Quarter 1 Study Guide

history class 2025-2026

gold

Silk trade routes, tobacco, and fur trade.

God

Missionaries, religious rivalry, and spread of Christianity.

Glory

Conquest, adventure, and planting the flag.

Marco Polo

Fostered interest in trade and exploration, introduced the concepts of paper money and the postal system and silks and spices. Inspired future explorers, and he traveled to Asia. 

Christopher Columbus

Died thinking he discovered a new way to Asia, when really he found the Bahamas by crossing the Atlantic Ocean and searching for gold for 3 months. 

Bartolomeu Dias

Discovered the cape of good hope (a passage to Asia by going under Africa.)

Ferdinand Magellan

Found out Earth was round, made first circumnavigational voyage. Discovered that Columbus didn’t discover a new way to Asia but rather a New World. And found out all the oceans are connected. 

Amerigo Vespucci

Discovered that Christopher Columbus discovered a new continent not Asia. His name was used to name North and South America, which linked him to the new world. 

Columbus’ Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella

Columbus wrote a long letter to both of them about how it would be beneficial to continue their exploration across to the Americas. He tried to convince them of this by stating how easy it would be to turn the indigenous people into Christians

Columbian Exchange: what moved between continents? Not just physical goods, but also…

Slaves moved from places to places because everyone wanted some and the slave trade was a way to get more and move them to places. But also diseases because they also traveled to new places and killed millions of indigenous people because their immune systems weren’t used to fighting those diseases.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Signed in June 1494, It moved the line created in the Papal Bull more westwards because cartographers couldn’t agree how to map the world because their view on the world kept changing. So they moved the line a little to the west so it was more centered on the Atlantic Ocean. 

Trading Post empires pros

Trading post empire pros: Allows a power to expand its economic reach globally without requiring the permanent resettlement of a large population. By focusing on strategic coastal locations, a trading post empire can often avoid direct, large-scale military conflicts with powerful inland empires. 

Trading post empires cons

Trading post empires cons: Economic success is dependent on maintaining stable relationships with local rulers and populations. Trading posts are often smaller and more vulnerable to attack by competing European powers or local resistance.

Colonial empires Cons:

Colonial empire cons: Involves significant financial and military investment to conquer, settle, and maintain control of territories. Requires significant resources to suppress ongoing resistance and independence movements from local populations

Colonial empires pros:

Provides new lands for a colonizing nation's growing population, relieving demographic pressure. Expands a nation's military presence and prestige far from its home territory.

Forced Labor and the Slave Trade (Middle Passage)

Native American forced labor - Indigenous people were forced into encomienda and repartimiento labor systems by Spanish colonists seeking labor for mines & agriculture

Indentured servitude - European immigrants worked 4-7 years under contract in exchange for passage to the New World colonies - Later this happened with Asians, too

African slavery - Millions of Africans forcibly transported via the triangular trade to work on plantations as chattel slaves - (chattel = they were treated as property)

silver trade

Silver supported China's massive industrial sector. China needed silver because of its resource problems and they needed a medium exchange of money. China solved their money problem by creating the first paper money. However the paper money was hard to produce. At first the paper money worked well but later dynasties got into financial crises. China then turned to silver, and tried to work with Spain to get it. Eventually, Europeans became reluctant to continue shipping so much silver to East Asia. They preferred to hoard silver to pay mercenaries in their ongoing wars.Europeans looked for something else to export to China. Problem: There were very few things Europeans could produce more efficiently than the Chinese. Opium eventually filled the gap left by reduced silver shipments. Opium served several functions for the British in particular. Helped make their new colony in India profitable. Provided a ready revenue source. Saved on the silver they no longer wanted to ship. The opium trade led to a different period of world history and different kinds of links between China and the outside world.

Galileo Galilei

Italian scientist, first person to use a telescope to study the heavens systematically, discovered Jupiter's four largest moons, proving not everything orbits Earth, the Catholic Church put him on trial for his beliefs.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Polish astronomer, proposed the heliocentric theory: the Sun is at the center of our solar system, his book "On the Revolutions of Celestial Spheres" challenged 1,400 years of accepted belief.

Issac Newton

English mathematician and physicist, developed the three laws of motion that explain how objects move, discovered the law of universal gravitation (F = ma), Invented calculus, His work "Principia Mathematica" unified physics and astronomy.

Printing Press

helped spread new scientific ideas rapidly.

Scientific Method

Scientists began using systematic observation and experimentation, Steps: Ask questions, form hypotheses, test through experiments, analyze results

Conflict with Church

The Catholic Church initially opposed many scientific discoveries, Scientists faced persecution for challenging accepted beliefs.

