Khaemenes High · Grade 9 Global Studies Honors

Global Studies Glossary

Course Glossary

214 course terms with direct definitions and week references.

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Term	Definition	Week(s)
abolition	The movement and process of ending slavery.	23
absolute location	A precise position expressed through coordinates or another fixed reference.	2
absolutism	A political doctrine or practice emphasizing concentrated monarchical authority.	21
alliance system	Agreements among states to cooperate, often in defense or war.	29
anti-imperialism	Opposition to empire based on self-determination, equality, economics, religion, or other principles.	28
antisemitism	Prejudice, hostility, or discrimination directed against Jews.	31
apartheid	South Africa’s legally enforced system of racial classification and domination.	33
appeasement	A policy of making concessions to avoid conflict.	30
archaeological context	The location and relationships that give an artifact historical meaning.	11
archaeology	The study of past societies through material remains and their contexts.	3
armistice	An agreement to stop fighting.	29
ayllu	An Andean kin-based community with shared obligations and resources.	14
bias	A preference or perspective that can shape what a source includes or omits.	1
Bolshevik	A member of the revolutionary party that seized power in Russia in 1917.	29
bureaucracy	An administrative system of officials and offices.	4
Byzantine Empire	The continuation of the eastern Roman Empire centered on Constantinople.	10
caliphate	A political community or state led by a caliph in Islamic history.	10
capital	Wealth or productive resources invested to generate further value.	26
capitalism	An economic system based largely on private ownership, markets, wage labor, and investment.	27
caravanserai	A lodging and exchange site serving merchants and travelers.	15
causation	Explaining how and why one condition contributes to an outcome.	17
chattel slavery	A system treating enslaved people as legally owned property, often for life and by descent.	23
chinampa	A highly productive raised-field farming system used in the Basin of Mexico.	14
citizenship	Legal membership in a political community with defined rights and duties.	7
city-state	A city and its surrounding territory functioning as an independent political unit.	4
civic action	Lawful, informed participation intended to address a public concern.	36
civil service	Government administration carried out by appointed or selected officials.	8
civil-service examination	A competitive system used in imperial China to select some officials through tested learning.	13
civilization	A complex society with cities, institutions, specialized labor, and systems of communication.	4
Cold War	A prolonged global rivalry led by the United States and Soviet Union without direct full-scale war between them.	32
collaboration	Cooperation with an occupying or oppressive power, under conditions that may vary in coercion and choice.	31
collective bargaining	Negotiation between workers acting together and employers.	27
colonialism	Direct settlement or administration of a territory by an outside power.	28
Columbian Exchange	The movement of organisms, people, diseases, and goods between hemispheres after 1492.	22
commercialization	The expansion of production and exchange for markets.	13
commodity	A good produced or exchanged in a market.	15
comparative advantage	The ability to produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another producer.	34
comparison	Examining meaningful similarities and differences using consistent categories.	17
confessional state	A political order closely identified with a particular religious confession.	20
conquistador	A Spanish conqueror involved in campaigns in the Americas.	22
constitution	A foundational set of rules establishing government powers, limits, and relationships.	35
constructed response	An answer produced by the student rather than selected from choices.	18
containment	A strategy intended to limit the expansion of Soviet influence.	32
contextualization	Placing evidence within the conditions, values, and events of its time.	1
contingency	The role of conditions and choices that make outcomes possible but not inevitable.	16
continuity	A feature that persists across a defined period.	17
continuity and change	A historical reasoning process that identifies what persisted and what transformed over time.	8
corroboration	Checking one source against other independent evidence.	1
Counter-Reformation	Catholic reform and response to Protestant movements.	20
counterrevolution	A movement seeking to reverse a revolution.	25
cultural diffusion	The movement of ideas, technologies, practices, or beliefs between societies.	5
cultural synthesis	The creation of new forms through interaction among traditions.	10
cuneiform	A wedge-shaped writing system developed in ancient Mesopotamia.	4
