AP World Unit 4
What made transoceanic travel and trade possible?
Developments in tools and ship design as well as improved understanding of regional wind and current patterns.
How was the Portuguese empire different from most other European states?
Instead of claiming large pieces of land they established a Trading-Post Empire along the African Coast. This helped them to become a major player in the Indian Ocean. They did, however, establish some traditional colonies, like Brazil.
What was the Columbian Exchange? Who was it named after?
It was named after Christopher Columbus who was the first European of this era to find the Americas. It was a biological exchange of animals, people, food, and diseases between the hemispheres. This explains the causes of the Columbian Exchange and its effects on the Eastern and Western hemisphere.
Why did Europeans use enslaved Africans for labor in the Americas?
Native americans had died in such great numbers that they could not fulfill European's desire for labor in the Americas. This explains the changes and continuities in economic and labor systems including systems of slavery during 1450-1750.
What kind of technology helped Europeans to explore the oceans?
New ships such as the Fluyt, the Caravel, and the Carrack that were smaller, faster, and cheaper to build as well as solely intended for trade.
How were mercantilist policies and practices used by European rulers?
The policies were used to expand and control their economies and claim overseas territories.
What was mercantilism?
A belief that there is a finite amount of gold and silver in the world and that having the most of it would lead to the strongest state. Europeans frequently competed for wealth. This is an example of how rulers employed economic strategies to consolidate and maintain power.
What is a maritime empire?
A sea based empire
Why did Europeans think that chattel slavery from Africa was a better labor system?
Africans were property for life and they weren't susceptible to European diseases.
What was indentured servitude?
An employer would pay the passage of a person to the New World in return for an average of 7 years of labor. The servant would be freed after the debt was worked off in years. This was used mostly by the British in North America
What did the growth of plantation economies lead to?
As plantation economies grew, the demand for slaves in the Americas also increased, leading to significant changes.
How did slavery in Africa continue after the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade?
As slavery in Africa had existed before, it continued on in its traditional form, now incorporating slaves into households and exporting slaves to the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean.
What was the encomienda system?
Conquistadors were given a plot of land and the job of protecting Native Americans on that land, but in return the Spanish could demand free labor from the indigenous in exchange.
What were some of the most significant exchanges due to the Columbian Exchange?
DISEASE; Smallpox from Europe killed up to 90% of the Native American population in some places. Also FOOD and ANIMALS; Europeans brought sugar and horses to the Americas and brought potatoes, maize, and guinea pigs from America back to Europe. Lastly PEOPLE; the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade or Chattel Slavery was when people from Africa were taken as property to work on plantations in the Americas.
What did the rebellion of African states lead to in the Americas?
Enslaved people rebelled against their own imprisonment in chattel slavery. In the Americas, runaway slaves formed maroon societies in the Caribbean and Brazil where they could live freely. Others enacted armed rebellion such as Nat Turner's rebellion in the early 19th century and the take over of the small ship the Amistad around the same time which led to enslaved people gaining their freedom from the Supreme Court of the United States.
What was a Hacienda?
Huge plantations on which Native Americans were forced to work.
How did political, economic, and cultural factors affect societies in Africa from 1450-1750?
In Africa, there was notable gender and family restructuring that occurred including demographic changes due to slave trade. For example, in some parts of West Africa there was a distinct gender imbalance due to the desire for adult male slaves. Because there were more women, the practice of polygamy where one man is married to multiple women began. Woman also took on traditionally male jobs. This is a good example of how economic developments from 1450-1750 affected social structures over time.
How was inter-Asian trade affected by European disruption into the region?
In the Indian Ocean, traditional inter-Asian trade and Asian merchants thrived, for example the Arabs on the Swahili Coast of Africa.
What did the Portuguese development of maritime technology and navigational skills lead to?
Increased travel and trade with Africa and Asia that resulted in the construction of a global trading-post empire. This proved profitable for the rulers and merchants involved in this new global trade network. It is also an example of the process of state building and expansion among maritime empires.
What helped Europeans innovate and develop their own navigational tools?
Knowledge, scientific learning, and technology from the Classical Islamic and Asian World.
What was the connection between mercantilism and European states creating colonies?
Mercantilist states need an abundance of raw materials which were accessible in their colonies. They could also force the colonies to buy their manufactured foods to keep gold and silver flowing in.
What was a repartimiento or Mita system and what were the differences between the Incan and Spanish versions?
Native Americans were forced to work for part of the year for the Spanish. However, the Incan Mita system was for public benefit while the Spanish repartimiento system was for private gain.
What occurred as a result of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, and French trading post empires?
Political, religious and economic rivalries.
