Comprehensive Midterm Study Notes: Chapters 16–24 Based on The Earth and Its Peoples, Volume 2

Zheng He

Imperial eunuch and Muslim admiral who led seven massive Ming treasure fleets into the Indian Ocean basin between 1405 and 1433.

Arawak

Amerindian inhabitants of the Greater Antilles encountered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, whose society was devastated by Spanish contact.

Henry the Navigator

Portuguese prince (1394-1460) who founded a navigation center at Sagres, financing early expeditions down the West African coast.

Caravel

Small, highly maneuverable two- or three-masted Portuguese ship combining lateen and square sails for ocean exploration.

Gold Coast

West African Atlantic coastline rich in natural gold reserves, later serving as a primary embarkation point for the slave trade.

Bartolomeu Dias

Portuguese explorer who led the first European expedition around the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope) in 1488.

Vasco da Gama

Portuguese navigator who commanded the first European naval voyage directly to Calicut, India (1497-1499).

Christopher Columbus

Genoese mariner who crossed the Atlantic in 1492 under Spanish backing, landing in the Caribbean and initiating permanent inter-hemispheric contact.

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese mariner sailing for Spain whose expedition achieved the first recorded circumnavigation of the globe (1519-1522).

Conquistadors

16th-century Spanish military adventurers and soldiers who undertook the conquest of indigenous American societies.

Hernán Cortés

Spanish conquistador who led the campaign that overthrew the Aztec Empire between 1519 and 1521.

Moctezuma II

The last ruling Aztec emperor of Tenochtitlan during the Spanish invasion, killed during the La Noche Triste revolt in 1520.

Atahuallpa

The final sovereign emperor of the Inca Empire, captured and executed by Francisco Pizarro.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who led the expedition into the Andes that brought down the Inca Empire between 1531 and 1533.

Papacy

The central administration and office of the Pope, exercising significant political and financial authority in early modern Europe.

Renaissance (European)

A period of artistic, literary, and intellectual rebirth in Europe (14th-17th centuries) emphasizing humanism and classical revival.

Indulgence

A grant by Catholic Church authorities reducing punishment in purgatory, the sale of which triggered Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses.

Protestant Reformation

16th-century religious movement initiated by Martin Luther challenging papal authority, church corruption, and Catholic dogma.

Catholic Reformation

The campaign by the Roman Catholic Church (1545-1563) to reform internal abuses, reaffirm theology, and counter Protestant gains.

Witch-hunt

A wave of social hysteria across early modern Europe resulting in trials and executions of over 100,000 individuals accused of witchcraft.

Scientific Revolution

An intellectual movement establishing modern science through empirical observation, experimentation, and mathematical proof.

Enlightenment

An 18th-century philosophical movement applying scientific reasoning, rationalism, and natural laws to human society and government.

Bourgeoisie

The expanding urban middle class in early modern Europe made up of merchants, bankers, doctors, and lawyers.

Joint-Stock Company

A commercial enterprise where investors purchased shares of stock, pooling capital while sharing financial risks proportionally.

Stock Exchange

A centralized financial market where shares of joint-stock companies were bought and sold, pioneered by the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

Gentry

Wealthy landowning families in England below the nobility rank who dominated local administration and the House of Commons.

Little Ice Age

A century-long period of cooler global temperatures in the 17th century causing crop failures, famine, and population declines.

Deforestation

The large-scale clearing of forests driven by shipbuilding, iron smelting, and agriculture, leading to early environmental degradation.

Holy Roman Empire

A loose federation of German-speaking principalities in Central Europe that remained decentralized until its dissolution in 1806.

Habsburg

A powerful European royal dynasty that controlled Austria, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and the Spanish American Empire.

English Civil War

Conflict (1642-1651) between Royalists and Parliamentarians resulting in the execution of Charles I and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.

Versailles

The grand royal palace built outside Paris by Louis XIV to centralize French absolutism and control noble factions.

Balance of Power

Early modern European diplomatic policy aimed at preventing any single state from achieving total dominance.

Tax Farmer

A private investor contracted by a government to collect state taxes in exchange for a fixed advance sum.

Columbian Exchange

The massive transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and populations between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after 1492.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Spanish Dominican friar and leading defender of indigenous rights who authored accounts of conquistador atrocities.

Potosí

A mountain city in high-altitude Bolivia containing massive silver deposits that fueled global trade networks.

Encomienda

A colonial Spanish grant authorizing conquistadors to extract forced labor and tribute from specific indigenous populations.

Creoles

Whites of European ancestry born in the Americas who were excluded from top colonial administrative positions.

Mestizo

Individuals of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry occupying an intermediate rank in colonial Latin America.

Mulatto

Individuals of mixed European and African ancestry representing a sizeable middle tier in plantation regions.

Indentured Servant

A migrant worker who contracted 4 to 7 years of unpaid labor in exchange for transatlantic passage and land.

House of Burgesses

The first elected representative legislative body in the English American colonies, created in Virginia in 1619.

Pilgrims

English Protestant separatists who established Plymouth Colony in 1620 and authored the Mayflower Compact.

Puritans

English dissenters who established Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 based on Calvinist theology and town hall governance.

Iroquois Confederacy

A powerful alliance of Native American nations in upstate New York that controlled the interior fur trade and diplomacy.

New France

French colonial holdings in North America focused on the fur trade and native alliances rather than dense agricultural settlement.

Coureurs de Bois

French fur traders and woodsmen who lived among indigenous North Americans and explored interior waterways.

Tupac Amaru II

Indigenous leader who claimed Inca descent and led a massive anti-Spanish rebellion in Peru between 1780 and 1781.

