Glossary of Terms

Sadat, Anwar   Successor to Gamal Abdul Nasser as ruler of Egypt; acted to dismantle costly state programs; accepted peace treaty with Israel in 1973; opened Egypt to investment by Western nations. (p. 1011)

Safavid dynasty   Originally a Turkic nomadic group; family originated in Sufi mystic group; espoused Shi'ism; conquered territory and established kingdom in region equivalent to modern Iran; lasted until 1722. (p. 609)

Sahara   Desert running across northern Africa; separates the Mediterranean coast from southern Africa. (p. 228)

Sahel   The extensive grassland belt at the southern edge of the Sahara; a point of exchange between the forests to the south and North Africa. (p. 336)

Sail al-Din   [sä EEl al din, dEEn] Early 14th century Sufi mystic; began campaign to purify Islam; first member of Safavid dynasty. (p. 620)

saints   Holy men and women, often martyrs, who were revered in Christianity as models of Christian lifestyles; built up treasury of merit that could be tapped by more ordinary Christians. (p. 263)

Saladin   Muslim leader in the last decades of the 12th century; reconquered most of the crusader outposts for Islam. (p. 310)

"salt water" slaves   Slaves transported from Africa; almost invariably black. (p. 665)

samurai   Mounted troops of the bushi; loyal to local lords, not the emperor. (p. 454)

San Martin, José de   Leader of independence movement in Rio de la Plata; led to independence of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata by 1816; later led independence movement in Chile and Peru as well. (p. 757)

Sandinista party   Nicaraguan Socialist movement named after Augusto Sandino; successfully carried out a Socialist revolution in Nicaragua during the 1980s. (p. 949)

Sandino, Augusto   Led a guerrilla resistance movement against U.S. occupation forces in Nicaragua; assassinated by Nicaraguan National Guard in 1934; became national hero and symbol of resistance to U.S. influence in Central America. (p. 951)

Sanskrit   The sacred and classical Indian language. (p. 190)

Santa Anna, General Antonio López de   Seized power in Mexico after collapse of empire of Mexico in 1824; after brief reign of liberals, seized power in 1835 as caudillo; defeated by Texans in war for independence in 1836; defeated by United States in Mexican-American War in 1848; unseated by liberal rebellion in 1854. (p. 761)

Santa Cruz, Andrés   Mestizo general who established union of independent Peru and Bolivia between 1829 and 1839. (p. 760)

Sargon I   Ruler of city-state of Akkad; established the first empire in Mesopotamian civilization c. 2400 b.c.e. (p. 35)

Sarmiento, Domingo F.   Liberal politician and president of Argentine Republic; author of Facundo, a critique of caudillo politics; increased international trade, launched internal reforms in education and transportation. (p. 762)

sati   Ritual in India of immolating surviving widows with the bodies of their deceased husbands. (p. 323)

satyagraha   [sut yuh gruhuh, suht yä gruh-] Literally, "truth-force"; Gandhi's policy of nonviolent opposition to British colonialism. (p. 971)

savages   Societies engaged in either hunting and gathering for subsistence or in migratory cultivation; not as stratified or specialized as civilized and nomadic societies. (p. 23)

Schall, Adam   Along with Matteo Ricci, Jesuit scholar in court of Ming emperors; skilled scientist; corrected calendars, forged cannons, fixed clocks; won few converts to Christianity. (p. 683)

scholar-gentry   Chinese class created by the marital linkage of the local land-holding aristocracy with the office-holding shi; superseded shi as governors of China. (p. 116)

scholasticism   Dominant medieval philosophical approach; so-called because of its base in the schools or universities; based on use of logic to resolve theological problems. (p. 386)

school of National Learning   New ideology that laid emphasis on Japan's unique historical experience and the revival of indigenous culture at the expense of Chinese imports such as Confucianism; typical of Japan in 18th century. (p. 687)

scientific revolution   Culminated in 17th century; period of empirical advances associated with the development of wider theoretical generalizations; resulted in change in traditional beliefs of Middle Ages. (p.530)

