Empires & States
What nomadic leader founded the largest land empire in world history?
Genghis Khan, The Mongols
What major road connected China to the Mediterranean? What maritime trade network linked East Africa, Arabia, India, and Southeast Asia?
The Silk Roads & Indian Ocean Trade Network
What religion spread across Southeast Asia due to Indian Ocean trade?
Islam
What invention allowed for the mass production of books in both China and, later, Europe?
What is the printing press (or movable type)?
The name of the forced voyage enslaved Africans endured across the Atlantic
The Middle Passage
his West African empire succeeded Ghana and expanded significantly under rulers like Sundiata and Mansa Musa, controlling trans-Saharan trade routes and spreading Islam through its cities like Timbuktu.
What is the Mali Empire?
What disease spread along the Silk Roads and devastated Eurasian populations in the 14th century?
The Black Death (Bubonic Plague)
What was the dominant religion in the Song Dynasty?
Neo-Confucianism
Maritime technology helped Europeans explore longer distances
The caravel (or compass/astrolabe for variety)
The exchange of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds.
The Columbian Exchange
This gunpowder empire reached its height under Suleiman the Magnificent, combining centralized bureaucracy with Islamic law and the millet system to manage its diverse population across the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East.
What is the Ottoman Empire?
This seasonal weather pattern made Indian Ocean trade predictable and efficient for merchants sailing between East Africa, Arabia, India, and Southeast Asia.
What are the monsoon winds?
What are the two main sects of Islam that developed after the death of Muhammad?
What are Sunni and Shia Islam?
Agricultural innovation supported population growth in China during the Song dynasty
Champa rice
The labor system did the Spanish use to exploit Indigenous peoples in the Americas
The encomienda system
Sparked by Martin Luther’s 95 Theses in 1517, this religious movement fractured the Catholic Church and led to the creation of various Protestant sects across Western Europe.
What is the Protestant Reformation?
What name is given to the network of trade routes that carried enslaved Africans, sugar, and goods between Europe, Africa, and the Americas?
The Atlantic Slave Trade (Triangular Trade)
What Islamic traveler documented his experiences across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, providing insight into the spread of Islam and local practices?
Who is Ibn Battuta?
This empire built chinampas, or floating gardens, to grow food
The Aztec Empire
Which explorer’s 1498 voyage linked Europe to India via an all-water route around Africa?
Who is Vasco da Gama?
Founded by Babur in 1526, this Islamic empire ruled most of South Asia for over 300 years. It is notable for Akbar’s religious tolerance and administrative reforms, as well as later architectural achievements like the Taj Mahal under Shah Jahan.
What is the Mughal Empire?
This joint-stock company was granted a monopoly over Asian trade by the British government and eventually controlled large parts of the Indian subcontinent.
What is the British East India Company?
The spread of Christianity in the Americas involved not only conversion but also this process, where Indigenous traditions were combined with Christian rituals to create hybrid faith practices.
What is religious syncretism?
What administrative innovation did the Ottomans use to manage diverse religious populations?
The millet system
What European country established a powerful joint-stock company in the 1600s to control spice trade in Indonesia and parts of South Asia?
What is the (Dutch East India Company)?