KEY WORD MASTER LIST
Directions
Below are the lists of key words for which you are responsible in each chapter. These are your
weekly write-ups AND the study guides for the tests.
Every week (with a few exceptions) you will read one chapter from the textbook. (We’ll refer
to the book as the McKay book, Western Society, the nun book, the bane of your existence…) There is
a lot of information in each chapter, and not all of it is super-important. So I’ve made a list of key
words to help you identify the absolute most important information from each chapter. You should still
read the ENTIRE chapter, but you will only be tested on information relating to the key words.
The key words are split up into two sections – the first set of key words are ones that you are
100% responsible for learning on your own. You will take notes on these key words and turn them in
every week (your “weekly write-ups”). What should you be taking notes on? Great question, fellow
historian. We will spend a lot of time in class on this topic, but as a general guideline you should be
looking for:





A definition or description of what it was
The location (think back to your geography class)
The date(s)
Why it’s significant to history (this is the tough one!)
A note on length – some key words cover a lot of information, and some only cover a little.
Expect your notes to vary in size.
The noes MUST be in your own words, and quote no more than 4 words from the book if you
absolutely can’t resist. The ability to paraphrase is one of the most undervalued academic skills on
earth, and absolutely essential to helping you learn. It’s also very hard to learn, so you must practice
and come talk to me ASAP if you’re concerned. More importantly, this is a college course. You
absolutely cannot plagiarize, even accidentally. I have zero tolerance for it; you will get a zero on the
entire assignment if you plagiarize and I will alert the administration and your parents if it occurs.*
You MUST be careful to summarize and write in your own words.
These weekly write-ups are due on Thursdays by 3:15 p.m. (with a few exceptions). You can
handwrite or type your notes, but if you type them you MUST submit them electronically on
turnitin.com. This is a HARD DEADLINE – no exceptions. If I don’t have your key words by
Thursday at 3:15, you cannot participate in the weekly discussions that will take place every Friday.
As always, please ask if you have questions about anything. I’m here to help you!
*
I will of course perform my due diligence first. Do not panic.
Chapter 1 – Origins
1. The West
2. Sumerian social order
3. Patriarchy (Patriarchal system)
4. Babylonians
5. Egypt’s Old Kingdom
6. Bronze Age
7. New Kingdom of Egypt
8. Akhenaten and Nefertiti
9. Indo-European
10. Hittites
11. Sea Peoples
Key Words Covered in Class
12. Neolithic Period
13. Stonehenge
14. Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
15. Hammurabi/Hammurabi’s Code
16. Mesopotamia
17. Cuneiform
18. Mesopotamian religion
19. The Nile
20. “Pharaoh”
Potential Essay Question
1. How important was the local environment to the development of different civilizations? You
must discuss at least THREE civilizations in your answer.
Chapter 2 – Small Kingdoms and Mighty Empires in the Near East
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period
The Phoenicians
Jerusalem
Israel and Judah
Daily Hebrew life
Chaldeans/Neo-Babylonians
Cyrus the Great
Key Words Covered in Class
9. Moses & Egypt
10. Solomon
11. Assyrian military
12. Babylonian Captivity
13. Yahweh and the Covenant
14. Persian Royal Road
15. Zoroaster/Zoroastrianism
Potential Essay Question
1. Do the ancient Hebrews qualify as their own unique civilization, separate from their neighbors?
You will want to compare/contrast them to other civilizations in your answer.
Chapter 3 – The Development of Classical Greece
2. “Linear A” and “Linear B”
3. The Minoans
4. Solon & Cleisthenes
5. Pericles
6. The Persian Wars
7. The Delian League
8. Spartan Women v. Athenian Women
9. Hippocrates
10. Philip II
Key Words Covered in Class
11. The Mycenaeans
12. The “Dark Age” of Greece
13. Homer
14. Hesiod
15. “Polis”
16. Lycurgan regimen/system
17. The Peloponnesian War
18. Sophocles
19. Pre-Socratics
20. Hippocrates
21. Socrates
22. Plato
23. Aristotle
Potential Essay Question
1. Compare and contrast the Spartan and Athenian political and social systems. In your opinion,
which polis had a greater impact on Western civilization?
