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AP European History
vocabulary words from Ch11-30
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| The Great Famine (1315-1317) | Heavy rains in Northern Europe destroyed harvests and caused serious food shortages, resulting in extreme hunger and starvation. |
| Black Death or Bubonic Plague | disease spread by the merchant Mongols that carried black rats infested with fleas who were host to the deadly bacterium Yersinia Pestis. Reached Europe in 1347 |
| Giovanni Boccacio | He wrote "Decameron", a description of the social and psychological reactions towards the Black Death. |
| Flagellants | Movement caused by the psychological and social reactions to the black death in which men and women wandered from town to town, flogging themselves with whips to win the forgiveness of God. Especially popular in Germany. |
| Pogroms | Organized massacres in Germany against Jews who were accused of causing the plague by poisoning wells |
| Statute of Laborers (1351) | statute passed by the English Parliament which attempted to limit wages to pre-plague levels and forbid the mobility of peasants as well. |
| Jacquerie (1358) | Peasant revolt in France caused mainly by the destruction of the Black Death and economic dislocation |
| English Peasant Revolt (1381) | Caused by the monarchy's attempt to raise revenues by imposing a poll tax or a flat charge on each adult member of the population. |
| Revolt of Ciompi (1378) | Revolt started by Florence wool workers when their real wages declined when the coinage in which they were paid was debased after the crisis caused by the Black Death. |
| Edward III of England | Son of Isabella, daughter of Philip IV of France. He became English king after his mother overthrew her own husband. |
| Philip VI of France | Became king of France when the throne was denied to Edward III. He seized Gascony after Edward III refused to do homage to Philip VI for Gascony. |
| Foot Soldiers | English peasants that fought on the Hundred Years' War and were armed with longbows, a newly invented weapon that gave advantage to the English side. |
| Longbows | Weapon invented by the Welsh and used in the Hundred Years' War by the English foot soldiers. It had a more rapid speed than the crossbow. |
| Battle of Crécy (1346) | First battle of the Hundred Years' War in which the French were decisively defeated mostly thanks to the English foot soldiers at Crécy. |
| Battle of Poitiers (1356) | Battle between The Black Prince (Edward III's son) and the new French King, John II in which the French were once again defeated. This battle ended the first phase of the Hundred Years' War. |
| Peace of Brétigny (1359) | Treaty that closed the 1st phase of the 100 Years' War. Under the treaty, the English territories in Gascony were enlarged and Edward renounced his claims to the French throne in return for John's promise to give up control over English lands in France. |
| Henry V of England | English king that started the second phase of the Hundred Years' War by invading France when Charles VI was king. |
| Battle of Agincourt (1415) | Battle caused by the invasion of France by Henry V. The French were defeated once again and Henry reconquered Normandy and forge an alliance with the duke of Burgundy. This battle forced Charles VI to agree to the Treaty of Troyes. |
| Treaty of Troyes (1420) | Treaty that ended the Battle of Agincourt. By this treaty, Henry V was married to Catherine, daughter of Charles VI, and recognized as the heir to the French throne. |
| Joan of Arc | Peasant girl whose confidence and enthusiasm changed the direction of the 100 years' war and helped France liberate Orléans from the English. |
| Scutage (14th century) | Money payment for military service that replaced the obligation of military service in the lord-vassal relationship after the Black Death. |
| 14th Century House of Lords | Political body of the English Parliament composed of the chief bishops and abbots of the realm and aristocratic peers whose position in Parliament was hereditary. |
| House of Commons | Representatives of the shires and boroughs, who were considered less important than the ecclesiastical lords and held collective meetings. |
| 14th Century English Parliament | Constituted by the House of Lords and the House of Commons |
| Henry of Lancaster | Became King Henry IV of England after his political faction defeated King Richard II's forces and then deposed and killed him. |
| Estates-General | French Parliament composed of the clergy, the nobility and the Third Estate. |
| Third Estate | One of the social divisions in European society composed of all who were not members of the clergy or nobility (1st two estates) |
| Charles VI of France | Son of King Charles V. He opened the door to rival factions of French nobles aspiring to power & wealth, which caused a civil war in France |
| Golden Bull | Issued by Emperor Charles IV. The document stated that 4 lay princes and 3 ecclesiastical rulers would serve as electors with the legal power to elect the German Emperor and King. |
| Condottieri | Leaders of bands of mercenary soldiers in Renaissance Italy who sold heir services to the highest bidder. |
| Giangaleazzo Visconti | Ruled the Duchy of Milan from 1385 to 1402 and transformed Milan into a hereditary duchy by purchasing the title of duke from the emperor. |
| Popolo Grasso | Florentine wealthy merchant industrialist class. They established a new constitution in the Republic of Florence known as the Ordinances of Justice. |
| Ordinances of Justice | Constitution of the Republic of Florence created by the Popolo Grasso. It provided for a republican government controlled by the 7 major guilds of the city, which represented the interests of the wealthy class. |
