Chapter 2 Section 2
Ferdinand and Isabella
A king and queen of Spain in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. They united their country and sponsored the exploration of the New World by Christopher Columbus.
Line of Demarcation
A line defining the boundary of a buffer zone or area of limitation. A line of demarcation may also be used to define the forward limits of disputing or belligerent forces after each phase of disengagement or withdrawal has been completed.
Christopher Columbus
An Italian explorer responsible for the European discovery of America in 1492. He had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain, under the patronage of the king and queen, Ferdinand and Isabella, hoping to find a westward route to India.
West Indies
British dominate Barbados economy with sugar production. Slave based plantation societies. Provides raw sugar for refineries
Vinland
Vineland or Winland (Old Norse: Vínland) is the area of coastal North America explored by Norse Vikings, where Leif Erikson first landed in ca. 1000, approximately five centuries prior to the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot.
Strait
a narrow passage of water connecting two seas or two large areas of water.
Treaty of Tordesillas
agreement between Spain and Portugal aimed at settling conflicts over lands newly discovered or explored by Christopher Columbus and other late 15th-century voyagers.
Vikings
any of the Scandinavian seafaring pirates and traders who raided and settled in many parts of northwestern Europe in the 8th-11th centuries.
Circumnavigate
sail all the way around (something, especially the world).
Ferdinand Magellan
was a Portuguese explorer who organised the Castilian (Spanish) expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.
Amerigo Vespucci
was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages,
Bartholomeu Dias
Portuguese explorer who in 1488 was the first European to get round the Cape of Good Hope (thus establishing a sea route from the Atlantic to Asia) (1450-1500) Synonyms: Bartholomeu Diaz, Dias, Diaz Example of: navigator. in earlier times, a person who explored by ship.
Vasco Da Gama
Portuguese explorer. He led the first European expedition around the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, sighting and naming Natal on Christmas Day before crossing the Indian Ocean and arriving in Calicut (Kozhikode, in India) in 1498. → Gama, Vasco da.
Prince Henry
Prince Henry (Henrique) the Navigator (1394-1460) was a Portuguese royal prince, soldier, and patron of explorers. Henry sent many sailing expeditions down Africa's west coast, but did not go on them himself.
Gold Coast
Region of the Atlantic coast of West Africa occupied by modern Ghana; named for its gold exports to Europe from the 1470s onward. Significances: Became the headquarters of Portugal's West African trade, thus skyrocketing Portugal's economy.
