Chapters 14 and 15: The Age of Exploration

What was a cartographer?

mapmaker (Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye has a cart, there is a matchmaker)

Why did Europeans explore?

more profitable for Europeans outside Italy to gain direct access to Asia; wanted to avoid the Middle East; driven by Renaissance curiosity to seek new lands

What was a viceroy?

representatives who ruled in the king's name

Who was Bartholomeu Dias?

rounded southern tip of Africa, aka Cape of Good Hope (opened new sea route so earned name), in 1488

How did the Church spread Christianity?

served as royal officials; helped regulate activities of Spanish settlers; Church authority increased with Spain's expansion of territory; Franciscans, Jesuits, and other missionaries spread religion; built mission churches and worked to make converts loyal subjects to the king of Spain; introduced European culture, Spanish, and new crafts; forcibly imposed culture when they could

What was the Line of Demarcation and why was it created?

split non European globe into two zones, Spain got west of the line and Portugal got east; made by Pope Alexander VI after Ferdinand and Isabella wanted to support their claims to the land

What were creoles?

American born descendants of Spanish settlers; owned most of the plantations, ranches, and mines

What is capitalism?

An economic system in which most businesses are owned privately

Who controlled most of the trade between Asia and Europe in the 1400s?

Arab and Italian merchants

Who was Moctezuma?

Aztec emperor who believed Cortés could be sun god; sent him silver and gold objects; welcomed Spanish but relationship became strained; Spanish wanted to convert Aztecs and wanted gold; imprisoned Moctezuma and forced him to sign land and treasure over to Spanish; Cortés demolished Tenochtitlán and built Mexico City, aided by smallpox

How was Brazil different from Spain?

Brazil offered no instant wealth from silver or gold; settlers cut and exported brazilwood used to create a powerful dye; colony named for this wood; soon started plantations

Why were colonial cities important?

Center of government, commerce, and European culture; government buildings and churches were in the central square; centers of intellectual and cultural life

What effect did Spanish conquistadors have on the world?

Changed pattern of global encounter set in motion with the first European exploration of Africa; much of the world was now connected by sea routes that carried goods, people, and ideas (cultural diffusion)

How did Spain control trade in the Americas?

Colonists could only export raw materials to Spain and could only buy Spanish manufactured goods; laws forbade colonists from trading with other European countries or other Spanish colonies; most valuable materials were silver and gold

Who was Hernán Cortés?

Cuban landowner who heard of Spanish expeditions repelled by Indians; believed he could succeed where others hadn't so began an inland trek toward Tenochtitlán; Malinche, aka Doña Marina, was a translator and advisor; told him Aztecs gained power by conquering others and sacrificed some each year; created alliance with conquered people to overthrow Aztecs

What was mercantilism?

Economic policy aimed at strengthening national economies; real wealth based on gold and silver; competed for trade and empire

Who challenged Spanish and Portuguese wealth?

English, French, and Dutch

What effects did Spanish conquistadors have on Europe?

Europeans conquered millions of Natives; Spanish gained valuable goods; used Native labor to establish silver mines in Peru and Mexico to finance new empire; Spain became Europe's greatest power

What was an effect of the Columbian Exchange?

Extreme population growth; migration; population decreased in certain parts of the world due to transfer of disease such as smallpox and measles; wars; commercial revolution

Who was Martin Waldseemüller?

German cartographer who used Vespucci's descriptions to publish a map of the region of Brazil which he labelled America

How did Las Casas suggest to fill the labor shortage?

Import workers from Africa; believed that Africans were skilled in farming, mining, and metalworking and were immune to tropical disease; regretted suggestion because it furthered the brutal African slave trade

Who was Christopher Columbus?

Italian navigator from Genoa; wanted to reach East Indies by sailing west through the Atlantic; underestimated Earth's size; Spain financed him because Portugal wouldn't; thought he had reached a new continent

Who was Amerigo Vespucci?

Italian sea captain who wrote journal about voyage to Brazil

How did Spain maintain control of its empire?

King set up Council of the Indies to pass laws for the colonies and appointed viceroys; lesser officials and advisory councils helped the viceroy rule; Council of the Indies in Spain closely monitored colonial officials to make sure they did not assume too much authority

What impact did the price revolution have on European society?

Merchants became wealthy because they gained wealth overseas; hurt nobles because their wealth was in land; middle class lived comfortably; hired laborers and servants lived in crowded quarters on the edge of poverty

Where was the chief source of spices in the 1400s?

Moluccas aka Spice Islands (in Indonesia)

Why did the price revolution help give capitalism strength?

More willing to take risks because of their resources; entrepreneurs wanted to expand through overseas ventures

What were the New Laws of the Indies?

Passed in 1542; forbade enslavement and abuse of Native Americans; Spanish too far away to enforce laws; many Natives forced to become peons as a result

What was the social hierarchy in Spanish colonies?