| Great Council | Source of all political power in the Republic of Venice. In 1297 it was closed to all but the members of about 200 families who formed a hereditary patriciate that completely dominated the city. |
| Boniface Viii | He started the conflict with Philip IV of France when he stopped Philip from acquiring new revenues by taxing the clergy. He was capture by Philip's forces when he tried to excommunicate the king. |
| Clement V | He was the elected Pope after Boniface died. He resided in Avignon and was controlled by the king of France. |
| Clement VII | Pope chose by the French cardinals in a rebellious response after they had been forced to choose an Italian pope in Rome. Clement moved back to Avignon, creating the Great Schism. |
| Great Schism | Time period in which there were 2 popes. An Italian one (Urban VI) in Rome and a French one (Clement VII) in Avignon. |
| Marsiglio of Padua (France) | Author of "Defender of the Peace". He argued that the church was only 1 element of society & must confine itself solely to spiritual functions. Thus, final authority in spiritual manners must reside not with the pope but with a general church council. |
| Conciliarism | Created as a response to the Great Schism. Based on the belief that only a general council of the church could end the schism and bring reform to the church and its head members. |
| Council of Pisa (1409) | A group of cardinals from Avignon and Rome convened a general council in which they deposed the 2 popes and elected a new one, Alexander V. |
| Alexander V | Pope elected by the council of Pisa to end the Great Schism. |
| Council of Constance | Summoned by the Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund. A new conclave elected Pope Martin V after the 3 other popes of the Schism either resigned or were deposed. This marked the end of the Great Schism. |
| Mysticism (14th century) | Immediate experience of oneness with God. |
| Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) | He initiated a mystical movement in western Germany. He was a popular preacher whose message on the union of the soul with God was typical of Mysticism. |
| Abbes | The head of a convent or monastery for women |
| Abbot | The head of a monastery |
| Absolutism | A form of government in which the sovereign power or ultimate authority rested in the hands of a monarch who claimed to rule by divine right and was therefore responsible only to God. |
| Abstract Expressionism | A post-World War II artistic movement that broke with all conventions of form and structure in favor of total abstraction. |
| Aediles | Roman officials who supervised the public games and the grain supply of the city of Rome. |
| Agricultural Revolution | The application of new agricultural techniques that allowed for a large increase in productivity in the 18th century. |
| Anarchism | A political theory that holds that all governments and existing social institutions are unnecessary and advocates a society based on voluntary cooperation. |
| Anti-Semitism | Hostility toward or discrimination against Jews |
| Apartheid | The system of social segregation practiced in the Republic of South Africa until the 1990s, which involved political, legal and economic discrimination against nonwhites. |
| Appeasement | The policy, followed by the European nations in the 1930s, of accepting Hitler's annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia in the belief that meeting his demands would assure peace and stability. |
| Arianism | A Christian heresy that taught that Jews were inferior to God. Though condemned by the Council of Nicaea in 325, Arianism was adopted by many of the Germanic peoples who entered the Roman Empire over the next centuries. |
| Aristocracy | A class of hereditary nobility in medieval Europe; a warrior class who shared a distinctive lifestyle based in the institution of knighthood, although there were social divisions within the group based on extremes of wealth. |
| Audiencias | advisory groups to viceroys in Spanish America |
| Ausgleich | The "Compromise" of 1867 that created the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Austria and Hungary each had its own capital, constitution and legislative assembly but were united under one monarch. |
| Authoritarian State | A state that has a dictatorial government and some other trappings of a totalitarian state but does not demand that the masses be actively involved in the regime's goals as totalitarian states do. |
| Auxiliaries | Troops enlisted from the subject peoples of the Roman Empire to supplement the regular legions composed of Roman citizens. |
| Balance of Power | A distribution of power among several states such that no single nation can dominate or interfere with the interest of another. |
| Baroque | An artistic movement of the 17th century in Europe that used dramatic effects to arouse the emotions and reflected the search for power that was a large part of the 17th century ethos. |
| Benefice | In the Christian Church, a position such as a bishopric, that consisted of both a sacred office and the right of the holder to the annual revenues from the position. |
| Bicameral Legislature | Legislature with 2 houses |
| Blitzkrieg | "Lighting War". A war conducted with great speed and force, as in Germany's advance at the beginning of WWII. |
| Bolsheviks | A small faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party who were lead by Lenin and dedicated to violent revolution; they seized power in Russia in 1917 and were subsequently renamed the Communists. |
| Bourgeoisie (Burghers) | Inhabitants (merchants and artisans) of boroughs and burghs (towns). |
| Boyars | Russian nobility |