Secret Army Organization (OAS)   Organization of French settlers in Algeria; led guerrilla war following independence during the 1960s; assaults directed against Arabs, Berbers, and French who advocated independence. (p. 984)

secret societies   Chinese peasant organizations; provided financial support in hard times and physical protection in case of disputes with local aristocracy. (p. 117)

Seleucids   [si lU sids, -cids] One of the regional dynasties that followed the death of Alexander the Great; founded in Persia. (p. 136)

Seljuk Turks   Nomadic invaders from central Asia via Persia; staunch Sunnis; ruled in name of Abbasid caliphs from mid-11th century. (p. 310)

Selim III   Sultan who ruled Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807; aimed at improving administrative efficiency and building a new army and navy; toppled by Janissaries in 1807. (p. 786)

Senate   Assembly of Roman aristocrats; advised on policy within the republic; one of the early elements of the Roman constitution. (p. 153)

sepoys   Troops that served the British East India Company; recruited from various warlike peoples of India. (p. 731)

sepukku   Ritual suicide or disembowelment in Japan; commonly known in West as hara-kiri; demonstrated courage and a means to restore family honor. (p. 454)

serfs   Peasant agricultural laborers within the manorial system of the Middle Ages. (p. 376)

settlement colonies   Areas, such as North America and Australia, that were both conquered by European invaders and settled by large numbers of European migrants who made the colonized areas their permanent home and dispersed and decimated the indigenous inhabitants. (p. 742)

Seven Years' War   Fought both in continental Europe and also in overseas colonies between 1756 and 1763; resulted in Prussian seizures of land from Austria, English seizures of colonies in India and North America. (p. 536)

Shah-Nama   Written by Firdawsi in late 10th and early 11th centuries; relates history of Persia from creation to the Islamic conquests. (p. 313)

Shaka   Ruler and reformer of Nguni peoples after 1818; reformed loose forces into regiments organized by lineage and age; created Zulu chiefdom that began to absorb or destroy its neighbors in southern Africa. (p. 650)

Shang   First Chinese dynasty for which archeological evidence exists; capital located in Ordos bend. (p. 63)

Sharia   [shä rEE ä] Islamic law; defined among other things the patrilineal nature of Islamic inheritance. (p. 341)

shaykhs   [shAYks] Leaders of tribes and clans within bedouin society; usually men with large herds, several wives, and many children. (p. 281)

shi   Probably originally priests; transformed into corps of professional bureaucrats because of knowledge of writing during Zhou dynasty in China. (pp. 67, 101)

Shi Huangdi   [shOE hwäng dEE] Founder of the brief Qin dynasty in 221 b.c.e. (p. 108)

Shi'is   Political and theological division within Islam; followers of Ali. (p. 290)

shifting cultivators   An intermediate form of ecological adaptation in which temporary forms of cultivation are carried out with little impact on the natural ecology; typical of rain forest cultivators. (p. 81)

Shinto   Religion of early Japanese culture; devotees worshipped numerous gods and spirits associated with the natural world; offers of food and prayers made to gods and nature spirits. (p. 241)

Shiva   The Brahman, later Hindu, god of destruction and reproduction; worshipped as the personification of cosmic forces of change. (p. 324)

shoguns   Military leaders of the bakufu. (p. 458)

Shrivijaya   [srEE wi jô yuh] Trading empire centered on Malacca Straits between Malaya and Sumatra; controlled trade of empire; Buddhist government resistant to Muslim missionaries; fall opened up southeastern Asia to Muslim conversion. (p. 325)

siege of Stalingrad   Turning point in Germany's assault on Soviet Union in 1942; despite massive losses, Russians successfully defended the city; over one-third of German army surrendered. (p. 855)

Signet Ring of Rakshasa   One of great dramas produced during the Gupta Empire; dramatized authority of Brahmans. (p. 189)

Silk routes   The most famous of the trading routes established by pastoral nomads connecting the European, Indian, and Chinese civilizations; transmitted goods and ideas among civilizations. (p. 96)

Silla   Independent Korean kingdom in southeastern part of peninsula; defeated Koguryo along with their Chinese Tang allies; submitted as a vassal of the Tang emperor and agreed to tribute payment; ruled united Korea by 668. (p.462)

Simon Commission   In 1927 considered future Indian colonial government responses to nationalist demands; served to unify nationalist politicians on both right and left of independence movement and also to heal rift between Muslims and Hindus. (p. 972)

Singapore   Originally held by British as part of colony of Malaya; largely Chinese population; British attempted to create invulnerable naval base; captured by Japanese during World War II; emerged after war as independent port. (p. 916)

Sinification   Extensive adaptation of Chinese culture in other regions; typical of Korea and Japan, less typical of Vietnam. (p. 434)

Sino-Japanese War   War fought between Japan and Qing China between 1894 and 1895; resulted in Japanese victory; frustrated Japanese imperial aims because of Western insistence that Japan withdraw from Liaotung peninsula. (p. 824)

Skanda Gupta   Last of the able rulers of the Gupta dynasty; following his reign the empire dissolved under the pressure of nomadic invasions. (p. 194)

slash-and-burn farmers   A system of cultivation typical of shifting cultivators; forest floors cleared by fire are then planted. (p. 84)

Slavs   Indo-European group; ultimately dominated much of eastern Europe from the Balkans northward; formed regional kingdoms by 5th century c.e. (p.236)

Smith, Adam   Established liberal economics (Wealth of Nations, 1776); argued that government should avoid regulation of economy in favor of the operation of market forces. (p.536)

social question   Issues relating to repressed classes in Western Europe during the Industrial Revolution, particularly workers and women; became more critical than constitutional issues after 1870. (p. 713)

Social Revolutionary party   Winners of the parliamentary majority of the first Russian election held following the November 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power; emphasized peasant support and rural reform; expelled in favor of Bolsheviks. (p. 891)

socialism   Political movement with origins in Western Europe during the 19th century; urged an attack on private property in the name of equality; wanted state control of means of production, end to capitalist exploitation of the working man. (p. 713)

socialism in one country   Joseph Stalin's concept of Russian communism based solely on the Soviet Union rather than the Leninist concept of international revolution; by cutting off the Soviet Union from other economies, the USSR avoided worst consequences of the Great Depression. (p. 848)

Socialist realism   Attempt within the USSR to relate formal culture to the masses in order to avoid the adoption of Western European cultural forms; begun under Joseph Stalin; fundamental method of Soviet fiction, art, and literary criticism. (p. 901)

Socialist Youth Corps   Formed in 1920 in China; dedicated to recruiting urban working classes to the nationalist revolution in China. (p. 1024)

sociedad de castas   American social system based on racial origins; Europeans or whites at top, black slaves or Indians at bottom, mixed races in middle. (p. xxxx)

Socrates   Athenian philosopher of later 5th century b.c.e.; tutor of Plato; urged rational reflection of moral decisions; condemned to death for corrupting minds of Athenian young. (p. 138)

solar cycle   Calendrical system based on solar year; typical of all civilizations; variations of solar calendars in Western civilization are Julian and Gregorian calendars; Mayas also constructed solar calendar. (p. 213)

Solidarity   Polish labor movement formed in 1970s under Lech Walesa; challenged USSR-dominated government of Poland. (p. 899)

Solon   Athenian reformer of the 6th century; established laws that eased burden of debt on farmers, forbade enslavement for debt. (p. 129)

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr   [sOlzhuh nEEt sin, sol-] Russian author critical of the Soviet regime; published trilogy on the Siberian prison camps, The Gulag Archipelago. (p. 903)

Songhay   Successor state to Mali; dominated middle reaches of Niger valley; formed as independent kingdom under a Berber dynasty; capital at Gao; reached imperial status under Sunni Ali (1464–1492). (p. 340)

Sophocles   Greek writer of tragedies; author of Oedipus Rex. (p. 139)

Southern Song   Rump state of Song dynasty from 1127 to 1279; carved out of much larger domains ruled by the Tang and northern Song. (p. 436)

soviet   Council of workers formed to seize city government in Petrograd in 1917; basis for early political organization of Russian Revolution. (p. 890)

Spanish Civil War   War pitting authoritarian and military leaders in Spain against republicans and leftists between 1936 and 1939; Germany and Italy supported the royalists; the Soviet Union supported the republicans; led to victory of the royalist forces. (p. 852)

Spanish-American War   War fought between Spain and the United States beginning in 1898; centered on Cuba and Puerto Rico; permitted American intervention in Caribbean, annexation of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. (p. 778)

split inheritance   Inca practice of descent; all titles and political power went to successor, but wealth and land remained in hands of male descendants for support of cult of dead Inca's mummy. (p. 414)

Sputnik   First unmanned spacecraft in 1957; sent up during Khrushchev's government; initiated space race with the United States. (p. 905)

St. Petersburg   New capital of Russia established during the reign of Peter the Great. (p. 570)

Stalin, Joseph   Successor to Lenin as head of the USSR; strongly nationalist view of Communism; represented anti-Western strain of Russian tradition; crushed opposition to his rule; established series of five-year plans to replace New Economic Policy; fostered agricultural collectivization; led USSR through World War II; furthered cold war with Western Europe and the United States; died in 1953. (p. 892)

stateless societies   African societies organized around kinship or other forms of obligation and lacking the concentration of political power and authority associated with states. (p. 333)

stelae   Large memorial pillars erected to commemorate triumphs and events in the lives of Maya rulers. (p. 207)

Stoics   Hellenistic group of philosophers; emphasized inner moral independence cultivated by strict discipline of the body and personal bravery. (p. 138)

Stolypin reforms   Reforms introduced by the Russian minister Stolypin intended to placate the peasantry in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1905; included reduction in redemption payments, attempt to create market-oriented peasantry. (p. 817)

stupas   Stone shrines built to house pieces of bone or hair and personal possessions said to be relics of the Buddha; preserved Buddhist architectural forms. (p. 180)

submarine warfare   Use of the relatively new sea weapon was a major aspect of the German naval effort against the Western Allies in World War I; unrestricted submarine warfare was major factor in bringing the United States into active participation. (p. 841))

Sudanic states   Kingdoms that developed during the height of Ghana's power in the region; based at Takrur on the Senegal River to the west and Gao on the Niger River to the east; included Mali and Songhay. (p.336)

Suez Canal   Built across Isthmus of Suez to connect Mediterranean Sea with Red Sea in 1869; financed by European investors; with increasing indebtedness of khedives, permitted intervention of British into Egyptian politics to protect their investment. (p. 791)

Sufis   Mystics within Islam; responsible for expansion of Islam to southeastern Asia. (p. 315)

Sui   Dynasty that succeeded the Han in China; emerged from strong rulers in northern China; united all of northern China and reconquered southern China. (p. 254)

Sulla   Conservative military commander during last century b.c.e.; attempted to reinforce powers of the Senate and to undo influence of Marius. (p. 156)

Sumerians   People who migrated into Mesopotamia c. 4000 b.c.e.; created first civilization within region; organized area into city-states. (p. 31)

Sun Yat-sen   Head of Revolutionary Alliance, organization that led 1911 revolt against Qing dynasty in China; briefly elected president in 1911, but yielded in favor of Yuan Shikai in 1912; created Nationalist party of China (Guomindang) in 1919; died in 1925. (p. 802)

Sundiata   The "Lion Prince"; a member of the Keita clan; created a unified state that became the Mali Empire; died about 1260. (p. 337)

Sunnis   Political and theological division within Islam; followers of the Umayyads. (p. 290)

Supreme Soviet   Parliament of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; elected by universal suffrage; actually controlled by Communist party; served to ratify party decisions. (p. 892)

Suriname   Formerly a Dutch plantation colony on the coast of South America; location of runaway slave kingdom in 18th century; able to retain independence despite attempts to crush guerrilla resistance. (p. 859)

Swazi   New African state formed on model of Zulu chiefdom; survived mfecane. (p. 652)

syndicalism   Economic and political system based on the organization of labor; imported in Latin America from European political movements; militant force in Latin American politics. (p. 939)

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