The Global Tapestry: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
94 flashcard terms for AP World History Unit 1, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 25-question quiz — free, no account needed.
Ruled China from 960–1279. Known for economic prosperity, technological innovation, and cultural achievement, though militarily weaker than its predecessors.
Neo-Confucianism
A revival of Confucian thought blended with Buddhist and Daoist ideas. Emphasized filial piety, social harmony, and the importance of education for moral governance.
Civil Service Examination System
A merit-based system for selecting government officials through rigorous exams on Confucian classics. It promoted social mobility but favored wealthy families who could afford education.
Foot Binding in Song China
The practice of tightly binding women's feet to keep them small, symbolizing beauty and status. It restricted women's mobility and reflected patriarchal control.
Champa Rice
A fast-ripening rice variety from Southeast Asia introduced to southern China. It allowed two harvests per year, dramatically increasing food production and population growth.
Grand Canal
A massive waterway connecting northern and southern China. It facilitated trade, grain transport, and cultural exchange between China's economic and political centers.
Chinese Porcelain and Silk
Highly prized luxury goods that drove long-distance trade. Chinese porcelain (celadon, blue-and-white) was exported across the Indian Ocean and along the Silk Roads.
Gunpowder in Song China
Originally used for fireworks, the Song developed military applications including fire arrows, bombs, and early firearms. This technology later diffused westward along trade routes.
Paper Money in Song China
The Song Dynasty was the first to issue government-backed paper currency (jiaozi), reflecting the sophistication and commercialization of their economy.
Magnetic Compass
Developed in China for navigation, the compass revolutionized maritime travel and was transmitted to the Islamic world and Europe through trade networks.
Movable Type Printing
Bi Sheng invented ceramic movable type around 1040, though woodblock printing remained more common in China due to the complexity of Chinese characters.
Song Dynasty Urbanization
Cities like Kaifeng and Hangzhou had populations exceeding one million, with bustling markets, entertainment districts, restaurants, and a vibrant merchant class.
Chinese Tributary System
Neighboring states (Korea, Vietnam, Japan) sent tribute to the Chinese emperor in exchange for trade privileges and diplomatic recognition, affirming China's cultural centrality.
Delhi Sultanate — Overview
A series of five Muslim dynasties that ruled northern India from 1206–1526. It introduced Islamic governance and culture to the Indian subcontinent while facing Hindu resistance.
Hindu-Muslim Interactions in India
The Delhi Sultanate created a complex society where Islam and Hinduism coexisted uneasily. Some rulers imposed the jizya (tax on non-Muslims); others sought accommodation.
Bhakti Movement
A Hindu devotional movement emphasizing a personal relationship with God through love and devotion. It challenged caste restrictions and promoted spiritual equality.
Caste System Continuity
Despite political changes, the Hindu caste system remained the dominant social structure in India, organizing society into hereditary occupational groups (varnas and jatis).
Indian Ocean Trade — India's Role
India was central to Indian Ocean commerce, exporting cotton textiles, spices, and gems while connecting Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern trade networks.
Rajput Kingdoms
Hindu warrior kingdoms in northern India that resisted Muslim expansion. They maintained Hindu traditions and political autonomy in parts of the subcontinent.
Sufism
A mystical branch of Islam emphasizing personal spiritual experience and a direct relationship with God. Sufi missionaries played a key role in spreading Islam across Asia and Africa.
Dar al-Islam
The 'House of Islam' — the vast interconnected world of Islamic civilization stretching from Spain to Southeast Asia, unified by shared religious practices, law, and trade.
Islamic Scholarship
Muslim scholars preserved and expanded Greek, Roman, Persian, and Indian knowledge in fields like mathematics (algebra), medicine, astronomy, and philosophy.
Madrasas
Islamic schools attached to mosques that taught the Quran, Islamic law, and sometimes science and philosophy. They standardized Islamic education across Dar al-Islam.
