TERMS TO KNOW






The first five pages list terms related to the main five Themes. These terms you do not
need to define but you need to be utterly familiar with these terms and some of them
are repeated below.
You must define the terms in bold.
The non-bold terms are terms you should fully understand, but do not need to define
for the assignment.
Some terms extend before or beyond the time period under which they are listed, so
try to be time period specific, but it won’t be necessary all the time.
In the cases where I felt that there was some confusion as to what the possible
definition would be I’ve tried to clarify in parentheses).
When multiple terms are listed divided by slashes (/) I only need one definition, but you
might have this in a variety of forms across different chapters.
Themes (SPICE)
Social Structures
 Gender roles and relations
o Polygamy vs. monogamy
o Matrilineal vs. patrilineal
 Family and kinship
 Racial and ethnic constructions
o racial ideologies
 Social and economic classes
o clearly stratified social hierarchies
o elites
o political and economic elites and hierarchies
State-Building
 Political structures and forms of governance
o Political /state authority and autonomy - centralized control/ governments
o state consolidation, legitimization and expansion of power
o military professionals
o political ideologies
o bureaucracies/ administrative institutions
o Collection of revenue
o Warfare – casualties, tactics,
 Empires
o Trading-post empires
o Land empires
o Diplomacy
o Maritime empires
o Transoceanic empires
o Imperial conquests / Expansion
o Indigenous homelands
o Internal factors and external factors
 Nations and nationalism
o nation-states
o nationalist ideologies
o national aspirations
o (imagined) national communities
o Nation Building/State Building
 Revolts and revolutions
o Political and social discontent
o Rebellions and protests
o Dissent and resistance
o movements of political reform
 Regional, transregional, and global structures and organizations
o transregional political organization
o institutions of global governance
o New international organizations (e.g. United Nations, League of Nations,
International Criminal Court)
o Humanitarian organizations (e.g. UNICEF, Red Cross, Amnesty International,
Doctors Without Borders, World Health Organization (WHO))
Themes (SPICE) Continued
Interaction Between Humans and the Environment
 Demography and disease
o Demographic shifts - Fertility / birth rate
o Birth control
o disease pathogens
o epidemic diseases (Tuberculosis, Malaria, Cholera, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, Influenza
pandemic)
o diseases associated with changing lifestyles (Diabetes, Heart disease,
Alzheimer’s disease)
 Migration
o Coerced and semicoerced labor migration:
o Push and pull factors
o Manual laborers
o Internal and external migrants
 Patterns of settlement
o Geography – desert, savanna, tropics, tundra, estuaries, steppes, fragile
grasslands
o Flora and fauna
o Water control systems
o Environmental diversity
o Urbanization - Urban revival and growth
 Environment
o Pollutants
o Atmosphere
o Environmental Damage – Deforestation, Desertification, Silted rivers, Soil
erosion, soil depletion
o Rates of extinction
 Technology
o Pottery
o Farming Technology - Plows, Yokes, qanat system
o Woven textiles
o Metallurgy – bronze, iron, steel
o Transportation technology - Wheels and wheeled vehicles, Chariots, Saddles,
Stirrups
o Maritime technology – Cartography, Compass, astrolabe, Revised maps,
Lateen sail, Caravels, Dhow ships, longships
o Military technology - gunpowder / cannons, Compound bows, Iron weapons,
Tanks, Airplanes, atomic bomb
o Technological innovations (Champa rice varieties, chinampa field systems,
Waru waru agricultural techniques in the Andean areas, Improved terracing
techniques, horse collar)
Themes (SPICE) Continued
Development and Interaction of Cultures
 Religions
o Monotheism
o Polytheism
o The Vedic religion / Hinduism
o Hebrew monotheism / Judaism
o Zoroastrianism
o Buddhism
o Christianity
o Islam
o Neoconfucianism
 Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies
o Confucianism
o Daoism
o Greco-Roman philosophy
o revelation
 Science and technology
o Energy technologies
o oil and nuclear power
o Reason
o empirical observation
 The arts and architecture
 Monumental architecture and urban planning (Pyramids, Ziggurats, Temples,
defensive walls, streets and road, Sewage and water systems)
 Arts and artisanship (Elaborate weaving, Painting, Sculpture, Wall decorations,
Courtly literature, Miniature paintings, Renaissance art, Wood-block prints)
 Cultural
o Languages – Turkic, Arabic
o Sports – Cricket
