Vocabulary List for Asian History from 1300 to 1853 - Honors

bureaucracy – The body of government workers who are organized into a hierarchy and who basically do the paperwork and behind-the-scenes support for the government and the State.

daimyo - large private land [holder]", a major feudal lord, of whom there were several hundred in Japan during the Tokugawa period. They held fiefs of widely varying sizes (measured in terms of the income they produced, in rice).

dynasty - A series of rulers from a single family.

feudalism – A ranked class system in which land owned by someone of higher status was lived on and worked by someone of lower status in return for loyal service. The king, emperor, or shogun was at the top of the pyramid, the peasants at the bottom.

fief – a piece of land granted to a daimyo by the shogun or to a samurai by a daimyo

government – the people who control the State and who control and lead a country.

hierarchy - a group of people, ideas, objects, etc. arranged in a ranked structure (powerful to weak, rich to poor, etc.).

isolationism - a policy of national withdrawal by abandoning alliances and other international political and economic relations

samurai - Literally, "one who serves"; a member of the warrior class, which was the highest ranking social class during most period of Japanese history.

Shogun - the military ruler of Japan during various periods. The military ruler held real power and used the emperor as a figurehead.

State - an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government, and possessing the ability to rule themselves.

trade imbalance – A situation where a country is importing more goods than it exports. The country doing more importing than exporting must pay cash or borrow money to get the goods it needs.

vassal – a person under the protection of a feudal lord, the person owes the lord allegiance and loyalty