Age of Exploration-Unit 2

Age of Exploration

The Age of Exploration (roughly 15th to 17th centuries) was a period of global oceanic exploration led by Europeans, resulting in the mapping of the world and the establishment of global trade networks and colonies.

Prince Henry(the navigator)

(1394–1460) A Portuguese royal prince who did not personally sail, but founded a navigation school and sponsored numerous voyages along the west coast of Africa. His goal was to find a sea route to Asia, bypass Muslim and Italian trade control, and spread Christianity. His efforts are credited with starting the Age of Exploration.

Bartolomeu Dias

A Portuguese explorer who was the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa in 1488. He named it the "Cape of Storms," but the King of Portugal renamed it the Cape of Good Hope, as it opened the sea route to Asia.

Vasco de Gama

A Portuguese explorer who, in 1497–1498, led the first European ship to successfully sail around Africa and reach Calicut, India. His successful voyage established a direct sea trade route between Europe and Asia, giving Portugal a major advantage in the spice trade.

Christopher Colombus

An Italian explorer, financed by Spain, who attempted to reach Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. He landed in the Caribbean in 1492, initiating the sustained European contact and subsequent colonization of the Americas.

Treaty of Tordesillas

An agreement signed in 1494 between Spain and Portugal. It drew an imaginary line (a meridian) in the Atlantic Ocean; all lands to the west were claimed by Spain (including most of the Americas), and all lands to the east were claimed by Portugal (including the route around Africa and, eventually, Brazil).

Colony

A land controlled by another nation. During the Age of Exploration, European nations established colonies in the Americas and Asia to secure resources, wealth, and territory for the "mother country."

Conquistadors

Spanish soldiers, explorers, and fortune hunters who took part in the Spanish conquest of the Americas in the 16th century. They were primarily motivated by God, gold, and glory.

Hernan Cortes

A Spanish Conquistador who led the expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire in Mexico between 1519 and 1521

Francisco Pizarro

A Spanish Conquistador who led the expedition that conquered the Inca Empire in Peru, capturing their ruler, Atahualpa, in 1532.

Motezuma

The Aztec ruler (Tlatoani) who governed the empire at the time Hernan Cortés's arrival. He was eventually taken captive and later died during the Spanish siege of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán.

encomienda

A system established by the Spanish in the Americas. It granted Spanish colonists (the encomenderos) the right to demand tribute and forced labor from the indigenous people in a specific area. In exchange, the colonists were supposed to protect the Native Americans and instruct them in the Catholic faith, though it became a brutal form of forced servitude.

Colombian Exchange

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations (including slaves), technology, and ideas between the Americas (New World) and the Old World (Europe, Africa, and Asia) beginning after Christopher Columbus's voyages in 1492. It had huge consequences, including the introduction of crops like potatoes and maize to Europe, and the devastating introduction of European diseases (like smallpox) to the Americas.

Capitalism

An economic system in which private individuals or groups own the means of production (e.g., land, factories, resources) and in which investments are privately owned and made to generate a profit. This system emerged and grew stronger due to the wealth and global trade opportunities created by the Age of Exploration.

Joint-stock Company

A business arrangement where investors pool their wealth for a common purpose, sharing the risks and the profits. They were a key feature of early capitalism, allowing expensive, high-risk ventures like colonizing the Americas (e.g., the Virginia Company) or long-distance trade (e.g., the Dutch East India Company) to be financed by many investors rather than just a few wealthy individuals or governments .

Mercantilism

An economic policy practiced by European nations from the 16th to 18th centuries. The theory was that a country's power depended mainly on its wealth (primarily gold and silver). The ultimate goal was to become self-sufficient and to accumulate as much wealth as possible, largely through the strict regulation of trade, especially with colonies.

Favorable balance of trade

An economic goal under mercantilism where a country sells more goods (exports)to other countries than it buys (imports). The difference in value was paid in gold or silver, thereby increasing the nation's wealth and power. Colonies were crucial to this by supplying cheap raw materials and buying finished goods from the "mother country."

Athlantic Slave Trade

The massive, forced transport of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean, primarily to the Americas, from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It was driven by the demand for cheap labor on colonial plantations (especially for cash crops like sugar, tobacco, and cotton

Triangular Trade

The transatlantic trading network along which goods and, most infamously, enslaved people were exchanged between three regions:

1. 2. 3. Europe (carrying manufactured goods like textiles and rum) to Africa.

Africa (carrying enslaved Africans) to the Americas (the Middle Passage).

The Americas (carrying raw materials like sugar, tobacco, and cotton) back to Europe.

Middle Passage

The brutal and deadly voyage that brought enslaved Africans from West Africa to the West Indies and later to North and South America. It was the middle leg of the Triangular Trade and is characterized by horrific, overcrowded, and unsanitary conditions, resulting in the death of millions.