Khan A Mongol ruler.
kowtow A ritualistic bow practiced in the Chinese court.
kulaks Russian peasants who became wealthy under Lenin’s New Economic Policy.
laissez-faire economics An economic concept that holds that the government should not interfere with
or regulate businesses and industries.
lateen sail A triangular sail attached to a short mast.
latifundia Large landholdings in the Roman Empire.
League of Nations International organization founded after World War I to promote peace and
cooperation among nations.
liberalism An Enlightenment philosophy that favored civil rights, the protection of private property,
and representative government.
Liberation Theology A religious belief that emphasizes social justice for victims of poverty and
oppression.
limited liability corporation (LLC) A business organization in which the owners have limited
personal legal responsibility for debts and actions of the business.
Magna Carta A document written in England in 1215 that granted certain rights to nobles; later these
rights came to be extended to all classes.
Malay sailors Southeast Asian sailors who traveled the Indian Ocean; by 500 CE, they had colonized
Madagascar, introducing the cultivation of the banana.
Mamluks Turkic military slaves who formed part of the army of the Abbasid Caliphate in the ninth
and tenth centuries; they founded their own state in Egypt and Syria from the thirteenth to the early
sixteenth centuries.
Manchus Peoples from northeastern Asia who founded China’s Qing dynasty.
mandate A type of colony in which the government is overseen by another nation, as in the Middle
Eastern mandates placed under European control after World War I.
mandate of heaven The concept developed by the Zhou dynasty that the deity granted a dynasty the
right to rule and took away that right if the dynasty did not rule wisely.
manorialism The system of self-sufficient estates that arose in medieval Europe.
Maori A member of a Polynesian group that settled in New Zealand about 800 CE.
maroon societies Runaway slaves in the Caribbean who established their own communities to resist
slavery and colonial authorities.
Marshall Plan A U.S. plan to support the recovery and reconstruction of Western Europe after World
War II.
mass consumerism Trade in products designed to appeal to a global market.
matrilineal Referring to a social system in which descent and inheritance are traced through the
mother.
May Fourth Movement A 1919 protest in China against the Treaty of Versailles and foreign
influence.
medieval Pertaining to the middle ages of European history.
Meiji Restoration The restoration of the Meiji emperor in Japan in 1868 that began a program of
industrialization and centralization of Japan following the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.