Age of Exploration Vocabulary

Prince Henry

Son of Portugal’s king who established a navigation school in Portugal.

Bartolomeu Dias

Portuguese explorer who proved that a sea route around Africa to Indias was possible.

Vasco da Gama

Portuguese navigator who explored the east African coast and crossed the Indian Ocean to India and brought back Asian spices and knowledge of sea routes and Indian Ocean ports to Portugal

Treaty of Tordesillas

treaty between Portugal and Spain which established a boundary, called the Line of Demarcation, that passed vertically through the Atlantic Ocean and Brazil.

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company operated as a joint-stock company , which means that it sold shares of stocks to investors who became partners in the venture. Netherlands formed an East India Company to regulate their trade in the region.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who claimed land in the Americas for Spain.

colony

an area under control of another country

Hernan Cortes

one of the most famous conquistadors who launched an invasion of modern-day Mexico in 1519 with about 500 men

conquistador

a Spanish explorer who conquered lands in the Americas

Francisco Pizarro

conquistador who set off for South America and the gold and silver of the Inca Empire

Atahualpa

newly appointed Inca emperor in 1532 who got robbed and killed by Francisco Pizarro

mestizo

person of mixed Spanish and Native ancestry

encomienda

a grant that allowed owners to force Native Americans to labor for the Spanish

New France

France’s colonial empire in North America based in Quebec

Jamestown

England’s first permanent settlement in the Americas

Pilgrims

group of people who were seeking religious freedom from England.

Puritans

English Protestant who regarded the Reformation of the Church of England as incomplete

New Netherland

colony established by the Dutch West India Company

French and Indian War

war between France and England over territory. England won and France lost most of its colonies.

Metacom

sachem to the Wampanoag people and the second son of the sachem Massasoit

Atlantic Slave Trade

trade were hundreds of thousands of captive Africans crossed the Atlantic Ocean on sailing ships every year

indentured servants

people who pledged to work for four to seven years in exchange for ocean passage and living costs

triangular trade

network which connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas from the 1500s through the 1800s

Middle Passage

part of the triangular trade route that took enslaved West Africans to the Americas, where they were traded for products