| Brezhnev Doctrine | The doctrine, enunciated by Leonid Brezhnev, that the Soviet Union had the right to intervene if socialism was threatened in another socialist state; used to justify moving Soviet troops |
| Burschenschaften | Student societies in the German states dedicated to offering the goal of a free, united Germany |
| Caliph | The secular leader of the Islamic Community |
| Capital | Material wealth used or available for use in the production of more wealth |
| Cartel | A combination of independent commercial enterprises that work together to control prices and limit competition |
| Cartesian Dualism | Descartes' principle of the separation of mind and matter (and mind and body) that enabled scientists to view matter as something separate from themselves that could be investigated by reason. |
| Celibacy | Complete abstinence from sexual activity. Many early Christians viewed celibacy as the surest way to holiness. |
| Centuriate Assembly | The chief popular assembly of the Roman Republic. It passed laws and elected the chief magistrates. |
| Chansons de Geste | A form of vernacular literature in the High Middle Ages that consisted of heroic epics focusing on the deeds of warriors. |
| Chivalry | The ideal of civilized behavior that emerged among the nobility in the 11th and 12th centuries under the influence of the church; a code of ethics knights were expected to uphold. |
| Cholera | A serious and often deadly disease commonly spread by contaminated water; a major problem in the 19th century European cities before sewage systems were installed |
| Christian (Northern) Humanism | An intellectual movement in northern Europe in the late 15th and early 16th centuries that combined the interest in the classics of the Italian Renaissance with an interests in the sources of early Christianity. |
| Civic Humanism | An intellectual movement of the Italian Renaissance that saw Cicero, who was both an intellectual and a statesman, as the ideal and held that humanists should be involved in government and used their rhetorical training in the service of the state. |
| Civil Disobedience | A policy of peaceful protest against laws or government policies in order to achieve political change. |
| Civilization | A complex culture in which large numbers of humans share a variety of common elements, including cities, religious, political, military and social structures, writing and significant artistic and intellectual activity. |
| Civil Rights | The basic rights of citizens, including equality before the law, freedom of speech and press, and freedom from arbitrary arrest. |
| Cold War | The ideological conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States after WWII. |
| Collective Farms | Large farms created in the Soviet Union by Stalin by combining many small holdings into large farms worked by the peasants under government supervision. |
| Coloni | Free tenant farmers who worked as sharecroppers on the large estates of the Roman Empire |
| Columbian Exchange | The reciprocal importation and exportation of plants and animals between Europe and the Americas. |
| Commercial Capitalism | Beginning in the Middle Ages, an economic system in which people invested in trade and goods in order to make profits. |
| Common Law | Law common to the entire kingdom of England, imposed by the king's courts beginning in the 12th century to replace the customary law used in county and feudal courts that varied from place to place. |
| Commune | In Medieval Europe, an association of townspeople bound together by a sworn oath for the purpose of obtaining basic liberties from the lord of the territory in which the town was located. Also, the self-governing town after receiving its liberties. |
| Conciliarism | Movement in 14 & 15 Cen that held that final authority in spiritual manners resided with a general church council not the pope. It emerged in response to the Avignon Papacy & the Great Schism & was used to justify the summoning of the Council of Constance |
| Condottieri | Leaders of bands of mercenary soldiers in Renaissance Italy who sold their services to the highest bidder |
| Confession | One of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. It provided for the forgiveness of one's sins. |
| Conquistadors (Conquerors) | Leaders in the Spanish conquest in the Americas, especially in Mexico and Peru, in the 16th century |
| Conscription | A military draft |
| Conservatism | An ideology based on tradition and social stability that favored the maintenance of established institutions, organized religion and obedience to authority and resisted change, especially abrupt change. |
| Consuls | The chief executive officers of the Roman Republic. Two were chosen annually to administer the government and lead the army in battle |
| Consumer Society | Western society that emerged after WWII as the working classes adopted the consumption patterns of the middle class and payment plans and easy credit made consumer goods such as appliances and automobiles affordable |
| Containment | A policy adopted by the United States in the Cold War. Its goal was to use whatever means, short of all-out war, to limit Soviet expansion |
| Continental System | Napoleon's effort to bar British goods from the Continent in the hope of weakening Britain's economy and destroying its capacity to wage war |
| Cosmopolitan | The quality of being sophisticated and having wide international experience |
| Cottage Industry | A system of textile manufacturing in which spinners and weavers worked at home in their cottages using raw materials supplied to them by capitalists entrepreneurs |
| Council of the Plebs | A council only of Plebeians, After 287 B.C.E. However, its resolutions were binding on all Romans. |
| Crusade | In the Middle Ages, a military campaign in defense of Christendom |
