Hello, welcome to the ultimate study guide for the AP World History exam. Have fun, and good luck. This is basically a compilation of every notecard term in the unit.
Terms : Hide Images
| 4671283098 | Early Modern Period | the time period of 1450 - 1750 (it is called this because events occurring in this time directly shape regional/political units of todays world) | 0 | |
| 4671283099 | Catholic Reformation | the church's actions to revive their reputation and membership roles in 1545 (regained control of most of southern Europe, Austria, Poland, and much of Hungary) | 1 | |
| 4671283100 | Jesuits | a religious order converting people to return to the church (went to Asia + Americas in 1500's) | 2 | |
| 4671283101 | Thirty Years War | War within the Holy Roman Empire between German Protestants and their allies (Sweden, Denmark, France) and the emperor and his ally, Spain; ended in 1648 after great destruction with Treaty of Westphalia | 3 | |
| 4671283102 | Treaty of Westphalia | Ended the 30 years war, allowing principalities and cities to choose their own religion, creating a patchwork of religious affiliations through England. | 4 | |
| 4671283103 | English Civil War | This was the revolution as a result of whether the sovereignty would remain with the king or with the Parliament. Eventually, the kingship was abolished. | 5 | |
| 4671283104 | Scientific Revolution | a new vision of science developed during the renaissance in the 17th + 18th century | 6 | |
| 4671283105 | Scholasticism | Scholars based their inquiry on the principles established by the church, which sometimes resulted in clases between science and religion | 7 | |
| 4671283106 | Brahe & Kepler | developed a more complex theory from Copernicus in 1610 | 8 | |
| 4671283107 | Galileo | used the first telescope during the Renaissance in 1609, where he made many large discoveries in the solar system, until he was put under house arrest for spreading conflicting ideas | 9 | |
| 4671283108 | Isaac Newton | discovered the basic principles of motion + gravity, where he captured the vision of a entire universe in simple laws | 10 | |
| 4671283109 | Humanism | interest in the capabilities and accomplishments of individuals | 11 | |
| 4671283110 | Patrons | supporters of the arts, with payment and such, they found talented artists, often when they were young | 12 | |
| 4671283111 | Medici | was a powerful family of Florence in the mid to late 1400s that sponsored artists as a rich merchant family | 13 | |
| 4671283112 | Erasmus | a humanist Dutch priest that published the first edition of the New Testament in Greek in 1516 | 14 | |
| 4671283113 | Johan Gutenberg | a German goldsmith and printer, who created the printing press, in 1454 | 15 | |
| 4671283114 | Nicolo Machiavelli | a Renaissance writer who wrote, "The Prince" which was a famous philosophical view of the ideal political leader in the 16th century, in Italian city states | 16 | |
| 4671283115 | Protestant 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 | 17 | |
| 4671283116 | Indulgences | The Catholic Church's grants of salvation for money in the 1500s, and was part of the growing corruption of the church. | 18 | |
| 4671283117 | John Calvin | A protestant who established a variation of his beliefs on a stern and vengeful God. | 19 | |
| 4671283118 | Anglican Church | A form of Christianity established by Henry VIII that was not decided on the grounds of religious belief, but because the pope would not allow him to divorce his wife. | 20 | |
| 4671283119 | Nicholas Copernicus | a Polish monk who based tables on those by Nasir Al-Din, an Islamic scholar, to correct inaccurate calendars. | 21 | |
| 4671283120 | Edict of Nantes | The granting of tolerance to Protestants through this, which was later revoked by King Louis XIV | 22 | |
| 4671283121 | Martin Luther | a German monk who wrote the 95 theses in 1517, which were 95 propositions that criticized the Catholic Church | 23 | |
| 4671283122 | Renaissance Man | Title of a person who was smart and genius in the Renaissance Era. | 24 | |
| 4671283123 | Deism | God built the universe and let it run. Clockmaker theory. | 25 | |
