Unit 4 Vocabulary: Transoceanic Interconnections (Sea-based Empires) 1450-1750

Bank of Amsterdam

Dutch Bank established in the 17th Century, known to be the first modern central bank.

Joint Stock Companies

Large, investor-backed companies that sponsored European exploration and colonization in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; precursors to modern corporations; a famous example is the British East India Company.

Mercantilism

an economic practice by which governments used their economies to augment state power at the expense of other countries.

Primogeniture Laws

In the Middle Ages was the dominant law of inheritance, in which land, title, and wealth went entirely to the firstborn son. If there were no male descendants, inheritance was split among any living daughters.

Adam Smith

18th-century Scottish economist, philosopher, and author who is considered the father of modern economics; argued against mercantilism and was a major proponent of laissez-faire economic policies.

Capitalism

An economic system based on open competition in a free market, in which individuals and companies own the means of production and operate for profit.

Monopoly

The exclusive control of a commodity, market or means of production

The Wealth of Nations

Book written by Adam Smith in 1776. In it Smith describes the outline for how a nation becomes wealthy and how the division of labor falls within a wealthy vs. non-wealthy society.

Dutch East India Company

Trading company founded in the Dutch Republic in 1602 to protect that state's trade in the Indian Ocean and to assist in the Dutch war of independence from Spain.

British East India Company

was a joint-stock company which was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600, with the intention of exploring and trading with India and the surrounding areas.

Encomedia System

Granted colonists the right to demand labor of native peoples in the mines and fields. The laborers were worked hard and punished severely.

Potosi

City that developed high in the Andes at the site of the world's largest silver mine and that became the largest city in the Americas

Triangular Trade

A three way system of trade during 1600-1800s Africa sent slaves to America, America sent Raw Materials to Europe, and Europe sent Guns and Rum to Africa

cash crop

a crop produced for its commercial value rather than for use by the grower.

Tobacco

A plant integral to the indigenous societies of the Americas when smoked, releases 'Feels good' chemicals in the brain.

Indentured Servitude

A form of labor where an individual is under contract to work without a salary to repay an indenture or loan within a certain timeframe.

Commercial Revolution

A period of European economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism which lasted from approximately the 16th century until the early 18th century. It was succeeded in the mid-18th century by the Industrial Revolution.

Colony

A territory completely controlled by another

Hispaniola

Originally inhabited by the Taíno people, it was the first island Columbus landed on when he voyaged across the Atlantic.

Jamestown

The first settlement founded in East Virginia was named -------- in honor of Elizabeth's successor, James I.

Aztec Empire

Major state that developed in what is now Mexico in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

Incan Empire

a Mesoamerican civilization in the Andes Mountains in South America that by the end of the 1400s was the largest empire in the Americas including much of what is now Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile; conquered by Pizarro

New Spain

After the defeat of the Aztecs, it was a Spanish colony. Its capital was Mexico City.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Its population was about 150,000 on the eve of Spanish conquest. Mexico City was constructed on its ruins.

Mexico City

Capital of New Spain; built on ruins of Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

Lima

Founded after Pizarro conquered the incan empire

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal.

Bartolome de Las Casas

Early Spanish historian and Dominican missionary who was the first to expose the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for the abolition of slavery there.

Viceroys

Representatives of the Spanish monarch in Spain's colonial empire ,were given control of large areas and had almost unlimited power.

Viceroyalties

Major divisions of Spanish New World colonies headed by direct representatives of the king; one was based in Lima, the other in Mexico City.

Audiencias

Courts appointed by the king who reviewed the administration of viceroys serving Spanish colonies in America.

Haciendas

Large Spanish colonial estates usually owned by wealthy families but worked by many peasants

Rio de Janeiro

Brazilian port; close to mines of Minas Gerais; importance grew with gold strikes; became colonial capital in 1763.

New Amsterdam

Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. This later became "New York City"

Manila

Capital of the Spanish Philippines and a major multicultural trade city that already had a population of more than 40,000 by 1600.

Sociedad de castas

American social system based on racial origins; Europeans or whites at top, black slaves or Native Americans at bottom, mixed races in middle.

Middle Passage

The route in between the western ports of Africa to the Caribbean and southern U.S. that carried the slave trade,lasted roughly 80 days on ships ranging from small schooners to massive, purpose-built "slave ships

Atlanic Slave Trade

the buying, transporting, and selling of Africans for work in the Americas

Creoles

Descendents of Spanish-born but born in Latin America; resented inferior social, political, economic status.

Peninsulares

Spanish settlers who had been born in Spain and came to settle in Spanish America, highest social class.

Castas

a middle-level status between Europeans at the top; and Amerindians and blacks at the bottom

Mesitizos

the offsprings between Europeans and native American Indians. This intermarriage had become authorized in 1501 by Spanish rulers.

Mulattoes

Term commonly used for people of mixed African and European blood.

Zambos

According to Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, these are people of mixed Native American and African descent. Lowest tier of social class in colonial America.

African Diaspora

The separation of Africans from their homeland through centuries of forced removal to serve as slaves in the Americas and elsewhere.

Boers

Also known as Afrikaners, the sector of the white population of South Africa that was descended from early Dutch settlers.

Cape Colony

Dutch colony established at Cape of Good Hope in 1652 to provide a coastal station for Dutch ships traveling to and from the East Indies; settlers expanded and fought with Bantu and other Africans.

Nzinga Mvemba

King of Kongo south of Zaire River from 1507 to 1543; converted to Christianity and took title Alfonso I; under Portuguese influence attempted to Christianize all of kingdom.

