AP World History Vocabulary: Maritime Empires and Early Modern Global Connections

Practice vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, maritime technologies, labor systems, and social structures from AP World History.

Caravel

Small, highly maneuverable, three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish for long voyages of exploration beginning in the 15th century.

Carrack

A large, three- or four-masted sailing ship developed by the Portuguese in the 14th to 17th centuries, used primarily for trade and long-distance ocean voyages.

Fluyt

A type of Dutch sailing vessel designed as a dedicated cargo carrier with a large capacity, used primarily for trade in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Maritime empires

Empires based heavily on sea travel, trade, and overseas colonies, such as those established by Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France, and Holland.

Mercantilism

An economic theory that measured a country's wealth by how much gold and silver it accumulated, requiring heavy government involvement to maximize exports and minimize imports through colonies and tariffs.

Trading post empire

An empire based on small outposts and fortified ports rather than control of large interior territories, used primarily to ensure control over trade routes and monopolies.

Galleons

Heavily armed Spanish ships used to carry luxury goods, silver, and gold across the oceans, notably establishing trade routes between the Americas and Asia (Manila).

Conquistadores

Spanish soldiers and explorers who led the conquest of the Americas, such as Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro.

Columbian Exchange

The biological and cultural exchange of crops, animals, people, and diseases between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres initiated by Columbus's voyages.

African Diaspora

The dispersion of millions of Africans out of Africa, primarily due to the transatlantic slave trade, leading to the spread of African cultures, music, food, and languages.

Indentured servitude

A labor system where servants contracted to work for a specified period of years (usually about seven) in exchange for passage, room, and board.

Chattel slavery

A system of forced labor in which individuals are legally considered personal property that can be bought, sold, and owned indefinitely.

Encomienda

System of Spanish rule in Americas where Spanish landowners have right to forced labor for all indigenous people living on land grant.

Hacienda system

A system where state owners directly employed natives, who had low wages, high taxes, and large debt to landowners.

Commercial Revolution

A dramatic change in the economy of Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. It is characterized by an increase in towns and trade, banks and credit, and the establishment of guilds.

Joint-stock companies

An organization created to pool the resources and skills of many merchants, thereby distributing the costs and ricks of colonization, and reducing the danger for individual investors.

Casta system

A rigid, race-based social hierarchy established in Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Latin America that categorized people based on their ancestry and skin color.

Creoles

People of European ancestry who were born in the Americas, positioned just below the peninsulares in the Spanish colonial social hierarchy.

Peninsulares

Highest caste of the Spanish colonial social structure; born in Spain, living in Americas.

Mestizos

Those of mixed European and indigenous ancestry.

Mulattos

Person of mixed African and European ancestry.

Santeria

A New World syncretic religion that blends West African Yoruba religious beliefs and traditions with Roman Catholic practices.

Vodun

Also known as voodoo; a New World syncretic faith that combines the animist faiths of West Africa with Christianity.

Viceroys

Royal governors appointed by the Spanish monarch to rule and administer vast territories and viceroyalties in the Americas on the king's behalf.

Metacom’s War

Also known as King Philip's War, a major armed conflict in the late 17th century between Indigenous peoples of New England and English colonists attempting to drive colonists off their land.

Maroon Societies

Communities formed by escaped and runaway slaves in remote areas (such as jungles and mountains) in the Americas, where they successfully maintained their freedom and distinct African-based cultures.