Early Modern European History, Commerce, State Formation, and Culture

Vocabulary flashcards covering key agricultural, commercial, administrative, technological, colonial, and intellectual concepts from early modern European history.

Demesne

Plots of agricultural land on seignorial estates reserved by aristocratic landlords that could be farmed directly or rented out for their full value.

Second Serfdom

The reimposition and expansion of serfdom by landlords in early modern eastern Europe, forcing peasants to perform heavy obligatory labor on noble demesnes.

Sharecropping

A contractual farming arrangement where a landlord provides livestock, implements, and seed to a landless farmer in return for a large share of the crop as rent.

Carrack

A prominent three-masted, full-rigged ocean ship developed by 1450 featuring a large hull and high sides for better long-distance transport and defense.

Running down the latitude

A navigational method of sailing north or south to reach the known latitude of a destination before turning east or west to reach land.

Carrera de India

The vital ocean trade circuit that ran from Seville out via the Canary Islands to the Americas and back to Seville via the Azores.

Composite state

A term coined by H. G. Koenigsberger to describe the patchwork quality of early modern European political entities.

Confessionalization

The process by which hardening doctrinal divisions between Christian sects coincided with territorial boundaries, enhancing the state's institutional oversight.

Reason of state

The political concept justifying state actions—such as setting aside religious differences or forming alliances—based on state interest and necessity.

Incunabula

Books produced during the early period of the printing press between 1450 and 1500.

Scriptoria

Specialized workshops in medieval monasteries where groups of clerics transcribed manuscript books by hand.

Index Librorum Prohibitorum

A list of prohibited books established by the Roman Catholic Church in 1559 to suppress heretical, subversive, or scandalous publications.

Repartimiento

A colonial system used by the Spanish to survey, allocate, and apportion land or forced indigenous labor.

Cabildo

A municipal city council responsible for administering Spanish colonial towns and cities.

Feitoria

A fortified coastal trading post established by the Portuguese to secure maritime trade without extensive inland colonization.

Encomienda

Feudal estates in Spanish America where Amerindians were forced to perform agricultural or mining labor.

Kandiaronk

A Wendat statesman, orator, and key strategist known as 'Le Rat' whose rational critique of European money, law, and hierarchy influenced European Enlightenment thought.