Chapter 4 – The Hellenistic World
Note: This chapter talks about the Hellenistic world mostly in general. That means you need to pay
particular attention to finding important information and summarizing it. You don’t need to summarize
everything about the Hellenistic Period, for example, but you should make sure that you summarize
enough information to describe what Hellenistic cities shared in common.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Hellenistic cities
Hellenistic agriculture
Mystery religions
Great Silk Road
Hellenistic Jews
Euclid
Archimedes
Empiric school of medicine
Key Words Covered in Class
9. Alexander the Great
10. Hellenistic Period
11. Ptolemaic Kingdom
12. Seleucid Kingdom
13. Overland & seaborne trade patterns
14. Epicureanism
15. Stoicism
Potential Essay Question
1. What was the most important legacy of Alexander’s empire?
Chapter 5 – The Rise of Rome
1. The Gauls
2. Struggle of the Orders
3. Pyrrhus
4. Carthage
5. Second Punic War
6. Roman Daily Life
7. Paterfamilias
8. Octavian Augustus
9. Cleopatra
10. 31 BCE
Key Words Covered in Class
1. Geography of Italy
2. The Etruscans
3. Romulus & Remus
4. Romanization of Italy
5. Patricians
11. Plebians
12. Tiberius Gracchus
13. Sulla
14. First Triumvirate
15. Julius Caesar
Potential Essay Question
1. Compare the early Roman Empire to the empire conquered by Alexander the Great. Why did
the Roman Empire hold together so much longer than Alexander’s?
Chapter 6 – The Pax Romana
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Roman Expansion
Augustus
Barbarians
Virgil
Ovid
Pagan religion
Tertullian of Carthage
Barracks Emperors
Crisis of the Third Century
Key Words Covered in Class
1. Pax Romana
2. Augustus
3. Principate
4. Tiberius
5. Caligula
6. Claudius
7. Nero
8. Five Good Emperors
9. Hadrian
10. Life In Rome
11. Jesus
12. Paul of Tarsus
13. Peter
Potential Essay Question
1. One of the most important events that occurred during the time of the Roman Empire was the
birth of Christianity. Describe the evolution of Christianity. How do historians explain its early
success?
Chapter 7 – Late Antiquity
1. Diocletian
2. Constantine (politics/Empire)
3. The Tetrarchy
4. Tenant farmers
5. Theodosius v. Ambrose
6. Comitatus
7. Wergeld
8. The Celts
9. Battle of Adrianople
10. The Franks & Clovis
11. Saint Martin of Tours & Saint Patrick
Key Words Covered in Class
1. Constantine (religion)
2. Saint Jerome
3. 312 CE
4. Council of Nicaea (325 CE)
5. The Petrine Doctrine
6. Eremitical (ascetic) monasticism
7. Benedict of Nursia
8. Women in early Christianity
9. Saint Augustine
10. “Barbarians at the Gate” v. “Barbarians inside the gate” theory
11. The Byzantine Empire
12. Justinian
13. Orthodox church
Potential Essay Question
1. Did the Roman Empire “fall” or did it “shift” to another location? What forces caused it to
either move or shift?
Chapter 8 – Europe in the Early Middle Ages
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Moorish (Muslim) Spain
al-Khawarizmi
Charlemagne
Carolingian miniscule
Saint Hilda
Beowulf
Viking attacks
Kievan Rus
Magyars
Key Words Covered in Class
1. Muhammad
2. Ka’ba
3. Qur’an
4. Five Pillars of Islam
5. Sunni v. Shi’a
6. Dhimmi
7. Merovingian Dynasty
8. Battle of Poitiers
9. Carolingians
10. 800 CE
11. Treaty of Verdun
12. Feudalism
13. Manorialism
14. Serfs
Potential Essay Question
1. With the collapse (or shift) of the Roman Empire, Europe became an easy target for foreign
invasions. Describe the various assaults on Western Europe. What impact did the invasions
have on medieval Europe?
