Unit 3 AP World History: The Early Modern Era- Key Terms

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who attempted to find a westward route to Asia under the sponsorship of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain; first European to discover the New World in 1492.

Conquest of Constantinople

In 1453, the Ottomans conquered the Byzantine capital and ended the Eastern Roman Empire, giving rise to the Ottoman Empire, which lasted until WWI.

Caravel

Inspired by the Arab dhow, a compact ship of Portuguese origin that featured triangular sails and a sternpost rudder making it capable of crossing oceans; used during the Age of Exploration.

Dhow

Arab sailing vessels with one or more masts and lateen sails, used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region.

Lateen sail

Triangular sail that allowed ships to sail against the wind, increasing maneuverability and making early oceanic sailing possible.

Junk

Chinese-built cargo ship with a stern-post rudder that allowed for efficient steering.

Joint-stock companies

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

Columbian Exchange

Beginning with the explorations of Christopher Columbus, the interchange of plants, animals, pathogens, and people between the Old World and the New World. One example was the "Great Dying" during which indigenous American populations declined by as much as 70-90% due to infectious disease and imperial expansion.

Mercantilism

Economic system focused on maintaining a positive balance of exports to imports that encouraged domestic employment; measured the economic strength of a state relative to its neighboring states.

Sugar cultivation

Specialized resource extraction process that relied on African slave labor after indigenous populations were decimated by disease; foreshadowed the intensive manufacturing of the Industrial Revolution.

Gunpowder

Chemical explosive developed by the Chinese; spread along trade routes like the Silk Road; Europeans introduced a slow-burning propellant to maximize the potential of explosive weapons.

Mughal Empire

Empire that reunified India in 1526, advocated religious tolerance, and sponsored great art and architecture projects; later collapsed because of Hindu/Muslim conflict and the competition of European traders.

Songhai

Successor of the Mali Empire in West Africa in the 1500s; instituted administrative and economic reforms throughout their realm; conquered by the Moroccans in 1591.

Creoles

Persons of Spanish blood who were born in the Americas; descended from the Peninsulares who came from the continent.

Mestizos

Persons of mixed European and indigenous descent in the Spanish colonies.

Mulattos

Persons of mixed African and Spanish descent in the Spanish colonies

Manchu

Nomadic group from Northeast China who were in the principal rulers of the Qing Dynasty; created a multiethnic Chinese state; later came into conflict with Europeans, particularly the Russian Empire.

Peter the Great

Tsar of Russian from 1682 to 1725, he rapidly modernized Russia under autocratic rule; moved the capital to St. Petersburg to provide better access to Europe.

Tokugawa Shogunate

Ruled Japan from 1600 to 1867; isolated Japan from the rest of the world, banned Christianity, and ejected foreign merchants other than a small number of Dutch and Chinese ships annually.

Daimyo

The class of lords in a feudal system centered on the relationship between lord and warrior or peasant, which was reformed during the Tokugawa shogunate.

Triangular Trade

Trade route between Europe and Africa (manufactured foods), Africa and the New World (enslaved peoples), and the New World and Europe (raw materials like precious metals, sugar, and other agricultural products).

Encomienda

Spanish system of land grants that allowed colonists in the Americas to force labor from indigenous populations. (related to the Spanish mita systems)

Haciendas

Spanish system of landed estates in the colonies; owners practiced the encomienda system and later the repartimiento system of labor, where workers were paid.

Queen Nanny of the Maroons

an 18th-century leader of a formerly enslaved group of African maroons. She and her followers fought a guerrilla war over many years against British authorities in the Colony of Jamaica, earning their sovereignty.

Printing Press

Invented in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg in 1456; made mass literacy possible and contributed to several important social movements, such as the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment.

Protestant Reformation

Movement questioning the practices of the Catholic Church during a period of social upheaval, particularly the selling of indulgences; commonly held to start with Martin Luther in Germany and his 95 Theses at Wittenberg; led to other reformers like John Calvin in Switzerland and John Wesley in England.

Scientific Revolution

Period in which scientists challenged traditional accounts of reality by investigating the nature of natural phenomena like astronomical events; led to the scientific method and progress in all of the natural sciences; early figures such as Galileo were persecuted by the Catholic Church.