Unit 4: Topic 2 - Exploration: Causes and Events from 1450 to 1750

Question 1

New France

Answer 1

North American area colonized by France (1534-1763). At its peak, this vast territory consisted of five colonies extending from Newfoundland to the Canadian Prairies and from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, including all the Great Lakes of North America. French possession of this area ended with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spain in 1763 under the Treaty of Paris.

Question 2

Trading Post Empire

Answer 2

Trading Post Empires established and controlled trade throughout the Indian Ocean by the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries and spread the knowledge of Asian waters to other nations.

Question 3

Treaty of Tardesillas

Answer 3

Treaty written to resolve the conflict that arose from the 1481 papal bull Aeterni Regis which affirmed Portuguese claims to all non-Christian lands south of the Canary Islands after Columbus claimed the Antilles for Castile, and to divide trading and colonizing rights for all lands located west of the Canary Islands between Portugal and Castile (later applied between the Spanish Crown and Portugal) to the exclusion of any other Christian empires.

Question 4

Northwest Passage

Answer 4

A sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. For centuries, European explorers, beginning with Christopher Columbus in 1492, sought a navigable passage as a possible trade route to Asia but were blocked by North, Central, and South America, by ice, or by rough waters. An ice-bound northern route was discovered in 1850

Question 5

Circumnavigation

Answer 5

Complete navigation around a large mass, in this case, the Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magellan–Elcano expedition, which sailed from Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain in 1519 and returned in 1522, after crossing the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. In 1577, Elizabeth I sent Francis Drake to start an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas. In June 1579, Drake landed somewhere north of Spain’s northernmost claim in Alta California, which is known as Drakes Bay, California. Drake completed the second circumnavigation of the world in September 1580, becoming the first commander to lead an entire circumnavigation.

Question 6

Jamestown

Answer 6

It was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, located on the northeast bank of the Powhatan River and established by the Virginia Company of London. Jamestown served as the colonial capital from 1616 until 1699. n August 1619, the first recorded slaves from Africa to British North America arrived in what is now Old Point Comfort near the Jamestown colony, on a British privateer ship flying a Dutch flag.

Question 7

New Amsterdam

Answer 7

A 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherlands. In 1624, it became a provincial extension of the Dutch Republic and was designated as the capital of the province in 1625. In 1664, the English took over New Amsterdam and renamed it, New York, after the Duke of York

Question 8

What was the primary focus of Portuguese exploration?

Answer 8

The Portuguese were primarily interested in trade with Asia and India.

During the early 1400s, Prince Henry the Navigator funded exploration expeditions primarily to access these markets. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope and, in 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India.

Question 9

What was the primary accomplishment of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama?

Answer 9

Vasco da Gama circumnavigated Africa in 1498, leading a fleet of Portuguese ships to India. These were the first European ships to reach India by sea.

Question 10

In 1492, Genoese sailor Christopher Columbus, funded by the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, sailed west from Spain. What was the purpose of Columbus’s voyage?

Answer 10

Columbus was convinced that a western route to India existed and wanted to find it. Although he’d stumbled upon the New World, Columbus died in 1506 believing he had succeeded and that the peoples he’d named “Indians” really were inhabitants of Asia.

Contrary to legend, few in Europe believed the Earth was flat.

Question 11

After Columbus established permanent contact with the New World, where did Spain focus its colonial efforts?

Answer 11

The ability to reach India by water, instead of relying on overland routes controlled by the Turks and Mediterranean shipping controlled by the Venetians, marked a new era in world trade and contacts between civilizations. Spain focused primarily on conquest and expeditions under conquistadors (conquerors) who were sent from Spain to the New World.

Question 12

Who commanded the first fleet to circumnavigate the globe?

Answer 12

The first fleet to sail around the world was commanded by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer who sailed under the Spanish flag.

Magellan did not live to accomplish the entire trip; he was killed in the Philippines during a battle with a native tribe. The trip took four years, leaving in 1519 and returning to Spain in 1522.

Question 13

Which European was the first to set eyes upon the Pacific Ocean?

Answer 13

Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Panamanian Isthmus in 1513, becoming the first European to set eyes upon the Pacific Ocean.

Balboa established the first permanent European settlement on the American mainland in modern-day Panama; previous European colonial efforts had been confined to the islands of the Caribbean.

Question 14

Where did the French focus their colonial efforts?

Answer 14

The French colonial efforts focused on the area around the St. Lawrence River, where they founded the colony of Quebec in 1608. French exploration was dominated by the fur trade, and the French steadily moved west and south taking over most of the Great Lakes region and the entire Mississippi River basin.

Question 15

Why did the Dutch form the Dutch East India Company?

Answer 15

The Dutch formed the Dutch East India Company to administer colonies that had been wrested from Spain in the 1590s, including much of West Africa, Sri Lanka, and parts of India. With their conquest of Indonesia in the early 1600s, the Dutch came to control much of the European trade in tea and spices, including pepper and cinnamon.

Question 16

English colonization of the New World did not begin in earnest until the late 1500s. Why?

Answer 16

During much of the 16th century, England’s attention was focused on suppressing rebellions as well as the Hundred Years’ War with France.

In addition, King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church over the issue of divorce, founding the Anglican Church. In 1585, England and Spain went to war, and England began to focus on the New World for the purpose of raiding Spanish ships. Following the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, English colonization of the New World began in earnest.

Question 17

Which colony did English Puritans establish in the New World?

Answer 17

In 1620, English Puritans (known as Pilgrims) established a colony at Plymouth Bay, in modern-day Massachusetts. Religiously rigid, the Puritans sought separation from the Anglican Church and freedom to practice their religion as they saw fit.

Question 18

British East India Company

Answer 18

The English had conquered large amounts of territory in India and Southeast Asia, and the British East India Company was founded in 1600 to manage the economic relations between these lands and England.

Question 19

How did English, and to a lesser extent French and Dutch, colonization differ from Spanish and Portuguese colonization in North America in the 16th and 17th centuries?

Answer 19

The English, Dutch, and French focused more on establishing permanent settlements populated by their own settlers. The Spanish and Portuguese aimed for conquest, and their colonies consisted of only a handful of their own people, many of whom would eventually return to Europe.

Question 20

Jacques Cartier

Answer 20

French explorer credited as the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River.

Question 21

Prince Henry the Navigator

Answer 21

A prominent figure in the Portuguese maritime empire in the 15th century. After procuring the new caravel ship, Henry was responsible for the early development of Portuguese exploration and maritime trade with other continents through the systematic exploration of Western Africa, the islands of the Atlantic Ocean, and the search for new routes. Through his administrative direction, he is regarded as the main initiator of what would be known as the Age of Discovery.

Question 22

Mercantilism

Answer 22

Mercantilism is an economic theory, which posits that because the world’s wealth is limited, trade is a “zero-sum” game, i.e. that the balance of trade in one nation’s favor is another nation’s loss.

Mercantilism dominated European economic thought from the Renaissance until the late 1700s and was practiced by all the major European powers.