| 4671283124 | Land-based Powers | A shift in land based powers where governments controlled lands by building armies, bureaucracies, road, canals, and walls that unified and protected | 26 | |
| 4671283125 | Sea-based Powers | Sea people built their power by controlling water routes, developing technology to cross the seas, and gaining wealth from trade and land claims. | 27 | |
| 4671283126 | Renaissance | A heightened intellectual and artistic advance from about 1450s, that changed Europe forever | 28 | |
| 4671283127 | Adam Smith | He analyzed the natural law of supply and demand that governed economies in his classic book, "The Wealth of Nations" | 29 | |
| 4671283128 | New Monarchies | Monarchies that emerged that differed from their medieval predecessors in having greater centralization of power, more regional boundaries, and stronger representative institutions | 30 | |
| 4671283129 | Constitutional Monarchy | States where rulers shared power with a parliament, a body of representatives selected by the nobility and urban citizens | 31 | |
| 4671283130 | Gentry | the most powerful members of a society, and landowners that affected the style of the old aristocracy | 32 | |
| 4671283131 | Enlightenment | the emphasis on human abilities and accomplishments and the importance of independent and rational thought | 33 | |
| 4671283132 | John Locke | sought to understand the impact of the "laws of nature" on human liberties | 34 | |
| 4671283133 | Thomas Hobbes | English materialist and political philosopher who advocated absolute sovereignty as the only kind of government that could resolve problems caused by the selfishness of human beings (1588-1679) | 35 | |
| 4671283134 | Montesquieu | admired the British Parliament that had successfully gained power at the expense of the king, who also advocated a three-branch government with three branches that shared political power | 36 | |
| 4671283135 | Voltaire | wrote witty criticisms of the French monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church. He believed both institutions to be despotic and intolerant, limiting freedoms | 37 | |
| 4671283136 | Rosseau | the most radical of the common philosophers, he proclaimed in his social context that "Man is born free: and everywhere he is in chains". Since society had "Corrupted" human nature, he advocated a return to nature in a small, co-op community | 38 | |
| 4671283137 | Hapsburg | A powerful family with land claims all over Europe from Spain to Italy to the Netherlands to Hungary, as all the Holy Roman Emperor's had been Hapsburg since 1273 | 39 | |
| 4671283138 | Holy Roman Empire | a place/time where religion remained very important, and religious issues continued to fragment, and strong kings emerged in the 16th century | 40 | |
| 4671283139 | Reconquest | the retaking of land in Iberia by Spain and Portugal in a religious crusade to expand. This conquest advanced in waves over several centuries. | 41 | |
| 4671283140 | Phillip II | ruled Spain at the height of its power in the 15th century | 42 | |
| 4671283141 | Divine Right | with God's blessing of the king's authority, the legitimacy of royalty across Europe was enhanced, and occurred under the reign of Louis XIV during the 17th and 18th centuries | 43 | |
| 4671283142 | Louis XIV | Understood the importance of a "theatre state", by building a magnificent palace at Versailles, and the apex of absolutism occurred under him | 44 | |
| 4671283143 | Absolute Monarchies vs. limited monarchies | absolute monarchies held complete control over their kingdom vs. the limited power. | 45 | |
| 4671283144 | Capitalism | an economic system based on private ownership of property and business that provide goods to be bough and sold in a free manner | 46 | |
| 4671283145 | Mercantilism | the responsibility of government to promote the states economy to improve the revenues and limit imports to prevent profits from going to outsiders (allows industry to develop their own business) | 47 | |
| 4671283146 | Joint-stock Companies | these companies organized commercial ventures on a large scale by allowing investors to buy and sell shares. The new capitalist system largely replaced the old guild system of the middle ages. | 48 | |
