Colonial Empires Flashcards
What is a colony?
A region politically controlled by a distant country.
Define colonialism.
A policy by which a nation extend its control over foreign dependencies. It generally refers to a period for the late 15th to 20th centuries when European nations colonized other continents motivated by: the profits to be made, the expansion of power, and various religious and political beliefs. In this process, sovereignty over the colony is claimed by the Metropole or mother country and its social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by the colonists, sometimes at Great cost to the natives.
What is an Empire?
A political unit having an extensive territory or compromising a number of territories or nations and ruled by single supreme authority.
What was the colonial Empire?
A product of the European Age of Exploration that begin with Portugal and Spain in the fifteenth Century. The motivation to establish colonies was trade, driven by mercantilism and capitalism that grew out of the European Renaissance.
What motivated Nations to establish colonial empires?
- The Renaissance, which brought new innovation and invention.
- Advancement in ship building, and the availability of the magnetic compass and the astrolabe, an instrument used to determine the sun’s altitude.
- The rise of towns and trade, and the need for new trade routes.
- The proliferation of entrepreneurs and Merchants.
- The theory of mercantilism, which favored acquiring colonies.
What countries developed colonial empires?
Primarily Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and France.
What was the Treaty of Tordesillas?
It divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a Meridian west of the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa. This line of demarcation was about halfway between the Cape Verde Islands, already Portuguese, and the islands discovered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage (claimed for Spain, present-day Cuba and Hispaniola). The land to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Spain. The treaty was ratified by Spain and Portugal in 1494.
Who was Christopher Columbus?
(1451-1506) An Explorer and Navigator whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general awareness of the American continents. Funded by Queen Isabella I of Spain with the aim of finding a new trade route to India, he initiated the process of Spanish colonization that foreshadowed General European colonization of the New World. Although not the first to reach the Americas (he was preceded by Leif Ericson), his voyages encouraged European exploration for centuries to come.
What was the New World?
One of the name used by Europeans for the Western Hemisphere, and specifically the Americas. It was originated after Columbus’s first voyage in 1492.
Who was Bartholomew Diaz?
(1451-1500) A Portuguese nobleman explore appointed by King John II Portugal to head an expedition around the southern tip of Africa in search of a trade route to India. Thus he discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.
Who was Vasco da Gama?
(c. 1460-1524) A Portuguese explorer and the commander of the first ship to sail directly from Europe to India. He was responsible for Portugal success in colonizing much of Africa’s eastern and western coastline.
Who is Ferdinand Magellan?
(c. 1480-1521) A Portuguese explorer, hired by Spain, who led the first expedition to circumnavigate the world. Magellan died in 1521 in the Philippines without achieving his goal, but some of his crew completed the voyage.
Who was Jacques Cartier?
(1491-1557) A French explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France. He mapped the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, where the first known European settlement in Canada was established.
Who was Ponce de Leon?
(1474-1521) A Spanish explorer who became the first governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish Crown. He led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named. He is associated with the legend of the Fountain of Youth, reputed to be in Florida.
Who is Vasco de Balboa?
(1475-1519) A Spanish explorer, governor, and Conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean and 1513, becoming the first European to have reached the Pacific. Who founded the settlement of Santa Maria in the present day Colombia in 1510, which was the first permanent European settlement on the mainland of the Americas.