Royal African Company of England

Maintained monopoly on slave trade in mainland colonies. Kept prices high, supplies low, and slave flow small. In the mid-1690s, its monopoly was broken and slave trade boomed. (73)

Asante Empire

est. in Gold Coast among Akan people settled around Kumasi; dominated by Oyoko clan; many clans linked under Osei Tutu after 1650 (African Empire)

Kingdom of Kongo

Kingdom dominating small states along the Congo River that maintained effective, centralized government and a royal currency until the seventeenth century.

Basin of the Congo (Zaire) river, conglomeration of several village alliances, participated actively in trade networks, most centralized rule of the early Bantu kingdoms, royal currency: cowries, ruled 14th-17th century until undermined by Portuguese slave traders

Swahili Arabs

Arabs living in Africa for trading purposes.

Marronage

Name given to groups of slaves in the Caribbean islands that ran away from their owners into the mountains and jungles and formed their own small communities. SIG -Although conditions were very harsh and primitive, it was better than being a slave.

Maroons

Runaway African slaves.

Palenques

settlements and communities established by Africans who actively resisted Slavery in Spanish Colonial Mexico

King Philip's War

1675. longest and bloodiest conflict between settlers and natives in 17th century, native Wampanoags under King Phillip ( Indian Chieftain) resisted England encroachment on their land, they killed many settlers in Mass, English joined with Mohawks to defeat them

Queen Elizabeth I

This "virgin" queen ruled England for 50 years and was one of the most successful monarchs in English History. She supported the arts, increased the treasury, supported the exploration of the New World, built up the military, and established the Church of England as the main religion in England

Philip II

(1527-1598) King of Spain from 1556 to 1598. Absolute monarch who helped lead the Counter Reformation by persecuting Protestants in his holdings. Also sent the Spanish Armada against England.

Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand

Spanish monarchs who financed Columbus's voyage.

Prince Henry the Navigator

(1394-1460) Prince of Portugal who established an observatory and school of navigation at Sagres and directed voyages that spurred the growth of Portugal's colonial empire.

Spanish Armada

"Invincible" group of ships sent by King Philip II of Spain to invade England in 1588; Armada was defeated by smaller, more maneuverable English "sea dogs" in the Channel; marked the beginning of English naval dominance and fall of Spanish dominance.

Vasco da Gama

the first European to reach India by sea sailing around the tip of Africa.

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese explorer who found a sea route to the Spice Island by sailing around the American continent. His crew was the first to circumnavigate the world.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who discovered the New World in the service of Spain while looking for a route to Asia (1451-1506); believed the New World was India until he died

Jacques Cartier

The first French explorer to explore and claim the mainland Canada in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Francis Drake

English explorer and admiral who was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe and who helped to defeat the Spanish Armada (1540-1596)

Conquistadors

Spanish soldiers and explorers who led military expeditions in the Americas and captured land for Spain

Scientific Revolution

The intellectual movement in Europe, initially associated with planetary motion and other aspects of physics, that by the seventeenth century had laid the groundwork for modern science.

**the natural world began to be characterized by careful observation and the questioning of accepted beliefs.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico (1485-1547)

Fransico Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire

Henry Hudson

An English explorer who explored for the Dutch. He claimed the Hudson River around present day New York and called it New Netherland. He also had the Hudson Bay named for him

Northwest Passage

A water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific through northern Canada and along the northern coast of Alaska. Sought by navigators since the 16th century.

Dutch Trading Empire

Based on control of fortified towns and factories, warships on patrol, and monopoly control of limited number of products- particularly spices.

Java

Indonesia's main island

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in the exploration of the Atlantic.

Astrolabe

An instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the position of the stars and planets

Compass

an instrument that shows the direction of magnetic north

Galleons

a sailing ship in use (especially by Spain) from the 15th through 17th centuries, originally as a warship, later for trade; were mainly square-rigged and usually had three or more decks and masts.

Carrack

Large Portuguese ship used for ocean travel and trade

Fluyt

Dutch sailing vessel that allowed them to control the Baltic trade; designed to facilitate transoceanic delivery with max space and crew efficiency

Cartography

The science of making maps

Maize

An early form of corn grown by Native Americans

Measles

Virus spread by droplets from a sneeze or a cough

Symptoms: red skin rash and a fever

Smallpox

A highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever, weakness, and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs; responsible for killing Native Americans.

Malaria

A disease caused by mosquitoes implanting parasites in the blood.

Typhoid

an infectious bacterial fever with an eruption of red spots on the chest and abdomen and severe intestinal irritation.

Cholera

an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of contaminated water or food; watery stool

The Great Dying

the devastation of American Indian populations by diseases brought over from Europe

Sugarcane

one of the primary crops of the Americas, which required a tremendous amount of labor to cultivate; cash crop

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

Vodun

African religious ideas and practices among descendants of African slaves in Haiti.

Cult of Saints

Use of local beliefs to make Natives in Latin America convert

Virgin of Guadalupe

An apparition of the Virgin Mary said to have appeared to a Mexican farmer (Juan Diego) in 1531. She exerted a powerful attraction to Mesoamerica's surviving Amerindians and became an icon of Mexican identity

Florentine Codex

One of the most widely cited sources about Aztec life before and after conquest

Little Ice Age

just a period of unusually low temperatures.

Chattel Slavery

by law and custom, African American slaves were the personal property of their owners.

Plantation economy

an economic system based on the ownership of land on which staple or cash crops were raised on a large scale for domestic and international sale, typically by enslaved laborers

Guangzhou

A trading port in coastal China that was a prominent center of trade with European powers.

Nagasaki

Japanese City

Goa

Portuguese factory or fortified trade town located on the Western Indian Coast; site for forcible entry into the Asian sea trade network.