Thomas Hobbes

Believed people were naturally selfish and violent without government. His solution: absolute monarchy where people give up freedoms for safety and order. Famous quote: Life without government is "nasty, brutish, and short"

John Locke

Believed all people have natural rights, His three natural rights: Life, Liberty, and Property, You have these rights simply because you are human, Government's job is to protect these rights, not grant them, If government fails to protect rights, people can overthrow it

Voltaire

Famous quote: "I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it", You should have freedom of speech, religion, and thought, Criticized the Catholic Church and absolute monarchy, Believed in religious tolerance and separation of church and state.

Baron de Montesquieu

Studied different forms of government and worried about tyranny, His solution: divide government power into three branches - the idea of separation of powers, You need three branches of government to prevent tyranny:Legislative (makes laws), Executive (enforces laws), Judicial (interprets laws)Each branch checks and balances the others

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

wrote about the "social contract", You give up some freedoms to live in society, but gain protection and order, Rousseau believed people are naturally good and the "general will" of the people represents what is best for the whole community, Government should carry out the general will of the people and gets its power from the consent of the people, Democracy is the best form of government because people rule themselves through consensus, Famous quote: "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains"

Mary Wollstonecraft -

was one of the first to argue for women's rights, She believed women deserve equal education and opportunities, Her book "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" challenged traditional gender roles, She argued that women's supposed inferiority came from lack of education, not nature

English Revolution: end result was the creation of what form of government?

Constitutional Monarchy

Oliver Cromwell

Killed/disposed of King Charles the first and then there was a republican government until he died.

King Charles fate

King Charles I  is killed/deposed by Oliver Cromwell in 1649. Bc  he was convicted of being a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and Public Enemy"

“No taxation without representation” meaning:

reflected the colonists' belief that they should not be taxed by the British Parliament because they had no representatives in it to voice their interests

How American revolution influenced other revolutions

It provided a model and inspiration for a new kind of government that helped influence other revolutions to begin.

Reign of Terror:

leader and what was it: The leader was Maximilien Robespierre, and the Reign of Terror was a period of extreme violence during the French Revolution where people were beheaded with a guillotine.

Guillotine -

thing used in the French Revolution that basically beheaded over thousands of people.

Why did the French rev terrify other European monarchs?

Because it symbolized a fundamental and violent break from the established social and political order.

Fate of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette -

Louis: gets his crown taken away. Just plain old Louis (voted by National Convention). New Government! France will be a Republic. January 1793, King Louis got guillotined. Marie: Loved to spend money and eventually got also killed by the guillotine.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Short guy: French: helped reclaim the land, Royalists wanted a King back with the new government. Insurrection breaks out. Napoleon ends it, Napoleon now becomes the general of France to help defend against different revolutions on France’s border. Later becomes the “FAMED HERO OF FRANCE”! New government of France… again… which pretty much put Napoleon as the dictator. Eventually Napoleon gets exiled to the island of St. Helena, where he died.

haitian revolution and leader

A key trait of Haitians is resilience and pride in their history, born from a unique identity forged through a struggle for freedom and independence. This is combined with a strong sense of community, hospitality, and family.

Leader - Toussaint Louverture

Main leader in Latin American revolution

Main Leader: Simon Bolivar - Wanted a unified Gran Columbia  but later gave up on that goal, but he did manage to unite some other places such as Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia from Spanish rule. 

gran columbia

a short-lived republic in northern South America and southern Central America, founded by Simón Bolívar.

Social Hierarchy

(Penisulares, Criollos, Mestizos, Mulattos, Indios, Negros) - rigid, race-based system, with peninsulares (Spanish-born) at the top, followed by criollos (American-born Spaniards), mixed-race individuals like mestizos and mulattoes, and finally, indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans at the bottom

industrial revolution causes

• #1 More food  → More People → More Urban Workers for factories

• #2 More efficient technology -> More factories -> Faster transportation = more markets to sell in -> Stronger materials (Steel > Iron)

• #3 Majority of the world is colonized -> Resources are extracted from colonies for the Mother Country -> Factories can process more than cottage industry

• #3 The only limit on production is time

Industrial revolution effects

#1 Population Growth

#2 Workers Move to Fill Factory Jobs (Urban Growth)

capitalism

The idea that people rely on themselves for earning things. So that someone who works more than other people won't earn just as much as those others, they’ll earn as much as they deserve based on their hard work. Example: a McDonalds worker would make as much as they work for and a heart surgeon would make as much as they work for, they would not earn the same amount of money as each other. 

adam smith

believed in capitalism

communism

The idea that everyone makes the same amount of money regardless of how hard they work or what job they have. Example: a McDonalds worker would make the same amount as a heart surgeon.

Karl Marx

believed in the idea of communism