Age of Exploration and Colonization Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards directly derived from lecture notes covering key historical figures, trade routes, systems, and concepts of exploration and colonization.

Colonization

The process where a nation establishes physical control over a foreign territory and sends its own people to settle there.

Conquistador

A Spanish soldier and explorer who led military expeditions in the Americas and captured land for Spain.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of plants, animals and diseases between the Americas and Europe,Asia, and Africa.

Northwest Passage

A nonexistent path throughout North America that early explorers searched for what would allow ships to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Line of Demarcation

Boundary between Spanish and Portuguese territories in the New world.

Caravels

Ships that used triangular sails to sail against the wind, and had rudders to improve steering.

Mercantilism

An economic system used by European empires from the 16th to 18th centuries to maximize a nation's wealth through strict government control of trade.

Imports

Goods and services purchased by residents, businesses or governments of one country from producers in another country.

Exports

Any good or service produced within one country and shipped or sold to a buyer in another country.

Raw Materials

An unprocessed natural resource

Cash Crop

A great deal of difficult work to grow and harvest.

Indentured Servitude

A colonist who received free passage to North America in exchange for working without pay for a certain number of years.

Slavery

A legal and economic system where one human being is owned by another as property.

Middle Passage

A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies.

Triangular Trade

Trading networks in which goods and slaves moved among England,the American colonies, and Africa.

African Diaspora

The population of displaced Africans and their descendants around the world.

Leif Erikson

The son of Erik the Red, shared his father’s love of adventure.

Christopher Columbus

A sailor from Genoa, Italy.

John Cabot

Italian sailor.

Ferdinand Magellan

A Portuguese navigator, set out with a Spanish fleet to sail down the east coast of South America.

Bartolomé de las Casas

Said that the Spanish should try to convert Native Americans to Christianity by showing them love, gentleness, and kindness.

Hernán Cortés

Left Cuba to sail to present-day Mexico in 1519.

Moctezuma II

Ruled the Aztec empire.

Francisco Pizzaro

Heard rumors of the Inca cities in the Andes of South America.

Samuel de Champlain

Gave France a claim to this region