WHAP- Vocab List #6

Columbian Exchange

Exchange of plants, animals and diseases across East and western hemisphere

Cash Crops

Agricultural products primarily for sale and profit

Coerced Labor

Forced labor

Encomienda

Grant of Indian laborers made to Spanish conquerors and settlers in Mesoamerica in South America, basis for earliest forms of coerced labor in Spanish colonies

Mit'a System

Labor extracted for lands assigned to the state and the religion; All communities were expected to contribute; an essential aspect of Inca imperial control

Haciendas

Rural estates in Spanish colonies in New World; produced agricultural products for consumers in America; Basis of wealth and power for local aristocracy

Missions

Religious and cultural establishments set up by European powers; aimed to convert natives to Christianity

Plantations

Large scale agricultural estate focused on the cultivation of cash crops, often utilizing coerced labor.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Signed in 1494 between Castile and Portugal; clarified spheres of influence and rights of possession in New World; Reserved Brazil and all newly discovered lands east of Brazil to Portugal; granted all lands west of Brazil to Spain

Viceroy

Senior government officials in Spanish America; ruled as direct representative of the king over the principal administrative units or vice royalties; usually high ranking Spanish nobles with previous military or governmental experience. The Portuguese also used viceroys who resided in Goa for their possessions in Indian Ocean; And then after the mid-17th century for their colony in Brazil

Iberian Peninsula

Southwest Peninsula of Europe containing Spain and Portugal

Castas de Sociedad

American social system based on racial origins. Europeans or whites at the top, black slaves and Native Americans at the bottom, mixed races in the middle.

Peninsulares

People living in the New World Spanish colonies, but born in Spain

Creoles

Whites born in New World; dominated local Latin American economies and ranked just beneath peninsulares

Mestizos

European and native descent; under Creoles, above Amerindians; middle

Mulattoes

European and African descent- middle

Amerindians

Natives- workers (peasants)- could not be made slaves because could be converted to Christianity; often could not own property

Seven Years' War

Global conflict from 1756-1763 between European powers and their colonies

Bartolomeo de las Casa

Dominican Friar who supported peaceful conversion of the Native American population of the Spanish colonies; opposed forced labor and advocated Indian rights

Potosi

Mine located in Upper Peru (modern Bolivia) largest of New World silver mines; produced 80% of all Peruvian silver

Silver

Key driver of global trade and economic transformation during early modern period; huge silver mining in Americas; caused price revolution

Latin America

Spanish and Portuguese speaking America; South and Central America, Mexico, and parts of Caribbean

Mesoamerica

Mexico to Central America; had Aztec and Maya empires.

South America

Continent south of Central America

North America

Continent of Canada, US, Mexico, and Central America

Vodun

African religious ideas and practices among descendants of African slaves in Haiti

Cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Religious and cultural phenomenon that emerged in Mexico centered around the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego in 1531

Audiencias

Royal Court of Appeals established in Spanish colonies of New World. There were 16 throughout Spanish America, part of colonial administrative system; staffed by professional magistrates

Indigenous

Original inhabitants of a region

Afro-Eurasian

Combined continents of Africa, Europe and Asia as one large, interconnected region

Syncretic

Blending of different cultural religious or philosophical traditions to create new systems of belief or practice

Maroon Societies

Communities created by escaped enslaved Africans in the Americas