Cross-period AP European History vocabulary used across units, from feudalism to nationalism to totalitarianism. Front: the term. Back: a plain-language definition.
35 cards · basic cards · AI-written, checked twice. Edit anything.
- Feudalism
- A hierarchical system of government based on loyalty bonds, where vassals pledged service to lords in exchange for land and protection
- Manor
- A feudal lord's estate consisting of cultivated fields, forests, and a village, worked by serfs
- Vassal
- A person who pledged loyalty and military service to a feudal lord in exchange for protection and land use
- Fief
- A piece of land granted by a feudal lord to a vassal as compensation for loyalty and military service
- Serf
- A laborer in feudal Europe bound to a manor and obligated to work the lord's land; unfree but with certain protections
- Fealty
- The oath of loyalty and obedience sworn by a vassal to a feudal lord
- Humanism
- A Renaissance movement emphasizing human potential, classical learning, and worldly experience over purely religious concerns
- Patronage
- Financial support given by wealthy individuals to artists, architects, and scholars to commission works of art and learning
- Reformation
- A 16th-century religious movement seeking to reform the Catholic Church, launched by Martin Luther and resulting in Protestantism
- Indulgence
- A document sold by the Catholic Church claiming to reduce punishment for sins, whose sale sparked the Reformation
- Counter-Reformation
- The Catholic Church's reform movement in response to Protestantism, involving the Council of Trent and missionary work
- Mercantilism
- An economic policy seeking to build national wealth through trade surpluses, export maximization, and colonial accumulation
- Divine right
- The political theory that a monarch's authority derives directly from God and is therefore absolute and unchallengeable
- Absolutism
- A system of government in which all power is held by a single ruler who is not constrained by laws or constitutional limits
- Enlightenment
- An 18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, science, individual rights, and the potential for social progress