Glossary of Terms

Caesar, Julius   Roman general responsible for conquest of Gaul; brought army back to Rome and overthrew republic; assassinated in 44 b.c.e. by conservative senators. (p. 156)

Calcutta   Headquarters of British East India Company in Bengal in Indian subcontinent; located on Ganges; captured in 1756 during early part of Seven Years' War; later became administrative center for all of Bengal. (p. 560)

caliph   The political and religious successor to Muhammad. (p. 288)

calpulli   Seven clans in Aztec society, later expanded to more than sixty; divided into residential groupings that distributed land and provided labor and warriors. (p. 404)

Calvin, Jean   French Protestant (16th century) who stressed doctrine of predestination; established center of his group at Swiss canton of Geneva; encouraged ideas of wider access to government, wider public education; Calvinism spread from Switzerland to northern Europe and North America. (p.526)

camel nomads   Nomadic pastoralists dependent on domesticated camels; common to Arabian peninsula and Sudanic Africa; associated with development of major trade routes. (p. 86)

candomble   [kandom blä] African religious ideas and practices in Brazil, particularly among the Yoruba people. (p. 659)

cannibal kingdom   Modern interpretation of Aztec society created by Marvin Harris; based on observation that Mesoamerica lacked cattle and sheep that replaced human sacrifice in the Old World. (p. 412)

Canton   One of two port cities in which Europeans were permitted to trade in China during the Ming dynasty. (p. 679)

Cape Colony   Dutch colony established at Cape of Good Hope in 1652 initially to provide a coastal station for the Dutch seaborne empire; by 1770 settlements had expanded sufficiently to come into conflict with Bantus. (p. 560)

Cape of Good Hope   Southern tip of Africa; first circumnavigated in 1488 by Portuguese in search of direct route to India. (p. 545)

capitaincies   Strips of land along Brazilian coast granted to minor Portuguese nobles for development; enjoyed limited success in developing the colony. (p. 597)

caravels   Slender, long-hulled vessels utilized by Portuguese; highly maneuverable and able to sail against the wind; key to development of Portuguese trade empire in Asia. (p. 665)

Cárdenas, Lázaro   President of Mexico from 1934 to 1940; responsible for redistribution of land, primarily to create ejidos, or communal farms; also began program of primary and rural education. (p. 938)

Caribbean   First area of Spanish exploration and settlement; served as experimental region for nature of Spanish colonial experience; encomienda, system of colonial management, initiated here. (p. 583)

Carolingians   Royal house of Franks after 8th century until their replacement in 10th century. (p. 377)

Carthage   Originally a Phoenician colony in northern Africa; became a major port and commercial power in the western Mediterranean; fought the Punic Wars with Rome for dominance of the western Mediterranean. (p. 154)

Casa de Contratación   Spanish Board of Trade operated out of Seville; regularized commerce with New World; supplied colonial provisions (p. 595)

castas   People of mixed origin in Spanish colonial society; relegated to secondary status in social system; constituted potentially revolutionary group. (p. 601)

caste system   Rigid system of social classification first introduced into Indian subcontinent by Aryans. (p. 176)

Castile   Along with Aragon, a regional kingdom of the Iberian peninsula; pressed reconquest of peninsula from Muslims; developed a vigorous military and religious agenda. (p. 507)

Castro, Fidel   Cuban revolutionary; overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1958; initiated series of reforms to establish Socialist reforms; came to depend almost exclusively on USSR. (p. 945)

Çatal Huyuk   [chät l hU yook] Early urban culture based on sedentary agriculture; located in modern southern Turkey; was larger in population than Jericho, had greater degree of social stratification. (p. 25)

Catherine the Great   German-born Russian tsarina in the 18th century; ruled after assassination of her husband; gave appearance of enlightened rule; accepted Western cultural influence; maintained nobility as service aristocracy by granting them new power over peasantry. (p. 571)

Catholic Reformation   Restatement of traditional Catholic beliefs in response to Protestant Reformation (16th century); established councils that revived Catholic doctrine and refuted Protestant beliefs. (p. 526)

cattle herders   Nomadic pastoralists dependent on domesticated cattle; common to region from upper reaches of Nile to southern Africa; little impact on civilizations until later date. (p. 86)

caudillos   [kou thEE lyos, -thEE yos] Independent leaders who dominated local areas by force in defiance of national policies; sometimes seized national governments to impose their concept of rule; typical throughout newly independent countries of Latin America. (p. 760)

