Glossary
Age grade: A social group based on age whose members share experiences and carry out various responsibilities deemed appropriate for their age.
Antigone: Greek tragedy written by Sophocles featuring Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus.
Aryans: A nomadic race of people originally from the modern regions of Iran and Afghanistan who invaded the Indus River valley around 1500 BCE.
Augustus: The name the Roman emperor Octavian chose for himself, meaning “exalted one.”
Australopithecines: A hominid species that originated in Africa, the earliest example being “Lucy.” The first species of hominid to produce and use simple tools made of stone.
Benefice: A special privilege, often a land grant, promised by a feudal lord to his vassals in return for their loyalty and service.
Bishops: Priests in charge of dioceses from whose ranks the pope is chosen.
Blitzkrieg: A type of surprise attack, literally meaning “lightning war,” used by the Nazi forces of Adolph Hitler during World War II, particularly against Poland in 1939.
Bourgeoisie: The social middle class, composed of business owners, merchants, and artisans.
Brahmins: Priests who made up the top (Brahman) class of the caste system of the Aryans.
Buddha: The spiritual founder of the religion of Buddhism, originally known as Siddhartha Gautama.
Buddhism: Religion based on the teachings of Buddha and the belief that suffering is a direct result of humankind's desire.
Capitalism: An economic system that favors the use of private ownership and enterprise to generate profit.
Carolingian Gaul: The ancient region of Gaul—which was made up of France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy—during the time it was ruled by the Carolingian line of kings, around the eighth and ninth centuries.
Castes: The distinct levels of the social class system of the Aryans. The Aryans introduced the caste system into the Indus River valley, and it eventually became an important part of Indian culture.
Chinampas: Artificial plots of land created by the Aztec that floated on a lake to increase the amount of territory they had available for agricultural use.
Christianity: Religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ whose sacred text is the Bible.
Civilization: A complex society in which a large number of people share a broad range of characteristics, including advanced cities and technology, the specialization of labor, and the development of a system of writing or record keeping.
Code of Hammurabi: Code of law based on a system of retaliatory punishment (e.g., an eye for an eye) created by the Babylonian emperor Hammurabi.
Communism: An economic system in which there is no private property and the means of production are shared by all.
The Communist Manifesto: An 1848 booklet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that promoted a radical form of socialism known as communism.
Confucianism: A Chinese philosophy introduced by Confucius that espoused reverence of elders and ancestors, sound government, and the value of education.
Consuls: The members of the executive branch of the Roman government.
Crusades: A series of wars that took place from about the eleventh century to thirteenth century between Christians and Muslims over control of the Holy Land.
Cuneiform: A system of writing developed by the ancient Sumerians that used pictographs to represent different ideas and sounds.
Daimyo: A Japanese feudal lord who owned an estate and had his own personal army of samurai warriors.
Daoism: Chinese philosophy that was based on following Dao (“the Way”) and emphasized living in harmony with nature.
Deism: A religious philosophy that holds that although a god may exist, the deity's only role is to set the natural laws of the universe.
Diocese: A district or region whose churches and parishes are led by a bishop under the authority of the pope.
The Directory: The five-man executive branch of the new government that emerged in France following the French Revolution.
Dorians: A Mediterranean people who came to dominate ancient Greece during its Dark Age, around 1100-800 BCE, during whose reign the polis, or city-state, emerged.
Encomienda: Land grants given to Spanish colonists in the New World that allowed them to exploit Native Americans for labor purposes.
Enlightenment: A seventeenth- and eighteenth-century intellectual movement that emphasized education and reason.
Ephors: Elected officials who ran the Spartan government.
Epic of Gilgamesh: Epic poem that describes the basic religious beliefs of the Sumerians and contains a creation story and a story of the great flood.
Estates: The three classes into which French society was divided between the Middle Ages and the French Revolution.
European Union: An economic and political organization that includes many European nations among its members.
Fief: A land grant that a vassal could receive from a feudal lord as a benefice.
