European Exploration & Early Atlantic World (1400s–1500s)

Sugar

• A profitable plantation crop that drove the expansion of slavery in the Americas 

  • Sugar Revolution = sugar introduced to Europe (1000s CE)

  • 1400s - 1500s → big demand → labor systems for cultivation of sugar

  • Madeira = largest sugar producer

Kingdom of Benin

• West African kingdom known for trade with Europeans and bronze artwork

  • 1200-1897 CE

  • Ruled by Oba (king)

  • Known for = bronze art, advanced political system, massive city walls

Portuguese Exploration

• Portugal = European nation that led early exploration of Africa and started the Atlantic slave trade 

  • Prince Henry the Navigator → sponsored exploration along West Africa

  • 1418-1470s → Portuguese explore West African coast

    • Colonized atlantic islands = Madeira, Azores, Cape Verde, Sao Tome

  • 1488 → Bartolomeu Dias rounds Cape of Good Hope

European Exploration

• Europe Before Slave Trade

  • Europe = not unified

  • Made up of = monarchies, city-states, feuding nobles 

  • 1440s → rise of strong monarchies & formation of early nation states (England, France, Spain, Portugal)

• Exploration = motivated by Christianity

  • Crusades (1095-1291) → against Muslims

  • Reconquista (ended 1492) → Spain/Portugal take land from Muslims

  • Europeans wanted = gold, trade routes to Asia, avoid Ottoman Empire (blocked land routes)

Cabo Verde

• West African islands used by Portugal as a trading and slave trading base

  • 1400s - 1600s

    • 1460s = discovered & settled by Portugal 

    • Late 1400s - 1500s = major slave trading hub

    • 1500s+ = mixed African-European population develops 

  • Center of Atlantic slave trade & port for shiping tarveling between Africa, Europe, and the Americas

Pope Nicholas V

• 1452 → Papal Bull: Dum Diversas

  • Allowed enslavement of muslim and non-Christians (pagans)

• 1537 → Papal Bull

  • Declared indigenous people as human and not to be enslaved 

• 1542 → Spain bans Indigenous slavery (mostly ignored)

Carracks & Caravels

• Types of sailing ships used by Europeans for long-distance ocean travel

Plantation System

• First used in Mediterranean with enslaved Europeans

  • Moved to Atlantic islands in 1400s-1500s

Sao Tome

• Portuguese island colony used for sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans

  • 1400s - 1600s

    • 1470s = claimed by Portugal

    • 1500s = becomes major sugar producing colony

    • 1500s - 1600s = labor done by enslaved Africans

Columbus & Hispaniola

• 1492 - 1500s

  • 1492 = Christopher Columbus arrives → establishes colony

  • 1502 = first Africans brought to the island

Taino Indians

• Indigenous Caribbean people encountered by Columbus and early Spanish explorers

  • 1492 (500,000) → 1514 (28,000) → 1542 (a few hundred)

  • Causes = disease, forced labor, violence

Gaunches

• Indigenous people of the Canary Islands before Spanish colonization

  • 1400s - 1500s

    • Before 1400s = live independently 

    • 1400s - 1490s = conquered by Spain

Conquistadores

• Spanish soldiers who conquered Indigenous civilizations in the Americas 

  • 1500s = conquer major empires (Aztec, Inca)

Ecomienda System

• Spanish system forcing Indigenous people to work and pay tribute that lead to a population decline 

  • 1500s = implemented in Spanish colonies

Kongo

• Central African kingdom that traded with Europeans/Portugal and adopted Christianity

  • 1300s - 1600s

    • 1300s = kingdom forms

    • 1480s = contact with Portugal

    • 1500s = Christianity spreads

King Nzinga a Nkuwu

• King of Kongo who converted to Christianity after contact with the Portuguese 

  • 1400s - 1500s

    • 1480s - 1490s = meets Portuguese → converts to roman catholicism

Roman Catholicism

• A major branch of Christianity introduced to Africa by European missionaries 

  • 1400s - 1600s (expansion)

    • Late 1400s = introduced by Europeans

    • 1500s = adopted in Kongo

Queen Idia

• Influential queen mother in Benin who helped expand and strengthen the kingdom 

  • 1500s = advised her son (Oba Esigie)

    • Contributions = military, political influence, helped expand Benin kingdom

Kingdom of Ndongo

• Central African kingdom that resisted Portuguese control and slave trading

  • 1500s - 1600s

    • 1500s = Portuguese contact begins 

    • 1600s = conflict with Portugal 

      • Resisted slave trading and colonization

Queen Njinga

• Powerful ruler of Ndongo and Matamba who fought Portuguese colonization and slavery

  • 1583 - 1663

    • 1620s - 1660s = rules and resists Portugal

  • Fought against slave trade, used diplomacy & warfare, formed alliances

Cotton

• A major agricultural crop grown with enslaved labor in the Americas

Indigo

• A plant used to produce blue dye and grown on plantations