| 4671283147 | Putting out system | the concept of producing goods in the countryside outside the guilds control by delivering raw materials to their homes, where they are transformed into finished products to be used up later | 49 | |
| 4671283148 | Bourgeoise | middle class; factory owners who put long hours and much of their profits into their businesses | 50 | |
| 4671283149 | Balance of Power | states forming a temporary alliance to prevent the state form being too powerful. (Russia emerged as a major power in Europe after its mediterranean armies got Sweden in the GNW) | 51 | |
| 4671283150 | Versailles | a place where Louis' palace was built symbolizing the French's triumph over the traditional rights of the nobility and clergy. This kept nobles away from plotting rebellions, and 'distracted europe'. | 52 | |
| 4671283151 | Zheng He | led expiditions in Chinese junks across the atlantic ocean, with one goal being to assert Chinas power after the demise of the Yuan dynasty. | 53 | |
| 4671283152 | Yongle | something of a renegade who supported a series of seven maritimes expeditions. Chinese vessels started to take tribute from those they encountered. | 54 | |
| 4671283153 | Henry the Navigator | the third son of the portuguese king; devoted his life to navigation, creating a navigation school, which became a magnet for the cartographers of the world | 55 | |
| 4671283154 | Caravel | a new ship developed by the portuguese, which was much smaller than the junk, but size allowed for exploration of shallower coastal areas | 56 | |
| 4671283155 | Vasco da Gama | set out to find the tip of Africa and connect it to the Indian Ocean, and discovered the fastest and safest ways to travel to Portugal | 57 | |
| 4671283156 | Christopher Columbus | A Genoese mariner who convinced Isabella and Ferdinand to sponsor a voyage across the Atlantic after he was turned down by the Genoese and Portugal. He believed he could reach east Asia by sailing West. | 58 | |
| 4671283157 | Treaty of Tordesillas "Tortillas" | a treaty making Spain and Portugal land claim boundary. Portugal pushes its explorations to India and beyond. | 59 | |
| 4671283158 | Magellan | had a ship that was first to circumnavigate the glove, even though Magellan himself died in the phillipines | 60 | |
| 4671283159 | Conquistadors | went to search for gold and convert the natives to Christianity in the interior of Mexico | 61 | |
| 4671283160 | Cortes | sought to find the Aztec capital, and took over the Aztec land - with help of Amerindians, disease, and technology | 62 | |
| 4671283161 | Moctezuma | the Aztec emperor, who welcome the Spaniards at Tenochtitlan, seeing them as god-like. This was a mistake, as this allowed everyone to conquer him. | 63 | |
| 4671283162 | Francisco Pizzaro | led a group of soldiers to the Andes to find the Inca. The Incas were weak; Pizzaro conquered and got gold. | 64 | |
| 4671283163 | Atahualpa | the leader of the Incas, who was seized by Pizzaro and gave gold to him, first baptized as a Christian, than strangled | 65 | |
| 4671283164 | Ethnocentrism | the term that describes the tendency of human beings to view their own culture as superior | 66 | |
| 4671283165 | De La Casas | a conquistador priest who dedicated himself to protecting Amerindian rights | 67 | |
| 4671283166 | Franciscans | peoples who converted new world people to christianity, and took care of the poor. | 68 | |
| 4671283167 | Encomenderos | Spanish settlers who were in charge of the natives working on the encomiendas | 69 | |
| 4671283168 | Peninsularies | a fading social class in the new world, composed of the people born in the old world | 70 | |
| 4671283169 | Mestizos | composed of European and Amerindian children, part of the castas | 71 | |
| 4671283170 | Mulattoes | composed of European and African children, also part of the castas | 72 | |
| 4671283171 | Council of Indies | supervised all government and commercial activity in the Spanish colonies | 73 | |
| 4671283172 | Bartholomew Dias | set out to find the tip of Africa and connect beyond it to the Indian Ocean, as well as discovering the fastest and safest ways back to Portugal | 74 | |
