Unit 4 Global Age Test

Zheng He

Chinese admiral who led huge voyages across the Indian Ocean in the early 1400s.

Christopher Columbus

Spanish‑sponsored explorer who reached the Caribbean in 1492.

Ferdinand Magellan

Led the first expedition to sail around the world (he died on the way).

Taino

Indigenous people of the Caribbean who first met Columbus.

Conquistador

Spanish conquerors who took over American empires.

Aztec Empire

Powerful Mesoamerican empire in present‑day Mexico, conquered by Cortés.

Malinche

Indigenous woman who translated for Cortés and helped him defeat the Aztecs.

Moctezuma

Aztec emperor when the Spanish arrived.

Hernán Cortés

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire.

Inca Empire

Large empire in the Andes (Peru), conquered by Pizarro.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Inca Empire.

Atahualpa

Last Inca emperor, captured and killed by Pizarro.

Juan Diego

Indigenous Mexican who reported visions of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of Guadalupe).

Encomienda

Spanish labor system forcing Indigenous people to work for colonists.

Saint Domingue

French colony on Hispaniola; became Haiti after a slave revolution.

Middle Passage

The brutal Atlantic journey enslaved Africans were forced to take to the Americas.

Olaudah Equiano

Former enslaved African who wrote about the horrors of the Middle Passage.

Mercantilism

• Economic system in 16th-18th centuries

• Export more than import

• Build up lots of gold and silver

• Wealth is fixed, countries want to ger as much as possible

• National oversight of economy

  • National currencies, weights/measures

  • Work closely with merchants

• Colonies should

  • Provide raw materials

  • Serve as markets by buying manufactured goods

  • Not trade with other countries

Jamestown

• Church of England (mainstream) - more economic motives

• 1st permanent, English settlement in the Americas

• 1619 - first evidence of slavery in Virginia

• Slavery practiced in all English colonies, but more in the South

• Cash crops like tobacco, rice, cotton

• 1607

Why, how, and where did European nations explore and build empires in the 15^th-18^th centuries? 

• Started it Portugal & Spain

• Expanded to Brazil and the Caribbean

Which European country started this era?  What did Europeans want? 

• Portugal

• New sailing technology

• Spread of religion Christianity

• faster access to Asia

• Competition with other European countries.

How did Chinese exploration compare to Europe? 

• Chinese explored over land, not sea.

•  Europe was more driven from competition.

• China was a unified state.

• They already had so much wealth and weren't really looking to expand but were bigger and better.

Transatlantic Slave Trade: How long did it last and how many were enslaved? 

• 12.5M people brought from Africa starting in the 16th-19th centuries (350 yrs)

•  More Africans crossed Atlantic than Europeans

To which two regions were most people sent? 

• Brazil

• Caribbean

How did it impact Africa? 

• Gender Imbalance

• More men enslaved more women left behind

• What were some of the main crops that enslaved people worked to produce? 

• Sugar was a crop highly grown but not for the farmers for mass production.

• Tabaco

• Rice

• Cotton

How was chattel slavery different from previous forms?

• Permanent property

• Inherited status

• Dehumanizing

• Both in the sense of being brutal and in not recognizing people's humanity

• Based on race

• More intense

What was the Columbian Exchange?

The transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Old World and the New World after 1492.

Examples of Columbian Exchange

• To Americas: horses, cattle, wheat, sugar, diseases.

• To Afro‑Eurasia: potatoes, corn, tomatoes, chocolate.

Impact of Columbian Exchange?

• Americas: population collapse from disease; new animals and crops changed life.

• Afro‑Eurasia: new foods increased population; economies grew.