Unit 4 Terms and Definitions

Study for Quiz November 13!

Adroitly

A clever or skillful way

African Diaspora

Dispersion of Africans out of Africa

Ashkenazi

Jews from central and eastern Europe

Astrolabe

Improved by Muslim navigators in the 12thcentury, let sailors find out how far north or south they were from the equator

Astronomical charts

Any map of the stars and galaxies

Audiencias

Spanish royal courts to which Spanish settlers could appeal viceroys' decisions or policies

Barbary pirates

Plied the seas near North Africa along the Barbary coast

Barracoons

Holding pens in West Africa for the captive Africans. Also called "slave castles"

Boyars

Moscow's noble landowning class in Kievan Rus who topped the social pyramid

Cacao

Seeds from a small tropical American evergreen tree, from which cocoa, cocoa butter, and chocolate are made

Candomble

African belief system practiced in the Americas meaning "dance to honor the gods"

Capital

Material wealth available to produce more wealth

Caravel

Small three-masted sailing ship developed by the Portuguese in the 15thcentury. It allowed ship to survive storms at sea better.

Cartography

Mapmaking

Cash Crop

A crop produced for its commercial value rather than for use by the growers

Castas

People of mixed-race ancestry and the lowest on the Latin casta system. There were two groups of these.

Chartered Companies

Another name for Joint-stock companies

Chattel slavery

A system in which individuals were considered as property to be bought and sold

Codex

A type of book

Coercive labor system

A notoriously brutal system of slave labor.

Colonies

Claimed lands settle settled by immigrants from the home country.

Columbian Exchange

Transfer of crops, animals, and disease between the Eastern and Western hemispheres

Commercial Revolution

The transformation to a trade-based economy using gold and silver

Conquistadores

Spanish soldiers

Creole

West African language and grammatical patterns combined with European colonizers language to create a new language.

Creoles

A person of mixed European and black decent, especially in the Caribbean

Criollos

Lower on the Latin casta system, those of European ancestry who were born in the Americas.

Encomienda

Spanish system to gain access to gold and other resources of the Americas. Landowners compelled the indigenous people to work for them in exchange for food and shelter.

Encomenderos

Spanish landowners

Engenhos

"Engines". What the Portuguese Sugar Plantations were referred to as, because they processed so much sugar.

Fronde

Civil disturbances in France between 1648 and 1653 attempted to curb growing royal power

Galleons

Heavily armed Spanish ship

Gumbo

A popular dish created by African that is popular in southern United States. Stew like with dish with spices.

Gyroscope

Wheel or disk mounted to spin rapidly around an axis in various direction.

Hacienda System

When Spanish landowners (conquistadores) developed agriculture on their land and used coerced labor to work the fields.

Hanfu

Traditional Han clothing worn by Han civilians

Harem

A residence where a powerful man's wives and concubines lived.

Hispaniola

The name Columbus gave the island that is now occupied by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Horse

Transformed the culture of the American Indians living in the Plains region

Huguenots

French Protestants in the predominantly Catholic country. Suffered great persecution

Impressed

Forced into service, in the navy as enslaved galley workers

Indentured servitude

Arrangements through which servants contracted to work for a specified period of years in exchange for passage.

Indigenous

Originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native

Joint-stock companies

Investors financed trade by buying shares in corporations such as the East India Company.

Lateen sail

Ship sail in the shape of a triangle. Used by Arab sailors in the Indian Ocean.

Limited Liability

The principle that an investor was not responsible for a company's debts or other liabilities beyond the amount of an investment, made investing safer.

Magnetic Compass

Created in China for fortune telling, helped steer a ship in the right direction.

Maize

Corn

Manioc

A type of food from America, also known as yucca or cassava) that became a staple in the African diet

Maritime Empires

Empires based on sea travel.

Maroons

Descendants of Africans who had escaped slavery in Jamaica.

Mercantilism

An economic system that increased government control of the economy through high tariffs and the establishment of colonies.

Mestizo

Mixed European and indigenous ancestry

Metacom's War

Also called King Philip's War, was in part a result of English colonists using underhanded tactics in their continuing pressure to control native American lands

Middle Passage

The grueling journey across the Atlantic for the slave ships.

Mirs

Russian village communes who controlled the small landholders among the peasants

Mit'a system

Inca labor obligation, in which young men were required to devote a certain amount of labor to public works projects (coerced labor system)

Monopolies

The exclusive right to trade

Mulattoes

Mixed European and African ancestry

Nobility

The highest level of the European social hierarchy.

Northwest Passage

A route through or around North America that would lead to East Asia

Okra &Rice

Food African brought with them to America

Omani-European rivalry

A trade rivalry between the Muslim traders from Oman and European Christian traders over the Indian Ocean Trade and trade settlements in Oman.

Peninsulares

The top of the social pyramid in Latin America. They were born on the Iberian Peninsula

Polygyny

Having more than one wife

Price Revolution

The high rate of inflation or general rise in prices, in the 16thand early 17thcentury

Primogeniture law

Law that gave all of each estate to the eldest son.

Pueblo Revolt

Took place in 1680 between the Spanish and the Pueblo and Apache in New Mexico. The two indigenous groups fought the colonizers who were trying to force religious conversions.

Queues

Required Han men to wear their hair braded pigtail style of the Manchu

Santeria

African belief system practiced in the Americas meaning "the way of the saints".

Sea Beggars

Dutch pirates

Sea Dog

English Pirate

Sephardic Jews

Jews who trace their heritage back to Spain

Sepoys

European-trained Indian private forces that helped the east India Company move inland.

Serfs

Peasants who received a plot of land and protection form nobles. In return, were bound to that land and had little personal freedom.

Silver

Discovered in Mexico and Peru and revived economic fortunes for individual explorers and Spain

Smallpox

Pathogens spread through the respiratory system

Stepps

A vast grassy, treeless area.

Sugar Cane

Cultivated in the Brazilian Jungles by the Portuguese

Syncretism

The combining of different religious beliefs and practices. For example, the melding of Christianity with West African religious traditions

Timar

A system in which the sultan granted land or tax revenues to those he favored. It was used to reward soldiers and keep them loyal

Trading Post Empire

Based on small outposts, rather than control of large territories.

Transatlantic slave trade

The transportation by slave traders of various enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. Regularly used the triangular trade route and the middle passage.

Treaty Of Tordesillas

The treaty created in 1494 that divided the Americas between Spain and Portugal. Part of Brazil fell under Portugal's rule.

Triangular trade

A complex trading system that had 3 segments (Europe, Africa, America)

Ulama

Ottoman scholars and experts in Islamic law

Viceroy

Spanish royalty appointed to act as administrators and representatives of the Spanish crown

Viziers

Strong advisors to the sultans that gained influential positions in government and spoke for the sultans

Vodun

African belief system practiced in the Americas meaning "spirit" or "deity"

Zambos

Mixed indigenous and African ancestry.