Sharia Law
Islamic legal code derived from the Quran and Hadith. It governed personal, commercial, and criminal matters, providing a unifying legal framework across Muslim societies.
Ulama
Islamic religious scholars who interpreted the Quran and Sharia. They served as judges, teachers, and advisors, holding significant social and political influence.
Hajj Networks
The annual pilgrimage to Mecca connected Muslims from across Afro-Eurasia, facilitating trade, cultural exchange, and the spread of ideas along pilgrimage routes.
Mosque Architecture
Mosques served as centers of worship, education, and community life. Distinctive features included minarets, domes, and geometric/calligraphic decoration.
Mali Empire — Overview
A powerful West African empire (c. 1235–1600) built on gold and salt trade. It became one of the wealthiest states in the world under Mansa Musa.
Mansa Musa
Mali's most famous ruler (r. 1312–1337). His legendary 1324 hajj to Mecca, during which he distributed enormous amounts of gold, demonstrated Mali's immense wealth.
Timbuktu
A major center of trade, learning, and Islamic scholarship in the Mali Empire. Its university and libraries attracted scholars from across the Muslim world.
Griots
West African oral historians, storytellers, and musicians who preserved and transmitted history, genealogies, and cultural traditions through spoken word.
Gold-Salt Trade
Trans-Saharan commerce centered on exchanging West African gold for Saharan salt. This trade enriched empires like Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.
Great Zimbabwe
A stone-walled city in southeastern Africa (c. 1100–1450) that was the center of a powerful trading state controlling gold exports to the Swahili coast.
Swahili City-States
Coastal trading cities in East Africa (Kilwa, Mombasa, Mogadishu) that blended African Bantu culture with Arab and Persian influences. They dominated Indian Ocean trade.
Swahili Language
A Bantu language with significant Arabic vocabulary that became the lingua franca of East African trade. It reflects the cultural blending of African and Islamic traditions.
Bantu Migrations
The centuries-long spread of Bantu-speaking peoples across sub-Saharan Africa, carrying farming techniques, ironworking, and Bantu languages throughout the continent.
Aztec Empire — Overview
The Mexica people built a powerful empire (c. 1325–1521) centered on the island city of Tenochtitlan in central Mexico, controlling a vast tributary network.
Aztec Tribute System
Conquered peoples paid tribute in goods (cacao, textiles, feathers, food) and captives. This system enriched Tenochtitlan but created resentment among subject peoples.
Chinampas
Floating garden beds built on shallow lake bottoms that allowed the Aztecs to grow crops year-round, supporting the massive population of Tenochtitlan.
Aztec Human Sacrifice
The Aztecs practiced large-scale ritual sacrifice, believing it was necessary to sustain the sun god Huitzilopochtli and maintain cosmic order.
Tenochtitlan
The Aztec capital, built on an island in Lake Texcoco. With a population of 200,000+, it was one of the largest cities in the world, featuring causeways, temples, and markets.
Inca Empire — Overview
The largest empire in pre-Columbian Americas (c. 1438–1533), stretching along the Andes from Ecuador to Chile, unified by roads, language (Quechua), and centralized government.
Mit'a Labor System
An Inca system requiring subjects to contribute labor for state projects (roads, terraces, buildings). Workers received food and goods in return — a form of labor tribute.
Quipu
Knotted string devices used by the Inca for record-keeping, tracking population counts, tribute, and other data. The Inca had no written language.
Inca Road System
Over 25,000 miles of roads connecting the vast Inca Empire, with relay runners (chasquis), rope bridges, and rest stations enabling communication and troop movement.
Terrace Farming
The Inca carved stepped terraces into Andean mountainsides to create flat farmland at high altitudes, allowing cultivation of potatoes, maize, and quinoa.
Mississippian Culture — Cahokia
The largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico (near modern St. Louis), featuring earthen mounds, a population of ~20,000, and long-distance trade networks.
Maya Civilization Continuity
Although the Classic Maya cities had declined, Maya peoples continued to thrive in the Yucatan and highlands with city-states, trade, and their calendar and writing systems.