Cavour, Count Camillo di   [kä voor] Architect of Italian unification in 1858; formed an alliance with France to attack Austrian control of northern Italy; resulted in creation of constitutional monarchy under Piedmontese king. (p. 711)

Celts   Inhabited most of Britain and Ireland; organized in small regional kingdoms; featured mixed agricultural and hunting economies; replaced in most places by Germans. (p. 236)

centralists   Latin American politicians who wished to create strong, centralized national governments with broad powers; often supported by politicians who described themselves as conservatives. (p. 761)

Chabi   Influential wife of Kubilai Khan; promoted interests of Buddhists in China; indicative of refusal of Mongol women to adopt restrictive social conventions of Chinese. (p. 491)

Chaldiran   [chäl duh rán] Site of battle between Safavids and Ottomans in 1514; Safavids severely defeated by Ottomans; checked western advance of Safavid Empire. (p. 620)

Chams   Indianized rivals of the Vietnamese; driven into the highlands by the successful Vietnamese drive to the south. (p. 471)

Chan Buddhism   Known as Zen in Japan; stressed meditation and appreciation of natural and artistic beauty; popular with members of elite Chinese society. (p. 429)

Chandragupta Maurya   [chun druh gUp tuh mour EE uh] Founder of Maurya dynasty; established first empire in Indian subcontinent; first centralized government since Harappan civilization. (p. 183)

Changan   Capital of Tang dynasty; population of two million, larger than any other city in the world at that time. (p. 427)

Charlemagne   [shär luh mAYn] Charles the Great; Carolingian monarch who established substantial empire in France and Germany c. 800. (p. 377)

Charles III   Spanish enlightened monarch; ruled from 1759 to 1788; instituted fiscal, administrative, and military reforms in Spain and its empire. (p. 603)

Chartist movement   Attempt by artisans and workers in Britain to gain the vote during the 1840s; demands for reform beyond the Reform Act of 1832 were incorporated into a series of petitions; movement failed. (p. 708)

Chavín culture   Appeared in highlands of Andes between 1800 and 1200 b.c.e.; typified by ceremonial centers with large stone buildings; greatest ceremonial center was Chavín de Huantar; characterized by artistic motifs. (p. 217)

Cheng Ho   Admiral (a Moslim Chinese) who commanded the great Indian Ocean expeditions, between 1405 and 1433. (p.501)

Chernobyl   Massive meltdown in a Soviet nuclear reactor in 1986, causing widespread radiation damage. (p. 1042)

Chiang Ching-kuo   [jEE äng ching gwO] Son and successor of Chiang Kai-shek as ruler of Taiwanese government in 1978; continued authoritarian government; attempted to lessen gap between followers of his father and indigenous islanders. (p. 926)

Chiang Kai-shek   [chang kiy shek] A military officer who succeeded Sun Yat-sen as the leader of the Koumintang (Guomindung) or Nationalist Party in China in the mid-1920s; became the most powerful leader in China in the early 1930s, but his Nationalist forces were defeated and driven from China by the Com-munists after World War II. (p. 1025)

Chichen Itzá   Originally a Mayan city; conquered by Toltecs c. 1000 and ruled by Toltec dynasties; architecture featured pyramid of Feathered Serpent (Quetzalcoatl). (p. 210)

chichimecs   American hunting-and-gathering groups; largely responsible for the disruption of early civilizations in Mesoamerica. (p. 22)

chiefdom   Widely diffused pattern of social organization in the Americas; featured chieftains who ruled from central towns over a large territory including smaller towns or villages that paid tribute; predominant town often featured temples and priest class. (p. 203)

Chimu state   Regional Andean chiefdom that flourished from 800 to 1465 c.e.; fell to Incas. (p. 219)

chinampas   Beds of aquatic weeds, mud, and earth placed in frames made of cane and rooted in lakes to create "floating islands"; system of irrigated agriculture utilized by Aztecs. (p. 405)

Chinggis Khan   [jeng guhs kän] Born in 1170s in decades following death of Kabul Khan; elected khagan of all Mongol tribes in 1206; responsible for conquest of northern kingdoms of China, territories as far west as the Abbasid regions; died in 1227, prior to conquest of most of Islamic world. (pp. 95, 317)

Chongzhen   [choong juhn] Last of the Ming emperors; committed suicide in 1644 in the face of a Jurchen invasion of the Forbidden City at Beijing. (p. 683)

Choson   Earliest Korean kingdom; conquered by Han emperor in 109 b.c.e. (p. 462)

