Chapter 14,15 Flashcards
conquistador
Spanish for “conqueror”; Spanish soldier-explorers, such as Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, who sought to conquer
the New World for the Spanish crown.
caravel
A small, maneuverable, three-mast sailing ship developed by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century that gave the
Portuguese a distinct advantage in exploration and trade.
Ptolemy’s Geography
A second-century-c.e. work that synthesized the classical knowledge of geography and introduced the concepts of
longitude and latitude. Reintroduced to Europeans about 1410 by Arab scholars, its ideas allowed cartographers to
create more accurate maps.
Treaty of Tordesillas
The 1494 agreement giving Spain everything to the west of an imaginary line drawn down the Atlantic and giving
Portugal everything to the east.
Aztec Empire
A large and complex Native American civilization in modern
Mexico and Central America that possessed advanced
mathematical, astronomical, and engineering technology.
Inca Empire
The vast and sophisticated Peruvian empire centered at the capital city of Cuzco that was at its peak from 1438 until
1532.
viceroyalties
The name for the four administrative units of Spanish possessions in the Americas: New Spain, Peru, New Granada, and
La Plata.
encomienda system
A system whereby the Spanish crown granted the conquerors the right to forcibly employ groups of Indians in exchange
for providing food, shelter, and Christian teaching.
Columbian exchange
The exchange of animals, plants, and diseases between the Old and the New Worlds.
“Black Legend”
The notion that the Spanish were particularly ruthless and cruel in their conquest and domination of the Americas, an
idea often propagated by Spain’s rivals.
Peace of Westphalia
The name of a series of treaties that concluded the Thirty Years’ War in 1648 and marked the end of large-scale religious
violence in Europe.
Fronde
A series of violent uprisings during the early reign of Louis XIV triggered by growing royal control and increased taxation.
mercantilism
A system of economic regulations aimed at increasing the power of the state based on the belief that a nation’s
international power was based on its wealth, specifically its supply of gold and silver.
Peace of Utrecht
A series of treaties, from 1713 to 1715, that ended the War of the Spanish Succession, ended French expansion in
Europe, and marked the rise of the British Empire.
Junkers
The nobility of Brandenburg and Prussia, they were reluctant allies of Frederick William in his consolidation of the
Prussian state.
boyars
The highest-ranking members of the Russian nobility.
Cossacks
Free groups and outlaw armies originally comprising runaway peasants
living on the borders of Russian territory from the fourteenth century
onward. By the end of the sixteenth century they had formed an alliance
with the Russian state.
sultan
The ruler of the Ottoman Empire; he owned all the agricultural land of the empire and was served by an army and
bureaucracy composed of highly trained slaves.
janissary corps
The core of the sultan’s army, composed of slave conscripts from non-Muslim parts of the empire; after 1683 it became
a volunteer force.
millet system
A system used by the Ottomans whereby subjects were divided into religious communities, with each millet (nation)
enjoying autonomous self-government under its religious leaders.
constitutionalism
A form of government in which power is limited by law and balanced between the authority and power of the
government, on the one hand, and the rights and liberties of the subjects or citizens on the other hand; could include
constitutional monarchies or republics.
republicanism
A form of government in which there is no monarch and power rests in the hands of the people as exercised through
elected representatives.
Puritans
Members of a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England that advocated
purifying it of Roman Catholic elements, like bishops, elaborate ceremonials, and wedding rings.
Protectorate
The English military dictatorship (1653–1658) established by Oliver Cromwell following the execution of Charles I.
Test Act
Legislation, passed by the English Parliament in 1673, to secure the position of the Anglican Church by stripping Puritans,
Catholics, and other dissenters of the right to vote, preach, assemble, hold public office, and teach at or attend the
universities.
stadholder
The executive officer in each of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, a position often held by the princes of Orange.
