Unit 4 Trans-Oceanic Interconnections (1450-1750)

Question 1

What Chinese dynasty succeeded the Mongol Yuan dynasty in China?

Answer 1

Ming

Question 2

Factors for the rise of Exploration

Answer 2

• technological advances in the compass, astrolabe, and shipbuilding
• the Commercial Revolution in banking, investment and trade
• Prince Henry the Navigator from Portugal encouraged exploration
• REMEMBER THE 3 G’s - God, Glory, Gold!

Question 3

Portugal’s trading-post Empire

Answer 3

• Portuguese expeditions hoped to control the African gold and slave trade and the spice trade in the Indian Ocean
• A monopoly over the African slave trade

Question 4

Control over the Indian Ocean Basin

Answer 4

• Portuguese ships attempted to control trade; building fortresses along the coast and patrolling the ocean
• Portugal acted as the strongest military and economic power in the Indian Ocean
• Arab, Indian and Chinese merchants continued to play prominent roles in Indian Ocean commerce

Question 5

Columbus in Hispaniola

Answer 5

• Spanish settlers led by Christopher Columbus arrived to the Island of Hispaniola; established Santo Domingo as the capital of the Spanish Caribbean in 1498
• Taino people; conquered and conscripted (forced) into physical labor

Question 6

The Encomienda System

Answer 6

def- a system of forced labor in the Spanish colonies

• Spanish encomenderos (“settlers”) were given land and the right to compel natives (the Taino) to work in their mines or fields (growing sugar or tobacco)
• oversee their conversion to Christianity
• natives were forced into hard labor and punished severely if they did not work
• the influx of diseases such as smallpox also served to wipe out many Taino; causing encomenderos to raid and kidnap other natives for labor

Question 7

Conquest of the Aztecs

Answer 7

• In 1519 Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes led 450 soldiers to Mexico looking for gold
• Tenochtitlan seized their emperor Motecuzoma (Montezuma) in 1520

Question 8

Reasons for Spanish success

Answer 8

• Aztec were no match for the advanced weapons of the Spanish, including steel swords, muskets and cannons
• the Spanish allied with local tribes; Dona Marina (or Malinche), a local translator who would eventually become Cortes mistress
• smallpox helped to wipe out many od the population

Question 9

Pizarro conquers the Incas

Answer 9

• By the time Pizarro landed on the shores of the Inca empire in the 1530s, the Inca were engaged in a long civil war, which weakened the empire
• They captured the Inca ruler Atahualpa and held him for ransom-24 tons of gold and silver
• By 1540, Spanish forces had overtaken the entire empire

Question 10

The Columbian Exchange

Answer 10

was the global transfer of animals, plants, diseases, human populations, and culture between the old World (Europe, Asia, Africa) and the New World (Americas)

Question 11

Which was a key feature of trading-post empires in Africa?

Answer 11

The Portuguese enjoyed a monopoly over the gold and slave trade during the sixteenth century

Question 12

Treaty of Tordesillas

Answer 12

• Pope Alexander VI divided the territory between the two countries
• Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), giving Spain all territory to the west of the line and Portugal all the territory to the east of the line

Question 13

The Portuguese in Brazil

Answer 13

• they began building sugar plantation which would later be copied in the Caribbean
• By the 1580s they would rely on large scale slave labor

Question 14

The Spanish Colonies

Answer 14

-Spanish monarchy gradually extended its control over the America
Mexico- New Spain, capital of Mexico City on Tenochtitlan
Viceroyalty of Peru- capital moved from Cuzco to Lima

Question 15

Administration of Colonies

Answer 15

• viceroys (king’s representatives in the Americas)
• unlike the French and English in North America, the Spanish attempted to import Iberian social patterns and traditions into their colonies

Question 16

Social Class in the Colonies

Answer 16

• intermarriage between colonists and local natives led to the development of a distinct social hierarchy in both Spanish and Portuguese colonies (castas)
• society was highly patriarchal (men occupied positions of power and established/delineated of acceptable female behavior

Question 17

Bartolome de las Casas

Answer 17

• Bartolome de las Casas was a Spanish priest who went to the colonies as a missionary
• he protested the treatment of the native Indians and spent much of his life attempting to protect them from abuse

Question 18

Silver Mining in Latin America

Answer 18

silver mining towns developed, including Potosi in modern day Bolivia and the Zacatecas in Mexico

Question 19

Colonies of North America

Answer 19

• French were interested in the fur trade and sought to profit from trading with Native Americans
• established the city of New Orleans in 1718-wanted to ship furs down the Mississippi River and out to France

Question 20

Salutary Neglect

Answer 20

Salutary Neglect-encouraged the development of self-governance which would eventually lead to the American Revolution
-growing cash crops such as tobacco, they relied on indentured servants (poor servants) for labor and would eventually turn toward African slave labor

Question 21

Which of the following choices places Latin America’s racial hierarchy in the proper order, from lowest to highest, in status?

Answer 21

Native American/African slave, mestizo/mulatto, Creole, Peninsular

Question 22

History of African Slave Trade

Answer 22

• by the time Europeans arrived in West and sub-Saharan Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries, the slave trade was already well-established
• individuals in African societies increased their wealth and status through ownership of slaves

Question 23

Features of African Slave Trade

Answer 23

• muslim states in Africa viewed slavery as legitimate for nonbelievers but illegal for muslims
• almost all slaves in African societies came from other tribes

Question 24

African Kingdoms

Answer 24

-Kongo
-Asante
-Dahomey
Songhay
-Benin

Question 25

Missionary Efforts

Answer 25

• As the Portuguese began to encounter African kingdoms such as Benin and Kongo, they attempted to convert the rulers and kingdom
• Kongo ruler Nzinga Mvemba establish Christianity as the official religion

Question 26

Portuguese Slave Trade

Answer 26

• Portuguese established factories (trading fortresses) along the coast
• El Mina
• the forts were established with consent of local rulers, who benefitted from access to European commodities and military support in local wars
• the first slaves brought directly to Portugal from Africa arrived in 1441
• the arduous journey across the Atlantic Ocean became known as the Middle Passage

Question 27

Slaves on Sugar Plantations

Answer 27

• the expansion of the Portuguese and Spanish in the Caribbean and development of sugar plantations created an increased need for labor
• few indentured servants would willingly sign up

Question 28

Life on the Plantations

Answer 28

-life expectancy was 23
-most were agricultural laborers
-grew tobacco, rice and cotton
Saltwater slaves- slaves directly imported from Africa
Creole Slaves- American descendants of saltwater slaves

Question 29

Growth of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Answer 29

• Between 1450-1850, an estimated 12 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic
• 10 or 11 million African actually arrived in the Americas
• 18th century saw the peak of the slave trade; 80% of all slaves were transported in this century
• Brazil received the majority of African slaves

Question 30

Organization of Trade

Answer 30

• English and French began importing more slaves to Jamaica, Barbados, and St. Domingue (Haiti)
• Royal African Company (British) were charted (established) by the English, French and Dutch to compete with the Portuguese

Question 31

Emergence of the Triangular Trade

Answer 31

Triangular Trade- network with slaves from Africa transported; sugar, tobacco and other goods transported to Europe, and European products (especially firearms) sent to the coast of Africa

Question 32

Rise of Mercantilism

Answer 32

mercantilism-an economic policy that involved minimizing imports, selling more exports and collecting taxes from colonies to make a profit

Question 33

The End of Slavery

Answer 33

• England officially abolished the slave trade in 1807
• Olaudah Equiano
• the full end of slavery in the Americas occurred in 1888, when it was abolished in Brazil