The Age of Exploration
Jacques Cartier (F)
Cartier sailed past the island of Newfoundland into the St. Lawrence River. He claimed all the land along the river as the province of New France, or as it came to be called later, Canada. Later French explorers added to Cartier's claims, but none ever found a Northwest Passage.
Giovanni da Verrazzano (F)
Hudson river was discovered years earlier by him
Henry Hudson (E,N)
Hudson set out to the north, hoping to find a Northeast Passage around Europe English navigator; he sailed for the Dutch East India Company and discovered the Hudson River and Hudson Bay
Christopher Columbus (S)
Italian explorer, sailing for Spain, who reached the Americas in 1492 while searching for a western sea route from Europe to Asia.
Henry the Navigator (P)
Son of King John I: he was a patron and supporter of those who wished to explore Henry's ultimate goal was to find a water route around Africa to India
Sir Francis Drake (E)
The English queen sent him to round the tip of South America and explore its west coast He ended up heading west to return to England, thus becoming the second man to circumnavigate the globe.
Caravel
a light, fast sailing ship It was steered with a rudder at the rear of the ship rather than the side oars used on earlier ships Equipped with lateen sails It could be equipped with weapons, including cannons
Astrolable
allowed navigators to calculate their location based on the position of the sun and stars in relation to the horizon
Mercantilism
an economic system used from about the 1500s to the 1700s that held that a nation's power was directly related to its wealth
Deep Draft Vessel
capable of withstanding heavier waves than earlier ships could Typically had larger cargo holds: could carry more supplies Rode lower in the water than earlier ships
Conquistador
conqueror, a term applied to Spanish military leaders who fought against the native peoples of the Americas
Treaty of Tordesillas
drew an imaginary line through the Atlantic Everything to the west of this line, including most of the then-undiscovered Americas, would belong to Spain. Everything to the east would be Portuguese. Of the Americas, only Brazil remained as a Portuguese colony.
Ferdinand Magellan (S)
his ships were the first to circumnavigate the globe
Plantations
large farms that usually specialized in the growing of one type of crop for a profit
Compass
let sailors know at any time which direction was north
Circumnavigate
sail completely around the world
Vasco da Gama (P)
set out for India On the way da Gama stopped at several African ports where he learned that Muslim merchants were already actively involved in trade. Though the journey took more than 10 months, da Gama and his crew eventually reached the city of Calicut in India.
Moctezuma II
the Aztec emperor at the time of the Spanish arrival in Mexico
African Diaspora
the dispersal of people of African descent throughout the Americas and Western Europe due to the slave trade
Bartolomeu Dias (P)
the first European to attempt to sail around the southern tip of Africa, a point today known as the Cape of Good Hope
Middle Passage
the name for voyages that brought enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America and the West Indies
Columbian Exchange
the transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the Americas and Europe, Asia, and Africa beginning with the voyages of Columbus
Triangular Trade
trading network lasting from the 1600s to the 1800s that carried goods and enslaved people between Europe, the Americas, and Africa
Lateen Sail
triangular sails that could be turned to catch wind from any direction lateen sails could even be used to sail directly into a headwind
Encomienda
when a colonist was given a certain amount of land and a number of Native Americans to work the land for him In exchange, the colonist was required to teach the native workers about Christianity.
Hernán Cortés
who led an expedition to Mexico that ended with the conquest of the Aztec Empire Cortés was a conquistador. He defeated the Aztecs