| 4671283173 | Encomienda | the system in which conquistadors had forced natives to do work for them | 75 | |
| 4671283174 | Creoles | composed of those born in the new world; a quickly growing class | 76 | |
| 4671283175 | Castas | a middle-level status between Europeans at the top; and Amerindians and blacks at the bottom | 77 | |
| 4671283176 | Protestant work ethic | a work ethic of the protestants that encouraged individual endeavors towards gaining wealth | 78 | |
| 4671283177 | Dutch East India Company | a joint stock company that specialized in the spice and luxury trade of the East Indies and quickly gained control of Dutch Trading in the Pacific | 79 | |
| 4671283178 | Lost Colony | The colony of Walter Raleigh, as well as the first venture to North America by the British on the Carolina Coast. | 80 | |
| 4671283179 | Mercantilism | a system in which the government is constantly intervened in the market, with the understanding the goal of economic gain and to benefit the mother country | 81 | |
| 4671283180 | Indentured Servitude | a system which was usually ethnically the same as a free settler, but he or she was bound by an "indenture" (contract) to work for a person for four to seven years, in exchange for payment of the new world voyage | 82 | |
| 4671283181 | Columbian exchange | the global diffusion of crops, other plants, human beings, animals, and distance that took place after the European exploring voyages of the New World | 83 | |
| 4671283182 | Atlantic Circuit | a clockwise network of sea routs in the Atlantic Ocean | 84 | |
| 4671283183 | Middle Passage | the first leg of the atlantic circuit, where ships took slaves to the new world | 85 | |
| 4671283184 | Manila Galleons | ships that traveled across the pacific ocean picking up and trading goods, like Asian luxury goods, and silver | 86 | |
| 4671283185 | House of Burgesses | the elected assembly in the colonies that initiated a form of democratic representation | 87 | |
| 4671283186 | Pilgrims | settled first in New England, and wanted to break away completely from the Church of England, sought to pursue spiritual ends in new lands | 88 | |
| 4671283187 | Puritans | wanted to purify Church of England, not break with it | 89 | |
| 4671283188 | Iroquois Confederacy | Dutch merchants established trading relationships with these guys | 90 | |
| 4671283189 | Plantocracy | a small number of rich men owns most of the slaves and land, as well as had all the power | 91 | |
| 4671283190 | Seasoning | a period of adjustment to a new environment, like with the slaves | 92 | |
| 4671283191 | Manumission | legal grant of freedom to an individual slave | 93 | |
| 4671283192 | Maroons | runaway slaves in the Carribean | 94 | |
| 4671283193 | Kongo | Christian missionaries went to this kingdom just south of the Congo River, where Christian Missionaries converted its inhabitants to Christianity | 95 | |
| 4671283194 | African Diaspora | The spreading of Africans to many other parts of the world, especially the Americas. This is one of the most important demographic changes during 1450 - 1750 | 96 | |
| 4671283195 | Asante | Produced insignificant amounts of gold and Kola nuts, they rose in West Africa on the Gold Coast. | 97 | |
| 4671283196 | Benin | Not really a significant player in the slave trade - relied on traditional products, such as ivory, textiles, and their unique bronze castings | 98 | |
| 4671283197 | Dahomey | a kingdom that used firearms to create its powerbase, in Contrast to the Asante, the Dahomey leaders were authoritarian, and often brutal in forcing compliance to the royal court | 99 | |
| 4671283198 | Cape Colony | one of the two beachland colonies established by the Europeans in the 16th century, functioned as a major coastal for travelers. | 100 | |
| 4671283199 | Hidden Imam | the 12th descendant of Muhammad, who in the end disappeared as a child | 101 | |
| 4671283200 | Shah Abbas I | brought the Safavids to the peak of the power, slave infantrymen | 102 | |
| 4671283201 | Devshirme | a system that required Christian's of the area to contribute young boys to be the sultans slaves | 103 | |
| 4671283202 | Qizilbash | fought against Janissaries in a great religious conflict. (Chaldiran) | 104 | |
