Midterm Review '19

Question 1

Ferdinand Magellan

Answer 1

Portuguese captain of the first crew to circumnavigate the globe

Question 2

Christopher Columbus

Answer 2

Explorer who accidentally discovered North America while searching for alternate route to India

Question 3

True or False? Europeans believed the Earth was flat and worried that Columbus would never reach India

Answer 3

False! The scientific community knew the Earth was a sphere

Question 4

The Middleman Problem

Answer 4

Arab & Italian merchants controlled access to India and forced Europeans to pay higher prices for spices; inspired the age of exploration

Question 5

Cartographers

Answer 5

Expert map makers who enabled exploration

Question 6

Astrolabe

Answer 6

A device used to help sailors navigate the ocean by calculating latitude (enabled exploration)

Question 7

Caravel

Answer 7

An advanced ship that incorporated elements of European and Asian naval technology

Question 8

Prince Henry (The Navigator)

Answer 8

Portuguese king who invaded Africa on his way to India; established European presence along African coastline & waged wars against African rulers

Question 9

Major Goals of European Exploration

Answer 9

1) Acquire Spices
2) Acquire Gold/Silver/Precious Resources
3) Convert Natives to Christianity

Question 10

Why did the Spanish agree to fund Christopher Columbus’ expedition to find an alternate route to India?

Answer 10

The Spanish king and queen hoped to boost their nation’s reputation and economy

Question 11

Treaty of Tordesillas

Answer 11

Pope divided contested territories in the New World; gave Spain much of Central America, Portugal received Brazil

The indigenous peoples who already lived in these places had no say

Question 12

Mughal Empire

Answer 12

• Powerful empire in India led by Muslim rulers
• Dominated trade
• Europeans could not defeat the Mughals, instead asked to build forts for trade

Question 13

Collapse of the Mughal Empire

Answer 13

The Indian empire fell apart because of:

1) Poor leadership late in the empire
2) Religious intolerance & war
3) Peasant rebellions caused by taxes

Europeans took advantage of these internal issues and fought for control of Indian subcontinent

Question 14

Sepoy

Answer 14

Indian soldiers who fought for European trading companies (British & French)

Question 15

Missionaries

Answer 15

European explorers who attempted to convert natives to Christianity

Question 16

European-Indigenous Relations

Answer 16

Europeans tended to look down on native peoples, whom they considered inferior

The Chinese proved to be an odd exception: Europeans saw the Chinese as an advanced people, largely because they considered the Chinese to be like themselves in terms of politics, language, and culture (ironically the Chinese saw the Europeans as being inferior)

Question 17

Indigenous peoples

Answer 17

Native peoples

Question 18

The Qing Dynasty

Answer 18

Peaceful & prosperous period in China characterized by strong Manchu rulers

During the Qing Dynasty, China’s population & economy boomed

Question 19

Qianlong & Lord Macartney

Answer 19

Qianlong- Manchu ruler
Macartney- British representative

Macartney offended the Chinese by talking about British advancements, failure to bow to the Chinese ruler

Qianlong, in turn, assumed that the British knew they were inferior and only sent a representative to offer the superior Chinese government tribute (free goods)

Question 20

Eurocentrism

Answer 20

A worldview that Europeans held whereby they considered themselves superior to everyone else

Influenced how the Europeans interacted with indigenous peoples

Question 21

Korea & the Age of Exploration

Answer 21

Korea turned inward and did not engage in exploration because of successive invasions during the Qing Dynasty

Question 22

La Malinche (Doña Maria)

Answer 22

Native woman who helped the Spanish invade the Aztec Empire

Question 23

Hernan Cortés

Answer 23

Spanish conquistador who invaded & overthrew the Aztec empire with the help of smallpox

Question 24

Columbian Exchange

Answer 24

The transfer of goods within the Atlantic World

Europeans brought to the New World (the Americas) diseases and took goods, such as chocolate and precious resources, to the Old World (Europe)

Question 25

The Atlantic World

Answer 25

Europe, Africa, North & South America

As peoples moved, communicated, and traded between these contents, they created a community centered around the Atlantic Ocean

Question 26

Mercantilism

Answer 26

Economic system characterized by belief in finite (limited) wealth, efforts to keep resources within empires

Question 27

Encomienda

Answer 27

Labor system in the New World characterized by abuses

The Spanish forced Indians to labor in a quasi-slavery state

Question 28

Intra-African Slave Trade (Africans Trading Africans)

Answer 28

Defining Characteristics:

1) Rarely permanent
2) Based on war
3) Slaves could move up in society, marry, and regain freedom

Question 29

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (Europeans Trading Africans)

Answer 29

Defining Characteristics:

1) Permanent
2) Based on race
3) Slaves could never move up in society

Question 30

Effects of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Africa

Answer 30

Consequences

1) Changed African behaviors, increased wars
2) Slave traders slowly expanded deeper into the African continent, affected larger areas
3) Devastated Africa’s demography (population negatively affected by selective capture of many men)

Some African leaders, such as Alfonso I, fought against the slave trade; others saw it as lucrative and helped to expand it

Question 31

The Triangle Trade

Answer 31

The roughly triangular-shaped trading pattern that developed between African, the New World, & Europe

The First Point- Europeans purchased African slaves with manufactured goods produced in Europe

The Second Point (Middle Passage)- Nearly 12.5 million African slaves transported to the New World to grow cash crops

The Third Point- Europeans shipped cash crops—sugar, cotton, Brazilwood, etc.—grown in the New World to Europe where Europeans transformed them into rum and other finished products

Europeans ultimately used many of these finished products to purchase more slaves from Africa, which perpetuated the triangle trade

Question 32

The Middle Passage

Answer 32

A horrendous leg of the journey between Africa and the New World where almost two million slaves died in cramped, unsanitary conditions in the bowels of slave ships

Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography described the horrors of the Middle Passage

Question 33

Olaudah Equiano

Answer 33

Born a slave, Equiano purchased his freedom and became an abolitionist

Equiano is best known for his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, written by Himself, which described, in detail, the horrors of the Middle Passage to European audiences (especially members of the British Parliament) unfamiliar with slavery and the slave trade

Question 34

Abolitionist

Answer 34

A person who fought to end slavery

Question 35

Amazing Grace

Answer 35

A popular Christian hymn written by a former slave trader about his conversion and God’s mercy extended to even the worst sinners