Christian Democratic movement   Political movement common to many Western European nations after World War II; wedded to democratic institutions and moderate social reform. (p. 872)

Christian Fundamentalism, see Religious Revivalism

Churchill, Winston   British prime minister during World War II; responsible for British resistance to German air assaults. (p. 854)

Cicero   Conservative Roman senator; Stoic philosopher; one of great orators of his day; killed in reaction to assassination of Julius Caesar. (p. 156)

cientificos   Advisors of government of Porfirio Díaz who were strongly influenced by positivist ideas; permitted government to project image of modernization. (p. 777)

city-state   A form of political organization typical of Mesopotamian civilizations; consisted of agricultural hinterlands ruled by an urban-based king. (p. 31)

civilization   Societies distinguished by reliance on sedentary agriculture, ability to produce food surpluses; and existence of nonfarming elites, as well as merchant and manufacturing groups. (p. 9)

Cixi   [tsU shEE] Ultraconservative dowager empress who dominated the last decades of the Qing dynasty; supported Boxer Rebellion in 1898 as a means of driving out Westerners. (p. 801)

Classic   Period in Americas from 150 to 900 c.e.; period of greatest cultural achievement. (p. 206)

clientage   The social relationship whereby wealthy Roman landholders offered protection and financial aid to lesser citizens in return for political support and labor. (p. 153)

Clive, Robert   Architect of British victory at Plassey; established foundations of British Raj in northern India (18th century). (p. 732)

Celisthenes   [klis thuh nEEz] Athenian reformer of late 6th century b.c.e.; established democratic Council of 500 in Athens. (p.129)

Clovis   Early Frankish king; converted Franks to Christianity c. 496; allowed establishment of Frankish kingdom. (p. 377)

cold war   The state of relations between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies between the end of World War II to 1990; based on creation of political spheres of influence and a nuclear arms race rather than actual warfare. (p. 859)

collectivization   Creation of large, state-run farms rather than individual holdings; allowed more efficient control over peasants; part of Stalin's economic and political planning; often adopted in other Communist regimes. (p. 895)

Columbian exchange   Biological and ecological exchange that took place following Spanish establishment of colonies in New World; peoples of Europe and Africa came to New World; animals, plants, and diseases of two hemispheres were transferred. (p. 592)

Columbus, Christopher   Genoese captain in service of king and queen of Castile and Aragon; successfully sailed to New World and returned in 1492; initiated European discoveries in Americas. (p. 545)

Comintern   International office of communism under USSR dominance established to encourage the formation of Communist parties in Europe and elsewhere. (p. 892)

commercio libre   Policy established during reign of Charles III; opened trade in ports of Spain and Indies to all Spanish merchants; undercut monopoly of consulados. (p. 604)

Communist Party of Vietnam   Originally a wing of nationalist movement; became primary nationalist party after decline of VNQDD in 1929; led in late 1920s by Nguyen Ai Quoc, alias Ho Chi Minh. (p. 1039)

compradors   Wealthy new group of Chinese merchants under the Qing dynasty; specialized in the import-export trade on China's south coast; one of the major links between China and the outside world. (p. 797)

Comte, Auguste   [koNt] French philosopher (19th century); founder of positivism, a philosophy that stressed observation and scientific approaches to the problems of society. (p. 766)

Comunero Revolt   One of popular revolts against Spanish colonial rule in New Granada (Colombia) in 1781; suppressed as a result of divisions among rebels. (p. 605)

Confucius   Also known as Kung Fuzi; major Chinese philosopher; born in 6th century b.c.e.; author of Analects; philosophy based on need for restoration of order through advice of superior men to be found among the shi. (p. 102)

Congress of Soviets   Lenin's parliamentary institution based on the soviets and Bolshevik domination; replaced the initial parliament dominated by the Social Revolutionary party. (p. 891)

Congress of Vienna   Meeting in the aftermath of Napoleonic Wars (1815) to restore political stability in Europe and settle diplomatic disputes. (p. 702)

Constantine   Roman emperor from 312 to 337 c.e.; established second capital at Constantinople; attempted to use religious force of Christianity to unify empire spiritually. (p. 259)

consulado   Merchant guild of Seville; enjoyed virtual monopoly rights over goods shipped to America and handled much of the silver received in return. (p. 595)

consuls   Two chief executives or magistrates of the Roman republic; elected by an annual assembly dominated by aristocracy. (p. 153)

contested settler societies   Featured large-scale European settlement despite the existence of large, indigenous populations; generally resulted in clashes over land rights, resource control, social status, and differences in culture; typical of South Africa, New Zealand, Kenya, Algeria, and Hawaii. (p. 743)

