Module 16 vocab

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from a lecture on the era of Exploration and Colonization.

Prince Henry

was a Portuguese royal known as the "Navigator" who played a crucial role in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and the Age of Discoveries by sponsoring expeditions along the West African coast.

Vasco da Gama

Portuguese explorer who reached Calicut, India in 1498, establishing a direct sea route.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Treaty signed by Spain and Portugal dividing newly discovered lands.

Line of Demarcation

The boundary established by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 that divided the New World between Spain and Portugal, granting Spain rights to the west and Portugal to the east.

Zheng He

Chinese Muslim admiral who led seven voyages of exploration during the Ming Dynasty.

Christopher Columbus

Italian sea captain who sailed west across the Atlantic in search of an alternate trade route to Asia and its riches.

Hernando Cortés

Spaniard who landed on the shores of Mexico in 1519 and marched inland, looking to claim new lands for Spain.

conquistador

The Spanish explorers who followed Cortés.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who marched a small force into South America in 1532 and conquered the Incan Empire.

Atahualpa

Incan ruler who was kidnapped by Pizarro.

encomienda

A system where Native Americans farmed, ranched, or mined for Spanish landlords.

French and Indian War

Conflicts between the British and French on the North American continent that became part of a larger conflict known as the Seven Years’ War.

Pilgrims

English settlers who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620 seeking religious freedom.

Atlantic slave trade

The buying and selling of Africans for work in the Americas.

indentured servitude

A system of labor by which a person could work to pay off the cost of coming to the Americas.

triangular trade

A transatlantic trading network where Europeans transported manufactured goods to the west coast of Africa, where traders exchanged these goods for captured Africans.

Middle Passage

The voyage that brought captured Africans to the West Indies and later to North and South America; the middle leg of the transatlantic trade triangle.

Columbian Exchange

The global transfer of foods, plants, and animals during the colonization of the Americas.

capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership and the investment of resources, such as money, for profit.

joint-stock company

A partnership of investors who bought shares of stock in the company.

mercantilism

An economic policy in which a country’s power mainly depended on its wealth.

Puritans

A group of English Protestants who sought to purify the Church of England of its practices, emphasizing simplicity in worship and a strict moral code.