o Music and film - Reggae, Bollywood
o Literature - Book of the Dead, Rig Veda, The “Epic of Gilgamesh,” Kabuki,
codices,
o Systems of Record Keeping – Hieroglyphs, Pictographs, Quipu, Alphabets,
Cuneiform
Creation, Expansion, and Interaction of Economic Systems
 Agricultural and pastoral production
o American Foods – Potatoes, Maize, Manioc
o Staple crops – wheat, rice, sorghum,
o Cash crops – Sugar, Tobacco
o Foods brought by African slaves – Okra, Rice
 Trade and commerce
o Commercialization
o Commercial entrepreneurs and
o Luxury goods (Silk and cotton textiles, Porcelain, Spices, Slaves, Exotic animals)
o Commercial entrepreneurs
o Trade routes: Trans-Saharan caravan routes, Indian Ocean sea lanes,
Mediterranean sea lanes, Silk Roads
o Caravan organization (Caravanserai, Camel saddles)
o Forms of credit and Monetization (Minting of coins, Use of paper money, Bills
of exchange, Checks, Banking houses)
o Transoceanic shipping services
o Piracy
o Global integration - World economic network / world system
 Labor systems
o Specialized professionals – merchants, artisans and warriors
o Free peasant labor or Peasant communities
o Craft production or guild organization
o Government-imposed labor taxes
o Family and household production
o Coerced labor - Indentured servitude, Corvée
o Unfree labor – Slavery, Convict labor, Chattel slavery
o Slave systems / slave trade
 Industrialization
o Coal, iron and timber
o Steam engines / internal combustion engine / fossil fuels / coal and oil
o Steel / chemicals / electricity / precision machinery /
o Developments in transportation and communication (Railroads, Steamships,
Telegraphs, Canals)
o Increased Economic Productive Capacity
 Capitalism and socialism
8000 BCE – 600 BCE
 Agricultural revolution/transition or Neolithic Revolution
 Aristocracy
 Barbarian
 Brahmins
 Bureaucracy
 Cities (vs. villages)
 Civilizations/advanced societies
 Complex institutions
 Currency
 Deity
 Democracy
 Dharma
 Diffusion
 Diversified food supply
 Domesticated animals (horses, pigs, cattle)
 Dynastic cycle
 Egalitarian
 Ethical/ legal codes
 Frontier
 Hunters and gatherers/foraging/Nomadic
 Ice Age
 Intensive cultivation
 Irrigation systems
 Karma
 Mandate of heaven
 Monogamy
 Pagan
 Pastoral/ Pastoralism
 Patriarchy / patriarchal systems
 Polygamy
 Record keeping
 Secular
 Sericulture
 Settled populations
 Slavery
 Specialization of labor
 Surplus
 Syncretism
 Textiles
 Theocracy
600 BCE – 600 CE
 Ancestor veneration
 Animism
 Bodhisattva
 caste system
 City-state
 Classical
 Codification
 Dao/tao
 Diaspora / diasporic communities
 Enlightenment
 Filial piety
 Hellenistic
 Manifestations
 Merchants
 Missionaries
 Monarchy
 Monastery/monastic life /monasticism
 Monsoon winds
 Rajas
 Reincarnation
 Rents
 Republic
 Rituals
 Sanskrit scriptures
 Scriptures
 Shamanism
 Sinicization
 Social harmony
 Sutras
 Universal truths (dealing with belief systems)
600-1450
 Black Death
 Bushido
 Caliphate
 Chinampa
 Chivalry
 Christendom
 Civil service exam system / examination system
 Crusades/ Crusading movement
 Dar al-Islam
 Diffusion of scientific and technological traditions (printing and gunpowder
technologies, spread of cotton, sugar, and citrus, turn of Greek science and
philosophy to Western Europe via Muslim al-Andalus in Iberia)
 Entrepót
 Feudalism/ decentralized government
 Fiefs
 Gentry
 Grand Canal in China.
 Great Warming Period (800-1300)
 Griots
 Guilds
 Hajj
 Hanseatic League
 Khan/ Khanates
 Kow tow
 Little Ice Age
 Manorialism
 Mit’a
 Neoconfucianism
 Nobility / daimyo / zamindars
 Papacy
 Quipu
 Samurai / Salaried samurai
 Serfs / Serfdom
 Sharia
 Shia / Shiism
 Southernization
 Sufi
 Sultan
 Sunni
 Swahili
 Tax farming
 Terraces
 Synthesized
 Tribute collection / Tributary systems
 Ulama
1450-1750 CE
 Absolutism
 Astrolabe
 Atlantic slave trade
 Balance of power
 Biological diffusion
 Boyars
 codices
 colonies /colonization / colonial administrations
 Columbian Exchange
 Conduits
 Conquistadores
 Creoles/Criollos
 Debt Peonage
 Devshirme
 Dhimmi
 Divine right
 Encomienda
 Enlightenment
 Hacienda/hacienda systems
 Harem
 Indentured servitude
 Janissaries
 Joint-stock companies
 Literacy
 Local resistance (e.g. Food riots / Samurai revolts / Peasant uprisings)
 Manila galleons
 Maroon
 Mercantile practices / Mercantilism
 Mestizo
 Mulattoes
 Middle passage
 Peninsulares
 Plantations / plantation systems
 Predominance
 Reformation/ Protestantism
 Repartimiento
 Royal chartered monopoly companies
 Scientific Revolution
 Sikhism
 Social contract
 Triangular trade
 Viceroys
 Vodun
 Westernization/ modernization
 Zen
1750 CE – 1914/1900 BCE
 Abolition