Chapter 9 – State and Church in the High Middle Ages
1. Primogeniture
2. Philip Augustus
3. Holy Roman Empire
4. Frederick Barbarossa
5. Reconquista
6. Parlement of Paris
7. Gregory VII
8. Gregory v. Henry IV
9. Innocent III
10. Knights Templars
11. Albigensians
12. Christendom
Key Words Covered in Class
1. 1066
2. William the Conqueror
3. Domesday Book
4. Eleanor of Aquitaine
5. Common law
6. Henry II v. Thomas Becket
7. Magna Carta
8. Île-de-France
9. Urban II
10. First Crusade
11. Saladin
Potential Essay Question
1. The relationship between church and state in Europe throughout the Middle Ages was
complicated. In what ways did the political revival of secular monarchies affect the church, and
how did church reform efforts affect the secular monarchies? Which benefited most, the church
or the secular rulers?
Chapter 10 – The Life of the People in the High Middle Ages
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
New tech in medieval agriculture
Oblates
Hagiographies
Fourth Lateran Council
Jewish daily life
Purgatory
Religious orders
Key Words Covered in Class
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
The Three Orders
Open-field system
Peasants and the legal system
Feudal burden
Chivalry
Cistercians
Daily life in monasteries
Life for noble men
Life for noble women
Potential Essay Question
1. “In the society of the High Middle Ages, function determined social classification.” Discuss
this statement in terms of those who worked, those who prayed, and those who fought. Does it
adequately describe the reality of society at that time? Why or why not?
Chapter 11 – Creativity and Challenges of Medieval Cities
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Daily life in cities
Popular entertainment
Talmud study
Thomas Aquinas
Vernacular literature
Troubadours
Gothic architecture
Inquisition
Boniface VIII
Key Words Covered in Class
1. Commercial Revolution
2. Burgher (or bourgeois)
3. Liberties
4. Merchant & craft guilds
5. Consequences of long-distance trade
6. Hanseatic League
7. Scholasticism/scholastics
8. University of Bologna’s law school
9. Bodily humors
10. Peter Abelard and Heloise
11. Thomas Aquinas
12. Dominicans
13. Franciscans
Potential Essay Question
1. Describe and assess the impact of the emergence of towns during the High Middle Ages on
European society and the economy, the church, and the state. Upon which of those three
segments of society did the emergence of towns have the most impact?
Chapter 12 – The Crisis of the Later Middle Ages
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
“Little ice age”
Cannon
Representative assemblies
Jacquerie & English Peasants’ Revolt
Prostitution & rape in the late Middle Ages
Homosexuality in the late Middle Ages
Gens and natio
Dante Alighieri
Chaucer
Key Words Covered in Class
1. Climate change
2. Black Death
3. Economic effects of the Black Death
4. Flagellants
5. Causes of the 100 Years War
6. Henry V
7. Joan of Arc
8. Avignon papacy
9. Great Schism
10. Confraternities
Potential Essay Question
1. Europe faced many crises in the Later Middle Ages. Which one was the most important turning
point for European history? (Be sure to include what it was like before the turning point as well
as what it was like after.)
Chapter 13 – European Society in the Age of the Renaissance
1. Patronage
2. Florence
3. Signori & courts
4. Pico & On the Dignity of Man
5. Virtù
6. Thomas More
7. Women in the Renaissance
8. Michelangelo
9. Leonardo da Vinci
10. Slavery in Europe
11. Debate about women
Key Words Covered in Class
1. Renaissance
2. Humanism
3. Medici family
4. Niccolò Machiavelli
5. Christian humanists
6. Women in the Renaissance
7. Johann Gutenberg
8. Charles VII of France
9. War of the Roses
10. Ferdinand and Isabella
11. Spanish Inquisition
12. Anti-Semitism
13. 1492
Potential Essay Question
1. Was the Renaissance as big a turning point in European history as commonly believed? Why or
why not?
Chapter 14 – Reformations and Religious Wars
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Ulrich Zwingli
German Peasants’ War of 1525
Protestant Marriage
Habsburgs
Charles V
Peace of Augsburg
Council of Trent
Jesuits
Witch-hunts
Key Words Covered in Class
1. Anticlericalism
2. Martin Luther
3. Indulgencies
4. Protestants
5. Henry VIII
6. Elizabeth I
7. John Calvin
8. 1588
9. Huguenots
10. Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
11. Edict of Nantes
Potential Essay Question
1. “Ultimately, the impact of the Protestant Revolution was less religious than it was political,
social, and economic.” Is this statement true? Why/why not?