European Feudalism
A decentralized political system in medieval Europe where lords granted land (fiefs) to vassals in exchange for military service, creating a hierarchy of local power.
Manorial System
The economic basis of feudalism. Self-sufficient agricultural estates (manors) where serfs worked the lord's land in exchange for protection and a share of the harvest.
Catholic Church in Medieval Europe
The Church was the most powerful institution in medieval Europe, controlling education, providing social services, and wielding enormous political influence over kings and peasants alike.
Crusades — Legacy
The Crusades (1095–1291) failed to permanently recapture the Holy Land but increased European contact with the Islamic world, stimulating trade and cultural exchange.
Medieval Universities
Institutions like Oxford, Paris, and Bologna emerged in the 12th–13th centuries, teaching theology, law, and medicine and laying the groundwork for European intellectual life.
Three-Field System
A medieval European agricultural innovation that rotated crops across three fields, increasing food production and allowing soil to recover.
Gothic Cathedrals
Grand churches built in medieval Europe with pointed arches, flying buttresses, and stained glass windows. They demonstrated the Church's wealth and the faith of communities.
Japanese Feudalism
A decentralized system where regional lords (daimyo) controlled territory with the aid of warrior retainers (samurai), while the emperor held only symbolic authority.
Samurai and Bushido
Samurai were Japan's warrior class bound by the code of bushido — emphasizing loyalty, honor, martial skill, and self-discipline.
Shogunate System
Military government in Japan where the shogun (supreme military commander) held real power while the emperor served as a figurehead.
Kamakura Shogunate (1185–1333)
The first shogunate, which established military rule after civil wars. It successfully defended Japan against two Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281.
Khmer Empire — Angkor Wat
The Khmer Empire (802–1431) in Southeast Asia built Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious monument, originally Hindu, later Buddhist. It reflected the empire's wealth and power.
Majapahit Empire
A Hindu-Buddhist maritime empire in Southeast Asia (1293–1527) centered on Java. It controlled trade routes and was a major power in the Indonesian archipelago.
Srivijaya Legacy
A maritime empire (7th–13th centuries) in Southeast Asia that controlled the Strait of Malacca, facilitating trade between China and India and spreading Buddhism.
Vietnamese Dai Viet
An independent Vietnamese kingdom that resisted Chinese domination while adopting Confucian governance, civil service exams, and Chinese writing.
Koryo Dynasty in Korea
Ruled Korea from 918–1392. It adopted Chinese-style bureaucracy, Confucianism, and Buddhism while developing a distinct Korean cultural identity, including celadon pottery.
Pastoral Nomadism
A lifestyle based on herding animals (horses, sheep, yaks) across grasslands. Central Asian nomads were skilled horseback warriors who controlled trade routes and raided settled civilizations.
Turkic Peoples
Various Central Asian nomadic groups who converted to Islam and established powerful states across the Middle East, Central Asia, and India (Seljuks, Delhi Sultanate, Ottomans).
Religion as Political Legitimacy
Rulers across the world used religion to justify their power — the Chinese Mandate of Heaven, European divine right, Islamic caliphate, and Aztec divine mandate all served this purpose.
Women in Song China
Foot binding spread among elite women, restricting their roles. However, women could own property and manage businesses, especially among the merchant class.
Women in the Islamic World
Islamic law granted women rights to inheritance, divorce, and property ownership, though patriarchal customs often limited these rights in practice. Seclusion varied by region.
Women in Sub-Saharan Africa
Women in many African societies had more autonomy than counterparts elsewhere — participating in trade, agriculture, and sometimes political leadership in matrilineal societies.
Hangzhou — Southern Song Capital
The capital after Song moved south, Hangzhou became the world's largest city with markets, pleasure districts, and sophisticated urban culture reflected in painting and literature.
Song Landscape Painting
Song artists pioneered landscape painting emphasizing atmosphere and perspective, reflecting Neo-Confucian ideals of harmony between humanity and nature.
