APWH Unit 2 (1450-1750) Vocabulary 2024-25

Penninsulares

Spanish people, who were born in Spain, who were appointed by the king to have political authority over everyone in their colonies in the Americas.

Creoles

In colonial Spanish America, a term used to describe someone of European descent born in the Americas (not in Europe).

Mestizo

The term used by Spanish authorities to describe someone of mixed native American (indigenous) and European descent.

Mulatto

The term used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies to describe someone of mixed African and European descent.

Plantation Economy

Economic system using slave laborers in the Americas. These large estates produced cash crops; such as sugar, cotton and tobacco.

Taj Mahal

A tomb built by the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan to honor his wife.

Akbar

The most famous Muslim ruler of India during the period of Mughal rule. Famous for his religious tolerance, his investment in rich cultural feats, and the creation of a centralized governmental administration.

Wahhabism

A conservative form of Islam that is practiced in Saudi Arabia.

Sufism

An Islamic mystical tradition that desired a personal union with God--divine love through intuition rather than through rational deduction and study of the shari'a. Followed an ascetic routine (denial of physical desire to gain a spiritual goal), dedicating themselves to fasting, prayer, meditation on the Qur'an, and the avoidance of sin. Often were missionaries in the Islamic tradition.

Tokugawa Shogunate

A semi-feudal government of Japan in which one of the shoguns unified the country under his family's rule. They moved the capital to Edo, which now is called Tokyo. This family ruled from Edo until it was abolished during the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

"soft gold"

Nickname used for animal furs, highly valued for their warmth and as symbols of elite status; in several regions, the fur trade generated massive wealth for those engaged in it.

Renaissance

Following the Middle Ages, a movement that centered on the revival of interest in the classical learning of Greece and Rome. Known as a "rebirth".

Secularism

A doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations, and focuses more on worldly affairs.

Humanism

A Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers focused on human potential and achievements.

Johann Gutenberg

German printer who was the first in Europe to print using movable type and the first to use a press. This invention revolutionized access to information and literacy rates rose.

Protestant Reformation

A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches.

Catholic Counter-Reformation

An internal reform of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. The Council of Trent (1545-1563), encouraged Catholic leaders to clarify doctrine, corrected abuses and corruption, and put a new emphasis on education and accountability.

Martin Luther

In 1517, he authored the 95 Thesis that led to religious reform in Germany. He is generally considered the leader of the Protestant Reformation.

95 Theses

Martin Luther's ideas were posted on the door at Wittenburg Church questioning the Roman Catholic Church. His arguments lead to the Protestant Reformation.

Jesuits

Also known as the Society of Jesus; founded by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) as a teaching and missionary order to resist the spread of Protestantism, and to bring Catholicism to new places.

Suleiman I

The most illustrious sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1520-1566); also known as 'The Lawgiver.' He significantly expanded the empire in the Balkans and eastern Mediterranean.

Devshirme

'Selection' in Turkish. The system by which boys from Christian communities were taken by the Ottoman state to serve as janissaries.

Janissaries

Christian boys taken from families, converted to Islam, and then rigorously trained to serve the sultan.

Jizya

A tax paid by Christians and Jews who lived in Muslim communities that allowed them to continue to practice their own religion.

Sultans

Military and political leaders with absolute authority over a Muslim country.

Sikhism

The doctrines of a monotheistic religion founded in northern India in the 16th century. This was a syncretic religion combining elements of Hinduism and Islam

"God, Glory, Gold"

The primary motives of age of exploration and conquest by Europeans.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Portuguese Prince that gave financial and moral support to the navigators.

Trade Post Empire

Commerce based cities that allowed foreign governments to control local trade in a region. In this era they were predominately European Empires in Africa and Asia.

Joint Stock Companies

Businesses formed by groups of people who jointly make an investment and share in the profits and losses.

Mercantilism

An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than purchased and monopolizing trade in a particular industry.

Silver

The first universal and global currency during the post-classical era. It was minted into coins, and at one point was required by the Chinese government for all taxes in China to be paid in silver coin.

Dutch East India Company

A government-chartered joint-stock company founded by the Dutch in the 17th Century that controlled the spice trade in the East Indies. Richer and more powerful than England's company, they drove out the English and Established dominance over the region.

British East India Company

A joint stock company that controlled the textile industry and other Indian trade during the early modern era. This company controlled the political, social, and economic life in India for more than 200 years.

Zheng He

An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa.

Manchus

Northeast Asian peoples who defeated the Ming Dynasty and founded the Qing Dynasty in 1644, which was the last of China's imperial dynasties.

Christopher Columbus

An Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish Government to find a passage to the Far East. He is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his death he believed he had made it to India.

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in the exploration of the Atlantic.

Lateen Sail

A triangular sail used to sail against the wind.

Gunpowder

Invented within China during the 9th century, this substance was became the dominate military technology used to expand European and Asian empires by the 15th century.

Colonies

A settlement of a group of people who leave their native country to form in a new society connected with or to the authority of the parent nation.

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.

The Great Dying

Term used to describe the devastating demographic impact of European-borne epidemic diseases on the indigenous people of the Americas.

Conquistador

A Spanish conqueror of the Americas.

Encomienda System

A system whereby the Spanish crown granted the conquerors the right to forcibly employ groups of indigenous people (Native Americans); it was a disguised form of slavery.

Hacienda System

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

Casta System

A system in colonial Spain of determining a person's social importance according to different racial categories.

Pilgrims

Group of English Protestant dissenters who established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620 to seek religious freedom after having lived briefly in the Netherlands.

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.

