World history crossword vocabulary pack

Teacher key

1. FEUDALISM · 9 letters · noun · intermediate
   Medieval system based on land, loyalty, and service

   Hint: Lords and vassals are key roles in this arrangement.
   Why it fits: FEUDALISM fits because many medieval societies distributed power through local obligations rather than a single strong central state.

2. MANORIALISM · 11 letters · noun · advanced
   Medieval rural economy centered on an estate

   Hint: Peasant labor and a lord's lands shaped daily life.
   Why it fits: MANORIALISM is correct because it describes how farms, labor dues, and village life were organized on many medieval manors.

3. MERCANTILISM · 12 letters · noun · advanced
   Trade policy seeking national wealth through exports and colonies

   Hint: Governments tried to accumulate precious metals under this idea.
   Why it fits: MERCANTILISM fits because European empires often restricted colonial trade to strengthen the home country.

4. IMPERIALISM · 11 letters · noun · intermediate
   Policy of extending power over other lands

   Hint: Control may be political, military, or economic.
   Why it fits: IMPERIALISM is correct because world history courses use it to explain empire building, colonial rule, and unequal power relationships.

5. COLONIALISM · 11 letters · noun · intermediate
   Control of a territory by settlers or a distant power

   Hint: The governed region is often administered for outside benefit.
   Why it fits: COLONIALISM fits because it names the political and economic relationship behind many overseas empires.

6. RENAISSANCE · 11 letters · noun · intermediate
   European cultural revival tied to art, learning, and humanism

   Hint: Its artists studied both classical models and new techniques.
   Why it fits: RENAISSANCE is correct because it names the period associated with figures such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, and humanist scholars.

7. REFORMATION · 11 letters · noun · intermediate
   Religious movement that challenged western church authority

   Hint: Printing helped spread its arguments quickly.
   Why it fits: REFORMATION fits because reformers questioned church practices and helped create new Protestant traditions.

8. ENLIGHTENMENT · 13 letters · noun · advanced
   Intellectual movement stressing reason, rights, and natural law

   Hint: Its ideas influenced revolutions and constitutions.
   Why it fits: ENLIGHTENMENT is correct because its thinkers shaped debates over authority, liberty, science, and citizenship.

9. INDUSTRIALIZATION · 17 letters · noun · advanced
   Shift from hand production to machine-powered manufacturing

   Hint: Factories, steam power, and urban labor grew with it.
   Why it fits: INDUSTRIALIZATION fits because it changed work, cities, transportation, and global trade during the modern era.

10. NATIONALISM · 11 letters · noun · intermediate
    Political loyalty based on shared identity as a people

    Hint: It can unify groups or intensify rivalries.
    Why it fits: NATIONALISM is correct because it helped shape independence movements, unification efforts, and conflicts in modern history.

11. ALLIANCE · 8 letters · noun · introductory
    Formal agreement for cooperation between states or groups

    Hint: Countries may promise defense or support through one.
    Why it fits: ALLIANCE fits because historians use the term to explain how partnerships can influence wars, diplomacy, and balance of power.

12. ARMISTICE · 9 letters · noun · intermediate
    Agreement to stop fighting before a final peace settlement

    Hint: One famously ended combat in World War I.
    Why it fits: ARMISTICE is correct because it names a negotiated cease-fire that can precede longer peace talks.

13. REVOLUTION · 10 letters · noun · intermediate
    Major overthrow or transformation of a political order

    Hint: It often changes who holds power.
    Why it fits: REVOLUTION fits because world history compares events such as the French, Haitian, and Russian transformations through this concept.

14. DYNASTY · 7 letters · noun · introductory
    Series of rulers from the same family

    Hint: Chinese history often organizes periods this way.
    Why it fits: DYNASTY is correct because historians use family ruling lines to organize monarchies and imperial periods.

15. MONARCHY · 8 letters · noun · introductory
    Government headed by a king, queen, or similar ruler

    Hint: Power may be limited by laws or held personally.
    Why it fits: MONARCHY fits because it names a system found in many historical kingdoms, from absolute realms to constitutional states.

16. DIASPORA · 8 letters · noun · advanced
    Scattering of a people away from an ancestral homeland

    Hint: Communities may preserve identity across many regions.
    Why it fits: DIASPORA is correct because world history uses it to discuss Jewish, African, Armenian, and other dispersed communities.

17. SILKROAD · 8 letters · noun · introductory
    Ancient trade network linking East Asia with western regions

    Hint: Goods, ideas, religions, and technologies moved along it.
    Why it fits: SILKROAD fits because it names the connected routes that carried silk and many other products and ideas across Eurasia.

18. CRUSADE · 7 letters · noun · intermediate
    Medieval religious military expedition

    Hint: Several campaigns focused on control of holy sites.
    Why it fits: CRUSADE is correct because historians use the term for campaigns that linked faith, politics, and military action.

19. ABSOLUTISM · 10 letters · noun · advanced
    Political system claiming concentrated royal authority

    Hint: Louis XIV is a common classroom example.
    Why it fits: ABSOLUTISM fits because early modern rulers used armies, bureaucracy, and court culture to strengthen personal authority.

20. SPHEREOFINFLUENCE · 17 letters · noun · advanced
    Region where an outside power holds special sway

    Hint: Control may occur without formal annexation.
    Why it fits: SPHEREOFINFLUENCE is correct because the term explains unequal power arrangements in places such as nineteenth-century China.

Accept a different answer only when it matches the clue, length, grammar, and any supplied crossings. Use the reviewed answer when teaching the intended vocabulary target.