Global Interactions (1450 - 1750) Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical concepts, labor systems, and political institutions from the Global Interactions (1450-1750) lecture notes.

Caravel

A ship developed during the Age of Exploration that was smaller than a Chinese junk, allowing navigation of shallow coastal areas and rivers, and featuring two sets of sails (square for speed and lateen for maneuverability) as well as cannons.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Spain and Portugal that established an imaginary line dividing new lands, directing Spanish exploration toward the Americas and Portuguese efforts toward Africa and the Indian Ocean.

Peninsulares

European-born settlers in Spanish and Portuguese Latin American colonies who occupied the highest political, military, and economic administrative positions.

Creoles

Children of Spanish and Portuguese settlers born in the New World who gradually gained social, political, and economic power.

Castas

Middle-level social groups in colonial Latin America consisting of mestizos (individuals of mixed European and Amerindian descent) and mulattoes (individuals of mixed European and African descent).

Indentured Servitude

A labor system used in North American middle colonies where settlers bound themselves by contract to work for four to seven years in exchange for passage, lodging, food, and eventually tools, clothing, and land.

Columbian Exchange

The global diffusion of plants, animals, human populations, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds following sustained contact between the two hemispheres.

Great Circuit

A clockwise network of sea routes across the Atlantic connecting Europe (manufactured goods, textiles, guns), Africa (slaves via the Middle Passage), and the Americas (sugar, tobacco, silver, gold).

Middle Passage

The brutal four-to-ten-week trans-Atlantic voyage transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas in densely packed ship holds.

Devshirme

An Ottoman recruitment system requiring Christian boys to become enslaved subjects of the sultan, who were equipped with guns and heavy artillery and trained to become elite soldiers.

Janissaries

An elite Ottoman infantry unit formed through the devshirme system that mastered firearms and heavy artillery, gaining significant political and economic influence.

Vizier

The head of imperial administration in the Ottoman Empire responsible for the day-to-day work of governing.

Qizilbash

Safavid cavalrymen named for their distinctive red turbans, armed with swords and knives, who fought against Ottoman artillery at the Battle of Chaldiran.

Hidden Imam

In Twelver Shi'ism, the 12th descendant of Ali who disappeared as a child and is considered the true spiritual heir of Islam.

Divine Faith

A syncretic religion developed by Mughal Emperor Akbar combining Muslim, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Christian, and Sikh beliefs to unify his empire.

Queue

A hairstyle forced upon Han Chinese men by the Manchu Qing Dynasty requiring them to shave the front of their heads and braid the back as a sign of submission.

Kowtow

A Qing Dynasty court ritual of deep submission consisting of three separate kneelings performed before the emperor.

Cossacks

Russian peasant settlers, often former serfs, recruited by Ivan III to settle newly acquired frontier lands in exchange for freedom.

Boyars

Russian landholding nobles who owned land worked by serfs and frequently resisted central political control by the tsars.

Table of Ranks

A merit-based bureaucratic system created by Peter the Great that selected government officials based on service and competence rather than aristocratic noble titles.

Tsar Cannon

A 40-ton bronze cannon ordered cast by the Emperor of Russia in 1586 for the defense of the Moscow Kremlin that was never actually fired.

Alternate Attendance

A Tokugawa Shogunate policy requiring daimyos to reside at the shogun's court in Edo every other year to maintain control over their wealth and power base.

Kabuki

A form of Japanese urban theater involving singing, dancing, elaborate staging, and stories frequently set in urban 'floating worlds'.

Factories (African Coast)

Fortified European trading posts established along the African coast where local African merchants brought goods and captives for trade.

Humanism

An Italian Renaissance intellectual movement rooted in classical Greek culture that emphasized individual human accomplishments, potential, and secular subjects.

Council of Trent

A series of Church meetings held periodically during the Catholic Reformation to define Church doctrine, ban the sale of indulgences, and counter Protestant movements.

Deism

A philosophical view emerging from the Scientific Revolution that conceptualized God as a clockmaker who created the universe and set it in motion under natural laws.

Social Contract

An Enlightenment political concept stating that government authority and laws are legitimate only through the consent of the governed.

Mercantilism

An economic policy practiced by European nations wherein governments strictly regulated colonial trade and production to enrich the mother country.

Putting-Out System

An early capitalist production method that bypassed urban guild restrictions by delivering raw materials directly to rural workers to produce finished goods.