Indian Cotton Textiles
India's cotton cloth was highly valued across the Indian Ocean world. The cloth was so fine and diverse that it became a standard trade commodity and measure of wealth.
Timurid Renaissance — Samarkand
Timur (Tamerlane) and his successors created a brilliant cultural center in Samarkand featuring Persian poetry, Islamic architecture, and patronage of scholars and artists.
Mongol Predecessors in Central Asia
Before Chinggis Khan, Central Asian groups like the Tatars, Kereit, and Mongols were disunited tribes and clans competing for resources on the steppes.
Steppe Pastoralism and Warfare
Central Asian pastoralists developed superior horsemanship, composite bow technology, and tactics of rapid maneuver that made them devastating warriors against settled armies.
Islamic Mathematics and Al-Khwarizmi
The mathematician al-Khwarizmi developed algebra (from Arabic al-jabr) and his name became 'algorithm,' revolutionizing mathematical problem-solving.
Indian Numerals and Zero
Hindu mathematicians developed the decimal number system and the concept of zero (shunya), a mathematical innovation transmitted to the Islamic world and eventually Europe.
Polynesian Navigation
Pacific Islanders navigated vast distances without instruments, using knowledge of stars, ocean swells, wind patterns, and bird behavior to settle remote islands.
Polynesian Settlement Patterns
Peoples from the Polynesian triangle spread across the Pacific from Hawaii to Aotearoa (New Zealand) to Rapa Nui, adapting to diverse island environments.
Vodou and Syncretic Religion
In the Caribbean diaspora, enslaved Africans blended Yoruba and Kongo traditions with Catholicism and local practices, creating syncretic religions like Vodou.
Adhan — Islamic Call to Prayer
The five-times-daily call to prayer (adhan) structured time and community life in Islamic societies, marking the rhythm of daily work, worship, and social gathering.
Dihqans — Persian Landholders
In the Abbasid Empire, dihqans were Persian landowners and administrators who maintained local power even under Islamic rule, preserving Persian culture.
Cairo as Mamluk Center
Cairo became the largest city in the medieval world under Mamluk rule (1250–1517), a center of Islamic learning, trade, and military power dominating the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean.
Mamluk Slave-Soldiers
Mamluks were purchased as young slaves, trained as elite warriors, and eventually ruled Egypt and Syria as a military oligarchy despite their slave origins.
Ottoman Janissaries — Early History
The Janissary corps, founded in the 14th century, were enslaved Christian boys converted to Islam and trained as elite soldiers, loyal to the sultan alone.
Byzantine Empire Decline
By 1200, the Byzantine Empire had shrunk to Constantinople and its hinterland, weakened by Fourth Crusade (1204), internal division, and Ottoman expansion from the west.
Venetian-Byzantine Trade
Venice dominated trade with Byzantium and the eastern Mediterranean, using merchant colonies and naval power to control commerce in luxury goods and grain.
Genoa — Rival Maritime Power
The Republic of Genoa competed with Venice for Mediterranean dominance, controlling trade routes through the Black Sea and competing in the Indian Ocean trade.
Hanse — Northern Europe's Trading League
The Hanseatic League of northern German and Baltic cities monopolized grain, timber, and fur trade in the Baltic and North Seas from the 12th–17th centuries.
Venetian Arsenal
Venice's state shipyard (arsenal) used assembly-line techniques centuries before industrialization, allowing rapid production of the galleys that powered Venetian commerce and war.
Caravanserais
Fortified roadside inns along Silk Roads and caravan routes that provided shelter, rest, and trade facilities for merchant caravans, facilitating long-distance commerce.
Samarkand and Bukhara — Trade Cities
Central Asian oasis cities that were major trading hubs where goods, cultures, and ideas crossed from China to the Islamic world and Europe.
Jewish Diaspora Communities
Jewish merchants and scholars lived in communities across the Islamic world, Europe, and beyond, often serving as cultural brokers and traders.