Charlemagne
King of Franks; emperor. through a series of military conquests he established the Carolingian Empire, which encompassed all of Gawl and parts of Germany and Italy. Though illiterate himself, he sponsored a brief intellectual revival., 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.
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.
Byzantine Empire
Historians' name for the eastern portion of the Roman Empire from the fourth century onward, taken from 'Byzantion,' an early name for Constantinople, the Byzantine capital city. The empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453.
schism
a formal split within a religious organization; any division or separation of a group or organization into hostile factions
fief
in the middle ages, a property given to a vassal in exchange for his loyalty
vassal
In medieval Europe, a sworn supporter of a king or lord committed to rendering specified military service to that king or lord.
Investiture controversy
Dispute between the popes and the Holy Roman Emperors over who held ultimate authority over bishops in imperial lands.
monasticism
Living in a religious community apart from secular society and adhering to a rule stipulating chastity, obedience, and poverty.
Crusades
Armed pilgrimages to the Holy Land by Christians determined to recover Jerusalem from Muslim rule. The Crusades brought an end to western Europe's centuries of intellectual and cultural isolation.
Vikings
one of a seafaring Scandinavian people who raided the coasts of northern and western Europe from the eighth through the tenth century.
missi dominici
Royal officials under Charlemagne who traveled around the country to enforce the king's laws
excommunicate
to cut off from communion with a church or exclude from the sacraments of a church by ecclesiastical sentence.
interdict
a prohibition by the pope that can deprive individual persons, groups, communities, and even nations of all priestly ministiry. Thus, they no longer had acc3ess to the sacraments of the church.
Caesaropapism
System in which the temporal ruler extends his own power to ecclesiastical and theological matters. Such emperors appointed bishops and the Eastern Patriarch, directed the development of liturgical practices, and even aided the recruitment of monks.
Li Shimin
One of the founders of the Tang Empire and its second emperor (r. 626-649). He led the expansion of the empire into Central Asia.
Tang Empire
Empire unifying China and part of Central Asia, founded 618 and ended 907. The Tang emperors presided over a magnificent court at their capital, Chang'an.
tributary system
A system in which, from the time of the Han Empire, countries in East and Southeast Asia not under the direct control of empires based in China nevertheless enrolled as tributary states, acknowledging the superiority of the emperors in China.
bubonic plague
A bacterial disease of fleas that can be transmitted by flea bites to rodents and humans; humans in late stages of the illness can spread the bacteria by coughing. High mortality rate and hard to contain. Disastrous.
uighurs
A group of Turkic-speakers who controlled their own centralized empire from 744 to 840 in Mongolia and Central Asia.
Song Empire
Empire in southern China (1127-1279; the 'Southern Song') while the Jin people controlled the north. Distinguished for its advances in technology, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics.
junk
A very large flatbottom sailing ship produced in the Tang and Song Empires, specially designed for long-distance commercial travel.
Koryo
Korean kingdom founded in 918 and destroyed by a Mongol invasion in 1259.
Fujiwara
Aristocratic family that dominated the Japanese imperial court between the ninth and twelfth centuries.
Kamakura Shogunate
The first of Japan's decentralized military governments. (1185-1333).
"The Middle Kingdom"
China called themselves "____________" because they believed they lived at the center of the world they did not know about India, Egypt, Greeceand Rome (mtns cut them off)
equal field system
Agricultural reform favoring the peasants under the Tang dynasty in China, inheritance system where 1/5 of the land when to the peasant's descendants and the rest went to the government.
samurai
Literally 'those who serve,' the hereditary military elite of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Teotihuacan
A powerful city-state in central Mexico (100-75 C.E.). Its population was about 150,000 at its peak in 600.
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.
khipu
System of knotted colored cords used by preliterate Andean peoples to transmit information.
Ayllu
Andean lineage group or kin-based community.
Mit'a System
Andean labor system on shared obligations to help kinsmen and work on behalf of the ruler and religious organizations.
Wari
Andean civilization culturally linked to Tiwanaku, perhaps beginning as colony of Tiwanaku.
Inca
Largest and most powerful Andean empire. Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco.
Toltecs
Powerful postclassic empire in central Mexico (900-1168 C.E.). It influenced much of Mesoamerica. Aztecs claimed ties to this earlier civilization.
Quetzalcoatl
Aztec nature god, feathered serpent, his disappearance and promised return coincided with the arrival of Cortes