HIST 211: World Civilizations to 1500

Great epidemic of plague, mainly the bubonic variant, that ravaged Europe in the mid-14th century. Contemporary estimates that it killed between one-third and half of the population (about 75 million people) are probably accurate.

Series of wars undertaken by European Christians between the 11th and 14th cent. to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church established for the investigation of heresy.

Period in European cultural history that began in Italy around 1400 and lasted there until the end of the 1500s. Elsewhere in Europe it began later, and lasted until the 1600s.

Extension of political and economic control over an area by a state whose nationals have occupied the area and usually possess organizational or technological superiority over the native population.

Political or social philosophy in which the welfare of the nation-state as an entity is considered paramount.

Diet or national assembly in which the chief estates (see estate) of a nation—usually clergy, nobles, and towns (or commons)—were represented as separate bodies.

In politics, the theory that the best way of ensuring international order is to have power so distributed among states that no single state is able to achieve a dominant position.