Unit 4.4: New World Maritime Empires

Flashcards about the New World Maritime Empires during the Early Modern Period

Which European countries established maritime empires in North and Latin America during the Early Modern Period?

Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and France

What treaty divided the globe between Spain and Portugal?

Treaty of Tordesillas

Who were the Spanish adventurers in Latin America that led the conquests of the Aztec and Incan empires?

Conquistadors

What factors contributed to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Incan empires?

Superior military technology and the devastating effects of disease

How did the Spanish and Portuguese administer their Latin American colonies?

By dividing them into large dependent states ruled by appointed governors called viceroys

What was the economic focus of the Spanish and Portuguese holdings in Latin America?

Extraction of silver and the production of cash crops

What were some notable cash crops in Latin America?

Coffee and sugarcane

What was the Plantation Economy?

Colonists forced slaves to farm cash crops to export back to Europe for profit.

What was the Encomienda system?

Spain granted parcels of land to Spanish colonists, giving them the right to the forced-labor of its native inhabitants.

What was the Valladolid Debate about?

The morality of enslaving Native Americans

What replaced the Encomienda system for labor in Latin America?

Importation of enslaved Africans

What was the term for Latin American plantations?

Haciendas

What was the Sociedad de Castas system?

A system in which Spain categorized the inhabitants of their colonies into strictly-defined hierarchical groups based on ethnic descent and birthplace.

What religion did Latin America adopt following its conquest by the Spanish and the Portuguese?

Catholicism

What was the Pueblo Revolt?

The Pueblo people against the Spanish colonial government in New Mexico, which saw the Spaniards driven entirely out of the province.

What were Europeans initially looking for in North America?

A Northwest Passage

How did French and British governance differ in their North American colonies?

The French established dependent colonial states ruled by appointed governors, while the British established dependent colonial states with self-government through elected colonial assemblies.

What was the Mayflower Compact?

The founding charter of the Plymouth colony demonstrating self-governance.

What was the economic focus of the French colonies in North America?

Establishing trading posts to exchange European finished goods for animal furs.

What was the economic focus of the British colonies in North America?

Production of cash crops, fishing, and sea-faring trade.

How did the French and British differ in their approach to religious minorities settling in their North American colonies?

The French banned French Protestants from settling in their Canada colony, while the British permitted and even encouraged the immigration of religious minorities.

What was Metacom’s War?

Also known as “King Philip’s War”, British Puritan colonists in the northeast violated their treaty agreements with the Wampanoag people group, the Wampanoag and their allies invaded the colony.

What was the Atlantic Trading System?

An economic system centered on the Atlantic Ocean that linked the economies of European metropoles, African trading partners, and American colonies.

What was the Triangular Trade Route?

Part of the Atlantic Trading System, in which European metropoles sold finished goods to West Africa for slaves, who were then exported to the American colonies for labor. The colonies produced raw materials and cash crops, which were then exported back to the European metropoles.

What was Chattel Slavery?

A form of coerced labor in which human beings enslaved other human beings, treating them as trade goods to be bought and sold, and forcing them to farm cash crops.

What was the Middle Passage?

The inhumane transport of human beings sold into slavery from West Africa across the Atlantic.

What was the Atlantic World?

he mixing of Native American, EUROPEAN, and WEST AFRICAN traditions

What were Maroon Societies?

Groups of mixed WEST AFRICAN and Native American descent existing beyond the reach of colonial governments’ authority.