Economics and Social Systems of Colonization + Colonies

Bank of Amsterdam

Dutch Bank established in the 17th Century, known to be the first modern central bank.

Joint Stock Companies

Large, investor-backed companies that sponsored European exploration and colonization in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; precursors to modern corporations; a famous example is the British East India Company.

Mercantilism

an economic practice by which governments used their economies to augment state power at the expense of other countries.

Primogeniture Laws

In the Middle Ages was the dominant law of inheritance, in which land, title, and wealth went entirely to the firstborn son. If there were no male descendants, inheritance was split among any living daughters.

Adam Smith

18th-century Scottish economist, philosopher, and author who is considered the father of modern economics. Smith argued against mercantilism and was a major proponent of laissez-faire economic policies.

Capitalism

An economic system based on open competition in a free market, in which individuals and companies own the means of production and operate for profit.

Monopoly

The exclusive control of a commodity, market or means of production

The Wealth of Nations

Book written by Adam Smith in 1776. In it Smith describes the outline for how a nation becomes wealthy and how the division of labor falls within a wealthy vs. non-wealthy society.

Dutch East India Company

Trading company founded in the Dutch Republic in 1602 to protect that state's trade in the Indian Ocean and to assist in the Dutch war of independence from Spain.

British East India Company

was a joint-stock company which was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600, with the intention of exploring and trading with India and the surrounding areas.

Encomedia System

Granted colonists the right to demand labor of native peoples in the mines and fields. The laborers were worked hard and punished severely.

Potosi

City that developed high in the Andes at the site of the world's largest silver mine and that became the largest city in the Americas

Triangular Trade

A three way system of trade during 1600-1800s Africa sent slaves to America, America sent Raw Materials to Europe, and Europe sent Guns and Rum to Africa

cash crop

a crop produced for its commercial value rather than for use by the grower.

Tobacco

A plant integral to the indigenous societies of the Americas when smoked, releases 'Feels good' chemicals in the brain.

Indentured Servitude

A form of labor where an individual is under contract to work without a salary to repay an indenture or loan within a certain timeframe.

Commercial Revolution

A period of European economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism which lasted from approximately the 16th century until the early 18th century. It was succeeded in the mid-18th century by the Industrial Revolution.

Colony

A territory completely controlled by another

Hispaniola

Originally inhabited by the Taíno people, it was the first island Columbus landed on when he voyaged across the Atlantic.

Jamestown

The first settlement founded in East Virginia was named -------- in honor of Elizabeth's successor, James I.

Aztec Empire

Major state that developed in what is now Mexico in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

Incan Empire

a Mesoamerican civilization in the Andes Mountains in South America that by the end of the 1400s was the largest empire in the Americas including much of what is now Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile; conquered by Pizarro

New Spain

After the defeat of the Aztecs, it was a Spanish colony. Its capital was Mexico City.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Its population was about 150,000 on the eve of Spanish conquest. Mexico City was constructed on its ruins.

Mexico City

Capital of New Spain; built on ruins of Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

Lima

Founded after Pizarro conquered the incan empire

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.

Bartolome de Las Casas

Early Spanish historian and Dominican missionary who was the first to expose the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for the abolition of slavery there.

Viceroys

Representatives of the Spanish monarch in Spain's colonial empire ,were given control of large areas and had almost unlimited power.

Viceroyalties

Major divisions of Spanish New World colonies headed by direct representatives of the king; one was based in Lima, the other in Mexico City.

Audiencias

Courts appointed by the king who reviewed the administration of viceroys serving Spanish colonies in America.

Haciendas

Large Spanish colonial estates usually owned by wealthy families but worked by many peasants

Rio de Janeiro

Brazilian port; close to mines of Minas Gerais; importance grew with gold strikes; became colonial capital in 1763.

New Amsterdam

Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. This later became "New York City"

Manila

Capital of the Spanish Philippines and a major multicultural trade city that already had a population of more than 40,000 by 1600.

Sociedad de castas

American social system based on racial origins; Europeans or whites at top, black slaves or Native Americans at bottom, mixed races in middle.

Middle Passage

The route in between the western ports of Africa to the Caribbean and southern U.S. that carried the slave trade,lasted roughly 80 days on ships ranging from small schooners to massive, purpose-built "slave ships

Atlanic Slave Trade

the buying, transporting, and selling of Africans for work in the Americas

Creoles

Descendents of Spanish-born but born in Latin America; resented inferior social, political, economic status.

Peninsulares

Spanish settlers who had been born in Spain and came to settle in Spanish America, highest social class.

Castas

a middle-level status between Europeans at the top; and Amerindians and blacks at the bottom

Mesitizos

the offsprings between Europeans and native American Indians. This intermarriage had become authorized in 1501 by Spanish rulers.

Mulattoes

Term commonly used for people of mixed African and European blood.

Zambos

According to Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, these are people of mixed Native American and African descent. Lowest tier of social class in colonial America.

African Diaspora

The separation of Africans from their homeland through centuries of forced removal to serve as slaves in the Americas and elsewhere.