Voyages of Portugal and Spain and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Flashcards covering the age of Portuguese and Spanish exploration, key explorers, the impact of Columbus, and the mechanics and results of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Prince Henry (navigator)

A Portuguese leader who was one of the first strongly interested in exploration, hoping to acquire gold and convert Muslims in Africa.

Azores

Islands in the Atlantic Ocean claimed for Portugal by Prince Henry by $1418$.

Bartholomew Dias

Portuguese explorer who in $1488$ sailed around the southern tip of Africa, which became known as the Cape of Good hope.

Cape of Good hope

The southern tip of Africa that opened the way for a trade route through the Indian Ocean to Asia.

Vasco De Gama

An explorer who led $4$ ships around the Cape of Good hope to the spice port of Calicut in India, selling acquired spices at an enormous profit.

Mombasa and Malindi

East African coastal hubs of international trade that were attacked and taken over by the Portuguese from the Arabs.

East Indies

A group of islands in Southeast Asia (now part of Indonesia) that Columbus aimed to reach by sailing westward.

Columbus's 1492 Voyage

A journey with $3$ ships—the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria—that spent several months sailing around the Caribbean islands.

Impact of Columbus's Voyages

The movement of plants, animals, and diseases between hemispheres, changing European diets (potatoes, corn, etc.) and affecting Native American life with horses and cattle.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A $1494$ agreement dividing the non-European world into two zones: Spain had rights west of the line, and Portugal had rights east of the line.

Vasco Nunes De Balboa

A Spanish adventurer who, with the help of local Indians, trekked through Panama in $1513$ to find the Pacific ocean.

Ferdinand Magellan

The explorer who set out from Spain with $5$ ships to find a way to the Pacific; only one ship, the Victoria, returned home.

Goa

A territory seized by the Portuguese in $1510$ that served as their major military and commercial base.

Malacca

An East Indies port taken by the Portuguese in $1511$ after killing the Muslim inhabitants.

Portuguese Empire Weaknesses

Factors including overextension, population drain from shipwrecks and reduced gains, and the Spanish occupation from $1580$ to $1640$.

Plantations

Large estates run by an owner where slave labor was utilized to clear land and grow crops like sugar and tobacco.

Asante Kingdom

A state in present-day Ghana united by Osei Tutu that managed royal monopolies on gold mining and the slave trade.

Osei Tutu

The leader who won control of Kumasi and united the Asante Kingdom, trading gold and slaves for European firearms.

Monopoly

The exclusive control of a business or industry.

Triangular Trade

A three-legged international trade network linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Middle Passage

The second leg of the triangular trade where enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas in exchange for sugar, molasses, and plantation products.

Abolition in Britain

The official end of slavery in Britain, which occurred in $1833$.

Thirteenth Amendment

The amendment ratified in $1865$ that abolished slavery in the U.S. after the Civil War.

Slavery Statistics

Estimated $11\,\text{million}$ enslaved Africans were forcibly carried to the Americas, with another $2\,\text{million}$ dying under the brutal conditions of the middle passage.

Prosperous Trade Cities

European cities like Nantes and Bristol, and American towns like Salem and New Port, that grew into thriving cities due to triangular trade.