World History empires name meanings study guide

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Goal of this article is to help students identify context and historical recollection via definitions of historical names and terms

  • along with memorizing names, places (map literacy) and dates
  • historical knowledge and test-day recollection can be enhanced through etymology, or word origins of key historical places, empires or dynasties

Concepts & notes[edit | edit source]

Cultural Diffusion: are conquerors eventually conquered by the conquered?[edit | edit source]

  • a common thread to studies of rise and fall of empires and dynasties is cultural diffusion
    • cultural diffusion = the spreading and mixing of cultures, populations, technologies, disease, etc.
  • we will see in this review over and over how many conquerors become more like the people and places they conquered than what / who they were at the start of the conquest

China empires/ dynasties[edit | edit source]

Name Name definition Dates Region Notes
Chinese dynasties follow four general categories of name origins:
  • geographic origins (Qin, Han dynasties)
  • capital cities (Sui and Tang dynasties)
  • material properties (Liao (iron), Tang (jade) dynasties
  • word meanings (Yuan, Ming, Qing dynasties; see below

Yuan Dynasty[edit | edit source]

  • as used by Kublai Khan, mean "origin" or "center" of the universe
  • "Great Yuan" named by the empire's founder, Kublai Khan, likely in order to inlude his rule within Chinese dynastic history as well as to claim the Mandate of Heaven
1271–1368
  • established by Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan
  • 1st non-Han dynasty to rule China
  • Yuan emperors spoke Chinese but kept use of Mongolian
  • Kublai Khan's 1st capital was called "City of the Khans," but was changed in Han Chinese to "Great Capital"
  • he used the name changes to claim Chinese legitimacy
  • Sources:

Ming Dynasty[edit | edit source]

  • Ming is from the Chinese characters for sun and moon; it also means "luminescent"
  • the name was taken by Han Shantong who led early rebellions against the Yuan Dynasty; Han Shantong took on the name "King Ming" for "King of Light"
1368-1644

Qing Dynasty[edit | edit source]

  • Qing means, "blue, aqua, clear, transparent"
  • Qing character contains 3 strokes of the water symbol
  • the 1st Qing emperor renamed "the Great Jin" empire ("Jin" signifies "metal and fire") to "Great Qing"
    • Jin was understood to represent the fiery tempers of the Manchu royalty
    • Qing for "transparent" and "water" indicated an end to feuds in the royal family
1644–1911 Manchuria, China
  • Arose from the "Later Jin Dynasty" from Manchuria (northeast region of China
    • thus is also known as the "Manchu Dynasty
    • "Manchu" = people from Manchuria
  • Jin dynasty ruler Hong Taiji, renamed the "Great Jin" to "Great Qung" in 1636
    • Qing was a Chinese name
  • he renamed the "Jurchen" people to "Manchu"
    • "Manchu" may come from the word for "brave"
    • the renaming reflects his conquest of all of Manchuria
  • key Hong Tajji's rise was adoption of artillery, which the Ming had used to defeat him before
  • he conquered the Ming capital in Beijing in 1644
  • as ruler, he accepted ethnic Han into his military and government, and even married 10000 Manchu women to Han men
  • sources:

Mongol empires[edit | edit source]

Name Name definition Dates Region Notes

Mongol Empire[edit | edit source]

  • started by Genghis Khan or "Temüjin"
  • Temüjin is Chinese and may mean or be related to Truco-Mongol for "blacksmith"
    • Temüjin was given to him by his father upon defeat of a Tatar chief named Temüjin-üge
  • "Genghis Khan" means "great leader" or "universal ruler"
    • Khan meant chief of a clan (tribe)
    • Genghis may mean "sea" thus suggesting "ruler of the seas," thus all of the world
  • "Mongol" means "whole great nation"
1206–1368 Eurasia
  • Genghis Khan conquered / united central/northern Asian "tribal confederations" who were in constant warfare with one another
Mongol Empire c. 1207, upon Genghis Khan's consolidation of Mongol tribes in the northern steppe. Temüjin took the name "Genghis Khan" that year.
  • upon Genghis Khan's death the empire was divided into four "fragment" empires:
Asia in 1335, showing the four "Khanates", successor empires to the Mongol Empire, often referred to as "fragments" of it. The four "khanates" are *Yuan Dynasty * Golden Horde * Chagatai Khanate * Ilkhanate Khanate
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Yuan Dynasty[edit | edit source]

see above under China dynasties for Yuan 1271–1368

Golden Horde (Mongol)[edit | edit source]

  • "Golden Horde" means "Great State" in Turkic.
  • founded by Batu Khan, a grandson of Ghengis Khan
  • Genghis Khan conquered many "Tatar" tribes, including the "Tatar Confederation" that became part of the Golden Horde
    • so the Golden Horde was referred to by Europeans as "Tatars"
  • "Tatar" probably comes from persian for "mounted messenger"
    • "Tatar" came to refer to all the Turkic people in Russia
    • thus "tartar sauce", "steak tartare"
  • the Golden Horde ruled over central/northern Eurasia from the China bove the Black and Caspian Seas
  • Later Russians referred to the The Golden Horde rule as the "Tatar yoke"
    • "yoke" = a hitch used to constrain oxen
    • due to excessive taxes and political consolidation of rule over local princes

