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| 15646931233 | Charlemagne | King of the Franks (r. 768-814); emperor (r. 800-814). Through a series of military conquests he established the Carolingian Empire, which encompassed all of Gaul and parts of Germany and Italy. Illiterate, though started an intellectual revival. | 0 | |
| 15646931234 | Medieval | Literally middle age, a term that historians of Europe use for the period CA. 500 to CA. 1500, signifying its intermediate point between Greco Roman antiquity and the renaissance | 1 | |
| 15646931235 | Byzantine Empire | Historians' name for the eastern portion of the Roman Empire from the fourth century onward, taken from "Byzantium," an early name for Constantinople, the Byzantine capital city. The empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453. | 2 | |
| 15646931236 | Kievan Russia | Government established at Kiev in Ukraine around 880 CE by Scandinavian adventurers asserting authority over a mostly Slavic farming population. | 3 | |
| 15646931237 | Schism | A formal split within a religious community | 4 | |
| 15646931238 | Manor | In medieval Europe, a large, self-sufficient landholding consisted of the Lord's residence (Manor House), outbuildings, peasant village, and surrounding land. | 5 | |
| 15646931239 | Serf | In medieval Europe, and agricultural laborer legally bound to the Lords property and obligated to perform set services for the Lord. | 6 | |
| 15646931240 | Fief | In medieval Europe, land granted in return for a sworn oath to provide specific military service. | 7 | |
| 15646931241 | Vassal | In medieval Europe, a sworn supporter of a king or lord committed to rendering specific military service to that king or Lord. | 8 | |
| 15646931242 | Papacy | The central administration of the Roman Catholic Church, of which the pope is the head | 9 | |
| 15646931243 | Holy Roman empire | Loose federation of mostly German states and principalities, headed by an emperor elected by the princes. It lasted from 962 to 1806. | 10 | |
| 15646931244 | Investiture controversy | Dispute between the popes and the holy Roman Emperors over who held ultimate authority over Bishop's in imperial lanes | 11 | |
| 15646931245 | Monasticism | Living in a religious community apart from secular society and adhering to a rule stipulating chastity, obedience, and poverty. It was a prominent element of medieval Christianity and Buddhism. Monasteries were the primary centers of learning and literacy in medieval Europe | 12 | |
| 15646931246 | Horse collar | Harnessing method that increased the efficiency of horses by shifting the point of traction from the animals neck to the shoulders; it's adoption favors the spread of horse drawn plows and vehicles | 13 | |
| 15646931247 | Crusades | (1095 to 1204) armed pilgrimages to the holy land by Christians determined to recover Jerusalem from Muslim rule. The crusades brought an end to Western Europe centuries of intellectual and cultural isolation | 14 | |
| 15646931248 | Pilgrimage | Journey to a sacred shrine by Christians seeking to show their piety, fulfill vows, or gain absolution for sins. Other religions also have pilgrimage traditions, such as the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and the pilgrimages made by early Chinese Buddhist to India in search of sacred Buddhist writings | 15 | |
| 15646931249 | Latin west | Historians' name for the territories of Europe that adhered to the Latin rite of Christianity and used the Latin language for intellectual exchange in the period ca. 1000-1500. | 16 | |
| 15646931250 | Three field system | A rotational system for agriculture in which one field grows grain, one grows legumes, and one lies fallow. It gradually replaced two-field system in medieval Europe. | 17 | |
| 15646931251 | Black death | An outbreak of bubonic plague that spread across Asia, north Africa, and Europe in the mid 14th-century, carrying off vast numbers of persons | 18 | |
| 15646931252 | Water wheel | A mechanism that harnesses the energy in flowing water to grind grain or to power machinery. It was used in many parts of the world but was especially common in Europe from 1200 to 1900. | 19 | |
| 15646931253 | Hanseatic league | An economic and defensive alliance of the free towns in northern Germany, founded about 1241 and most powerful in the fourteenth century. | 20 | |
| 15646931254 | Guild | In medieval Europe, and Association of men (rarely women), such as merchants, artisans, or professors, who worked in a particular trade and banded together to promote their economic and political interests. Guilds were also important to other societies, such as the Ottoman and Safavid empires. | 21 | |
| 15646931255 | Gothic cathedrals | Large churches originating in twelfth-century France; built in an architectural style featuring pointed arches, tall vaults and spires, flying buttresses, and large stained-glass windows. | 22 | |
| 15646931256 | Renaissance | A period of intense artistic and intellectual activity, said to be a "rebirth" of Greco Roman culture. Usually divided into an Italian Renaissance, from roughly the mid 14th to mid 15th century, and a northern ( trans alpine) renaissance, from roughly the early 15th to early 17th century | 23 | |
| 15646931257 | Universities | Degree-granting institutions of higher learning. Those that appeared in Latin West from about 1200 onward became the model of all modern universities. | 24 | |
| 15646931258 | Scholasticism | A philosophical and theological system, associated with Thomas Aquinas, devised to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy and Roman Catholic theology in the thirteenth century. | 25 | |
| 15646931259 | Humanists | European scholars, writers, and teachers associated with the study of the humanities (grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, languages, and moral philosophy), influential in the fifteenth century and later. | 26 | |
| 15646931260 | Printing press | A mechanical device for transferring text or graphics from a woodblock or type to paper using ink. Presses using movable type first appeared in Europe in about 1450. | 27 | |