Peninsulares, creoles, mestizos and mulattoes, Native Americans and Africans

What were peninsulares?

People born in Spain; filled the highest positions in government and Catholic Church

What were mulattoes?

People of African and European descent

What were mestizos?

People of Native American and European descent (sounds more Spanish, Natives were in Mexico)

What were entrepreneurs?

People who take financial risks to make profit; key to the success of capitalism

Who was Prince Henry?

Portuguese king who led the way in sponsoring exploration for Portugal; expanded country to Muslim North Africa and islands Madeira and Azores; saw promise in Africa and wanted to convert Africans; believed that in Africa he would find source of Muslims' riches; wanted easier route to Asia by going around Africa; hired cartographers

Who was Vasco de Gama?

Portuguese navigator who led four ships around Cape of Good Hope in 1497; reached spice port Calicut on west coast of India after ten months; many died on return trip; got new spices that gained him profit; got new fleet; forced treaty on leader of Calicut; left Portuguese merchants there to buy spices at low prices and store them for next fleet; seized ports around Indian Ocean; created vast trading empire

Who was Ferdinand Magellan?

Portuguese nobleman who set out with five ships to reach Pacific; reached coast of South America and searched the coast of each bay to find a way to the Pacific; found bay at tip of South America called Strait of Magellan; emerged into Balboa's South Sea, renamed the Pacific for peaceful; reached Philippines in 1521 where he was killed; rest of crew reached Spain three years after setting out and were first to circumnavigate the world

What is inflation?

Rise of prices that is linked to a sharp increase in the amount of money available

What was the Treaty of Tordesillas?

Settled terms of Line of Demarcation; made other nations want to defy Spain and Portugal's arrogance by building their own empires

What were some examples of cultural blending between Europe, Africa, and the Americas?

Settlers learned Native architecture, traveled in Indian canoes, and ate their food; Natives learned European religion and gained the horse; Africans contributed dance, farming methods, drama, cooking style, and crops; some Africans blended Christianity with their religions

What caused the price revolution?

Silver and gold flowing into Europe

How did other European countries try to sabotage Spain and Portugal?

Smugglers traded illegally with Spanish and Portuguese colonists; pirates preyed on American treasure ships

Who went to a convent to study and became a great Spanish poet?

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Who was Vasco Nuñez de Balboa?

Spanish adventurer who hacked a westward passage through the forest of Panama until he got to the Pacific Ocean

Who was Francisco Pizarro?

Spanish conquistador who arrived in Peru after Inca emperor Atahualpa gained throne in civil war; captured and slaughtered Inca because emperor wouldn't convert to Christianity; demanded ransom for ruler which was met but they killed him anyway; overran Incan heartland; added much of South America to his empire; killed in a rival Spanish faction after establishing city of Lima

Who was Bartolomé de Las Casas?

Spanish priest who condemned the evils of the encomienda system; reported to Spain the horrors that the Spanish rule had brought to the Native Americans; pleaded with the king to end the abuse; influenced New Laws of the Indies

Why were encomienda established?

Sugarcane became profitable resource; needed to be refined into molasses, sugar, and rum; had to be grown on plantations that needed many workers to be profitable

What was the encomienda?

System of forced labor that allowed conquistadors to demand labor or tribute from Native Americans; those who resisted were hunted down and killed; Native American population declined as a result of this combined with disease and malnutrition

Which people did Columbus encounter in America?

Taíno

What allowed Portugal to claim their eastern empire in Brazil?

The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494

What was the price revolution?

The period in European history when inflation rose rapidly

Why were so few Spanish able to overpower so many Native Americans?

Their guns and cannons were superior to arrows and spears; had metal armor and horses; disease came that Natives had no immunity to

Why did Ferdinand and Isabella sponsor Columbus?

They had been expelling Jews from Spain (end of Fiddler) to strengthen Catholicism but were losing some of smartest people and were weakening nation; wanted to gain wealth and prestige

Why did Spanish colonies build universities?

They needed educated priests

What was the Columbian Exchange?

Vast global exchange; started by Columbus when he brought plants and animals to and from the Americas

What was the putting-out system?

Way to bypass guilds; separated capital and labor for the first time

How did capitalism change European economy?

Went from local economies to international trading system

What were peons?

Workers forced to labor for a landlord in order to pay off a debt; landlords gave them food, tools, and seeds to create debt they would never be able to pay off

What effect did Spanish conquistadors have on Native Americans?

believed it was the end of the world; stopped resisting conversion hoping that suffering would end; Maya fought Spanish rule in Mexico and Central America; Inca revolted many years after Atahualpa's death; preserved culture and resisted European culture, which later influenced Latin American culture

How did the Spanish treat the Taíno?

harshly; assaulted people; claimed land for Spain; seized some to bring back to king; killed anyone who resisted; forced them to find a certain amount of gold; if they didn't they were tortured or killed