AP World History Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections (1450-1750 CE)

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the major technologies, economic developments, imperial expansions, labor systems, and social hierarchies of AP World History Unit 4 (1450-1750 CE).

Sternpost Rudder

A maritime steering innovation developed in China that enhanced ship maneuverability and allowed vessels to navigate rough transoceanic waters.

Astrolabe

An astronomical instrument refined in the Islamic world that calculated latitude and ship positioning by observing the altitude of stars and celestial bodies.

Lateen Sail

A triangular sail popularized through Islamic trade that allowed sailing vessels to catch the wind on either side and travel against contrary currents through tacking.

Magnetic Compass

A navigational device originating in China that enabled mariners to determine cardinal directions across open waters without relying on landmarks or astronomical sightings.

Volta do Mar

A Portuguese navigational technique meaning "return through the sea," involving sailing far into the open Atlantic Ocean to utilize major circular wind patterns and bypass contrary trade winds.

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable Portuguese sailing vessel featuring lateen sails, designed for speed and long-distance exploration along African and Atlantic coastlines.

Carrack

A large, multi-masted ocean-going ship engineered to carry heavy cargo loads across expansive Atlantic and Indian Ocean trade routes.

Fluyt

A Dutch cargo vessel built exclusively for merchant trade without mounted cannons, designed to maximize cargo hold space, reduce crew requirements, and maximize commercial profits.

Mercantilism

An economic policy dominant in early modern Europe asserting that national wealth is built by amassing precious metals (gold and silver), maintaining a favorable balance of trade through exports, and acquiring colonies as sources of raw materials and captive markets.

Bullionism

An economic concept precursor to mercantilism asserting that the economic strength and prosperity of a state is measured directly by the physical quantity of gold and silver held in its treasury.

Omani-European Rivalry

A protracted commercial and maritime conflict in the Indian Ocean between the regional Omani merchant empire and European naval powers seeking to dominate Indian Ocean trade routes.

Prince Henry the Navigator

A Portuguese royal patron who financed exploration ventures, cartography, and navigational schools along the western coast of Africa, launching the Portuguese maritime empire.

Vasco da Gama

The Portuguese navigator who became the first European to sail directly to India around Africa's Cape of Good Hope in 1498, laying the foundation for a Portuguese commercial monopoly in the Indian Ocean.

Cartaz System

A maritime trading pass or license issued and enforced by the Portuguese navy, requiring merchant ships to purchase permits to travel and conduct trade in the Indian Ocean network.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement mediated by the Pope establishing a meridian line of demarcation that divided newly discovered territories outside Europe between the Spanish and Portuguese crowns.

Columbian Exchange

The global transfer of crops, plants, livestock, human populations, and infectious pathogens between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres following European oceanic contacts in the late 15th century.

The Great Dying

The catastrophic demographic collapse of Indigenous populations across the Americas—falling by an estimated 90% in Central and South America—due to introduced Afro-Eurasian pathogens including smallpox, measles, and influenza.

Manioc (Cassava)

A calorie-dense American root crop diffused across the Atlantic to Africa during the Columbian Exchange that became a staple food source, supporting population growth during the transatlantic slave trade era.

Encomienda

A Spanish colonial labor grant where imperial authorities granted Spanish colonists (encomenderos) the right to extract coercive labor and tribute from Indigenous communities in exchange for protection and Catholic instruction.

Hacienda

A sprawling rural private estate in Spanish America centered on large-scale agriculture or livestock ranching that relied on debt peonage to legally tether Indigenous and mixed-race laborers to the land.

Mita System

A traditional Inca corvée labor system adapted by Spanish colonial administrators to compel Indigenous male laborers into dangerous, mandatory shifts in high-altitude silver mines.

Potosí

A major mining center located in the Andes that yielded massive deposits of silver, which was transported via Spanish galleons across the Pacific and Atlantic to supply the imperial tax economy of Ming China.

Middle Passage

The middle leg of the triangular trade network where enslaved Africans were packed under horrific conditions aboard transport ships crossing the Atlantic, suffering fatal epidemics and severe mortality.

Chattel Slavery

A coercive labor institution where human beings are legally classified as personal movable property, stripping them of human rights and institutionalizing an inherited, lifelong, and racially defined servitude.

Joint-Stock Company

A corporate business structure where investors pooled capital and purchased shares of stock to fund high-risk commercial maritime voyages under royal charters that granted legal trade monopolies.

Virgin of Guadalupe

A Mexican Catholic apparition and religious devotion that synthesized the Catholic Virgin Mary with Indigenous Aztec religious iconographies, emerging as a prominent unifying national and cultural symbol.

Sikhism

A monotheistic faith established in South Asia during the Mughal era that synthesized elements of Islamic Sufism with Hindu Bhakti devotional traditions.

Ana Nzinga

A 17th-century monarch of the African kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba who led armed resistance against Portuguese territorial encroachment and slave raiding while forging tactical alliances with the Dutch.

Pueblo Revolt

A 1680 coordinated Indigenous insurrection in modern-day New Mexico that successfully expelled Spanish Catholic friars and settlers from the territory for twelve years.

Maroon Societies

Self-governing communities established in remote mountain and rainforest environments across the Americas by self-emancipated formerly enslaved Africans who resisted colonial capture.

Casta System

A rigid socioeconomic hierarchy established in Spanish America that stratified individuals legally, politically, and socially based on their racial composition and ancestral heritage.

Peninsulares

Colonial residents of Spanish America who were born on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain), positioning them at the peak of the Casta hierarchy and granting exclusive access to top government and ecclesiastical posts.

Criollos

Individuals of direct Spanish descent born in the Americas who constituted the wealthy landowning and merchant class but were generally excluded from top bureaucratic appointments.

Janissaries

An elite military corps of musketeers in the Ottoman Empire who grew into an influential aristocratic political faction capable of checking or undermining the power of the Sultan.

Boyars

The hereditary landed aristocracy in Russia whose traditional feudal dominance and autonomous political influence were suppressed during the westernizing centralization of Tsar Peter the Great.

Zamindars

Local aristocratic landholders and tax officials within the Mughal Empire who supervised agricultural estates and collected imperial revenues from peasant populations.

Daimyo

Powerful regional feudal warlords in Japan who controlled vast semi-autonomous hereditary land domains and employed private samurai retainers for defense and martial power.