decimal place-value system	A numerical system in which a digit’s position determines its value.	9
declaration	A formal public statement of principles, grievances, or independence.	25
decolonization	The ending of colonial rule and creation or recovery of political sovereignty.	33
democracy	A system in which political authority is exercised by the people, directly or through representatives.	7
demographic collapse	A severe decline in population.	22
demography	The statistical study of human populations.	16
development indicator	A measure used to describe economic or social conditions.	34
devshirme	An Ottoman levy that recruited some Christian boys for state and military service.	21
dharma	A complex South Asian concept involving duty, order, conduct, and right living.	6
diaspora	A community living outside an ancestral homeland while maintaining connections.	9
diffusion	The spread of ideas, technologies, organisms, or practices.	15
disinformation	False or manipulated information deliberately created or spread to deceive.	35
division of labor	The separation of production into specialized tasks.	26
domestication	The long-term process of selecting and managing plants or animals for human use.	3
dynasty	A sequence of rulers from the same family or lineage.	5
détente	A period or policy of reduced tension between rival states.	32
ecological imperialism	Expansion aided by transferred plants, animals, pathogens, and environmental change.	22
edict	An official public order or proclamation.	9
emancipation	Legal release from slavery or another condition of unfreedom.	25
encomienda	A Spanish colonial grant of Indigenous labor and tribute under claimed obligations of protection and conversion.	22
enduring issue	A recurring challenge that persists across time and place.	36
ethical tradition	A body of teachings about right conduct, responsibility, and human flourishing.	6
externality	A cost or benefit imposed on people not directly included in an economic transaction.	26
fascism	An ultranationalist authoritarian ideology rejecting liberal democracy and political pluralism.	30
feudalism	A modern label for varied relationships of land, loyalty, and military service in medieval Europe.	12
filial piety	Respect and responsibility within family relationships, emphasized in Confucian thought.	6
genocide	Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.	31
ghetto	A confined urban district where Jews were forcibly concentrated under Nazi occupation.	31
globalization	Increasing cross-border connection in production, finance, information, culture, and movement.	34
Great Depression	A severe global economic contraction beginning in 1929.	30
griot	A West African oral historian, musician, and keeper of genealogies and traditions.	11
guild	An association regulating a craft or trade in a town.	12
gunpowder empire	A label for states whose expansion and defense used firearms and artillery, though technology alone did not explain success.	21
historical argument	A claim supported by selected evidence and explicit reasoning.	17
historical claim	A defensible statement about the past supported by evidence and reasoning.	1
historical perspective	Understanding actions and ideas within the conditions of their own time.	7
Holocaust	The systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators.	31
human-environment interaction	The ways people adapt to, depend on, and alter natural systems.	2
humanism	An educational movement emphasizing language, history, rhetoric, ethics, and classical texts.	19
iconoclasm	Conflict over the religious use and destruction of images.	10
imperial bureaucracy	A network of officials administering an empire.	8
imperialism	The extension of political, economic, or cultural control over other territories or peoples.	28
indirect rule	Colonial administration conducted partly through existing local authorities.	28
indulgence	In Catholic teaching, a remission of temporal punishment associated with sin; controversial in Reformation debates.	20
industrialization	The expansion of machine production, factories, and fossil-fuel energy.	26
interregional trade	Exchange connecting multiple regions.	15
karma	The principle that actions have moral consequences across life and, in many traditions, rebirth.	6
labor union	An organization of workers formed to negotiate or act collectively.	26
laissez-faire	The view that government should interfere minimally in economic exchange.	27
legitimacy	Public acceptance or justification of a ruler’s right to govern.	21
Magna Carta	A 1215 English charter limiting certain royal actions and affirming baronial rights.	12
mandate of heaven	A Zhou political idea that legitimate rule depended on moral performance.	5
manorialism	The organization of rural production around an estate and dependent labor.	12
maritime technology	Tools and knowledge used for navigation, shipbuilding, and ocean travel.	22