Atlantic System

The network of maritime trade, capital investments, and labor migration linking Europe, West Africa, and the Americas.

Chartered Companies

Private commercial firms granted royal monopolies to conduct trade and administrative rule over colonial territories.

Dutch West India Company

A Dutch joint-stock enterprise established in 1621 to capture Atlantic trade, sugar plantations, and slave ports.

Plantocracy

The small ruling class of wealthy plantation owners who held political power and economic monopoly in Caribbean sugar islands.

Driver

A trusted enslaved male appointed to direct and punish gang labor on a plantation.

Seasoning

A grueling 1-to-3-year adjustment and survival period for newly arrived enslaved Africans exposed to tropical diseases.

Manumission

The legal granting of freedom to an enslaved person by their owner, producing free Black urban populations.

Maroon

A formerly enslaved person who escaped bondage to establish independent, fortified communities in remote hinterlands.

Capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership, competitive markets, profit generation, and liquid financial institutions.

Mercantilism

A state economic policy designed to maximize gold and silver reserves by maintaining a favorable trade balance.

Royal African Company

A British chartered trading company established in 1672 holding a state monopoly over the slave trade.

Atlantic Circuit

The triangular maritime trade route linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas with manufactured goods, enslaved people, and raw materials.

Middle Passage

The brutal transoceanic leg of the Atlantic Circuit transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas under horrific conditions.

Songhai

A major West African Islamic empire dominating the Sahel region until its defeat by a Moroccan expedition in 1591.

Hausa

A collection of Muslim city-states in northern Nigeria serving as central commercial hubs for trans-Saharan trade.

Bornu

An Islamic empire around Lake Chad that expanded its military power through imported Ottoman firearms.

Ottoman Empire

A powerful Sunni Islamic empire spanning Southeastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa from the 14th to 20th centuries.

Suleiman the Magnificent

Ottoman Sultan (r. 1520-1566) during the empire's golden age, known for territorial expansion and legal codification.

Janissaries

Elite infantry corps of the Ottoman military recruited through the devshirme system and trained in firearms.

Tulip Period

An era of Ottoman cultural fascination with European luxury goods (1718-1730) that ended in a conservative revolt.

Safavid Empire

An Iranian Shi'ite empire ruling Persia from 1501 to 1722 and establishing Twelver Shi'ism as state religion.

Shi'ites

The branch of Islam asserting that leadership belongs exclusively to hereditary descendants of Muhammad through Ali.

Hidden Imam

The 12th descendant of Ali in Twelver Shi'ism whose return as a messianic figure is awaited.

Shah Abbas I

Safavid ruler (r. 1587-1629) who moved the capital to Isfahan and built a standing army of slave-soldiers.

Mughal Empire

A Muslim empire established in South Asia in 1526 ruling over a majority-Hindu population across India.

Akbar

The third Mughal Emperor (r. 1556-1605) known for religious tolerance and administrative centralization.

Mansabs

Military and administrative ranks assigned to Mughal government officials to dictate pay and cavalry obligations.

Rajputs

Hindu warrior clans of northwest India integrated into the Mughal state by Akbar through political marriages.

Nawab

A provincial governor or semi-independent ruler within the declining Mughal Empire.

Muscovy

The Russian principality centered around Moscow that spearheaded liberation from Mongol rule.

Tsar

The official title of the monarch of the Russian Empire, asserting absolute political and church authority.

Siberia

The vast northern Asian region conquered by Russian fur traders, providing wealth in valuable animal furs.

Cossacks

Nomadic warrior communities serving as frontier mercenaries and driving Russian imperial expansion.

Serf

An unfree agricultural laborer legally bound to a noble's estate in feudal Europe and Russia.

Peter the Great

Russian Tsar (r. 1689-1725) who forced Westernization, built a modern navy, and founded St. Petersburg.

Acheh Sultanate

A Muslim state in northern Sumatra that controlled regional spice trade networks and resisted Portuguese forces.

Oman

An Arab maritime state that drove Portuguese forces from Indian Ocean bases and created an East African trading empire.

Swahili

A Bantu language influenced by Arabic, serving as the commercial lingua franca of the East African coast.

Batavia

Fortified administrative headquarters established by the Dutch VOC on Java in 1619 for spice monopolies.

Manchu

Nomadic people from Manchuria who conquered China in 1644 and established the Qing Dynasty.

Daimyo

Powerful territorial warlords in feudal Japan subjugated by the Tokugawa Shogunate through alternate attendance.

Samurai

The hereditary military warrior caste of feudal Japan who transitioned into urban state bureaucrats.

Tokugawa Shogunate

Centralized military government established in Japan in 1603, enforcing domestic peace and the Sakoku isolation policy.

Yangban

The traditional civil and military scholar-gentry class of Joseon-dynasty Korea.

Ming Empire

Native Han Chinese dynasty (1368-1644) that rebuilt the Great Wall and collapsed due to climate stress and silver inflation.

Qing Empire

The final imperial dynasty of China (1644-1912), founded by Manchu invaders and known for vast territorial expansion.

Kangxi

Long-reigning Qing Emperor who stabilized Manchu rule, patronized scholarship, and negotiated borders with Russia.

Amur River

A northeastern Asian river border region where Russian and Qing forces clashed, leading to the Treaty of Nerchinsk.

Macartney Mission

A 1793 British diplomatic mission rejected by Emperor Qianlong, signaling future conflict over foreign trade access.

Benjamin Franklin

American Enlightenment philosopher and diplomat who secured a French military alliance during the Revolution.

George Washington

Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and first U.S. President, establishing peaceful executive transitions.