Age of Exploration and Colonization

Cape Bojador

A point on the African coast that Portuguese sailors eventually passed, allowing further exploration south.

Hind

The European name for India.

Cathay

The European name for China.

Zipangu

The European name for Japan.

Northwest Passage

A hoped-for sea route through North America to Asia.

Northeast Passage

A hoped-for sea route north of Europe and Asia to East Asia.

Straits of Anian

A supposed passage connecting the Pacific and Atlantic near northwestern North America.

Three Gs of Exploration

God, Gold, and Glory: religion, wealth, and national prestige.

God

European explorers wanted to spread Christianity.

Gold

European explorers wanted wealth, gold, silver, spices, and profitable trade routes.

Glory

European rulers wanted fame, power, territory, and prestige.

Renaissance

An intellectual and cultural movement that encouraged curiosity, learning, science, and exploration.

Henry the Navigator

A Portuguese prince who sponsored exploration along the African coast.

Bartolomeu Dias

A Portuguese explorer who rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.

Vasco da Gama

A Portuguese explorer who reached India by sailing around Africa in 1498.

Christopher Columbus

A Genoese explorer sailing for Spain who reached the Caribbean in 1492 while seeking a westward route to Asia.

Amerigo Vespucci

An explorer whose name became the source of the name America; he recognized that the Americas were not Asia.

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

An agreement dividing overseas claims between Spain and Portugal.

John Cabot

An Italian explorer sailing for England who explored the North American coast, including Newfoundland.

Pedro Álvares Cabral

A Portuguese explorer who claimed Brazil for Portugal in 1500.

Juan Ponce de León

A Spanish explorer associated with the exploration of Florida.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa

A Spanish explorer who crossed Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean in 1513.

Ferdinand Magellan

A Portuguese-born explorer whose Spanish-sponsored expedition began the first circumnavigation of the world.

Juan Sebastián Elcano

The explorer who helped complete the first circumnavigation after Magellan died.

Hernán Cortés

The Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico.

Francisco Pizarro

The Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire in Peru.

Hernando de Soto

A Spanish explorer who explored the southeastern part of North America and reached the Mississippi River.

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado

A Spanish explorer who explored the American Southwest and Great Plains.

Jacques Cartier

A French explorer who explored the St. Lawrence River region of Canada.

Samuel de Champlain

A French explorer who helped establish New France and Quebec.

Robert de La Salle

A French explorer who explored the Mississippi River region and claimed the Louisiana territory for France.

Henry Hudson

An English explorer who explored northeastern North America while working for Dutch interests.

Martin Frobisher

An English explorer who searched for the Northwest Passage.

Francis Drake

An English explorer and privateer who circumnavigated the world and raided Spanish shipping.

Willem Barentsz

A Dutch explorer who searched for the Northeast Passage.

Pensacola

An early Spanish settlement in Florida, attempted in 1559.

Fort Caroline

A French settlement in Florida established in 1564.

St. Augustine

A Spanish settlement founded in 1565; the oldest continuously inhabited European-established city in the contiguous United States.

Mercantilism

An economic system in which colonies supplied raw materials and markets to enrich the mother country.

Mother Country

The country that controls and benefits economically from a colony.

Monoculture

An economy heavily dependent on growing one crop.

Charter Colony

A colony established under a charter granted by the monarch.

Proprietary Colony

A colony granted to an individual or group of proprietors.

Royal Colony

A colony controlled directly by the monarch.

Corporate or Joint-Stock Colony

A colony funded and managed by a company whose investors shared the risks and potential profits.

John Cabot

An explorer from Italy who sailed for England and explored the North American coast.

Portugal's Colonial Focus

Sea routes around Africa, Asian trade, coastal trading posts, and the colonization of Brazil.

Spain's Colonial Focus

Conquest, precious metals, territorial expansion, Christian conversion, and Indigenous labor exploitation.

France's Colonial Focus

The fur trade, especially beaver pelts, and settlements in Canada and along major rivers.

England's Colonial Focus

Settlements, farming, trade, plantation agriculture, and expansion in North America.

Encomienda

A Spanish colonial system granting colonists the right to demand Indigenous tribute or labor in exchange for supposed protection and Christian instruction.

Hacienda

A large Spanish colonial estate or plantation used for agriculture or livestock.

Henry VIII

The English king who broke with the Roman Catholic Church and established royal supremacy over the Church of England.

Roanoke

The English Lost Colony established in the 1580s whose disappearance remains unexplained.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in Virginia in 1607.

John Smith

A Jamestown leader who helped organize the struggling colony.

John Rolfe

A Virginia colonist who helped make tobacco a profitable cash crop and married Pocahontas.

Headright System

A system offering land to people who paid for their own or another person's passage to Virginia.

Indentured Servant

A person who worked for a set number of years in exchange for passage to the colonies and basic support.

House of Burgesses

The representative legislative assembly established in Virginia in 1619.

Bacon's Rebellion

A 1676 Virginia uprising fueled by frontier tensions, conflict over Indigenous lands, and dissatisfaction with the colonial government.

Puritans

Protestants who wanted to reform and purify the Church of England.

Separatists

Protestants who wanted to separate completely from the Church of England.

Pilgrims

English Separatists who established Plymouth Colony in 1620.

Calvinists

Protestants influenced by John Calvin who emphasized God's sovereignty and predestination.

Mayflower Compact

A 1620 agreement in which Plymouth colonists pledged to establish a government and follow laws for the community's general good.

Halfway Covenant

A 1662 Puritan agreement allowing children of baptized but not fully converted church members to receive partial membership and baptism.

Roger Williams

A religious dissenter who advocated religious freedom and separation of church and state and founded Rhode Island.

Anne Hutchinson

A religious dissenter banished from Massachusetts Bay who later settled in Rhode Island.

New Amsterdam

The Dutch settlement captured by the English in 1664 and renamed New York.

Quakers

A religious group emphasizing equality, pacifism, and the inner light; many settled in Pennsylvania.

William Penn

The Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, which became a refuge for Quakers.

Middle Colonies

The region known for grain farming, trade, ports, and diverse immigrant populations.

Chesapeake Colonies

Virginia and Maryland, where tobacco became a major cash crop.

Fall Line

The boundary where rivers descend from the Piedmont toward the coastal plain.

Southern Colonies

Colonies where plantation agriculture and crops such as rice, tobacco, and indigo became important.

North Carolina's Economy

Included smaller farms, tobacco, and other agricultural products.

South Carolina's Economy

Relied heavily on rice and indigo plantations and enslaved African labor.

Georgia

Founded in 1733 under James Oglethorpe, partly to serve as a buffer between British South Carolina and Spanish Florida.

John Smith vs. John Rolfe

Smith helped Jamestown survive through organization; Rolfe helped it become profitable through tobacco.

Columbus vs. Magellan

Columbus reached the Caribbean in 1492; Magellan's expedition began the first circumnavigation.

Spanish Conquistadors

Soldiers and explorers who conquered territory in the Americas for Spain.