Reconquista

The long struggle (ending in 1492) during which Spanish Christians reconquered the Iberian peninsula from Muslim occupiers.
Columbus finally sold his plan to Isabel and Ferdinand, the monarchs of Castile and Aragon, who had married and united their kingdoms. In 1492, the couple had succeeded in conquering Grenada, the last Muslim-controlled province in Iberia, ending a centuries-long struggle known as the reconquista.
by HistoryNerd94 January 02, 2012
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Renaissance

The intellectual and artistic flowering in Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries sparked by a revival of interest in classical antiquity.
The Renaissance celebrated human possibility.
by HistoryNerd94 December 30, 2011
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City-State

A small independent state consisting of an urban center and the surrounding agricultural territory. A characteristic political form in early Mesopotamia, Archaic and Classical Greece, Phoenicia, and early Italy.
The term city-state refers to a self-governing urban center and the agriculture territories it controlled.
by HistoryNerd94 December 18, 2010
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Scribe

In the governments of many ancient societies, a professional position reserved for men who had undergone the lengthy training required to be able to read and write using cuneiform, hieroglyphics, or other early, cumbersome writing systems.
Male domination of the position of scribe—an administration or scholar charged by the temple or palace with reading and writing tasks—further complicates efforts to reconstruct the lives of women.
by HistoryNerd94 December 21, 2010
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Babylon

The largest and most important city in Mesopotamia. It achieved particular eminence as the capital of the Amorite King Hammurabi in the eighteenth century B.C.E. and the Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century B.C.E.
The Babylonian Creation Myth climaxes in a cosmic battle between Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, and the Tiamat, a femal figure who personifies the salt sea.
by HistoryNerd94 December 12, 2010
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Hammurabi

Amorite ruler of Babylon (r. 1792–1750 B.C.E.). He conquered many city-states in southern and northern Mesopotamia and is best known for a code of laws, inscribed on a black stone pillar, illustrating the principles to be used in legal cases.
Toward the end of a long reign, Hammurabi initiated a series of aggressive military campaigns, and Babylon became the capital of what historians have named the "Old Babylonian" state, which eventually stretched beyond Sumer and Akkad into the north and northwest, from 1900 to 1600 B.C.E.
by HistoryNerd94 December 20, 2010
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Agricultural Revolutions

(Ancient) The change from food gathering to food production that occured between ca. 8000 and 2000 B.C.E. Also known as the Neolithic Revolution.
The term Agricultural Revolutions is more precise because it emphasizes the central role of food production and signals that the changeover occured several times.
by HistoryNerd94 November 12, 2010
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