AP World History

Vocabulary

Indian Ocean Commercial Network

Massive, interconnected web of commerce in premodern times between the lands that bordered the Indian Ocean; the network was transformed as Europeans entered it in the centuries following 1500

Trading Post Empire

Form of imperial dominance based on control of trade through military power rather than control of peoples or territories

Philippines

Archipelago of Pacific islands colonized by Spain in a relatively bloodless process that extended for the century or so after 1565, a process accompanied by a major effort of evangelization; the Spanish named them the Philippine islands in honor of King Philip ll of Spain

Manila

capital of the colonial Philippines, which by 1600 had become a flourishing and culturally diverse city; the site of violent clashes between the Spanish and Chinese residents

British East India Company

Private trading company chartered by the English government around 1600, mainly focused on India; it was given a monopoly on Indian Ocean trade, including right to make war and rule conquered peoples

Dutch East India Company

Private trading company chartered by the Netherlands around 1600, mainly focused on Indonesia; it was given a monopoly on Indian Ocean trade, including right to make war and rule conquered peoples

“Silver Drain”

Term used to describe siphoning of money from Europe to pay for luxury products of the East, process exacerbated by the fact that Europe had few trade goods that were desirable in Eastern markets; eventually, bulk of world’s silver supply made its way to China

Piece of Eight

Standard Spanish silver coin used by merchants in North America, Europe, India, Russia, West Africa, and Chia

Potosi

City that developed high in the Andes at site of the world’s largest silver mine and that became the largest city in the Americas, estimated population of 160,000

Fur Trade

Global Industry in which French, British, and Dutch traders exported fur from North America to Europe, using Native American labor and with great environmental cost to the Americas. Parallel commerce in furs operated under Russian control in Siberia

“Soft Gold”

Nickname used for animal furs, valued for their warmth and elite status

Transatlantic Slave System

Between 1500-1866, this trade in human beings took an estimated 12.5 million people from African societies, shipped them across the Atlantic in the middle passage, deposited 10.7 million of them in the Americas as enslaved people; 1.8 million people died during the voyages

African Diaspora

Global spread of African peoples via the slave trade

Maroon Societies/Palmares

Free communities of formerly enslaved people in remote regions of South America and the Caribbean; largest settlement was Palmares in Brazil, house 10,000 people

Signares

Small number of African women who were able to exercise power and accumulate wealth through marriage to European traders

Dahomey

West African kingdom in which the slave trade became a major state-controlled industry

Benin

West African kingdom whose strong kings for a time sharply limited engagement with the slave trade