Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections (c. 1450–1750) Flashcards
Caravel
Small, maneuverable ship developed by the Portuguese in the 15th century. Featured lateen sails, enabling navigation into headwinds and open-sea travel.
Event: Used by Prince Henry’s explorers and Columbus to explore Africa and the Atlantic.
📝 Use to explain technological advancements enabling European maritime empires.
Astrolabe
Navigational tool adopted from the Islamic world that allowed sailors to determine latitude using the stars.
Event: Helped Portuguese explorers navigate around the Cape of Good Hope.
Magnetic Compass
Chinese innovation that became essential for navigation by sea. Allowed for consistent direction regardless of weather or stars.
Event: Diffused to Europe via the Indian Ocean trade, boosting exploration.
Prince Henry the Navigator
Portuguese royal who funded voyages along the West African coast and founded a navigation school.
Event: Launched early 15th-century voyages that opened routes to the Gold Coast and beyond.
Columbian Exchange
The biological exchange between the Old and New Worlds after 1492, including crops, animals, people, and diseases.
Event: Smallpox wiped out 90% of Native populations; maize and potatoes revolutionized Old World diets.
📝 Use to show massive demographic, ecological, and economic transformations.
Mercantilism
Economic theory that a nation’s strength depended on accumulating wealth through colonial resources and favorable trade balances.
Event: Justified European colonization and led to competition for colonies.
Joint-Stock Companies
Businesses where investors pooled resources to fund voyages and share profits and losses.
Event: Dutch East India Company (VOC) and British East India Company grew into major imperial powers.
Encomienda System
Spanish system granting colonists the right to extract forced labor and tribute from Indigenous populations in exchange for conversion and protection.
Event: Widespread in the Caribbean and Mesoamerica by the early 1500s.
Hacienda System
Large agricultural estates in the Americas. Replaced encomiendas, relying on peasant labor, often in debt bondage.
Event: Dominated colonial economies in New Spain (Mexico) and Peru.
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Massive forced migration of Africans to the Americas. Fueled plantation economies and decimated African societies.
Event: Over 12 million Africans transported; peaks during the 18th century.
Middle Passage
Brutal sea voyage of enslaved Africans to the Americas. Known for inhumane conditions and high mortality.
Event: Mortality rates averaged 15–20%, making it one of history’s deadliest journeys.
Triangular Trade
Three-part economic system: manufactured goods from Europe to Africa, slaves from Africa to the Americas, raw materials (sugar, tobacco) back to Europe
Mita System
Adapted from Inca labor tribute, the Spanish coerced Indigenous laborers to mine silver in Potosí (Bolivia).
Event: Potosí became one of the world’s richest silver mines.
📝 Use to show how Europeans repurposed existing systems for exploitation.
Manila Galleons
Spanish ships that connected the Philippines and the Americas, carrying silver to Asia and luxury goods (e.g., silk, porcelain) back.
Event: From the 1570s to the early 1800s, supported global trade centered on silver.
Vodun (Voodoo)
A syncretic religion combining West African spiritual traditions and Catholicism, especially in the Caribbean.
Event: Central to enslaved resistance and identity in Haiti and Louisiana.
Virgin of Guadalupe
An example of religious syncretism in Spanish America — a Catholic image blended with Indigenous symbolism.
Event: First appeared to Juan Diego in 1531; became a symbol of Mexican Catholicism.
Maroon Societies
Communities of escaped enslaved Africans who formed independent settlements in the Americas and resisted colonial control.
Event: Palmares (Brazil) lasted nearly 100 years before being destroyed in 1694.
Pueblo Revolt (1680)
An uprising by the Pueblo peoples in New Mexico against Spanish colonial rule. Temporarily drove out the Spanish.
Event: The most successful Indigenous revolt against European colonizers in North America.
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
Papal agreement dividing the New World between Spain (west) and Portugal (east) to prevent conflict over colonization.
Event: Gave Portugal control of Brazil and Spain dominion over most of the Americas.
Cash Crop Agriculture
Colonies were structured around the production of sugar, tobacco, cotton, and other goods for export, not local consumption.
Event: Sugar plantations in the Caribbean were the largest drivers of the slave trade.
