European Exploration

The Columbian Exchange

Cultural and biological exchanges between the Old and New world

Age of exploration

Time when Europeans began exploring the world by sea (motivated by Gold, Glory, God)

Colonialism

policy of acquiring political control over another country, occupying it with other settlements, exploiting it economically

Prince Henry the Navigator

Portuguese prince and explorer; founded navigational school and sponsored many voyages

Caravel

small, fast, and sturdy Spanish or Portuguese sailing vessel

Manoeuvrable

three-masted ship using rudder (invented in China) and lateen sails

Portuguese navigational tools

Combined tools from abroad (compass, astrolabe) with their own innovations (caravel, maneuverable)

Asian markets

Portuguese goal was to search for a sea route to these places that were free from Muslim influence

Cape of Good Hope

Southern tip of the African continent; Portuguese were initially interested in gold in West Africa —> shifted focus to slaves

Portuguese conflict with the Dutch

Protestant-Catholic rivalry in Europe —> Dutch attempted to seize Portuguese trade ports

Brazil

Portugal established presence in Americas by colonizing this area, supplying sugar, coffee, wood, and other crops/resources

Bartolomeu Dias

First to reach the cape of good hope and also sail around the tip of Africa

Ferdinand Magellan

First to circumnavigate the globe and demonstrate the vastness of the Earth.

Fernando and Isabel

Marriage united Spanish kingdoms; sponsored voyages of Christopher Columbus seeking a direct route to Asia 

Spanish Inquisition

Mission to seek out “false” converts; expulsion of all non-Christians who refused to convert to Catholicism

Reconquista

“Reconquest” of the lands captured by Muslims; completed by capturing Granada

Christopher Columbus

Explorer seeking commercial success; acquired gold, silver, new commodities, and introduced cash crops to Americas to be grown and exported to Europe

Conquistador

Conqueror; leader in Spanish conquests of Americas

Henan Cortes

Conquistador who forced conversion to Christianity and looked for gold; conquered Aztecs by killing Moctezuma II and seizing Tenochtitlan

Francisco Pizarro

Conquered the Incas; murdered Incan emperor Atahualpa when he rejected Christianity

Native Americans

Used to provide necessary labor in the Americas; assimilated into Spanish society, with conversion into Catholic faith

Encomienda system

System justifying colonists’ demand for free labor (protection = labor); would occur in Haciendas (landed estates)

Casa System

Racial caste system; natives on the bottom, Europeans on the top, mixed races in the middle

Slaves in Spain

were replaced by Natives; economy expanded too quickly for Native American labor to keep up though

Smallpox

diseases unintentionally introduced by the Spanish killed huge number of Native Americans

Global Silver Trade

Europeans extracted silver from the Americas —> provided Europeans with means to buy Asian luxury and goods & fund Wars of Religion

Jamestown

First permanent English colony

Tobacco

Raised in Jamestown as English cash crop

Indentured Servants

Laborers who contracted their service for a set number of years in exchange for passage to America and freedom after their term —> eventually shifted to African slave labor

Commercial farms

Large agricultural operations focused on growing cash crops for sale

English motives

Challenging the Spanish domination of the New World and transporting the growing poorer classes to solve population pressures

Joint-stock companies

Companies with shared ownership for less risk; given regional monopolies over trade to ensure profits

Mercantilism

Economic theory where the key was maximizing exports and minimizing imports

British East India Company

A joint-stock company established in 1600 to trade with the East Indies, which significantly influenced British colonial trade and policies in Asia.