A | B |
medieval | Latin for “middle age” |
Islam | religion born in 622 A.D. and spread from Arabia across Northern Africa into Spain |
Vikings | barbarians/raiders who attacked coastal cities after the Treaty of Verdun causing a further decline of Medieval Europe |
Charlemagne | a great Frankish King who was crowned by Pope Leo III and to be the Emperor of all Romans |
Battle of Tours | fight where Muslim armies were halted in Western Europe |
Charles Martel | a Frankish leader who stopped the Muslim armies in Western Europe |
muslim | believers in Islam |
fief | a grant of land from a powerful lord to his vassal |
manor | a self sufficient estate that belonged to a lord |
feudalism | a form of government that has a weak central government |
vassal | a lesser lord who pledged loyalty and service to a greater lord |
chivalry | the knight’s code of conduct |
serf | a peasant who is bound to the land |
sacrament | the sacred rites of the Church |
secular | worldly |
papal supremacy | authority of pope over all secular rulers |
excommunication | when individuals were penalized by the Church and lost their right of receiving the sacraments |
interdict | when villages, cities, or countries were penalized by the Church by having the local parishes close down and no one was allowed to receive any sacraments |
friar | order of monks who did not live in isolated monasteries but among the people to restore trust in the Church |
anti-Semitism | prejudice against Jews |
Dominicans | order established to teach official Roman Catholic beliefs |
tithe | a 10% tax levied by the Church |
canon law | the body of Church law |
simony | the selling of higher Church Offices |
Benedictine Rule | an ordered way of life within monasteries |
Franciscans | order of friars who taught poverty, humility, and love of God |
lay investiture | the practice of nobles appointing friends into high Church positions (bishop) |
charter | a written document that set out the rights and privileges of a town |
capital | money used for investments |
partnership | two or more individuals pool their funds to finance an investment |
bill of exchange | a note from the bank that gave the total of cash a merchant wanted to spend like a modern day check |
middle class | new class of people between nobles and peasants including merchants |
craft guild | “an association of workers from a particular occupation (i.e. bakers, carpenters, etc.)" |
merchant guild | “an association of businessmen who dominated town life |
apprentice | trainee to a guild master |
journeyman | a salaried worker in a guild |
usury | lending money while charging interest |
autocrat | a sole ruler with complete authority |
patriarch | a bishop who exercises authority over other bishops or a high church official |
icon | a holy image or religious picture |
Hagia Sophia | it’s name means Holy Wisdom and was a great Christian church built by Justinian in the city of Constantinople |
Justinian | a great Byzantine Emperor who ruled from 527 to 565 A.D. |
Theodora | the wife of Justinian who co-ruled with him |
Belisarius | the loyal general of Justinian who helped him to reconquer land that had once been part of the Roman Empire |
Domesday Book | a comprehensive survey of all the landholdings or properties in England. |
Paliament | an English advising body that was composed of the House of Nobles and the House of Commons |
Estates General | “a French advising body composed of three classes, nobles, clergy, and commoners” |
common law | a legal system based on custom and court ruling |
William the Conqueror | “a King of England who came from Normandy established the Domesday book and the Great Council” |
Henry II | a King of England who established the use of common law and juries |
Thomas Beckett | the archbishop of Canterbury who fought with Henry II over trying the clergy in the King’s court |
Magna Carta | a document that King John was forced to sign by his nobles that gave nobles more freedoms and restricted the power of the king |
John | “King of England who was the son of King Henry II he was very unpopular because he taxed the people heavily” |
Philip II | a French King who quadrupled French land holdings |
Holy Roman Empire | considered the weakest monarchy in Europe because of conflicts between church and state |
Gregory VII | the pope who argued with Henry IV over lay investiture |
Henry IV | “emperor of the Holy Roman Empire who fought with Pope Gregory VII over lay investiture; he did penance in the snow for three days” |
Annul | to invalidate a marriage |
Innocent III | “the most powerful medieval pope who fought with King John of England Philip II of France, and crushed the Albigensians in Southern France |
lay investiture | a practice by which a King or feudal lord chooses the bishop or archbishop |
religious tolerance | policy of allowing people to worship as they choose |
Crusade | holy war |
