ap world unit 4 vocab

Primogeniture laws

inheritance rules favoring the eldest son that concentrated wealth and power in one person/family by giving them the entire estate to prevent fragmentation

Cartography

art and science of map making, crucial for understanding how explorers represented the world

1. Astronomical chart

map of stars and celestial bodies used by navigators and societies to determine location, direction, and time

Mercantilism

economic theory that national power depends on wealth achieved by maximizing exports and regulating the economy

Smallpox

deadly viral disease devastating Indigenous populations in the Americas after Europeans came in

Conquistadors

spanish soldier-explorers who conquered the Americas for spain, driven by gold-glory-god

1. Columbian Exchange

massive, two-way transfer of plants, animals, diseases, people, technology, and ideas between the old world and new world initiated by columbus

1. Transatlantic slave trade

forced, brutal mass migration of africans to the americas via the middle passage

Engenhos

massive plantations in colonial brazil, centers for growing sugarcane and processing it into sugar, molasses, and rum

1. Cash crop 

agricultural product grown for sale and profit in a market, rather than for family consumption like tobacco and sugar

1. African Diaspora

widespread dispersion of africans primarily forced by the transatlantic slave trade

1. Indentured servitude

labor system where individuals signed contracts to work for a master for a set amount of years in exchange for passage to the americas, food, shelter, and eventual freedom

1. Chattel slavery

brutal system where enslaved people are treated as personal property that can be bought, sold, inherited, or traded

Encomienda

spanish colonial labor system where conquistadors were granted control over groups of indigenous people, forcing them to pay tribute in exchange for supposed protection

1. Coercive labor system

any method of extracting work from people against their will using force, threats, debt, or legal obligation

1. Hacienda system

large estate in colonial latin america where wealthy landowners controlled vast territories using indigeous people to work off debts in order to produce goods for local and export markets

1. Mit’a system

mandatory public service labor draft for state projects like roads and exploited for wealth

1. Middle Passage

brutal, forced transatlantic sea journey of africans from west africa to the americas

Syncretism

blending of different religious, cultural, or artistic beliefs to form new systems

Viceroys

high-ranking official, often nobles, who acted as direct representatives of a monarch

Audiencias

high royal court and administrative body in the Spanish empire who served for justice, oversaw viceroys, and checked abuse of power in the colonies

Harem

private, secluded quarters in a Muslim household or palace reserved for women

Boyar

russia’s highest-ranking nobles/wealthy landowners with significant political influence serving as advisors and military leaders

serfs

agricultural laborers in medieval europe bound to the land they worked and exchanged labor and a portion of crops to their landowner in return for protection, housing, and a plot of land to farm from a lord