Test your basic knowledge |

AP World History

Subjects : history, ap, bvat
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. First emperor of the Han dynasty under which a new social and political hierarchy emerged. Scholars were on top - followed by farmers - artisans - and merchants. He chose his ministers from educated men with Confucian principals.






2. Italian explorer who introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China - from his travels throughout there.






3. An international oil cartel originally formed in 1960. Represents the majority of all oil produced in the world. Attempts to limit production to raise prices. It's long name is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.






4. Site in Beijing where Chinese students and workers gathered to demand greater political openness in 1989. The demonstration was crushed by Chinese military with many deaths.






5. Networks of iron (later steel) rails on which steam (later electric or diesel) locomotives pulled long trains at high speeds. The first were built in England in the 1830s. Success caused the construction of these to boom lasting into the 20th Century






6. Largest and most powerful Andean empire. Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco.






7. Suffering is always present in life; desire is the cause of suffering; freedom from suffering can be achieved in nirvana; the Eightfold Path leads to nirvana






8. Last imam in a series of twelve descendants of Muhammad's son-in-law Ali - whom Shi'ites consider divinely appointed leaders of the Muslim community. In occlusion since ca. 873 - he is expected to return as an apocolyptic messiah at the end of time.






9. Philosophy that emphasizes human reason and ethics; sometimes denies the existence of a god






10. in Ancient Rome - a plebian officer elected by plebeians charged to protect their lives and properties - with a right of veto against legislative proposals of the Senate.






11. Techniques for ascertaining the future or the will of the gods by interpreting natural phenomena such as - in early China - the cracks on oracle bones or - in ancient Greece - the flight of birds through sectors of the sky.






12. Economic system with private/ corporate ownership/ competitive market






13. Russian tsar (r. 1689-1725). He enthusiastically introduced Western languages and technologies to the Russian elite - moving the capital from Moscow to his new city of St. Petersburg.






14. City in Russia - site of a Red Army victory over the Germany army in 1942-1943. The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point in the war between Germany and the Soviet Union. Today Volgograd.






15. Queen of Egypt (1473-1458 B.C.E.). Dispatched a naval expedition down the Red Sea to Punt (possibly Somalia) - the faraway source of myrrh. There is evidence of opposition to a woman as ruler - and after her death her name was frequently expunged.






16. Land-owning noblemen in Ancient Rome






17. A people and state in the Wei Valley of eastern China that conquered rival states and created the first short-lived Chinese empire (221-206 B.C.E.). Their ruler - Shi Huangdi - standardized many features of Chinese society and enslaved his subjects.






18. Large churches originating in twelfth-century France; built in an architectural style featuring pointed arches - tall vaults and spires - flying buttresses - and large stained-glass windows.






19. Peoples of the Russian Empire who lived outside the farming villages - often as herders - mercenaries - or outlaws. Cossacks led the conquest of Siberia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.






20. Ship canal cut across the isthmus of Panama by United States - it opened in 1915.






21. A book composed by Brahman priests that contains verses and Sanskrit poetry






22. An umbrella term for people of diverse perspectives but many of whom typically advocate equality - protection of workers from exploitation by property owners and state ownership of major industries. This ideology led to the founding of certain labor






23. Doctrine that states that the right of ruling comes from God and not people's consent






24. Belt south of the Sahara where it transitions into savanna across central Africa. It means literally 'coastland' in Arabic.






25. Substance used for the domination of trade in the Indian Ocean by the British






26. Leadership or predominant influence exercised by one nation over others - as in a confederation.






27. Part of the second triumvirate whom the power eventually shifted to. Assumed the name Augustus Caesar - and became emperor. Was the end of the Roman Republic and the start of the Pax Romana.






28. Date: East-West Great Schism in Christian Church (Hint: __54 CE)






29. A political ideology that emphasizes rule of law - representative democracy - rights of citizens - and the protection of private property. This ideology - derived from the Enlightenment - was especially popular among the property-owning middle classe






30. Persian mathematician and cosmologist whose academy near Tabriz provided the model for the movement of the planets that helped to inspire the Copernican model of the solar system.






31. Theory that all knowledge originates from experience. It emphasizes experimentation and observation in order to truly know things.






32. Date: Battle of Tours(Hint: _32 CE)






33. Communist Party leader who forced Chinese economic reforms after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976.






34. Leader of the Bolshevik (later Communist) Party. He lived in exile in Switzerland until 1917 - then returned to Russia to lead the Bolsheviks to victory during the Russian Revolution and the civil war that followed.






35. The theologians and legal experts of Islam.






36. The unsuccessful attempt by the British Empire to establish diplomatic relations with the Qing Empire in 1793.






37. The dominant people in the earliest Chinese dynasty for which we have written records (ca. 1750-1027 B.C.E.). Ancestor worship - divination by means of oracle bones - and the use of bronze vessels for ritual purposes were major elements of this cultu






38. A reed that grows along the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. From it was produced a coarse - paperlike writing medium used by the Egyptians and many other peoples in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East.






39. Concession from Spanish letting a colonist take tribute from Indians in a certain area






40. African kingdom on the Gold Coast that expanded rapidly after 1680. Asante participated in the Atlantic economy - trading gold - slaves - and ivory. It resisted British imperial ambitions for a quarter century before being absorbed into Britain.






41. Telegram sent by Germans to encourage a Mexican attack against the United States. Intercepted by the US in 1917.






42. The last of pre-Islamic Persian Empire - from 224 to 651 CE. One of the two main powers in Western Asia and Europe alongside the Roman Empire and later the Byzantine Empire for a period of more than 400 years






43. German astronomer and mathematician of the late 16th and early 17th centuries - known as the founder of celestial mechanics






44. Greek and Phoenician warship of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. It was sleek and light - powered by 170 oars arranged in three vertical tiers. Manned by skilled sailors - it was capable of short bursts of speed and complex maneuvers.






45. Egyptian pharaoh (r. 1353-1335 B.C.E.). He built a new capital at Amarna - fostered a new style of naturalistic art - and created a religious revolution by imposing worship of the sun-disk.






46. Belief in a single divine entity. The Israelite worship of Yahweh developed into an exclusive belief in one god - and this concept passed into Christianity and Islam.






47. Empire in southern China (1127-1279) while the Jin people controlled the north. Distinguished for its advances in technology - medicine - astronomy - and mathematics.






48. A term used to characterize Roman government in the first three centuries C.E. - based on the ambiguous title princeps ('first citizen') adopted by Augustus to conceal his military dictatorship.






49. An economic and defensive alliance of the free towns in northern Germany - founded about 1241 and most powerful in the fourteenth century.






50. Spanish estates that were often plantations