Schism | split between Roman and Byzantine church |
Saladin | an able Muslim General/leader who negotiated a truce with King Richard of England to allow Christian pilgrims into Jerusalem |
Ferdinand and Isabella | King and Queen of Spain who imposed unity on the peoples of Spain and ended the tradition of religious tolerance in Spain |
Dante | “wrote Divine Comedy an imaginary journey through hell purgatory, and a vision of heaven” |
Chaucer | wrote Canterbury Tales a story of pilgrims on a journey to visit the tomb of Thomas Becket |
Scholasticism | a medieval philosophy that sought to show that faith and reason existed in harmony |
Vernacular | “the everyday language of ordinary people: French, German, English, and Italian |
Thomas Aquinas | a scholastic philosopher who wrote Summa Theologica in which he tried to show how faith and reason existed in harmony |
Epidemic | outbreak of a rapid-spreading disease |
long bow | weapon used during the Hundred Years War that gave England an early advantage over the French |
Black Death | an epidemic of the bubonic plague that killed one third of Europe’s population |
Inflation | rising prices |
Hundred Years’ War | war fought between the English and French over the French throne and English land in France |
Babylonian Captivity | period of time from 1309-1378 when the papacy was moved from Rome to Avignon |
Steppe | an open treeless grassland |
Boyar | great landowning nobles in Russia |
Czar | title of Russian King that means Caesar |
Genghis Khan | great Mongol leader who was first to unite all Mongol tribes |
Golden Horde | term used for the Mongols who conquered Russia |
Ivan the Terrible | Russian Czar who introduced new laws that tied peasants to the land and he exchanged land with nobles for military service |
Peter the Great | Czar of Russia who helped modernize and westernize Russia in the late 1600s |
Catherine the Great | An efficient, energetic empress, who ruled in the tradition of absolute monarchs in the mid 1700s of Russia |
Westernization | adoption of Western ideas |
Zemsky sobor | a Russian Parliament that consisted of an assembly of clergy, nobles, and townsmen |
Allah | Islamic word for God |
Hijra | when Muhammad was forced to flee from Mecca to Medina |
Islam | this term means “submission to God” |
Jihad | to strive or struggle in God's service |
Kaaba | before Islam, this structure house pagan idols |
Mecca | a bustling trade and pilgrimage center |
Mosque | Islamic house of worship |
Muslim | people who follow the tenets of Islam |
Quran | the sacred book of Islam |
Hajj | pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims take once in their lifetime |
Ramadan | holy month of fasting in Islam |
Medina | city of the prophet |
Shiite | sect of Islam that believe the caliph should be a descendant of Muhammad’s daughter and son-in-law |
Sunni | sect of Islam that believe the caliph should be a pious man chosen by the Muslim community |
Caliph | successor to the prophet |
Mongols | Asian nomads who destroy Baghdad in 1258 |
Seljuk Turks | Asian nomads who convert to Islam and threaten the Byzantine Empire beginning the Crusades |
Damascus | capital city of the Umayyad |
Baghdad | capital city of the Abbasid |
Arabesque | decorations with elaborate abstract and geometric |
Calligraphy | art of beautiful handwriting |
Janizaries | the elite military force of the Ottoman army |
millets | Ottoman term for religious communities |
gunpowder empires | “Mughal |
Sikhism | a religion blended from Hinduism and Islam |
Savanna | Africa’s largest and most populated climate zone |
desertification | caused by climate change this is a process by which the land dries out and the desert increases in size |
Bantu | the root language of the Sub-Sahara people |
Kingdom of Ghana | “the earliest West African Kingdom controlling the gold |
Sundiata | around 1235, “he was the original Lion King; came to power and established the Kingdom of Mali. He organized the trade routes and allowed religious freedom” |
Kingdom of Mali | this kingdom was established in West Africa after the fall of Ghana |
Mansa Musa | “Sunidata’s grandson, he is considered Mali’s greatest emperor coming to the throne around 1312” |
Songhai Empire | the third great West African Kingdom controlling the gold |
Swahili | “meaning coasters; a string of commercial cities along the coast of East Africa that were very influential in trade with India and Asia” |
Great Zimbabwe | “meaning great stone buildings this settlement was an intricate location from about 900-1500 A.D. between interior Africans and the coastal trade cities” |
patrilineal | kinship ties and inheritance is passed through the father’s side of the family |
matrilineal | kinship ties and inheritance is passed through the mother’s side of the family |
griot | “professional poets; storytellers” |
Triangular Trade | goods to Africa, slaves to West Indies, sugar and molasses to Europe or colonies |
