Global History Flashcards

The Black Death

1340s - 1350s (Mid 14th century) Killed around one third of Europe. Spread through the silk road, lead to global trade changes (less use of silk road) and global temperature changes

Protestant Reformation

(1500s, 16th century) Fighting amongst Christians leading to the creation of branches besides Catholicism. Lead to hundreds of years of infighting between Christians.

Chinese Isolationism

(Began during the Ming Dynasty and continued through the Qing Dynasty) Period of time in which China did not interact with many cultures and did not accept travelers and materials from other countries. Only people approved by the emperor could visit.

The Silk Road

trade route from east China spanning through nearly all of Europe and Asia, mostly on land. Considered the trade route OUT of China because many people would purchase items from China, leave, and never return.

The Mediterranean Trade Route

ocean trade route from Europe to Africa. Received the least amount of trade because of Europe’s lack of good trading materials. Went through the Sahara Desert and East African Mountains, making it incredibly tricky to navigate

European Trade Goods

(1000-1500) Europe’s primary trade goods were Wheat, Barley, Oats, Wool, Horses, Lumber, Glass and Wine. All were very bad for trading in global markets, leading to the Mediterranean Trade Network being the least profitable.

Manco Inca Yupanqui

(1500s) Incan King (west coast of South America) Made an Army to fight the Europeans (1536-1544) Resisted Europe’s invasion until his death. His army was weakened by civil wars between Native Americans and disease.

Spanish Gold (and Silver)

(1500s) Spain would send people to the Americas, take all of their gold and silver, and send it back to Spain. Spain took so much gold that it caused an economic crash.

Sugar

(1500s - 1700s) Sugar becomes primary resource in America for Britain, France, and Portugal. Sugar is sent to the Americas to be grown. Sugar is very portable in all forms, has infinite demand, and was relatively rare and difficult to grow around the world. Requires a tropical climate, untouched high quality soil, and needs extreme amounts of labor.

Chattel Slavery

(1500s - 1800s) Slavery in which humans are treated as property

Triangular Trade

(1500s - 1800s) Africans would be kidnapped and forced to the Caribbean to harvest sugar. The sugar would be sent to Europe. Europe would sell the sugar to buy more slaves in Africa to then send them to the Caribbean.

Industrious Revolution

(1400s - 1800s) In West Europe and East Asia, work became harder, and people worked harder. The demand for luxuries began to push farmers to grow and sell more than before.
Luxuries = desire for excess money = working harder (Demand)

Little Ice Age

(1400s - 1800s) Temperatures began decreasing slightly. Earlier and longer winters, fear that they wouldn’t have enough food and heating, leading to people working harder. Caused by deaths from the black plague and the Native American genocide, as well as regrowing trees.

American Agricultural Products

(During Industrious Revolution) Crops like corn, beans, squash and potatoes were all grown by Native Americans. Europe took them and introduced them to Europe, East Asia, and Africa. Corn and potatoes are some of the most efficient crops and give excessive yield. Beans and Squash keep soil very healthy.

Crop Rotation

(Industrious Revolution) Rotating what plots grow what crops to make sure fields stay as healthy as possible for largest yield.

Cottage Industry

(Industrious Revolution) “Side hustles” that would be done of top of farming in Europe to allow people to buy luxuries. Examples are making clothing (shoe making, spinning and sewing, jewelry), food production (baking, preserved food, brewing alcohol), and craftwork (simple smithing, pottery)

Newcomen Fire Engine

(1712) First commercially successful steam engine. Successful due to England coal mines needing to pump water, which the machine did.

Richard Trevithick

Created the “perfected” steam engine in 1804. It was much smaller, used significantly less fuel (45% less) and fixed rattling and shaking.

Cotton Spinning Jenny

(1700s) Rotery wheel that would spin dozens of strings of cotton, making cotton production significantly more efficient. Created in England

Re-Export Network

(1600-1900) raw materials like cotton and iron would be brought to factories and sold as finished products back to the countries where the materials were from. Was done by England and exported globally.

George Stephenson

The inventor of the first commercially successful locomotive, “The Rocket”, in 1829. Was originally created to assist miners in England.

The Rocket

(1829) created by George Stephenson. The first commercially successful locomotive. Was originally made to assist miners in England.

