A guide to the language of history
History glossary
Understand the people, places and ideas behind the stories. Find a term, read its meaning, then explore it in context.
37–51 of 51 terms · M
Clear filtersmonastery
a religious community organized around prayer, work, learning, and discipline.
monasticism
religious life organised around vows, community, discipline, prayer, and work.
Mongol Empire
the vast empire created by Genghis Khan and his successors across Eurasia.
Mongols
steppe peoples whose thirteenth-century conquests created the largest contiguous land empire in history.
Monolithic Ideological System
North Korea's doctrine of absolute loyalty to Kim Il Sung and ideological uniformity across society.
monopoly
exclusive control over a resource, institution, or form of power.
Monotheism
belief in one God.
Monsoon
seasonal wind and rainfall patterns that strongly affect South Asian farming and settlement.
most-favoured-nation treatment
a treaty principle allowing one foreign power to claim privileges granted to another.
mujahideen
Islamic guerrilla fighters, especially the Afghan resistance groups that fought Soviet forces in the 1980s.
Multipolar world
an international system with several major centers of power rather than one or two superpowers.
mummification
the process of preserving a body after death, especially for burial and afterlife beliefs in ancient Egypt.
Muslim
a follower of Islam; in history, the word can describe people, communities, rulers, or societies shaped by Islamic belief and culture.
Mutiny
organized refusal by soldiers or sailors to obey military authority.
Mutually assured destruction
the Cold War logic that neither nuclear superpower should attack first because both could still destroy the other in retaliation.