Middle Passage | second leg of triangular trade when slaves were brought to the West Indies from Africa |
Boers | Dutch farmers who settled around Cape Town in South Africa |
Zulu | clan of Africans who migrated into South Africa around the 1500s and became a strong military Kingdom by the 1800s |
Shaka | “a strong, brilliant Zulu leader |
usurp | illegally take over |
pagoda | a type of architecture that developed in China in which the eaves of the roof curve up on the corners |
Grand Canal | a man-made waterway connecting the Huang He to the Yangtze River |
Empress Wu | a great Chinese leader during the Tang Dynasty who helped make stricter standards for the civil service system |
Tang Dynasty | the Chinese dynasty from 600s to 900s that was geographically nearly as large as the Han dynasty |
Song Dynasty | the Chinese dynasty from 900s to 1200s that marked a 2nd Golden Age |
Pax Mongolica | peace under Mongol rule |
Kublai Khan | the Mongol leader who finally conquered the Southern Song dynasty |
Marco Polo | Italian merchant who lived in China during the rule of the Mongols |
Ming Dynasty | the Chinese dynasty to follow the Mongol rule |
Zheng He | Chinese admiral of the Ming dynasty |
Shinto | worship of the forces of nature |
selective borrowing | adopting some ideas and culture from another civilization |
Yamato clan | Japan’s first and only dynasty who claim direct descent from the Sun Goddess |
Lady Murasaki | author of Tale of Genji |
Tale of Genji | the world’s first full length novel |
shogun | a supreme military commander in Japan |
daimyo | great Japanese warrior lords who were vassals to the shogun |
samurai | Japanese lesser lords who were the fighting aristocracy (knights) |
bushido | a Japanese warrior’s code of values |
kabuki | a form of drama in Japan based on Noh plays |
haiku | a Japanese type of poetry with only three lines |
Zen Buddhism | form of Buddhism that became very popular among warriors and artists in Japan |
Johannes Kepler | proved mathematically that planets moved in elliptical orbits around the sun |
Heliocentric | sun-centered model of the universe |
Hypothesis | possible explanation or educated guess |
Galileo Galilei | made observations of Jupiter with a telescope; and concluded that Copernicus was correct about the movement of the planets around the sun |
Isaac Newton | proposed the law of gravity |
Recant | for a person to give up their views |
theocracy | government run by church leaders |
Peace of Augsburg | allowed the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire to decide what religion would be followed in his lands |
John Calvin | born in France |
Huguenot | French Calvinists |
Indulgence | lessening of time that a soul would stay in purgatory |
Predestination | the idea that long ago God had determined who would gain salvation |
Protestant Reformation | a movement to protest the church’s corrupt practices in an attempt to force the church to reform |
Martin Luther | a German monk and professor of theology who protested the church’s corruption with his 95 thesis posted on All Saints Church door |
Annul | to cancel a marriage |
Elizabeth I | Queen of England who reached a compromise between the Catholic and Protestant practices of the Anglican church. She insisted that the monarch was the head of the church. |
Council of Trent | a meeting that was called to establish the direction that reform should take in the Catholic church |
Jesuits | a new religious order founded by Ignatius of Loyola to combat heresy and spread the Catholic faith |
Canonize | recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church |
Scapegoats | individuals whom society can blame all their problems on |
Ghetto | the quarter of the city where Jewish people were forced to live |
Henry VIII | King of England who broke with the Catholic church over receiving an annulment with his wife from the pope |
Inquisition | a church court that used secret testimony |
Teresa of Avila | a Spanish woman who founded her own order of sisters she was canonized by the church |
Queen Mary | was a Catholic leader who had thousands of Protestants burned at the stake |
humanities | the subjects taught in ancient Greek and Roman schools |
perspective | a new artistic technique in which artists made a pictue appear three dimensional by making objects smaller so that they appeared distant |
Medici family | an important family that lived in Florence beginning as bankers and eventually controlling the entire city during the Renaissance period |
humanism | an intellectual movement of the Renaissance that was based on the study of classical culture and focused on worldly subjects rather than on the religious issues of the medieval period |
Leonardo da Vinci | Made sketches of nature and of models; Dissected corpses to learn how the human body worked; Masterpieces include Mona Lisa and The Last Supper; Studied botany |
