The Age of Discovery Flashcards
conquistador
Conquistadors is a term used to refer to the soldiers and explorers of the Spanish Empire or the Portuguese Empire in a general sense.
colony
a country or area under the full or partial political control of another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country.
mercantillsm
belief in the benefits of profitable trading; commercialism.
balance of trade
The commercial balance or net exports (sometimes symbolized as NX), is the difference between the monetary value of exports and imports of output in an economy over a certain period, measured in the currency of that economy.
the compass
A compass is an instrument used for navigation and orientation that shows direction relative to the geographic “cardinal directions”, or “points”.
joint stock company
a company whose stock is owned jointly by the shareholders. A joint-stock company is a business entity where different stocks can be bought and owned by shareholders.
triangular trade
a multilateral system of trading in which a country pays for its imports from one country by its exports to another.
Columbian exchange
The Columbian Exchange or Grand Exchange was the widespread transfer of animals, plants, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres in the 15th and 16th centuries, related to European colonization and trade after Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage.
middle passage
the sea journey undertaken by slave ships from West Africa to the West Indies.
treaty of tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed at Tordesillas on June 7, 1494, and authenticated at Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa.
henry the navigator
Infante Henrique of Portugal, Duke of Viseu, better known as Henry the Navigator, was an important figure in 15th-century Portuguese politics and in the early days of the Portuguese Empire.
christopher columbus
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa.
vasco de gama
vasco da gama was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea.
hernan cortes
hernan cortes was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century.
zheng he
zheng He, formerly romanized as Cheng Ho, was a Hui court eunuch, mariner, explorer, diplomat, and fleet admiral during China’s early Ming dynasty.