| Cubism | An artistic style developed at the beginning of the 20th century, especially by Pablo Picasso, that used geometric designs to re-create reality in the viewer's mind. |
| Cultural Relativism | The belief that no culture is superior to another because culture is a matter of custom, not reason and it derives its meaning from the group holding it. |
| Cuneiform | "wedge-shaped". A system of writing developed by the Sumerians that consisted of wedge-shaped impressions made by a reed stylus on clay tablets. |
| Curiales | City councilors in Roman cities who played an important role in governing the vast Roman Empire |
| Dadaism | An artistic movement in the 1920s and 1930s begun by artists who were revolted by the senseless slaughter of WWI and used their "anti-art" to express contempt for the Western tradition |
| De-Christianization | A policy, adopted in the radical phase of the French Revolution, aimed at creating a secular society by eliminating Christian forms and institutions from French society |
| Decolonization | The process of becoming free of colonial status and achieving statehood. It occurred in most of the world's colonies between 1947 and 1962 |
| Deconstruction (Poststructuralism) | A system of thought, formulated by Jacques Derrida, that holds that culture is created in a variety of ways, according to the manner in which people create their own meaning. Hence, there's no fixed truth or universal meaning |
| Deism | Belief in God as the creator of the universe who, after setting it in motion, ceased to have any direct involvement in it and allowed it to run according to its own natural laws |
| Demesne | The part of a manor retained under the direct control of the lord and worked by the serfs as part of their labor services |
| Denazification | After WWII, the Allied policy of rooting out any traces of Nazism in German society by bringing prominent Nazis to trial for war crimes and purging any known Nazis from political office |
| Depression | A very severe, protracted economic downturn with high levels of unemployment |
| De-Stalinization | The policy of denouncing and undoing the most repressive aspects of Stalin's regime. It was begun by Nikkita Khrushchev in 1956 |
| Détente | The relaxation of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States that occurred in the 1970s |
| Developed Nations | A term used to refer to rich nations, primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, that have well-organized industrial and agricultural systems, advanced technologies and effective educational systems |
| Developing Nations | A term used to refer to poor nations, mainly in the Southern Hemisphere, that are primarily farming nations with little technology and serious population problems. |
| Dialectic | Logic, one of the 7 liberal arts that made up the medieval curriculum. In Marxist thought, the process by which all change occurs through the clash of antagonistic elements |
| Diaspora | The scattering of Jews throughout the Ancient World after the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century. |
| Dictator | In the Roman Republic, an official granted unlimited power to run the state for a short period of time, usually 6 months during the emergency |
| Diocese | The area under the jurisdiction of a Christian bishop. It is based originally on Roman administrative dioceses |
| Divination | The practice of seeking to foretell future events by interpreting divine signs, which could appear in various forms, such as in entrails of animals, in patterns in smoke or in dreams |
| Divine-right Monarchy | A monarchy based on the belief that monarch receive their power directly from God and are responsible to no one except God |
| Domino Theory | The belief that if the Communists succeeded in Vietnam, other countries in Southeast Asia would also fall to communism. It was cited as a justification for the U.S. intervention in Vietnam. |
| Donatism | A Christian heresy that argued that the sacraments of the church were not valid if administered by an immoral priest |
| Dualism | The belief that the universe is dominated by 2 opposing forces, one good and the other evil. |
| Dynastic State | A state in which the maintenance and expansion of the interests of the ruling family is the primary consideration |
| Economic Imperialism | Process in which banks and corporations from developed nations invest in underdeveloped regions and establish a major presence there in the hope of making high profits. |
| Economic Liberalism | The idea that government should not interfere in the workings of the economy |
| Einsatzgruppen | In Nazi Germany, special strike forces in the SS that played an important role in rounding up and killing Jews |
| Empiricism | The practice of relying on observation and experiment |
| Encomienda | In Spanish America, a form of economic and social organization in which a Spaniard was given a royal grant to collect tribute from the Indians and use them as laborers |
| Enlightened Absolutism | Absolute monarchy in which the ruler follows the principles of the Enlightenment by introducing reform for the improvement of society, freedom of speech and press, permitting religious toleration, expanding education and ruling in accordance with the laws |
| Enlightenemnt | An 18th century intellectual movement, led by the philosophes, that stressed the application of reason and the scientific method to all aspects of life |
| Entrepeneur | One who organizes, operates and assumes the risk in a business venture in the expectation of making profit |
| Epicureanism | A philosophy founded by Epicurus in the 4th century, that taught that happiness (freedom from emotional turmoil) could be achieved through the pursuit of pleasure (intellectual rather than sensual pleasure) |