Ana Nzinga Resistance

17th century Angolan queen who fought off the Portuguese colonizers by developing a powerful trade nation and engaging in diplomatic relationships with enemies of the Portuguese to protect her people from the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres following Columbus' voyages.

Cash Crop

Agricultural production, often on a large scale, or crops for sale in the market, rather than for consumption by the farmers themselves. These goods were produced in great quantity by European colonizers in the Americas.

Small Pox

Disease spread by Europeans in the Americas. Led to the deaths of millions of Native Americans in North and South America.

Mughal Empire

An Islamic imperial power that ruled a large portion of Indian subcontinent which began in 1526. This empire invaded and ruled most of South Asia by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century.

Safavid Empire

Shi'ite (Shia) Muslim dynasty that ruled Persia between 16th and 18th centuries.

Ottoman Empire

Islamic state founded by Osman in northwestern Anatolia. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire was based at Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) from 1453-1922. It encompassed lands in the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, and eastern Europe.

Spanish America

By the end of the sixteenth century, Spain possessed an American empire. Indigenous people were converted to Christianity and became subjects of the Spanish king. King of Spain governed American empire though a Council of the Indies in Spain and through viceroys in Mexico City and Lima, Peru.

British America

English territories in North America (including Bermuda), Central America, the Caribbean, and Guyana from 1607 to 1783.

Aztec Empire

This empire settled in the valley of Mexico. They grew corn and engaged in frequent warfare to conquer others of the region. They were polytheistic and believed the sun god needed human blood to continue his journeys across the sky. Practiced human sacrifices and those sacrificed were captured warriors from other tribes and those who volunteered for the honor.

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire.

Incan Empire

A Mesoamerican civilization in the Andes Mountains in South America. By the end of the 1400s, it was the largest empire in the Americas including much of what is now Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile. Later conquered by Pizarro.

Cuzco

The capital city of the Incan Empire, Located in present-day Peru.

Macchu Picchu

This was a major city in the Inca Empire in high altitude. The city was built around 1450 and was discovered only in 1911. It is believed to have been a major religious center.

Asante

African kingdom on the Gold Coast that expanded rapidly after 1680. A major participant in the Atlantic economy, trading gold, slaves, and ivory. It resisted British imperial ambitions for a quarter century before being absorbed into Britain.

Kingdom of Dahomey

an African kingdom that expanded during the 18th century, vigorous involvement in slave trade (became their main source of income until the 1800s)

Ming Dynasty

Succeeded Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1368; lasted until 1644; initially mounted huge trade expeditions to southern Asia and elsewhere, but later concentrated efforts on internal development within China.

Qing Dynasty

The last imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Ming Dynasty and succeeded by the people's republic. Formed the territorial base for the modern Chinese state. Founded in 1644 by the Manchus and ruled China for more than 260 years, until 1912. Expanded China's borders to include Taiwan, Tibet, Chinese Central Asia, and Mongolia.

Russian Empire

Ivan III used the Cossacks, the Russian version of the American western settlers, to expand and take over additional land. Meanwhile, Ivan solidified a centralized rule and claimed divine ordination. He proclaimed Moscow to be the new capital of a new Russian empire extending from Eastern Europe through Siberia.

Dhimmis

"the people of the book"-- Jews, Christians; later extended to Zoroastrians. A term used by Islamic empires to designate a special status for those who practiced monotheistic religions.

Yasak

Tribute that Russian rulers demanded from the native peoples of Siberia, most often in the form of furs.

Cossacks

Peoples of the Russian Empire who lived outside the farming villages, often as herders, mercenaries, or outlaws. Cossacks led the conquest of Siberia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

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.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico (1485-1547)

Triangular Trade

A three way system of trade during 1600-1800s Africa sent enslaved people to the Americas, the Americas sent raw materials to Europe, and Europe sent manufactured products like guns and rum to Africa.

Middle Passage

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

Settler Colonies

Colonies in which the colonizing people settled in large numbers, rather than simply spending relatively small numbers to exploit the region; particularly noteworthy in the case of the British colonies in North America.

Maroon Societies

Communities formed by escaped slaves in the Caribbean, Latin American. and the United States.

potatoes and maize

-crops found in the Americas that led to widespread cultivation of these items during European colonization. It increased food supply of the 18th century leading to growing populations throughout the world.

Leonardo da Vinci

A well known Italian Renaissance artist, architect, musician, mathemetician, engineer, and scientist. Known for the Mona Lisa.

indulgence

A pardon for punishment of sins given by the Roman Catholic Church.

Potosi

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

Bhakti

Hindu devotional movement that flourished in the early modern era, emphasizing music, dance, poetry, and rituals as means by which to achieve direct union with the divine.

Constantinople

A large and wealthy city that was the imperial capital of the Byzantine empire and later the Ottoman empire, now known as Istanbul

French America

Colonial empire in Midwest America and Canada

Dutch America

Included regions in the colonies such as parts of New York, Connecticut, and Delaware.

Portuguese America

Essentially what is today known as modern-day Brazil

spices

The most sought after commodity in the eastern world (Asia) by Europeans during the Age of Exploration. Located mostly in Southeast Asia (Indonesia) and parts of South Asia.

Peter the Great

(1672-1725) Russian tsar (r. 1689-1725). He enthusiastically introduced Western languages and technologies to the Russian elite, moving the capital from Moscow to the new city of St. Petersburg.

Samurai

Class of warriors in feudal Japan who pledged loyalty to a noble in return for land.

Benin

a kingdom that arose near the Niger River delta in the 1300s and became a major West African state in the 1400s

Philippines

Spanish colony in the Pacific established during the Age of Exploration

Manila

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

Bombay or Calcutta

Important trade cities in South Asia along the Indian Ocean trade routes