Ch 14 Exploration Flashcards
What role did Africa play in world trade prior to Columbus’s voyages?
Africa has several trade hubs including Cairo, Ethiopia. and Swahili-speaking city-states along the East coast of Africa.
What did Africa trade prior to Columbus’s voyages?
They traded goods such as ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shells, gold, and slaves in exchange for textiles, spices, cowrie shells, porcelain, and other goods.
What role did gold play in world trade?
o In 15th century, Africa traded gold from the western part of the Sudan region (West Africa)
o It was moved across the Sahara by Arab and African traders on camels
o The gold was sold in the ports of North Africa.
o Other trading routes led to the Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Cairo
o Inland nations that were along the trans-Sahara trade routes became wealthy
Who was Prester John?
o Europeans had legends that had to do with to Africa and elevated it in their imaginations.
o They believed there was a Christian Nation in Africa led by a mythical King named Prester John
o Prester John was supposedly a descendant of one of the three kings who visited Jesus after his birth
Why was the Middle East so vital to world trade?
o The Middle East served as an intermediary for trade between Asia, Africa, and Europe
o An important supplier of goods for foreign exchange such as silk and cotton.
What roles did both the Turkish Ottoman and Persian Safavids play in this trade?
o They dominate trade in the middle east
o They competed for control over western trade routes to the East.
When was Constantinople defeated? What was the city renamed?
o The Ottomans captured Europe’s largest city, Constantinople in May 1453.
o They renamed it Istanbul.
How did Venice become an economic powerhouse?
o In 1304 Venice established formal relations with the sultan of Mamluk Egypt, opening operations in Cairo, the gateway to Asian trade.
o They traded some European products like they could trade abroad, including Spanish and English wool, German metal goods, Flemish textiles, and silk cloth made in their own manufactures with imported raw materials, but demand was low
o Venetians earned currency in the shipping industry and through trade in firearms and slaves.
How did Genoa become an economic powerhouse?
o Genoa dominated the northern route to Asia through the Black Sea
o In the fifteenth century, with Venice claiming victory in the spice trade, the Genoese shifted focus from trade to finance and from the Black Sea to the western Mediterranean.
o When Spanish and Portuguese voyages began to explore the western Atlantic, Genoese merchants, navigators, and financiers provided their skills to the Iberian monarchs, whose own subjects had much less commercial experience.
o Genoese merchants would eventually help finance Spanish colonization of the New World.
o Genoese and Venetian merchants would become were both important players in the Atlantic slave trade.
What were the primary causes of European expansion in the late 15th and early 16th centuries?
• God, gold , glory
o God spread Christianity
o Gold-want wealth
o Glory-individual or national prestige
What was the motivation of Christopher Columbus?
eagerness to earn profits and to spread Christianity was the desire for glory and the urge to chart new waters.
What would drive individuals to join these exploring crews?
“After the reconquista, young men of the Spanish upper classes found their economic and political opportunities greatly limited. The ambitious turned to the sea to seek their fortunes.”