| Equestrians | A group of extremely wealthy men in the late Roman Republic who were effectively barred from high office but sought political power commensurate with their wealth. Called equestrians because many had gotten their start as cavalry officers |
| Estates (orders) | Traditional tripartite division of European society based on heredity and quality rather than wealth or economic standing, 1st established in the Middle Ages and continuing into the 18th century. Consisted of those who fight, pray and the rest |
| Ethnic Cleasing | The policy of killing or forcibly removing people of another ethnic group; used by the Serbs against Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s |
| Eucharist | Christian sacrament in which consecrated bread and wine are consumed in celebration pf Jesus's last supper, also called the Last Supper or communion |
| Eurocommunism | A form of communism that dropped its Marxist ideology. It was especially favored in Italy. |
| Evolutionary Socialism | A socialist doctrine espoused by Edward Bernstein who argued that socialists should stress cooperation and evolution to attain power by democratic means rather than by conflict and revolution |
| Exchequer | Permanent royal treasury of England. It emerged during the reign of King Henry II in the 12th century. |
| Excommunication | In the Catholic Church, a censure depriving a person of the right to receive the sacraments of the church |
| Existentialism | A philosophical movement that arose after WWII that emphasized the meaninglessness of life, born of the desperation caused by 2 world wars |
| Family Allowances | One aspect of the welfare state whereby the state provides a minimum level of material assistance for children |
| Fascism | Ideology or movement that exalts the nation above the individual and calls for a centralized government with a dictatorial leader, economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition |
| Federates | German troops enlisted in groups to fight as allies for the Romans |
| Feminism | The belief in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes. Also,women organized activities to advance women's rights |
| Fief | A landed estate granted to a vassal in exchange for military services |
| Final Solution | The attempted physical extermination of the Jewish population by the Nazis during WWII |
| Five Pillars of Islam | Major tenets of the Muslim faith: belief in Allah and Muhammad as his prophet, pray 5 times a day, observance of the Holy month of Ramadan by fasting from down to sunset, making a pilgrimage to Mecca in one's lifetime and aiding the poor |
| Folk Culture | The tradition arts and crafts, literature, music and other customs of the people. Something that people make as opposed to modern popular culture, which is something people buy |
| Free Trade | The unrestricted international exchange of goods with low or no tariffs |
| Führerprinzip | In Nazi Germany, a leadership principle based on the belief in a single-minded party (the Nazis) under one leader (Hitler) |
| Functionalism | The idea that the function of an object should determine its design and materials |
| General Strike | A strike by all or most workers in an economy. Espoused by Georges Sorel as the heroic action that could be used to inspire the workers to destroy capitalist society |
| Genocide | The deliberate extermination of a people |
| Gentry | Well-to-do English landowners below the level of the nobility. They played an important role in the English Civil War of the 17th century |
| Geocentric Conception | The belief that the earth was at the center of the universe and that the sun and other celestial objects revolved around the earth |
| Girondins | A faction in the National Convention during the French Revolution that favored keeping the king alive. So-called because their leaders came from the Gironde in southwestern France |
| Glasnost | "Openness". Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of encouraging Soviet citizens to openly discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet Union |
| Global Economy | An interdependent economy in which the production, distribution and sale of goods are accomplished on a worldwide scale |
| Globalization | A term referring to the trend by which peoples and nations have become more interdependent. Often used to refer to the development of a global economy and culture |
| Global Warming | The increase in the temperature of the earth's atmosphere caused by the greenhouse effect |
| Good Emperors | The 5 emperors who ruled from 96 to 180, a period of peace and prosperity for the Roman Empire |
| Gothic | A term used to describe the art and especially architecture of Europe in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries |
| Gothic Literature | A form of literature used by Romantics to emphasize the bizarre and unusual, especially evident in horror stories. |
| Great Schism | The crisis in the late medieval church when there were first 2 and then 3 popes. Ended by the Council of Constance |
| Greenhouse Effect | The arming of the earth caused by the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a result of human activity |
| Guest Workers | Foreign workers working temporarily in European countries |
| Guild | An association of people with common interests and concerns, especially people working in the same craft. In medieval Europe, guilds came to control much of the production process and to restrict entry into various trades |
| Gynasium | In Classical Greece, a place for athletics. In the Hellenistic Age, a secondary school with a curriculum centered on music, physical exercise and literature |
| Heliocentric Conception | The belief that the sun, not the earth is at the center of the universe |
