4.3- 4.4 Columbian Exchange & Early Colonization

Columbian Exchange

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

Conquistadores

Spanish soldiers/explorers who conquered Indigenous empires in the Americas.

Cash crop

–A crop grown for sale/profit instead of for local use (ex: sugar, tobacco, cotton).

African Diaspora

–The spreading of African peoples worldwide, largely due to the Atlantic slave trade.

Creole

A mixed European and African-descended population in the Americas; also a language blend.

Indentured servitude

–A labor system where people worked for 4–7 years in exchange for passage to the Americas.

Chattel slavery

Enslaved people treated as property that could be bought, sold, or inherited.

British East India Company (EIC)

A powerful English joint-stock company that controlled trade in India and Southeast Asia.

Hernán Cortés

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire (1519–1521).

Francisco Pizarro

–Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire (1530s).

Treaty of Tordesillas

1494 agreement dividing the Americas between Spain (west) and Portugal (east).

French & Indian War

North American part of the Seven Years’ War; Britain vs France/Indigenous allies (1754–1763).

Hispaniola

Caribbean island where Columbus first established Spanish colonies; includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Encomienda system

Spanish forced-labor system where colonists were granted Indigenous labor in exchange for "protection."

Colonies

Territories controlled and settled by a foreign power.

The Middle Passage

Brutal transatlantic journey enslaved Africans were forced to endure to the Americas.