| 15646931261 | Great western schism | A division in the Latin (Western) Christian Church between 1378 and 1417, when rival claimants to the papacy existed in Rome and Avignon. | 28 | |
| 15646931262 | Hundred Years' War | (1337-1453) series of campaigns over control of the throne of France, involving English and French royal families and French noble families. | 29 | |
| 15646931263 | New monarchies | Historians' term for the monarchies in France, England, and Spain from 1450 to 1600. The centralization of royal power was increasing within more or less fixed territorial limits. | 30 | |
| 15646931264 | reconquest of Iberia | Beginning in the eleventh century, military campaigns by various Iberian Christian states to recapture territory taken by Muslims. In 1492 the last Muslim ruler was defeated, and Spain and Portugal emerged as united kingdoms. | 31 | |
| 15646931265 | Teotihuacan | A powerful city-state in central Mexico (100-75 C.E.). Its population was about 150,000 at its peak in 600. | 32 | |
| 15646931266 | Chinampas | Raised fields constructed along lake shores in Mesoamerica to increase agricultural yields. | 33 | |
| 15646931267 | Maya | Mesoamerican civilization concentrated in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and in Guatemala and Honduras but never unified into a single empire. Major contributions were in mathematics, astronomy, and development of the calendar. | 34 | |
| 15646931268 | Toltecs | Powerful postclassic empire in central Mexico (900-1168 C.E.). It influenced much of Mesoamerica. Aztecs claimed ties to this earlier civilization. | 35 | |
| 15646931269 | Altepetl | An ethnic state in ancient Mesoamerica, the common political building block of that region. | 36 | |
| 15646931270 | Calpolli | A group of up to a hundred families that served as a social building block of an altepetl in ancient Mesoamerica. | 37 | |
| 15646931271 | 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. | 38 | |
| 15646931272 | 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. | 39 | |
| 15646931273 | Tribute system | A system in which defeated peoples were forced to pay a tax in the form of goods and labor. This forced transfer of food, cloth, and other goods subsidized the development of large cities. An important component of the Aztec and Inca economies. | 40 | |
| 15646931274 | Anasazi | Important culture of what is now the southwest (1000-1300 C.E.). Centered on Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Mesa Verde in Colorado, the Anasazi culture built multistory residences and worshipped in subterranean buildings called kivas. | 41 | |
| 15646931275 | Chiefdom | Form of political organization with rule by a hereditary leader who held power over a collection of villages and towns. Less powerful than kingdoms and empires, they were based on gift giving and commercial links. | 42 | |
| 15646931276 | Ayllu | Andean lineage group or kin-based community. | 43 | |
| 15646931277 | Mit'a | Andean labor system based on shared obligations to help kinsman and work on behalf of the ruler and religious organizations | 44 | |
| 15646931278 | Moche | Civilization of the north coast of Peru (200 to 700 CE). An important Andean civilization that built extensive irrigation networks as well as impressive urban centers dominated by brick temples | 45 | |
| 15646931279 | Wari | Andean civilization culturally linked to Tiwanaku, perhaps beginning as a colony of Tiwanaku. | 46 | |
| 15646931280 | Tiwanaku | Name of capital city and empire centered on the region near Lake Titicaca in modern Bolivia (375-1000 C.E.). | 47 | |
| 15646931281 | Inca | Largest and most powerful Andean empire. Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco. | 48 | |
| 15646931282 | khipus | System of knotted colored cords used by preliterate Andean peoples to transmit information. | 49 | |
| 15646931283 | 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. | 50 | |
| 15646931284 | Arawak | Amerindian peoples who inhabited the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean at the time of Columbus. | 51 | |
| 15646931285 | Henry the Navigator | This Portuguese prince who lead an extensive effort to promote seafaring expertise in the 14th century. Sent many expedition to the coast of West Africa in the 15th century, leading Portugal to discover a route around Africa, ultimately to India. | 52 | |
| 15646931286 | Caravel | A small, highly maneuverable three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in the exploration of the Atlantic. | 53 | |
| 15646931287 | Gold Coast | Region of the Atlantic coast of West Africa occupied by modern Ghana; named for its gold exports to Europe from the 1470s onward. | 54 | |
| 15646931288 | Bartolomeu Dias | Portuguese explorer who in 1488 led the first expedition to sail around the southern tip of Africa from the Atlantic and sight the Indian Ocean. | 55 | |
| 15646931289 | Vasco da Gama | Portuguese explorer. In 1497-1498 he led the first naval expedition from Europe to sail to India, opening an important commercial sea route. | 56 | |
| 15646931290 | Christopher Columbus | Genoese mariner who in the service of Spain led expeditions across the Atlantic, reestablishing contact between the peoples of the Americas and the Old World and opening the way to Spanish conquest and colonization. | 57 | |
| 15646931291 | Ferdinand Magellan | Portuguese navigator who led the Spanish expedition of 1519-1522 that was the first to sail around the world. | 58 | |
| 15646931292 | Conquistadors | Early-sixteenth-century Spanish adventurers who conquered Mexico, Central America, and Peru. (Examples Cortez, Pizarro, Francisco.) | 59 | |
| 15646931293 | Hernán Cortés | Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Mexico in 1519-1521 for Spain. | 60 | |
| 15646931294 | Moctezuma II | Aztec emperor who died while in custody of the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes. | 61 | |
| 15646931295 | Atahualpa | Last ruling Inca emperor of Peru. He was executed by the Spanish. | 62 | |
| 15646931296 | Francisco Pizarro | Spanish explorer who led the conquest of the Inca Empire of Peru in 1531-1533. | 63 |
