Unit 3 - Latin America Flashcards
bureaucracies
a complex system of officials and workers who manage the activities of a government
capitalism
an economic system in which all resources are privately owned and markets determine how those resources are distributed
circumnavigate
travel completely around
Columbian Exchange
the transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the eastern and western hemispheres
conquistador
Spanish conqueror of the Americas
entrepreneur
a person willing to take the risks involved in starting or running a business
indentured servitude
a system by which a person agreed to work for a period of time in return for being transported to the Americas
mercantilism
an economic philosophy that favored self-sufficiency, called for stockpiling gold and silver, encouraged exports, and discouraged imports
middlemen
a person who provides a service that links two people or groups
nation-state
a politically independent state whose people have a common culture and nationality
revenue
income used to fund a nation’s expenses
sovereign
self-governing and independent
triangular trade
a colonial pattern of trade that involved the transport of slaves from Africa to the Americas, sugar and other products from the Americas to Europe, and manufactured goods from Europe to Africa
Great Dying
the devastation of American Indian populations by diseases brought over from Europe
Treaty of Tordesillas
agreement that split all not-yet-explored lands between Spain and Portugal
Encomienda System
A labor system instituted by the Spanish crown in the American colonies. In this system, a Spanish encomendero provided the native laborers protection from warring tribes, and taught them the Catholic faith. The native laborer paid tributes to the encomendero in the form of gold or other metals, or agricultural products.
Christopher Columbus
an Italian sailor who persuaded Spain’s monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, to fund a voyage westward across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1492, Columbus made his first voyage to the Americas. He later sailed to Cuba and Hispaniola. Columbus called the native peoples Indians, because he believed that he had reached the Indies.
Amerigo Vespucci
Italian merchant and sailor made two trips across the Atlantic, in 1499 for Spain and in 1501 for Portugal. After his second voyage, which took him to Brazil, Vespucci described the western lands as a “new world.” A mapmaker in 1507 split the lands into two continents, and he named the southern one “America” after Vespucci.
Hernán Cortés
Spanish conquistador who landed in Mexico in 1519. He and his small army of conquistadors marched inland where they fought some Native American groups and forged alliances with others. Cortés’ goal was to conquer the Aztec Empire.
Francisco Pizzaro
Spanish conquistador who conquered the Incas of Peru in 1532. Pizzaro and his army destroyed the Inca capital at Cuzco and looted large amounts of gold and silver.
Ferdinand Magellan
Sailed around the Americas to Asia. Sailed from the Atlantic around the southern tip of South America and into the Pacific. He died in the Philippine Islands in 1521. The remaining members of his crew continued the voyage westward through the Indian Ocean, around Africa, and back to Spain, thus becoming the first to circumnavigate—sail completely around—the globe.
