rulers
The only woman in Chinese history to ever rule outright.
Who was Empress Wu Zetian?
He was the best known warrior of the Reconquista era and a great hero among the Spaniards.
Who was El Cid?
This lasted for nearly 300 years. It was a time of great accomplishments in Chinese art, literature and drama. The emperors spent a lot of time and money building the Great Wall of China.
What was the Ming Dynasty?
Part of the beginning of the Portuguese empire, the world’s 1st true overseas empire
What was the Gold Coast?
They were learned in literature and art as well as in warfare. They were extremely dedicated to their masters. They were not afraid to die in battle. One who feared death could bring down unending shame upon his descendants.
Who was a samurai?
He was the longest reigning and most accomplished of all Ottoman sultans. His 46 years of reign were a Golden Age and were marked by his accomplishments in law, literature and arts.
Who was Suleiman the Magnificent?
A major turning point in the Reconquista - Castile, Aragon, Leon and Portugal all joined forces and defeated the Almohads
What was the Battle of Las Navas?
It was not a Muslim Empire. They grew wealthy by charging heavy taxes on the salt and gold trade that crossed the Sahara.
What was the Ghana Empire?
This governor from Puerto Rico set out to find an island where Columbus had not landed and in April 1513, Leon landed on Florida.
Who was Ponce de Leon?
“child-harvesting” or “blood tax”, was a harvest of young Christian boys who came from the Christian lands that the Ottomans conquered.
What is a devshirme?
They believed their kings were descended from gods and should look like them so they:
Tied infants kings’ to flat boards to reshape their heads
They ties small toys close to their faces so they had to cross their eyes to see them
Used stone files to shape permanent teeth into fangs
These people perfected Middle America's most complete writing system.
Who were the Maya?
This is Arabic for “Well of Goliath.” It may have been the place where David slew Goliath. In this "fight" the Mamluks destroyed the Mongol army and beheaded its commander, dealing the Mongol army its first serious defeat since the days before Genghis Khan.
What is the battle of Ain Jalut?
A thoroughly Muslim Empire that grew wealthy by taxing the gold trade across the Sahara Desert. They also grew wealthy from the mines themselves since under Malian law, any gold nuggets discovered in the mines went directly to the king or Mansa
What was the Mali Empire?
He won his title by promoting and paying for Portugal’s many voyages of exploration around Africa. He didn’t navigate the voyages personally, but he did all he could to push his explorers farther south along Africa’s west coast.
Who was Henry the Navigator?
Muslim holy warriors who fought with 3 goals:
Spread the Islamic faith
Build Islam’s empire
Win riches and honor for themselves
Who are the Ghazis?
They fought for their faith & country by forcing all Jews to leave their kingdom. Jews were given 4 months to sell everything and move out of Spain. They issued the Alhambra Decree that accused the Jews of damaging the Catholic faith by teaching Christians the Law of Moses and encouraging them to follow that Law instead of Roman Catholic law.
Who were Ferdinand & Isabella?
This was a forty-year period when there were two popes, one at Avignon and one at Rome. For forty years, there were always two popes— each claiming the power of St. Peter, each denouncing the other as a heretic, each excommunicating the other’s followers.
What was the Western Schism?
A 770 year long crusade in which the Christian kingdoms of northern Iberia gradually reclaimed the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors. Ended in 1492 when King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile conquered the Emirates of Granada.
What was The Reconquista?
He discovered that the Atlantic Ocean joined the Indian Ocean south of Africa, this was Portugal’s biggest discovery in decades. He was also the first to sail past the Cape of Good Hope.
Who was Bartolomeu Dias?
A Turkish word meaning “new soldier.” It is an elite fighting force trained exclusively for war. These boys were chosen from the devshirme. They had several advantages over ghazis:
They knew no masters other than their sultans and were loyal to them
They only knew warfare, no other trade
They received the best training and equipment available
They were paid, permanent soldiers, they didn’t rely on plunder
They were among the world’s first large standing armies
Who are the Janissaries?
He united Mongol’s warring tribes into a single, powerful nation.
Established law, order and justice in Mongolia under a written law known as the Yassa
Only promoted those who were best qualified to lead his armies
Tolerated believers from all faiths
Developed the Yam network for communication
Who was Genghis Khan?
This was a Roman Catholic special court established by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand with permission from the pope. It had 2 main purposes:
To expose Moriscos(Muslims) and Marranos(Jews)pretending to be Christians
To defend the Roman Catholic faith and fight against heretics whose beliefs and teachings disagreed with the church's.
What was The Spanish Inquisition?
This was the longest living Islamic time of ruling. This empire succeeded in conquering Constantinople in May, 1493. When Constantinople fell:
The 1,000 year old Byzantine Empire ended.
The much older Roman Empire came to an end
Constantinople’s time as a leading city came to an end
Some say the Middle Ages ended and the Renaissance began (a time of renewed interest in humanities like fine art, literature, and scholarship in the West)
What was the Ottoman Empire?
Once they won the Reconquista, Isabella & Ferdinand agreed to his demands and supported his exploration. After his first voyage, he asked Pope Alexander VI to establish a new line that would divide Spain’s discoveries from Portugal’s. Alexander was Spanish and happy to protect Spain’s discoveries. He drew an imaginary line from the North Pole to the South Pole. It gave Spain the right to claim any land west of this line.
Who was Christopher Columbus?
He was known as the "Morning Star of the Reformation" because he argued that the Bible, nor the Pope or the Roman Catholic Church, was the true authority on Christianity more than a century before Martin Luther.
He also produced the first translation of the Holy Bible into the English language.
Who was John Wycliffe?