Chagatai Khanate[edit | edit source]

  • named for the 2nd son of Ghengis Khan, Chagatai Khan
  • Chagatai was considered rebellious and refused to recognize Ghengis Khan's first son, Jochi, as his full brother (thus marking a weakness in such imperial arrangements that have different sons from different wives of an organizing ruler)
  • a Turkic language later developed in the region of Chagatai's rule, and was called "Chagatai"; the modern languages, Uzbek and Uyghur, a direct descendants of Chagatai
1242-1347 /

1347-1487

  • Chagatai inherited this region after the death of Genghis Khan in 1227; Chagatia died in 1242
  • during reign of Kublai Khan (who started the Yuan Dynasty), Chagatai rulers broke away from his rule
  • Chagatai Khanate consists of modern Central Asian states
  • in 1347, the Khanate was divided when Moghulistan was declared independent under a tribal alliance led by Tughlugh Timur
  • Tughlugh Timur converted to Islam
    • over time, his successors were also Muslim and eventually imposed Sharia Law
  • in the 1400s the region underwent "Turkification," where by Turkic populations / culture largerly replaced Mongol culture adn/or Moghul populations

Ilkhanate Khanate[edit | edit source]

  • Ilkhan = "subordinate Khan)
  • Illkhanid may have Persian meaning for "Iran-zamin" or "Land of Iran"
    • "Iran" is from "of the PIE root *arya" ("one who assembles skillfully") from which "Aryan" and eventually "Iran" are derived
  • original conquest of the territory was by Genghis Khan's 3rd son, Hulagu Khan, who defeated the Abbasid Caliphate
1256–1335 Persia & northern Middle East/ Anatolia
  • southwestern portion of the Mongol Empire
  • the shortest-lived of the four fragmented Khanates, principally due to the larger historical experience of exchange, conquest, and mixing of cultures in the Middle East, as well as its location as central Eurasian/African crossroads.
The Ilkhanate at its greatest extent
The Ilkhanate at its greatest extent
  • at first, Hulagu, and especially his successors, feuded w/ the Golden Horde rulers
  • the Ilkhanates resisted adopting Islam and ruled w/ religious tolerance (esp. in Persia)
  • the 7th ruler, Ghazan, converted to Islam upon taking the throne in 1298
  • still, he aligned with European Christian Crusaders to fight back the Mamluk (Egyptian Muslim armies)
  • upon collapse of the Ilkhanate Khanate, the northern Middle East fell into regional rule, which led to the rise of the Turks.

Europe monarchies/ empires[edit | edit source]

Name Name definition Dates Region Notes
Holy Roman Empire
  • from origins under Charlemagne who was crowned "Holy Roman Emperor" in 800 by Pope Leo III
    • Charlemagne thus gained Church legitimacy in exchange for vassalhood to the Church
  • "Holy Roman" = representing the Roman Church
  • Empire = power supposedly inherited from ancient Roman emperors, i.e., considered in their lineage
800-1806

(962 alternative start date)

  • early stages, included France under the Carolingian line of French (Frankish) kings, but as France emerged as independent kingdom under the Capetian dynasty ( 987 to 1328, started by Hugh Capet; no certainty for the name, "Capet", but one can think of "head" for Capet, as in "head of France")
The Holy Roman Empire between 972 and 1032
House of Valois (France) 1328-1589
House of Bourbon (France) 1589-1792, 1815-1830, 1830-1848
  • note the interrupted timeline, starting w/ the French Revolution, 1792, and the Napoleonic period, then 1815, 1830 and 1848 revolutions
Napoleon
Austrian Empire / Hapsburgs
  • "House of Hapsburg" from Habsburg Castle, a fortress built in in early 1000s in modern day Switzerland
  • empire indicates conquest, so think of Hungary, Slavic countries, lower Germany, etc.
1804–1867
  • mixed politically with Spanish monarchy under the Holy Roman Empire

India empires[edit | edit source]

Name Name definition Dates Region Notes
Timurid Empire
  • also called "Gurkani" empire, its Persian name for "son-in-law"
  • the title was for founder Tamerlane (Timur), who married a descendent of Ghengis Khan, but was not himself a direct descendant
  • Timurid means "sign of Timur": a symbol of the empire with three concentric, equal circles which represented different parts of the empire
    • Tamerland was also called "Sahib-Qiran" for "ruler of three benevolent planets"
1370–1507 Persia (Iran), central Aisa, northern India
Mughal Empire
  • "Mughal" is Persian for "Mongol"
  • founded by Babur, a warrior chief from central Asia a descendant of Tamerlane (Timur) and also of Genghis Khan
  • also called the Timurid Empire, from Tamerlane's Turco-Mongol empire
  • Babur was from Moghulistan, an independent central Asian Khanate (from Mongol empire), but he was kicked out, which led him to invade India
1526–1857

Middleastern empires[edit | edit source]

Name Name definition Dates Region Notes
Ottoman Empire