Heimler's History - Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections Review

This set of flashcards covers Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections from Heimler's History review guide, focusing on the causes of European exploration, establishing maritime empires, the Columbian Exchange, resistance to imperial expansion, expansion of African states, change and continuity in networks of exchange in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, changes in labor systems, and changing belief systems and social hierarchies.

What Maritime technology was adopted that lead to European exploration?

Adoption of the Magnetic Compass from China, Astrolabe from Ancient Greece & Arab world, and Lateen Sail from the Arab World.

What is an example of European innovation of Maritime technology?

Portuguese Caravel. Better able to navigate inland through rivers and shallow coastal areas. Fast.

What political changes in Europe inspired exploration?

European monarchs were centralizing power and shifting power away from traditional nobles.

What economic changes in Europe motivated exploration and the expansion of empires?

Nobles wanted Asian goods like spices, but they were increasingly expensive. So they decided to cut out the middle man.

Mercantilism

Economic theory based on the idea that there was a finite amount of wealth in the world, and each country wanted the largest share of wealth. This led countries to hoard large amounts of silver and gold.

Joint-Stock Companies

Limited liability businesses that were often chartered by states and funded by private investors.

Dutch East India Company (VOC)

This company dominated Indian Ocean trade and expanded Dutch influence. Investors grew rich.

Prince Henry the Navigator

He brought together sailors, map makers, and shipbuilders to figure out how to sail down the Atlantic Coast of Africa to access West African gold, and they continued past West Africa to the Indian Ocean.

What was Portugal's Maritime Empire like?

The Portuguese created a trading post empire around the coast of Africa and throughout the Indian Ocean where they set up trading posts called factories to control trade throughout the region.

What happened after the Spanish crown sponsored Christopher Columbus’s voyages?

Columbus found the Americas, and voyages from Spain grew in number until they had colonized the lands.

What did French exploration look like in this period?

They created a French presence in Canada that led to a lucrative fur trade. They did not colonize, but focused on trade.

Describe English attempts at exploration and colonization before 1750.

Sir Walter Raleigh established England’s first colony on Roanoke Island called Virginia. It was a disaster. In 1607 Jamestown was established in the Americas more successfully.

What led the Dutch to create a maritime empire and what was their empire like?

After creating the Dutch East India Company they began challenging Spanish and Portuguese control in the Indian Ocean. They also settled in the Americas with New Amsterdam and eventually had a monopoly over the Indian Ocean spice trade.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of new diseases, food, plants, and animals between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. It was an environmental phenomena, not trade.

What diseases were transferred to the Americas from Afro-Eurasia and what were their effects?

Smallpox, measles, and malaria. Because Native Americas had never been exposed to them before they had not developed any immunity which led to the Great Dying of the indigenous population.

What American foods were introduced to Afro-Eurasia and what was the effect?

Maize (corn) and potatoes were introduced leading to healthier populations with longer lifespans.

What foods were brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans?

Okra and rice.

Cash Cropping

When farmers focus on a specific crop to export, like sugar grown in the Caribbean by enslaved people for markets in the Middle East and Europe.

Why and how did Japan resist the intrusion of western powers?

Tokugawa Japan began to resist European power when large numbers of Japanese converted to Christianity and started to be seen as a threat by the Shogun who had recently unified the country.

Fronde Rebellion

A rebellion that started in 1648 against increased taxes where peasants led a six year long rebellion that was eventually crushed.

How did enslaved Africans in the Americas resist authorities in the Americas?

Enslaved people who ran away formed maroon societies and lived outside of the grasp of imperial authorities.

How did the Asante Empire in west Africa thrive c. 1450-1750?

They traded items like ivory, gold, and enslaved people to Europeans. The wealth they accrued helped them to expand their military and consolidate political power in the region.

How did having a trade relationship with the Portuguese change the Kingdom of Kongo in southern Africa?

To facilitate trade, their leaders converted to Christianity which led to the expansion of the Kongolese state’s power and wealth.

What continuities were maintained in Indian Ocean trade networks even after the arrival of Europeans?

Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian, and Southeast Asian merchants continued to trade. Europeans entering the market actually increased Asian profits and for some, they got stronger.

What continuities were maintained on the Silk Roads c. 1450-1750?

The Silk Roads were still controlled by various Asian land-based powers like Ming and Qing China as well as the Ottoman Empire.

What continuities were maintained by Asian peasant and artisan laborers c. 1450-1750?

Peasants and artisan laborers continued to increase production as demand for their goods grew in Europe.

Atlantic System

It was the movement of goods, wealth, and laborers between the eastern and western hemispheres that led to vast increases in wealth.

What were some of the main trade goods that came from the Americas and what impact did they have?

Sugarcane grown on plantations and silver mined by coerced labor in the Americas.

Mit’a system

Native Americans were forced to work for part of the year in Spanish mines, similar to the Inca Mit’a system. However, the Inca Mit’a was for public benefit while the Spanish Mit’a was for private gain.

Chattel Slavery

Slavery in which the enslaved person is owned like property. In the Americas it was race-based and hereditary.

indentured servitude

Servants were bound to work for seven years and then could go free.

Encomienda System

The Spanish divided indigenous Americans among Spanish settlers and they were forced to provide labor in exchange for food and protection. It’s a bit like feudalism.

Hacienda

Huge plantations on which Native Americans were forced to work.

How did Christianity change c. 1450-1750?

While some converted to traditional Catholicism, others created syncretic forms of faith blending Christianity with indigenous practices. Africans in the Americas also blended their animistic beliefs and practices with Christianity creating syncretic religions like Vodun.

How did the treatment of Jews show diversity in how minorities were treated in this time period?

Spain and Portugal kicked out all Jews. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire opened its doors to Jewish people fleeing persecution.

Casta System

Rank was based on ancestry and race, and was based on the purity of Spanish blood.

How did the Qing dynasty create a new system of elites?

They held the best bureaucratic jobs for those who were ethnically Manchu, which meant the majority of the population could not hold them.

What kind of struggle existed in Russia as the czar centralized power?

Peter the Great became an absolute monarch leading nobles to rebel. The outcome was the abolition of the rank of boyar and anyone who had a position of power had to get it directly from the state.