Ghazi: Muslim warriors who fought to conquer non-Muslims in the name of Islam.
Glasnost: Mikhail Gorbachev's 1985 policy designed to encourage openness and the sharing of ideas in the Soviet Union.
Global Warming: An increase in global temperatures as a result of an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Hellenistic: Relating to the culture that emerged during the time of Alexander the Great and blended the traditions of the East and the West.
Helots: Conquered people who were forced to work as agricultural laborers for the Spartans and accounted for the majority of the Spartan population.
Hieroglyphics: A system of writing developed by the ancient Egyptians that used pictographs to represent different ideas and sounds.
Hinduism: Religion that developed in the Indus River valley civilization after the arrival of the Aryans.
Hominids: Early relatives of modern humans that walked upright.
Homo erectus: Early human species that was the immediate predecessor of Homo sapiens.
Homo habilis: The first hominids (literally meaning “handy man”) to be classified in the same species as modern humans.
Homo sapiens: Known as “wise humans,” the closest early relatives of modern humans.
Homo sapiens sapiens: The scientific name for modern humans.
House of Commons: A house of the British Parliament that in the past was composed of burgesses and knights and today is a modern lawmaking body.
House of Lords: A house of the British Parliament that in the past was composed of bishops and nobles and today is a modern lawmaking body.
Humanism: A Renaissance philosophy that placed emphasis on reason, focused on everyday problems, and viewed Greco-Roman civilization as ideal.
Ice age: A long-term period of reduced global temperatures that results in an increase in glacial activity and size.
Ideograph: A written character that represents an idea.
Iliad: Epic poem written by ancient Greek poet Homer that focuses on the end of the Trojan War and a struggle between King Agamemnon and the hero Achilles.
Imperialism: A practice in which a powerful nation takes over and dominates a weaker country politically, socially, and economically.
Inca: A Mesoamerican civilization that established a large empire in the region of the Andes and along much of the western coast of South America.
Indulgences: Slips of paper that were sold to people under the pretense that their purchase would absolve buyers of their sins.
Industrial Revolution: A period in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries during which much of the world shifted from agricultural economies to economies based on industry and manufacture.
Iron Curtain: A metaphorical division between Western and Eastern Europe over the issue of communism in the twentieth century.
Irrigation: The application of water to soil by artificial means, usually for agricultural purposes.
Islam: Religion that has faith in one god and originates from the prophet Muhammad.
Isolationism: An approach to foreign policy in which all political and economic entanglements with other countries are avoided.
Judaism: Religion developed among ancient Hebrews whose beliefs center on the existence of a single god who revealed himself to Hebrew prophets.
Justinian Code: A codification of Roman laws, legal treatises, and Byzantine laws created by Justinian, a Byzantine emperor.
Karma: According to Hinduism, the good and evil deeds one does in life.
Khanate: A regional segment of the Mongol Empire controlled by a descendant of Genghis Khan.
Laissez-faire: An economic theory, which holds that governments should never interfere with the natural laws of supply and demand.
Latifundia: Large Roman agricultural estates largely operated by means of slave labor.
Legalism: A Chinese philosophy that advocated strict government and the restriction of personal freedoms.
Legions: Roman military units made up of about five thousand to six thousand soldiers.
Loess: Yellowish silt or loam found in considerable quantities in the Huang He (Yellow River) in China.
Lysistrata: Ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes that explores the persuasive abilities of women.
Magna Carta: An important English government document signed by King John in 1215 that placed limitations on the power of the king and protected the rights of nobles.
Mahabharata: One of two major Indian epic poems that help to form the sacred texts of Hinduism.
Majordomo: “Mayor of the palace,” the highest position of governmental power in Carolingian Gaul.
Mandate of heaven: A concept that the Zhou dynasty claimed gave them divine authority to rule in China.
Medea: A Greek tragedy written by Euripides that follows the murderous exploits of Medea, the wife of the Greek hero Jason.
Model Parliament: The first English Parliament created by King Edward in 1295.
