AP World History Unit 4 Vocab

Gold, Glory, and God

This was the motto of the age of exploration. The three G’s.

“Route to Asia”

Europeans were initially driven in exploration with this goal. Became an early focus of northern European exploration.

Lateen sail

triangular sail that made it possible to sail against the wind; used in the Indian Ocean trade and spread to Europe

Prince 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.

Trading post empire

Form of imperial dominance based on control of trade rather than on control of subject peoples.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who discovered the New World in the service of Spain while looking for a route to India (1451-1506)

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

Cash crops

crops, such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton, raised in large quantities in order to be sold for profit

Smallpox

A highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever, weakness, and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs; responsible for killing Native Americans.

Isolationism

a policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries. Adopted by China and Japan in response to European exploration.

Jesuits

Also known as the Society of Jesus; founded by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) as a teaching and missionary order to resist the spread of Protestantism.

Tokugawa Japan

period of internal peace (1600-1850) when shoguns ruled the country and adopted the closed country policy

Closed Country policy

Japan's policy of banning foreign missionaries and traders to Japan. The only port where trade could commence was Nagasaki, where Chinese and Dutch merchants were the only ones allowed to trade. This allowed Japan to have the favorable balance of trade.

Maritime empire

an empire composed of portions of land separated by water

Hernan Cortes

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico (1485-1547)

Coerced labor

forced labor systems (slavery, indentured servitude, debt peonage)

Chattel slavery

A system of bondage in which a slave has the legal status of property and so can be bought and sold like property.

encomienda system

A system whereby the Spanish crown granted the conquerors the right to forcibly employ groups of Indians; it was a disguised form of slavery.

Plantation economy

economic system stretching between the Chesapeake Bay and Brazil that produced crops, especially sugar, cotton, and tobacco, using slave labor on large estates