European History SG - Age of Exploration and Absolutism Flashcards
What were the five motives for exploration?
- search for new trade routes
- quest for gold
- desire for adventures and glory
- religious concerns - trying to stop Muslims and heathens from expanding
- competition among European nations
Name the five navigational aids crucial to the success of the explorers.
- maps
- compass
- astrolabe
- quadrant
- cross-staff
What is a caravel? How is it similar or different to ships that were built before it?
- seagoing vessel - lighter and faster with two kinds of sails: large square sails for power and small triangular sails for maneuverability, high sides, deep, broad for oceans storms/waves
- previous: oared ships, one type of sail, could not power supplies across the water
Bartolomeu Dias
- King of Portugal sent him around Africa to India for trade route
- storm as they rounded tip of Africa, headed back around and saw rocky cape (“Cape of storms” then “Cape of Good Hope”)
Vasco de Gama
- found wider trade route to India following currents and broke Muslim trade monopoly bc heavy artillery of Portuguese ships
- trade route followed by sailors
Christopher Columbus
- appealed to Portuguese king to finance trip but said no
- King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain agree to finance trip
- Oct. 12, 1492 - San Salvador (“Holy Savior”), thought it was East Indies but Bahamas
- also sailed down South America, thinking it was Japan
Amerigo Vespucci
- sailed west for Spain to find out why Columbus wasn’t coming back with riches
- declared them new continents
- Waldseemüller (German mapmaker) first to call them Americas
Ferdinand Magellan
- circumnavigation of the earth
- only returned with one ship
- killed in Philippines by natives
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
Pacific, “South Sea”
Hernando Cortes
Mexico City and Aztecs
Bartolome de Las Casas
RCC friar and missionary to the Indians
What was the Line of Demarcation and what were its results?
- division of the world between Spain (west) and Portugal (east), avoiding disputes about trade rights and territory
- encouraged Portugal to colonize Africa, East Indies, and the tip of Brazil, Spain = all of the New World, could no longer go around tip of Africa to India so had to find a new route
dates of Line of Demarcation and Treaty of Tordesillas
1493 and 94
Jacques Cartier
Quebec
Samuel de Champlain
Montreal
Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet
Mississippi River
Henry Hudson
Dutch, searching for route to East Indies, 1st trip: New Amsterdam, 2nd trip: Hudson Bay
John Cabot
Canada, English
John Smith
Jamestown, Virginia, 1607, English
Who ended up with India?
English
Who was Frances Xavier?
Jesuit missionary came to Japan
What was the Chinese and Japanese attitude toward the European traders?
hated missionaries, Japan open to Europeans for a few years, but then closed with the Chinese
What are the changes in Europe’s business thinking and practice during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries called?
Commercial Revolution
What was the dominant economic policy of most European nations during the Age of Exploration?
mercantilism- believed that newly found wealth should benefit mother country
What was the purpose of colonies under this economic policy?
- supplied country with raw materials and markets for products
- not allowed to produce anything that the country produced
Capitalism
investing money to advance wealth
Joint-stock company
invested money in companies and were issued stock certificates
capital
supply of money
dividends
profits given to stock holders/investors
prospectus
details of a proposed business venture
During the 17th and 18th centuries, what did European rulers want to do?
-make their political power absolute (unrestrained)
How did they increase their authority?
- control over finances, religion, and nobility
- increasing the size of the standing army and developing a navy
- increasing bureaucracy (administrators of the government) and making it an instrument of their royal will
- increasing territory through war if necessary
How did they establish their authority?
“Divine Right”- weren’t bound by manmade laws, only responsible to God for their actions
Who was King Louis Xlll’s chief minister and how did he strengthen the power of the king?
Cardinal Richelieu
- destroying the Huguenots
- weakening the nobility
How did he destroy the Huguenots?
- forced them to house French soldiers
- ordered their children to be taken and raised by Roman Catholics
- sent spies to their churches
How did he weaken the nobility?
- removed them from positions of authority in local governments and replaced them with intendents, officials directly responsible to the king
- destroyed many of their castles
Why did Louis Xlll side with the Protestants during the Thirty Years’ War? Who won? What was the peace called?
supported the Protestants’ rebellion against the Roman Catholic HRE to limit the HRE’s power, French-Protestant victory, peace of Westphalia
What were the results of the peace of Westphalia?
- treaties recognized the independence of the Protestant provinces of the Netherlands and Swiss confederacy
- Germany = politically fragmented, recognized over 300 independent German states
- France emerged as the strongest nation on the continent of Europe
How long did King Louis XlV reign?
72 years
Financial and military policies of Louis XlV
- Jean Baptist Colbert becomes minister of finance, taking greater government control of the French economy
- recognized the French army by weakening the influence of the nobility over the troops
religious policies of Louis XlV
revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, taking away the Huguenot’s freedom to worship, causing 250,000-500,000 left France
How did Louis XIV use Versailles to showcase his power?
required nobility to stay at palace for a part of the year so that they couldn’t plot against him, Apollo Basin, Hall of Mirrors, gardens
foreign policies of Louis XlV
- extended boundaries to Pyrenees, Alps, and the Rhine
2. because of his building programs, it almost bankrupted France
Who ascended the throne after Elizabeth l?
James lV of Scotland, cousin of Elizabeth l
