Exploration & Isolation

God

The motive for European explorers to spread the Christian religion to non-Christian people around the world.

Glory

The motive for explorers and kings to become famous and bring honor to their home country.

Gold

The motive to get rich by buying Asian spices and luxury goods directly without paying middleman fees.

Caravel

A sturdy European ship built in the 1400s with triangular sails that let it sail into the wind.

Astrolabe

A brass tool used to measure star height to figure out a ship's distance north or south of the equator (latitude).

Magnetic Compass

A tool invented in China that uses a magnetic needle to show sailors which direction they are traveling.

Sextant

A tool that replaced the astrolabe in the mid-1700s to measure star heights even more accurately.

Prince Henry the Navigator

A Portuguese prince who started a navigation school in 1419 and paid for many ocean trips down Africa's coast.

Bartolomeu Dias

A Portuguese explorer who became the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa in 1488.

Vasco da Gama

A Portuguese explorer who sailed around Africa to reach India in 1498, securing a direct sea trade route to Asia.

Christopher Columbus

An Italian sailor paid by Spain who sailed west in 1492 trying to find Asia, but landed in the Caribbean instead.

Ferdinand Magellan

A Spanish explorer whose 1519 expedition reached the Philippines, allowing Spain to claim the islands.

Hernando Cortés

A Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztec Empire in Mexico to claim land and gold for Spain.

Francisco Pizarro

A Spanish conquistador who defeated the Inca Empire in South America to claim land and silver for Spain.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement using an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean to split newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal.

Dutch East India Company

A powerful trading company set up by the Netherlands that could print money, make treaties, and raise its own army.

Hongwu

A poor farmer's son who led an army to kick the Mongols out of China in 1368 and became the first Ming emperor.

Yonglo

A Ming emperor who moved the capital to Beijing, built the Forbidden City, and sent Zheng He on sea voyages.

Zheng He

A Chinese Muslim admiral who led 7 huge sea voyages across Asia and Africa between 1405 and 1433 to show off China's power.

Forbidden City

A giant palace complex in Beijing built with high red walls and a moat to keep regular citizens and foreigners out.

Emperor Qian-long

A Qing emperor who expanded China to its largest size and wrote a letter telling the King of England that China did not need British goods.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

A military leader (shogun) who unified Japan in 1600, moved the capital to Edo (Tokyo), and controlled local lords.

Closed Country Policy (Sakoku)

A policy starting in 1639 that sealed Japan's borders for over 200 years, stopping citizens from leaving and allowing trade at only one port.

Kabuki

A traditional Japanese style of theater using bright makeup, colorful costumes, and exaggerated drama.

Triangular Trade

A 3-way trade route: European goods to Africa, enslaved Africans to the Americas, and raw crops back to Europe.

Middle Passage

The brutal ocean voyage across the Atlantic that brought enslaved Africans to the Americas.

Mercantilism

The belief that a country's power depends on how much gold and silver it owns, leading nations to conquer colonies.

Capitalism

An economic system where private individuals and businesses, not the government, own property and invest money to make profits.

Joint-Stock Company

A business where many investors pool their money together to share the costs, risks, and profits of trade trips.

Favorable Balance of Trade

Selling (exporting) more goods to other countries than you buy (importing) from them.

Columbian Exchange

The global movement of plants, animals, foods, diseases, and people between the Old World and New World after 1492.

New World to Old World Items

Things native to the Americas sent to Europe, Africa, and Asia: Potatoes, corn, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, cocoa, tobacco, and turkeys.

Old World to New World Items

Things brought from Europe, Africa, and Asia to the Americas: Horses, cows, pigs, wheat, rice, sugarcane, coffee, smallpox, and measles.