APWH Unit 4 Economics, Colonies and Social Systems

Bank of Amsterdam

First bank to not only received deposits of gold and silver and exchanged foreign currencies, it made loans.

Join-Stock companies

a company whose stock is owned jointly by the shareholders.

Mercantilism

an economic system (Europe in 18th C) to increase a nation's wealth by government regulation of all of the nation's commercial interests (colonies job was to provide and give back to their home country)

Primogeniture laws

English laws that only led eldest sons inherit land, leading younger sons to search for money via things like joint-stock companies.

Adam Smith

Scottish economist who wrote the Wealth of Nations a precursor to modern Capitalism.

Capitalism

an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Monopoly

the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service.

The Wealth Of the Nations

This is the 18th century book written by Scottish economist Adam Smith in which he spells out the first modern account of free market economies.

Dutch East India Company

A company founded by the Dutch in the early 17th century to establish and direct trade throughout Asia. Richer and more powerful than England's company, they drove out the English and Established dominance over the region. It ended up going bankrupt and being bought out by the British

British East India Company

A joint stock company that controlled most of India during the period of imperialism. This company controlled the political, social, and economic life in India for more than 200 years.

Encomienda system

It gave settlers the right to tax local Native Americans or to make them work. In exchange, these settlers were supposed to protect the Native American people and convert them to Christianity

Potosi

Located in Bolivia, one of the richest silver mining centers and most populous cities in colonial Spanish America.

Triangular trade

A three way system of trade during 1600-1800s Africa sent slaves to America, America sent Raw Materials to Europe, and Europe sent Guns and Rum to Africa

Cash Crops

crops, such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton, raised in large quantities in order to be sold for profit

Tobacco

Cash crop that made a profit and saved Jamestown

Indentured servitude

A worker bound by a voluntary agreement to work for a specified period of years often in return for free passage to an overseas destination. Before 1800 most were Europeans; after 1800 most indentured laborers were Asians.

Commercial Revolution

A dramatic change in the economy of Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. It is characterized by an increase in towns and trade, the use of banks and credit, and the establishment of guilds to regulate quality and price. (expansion of the trade and business that transformed European economies)

Little Ice Age

A century-long period of cool climate that began in the 1590s. Its ill effects on agriculture in northern Europe were notable.

Piracy

an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat: attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable items or properties.

Chattel slavery

An enslaved person who is owned for ever and whose children and children's children are automatically enslaved. Chattel slaves are individuals treated as complete property, to be bought and sold.

Plantation Economy

economic system stretching between the Chesapeake Bay and Brazil that produced crops, especially sugar, cotton, and tobacco, using slave labor on large estates

Guangzhou

a coastal city in southeastern China, also known as Canton

Nagasaki

Japanese city in which the second atomic bomb was dropped (August 9, 1945).

Goa

a state in western India; formerly a coastal city that was made the base of Portugal's Indian trade

Colony

A group of people in one place who are ruled by a parent country elsewhere.

Hispaniola

First island in Caribbean settled by Spaniards; settlement founded by Columbus on second voyage to New World; Spanish base of operations for further discoveries in New World.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, found in East Virginia by the Virginia Company

Aztec Empire

Central American empire constructed by the Mexica and expanded greatly during the fifteenth century during the reigns of Itzcoatl and Motecuzoma I.

Incan Empire

a Mesoamerican civilization in the Andes Mountains in South America that by the end of the 1400s was the largest empire in the Americas including much of what is now Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile; conquered by Pizarro

New Spain

After the defeat of the Aztecs, it was a Spanish colony. Its capital was Mexico City. (Spanish colonial possessions in Mesoamerica; included most of central Mexico; based on imperial system of Aztecs)

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire

Mexico City

Capital of New Spain; built on ruins of Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

Lima

What South American city was used as the center of Spanish government in the 1600s

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal. Set the Line of Demarcation which was a boundary established in 1493 to define Spanish and Portuguese possessions in the Americas.

Bartolome de Las Casas

First bishop of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. He devoted most of his life to protecting Amerindian peoples from exploitation. His major achievement was the New Laws of 1542, which limited the ability of Spanish settlers to compel Amerindians to labor. Spoke out for native Americans

Viceroys

Representatives of the Spanish monarch in Spain's colonial empire

Viceroyalties

Two major divisions of Spanish colonies in New World; one based in Lima; the other in Mexico City; direct representatives of the king.

Audiencias

Courts appointed by the king who reviewed the administration of viceroys serving Spanish colonies in America.

Haciendas

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

Rio de Janeiro

Brazilian port; close to mines of Minas Gerais; importance grew with gold strikes; became colonial capital in 1763.

New Amsterdam

Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. This later became "New York City"

Manila

Capital of the Spanish Philippines and a major multicultural trade city that already had a population of more than 40,000 by 1600.

Sociedad de castas

Spanish American social system based on racial origins; Europeans on top, mixed race in middle, Indians and African slaves at the bottom.

Middle passage

A voyage that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies

Atlantic Slave trade

Lasted from 16th century until the 19th century. Trade of African peoples from Western Africa to the Americas. One part of a three-part economical system known as the Middle Passage of the Triangular Trade.

Creoles

Descendents of Spanish-born but born in Latin America; resented inferior social, political, economic status.

Peninsulares

Spanish-born, came to Latin America; ruled, highest social class.

Castas

middle-level status between Europeans and pure minorities (made up of mezitos and mulattoes)

Mestizos

A person of mixed Native American and European ancestory

Mulattoes

People of African and European descent

Zambos

According to Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, these are people of mixed Native American and African descent. Lowest tier of social class in colonial America.

African Diaspora

The separation of Africans from their homeland through centuries of forced removal to serve as slaves in the Americas and elsewhere.