maroon community	A community established by people who escaped slavery.	23
Marxism	A theory emphasizing class conflict, historical change, and collective ownership of production.	27
Mauryan Empire	A major South Asian empire founded in the late fourth century BCE.	9
merchant diaspora	A trading community living abroad while maintaining commercial and cultural ties.	15
meritocracy	A system that claims to assign status or office based on demonstrated ability.	13
metacognition	Thinking about one’s own learning strategies and understanding.	18
Middle Passage	The forced Atlantic voyage carrying enslaved Africans to the Americas.	23
migration	The movement of people from one place to another.	2
militarism	The elevation of military power and values in national policy.	29
millet	A term often used for Ottoman arrangements granting recognized religious communities limited autonomy.	21
misinformation	False or inaccurate information shared without necessarily intending harm.	35
monotheism	Belief in one God.	6
monsoon	A seasonal wind pattern that strongly shapes Indian Ocean travel and rainfall.	9
monumental architecture	Large public construction expressing religious, political, or social priorities.	5
nation-building	The political and social work of building institutions, identity, and legitimacy within a state.	33
nationalism	Political identification with a nation and the claim that it should govern itself.	25
natural rights	Rights understood as belonging to people by nature rather than granted solely by government.	24
Nazism	The German fascist movement centered on dictatorship, racial hierarchy, antisemitism, and expansion.	30
Neo-Confucianism	A later development of Confucian thought shaped by philosophical and religious debate.	13
Neolithic	The later Stone Age associated in many regions with agriculture and settled communities.	3
nirvana	In Buddhism, liberation from craving, suffering, and the cycle of rebirth.	6
nonalignment	A policy of avoiding formal alignment with major Cold War blocs.	32
nonviolence	Organized resistance that rejects physical violence while using protest, boycott, noncooperation, or civil disobedience.	33
nuclear deterrence	The attempt to prevent attack through the threat of devastating retaliation.	32
oligarchy	Rule by a small, privileged group.	7
oracle bone	An inscribed bone or shell used in Shang divination and now studied as written evidence.	5
oral history	A recorded or transmitted account based on spoken memory and testimony.	14
oral tradition	Knowledge transmitted through spoken performance and community memory.	11
Paleolithic	The period when humans generally lived by hunting, gathering, and fishing.	3
pamphlet	A short, inexpensive printed work used to inform or persuade.	20
pandemic	An epidemic spreading across many countries or continents.	16
parliamentary system	A system in which the executive emerges from and remains accountable to the legislature.	35
partition	The division of territory into separate political units.	33
pastoral nomadism	A mobile livelihood centered on herding animals.	16
patronage	Financial or political support for artists, scholars, and institutions.	19
Pax Mongolica	A term for periods of relative security and exchange across Mongol-controlled routes.	16
periodization	Dividing history into periods to organize change.	17
perspective	Artistic techniques that create an illusion of depth and spatial order.	19
plantation	A large agricultural enterprise relying on controlled labor to produce cash crops.	23
policy memo	A concise analysis of a public problem, options, evidence, and recommendation.	36
polis	A Greek city-state and its civic community.	7
popular sovereignty	The principle that legitimate political power originates with the people.	24
portfolio	A curated collection demonstrating learning, growth, and achievement.	36
presidential system	A system with a separately elected executive serving a fixed term.	35
primary source	Evidence created during the period being studied.	1
printing press	A technology using movable type and mechanical pressure to reproduce texts more quickly.	19
projection	A method of representing Earth’s curved surface on a flat map.	2
propaganda	Communication designed to shape attitudes or behavior, often selectively or emotionally.	30
proxy war	A conflict in which outside powers support opposing sides rather than fight one another directly.	32
public sphere	Spaces and networks in which people debate matters of common concern.	24
quipu	An Andean knotted-cord recording system.	14
racialization	The process of assigning social meaning and hierarchy to perceived physical differences.	23
Reformation	Movements that challenged and reshaped western Christianity in the sixteenth century.	20
relative location	A place described in relation to other places.	2
remittance	Money sent by migrants to people in another place, often family members.	34