Cook, Captain James   Made voyages to Hawaii from 1777 to 1779 resulting in opening of islands to the West; convinced Kamehameha to establish unified kingdom in the islands. (p. 751)

Copernicus   Polish monk and astronomer (16th century); disproved Hellenistic belief that the earth was at the center of the universe. (p. 530)

Copts   Christian sect of Egypt; tended to support Islamic invasions of this area in preference to Byzantine rule. (p. 335)

core nations   Nations, usually European, that enjoyed profit from world economy; controlled international banking and commercial services such as shipping; exported manufactured goods for raw materials. (p.551)

Corinthian   Along with Doric and Ionian, distinct style of Hellenistic architecture; the most ornate of the three styles. (p. 141)

Cornwallis, Lord Charles   Reformer of the East India Company administration of India in the 1790s; reduced power of local British administrators; checked widespread corruption. (p. 735)

Coronado, Francisco Vázquez de   Leader of Spanish expedition into northern frontier region of New Spain; entered what is now United States in search of mythical cities of gold. (p. 588)

corporatism   Political ideology that emphasized the organic nature of society and made the state a mediator, adjusting the interests of different social groups; appealed to conservative groups in European and Latin American societies and to the military. (p. 941)

Cortés, Hernán   Led expedition of 600 to coast of Mexico in 1519; conquistador responsible for defeat of Aztec Empire; captured Tenochtitlan. (p. 588)

cossacks   Peasants recruited to migrate to newly seized lands in Russia, particularly in south; combined agriculture with military conquests; spurred additional frontier conquests and settlements. (p. 567)

Council of Nicaea   Christian council that met in 325 c.e. to determine orthodoxy with respect to persons of Trinity; insisted on divinity of all persons of the Trinity. (p. 265)

Council of People's Commissars   Government council composed of representatives from soviets across Russia and headed by Lenin; form of government initially established after November 1917. (p. 891)

Council of the Indies   Body within the Castilian government that issued all laws and advised king on all matters dealing with the Spanish colonies of the New World. (p. 596)

courage cultures   Cultures dominated by warlike males bound to each other by strong ties of personal loyalty; such cultures place emphasis on personal honor and physical courage; typical among pastoral nomads. (p. 89)

Creole slaves   American-born descendants of "salt water" slaves; result of sexual exploitation of slave women or process of miscegenation. (p. 655)

Creoles   Whites born in the New World; dominated local Latin American economies; ranked just beneath peninsulares. (p. 601)

Crimean War   Fought between 1854 and 1856; began as Russian attempt to attack Ottoman Empire; opposed by France and Britain as well; resulted in Russian defeat in the face of Western industrial technology; led to Russian reforms under Tsar Alexander II. (p. 810)

Cristeros   Conservative peasant movement in Mexico during the 1920s; most active in central Mexico; attempted to halt slide toward secularism; movement resulted in armed violence. (p. 937)

Cromer, Lord   British adviser in khedival Egypt; pushed for economic reforms that reduced but failed to eliminate the debts of the khedival regime. (p. 966)

Crusades   Series of military adventures initially launched by western Christians to free Holy Land from Muslims; temporarily succeeded in capturing Jerusalem and establishing Christian kingdoms; later used for other purposes such as commercial wars and extermination of heresy. (pp. 310, 382)

cubist movement   20th-century art style; best represented by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso; rendered familiar objects as geometrical shapes. (p. 884)

culture   Combinations of the ideas, objects, and patterns of behavior that result from human social interaction. (p. 10)

Cultural Revolution   Movement initiated in 1965 by Mao Zedong to restore his dominance over pragmatists; used mobs to ridicule Mao's political rivals; campaign was called off in 1968. (p. 1034)

cuneiform   [kyU nEE uh fôrm, kyU nEE uh-] A form of writing developed by the Sumerians using a wedge-shaped stylus and clay tablets. (p. 32)

curacas   Ayllu chiefs with privileges of dress and access to resources; community leaders among Andean societies. (p. 220)

Cyril   Along with Methodius, missionary sent by Byzantine government to eastern Europe and the Balkans; converted southern Russia and Balkans to Orthodox Christianity; responsible for creation of written script for Slavic known as Cyrillic. (p. 364)

Cyrus the Great   Established massive Persian Empire by 550 b.c.e.; successor state to Mesopotamian empires. (p. 126)

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