| Hellenistic | Literary "imitating the Greeks". The era after the death of Alexander the Great when Greek culture spread into the Near East and blended with the culture of that region |
| Helots | Serfs in ancient Sparta who were permanently bound to the land that they worked for their Spartan masters |
| Hermetism | Intellectual movement in the 15th C. that taught that divinity is embodied in all aspects of nature. It included works on alchemy, magic, philosophy and theology. The tradition continued into the 17th C and influenced many during the scientific revolution |
| Hetairai | Highly sophisticated courtesans in ancient Athens who offered intellectual and musical entertainment as well as sex |
| Hieroglyphics | A pictorial system of writing used in ancient Europe |
| High Culture | Literary and artistic culture of the educated and wealthy ruling classes |
| Holocaust | The mass slaughter of European Jews by the Nazis during WWII. |
| Home Rule | In the UK, self-government by having a separate parliament but not complete independence |
| Hoplites | Heavily armed infantry soldiers in ancient Greece who entered battle in a phalanx formation |
| Huguenots | French calvinists |
| Humanism | An intellectual movement in Renaissance Italy based on the study of the Greek and Roman classics |
| Iconoclasm | A movement against the use of icons (pictures of sacred figures) in the 8th century Byzantine Empire |
| Iconoclast | A member of an 8th century Byzantine movement against the use of icons, which was condemned as idolatry |
| Ideology | A political philosophy such as conservatism or liberalism |
| Imperium | In the Roman Republic, the right to command troops that belonged to the chief executive officers (consuls and praetors). A military commander was known as an imperator. In the Roman Empire, the title Emperor came to be used for the ruler |
| Impressionism | An artistic movement that originated in France in the 1870s. Impressionists sought to capture their impressions of the changing effects of light on objects in nature |
| Individualism | Emphasis on and interest in the unique traits of each person |
| Indulgence | The remission of part or all of the temporal punishment in purgatory due to sin, granted for charitable contributions and other good deeds. Their abused sparked Luther's reform movement |
| Infanticide | The practice of killing infants |
| Inflation | A sustained rise in the price level |
| Intendants | Royal officials in the 17th century France who were sent into the provinces to execute the orders of the central government |
| Interdict | In the Catholic Church, a censure by which a region or country is deprived of receiving the sacraments |
| Principle of Intervention | The idea, after the Congress of Vienna, that the great powers of Europe had the right to send armies into countries experiencing revolution to restore legitimate monarch to the throne |
| Isolationism | A foreign policy in which a nation refrains from making alliances or engaging actively in international affairs |
| Janissaries | An elite core of 8000 troops personally loyal to the sultan of the Ottoman Empire |
| Jihad | "Striving in the way of the Lord". In Islam, the attempt to achieve personal betterment, although it can also mean fair, defensive fighting to preserve one's life and one's faith |
| Joint-Stock Company | A company or association that raises capital by selling shares to individuals who receive dividends on their investment while a board of directors runs the company |
| Joint-Stock investment bank | A bank created by selling shares of stock to investors. Such banks potentially have access to much more capital than private banks owned by one or a few individuals |
| Justification | The primary doctrine of the Protestant Reformation, teaching that humans are saved not through good works but by the grace of God, bestowed freely through the sacrifice of Jesus |
| Kulturkampf | "Culture conflict". The name given to Bismark attack on the Catholic Church in Germany, which has come to refer to conflict between church and state anywhere |
| Laissez-Faire | "Let them do as they please". An economic doctrine that holds that an economy is best served when the government does not interfere but allows the economy to self-regulate according to the forces of supply and demand |
| Latifundia | Large landed estates in the Roman Empire |
| Lay Investure | The practice in which someone other than a member of the clergy chose a bishop and invested him with the symbols of both his temporal office and his spiritual office. |
| Lebensraum | "Living space". The doctrine adopted by Hitler, that a nation's power depends on the amount of land it occupies. Thus, a nation must expand to be strong |
| Principle of legitimacy | The idea that after the Napoleonic wars, peace could best be reestablished in Europe by restoring legitimate monarchs who would preserve traditional institutions. This guided Metternich at the Congress of Vienna. |
| Leninism | Lenin's revision of Marxism that held that Russia need no experience a borgeois revolution before it could move toward socialism |
| Liberal Arts | The 7 areas of study that formed the basis of education in the medieval and early modern Europe. Following Boethius and other late Roman authors, they consisted of grammar, rhetoric and dialect or logic and arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music |
| Liberalism | An ideology based on the belief that people should be as free from restraint as possible. Economic liberalism is the idea that the government should not interfere in the workings of the economy so that people can enjoy basic civil rights. |
| Limited Monarchy (Constitutional Monarchy) | A system of government in which the monarch is limited by a representative assembly and by the duty to rule in accordance with the laws of the land. |
