Early European Exploration, Colonization, and Global Economic Systems

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering early European exploration, Portuguese and Spanish conquest, mercantilism, colonial administrative systems, and global economic changes.

Potosi Silver Mine

A major silver mine discovered in the Andes that produced 50% of the world's silver by 1550, transforming Spain into a wealthy empire while driving severe inflation.

Spanish Armada

The Spanish naval fleet whose defeat by England in 1588 marked a major turning point leading to Spain's geopolitical decline.

Mercantilism

An economic policy where governments regulate trade and economic systems to maximize national power and crown wealth, typically by hoarding gold and silver.

Navigation Acts

English laws initiated in 1651 under mercantilist policy requiring colonial goods to be traded exclusively with England.

Triangular Trade

A transatlantic trade route driven by ocean winds that exchanged manufactured goods, enslaved people, and raw materials between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Dutch East India Company

A charter company established in 1602 that funded Dutch commercial expansion across South America, the Caribbean, New York, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Christopher Columbus

Genovese explorer whose 1492 voyage funded by Spain sought a sea route to India but resulted in initial contact with Hispaniola and Cuba.

Taino

The indigenous group encountered by Columbus in the Caribbean whose gold jewelry led the Spanish to incorrectly assume massive local mines existed.

Amerigo Vespucci

The navigator who realized that the lands reached by Columbus were a distinct landmass, labeling them the 'New World' several years later.

Columbian Exchange

The transatlantic transfer of crops, livestock, human populations, culture, and infectious diseases between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas following 1492.

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

An agreement brokered by Pope Alexander VI drawing a Line of Demarcation that divided non-European territories between Portugal (Brazil) and Spain (rest of Latin America).

Hernan Cortes

Spanish conquistador who launched an expedition from Vera Cruz and conquered the Aztec Empire in 1521.

Francisco Pizzaro

Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of the Inca Empire in South America in 1532.

Viceroyalty

A principal administrative territory of Spanish colonial governance in the Americas, including New Spain, Peru, New Granada, and La Plata.

Viceroy

An imperial governor appointed by the Spanish Crown to exercise full civilian and military authority over a viceroyalty.

Audiencia

A board or council of judges that advised the viceroy in the administration of Spanish colonial government.

Cabildo

A municipal council established for local urban governance in cities across the Spanish colonies.

Hacienda System

A 17th-century agricultural plantation system in Spanish America reliant on forced indigenous labor and enslaved Africans.

Ottoman Empire (1453 Conquest)

The conquest of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 that allowed the Ottomans to disrupt traditional land and sea trade routes to Asia, spurring European maritime routes.

Reconquista (1492 Granada)

The military victory in 1492 where Spain defeated the last Muslim kingdom in Granada, fueling enthusiasm for religious expansion abroad.

Caravel

A maneuverable Portuguese sailing vessel equipped with three masts, lateen sails, and large cargo space suitable for long oceanic voyages.

Astrolabe

A navigational instrument adapted from Ancient Greece that calculates latitude by measuring the position of celestial bodies.

Prince Henry The Navigator

A Portuguese royal patron who championed maritime exploration and navigation technology without participating in voyages himself.

Bartolomeu Diaz

Portuguese explorer who became the first European to sail around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487.

Vasco da Gama

Portuguese navigator who completed the first all-water route around Africa to Calicut, India in 1497.

Portuguese Trading Forts

A network of permanent fortified trade outposts established at Goa, Malacca, Calicut, and Hormuz to control trade routes rather than colonize inland territories.