Western Civilization_ Volume B_ 1300 to 1815 - Jackson J. Spielvogel [345]
bourgeoisie (burghers) inhabitants (merchants and artisans) of boroughs and burghs (towns).
boyars the Russian nobility.
Brezhnev Doctrine the doctrine, enunciated by Leonid Brezhnev, that the Soviet Union had a right to intervene if socialism was threatened in another socialist state; used to justify moving Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Burschenschaften student societies in the German states dedicated to fostering the goal of a free, united Germany.
caliph the secular leader of the Islamic community.
capital material wealth used or available for use in the production of more wealth.
cartel a combination of independent commercial enterprises that work together to control prices and limit competition.
Cartesian dualism Descartes’s principle of the separation of mind and matter (and mind and body) that enabled scientists to view matter as something separate from themselves that could be investigated by reason.
celibacy complete abstinence from sexual activity. Many early Christians viewed celibacy as the surest way to holiness.
centuriate assembly the chief popular assembly of the Roman Republic. It passed laws and elected the chief magistrates.
chansons de geste a form of vernacular literature in the High Middle Ages that consisted of heroic epics focusing on the deeds of warriors.
chivalry the ideal of civilized behavior that emerged among the nobility in the eleventh and twelfth centuries under the influence of the church; a code of ethics knights were expected to uphold.
cholera a serious and often deadly disease commonly spread by contaminated water; a major problem in nineteenth-century European cities before sewerage systems were installed.
Christian (northern) humanism an intellectual movement in northern Europe in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries that combined the interest in the classics of the Italian Renaissance with an interest in the sources of early Christianity, including the New Testament and the writings of the church fathers.
civic humanism an intellectual movement of the Italian Renaissance that saw Cicero, who was both an intellectual and a statesman, as the ideal and held that humanists should be involved in government and use their rhetorical training in the service of the state.
civil disobedience a policy of peaceful protest against laws or government policies in order to achieve political change.
civilization a complex culture in which large numbers of humans share a variety of common elements, including cities; religious, political, military, and social structures; writing; and significant artistic and intellectual activity.
civil rights the basic rights of citizens, including equality before the law, freedom of speech and press, and freedom from arbitrary arrest.
Cold War the ideological conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II.
collective farms large farms created in the Soviet Union by Stalin by combining many small holdings into large farms worked by the peasants under government supervision.
coloni free tenant farmers who worked as sharecroppers on the large estates of the Roman Empire (singular: colonus).
Columbian Exchange the reciprocal importation and exportation of plants and animals between Europe and the Americas.
commercial capitalism beginning in the Middle Ages, an economic system in which people invested in trade and goods in order to make profits.
common law law common to the entire kingdom of England; imposed by the king’s courts beginning in the twelfth century to replace the customary law used in county and feudal courts that varied from place to place.
commune in medieval Europe, an association of townspeople bound together by a sworn oath for the purpose of obtaining basic liberties from the lord of the territory in which the town was located; also, the self-governing town after receiving its liberties.
conciliarism a movement in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century