African Diaspora: Africans living outside of Africa (usually as slaves) who retained some aspects of their cultures
Akbar the Great: 1556-1605 remembered for his military successes and administrative achievements in the Mughal Empire
Amur River: this river valley was a contested frontier between northern China and eastern Russia until the settlement was arranged in Treaty of Nerchinsk
Ana Nzinga: ruler of Ndongo in south-central Africa that became an ally to Portugal to stop Portuguese slave raids and attacks from other Africans
Asante Empire: African kingdom on the Gold Coast that expanded rapidly after 1680
Ashkenazi Jews: Jews from central and eastern Europe
Astronomical Chart: a map of stars that improved maritime navigation
Atlantic Circuit: the network of trade routes connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas that underlay the Atlantic system
Aztec Empire: an empire in Mexico that was overthrown by Cortes in 1521
Barbary Pirates: those who plied the seas near North Africa along the Barbary Coast and captured other European slaves in the Mediterranean and then sold them to the sultan or other high-ranking officials
Bartolomé de Las Casas: (1474-1566) First bishop of Chiapas in southern Mexico who devoted most of his life to protecting Amerindian peoples from exploitation. His major achievement was the New Laws of 1542, which limited the ability of Spanish settlers to compel Amerindians to labor for them
Bartholomew Diaz: sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 into unknown waters then returned home for fear of a mutiny
Bight of Biafra: the slave trade expanded into this area in the 18th century. Slaves and tradable goods were collected at fairs in large numbers
Boyars: Russian landholding aristocrats
possessed less political power than their western European counterparts
Capitalism: the economic system of large financial institutions -banks, stock exchanges, investment companies-that first developed in early modern Europe. Commercial capitalism, the
trading system of the early modern economy, is often distinguished from industrial capitalism, the system based on machine production
Carolina Fur Trade: (1600's) English fur traders pushed into the interior to compete with French trading networks based in New Orleans and Mobile
Cartography: the art of mapmaking
Cash Crop: sellable crop that is grown and gathered for the market such as sugar and tobacco
Charter Companies: groups of private investors who paid an annual fee to France and England in
exchange for a monopoly over trade to the West Indies colonies
Chattel Slavery: a system where individuals were considered property to be bought and sold
Christopher Columbus: navigator who explored the Americas under the flag of Spain
City of Potosi: located in Bolivia it was one of the richest silver mining centers and most populous
cities in colonial Spanish America
Columbian Exchange: the exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages
Commercial Revolution: transformation to a trade-based economy using gold and silver
Conquistadors: Spanish soldiers who conquered parts of the Americas in the 16th century
Cossack: peoples of the Russian Empire who lived outside the farming villages, often as herders, mercenaries, or outlaws. They led the conquest of Siberia in the 16th and 17th centuries
Creole: West African languages mixed with European languages
Criollos: those of European ancestry who were born in the Americas
Dahomey: West African kingdom that became strong through its rulers' exploitation of the slave
trade and acquisition of firearms
Dutch East India Company: (1602) Amercantile company chartered by the Dutch to conduct trade
missions throughout the East Indies
Dutch West India Company: (1621-1794) Trading company chartered by the Dutch government to conduct its merchants' trade in the Americas and Africa
Engenhos: Portuguese sugar plantations called "engines" because of the amount of sugar they processed. The working conditions were horrible and the labor force suffered greatly
Encomienda: a grant of authority over a population of Amerindians in the Spanish colonies that provided the grant holder with a supply of cheap labor and periodic payments of goods by the Amerindians. It obliged the grant holder to Christianize the Amerindians
Ferdinand Magellan: Portuguese navigator who led the Spanish expedition of 1519-1522 that was the first to sail around the world
Francisco Pizarro: Spanish explorer who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru and founded the city of Lima
Galleons: Spanish trading ships that made round-trip sailing voyages once or twice per year across thePacificOcean
Glorious Revolution: also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James I of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William I of Orange- Nassau
Gloucester County Rebellion: first recorded slave revolt in what is now the United States took place in Virginia in 1663
The Great Northern War (1700-1721): war between the Russians and the Swedish. It was long and costly for both sides, but the Russians ended up gaining control of the Baltic Sea
Henry Hudson: Dutch explorer that sailed up the Hudson River in search of a northwest passage in 1609
Henry the Navigator: (1394-1460) Prince of Portugal who established an observatory and school of navigation at Sagres and directed voyages that spurred the growth of Portugal's colonial empire.
