AP World Exploration

1. What are the misconceptions about the pre-Columbian Americas?

1. Sparsely populated
2. Untouched wilderness
3. Inhabitants had only basic skills
4. Social and political organizations were simple ones
5. Tribes lived in isolation from one another

What are the realities of the pre-Columbian America?

1. population of America \~= population of Europe
2. a “managed environment”
3. possessed


1. Technology
2. Art
3. Trade
4. political and social organization

Describe European trade in the Middle Ages. What role did the Crusades, the Mediterranean, Constantinople and the Mongols have in this trade?

1. Crusades


1. increased contact between Europe and the East
2. important role of Italian cities (transportation, middlemen)
3. created demand for foreign goods
2. Mediterranean


1. economic/trade center
3. Constantinople


1. center of East/West trade
2. emporium
4. Mongols


1. safe trans-continental trade (from eastern Europe to China)

What changes in the political situation in the Mediterranean region led to European exploration?

1. Constantinople: center of East/West trade
* Emporium
* Government monopoly: silk manufacturing 

* Mongol Empire/Pax Mongolica
* From eastern Europe to China
* Safe trans-continental travel

\
* RESULTS


1. disruption of East/West trade
2. search for new trade routes (to avoid Islamic Turks)
3. Decline of Italian city states

What technological innovations made transoceanic exploration possible?

1. Compass
2. Astrolabe/cross staff
3. Wind wheels (groups of wind (circular) patterns that helped sailors in their travels)
4. More accurate charts and maps
5. Ship and sail design
6. Naval armament

What were the motives for European exploration?

1. God, gold, and glory

How did the rise of powerful Atlantic nation states affect exploration?

Allowed Spain and Portugal to join in since they now had resources

Which European state led the way in Atlantic and IOB exploration?

Portugal

Describe the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French experiences in the IOB.

Dutch- most diplomatic, didn’t try and change the natives. Mainly concentrated on spice trade

Portuguese- first explorers, eventually left bc they were losing control

English- rivals with Dutch for parallel trade networks, rivals with French for control of India

France- joined last

Analyze the Columbian Exchange.


1. The impact of the New World and the Old World
2. Exchange of plants and animals
3. Disease
4. Demography

1. The impact of the New World and the Old World


1. New World: demographic and ecological changes (diseases, large livestock)
2. Old World: new crops!!!
2. Exchange of plants and animals


1. Greatly improved Old World diets
2. large livestock in New World
3. Disease


1. European diseases devastated natives
4. Demography


1. Loss of Native American population
2. Creation of “settler colonies”
3. Introduction of Africans
4. Mixture of races


1. mestizos
2. mulattos
3. zambos
4. casta system/casta paintings

Describe the rise of cash crop economies in the Americas.

Americans introduced cash crops, sugar cane and tobacco and made some areas dependent on food imports leading to environmental issues

What effects on the environment of cash crop economies?

Deforestation, soil depletion, destruction of ecology

Why were Europeans able to dominate global trade networks by 1600?

English and French had better armaments and ships allowing them to run the IOB

Review the timeline of the growth of European participation in global trade networks from 1400 to 1800?

1400- Arabs dominated

1600- Europeans as numerous as Arabs

1650- Europeans displaced Arabs and British and French take over

Describe the Pacific trade networks. What was the role of the “Manila galleons”?

Manila galleons were Spanish trading ships that were mainly in the Philippines and traded in the Pacific where they traded for Mexican and Peruvian goods for Chinese goods

Trace the rise and decline of Spain as a world power. What factors contributed to this?

Declining military power, political instability, rise of other European powers, *inflation*

What was the Commercial Revolution?

1. revival of European trade post-1350


1. more people, more demand
2. expansion of international trade
3. growing importance of merchants 

What was the role of entrepreneurs?

1. take risks to get profits
2. expanded global trade

Trace the rise of banking.

1. need for capital (merchants, monarchs for wars and exploration)
2. soooo… wealthy merchants become bankers and give:


1. loans
2. letters of credit (like “flying cash” and sakk)
3. letters of exchange

What was a joint stock company?

1. A type of company that reduces risk through many investors purchasing shares


2. Purpose: reduce risk
3. Method


1. Purchase shares
2. Share the risk
3. Share the profit
4. Appearance of large trading companies


1. Ex: English East India Company
5. Royals charters (monopolies)
6. **Beginnings of capitalism**

What factors contributed to the growth of capitalism?