Monotheism: A form of religion based on the worship of a single deity, or god.
Mummification: Funerary practice of the ancient Egyptians designed as a means of preserving a body after death.
Neanderthals: Early species of humans, including Homo erectus and Homo sapiens.
Ninety-Five Theses: A list of grievances against the Catholic Church that Martin Luther nailed to the door of a cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1517.
Nomadic: Lifestyle of a social group that moves from place to place to find new sources of food.
Odyssey: Epic poem written by ancient Greek poet Homer that follows the hero Odysseus as he journeys home after the defeat of Troy in the Trojan War.
Oedipus Rex: Greek tragedy written by Sophocles featuring the story of Oedipus, a ruler who inadvertently killed his own father.
Olmec: Earliest known civilization to exist in the Americas.
Oracle: A soothsayer or fortune-teller who is thought to speak for a deity or deities.
Pariahs: Social outcasts of the Aryan caste system, also known as the untouchables.
Patricians: The upper class of Roman society who exercised the most political control.
Pax Romana: A 207-year era of peace in the Roman Empire that began when Augustus assumed total control of Rome in 27 BCE.
Perestroika: Mikhail Gorbachev's 1985 policy that allowed Soviet citizens to own their own small private businesses.
Pharaoh: Ruler of ancient Egypt.
Plebeians: The lower class of Roman society that accounted for the majority of the population.
Polis: Ancient Greek name for the political unit known as a city-state.
Polytheism: A form of religion based on the worship of multiple deities, or gods.
Pope: Chief bishop and highest-ranking leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
Popol Vuh: A sacred text that contains the Mayan version of the creation story.
Predestination: The belief that a person's fate is entirely predetermined by God and cannot be altered.
Prehistory: The period of unrecorded history that spans from the emergence of the earliest humanlike species to the dawn of early civilizations.
Proletariat: A term for the working class that originated in the Roman Empire and that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels later adopted to fit their communist view of history.
Ramayana: One of two major Indian epic poems that help to form the sacred texts of Hinduism.
Renaissance: Era of European history from about 1300-1600 CE during which human reason and humanity were heavily emphasized.
Rosetta stone: An inscribed Egyptian stone that allowed linguists to decipher the language of hieroglyphics.
Samurai: Male and female soldiers who lived by the code of conduct known as bushido that provided protection to daimyos and their property in feudal Japan.
Scientific Revolution: Period of significant scientific advancement spanning the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries during which scientific knowledge drawn from experiments and research replaced inaccurate traditional beliefs.
Serfdom: The state of being a serf in a feudal manor.
Serfs: European peasants who served a lord and were bound to the land as part of the feudal system.
Settlement: A small community in which people live together with one another.
Shang: A nomadic people who founded the first known dynasty in China around 1600 BCE.
Smelting: The practice of melting down metal ore to produce a purer metal.
Socialism: An economic system in which the factors of production are owned by the public and are used to benefit the common welfare.
Sphinx: A large stone carving created by the Egyptian Pharaoh Khafra, which consisted of his head on the body of a lion.
Swahili: An African language that emerged as a blend of Arabic languages and the language of the Bantu-speaking people.
Tribal Assembly: A Roman lawmaking body composed of members of the plebeian class.
Tribunes: Elected representatives that served as part of the Tribal Assembly.
Triumvirate: A three-man executive council that sometimes held power in Rome in place of a single consul.
Twelve Tables: A written code of laws that established the rights of Roman citizens.
Upanishads: A series of Vedic texts, also called the Vedanta, which are the final corpus that make up the sacred scriptures of Hinduism.
Vassals: People who vowed to work for and support a feudal lord in return for protection and some type of benefice.
Vedas: The sacred scriptures of Hinduism, made up of four collections of hymns, chants, prayers, magical and esoteric texts, mantras, and ritual texts.
Vietcong: Communist guerillas that fought against the United States and South Vietnam in the Vietnam War.
Zionism: A movement that began in the 1890s with the goal of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine.