Glossary of Terms

Valdivia, Pedro de   Spanish conquistador; conquered Araucanian Indians of Chile and established city of Santiago in 1541. (p. 589)

Vargas, Getúlio   [vär guhs] Elected president of Brazil in 1929; launched centralized political program by imposing federal administrators over state governments; held off coups by communists in 1935 and fascists in 1937; imposed a new constitution based on Mussolini's Italy; leaned to communists after 1949; committed suicide in 1954. (p. 942)

varnas   Clusters of caste groups in Aryan society; four social castes–Brahmans (priests), warriors, merchants, and peasants; beneath four Aryan castes was group of socially untouchable Dasas. (p. 176)

vassal retainers   Members of former ruling families granted control over the peasant and artisan populations of areas throughout Shang kingdom; indirectly exploited wealth of their territories. (p. 62)

vassals   Members of the military elite in the Middle Ages who received land or a benefice from a lord in return for military service and loyalty. (p. 380)

Vedas   Aryan hymns originally transmitted orally but written down in sacred books from the 6th century b.c.e. (pp. 58, 174)

vendettas   Blood-feuds between families or clans of nomadic pastoralists; created a major barrier to interclan and tribal cooperation. (p. 90)

Vergil   One of greatest of Roman poets during "Golden Age" of Latin literature; patronized by Augustus; author of Aeneid. (p. 157)

viceroyalties   Two major divisions of Spanish colonies in New World; one based in Lima; the other in Mexico City; direct representatives of the King. (p. 596)

Vichy   French collaborationist government established in 1940 in southern France following defeat of French armies by the Germans. (p. 854)

Viet Cong   Name given by Diem regime to Communist guerrilla movement in southern Vietnam; reorganized with northern Vietnamese assistance as the National Liberation Front in 1958. (p. 1042)

Viet Minh   Communist-dominated Vietnamese nationalist movement; operated out of base in southern China during World War II; employed guerrilla tactics similar to the Maoists in China. (p. 1040)

Vietnamese Nationalist party   Also known as the Vietnamese Quoc Dan Dong or VNQDD; active in 1920s as revolutionary force committed to violent overthrow of French colonialism. (p. 1039)

Vikings   Seagoing Scandinavian raiders from Sweden, Denmark and Norway that disrupted coastal areas of western Europe from the 8th to the 11th centuries. (p. 376)

Vishnu   The Brahman, later Hindu, god of sacrifice; widely worshipped. (p. 324)

Vivaldis   Two Genoese brothers who attempted to find a Western route to the "Indies"; disappeared in 1291; precursors of thrust into southern Atlantic. (p. 507)

Villa, Pancho   [vEE uh] Mexican revolutionary and military commander in northern Mexico during the Mexican Revolution; succeeded along with Emiliano Zapata in removing Díaz from power; also participated in campaigns that removed Madero and Huerta. (p. 935)

vizier   [vi zEEr, viz yuhr] Ottoman equivalent of the Abbasid wazir; head of the Ottoman bureaucracy; after 15th century often more powerful than sultan. (p. 616)

Vladimir I   Ruler of Russian kingdom of Kiev from 980 to 1015; converted kingdom to Christianity. (p. 366)

Vodun   African religious ideas and practices among descendants of African slaves in Haiti. (p. 659)

Völkerwanderungen   [fôlk er van der Ungen] Movement of Germanic peoples southward into the Roman Empire; resulted from population growth, pressure of Asian groups on eastern flanks of Germanic regions. (p. 237)

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