AP Euro Chapter 14 Vocab/Concepts

Age of Exploration

The time period in which European powers discovered the New World and routes to India, leading to new capitalistic systems and societies

Lateen sails

Triangle-shaped adjustable sails

Rudder

A steering device developed to counteract tipping from lateen sails

Astrolabe

Tool determining latitude and longitude based on the stars (later becomes sextant)

Ptolemy’s maps

Maps that proved the earth was round (influnced Christopher Columbus)

2 types of travel literature

Real accounts and “fantastic lands”

Travels of John Mandeville

A book written about the conditions in the New World, filled with dangerous creatures, riches, and adventure

The 3 Gs

Motivations for traveling the New World

• God: aka Religious Zeal and wanting to spread Christianity

• Glory: aka Fantastic Lands and the want for adventure and fame

• Gold: aka Economic Motives and the want for money

Portugal

• First to find India, based on the tale of John the Apostle

• Wanted to fight and escape the southern Ottomans

• Looked for spices there to get rich

Bartholomeu Dias

A Portugese sailor who rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 but had to return due to threat of mutiny (trip took too long)

Vasco de Gama

Sails to India in 1498 and finds spices, but not the Christians from the tale of Thomas the Apostle

Admiral Alfonso de Albuquerque

Defeats Indian and Muslim forces for Portugal, taking over India (also kills many Arabs)

Spain

• Motivated by the 3 Gs

• Unified in 1492 by Queen Isabella I

• Sent Christopher Columbus to find India faster than the Portugese

• Sent conquistadors to take over Latin America

Christopher Columbus

• Lived 1451-1506

• Believed the earth was round after seeing Ptolemy’s maps

• Thought he could get to India much faster than the Portugese and convinced Queen Isabella of Spain

• Italian, but sailed for Spain (Italy was warring or did not agree with his beliefs)

• Santa María. Niña, and Pinta were his ships (Santa María was flagship)

• Believed he found India until he died (wanted to be remembered in history)

Pedro Cabral

Portugese sailor who discovered South America

Ferdinand Magellan

A Portugese-born Spanish sailor who went through the Strait named after him in Argentina and ended up in the Philippines (was killed by natives)

Vasco Nuñez de Balboa

A Spanish sailor who went through Panama and found the Pacific

Amerigo Vespucci

An Italian man who described the New World, inspirinjg the name “America”

Lifespans of ancient Latin American civilizations

• Maya: 300-800 CE

• Aztec: 1350-1521 CE

• Inca: 1440-1572 CE

Spanish conquest of the Aztecs

• Led by Hernán Cortés

• Aztecs led by Moctezuma, often called Montezuma

• Spanish land in Veracruz

• They create alliances with anti-Aztec natives

• Spanish are accepted but later ransom Moctezuma'

• Aztecs die of smallpox

Spanish conquest of the Incas

• Led by Francisco Pizarro

• Incan Emperor dies of smallpox, leaving two brothers that start civil war

Encomienda system

• Established by Queen Isabella I in 1503

• People are treated as Spanish citizens

• Does not actually work as landowners starve the natives

Anton Montecino

A Dominican friar who describes the horrible conditions in Latin America created by Spanish landowners, leading to the Viceroy system

Viceroy system

The system following the Encomienda system in 1535, where mayors and other leaders are sent to govern the natives (if they mess up then they lose their jobs)

Treaty of Tordesillas

A treaty that divided Latin America into Spanish and Portugese lands in 1494

Causes of the slave trade

• New crops were discovered in the New World were valuable and profitable

• A lack of workers to farm crops in Latin America due to starvation and disease

Triangular trade

• The New World: raw materials

• Africa: slave labor (tribes fight and sell prisoners of war, gaining guns)

• Europe: finished goods

Middle Passage

The route slaves took from Africa to the New World

• People were packed in

• An estimated 10 million people were taken

• As many as 10% died

The Dutch

• Take over Portugese forts in Africa and Indonesia

• Create Dutch East India Trading Company and get rich from spice trade

French and English in India

• Both fight, but England is more focused and gains control

• Sir Robert Clive defeats Indian forces for England

• Victory in Seven-Years War (1756-1763) secures British control

European strategy in Asia

Europeans act like Vikings, having armies at the ready but trading if fighting is too costly

Mughal Empire

An empire of rulers from Asia that take over India

Ming Dynasty

• Lasted 1369-1644

• Controlled Mongolia, Vietnam, and parts of South Asia at their peak (when Europeans arrived)

• Die from epidemic similar to Black Plague

• Peasant revolt led by Li Zicheng in Beijing finishes them off

• Li Zicheng then sets up Qing Dynasty

Japan

• Period of chaos before Tokugawa Ieyasu

• Leyasu establishes longest-lasting shogunate in 1603

• Leyasu intially works with Portugese but does not allow mixing of Christianity and government (decides to persecute Christians)

West Indies

Used for crop export by slave labor (led to successful revolt in 1793)

John Cabot

An Venetian sailor who sailed for England and explored the New World for them

English in North America

• Take over Dutch settlemement in New York

• Set up colony of Jamestown in 1607

• Colony in Massachusetts becomes large and establishes English power

• Colonies were run by mercantilism

• Gain control of Canada after Seven-Years War

French in North America

• Claim Canada in 1534 but settle there in 1608

• Settle in Quebec and it acts as a trading post

Asiento

Right of the English to ship 4,500 slaves to Latin America

Effects of the Age of Exploration

• Native Americans died but had a more advanced society

• Missionaries built missions in the Americas and converted many Chinese to Christianity

• African tribes fight and are enslaved

• Modern Latin American society emerged

• Columbian Exchange occurs

• Economy changes drastically and commercial capitalism develops

• Many people die in the New World, leaving wives with money/land

• Eurocentric ideology develops

European economy during the Age of Exploration

• Prices for new products are sky-high but eventually begin to drop

• Economy is diversified

• Inflation occurs as more gold is circulated (average worker ends up just paying more and quality of life decreases)

• Mercantilism and commercial/industrial capitalism develop (mercantilism is more prominent)

• 80% of people are still stuck in agriculture

Mercantilism

• Merchants are protected, but sales are limited

• Intended to reduce foreign debt

• Exports are encouraged, but imports are restricted (tariffs)

• Is very much seen in the New World

• People are expected to hoard precious metals and wealth to spend domestically

Commercial capitalism

• In joint-stock companies, investors buy shares of a company and get return later

• Bank of Amsterdam gets rich selling shares

Columbian Exchange

• Includes anything living

• Tobacco, potatoes, corn, cotton, and beans went to Europe

• Horses, cattle, and wheat went to the Americas