Renaissance	A period of cultural and intellectual change associated with renewed engagement with classical traditions.	19
representative institution	A body in which selected people speak or decide for larger groups.	12
republic	A political system in which public authority is exercised through institutions rather than hereditary monarchy alone.	8
republicanism	A political tradition emphasizing civic participation, public virtue, and government without hereditary monarchy.	25
resistance	Opposition to persecution or occupation through armed, unarmed, spiritual, cultural, or rescue activity.	31
retrieval practice	Recalling information without looking at notes in order to strengthen memory.	18
revision	Improving work by rethinking evidence, reasoning, organization, or clarity.	18
revolution	A rapid and fundamental transformation in political or social order.	25
Romanization	The uneven spread and local adaptation of Roman language, law, customs, and institutions.	8
rule of law	The principle that authority is exercised through known laws rather than arbitrary command.	4, 35
Sahel	The semi-arid transition zone south of the Sahara.	11
salon	A gathering for intellectual and social discussion, often hosted by elite women in early modern Europe.	24
satrapy	An administrative province of the Persian Empire.	7
scale	The relationship between distance on a map and distance on Earth.	2
secondary source	An interpretation produced after the period by someone analyzing evidence.	1
self-determination	The principle that peoples should have a meaningful role in choosing their political status.	29
separation of powers	Division of government authority among institutions to reduce concentration of power.	24
serf	A rural laborer legally tied to land under specific obligations.	12
sharia	A broad Islamic moral and legal tradition derived through interpretation of religious sources.	10
shogunate	A Japanese military government led by a shogun.	13
Silk Roads	Overland and connected trade routes linking East Asia, Central Asia, Southwest Asia, and the Mediterranean.	8, 15
social contract	A theory that political authority arises from an agreement among people or between people and rulers.	24
Social Darwinism	The misuse of evolutionary concepts to justify hierarchy, racism, and imperial competition.	28
social insurance	Public programs that spread risks such as illness, unemployment, disability, or old age.	27
socialism	A family of ideas favoring social or public control of major productive resources and greater economic equality.	27
specialization	The concentration of labor on particular tasks or skills.	3
sphere of influence	An area where an outside power claims special economic or political privileges.	28
stakeholder	A person or group affected by or able to influence a decision.	36
Stalinism	The centralized, coercive political and economic order associated with Joseph Stalin’s rule.	30
state capacity	The ability of a government to carry out decisions, collect resources, and enforce rules.	17
steppe	A broad grassland environment supporting pastoral mobility.	16
stimulus-based question	A question requiring interpretation of a source, map, image, or data set.	18
stupa	A Buddhist commemorative structure associated with relics and devotion.	9
supply chain	The linked stages through which a good or service is designed, produced, transported, and sold.	34
surplus	Production beyond immediate consumption needs.	3
sustainability	Meeting present needs while protecting long-term ecological and social capacity.	34
Swahili Coast	East African coastal societies linked by Kiswahili language and Indian Ocean trade.	11
synthesis	Combining evidence and ideas into a broader explanation.	36
thesis	A concise, defensible answer to a question that previews reasoning.	18
toleration	Permission for people to practice beliefs disfavored by authorities.	20
total war	War mobilizing economies, civilians, propaganda, and state power on a broad scale.	29
trans-Saharan trade	Commercial exchange across the Sahara using caravan routes.	11
translation movement	The organized translation and study of works across languages.	10
tributary relations	Diplomatic and commercial relations expressed through ritual acknowledgment of hierarchy.	13
tribute	Goods, labor, or wealth delivered to a ruler or state.	4
tribute state	A state that requires subject communities to deliver goods, labor, or military support.	14
Universal Declaration of Human Rights	The 1948 United Nations statement of common human rights principles.	33
urban planning	The deliberate organization of streets, drainage, public spaces, and buildings.	5
urbanization	Growth in the proportion of people living in towns and cities.	26
vernacular	A language spoken by ordinary people rather than a scholarly or official language.	19
wayfinding	Navigation through stars, swells, winds, clouds, wildlife, and accumulated knowledge.	14
zamindar	A revenue intermediary or landholder in Mughal South Asia.	21