Michelangelo | a talented sculptor, engineer, painter, architect, and poet; he sculpted the Pieta and statue of David; painted huge mural to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome; and designed the dome for St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome |
Niccolo Machiavelli | wrote a handbook called The Prince that instructed rulers how to gain and maintain power |
Utopian | ideal society |
Vernacular | the ordinary language of the people |
William Shakespeare | English poet who was the towering figure of Renaissance literature who wrote 37 plays that are still performed around the world |
Johann Gutenberg | printed the Bible using the first printing press and printing inks. |
Cartographer | mapmakers |
Astrolabe | an instrument that determined latitude at sea |
Caravel | a fast moving ship that combined both square and triangular shaped sails for the first time |
Scurvy | a disease caused by lack of vitamin C |
Circumnavigate | to sail around the world |
Henry the Navigator | Portuguese prince who hoped to expand Christianity and find the source of African gold. He gathered cartographers |
Ferdinand Magellan | charted a passage around the southern tip of South America and gave the Pacific Ocean its name. His crew became the first people to circumnavigate the world |
Amerigo Vespucci | America gets its name from this Italian sailor. A German mapmaker read reports from this sailor and labeled the lands as America. |
Line of Demarcation | line drawn by the pope to divide land that could be conquered by the Spanish and Portuguese |
Matrilineal | inheritance through the mother’s side of the family |
Qing Dynasty | Chinese dynasty formed by the Manchu |
Hermit Kingdom | when Korea turned inward it was called this |
viceroy | colonial representatives who ruled provinces of New Spain in the name of the Spanish King |
privateer | pirates who preyed on Spanish treasure ships |
missionary | people who spread religious beliefs |
revenue | income from taxes |
compact | an agreement among people |
Jamestown | the earliest English settlements located in Virginia |
Pilgrims | English settlers who landed a Plymouth, English settlers who landed a Plymouth, Massachusetts in search of religious freedom |
Mayflower Compact | agreement made by English settlers that set guidelines for governing their North American colony |
French and Indian War | war between Britain and France fought in North America |
Treaty of Paris | agreement to end the French and British wars that were world-wide |
inflation | an economic cycle involving a rise in prices linked to a sharp increase in the amount of money available |
capitalism | the investment of money to make profit |
mercantilism | policy by which a nation sought to export more than it imported in order to build its supply of gold and silver |
tariff | tax on imported goods |
Columbian Exchange | goods from Americas and Europe that changed hands over time |
commercial revolution | spurred trade promoted new business methods and increased competition for profits among the European nations |
armada | fleet |
absolute monarch | ruler with complete authority over the government and the lives of the people |
PhilipII | absolute monarch of Spain who ruled during the “Golden Age” of Spain and unsuccessfully attempted to invade England with the Spanish Armada |
Huguenots | French Calvinists (protestants) |
Louis XIV | the Sun King and absolute monarch of France; he ruled for 72 years increasing the power and prestige of France |
Charles I | English Stuart monarch who behaved like an absolute monarch fighting with Parliament which led to the English Civil War |
English Civil War | fight between wealthy nobles who wanted an absolute monarchy and merchants |
Oliver Cromwell | leader of parliament forces during the English Civil War who led England without a King for about a decade |
Queen Mary and Prince William | ruled England during the period of the Glorious Revolution; government under their rule began a limited monarchy |
Glorious Revolution | bloodless overthrowing of King James II by Queen Mary and Prince William |
English Bill of Rights | document signed by Queen Mary that ensured the superiority of Parliament over the monarchy and required the monarchy to summon Parliament regularly giving the House of Commons the power of the purse |
Thirty Year’s War | war fought in the Holy Roman Empire that was caused by tensions between Holy Roman emperor and German Princes as well as tensions between Catholics and Protestants |
Maria Theresa | Hapsburg ruler of Austria who competed with Prussian state over control of independent German states |
Frederick II | Hohenzollern leader of Prussia who continued his father’s emphasis on a strong military |
Edict of Nantes | agreement to tolerate Huguenots by Henry IV of France |
Copernicus | proposed a heliocentric model of the universe |