AP WORLD HISTORY: TERMS FOR CHAPTERS 1-3
DIRECTIONS: For each term listed below, provide a well-developed definition that explains the significance of
that term. Your definition should be written in a complete sentence(s). All terms and their definitions must be
numbered and hand-written.
ex. Cuneiform: This is the first known writing system and was developed c3500 BCE by the Sumerian
civilization located in Mesopotamia’s Fertile Crescent.
**Please note**: The terms below are not necessarily listed in the order that they are found in the text. Many
terms are NOT highlighted or italicized as you read them in the textbook. Use your textbook’s glossary or index
to locate the terms. You may also use outside resources to define the term, but the definition provided must be
relevant to our historical studies. Do NOT trust publically edited websites such as Wikipedia or Yahoo Answers
to retrieve definitions.
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Paleolithic Era
Neolithic Era
hunting & gathering societies
culture
Neolithic Revolution (or “Agrarian Revolution”)
Domestication (as it relates to plants & animals)
civilization
Mesopotamia
cultural diffusion
polytheism
monotheism
Indo-Europeans
patriarchal societies
pastoralists
ethnocentrism
dynastic cycle
“mandate of heaven”
“son of heaven”
Shang dynasty
Qin Shi Huangdi
legalism
bureaucracy
Confucianism
filial piety
Daoism (or “Taoism”)
Han dynasty
civil service exam
meritocracy
“mean people” (as it relates to Confucian classical China)
Great Silk Road (or “Silk Routes”)
Subcontinent
caste system (as it relates to Hinduism)
dharma
reincarnation
Siddhartha Gautama
Buddhism
Maurya dynasty
Gupta dynasty
Chandragupta Maurya
Ashoka