* Population growth
* American foods -> improved diet and nutrition
* Decline in epidemic diseases
* Decrease in mortality rate
* Urbanization
* Increased demand for commodities

What developments supported early capitalism?

1. Banks


1. Safeguarded funds
2. Made loans
2. Business newspapers


1. Reported on prices
2. News of demand (near and far) for commodities
3. Political events which affect business
3. Insurance companies
4. Stock exchanges

Compare the old method of production with the new method of production.

1. guilds


1. Provided training
2. Ensured quality
3. Limited competition
4. Set prices
5. BUT too restrictive for entrepreneurs
2. putting out system or cottage industry (proto-industrialization)


1. Located in rural areas


1. Freedom for urban based guilds
2. Utilized farmers “down time”
2. Method


1. Entrepreneur (factor) provides raw material (ex: wool)
2. rural people do the work to make product
3. finished product returned to “factor”

What was the relationship between capitalism and the social order? Morality? The growth of empires?

1. Social order


1. Rural life


1. Improved access to manufactured goods
2. Opportunities in cities depleted the rural population
2. Inefficient institution of serfdom abandoned in western Europe
3. Nuclear families replace extended families
4. Changes in gender roles as women enter income-earning workforce
2. morality


1. increase poverty and crime in some areas (and bad attitudes toward poor)
2. witch-hunting
3. mutual relationship between empires and capitalize (funding/favorable rules ←→ taxes)

Describe mercantilism.

1. Belief: economic strength = power


1. Keeping and increasing gold/silver supplies \[Bullion (gold & silver) = economic strength\]
2. Creating and maintaining a favorable balance of trade

What were the origins of the Atlantic slave?

1. Portuguese explored West Africa for trade and built bases there
2. established colonies in the Americas
3. needed slaves for SUGAR production

Which state was the first participant in the Atlantic slave trade?

1. Portugal 

What were the reasons for the Atlantic slave trade?

1. Demand for plantation labor


1. Diseases killed Native American population
2. New source of labor: African slaves
3. Introduction of sugar cane

What factors contributed to the expansion of slavery and the slave trade?

1. introduction of sugar cane (and other cash crops like tobacco and later cotton)
2. plantation systems

What was the Middle Passage?

4-6 weeks ship voyage between Africa and the Americas

How did the slave trade affect Africa?

1. Many African rulers participated in the slave trade
2. Political impact


1. New African states emerged dependent upon slave trade
2. Rivalry and warfare over control of slave trade
3. Introduction of gunpowder weapons
3. Social impact


1. Decline in male population
2. Increase in polygamy
3. Population remained constant or increased due to American foods: manioc and maize

What economic factors led to the abolitionist movement?

1. Military expenses to prevent rebellions
2. 18th century: price of sugar falls, price of slaves rises
3. Benefits of wage labor vs. slaves


1. More efficient
2. Wage-earners can spend income on manufactured goods

Trade the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery?

1. Abolition of slave trade (importation, not domestic)


1. Denmark (1803)
2. Great Britain (1807)
3. United States (1808)
4. France (1814)
5. Netherlands (1817)
6. Spain (1845)
2. Possession of slaves remained legal
3. Clandestine (secret, illegal, illicit) trade continued until 1867
4. Emancipation of slaves


1. British colonies (1833)
2. French colonies (1848)
3. US (1865)
4. Brazil (1888)
5. Angola (1960)

Where does slavery exist today?

1. Saudi Arabia
2. Parts of south Asia
3. Debt slavery: Asia and Latin America
4. Human trafficking

Treaty of Tordesillas

1. split up the globe between Portugal and Spain (line of demarcation “gave” Spain most of the Americas (minus Brazil) and Portugal Africa)

Manila galleons

1. Spanish trading ships built in the Philippines, designed to transport more goods

cash crop

tobacco, sugar, etc. cultivated in the Americas to quickly turn a profit

plantation system

1. System where slaves were used for labor to harvest and produce cash crops in large amounts

joint stock companies

1. provided money for colonization, think East India Tea co. 

royal charters

1. Document granting power or authority

putting out system

1. Workshop/cottage system

favorable balance of trade

exports exceed imports

peninsulares

1.  Spaniards born in Spain living in the new world top of the social pecking order

Criollos/ceoles

1. mixed African and European descent

mestizos

 mixed indigenous and Spanish descent

zambos

mixed African and indigenous descent

audencias

tribunals, highest courts in various Spanish colonies

casta system

essentially a ranking system based on racial descent

Potosi

1. silver mine in modern day Bolivia, main reason Philip II decided to continue to use indigenous forced labor