1.2 vocab

MUSSER

Mercantilism

A state-assisted trade and manufacturing system. Mercantilism allowed for the creation and maintaining of the market in a time where England flourished (Golden age) after the Protestant reformation.

Joint-stock company

An organized manner for conducting international trade that aided in colonization through government monopolies, shared profits, and managed risks. Joint-stock companies generated capital that could be used for colonization of the Americas.

Privateer

People who were conducting state-sponsored piracy explorations. They earned profit for themselves and the English crown, and it was said that the Crown had transformed ‘crime into politics’

Northwest passage

A rumored waterway passage that connected North America and Asia, in which French explorers sought. This passage would be beneficial to still access the benefits of Asias wealth, while also exploiting the Americas and its resources.

Columbian exchange

an initial introduction of goods, diseases, religion, and ideas from the Old World to the New World, and vice-versa. Diseases from (dirty) Europeans, such as smallpox, murdered a vast majority of the natives. On the contrary, crops such as maize and the potato allowed for Europeans to experience a huge population boom.

Roanoke

a 16th century colony established by 150 English men, led by John White. The colony is assumed to have fell due to a shortage of food, and whe John White returned to the colony after leaving in search of supplies, he found the area abandoned with the word ‘Croatoan’ carved onto a tree.

Métis

a word used for children who were conceived by the French men, who were in Quebec and focused on the fur trade, and the Native women who had fostered a good relationship with the French. The marriage of the French men and Native women aided in lowering tensions between colonizers and the colonized.