| 4671283203 | Battle of Chaldrian | The Shi'ite versus Sunni conflict at Chaldrian over religious differences, that set the limits for Shi'ite expansion | 105 | |
| 4671283204 | Isfahan vs. Istanbul | These two places differed in the sense the first was far from cosmopolitan, Shi'ite, and have international trade, while the latter had more numerous, and guilds organized merchants | 106 | |
| 4671283205 | Gunpowder Empires | an age of time where almost all powerful states used guns to build control/attack (included Russia, Ming and Qing, Japan, the Ottoman Empire, the Safavid and the Mughal empire) | 107 | |
| 4671283206 | Suleiman the Magnificent | ruled the Ottomans as the empire reached the height of its power. The Ottomans controlled much of the water traffic between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean sea | 108 | |
| 4671283207 | Janissaries | Checked the military power of the sultan, being an elite military group | 109 | |
| 4671283208 | Vizier | head of the imperial administration in the Ottoman empire who took care of the day to day work of the empire, aiding the Sultan | 110 | |
| 4671283209 | Ottoman Lake | the Mediterranean Sea controlled by the empire with this name | 111 | |
| 4671283210 | Battle at Lepanto | a famous sea battle with the Ottomans vs Philip II. Ottomans and their Muslim allies lost control of many ports in this war. | 112 | |
| 4671283211 | Safavid Empire | an empire that grew from a turkish nomadic group, that were Shi'ite muslims | 113 | |
| 4671283212 | Imams | heirs of Muhammad according to Shi'ite muslims | 114 | |
| 4671283213 | Ismail | a person who united a large area south of the caspian sea and of the Ottoman empire. An army emerged under him, as well as declared Twelver shi'ism for his new Safavid realm | 115 | |
| 4671283214 | Twelver shi'ism | a religion based on Muslim beliefs, as well as the 'hidden Imam' | 116 | |
| 4671283215 | Mansabs | certain ranks in government by Akbar, which entitled their holder to revenue assignments | 117 | |
| 4671283216 | Babur | founded the Mughal empire, claimed to be a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan (1526) | 118 | |
| 4671283217 | Purdah | a woman's seclusion from society in India, which was more enforced for upper class women, who did not leave home unescorted | 119 | |
| 4671283218 | Akbar | the grandson of Babur, who brought the height of the Mughal empire. Also expanded his empire to control much of the subcontinent. | 120 | |
| 4671283219 | Taj Mahal | a building of beauty built as a tomb for Mumtaz Mahal's wife. | 121 | |
| 4671283220 | Sati | the ritual suicide of widows by jumping into their husbands pyres, representing the low status of women | 122 | |
| 4671283221 | Divine Faith | a combination religion consisting of Muslim, Zorastriam, Christian, Sikh beliefs, with the catch being cementing loyalty to the empreror | 123 | |
| 4671283222 | Mughal Empire | an empire that that was a mixture of Mongol and Turkish peoples from Central Asia, which dominated India until the early 1700s | 124 | |
| 4671283223 | Sikhism | started by Nanuk, who became the first Guru of Sikhism. Sikhism was a following of people who formed a community free of caste divisions | 125 | |
| 4671283224 | Army of the Pure | an army led to challenge the Mughal army and to assert Sikh beliefs aggressively; combined with other upheavel of the 18th century to seriously weaken the Mughal empire | 126 | |
| 4671283225 | Fetehpur Silkri | Akbar's entirely new capital city, showing the Mughal love for magnificent architecture. | 127 | |
| 4671283226 | Rajputs | Hindu warriors from the north, who made up 15 percent of Mansabars | 128 | |
| 4671283227 | Ivan IV | Ivan the Terrible (his nickname) reflected problems that tsars faced as power increased | 129 | |
| 4671283228 | Great Northern War | War that was long and costly which came from Peter's modernized armies breaking Swedish control of the Baltic Sea, forcing Europe to see Russia as a major power | 130 | |
| 4671283229 | Kabuki | a form of drama that consisted of several acts and separate skits with singing, dancing, and elaborate staging. (Actors became well known starts) | 131 | |
