European exploration/conquest and Transatlantic Slave Trade

Astrolabe

An instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the position of the stars and planets

caravel

a small, fast Spanish or Portuguese sailing ship of the 15th-17th centuries.

Prince Henry the Navigator

(1394-1460) Prince of Portugal who established an observatory and school of navigation at Sagres and directed voyages that spurred the growth of Portugal's colonial empire.

Bartolomeu Dias

Portuguese explorer who in 1488 led the first expedition to sail around the southern tip of Africa from the Atlantic and sight the Indian Ocean.

Da Gama

This was the first explorer to round the Cape of Good Hope and sail into the Indian Ocean trade

Columbus

Italian navigator who discovered the New World in the service of Spain while looking for a route to India (1451-1506)

Magellan

was the leader/captain of the first people to circumnavigate the world, led Spanish expedition to Philippines

Vespucci

This was the man who first said that the Americas were completely separate from Asia, thus the continent was named after him

Reconquista

The effort by Christian leaders to drive the Muslims out of Spain

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world following Columbus's voyages.

encomienda

A grant of land made by Spain to a settler in the Americas, including the right to use Native Americans as laborers on it

Hernando Cortes

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

Doña Marina

Aztec woman who became an interpreter for Hernando Cortes during his conquest of the Aztec empire. Understood Mayan languages, Aztec languages, and spoke Spanish

Mestizos

People of mixed Native and European heritage, notably in Mexico.

Pizarro

Spanish explorer who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru and founded the city of Lima (1475-1541).

Peninsulares

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

Creoles

In colonial Spanish America, term used to describe someone of European descent born in the New World. Elsewhere in the Americas, the term is used to describe all nonnative peoples.

Viceroys

representatives of the Spanish monarch in Spain's colonial empire

Portuguese conquest: Brazil

The Portuguese conquered Brazil from the natives and went to bring many slaves there in order to produce sugar. It was a near monopoly with Portuguese controlling nearly all of the market.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

Spaniard who fought against the enslavement and colonial abuse of native Americans.

Middle Passage

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

Slave Castles

Castles in Africa that slaves were brought to directly before they were shipped

Monoculture

farming strategy in which large fields are planted with a single crop, year after year

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

maroon

A slave who ran away from his or her master. Often a member of a community of runaway slaves in the West Indies and South America.

Cape of Good Hope

Southern tip of Africa; first circumnavigated in 1488 by Portuguese in search of direct route to India.

Transatlantic Slave Trade

The brutal system of trading African Slaves from Africa to the Americas. It changed the economy, politics, and environment. It affected Africa, Europe, and America. It implies that slaves were used for cash crops and created a whole new economy.

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.