Early Laws & Belief Systems
Babylonian law code carved on a stele, famous for “an eye for an eye.”
What is Hammurabi’s Code?
Term for the lands under Islamic rule and the cultural/religious sphere they shared.
What is Dar al-Islam?
Encomienda system granted Spanish settlers the right to extract labor and tribute from indigenous peoples.
What is the Encomienda?
Process of rapid mechanized production beginning in Britain that transformed economies and labor.
What is the Industrial Revolution?
1917 upheaval that overthrew Russia’s provisional government and led to Lenin’s rule.
What is the Bolshevik Revolution?
Chinese concept that rulers govern by divine approval, loss of which justifies rebellion.
What is the Mandate of Heaven?
Series of medieval military campaigns by Western Christians aimed at reclaiming the Holy Land.
What are the Crusades?
Economic theory emphasizing state control of trade, accumulation of wealth through bullion, and favorable balance of trade.
What is Mercantilism?
Late-19th-century rush by European powers to partition and control most of Africa.
What is the Scramble for Africa?
1919 international agreement that formally ended World War I and imposed reparations on Germany.
What is the Treaty of Versailles?
Large-scale movements of speakers of a Niger-Congo language family that spread agriculture and ironworking across sub-Saharan Africa.
What are the Bantu Migrations?
1054 schism that split Christianity into Western (Roman Catholic) and Eastern (Orthodox) branches.
What is the Great Schism?
Transatlantic network that moved goods, enslaved people, and raw materials between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
What is the Atlantic System (or Triangular Trade)?
Meiji-era policy in Japan that modernized industry, military, and government to resist Western domination
What is the Meiji Restoration?
Alliance of newly independent states during the Cold War that refused alignment with either US or USSR blocs.
What is the Non-Aligned Movement?
The Eastern Roman state centered at Constantinople that preserved Roman law and Orthodox Christianity.
What is the Byzantine Empire?
Sufi mystics, pilgrimage practices, and scholarship are all examples of cultural life flourishing in this Islamic era centered in Baghdad.
What is the Abbasid Golden Age?
Policy or system where monarchs centralized power and claimed divine right, often reducing noble influence.
What is Absolutism?
Political ideology advocating national self-determination and unity, powerful in 19th- and 20th-century Europe.
What is Nationalism?
Post-1945 process where European empires gradually withdrew and new nation-states formed across Asia and Africa.
What is Decolonization?
Socio-political system in medieval Europe where land was exchanged for military service and labor obligations.
What is Feudalism?
Movement of religious thought in Europe emphasizing humanism and the rebirth of classical learning preceding the Reformation.
What is the Renaissance?
19th-century ideology that used “survival of the fittest” ideas to justify imperial expansion and racial hierarchies.
What is Social Darwinism?
Systemic, state-sponsored settlement and economic reorganization of colonized territories to benefit the imperial power (example: settler colonies).
What is Colonialism
Ongoing global challenge caused by greenhouse gas emissions, affecting climate patterns and sea levels.
What is Climate Change