procedures. | 7 | |
| 381977414 | C.E. | Newer historical term which replaces A.D. and stands for Common Era. | 8 | |
| 381977415 | caste system | System in which people obtain their tank in the society from their birth parents; change of rank or class in this system is very difficult. | 9 | |
| 381977416 | city-state | Form of political organization in which a city-based ruler controls the surrounding countryside. | 10 | |
| 381977417 | civilization | Society that has developed systematic agriculture to produce a food surplus in addition to an elite and merchant class. | 11 | |
| 381977418 | colonization | New settlement of people linked to the parent country through trade and government control. | 12 | |
| 381977419 | Colombian Exchange | Exchange of goods, plants, animals, and also diseases that happened after Columbus' initial discovery between Europe and the Americas. | 13 | |
| 381977420 | communism | Economic theory which advocates the ownership of property by the community as a whole. | 14 | |
| 381977421 | conservative | Policies that support tradition and stability; during the early nineteenth century, conservatives believed in obedience to political authority and the importance of organized religion. | 15 | |
| 381977422 | coup d'état | French term to designate sudden, violent, and forcible overthrow of a government by a small group of people with military or political authority. | 16 | |
| 381977423 | cultural diffusion | Exchange of culture between societies. | 17 | |
| 381977424 | culture | Ideas, customs, language, and skills of a society that are transmitted through time. | 18 | |
| 381977425 | cuneiform | Wedge-shaped writing produced on clay tablets developed by the Sumerians. | 19 | |
| 381977426 | democracy | Government by the people; directly or elected by representatives. | 20 | |
| 381977427 | détente | Lessening of tensions between nations due to treaties or trade agreements. | 21 | |
| 381977428 | dynasty | Family of rulers who pass on the right to rule within the family. | 22 | |
| 381977429 | empire | Government that controls several different territories and people. | 23 | |
| 381977430 | empiricism | Belief that sensory experience through observations and experiments is the only source of human knowledge. | 24 | |
| 381977431 | enlightened monarchs | Rulers who used the principles of the Enlightenment during their rule while also maintaining their absolute powers. | 25 | |
| 381977432 | enlightenment | Intellectual movement centered in Europe during the eighteenth century that featured the application of scientific methods to the study of sociey; belief that rational laws and reason can describe society. | 26 | |
| 381977433 | environmentalism | Use of policies to solve environmental problems such as pollution, shortage of natural resources, and population growth. | 27 | |
| 381977434 | epic poem | Long poem that details the deeds of heroes. | 28 | |
| 381977435 | fascisim | Government led by dictator that glorifies the state of the above individual. | 29 | |
| 381977436 | feudalism | Economic, political, and social system in which land, worked by peasants who are bound to it, is held by a lord in exchange for military service to an overlord. | 30 | |
| 381977437 | filial piety | Duty of family members to lower their needs and desires to those of the male head of the family or ruler. | 31 | |
| 381977438 | globalization | Interconnectedness of the nations of the world in communication, commerce, culture and politics. | 32 | |
| 381977439 | Green Revolution | Development of better types of rice, corn, and other grains that have better yields per acre than traditional crops. | 33 | |
| 381977440 | gunpowder empires | Empires formed by unifying different regions through conquest based on the superior use of firearms. | 34 | |
| 381977441 | hominids | Humans or human-like creatures that walk upright. | 35 | |
| 381977442 | humanism | System of thought with man at the center; man is the sum of all things. | 36 | |
| 381977443 | iconoclasm | Policies that oppose the religious use of images and advocate the destruction of such images. | 37 | |
| 381977444 | ideographic script | Written script in which a graphic symbol represents an idea, concept, or object without expressing the sound that forms its name. | 38 | |
| 381977445 | imperialism | Extension of political and cultural power over many different regions. | 39 | |
| 381977446 | Industrial Revolution | Technological revolution starting in England in the mid-seventeenth century in which newly invented machines were used in production leading to population, agricultural, and commercial growth. | 40 | |
| 381977447 | Inquisition | General tribunal used to discover and confront heresy in the Roman Catholic Church during the late Middle Ages. | 41 | |
| 381977448 | liberalism | Intellectual movement based on the ideas of the Enlightenment with several loosely assembled tenets; people were to be free as possible from government restraint; government was to be used to protect the civil liberties of the people; emphasis on the use of representative assemblies in which voting and office should be limited to men of property; the rule of constitutions. | 42 | |
| 381977449 | Marxism | Intellectual movement developed by Karl Marx in the nineteenth century in which history was defined as a class struggle between groups without power and groups controlling the means of production. | 43 | |
| 381977450 | mercantilism | Economic policy that many European governments pursued during the eighteenth and nineteenth century; nation was to export more valuable goods than they imported; theoretically the pursuit of this policy makes a nation rich and powerful by keeping economic resources in the country. | 44 | |
| 381977451 | Middle Passage | Voyages of African slaves from Africa to the Americas that occurred from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. | 45 | |
| 381977452 | migration | Movement of people from one region to another. | 46 | |
| 381977453 | militarism | Dependence on military strength to obtain political objectives. | 47 | |
| 381977454 | modernism | Artistic and literary movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in which artists intentionally moved away from all previous artistic styles. | 48 | |
| 381977455 | monotheism | Religious worship of a single god. | 49 | |
| 381977456 | nationalism | Belief that a nation should be made of people who have a common language, traditions, religions, and customs. | 50 | |
| 381977457 | Neolithic Revolution | Period of time in which systematic agriculture and the domestication of animals occurred; varies from 8000 to 5000 B.C.E.depending on the region. | 51 | |
| 381977458 | nomads | Herding societies that move from place to place in search of better pastureland. | 52 | |
| 381977459 | Old Regime | Social system of eighteenth century France that consisted of three estates: clergy, nobility, and middle/lower class. | 53 | |
| 381977460 | oligarchy | Government ruled by an elite and powerful few. | 54 | |
| 381977461 | Pax Mongolia | Period of time in which transregional trade and commerce was renewed under the watch of the Mongolian armies. | 55 | |
| 382981639 | Pax Romana | Period of 200 years of relative peace in Roman History. | 56 | |
| 382981640 | polis | Greek city-state which included the city and the surrounding countryside which it controlled and used for farming. | 57 | |
| 382981641 | polytheistic | Religious worship of many different gods. | 58 | |
| 382981642 | realism | Artistic movement of the mid-nineteenth century that sought to portray life as it really was. | 59 | |
| 382981643 | Reformation | Religious movement of the sixteenth century originating with Martin Luther; demanded the reform of the Roman Catholic Church; resulted in the division of the church. | 60 | |
| 382981644 | Renaissance | Cultural and political movement that began in Italy during the fifteenth century; development of literature and art that were more secular than that of the Middle Ages. | 61 | |
| 382981645 | republic | Government in which leader acquires consent of the governed through voting. | 62 | |
| 382981646 | rogue nation | Nation that acts outside the boundaries of international law and diplomacy. | 63 | |
| 382981647 | Romanticism | Artistic and literar movement of nineteenth century Europe; belief that emotion is key to understanding human experience. | 64 | |
| 382981648 | satellite state | Small state that is economically and/or politically dependent on a larger more powerful state; they adjust their policies based on the desires of the larger state. | 65 | |
| 382981649 | Scientific Revolution | Intellectual movement of seventeenth century Europe that used empiricism to develop wider scientific and theoretical generalizations. | 66 | |
| 382981650 | secularism | Intellectual movement that rejects the use of religion or religious consideration. | 67 | |
| 382981651 | Silk Road | Trading routes that connected European, Indian, and Chinese civilizations transmitting goods and ideas. | 68 | |
| 382981652 | socialism | Political movement that started in Europe during the nineteenth century; wanted the state to control the means of production to create equality in society. | 69 | |
| 382981653 | sultanate | Region ruled by the authority and office of a strictly Islamic monarch. | 70 | |
| 382981654 | terrorism | Use of force or threats to demoralize or intimidate in order to obtain political objectives. | 71 | |
| 382981655 | theocrat | Ruler who claims to have the sanction of a god or gods in directing a government; claims have a powerful effect if the religion is culturally important. | 72 | |
| 382981656 | Ptolemaic system | Belief advanced by the second century Greek mathematician that Earth was a fixed point and the celestial bodies orbited around it | 73 | |
| 382981657 | total war | Warfare that involves the mobilization of an entire nation including its civilian population. | 74 | |
| 382981658 | triangular trade network | Network that emerged during the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries; manufactured goods were traded in Africa for slaves; slaves were shipped to the Americas where they were exchanged for sugar, tobacco, and raw cotton; those products were shipped to Europe to be made into finished goods which went back to the colonies or to Africa to begin the trading network again. | 75 | |
| 382981659 | Westernization | Process in which a nation adopts the culture and institutions that typify the West. | 76 | |
| 382981660 | Zionism | Movement that argued that the Jewish people must return to the region of Palestine. | 77 |