| Major Domus | The chief officer of the king's household in the Frankish kingdom |
| Mandates | A system established after WWI whereby a national officially administered a territory (mandate) on behalf of the League of Nations. Thus, France administered Lebanon and Syria as mandates, and Britain administered Iraq and Palestine |
| Mannerism | A 16th century artistic movement in Europe that broke down the High Renaissance principles of balance, harmony and moderation |
| Manor | An agricultural estate operated by a lord and worked a peasants who performed labor services and paid various rents and fees to the lord in exchange for protection and susteinance |
| Marshall Plan | The European Recovery program, under which the US provided financial aid to European countries to help them rebuild after WWII |
| Marxism | The political, economic and social theories of Karl Marx, which included the idea that history is the story of class struggle and that the proletariat will overthrow the bourgeosie and establish a dictatorship en route to a classless society |
| Mass Education | A state-run educational system, usually free and compulsory, that aims to ensure that all children in society have at least the basic education |
| Mass Leisure | Forms of leisure that appeal to large numbers of people in a society, including the working classes. Emerged at the end of the 19th century to provide workers with amusements after work and on weekends. |
| Mass Politics | A political order characterized by mass political parties and universal male and eventually female sufrage |
| Mass Society | A society in which the concerns of the majority, which is the lower classes, play a prominent role. Characterized by extension of voting rights, improved standard of living for the lower classes and mass education |
| Materialism | The belief that everything mental, spiritual or ideal is an outgrowth of physical forces and that truth is found in concrete material existence, not through feeling or intuition |
| Mercantilism | Economic theory that held that a nation´s prosperity depended on its supply of gold & silver. It advocated that the government play an active role in the economy by encouraging exports and discouraging exports |
| Metics | Resident foreigners in ancient Athens who were not permitted full rights of citizenship but did receive the protection of the laws |
| Middle Passage | The journey of slaves from Africa to the Americas as the middle leg of the triangular trade |
| Militarism | Policy of aggressive military preparedness, especially, the armies based on mass conscription and complex and inflexible plans for mobilization that most European nations had before WWI |
| Millenarianism | The belief that the end of the world is at hand and the kingdom of God is about to be established on earth |
| Ministerial Responsibility | A tenet of 19th century liberalism that held that ministers of the monarch should be responsible to the legislative assembly rather than to the monarch |
| Mir | A peasant village commune in Russia |
| Mobilization | The organization of troops and supplies for service in times of war |
| Modern Devotion | Movement founded by Gerard Groote in the 14th century, aimed at a practical mysticism based on leading lives serving the needs of fellow human beings |
| Modernism | Artistic and Literary style that emerged in the decades before 1914 as artists rebelled against traditional efforts to portray reality as accurately as possible and writers explored new forms. It led to Impressionism and Cubism |
| Monasticism | Movement that began in early Christianity whose purpose was to create communities of men and women who practiced a communal life dedicated to God as a moral example to the world around them |
| Monk | A man who chooses to live a communal life divorced from the world in order to dedicate himself totally tot he will of God |
| Monogamy | The practice of being married to one person at a time |
| Monotheism | Doctrine or belief that there is only one God |
| Mountain | Faction in the National Convention during the French Revolution that represented the interests of the city of Paris and favored the execution of the king |
| Multiculturalism | A term referring to the connection of several cultural or ethnic groups within a society |
| Multinational Corporation | A company with divisions in more than 1 country |
| Mutual Deterrence | The belief that nuclear war could best be prevented if both the US and the Soviet Union had sufficient nuclear weapons so that even if 1 nation launched a preemptive 1st strike, the other could respond and devastate the attacker |
| Mystery Religions | Religions that involve initiation into secret rites that promise intense emotional involvement with spiritual forces and a greater chance of individual imortality |
| Nationalism | A sense of national consciousness based on awareness of being part of a nation that has common institutions, traditions, language and customs and that becomes the focus of the individual's primary political loyalty |
| Nationalities Problem | Dilemma faced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in trying to unite a wide variety of ethnic groups in an era when nationalism and calls for self-determination were coming to the fore |
| Nationalization | The process of converting a business or industry from private ownership to government control |
| Nation in Arms | The people's army raised by universal mobilization to repel the foreign enemies of the French Revolution |
| Nation-state | Form of political organization in which a homogeneous people inhabits a sovereign state, as opposed to a state containing people of several nationalities |
| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A military alliance formed in 1949 in which the signatories agreed to provide mutual assistance if any one of them was attacked. |
| Natural Laws | A body of laws or specific principles held to be derived from nature and binding on all human societies even in the absence of written laws governing such matters |
| Natural Rights | Certain inalienable rights to which all people are entitled, including the right to life, liberty and property, freedom of speech and religion and equality before the law |
| Natural Selection | Darwin's idea that organisms that are most adaptable to their environment survive and pass on the variations that enabled them to survive, while less adaptable organisms become extinct. |
| Nazi New Order | The Nazis plan for their conquered territories. It included the extermination of Jews and others considered inferior, exploitation of resources, German colonization of the East ad the use of Poles, Russians and Ukrainians as slave labor |
| Neoclassicism | A late 18th century artistic movement that emerged in France. It sought to recapture the dignity and simplicity of the classical style of ancient Greece and Rome |
| Neolithic Revolution | The shift from hunting animals and gathering plants for sustenance to producing food by systematic agriculture |
| Neoplatonism | Revival of Platonic philosophy in the 3rd century. |
| Nepotism | The appointment of family members to important political positions. Derived fro the regular appointment of nephews by Renaissance popes. |
| New Economic Policy | Modified version of the old capitalist system introduced in the Soviet Union by Lenin in 1921 to revive the economy after the ravages of the Civil War and war communism |
| New Imperialism | Revival of imperialism after 1880 in which European nations established colonies throughout much of Asia and Africa |
| New Monarchies | The governments of France, England and Spain at the end of the 15th C, whose rulers succeeded in extending centralize royal authority, suppressing the nobility, controlling the church & insisting on the loyalty of all peoples living in their territories |
| Nobiles | "Nobles". The small group of families from both patrician and plebeian origins who produced most of the men who were elected to office in the late Roman Republic |
| Nominalist | A member of a school of thought in Medieval Europe that, following Aristotle, held that only individual objects are real and that universals are only names created by humans |
| Nuclear Family | A family group consisting only of a father, a mother and one or more children |
| Nuns | Women who withdrew from the world and joined a religious community. The female equivalent of monk |
| Old Order (Old Regime) | The political and social system of France in the 18th century before the Revolution |
| Oligarchy | Rule by a few |
| Optimates | "Best Men". Aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who came from senatorial families and wished to retain their oligarchical priviledges |
| Organic Revolution | Darwin's principle that all plants and animals have evolved over a period of time from earlier and simpler forms of life |
| Pantheism | A doctrine that equates God with the universe and all that is in it |
| Panzer Division | In the German army under Hitler, a strike force of about 300 tanks and accompanying forces and supplies |
| Papal Curia | The administrative stuff of the Catholic Church, composed of cardinals who assist the pope in running the church |
| Parlements | Provincial law courts in France |
| Pasteurization | A process developed by Louis Pasteur for heating a product to destroy the microorganisms that might cause spoilage |
| Patriarchal family | Family in which the husband dominates his wife and children |
| Patricians | Great landowners who became the ruling class in the Roman Republic |
| Patriarchy | Society in which the father is supreme in the clan or family. A society dominated by men |
| Yersinia Pestis | The bacteria that carries the bubonic plague |
| Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron | Written between 1348 and 1358, containing a hundred tales supposedly told in ten days by a party of ten young people who had fled from the Black Death in Florence. The work was influential on later writers, such as Chaucer and Shakespeare. |
| Wat Tyler and John Ball | During the Peasant’s Revolt in England, John Ball was preacher who preached against noble class, Wat tyler was a peasant who led the rebellion. |
| Siege of Orleans | Siege in 1429 considered the turning point of the war. The French are able to recapture the city and begin expelling the English from French lands. |
| Charles “the dauphin” VII | King Charles VII of France, considered one of France’s new monarchs. He wins the Hundred Years’ War, increases the power of the monarchy through his royal council, the creation of taxes on gabelle and taille for revenue, and the appointment of bishops. |
| Gunpowder | Chemical explosive that was used with the cannon by both the French and the English during the Hundred Years’ War. It revolutionized warfare and its use with cannons marks the end of the Middle Ages. |
| The gabelle and the taille (France | Gabelle, tax on salt Taille, tax on hearth |
| Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans (France) | Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans fight over control of French king, Charles VI Civil war during the Hundred Years’ War |
| Italian comunes | Areas seeking complete political and economic independence from nobles. The merchant guilds took care of said city areas. |
| The Visconti and the dÉste | Tyrants who took over northern Italian communes, then their families purchased titles from the Holy Roman Emperor to legitimize their power |
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