Age of Exploration Flashcards
Aztecs
A Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521.
Balance of Trade
The difference between the monetary value of a nation’s exports and imports over a certain time period.
Colombian Exchange
The reciprocal importation and exportation of plants and animals between Europe and the Americas.
Commercial Revolution
A great increase in commerce in Europe that began in the late Middle Ages. It received stimulus from the voyages of exploration undertaken by England, Spain, and other nations to Africa, Asia, and the New World.
Conquistadors
“Conquerors.” Leaders in the Spanish conquests on the Americas, especially Mexico and Peru, in the sixteenth century.
Ecomienda
In Spanish America, a form of economic and social organization in which a Spaniard was given a royal grant that enabled the holder of the grant to collect tribute from the Indians and use them as laborers.
Incas
The largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco.
Joint-Stock Company
A company or association that raises capital by selling shares to individuals who receive dividends on their investment while a board of directors runs the company.
Mayans
A Mesoamerican civilization noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system.
Mercantilism
An economic theory that held that a nation’s prosperity depended on its supply of gold and silver and the total volume of trade is unchangeable. Its adherents therefore advocated that the government play an active role in the economy by encouraging exports and discouraging imports, especially through the use of tariffs.
Middle Passage
The journey of slaves from Africa to the Americas as the middle leg of the triangular trade.
Mughal Empire
An early modern empire in South Asia. For some two centuries, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of the Deccan plateau in south India.
Price Revolution
The dramatic rise in prices (inflation) that occurred throughout Europe in the sixteenth century and early seventeenth centuries.
Treaty of Tordesillas
Signed in Tordesillas, Spain on 7 June 1494, and authenticated in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly-discovered lands outside Europe between the Portuguese Empire and the Spanish Empire (Crown of Castile), along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa.
Triangular Trade
A pattern of trade in early modern Europe that connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas in an Atlantic economy.
