Chinese Muslim admiral who commanded series of Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea trade expeditions under third Ming emperor, Yunglo, between 1405 and 1433.

Desert running across northern Africa; separates the Mediterranean coast from southern Africa.

Intellectual movement centered in France during the 18th century; featured scientific advance, application of scientific methods to study of human society; belief that rational laws could describe social behavior.

Russian aristocrats; possessed less political power than did their counterparts in Western Europe.

Economic system based on profit-seeking, private ownership, and investment.

Mughal emperor who succeeded Shah Jahan; known for his religious zealotry.

Capital of Tang dynasty; population of 2 million, larger than any other city in the world at that time.

Creation of large, state-run farms rather than individual holdings; allowed more efficient control over peasants, although often lowered food production; part of Stalin’s economic and political planning; often adopted in other communist regimes.

Sworn associations of people in the same business or craft in a single city; stressed security and mutual control; limited membership, regulated apprenticeship, guaranteed good workmanship; often established franchise within cities

Political viewpoint with origins in western Europe; urged importance of national unity; valued a collective identity based on culture, race, or ethnic origin.

Won power struggle in Egypt following fall of Mamluks; established mastery of all Egypt by 1811; introduced effective army based on Western tactics and supply and a variety of other reforms; by 1830s was able to challenge Ottoman government in Constantino

Colonies with substantial indigenous populations that are ruled by small European political and military minorities with the assistance of colonized burearucrats, soldiers, clerks, and servants.

Five year civil war from 1180 on main Japanese island of Honshu between Taira and Minamoto families. The latter was victorious.

Ottoman infantry divisions that dominated Ottoman armies; forcibly conscripted as boys in conquered areas of Balkans, legally slaves; translated military service into political influence, particularly after 15th century.

Bird droppings utilized as fertilizer; exported from Peru as a major item of trade between 1850 and 1880; income from trade permitted end to American Indian tribute and abolition of slavery.

General under Nobunaga; succeeded as leading military power in central Japan; continued efforts to break power of daimyos; constructed a series of alliances that made him military master of Japan in 1590; died in 1598.

Kingdom located in Ethiopian highlands; replaced Meroë in first century C.E.; received strong influence from Arabian peninsula; eventually converted to Christianity.

Attempt to model Japanese government and monarch along Chinese lines. Court language and etiquette attempted to copy that of China. 646 CE

Chinese Nationalist party founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1919; drew support from local warlords and Chinese criminal underworld; initially forged alliance with Communists in 1924; dominated by Chiang Kai-shek after 1925.

Chinese credit instrument that provided credit vouchers to merchants to be redeemed at the end of the voyage; reduced danger of robbery; early form of currency.

Chinese intellectual who gave serious attention to Marxist philosophy; headed study circle at the University of Beijing; saw peasants as vanguard of revolutionary communism in China.

Bantu confederation of Shona-speaking peoples located between Zambezi and Limpopo rivers; developed after 9th century; featured royal courts built of stone; created centralized state by 15th century; king took title of Mwene Mutapa.

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

Founders of the Jin kingdom that succeeded the Liao in northern China; annexed most of the Yellow River basin and forced Song to flee to south.

Socialist movements that at least tacitly disavowed Marxist revolutionary doctrine; believed social success could be achieved gradually through political institutions.