 Alternative visions of society (Utopian socialism, Marxism, Anarchism)
 American Declaration of Independence
 Anticolonial movements (The Indian Revolt of 1857, The Boxer Rebellion)
 Anti-imperial resistance
 Bolivar’s Jamaica Letter
 Bourgeoisie
 Capitalism / global capitalism
 Capitulations/extraterritoriality
 Caudillos
 Chinese Exclusion Acts
 Class Struggle
 Conservative (not current US definition)
 Consumer markets
 Constitution
 Economic imperialism
 Emancipation of serfs/slaves
 Enclaves
 Exploitation
 Factory system
 Financial instruments (Stock markets, Insurance, Gold standard, Limited liability
corporations
 Finished goods
 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
 Hegemony
 Home society
 Ideologies
 Imperialism/colonialism
 Independence
 Industrial Revolution/Industrialization
 Industrialized states
 Intelligentsia
 Laissez-faire
 Liberal/ Liberalism / classical liberalism
 Marxism
 Migrant support networks
 Millenarianism (e.g. The Taiping Rebellion, The Ghost Dance, The Xhosa Cattle- Killing
Movement)
 Neocolonialism
 Preindustrial
 Proletariat
 Racism
 Raw materials / production and export of single natural resources (Cotton, Rubber,
Palm oil , Sugar, Wheat, Meat, Guano, Metals and minerals)
1750 CE – 1914/1900 BCE (continued)
 Rebellion/revolt
 Reforms (State pensions, public health, suffrage, Public education)
 Reforms in imperial policies (The Tanzimat movement, The Self-Strengthening
Movement)
 Revolutions
 Self- Strengthening Movement (China)
 Settler colonies
 Slave resistance (Maroon societies)
 Social Darwinism
 Socialism
 Spheres of influence
 Suez Canal
 Suffrage
 Temporary and seasonal migrants
 Transnational businesses (large-scale - United Fruit Company, HSBC — Hong Kong
and Shanghai Banking Corporation, zaibatsu)
 Transnational ideologies and solidarities
 Transoceanic imperialism
 White Australia Policy
 Zionism
1914/1900 - present
 Anti-imperialism
 Anti-Semitism
 Apartheid
 Appeasement
 Application of religion to political issues (Fundamentalist movements, Liberation
Theology)
 Authoritarianism / Authoritarian regimes
 Bedouin
 Biafra secessionist movement
 Chemically and genetically enhanced forms of agriculture
 Cold War
 Collectivization
 Communism (Five-Year Plans, Great Leap Forward)
 Consumerism
 Containment
 Cultural convergence
 Cultural Identities (Pan-Africanism, Pan-Arabism, pan-Slavism, Negritude)
 Decolonization
 Deforestation
 Desertification
 Dissolution
 Domestic (not having to do with the home!)
 Draft
 Economic liberalization
 Exclusionary reactions (Xenophobia, Race riots, Citizenship restrictions)
 Fascism
 feminism
 Five-Year Plans
 Free market economics / policies
 Free Trade
 Genocide
 Glasnost
 Global warming
 Government intervention in the economy (New Deal, Fascist corporatist economy,
economic development, export-oriented economies)
 Great Depression
 Green/environmental movements (e.g. Greenpeace, Green Belt in Kenya, Earth Day)
 Green Revolution
 Greenhouse gases
 Holocaust
 Home countries
 Human rights (e.g. U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Women’s rights, end
of the White Australia Policy)
 Imperial metropoles
1914/1900 - present
 Indian National Congress
 intensified conflict (military dictatorship, New World Order, “military-industrial
complex,” arms trading)
 League of Nations
 Mandatory states/mandates
 Medical innovations (polio vaccine, Antibiotics, artificial heart)
 Militarized states
 Mobilization of a state’s resources (Gurkha, ANZAC, Military conscription)
 Movement who challenged the war (anti-nuclear movement, self-immolation)
 Mujahideen/Taliban
 Multinational corporations (MNCs) /Trans-national corporations (e.g. Royal Dutch
Shell, Coca-Cola, Sony)
 NATO
 New economic institutions (International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World
Trade Organization (WTO))
 New forms of spirituality (Hare Krishna, Falun Gong)
 Nonviolence (Non-Aligned Movement, Anti-Apartheid Movement)
 nuclear weaponry
 OPEC
 Pacific Rim
 Perestroika
 Popular culture (Dada, Socialist Realism)
 Population resettlements / partition
 Propaganda
 proxy wars
 Québécois separatist movement
 Redistribute land and resources
 Refugee populations/ displacement of peoples
 Regional trade agreements or blocs (e.g. European Union, NAFTA, ASEAN, Mercosur)
 Religious fundamentalism
 Scientific paradigms (theory of relativity, Quantum mechanics, Big Bang theory,
Psychology)
 Segregation
 Self-determination
 soviets
 superpowers
 tactics (Trench warfare, Firebombing)
 Technological stagnation
 Terrorism
 Third World/developing world
 “total wars” / World Wars
 Totalitarianism
 United Nations
 Warsaw Pact
 Women’s emancipation/ suffrage