FABRIC OF A NATION: Module 1-2 Portugal and Spain Expand Their Reach - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and people related to European exploration and the early Atlantic world from the notes.

Renaissance

The cultural and intellectual flowering that began in fifteenth-century Italy; spurred efforts to find new trade routes and to explore the world; contributed advances in astronomy, shipbuilding, mapmaking, and navigation.

Caravel

A small and swift sailing ship invented by the Portuguese during the fifteenth century.

Astrolabe

A navigation tool invented by Greek astronomers and sailors for navigation and astrological problems.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Portuguese prince who encouraged exploration, gathered information from Arab astronomers, geographers, mapmakers, and craftsmen, and recruited Italian cartographers, navigators, and Portuguese scholars and sailors.

Inquisition

A Spanish church tribunal launched by Isabella and Ferdinand to enforce Catholic orthodoxy.

San Salvador

The island Columbus landed on in 1492 and named San Salvador.

Indians

The natives Columbus encountered in the Caribbean, whom he respectfully and mistakenly called Indians.

Vinland

The Norse land explored near the Gulf of St. Lawrence by Leif Erikson (as described in the Norse exploration).

Erik the Red

Scandinavian seafarer who reached Greenland in the late tenth century.

Leif Erikson

Son of Erik the Red; landed near the present-day Gulf of St. Lawrence (Vinland).

Columbus 1492 voyage

Columbus’s voyage to find a westward route to the Indies; set sail in 1492, landed on San Salvador, and returned with gold while subjugating and enslaving some Indigenous peoples.

Hispaniola

The island Columbus later explored after San Salvador.

Silk Road

An overland trade route from Asia; featured on the fifteenth-century trade maps.

Major Trades in West Africa

Trade goods such as grains, ivory, gold, and enslaved people along West Africa’s coast.

Gold mines (Spanish mining areas)

Locations in the Americas where Spain mined gold.

Silver mines

Locations in the Americas where Spain mined silver.

Cortés

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire (1519–1521).

Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Incan Empire (1524–1535).

Aztec Empire

Major Indigenous empire in central Mexico conquered by Cortés.

Mayan Empire

Indigenous civilization in Mesoamerica (Maya) mentioned in the context of pre-Columbian empires.

Incan Empire

Indigenous empire in the Andes conquered by Pizarro.

Cape of Good Hope

The southern tip of Africa, around which the Portuguese expanded routes to the Indian Ocean.