Hidalgos: lesser Spanish nobles of the New World
Hispaniola: name Columbus gave to the island that is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Indentured Servant: a migrant to British colonies in the Americas who paid for passage by agreeing to work for a set term ranging from four to seven years
Iroquois Confederacy: an alliance of five northeastern Amerindian peoples that made decisions on military and diplomatic issues through a council of representatives. Allied first with the Dutch and later with the English, the Confederacy dominated the area from western New England to the Great Lakes
Jacques Cartier: French explorer who sailed from the Atlantic Ocean into the St. Lawrence River and claimed part of Canada for France in 1535
Jamestown: English colony in Virginia that was England's first successful colony in the Americas
Japanese Trade Decrees: (1633-1639) series of decrees that were designed to keep Christianity from resurfacing, and it sharply curtailed trade with Europe. Europeans entering illegally faced the death penalty and Japanese were required to produce certificates from the Buddhist temples attesting to their loyalty and religious orthodoxy
Jesuit Missionaries: missionaries from the Society of Jesus, they tried and failed to bring Christianity to Japan, but were successful in reaching the elite and scholars in China
John Cabot: sailed for England in hopes of finding a northwest passage in 1497
Joint-Stock Companies: businesses that sold shares to individuals to raise money for its trading enterprises and to spread the risks and profits among many investors
Li Chengdong: during the Qing Dynasty he orchestrated three massacres in the city of Jaiding against Han who refused to assimilate to Qing practices
Manchus: Federation of Northeast Asian peoples who founded the Qing Empire
Manila: Spanish commercial center of the Philippines that attracted merchants
Manumission: a grant of legal freedom to an individual slave
more common in Brazil, Spanish, and French than in English colonies
Maratha Empire: Indian power that existed from 1674 to 1818 and ruled over a large area of the Indian subcontinent
credited with ending Mughal rule in India
Maritime Empires: empires such as Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France, and Holland that were based upon sea travel
Maroon Wars: enslaved peoples in the Caribbean and former Spanish territories in the Americas fought to gain freedom
Matteo Ricci: a Jesuit missionary who was an expert in the Chinese language and an accomplished scholar of the Confucian classics
McCartney Missions: (1792-1793) the unsuccessful attempt by the British Empire to establish diplomatic relations with the Qing Empire
Mercantilism: European government policies of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries designed to promote overseas trade between a country and its colonies and accumulate precious metals by requiring colonies to trade only with their motherland country
Mestizos: the term used by Spanish authorities to describe someone of mixed Amerindian and European descent.
Metacom's War: also called King Philip's war, English colonists used underhanded tactics to control Native American lands
Middle Passage: the part of the Atlantic Circuit involving the transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas
Ming Dynasty: (1368-1644) Empire based in China that Zhu Yuanzhang established after the overthrow of the Yuan Empire. The Ming emperor Yongle sponsored the building of the Forbidden City and the voyages of Zheng He. The later years of the Ming saw a slowdown in technological development and economic decline
Mit'a System: labor obligation in Peru that required a percentage of the adult male Amerindians to work for two to four months each year in mines, farms, or textile factories
Monopolies: granted certain merchants or the government itself the exclusive right to trade
Mulatto: the term used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies to describe someone of mixed African and European descent
New Amsterdam: Dutch settlement in the Hudson River Valley that is present day New York city
New France: French colony in North America along the St. Lawrence River
New Spain: colony established by Cortes after overthrowing the Aztecs in Mexico
Northwest Passage: a route through or around North America that would lead to East Asia and the trade there
Omani-European Rivalry: a trade rivalry between traders from Oman and European traders over the Indian Ocean Trade Route that fueled Columbus's search for a new route to India
Oyo: African empire that became rich by selling its captives to Europeans
Peninsulares: those who were born on the Iberian peninsula and stood at the top of the social pyramid in Latin America
Plantations: the labor intensive agricultural centers of the new world which were implemented by Spain, Britain, a n d Portugal
Plantocracy: in the West Indian colonies, the rich men who owned most of the slaves and most of the land, especially in the 18th century
Port of Luanda: founded by the Portuguese in 1575, became the center of the slave trade in Brazil
Price Revolution: the high rate of inflation in the 16th and 17th centuries
Primogeniture Laws: law in Europe that required estates to be passed down to the eldest son
Pueblo Revolt: revolt in 1860 of the Pueblo and Apache against the Spanish which temporarily drove the Spanish out of the area that is now New Mexico
Puritans: English Protestant dissenters who believed that God predestined souls to heaven or hell before birth. They founded Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629
Quebec: French trading post established in 1608
Royal African Company: a trading company chartered by the English government in 1672 to conduct its merchants' trade on the Atlantic coast of Africa
Russian Serfdom: in Russia they worked has artisans and laborers in factories they were essentially slaves. Its practice was not abolished until 1861
Samuel de Champlain: French navigator known as "The Father of New France" who founded New France and Quebec City
Sea Beggars: Dutch pirates that used gunpowder in their endeavors
Sephardic Jews: Jews who trace their heritage back to Spain
Smallpox: disease brought to the Americas by way of Europeans that was deadly to the native populations
Syncretism: the combining of different religious practices and beliefs
Time of Troubles: the time in the early 17th century when Swedish and Polish forces occupied Moscow
it marked the end of the Muscovite Rulers
Trading Post Empire: empire based on small outposts rather than control of large territories
Transatlantic Slave Trade: Africans captured and sold in the Americas as slaves
Treaty of Nerchinsk: a peace settlement between Russia and the Manchu Chinese empire in 1689 gave the lands of the upper Amur to China
Treaty of Tordesillas: 1494 treaty in which Spain and Portugal divided the Americas between them