East Asia vocab
Dar-al-Islam vocab
South & SE Asia vocab
Americas vocab
Africa vocab
pot-purri
100

This dynasty in China, from the 10th-13th centuries placed more emphasis on civil administration, industry and education rather than military.

What is the Song Dynasty?

100

This is the holiest city of Islam. It is located in what is today, Saudi Arabia. 

What is Mecca?

100

This practice of having more than one wife was common in Song China but was not in Vietnam in the same time period.

What is polygyny?

100

This culture built large mounds for ceremony, housing and burial. They had a capital city called Cahokia. They were located in, what is today, the Southeastern USA.

What is the Mississippian Culture?

100

African societies were often governed by these networks of families with common ancestry and/ or marriage.

What are kin-based networks?

100

Aside from gold, this item was traded along Saharan and Indian Ocean trade routes. It was valued for its ability to be carved into many forms. 

What is ivory?

200

This canal connected the Yangtze and Yellow rivers and extended over 1100 miles.

What is the Grand Canal?

200

This Caliphate focused more on administration than conquest. It was the first large Islamic Empire and its culture was predominantly Arab. 

What is the Abbasid Caliphate

200

This type of rice could yield two harvests in a year. It was also drought resistant.

What is Champa rice?

200

This term describes a society where family names and inheritance descend from the mother's side of the family instead of the father's. 

What is matrilineal?

200

This civilization in Central/ East Africa is the oldest continual Christian nation on earth. It remained Christian even as other nations around it converted to Islam.

What is Ethiopia?

200

This river flows from West African rainforests North through the Sahara before flowing back south and emptying in the Atlantic Ocean. It gives its name to two modern African countries.

What is the Niger River?

300

This word means "skilled craftworkers". They were a very large part of Chinese cultural and economic successes during the 13th century.

What are artisans?

300

This center of knowledge of Dar-al-Islam was built in Baghdad in the 9th century CE (800s).

What is the House of Wisdom?

300

This branch of Buddhism, also known as popular Buddhism, was common in SE Asia and also widely practiced. It allowed Boddhisatvas, or teachers, to show ordinary people how to achieve enlightenment. 

What is Mahayana Buddhism?

300

This term means "rule by religion". It is when a government is controlled by religious leaders.

What is a theocracy?

300

Kin-based networks were led by this male figure.

What is a chief?

300

This road system built by the Incas stretched over 25,000 miles. 

What is the Carpa Nan?

400

This practice of constricting the feet of women produced a more petite looking foot but caused a great deal of pain and often meant women were confined to homes.

What is foot binding?

400
This is the term for a military and political leader with absolute rule over a Muslim country. It originally came from the Seljuk Turks. 

What is a Sultan?

400

This kingdom in the North of what is today India was ruled by Muslim successors to Mohammed, though the people they ruled over were mostly Hindu.

What was the Delhi Sultanate?

400

This was what the Aztec people referred to themselves as. It was eventually used to name a modern nation in the area where the Aztecs once lived.

What is Mexica?

400

This syncretic language developed from Bantu speakers they moved into East Africa and began to trade with Arabic-speaking Islamic merchants. 

What is Swahili?

400

This disease led to the deaths of many indigenous people of the Americas when it was introduced by the Spanish in the 15th century.

What is smallpox? 

500

This type of printing was common in China. It allowed for more books to be printed and increased literacy. 

What is woodblock printing?

500

These are the five main tenets of the religion of Islam. Examples are fasting during Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca.

What are the Five Pillars of Islam?

500

This is a term describing when a religion sends missionaries or followers out to spread their faith. 

What is to proselytize

500

This is a type of religious practiced where elements of nature are given supernatural qualities. (Worship of the sun, water, animal spirits, etc.) 

What is animism?

500

This Empire in West Africa profited from Trans-Saharan trade. They were immensely rich in gold and their capital city of Timbuktu became a large trading hub.

What is Mali?

500

This cathedral built into the ground in Ethiopia is approximately 800 years old. It is named after the king during whose dynasty its construction started. 

What is Lalibela Cathedral / Church?

600

This is a type of religion that combines elements of other religions. 

What is syncretic?

600

The rulers of this sultanate were made up of Egyptians who were formerly slaves and soldiers in the Abbasid Caliphate, then eventually ruled their own Sultanate in Egypt.

What is the Mamluk Sultanate?

600

This syncretic language was a fusion of Hindi and Arabic. It is commonly spoken in what is today Pakistan and it is written in the Arabic alphabet.

What is Urdu?

600

Both the Mayans and Aztecs practiced this where captured soldiers and others were publicly executed in elaborate religious rituals.

What is human sacrifice?

600

This trade network made East African city-states very wealthy. It began with Islamic merchants sailing on the monsoon winds using a new type of sail (the lateen sail).

What is Indian Ocean Trade?

600

This Aztec city was built on an island in Lake Texcoco. It was connected by causeways to the mainland and it had floating gardens called chinampas attached to it. It was home to over 100,000 people. 

What is Tenochtitlan?