Robert Fulton

(Late 18th century, early 19th century) Created prototypes of underwater torpedoes and mines for England. Created the first successful steamship, “Clermont” (1807) after receiving funding in America.

The Seven Years War

(Mid 18th century, 1756 - 1763) Beginning of the age of revolutions. Prussia vs. Austria. Many other European countries joined the war, causing colonies controlled by the countries to fight as well. Britain vs. France

Toussaint Louverture

(Late 18th century, 1791 - 1803) Revolutionary leader of Haiti. Made deals with France, Britain, and Spain, acquiring weapons from all by convincing each that he would work with them, allowing his army to become incredibly powerful. Captured by the French in 1802 and died in 1803, but because of his training of secondary leaders, Haiti achieved independence in 1804.

Francisco De Miranda

(Early 19th century) Revolutionary leader of Venezuela. Attempted revolutions twice, first in 1806, then from 1810 - 1812. Both failed and lead to his death. Founded the Sociedad Patriótica which gathered revolution-minded individuals together.

Simon Bolivar

(Early 19th century) Liberator of South America (1810 - 1830) Student of Francisco De Miranda, but had a falling out with him due to his more radical views on revolution. Helped free multiple countries. Battle of Boyacá (1819)

Letter from Jamaica

(1815) Series of letters written by Simon Bolivar. The first acknowledgement of Latino identity, separating it from European and Native American. Was sent to allies of his movement in Jamaica.

White Lotus Buddhism

(Late 18th, early 19th) A branch of Buddhism that was outlawed by the Chinese government. Focused on community aid and equity, which went against what the government believed in at the time. This lead to the White Lotus Rebellion (1795 - 1804) where many farmers in rural areas had lost faith in the government supporting them through natural disasters, leading them to join White Lotus Buddhism. They attempted to fight the government but ultimately lost.

Mandate of Heaven

Mandate to rule in China given by the gods. If Chinese citizens began to suffer from natural disasters or starvation, it was a reflection of the gods view’s on the current ruling family showing that they lost the mandate of heaven, leading to revolution.

The Red Flag Fleet

(1805 - 1810) The largest pirate fleet in history. Stayed on the southern coast of China. Lead by Zheng Yi and Zheng Yi Sao. Created a pirate government in southern China, collecting taxes from citizens.

Zheng Yi & Zheng Yi Sao

(19th century) Military commanders of the Red Flag Fleet. Husband and wife duo. Set up a pirate government in southern China. After Zheng Yi died, Zheng Yi Sao took over as the sole leader. She eventually made a deal with the Chinese government and became a slumlord, living incredibly wealthy until her death. Made the deal because of losses with Europe ships.

Janissaries

(1500s - 1600s) Group of incredibly strong soldiers in the Ottoman Empire. Trained from childhood. Received very large amounts of funding allowing them to have the most advanced weaponry. Felt as though they did more work than what they were paid for. Asked the Empire for more money and were denied, leading them to leave the Ottoman Empire and become bandits in the late 1700s. They began to attack Serbia, leading to Serbia attacking back, and a full scale revolution.

Maroons

(1600s - 1800s) Comminities comprised of formerly slaved Africans and Native American allies. Native Americans took in former slaves to increase numbers post-genocide. Created hybridized Native American and African cultures. Maroons faced many attacks from Europeans and frequently had to make deals to survive, becoming slave catchers or working as soldiers and scouts.

Abolitionist Societies

(1700s - 1800s) societies formed around abolishing slavery through pamphlets, petitions, and letter writing campaigns. Happened in America and many parts of Europe.

Olaudah Equiano

(late 1700s, 18th century) former slave from Virginia. Migrated to Britain and taught himself how to write. Wrote about his time as a slave in pamphlets. Had a more passive view on slavery, believing that you shouldn’t blame the slave traders and owners, but the slave trade as a system, believing it had corrupted people.

Ottobah Cuguano

former slave taken from an African village and sold to a sugar plantation in Caribbean, arguably the harshest place a slave could work, leading to him seeing the absolute worst of slavery, which was reflected in his writing. Got freedom in Britain. Believed that all who participated in the slave trade were evil, deserved to suffer as much as they caused.

Declarations of Succession

(1860) the succession of states in the United States who refused to even entertain the idea of banning slavery, leading to the birth of the Confederacy and the Civil War. Every state that seceded mentioned slavery as a primary reason.