European Exploration and Colonization Flashcards

Flashcards generated from lecture notes on European exploration and colonization.

Spice Trade

European trade with Asia, focused on valuable spices like cloves, cinnamon, and pepper.

Spice Islands

The Moluccas, the chief source of spices.

3 G's of European exploration

God, Gold, and Glory

Improved technology that encouraged exploration

More accurate maps, use of the astrolabe, and larger ships like the caravel.

Portugal in the Age of Exploration

Led the way in exploration efforts, especially under Prince Henry the Navigator.

Bartholomeu Dias

Rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488.

Vasco de Gama

First to round the Cape of Good Hope and reach India, establishing a trading port in Calicut.

Christopher Columbus

Italian navigator who sailed west across the Atlantic to reach the East Indies (Indonesia), but landed in the Bahamas.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Divided the non-European world into two zones for exploration and trade rights between Spain and Portugal.

Amerigo Vespucci

Italian sea captain who explored Brazil and kept a journal.

Northwest Passage

A sea route to Asia through North America that Europeans searched for.

Ferdinand Magellan

Sailed around the world, naming the Pacific Ocean.

Cape Town

First permanent European settlement in Africa, built by the Dutch.

Dutch

Challenged the Portuguese in trade and formed the Dutch East India Company.

Afonso de Albuquerque

Commander of Portuguese forces in the Indian Ocean.

Taino People

The first people encountered by Columbus, who were friendly towards the Spanish.

3 ways the Spanish were able to conquer natives

Guns, Horses, and Disease

Montezuma

Aztec emperor when the Spanish captured and destroyed Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Hernan Cortes

Landed on the coast of Mexico and marched toward Tenochtitlan.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec empire.

Francisco Pizarro

Spaniard who conquered the Inca Empire and established the city of Lima.

Brazil

Portuguese colony named after Brazilwood.

New Spain

Spanish colony with Spanish culture, language, and religion, ruled by viceroys, exporting silver and gold.

Encomienda System

The right to demand labor or tribute from Native Americans, a system condemned by Bartoleme de las Casas.

Social Structure of New Spain

Peninsulares, Creoles, Mestizos, and Mulattoes.

Jacques Cartier

Claimed most of eastern Canada for France in 1534.

Quebec City (Samuel de Champlain)

First permanent French settlement.

Jamestown

First permanent English settlement in Virginia.

13 Colonies

New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies.

New England Colony Characteristics

Poor, rocky soil, fishing industry, heavy commerce.

Middle Colonies Characteristics

Diverse, big cities, fertile land for wheat and corn.

Southern Colonies Characteristics

Cash crops (tobacco, indigo, rice), presence of slavery.

Georgia

The British colony founded by James Oglethorpe established as a debtors colony.

Dutch New Netherlands

Trading post at New Amsterdam (NYC) surrendered to the British in 1664.

African Slave Trade

Europeans brought Africans to Europe and later to the Americas as slave laborers to work plantations.

Afonso I

Ruler of Kongo, a Christian King.

Futa Toro

Leader of Senegal who created a law against transporting slaves through his territory.

Atlantic Slave Trade

By 1800s, 11 million enslaved Africans were carried to the Americas.

Large kingdoms in Africa born because of slave trade

Asante kingdom and Oyo Empire.

Triangular Trade

Africa→Americas (Gold and Slaves), Americas→Africa (Tobacco), Europe→Americas (Manufactured goods)

Middle Passage

The passage that took slaves from Africa to the Americas.

Columbian Exchange

Global exchange of plants, animals, and diseases after Columbus's voyage.

Mercantilism

Nation's wealth measured in gold and silver, build overseas colonies, colonists forbidden from buying from other countries.