| 4671283230 | Ivan III | declared himself as "tsar" (means Caesar) with the claim he was establishing the "Third Rome" | 132 | |
| 4671283231 | Cossacks | Peasants, who Ivan III consolidated land hold by recruiting them | 133 | |
| 4671283232 | Boyars | The nobility of the Russia feudal based economic system. They also had military responsibilities to overlords, including the tsar | 134 | |
| 4671283233 | Time of Trouble | The time of following Ivan's rule. Ivan executed his oldest son, touching off competition among Boyars for the throne. | 135 | |
| 4671283234 | Peter the Great | The tsar of Russia in 1682 to 1724, who was most responsible for transforming Russia into a great world power. He understood how things worked globally, and expanded water ports | 136 | |
| 4671283235 | St. Petersburg | The "Window to the West" established by Peter the Great, which was a capital built on the shoes of the newly accessed Baltic Sea (a port for the new navy + allowed closer access to western countries) | 137 | |
| 4671283236 | Table of Ranks | A system by Peter the Great that allowed officials to attain gov't posistions based on merit, not on aristocracy status (reorganization of Bureaucracy) | 138 | |
| 4671283237 | Tsar | a derivative of "Caesar", establishing a "3rd rome". This was a major propaganda for Russia | 139 | |
| 4671283238 | Daimyo | power territorial lords, who held local control of areas. Some Daimyos had more influence than others, but each maintained his own governments and had his own samurai | 140 | |
| 4671283239 | Toyotomi Hideyoshi | a competent, Daimyo general who broke the power of warring daimyos and eventually unified Japan under his own authority. His ambitions stretched far, and he sparked the Unification of Japan | 141 | |
| 4671283240 | Tokigawa legasu | led the meetings of Daimyos after Hideyoshi's death, by the Togugawa shogunate | 142 | |
| 4671283241 | Tokugawa Shogunate | a centralized government established in 1603 in present day Tokyo. Also called "Ba***u", was a tent government, which was temporary | 143 | |
| 4671283242 | Alternate attendance | Required Daimyos to spend every other year at the Tokugawa court, keeping their power in check. Weakened in two ways: their wealth was affected by having two households, and their ability to establish separate power bases was impaired | 144 | |
| 4671283243 | Floating Worlds | Settings for the Kabuki plays, which consisted of an urban jumble of buildings, allowing people to escape from the rigid public decorum in outside society | 145 | |
| 4671283244 | Banraku | a pupper theater with a team of 3 that told a story through puppets in Japan | 146 | |
| 4671283245 | Queue | a Manchu style patch of hair gathered long and uncut in the back, showing submission to the Qing dynasty | 147 | |
| 4671283246 | Kangxi | one of the rulers of the Manchu dynasty, helped to create a prosperous, powerful, and culturally rich empire. A sophisticated confucian scholar as well. His reign brought an empire that grew dramatically. | 148 | |
| 4671283247 | Macartney Mission | the dispatch of Lord Macartney with other people to China, showing Britain's great interest in the Qing empire, as well the d Macartney esire to reuse the trade system | 149 | |
| 4671283248 | Matteo Ricci | A Jesuit missionary who helped to try and convert emperor Wudi. Though failed at primary goal, they did open the country to European influence, primarily through their gadgets and technology | 150 | |
| 4671283249 | Qing Dynasty | The name of the empire after the Ming; seized China from the emperors who could no longer defend their borders from the Manchu | 151 | |
| 4671283250 | Forbidden City | was the home of the emperor and his family, which expanded service people to 20,000; as the government returned to Beijing from Manjing | 152 | |
| 4671283251 | Kowtow | a special, often deep bow to the Chinese emperor. In the Qing dynasty, those who came to see the emperor had to do a special bow consisting of 3 separate kneeling | 153 | |
| 4671283252 | Qianlong | a ruler of the Manchu dynasty who helped to create a prosperous, powerful, and culturally rich empire. He brought much prosperity that he cancelled taxes 4 times | 154 |