How did the creation of joint stock companies help rulers?
Rulers used economic strategies to consolidate and maintain power through the creation of joint stock companies. Influenced by mercantilists principles that were used to finance exploration they were used by rulers to compete against one another in global trade.
What did the growth of powerful African states lead to?
States like Kongo led other states to rebel. Queen Ana Nzinga, ruler of Ndongo and Matamba in Central Africa. resisted the Portuguese through both diplomacy and warfare.
What was the role of states in the expansion of maritime exploration from 1450-1750?
States like Spain and Portugal paid for transoceanic maritime exploration for people like Columbus. Once these explores were successful this dramatically increased European interest in transoceanic travel and trade including the Northern Atlantic crossings undertaken by the English, French, and Dutch - also they had a large goal of finding a route to Asia.
What was the Casta System that developed in Latin America?
The Casta was a new social hierarchy system that organized society based on ancestry and race. Peninsulares (those born in Europe) were on top, Criollos/Creoles (Those of European descent but born in America) were next, Castas (people of mixed-race heritage) were next, but there were multiple types of castas who were ordered differently; Mestizos (European and Native American) on top of that chart, Mulattos (European and African) were next, and Zambos (African and Native American) were last after them was Native Americans than Africans finally. This is a good example of how economic developments affected social structures over time.
What did the mixing of African, American, and European cultures and people lead to?
The development of cultural and religious syncretism. For example, the religion Santeria was started by the enslaved Africans who were forced to practice catholicism in the Americas. It is practiced in Cuba and combines West African Yoruban indigenous beliefs with Catholicism. Catholic saints were believed to have dual identities, such as Saint Lazarus being associated with the orisha (spirit) Babu-Aye because they are both associated with healing the sick.
What did cross-cultural interactions result in?
The diffusion of technology and facilitated changes in patterns of trade and travel from 1450-1750.
Imperial conquests and widening global economic opportunities contributed to what in the Americas?
The formation of new political and economic elites in the Americas with the rise of the Casta system.
What is other maritime technology created in Asia and the Middle East but used worldwide?
The lateen sail created by the Arabs and Chinese, improved astronomical charts to help navigate the seas, and astrolabes and compasses also used for navigation from Asia.
What did the labor of American Indians and enslaved Africans help facilitate?
The new global circulation of goods because of the global flow of silver, especially from Spanish colonies in the Americas, was used to purchase Asian goods for Atlantic markets and satisfy the Chinese demand for silver.
What fostered the growth of states in Africa?
The slave trade in Africa helped grow the Asante and the Kingdom of Kongo in West and Central Africa, who also participated in trade networks and increased their influence because of it.
What did European colonization of the Americas unintentionally lead to?
The transfer of disease vectors (pests that spread disease), mosquitoes and rats as well as disease itself such as smallpox or malaria. American foods (maize and potato) became staple crops in Afroeurasia. Cash crops (sugar, tobacco, etc.) were grown primarily on plantations and were exported to Europe and the Middle East. Afroeurasian fruit trees (oranges), wheat, sugar, and domesticated animals (horses) were brought by Europeans to the Americas while other foods were brought by African slaves (okra, African rice). Populations in Afro-Eurasia benefitted nutritionally from the increased diversity of American food crops. Some historians think the demographic devastation of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade would have been far worse without the arrival of new staple crops in Africa. The connections between the Americas and Afroeurasia gave rise to the Atlantic trading system that involved the movement of goods, wealth, and labor including enslaved people.
How did the British and Dutch governments support exploration and colonization in a new and innovative way?
They created joint stock companies. This was a way to fund explorations and colonization through private investors. Investors could make tremendous profits if the ventures were successful.
What isolationist policy did the Ming Dynasty in China adopt?
They limited the Portuguese to Macau but allowed them to tact as shippers of Chinese silk to Japan and bring Japanese silver back to them.
What did newly developed colonial economies in the Americas depend on?
They relied on agricultural and using existing labor systems, such as the Incan mit'a system. They also introduced new systems of labor such as new labor systems, chattel slavery, indentured servitude, and encomienda and hacienda systems.
What motivated Europeans to explore the oceans?
They wanted a sea route to Asia because Muslims controlled many land-based routes making it impossible for Europeans to trade on their own terms. This helps to explain the economic causes of maritime exploration by various European states.
What isolationist policy did the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan adopt?
They would only trade with the Dutch.
What did some Asian states adopt in order to limit the Europeans?
To limit the disruptive economic and cultural effect of European dominated long distance trade, Asian states adopted restrictive or isolationist trade policies.
How did shipping services developed by European merchants help regional markets in Afro-Eurasia?
Transoceanic and regional shipping services developed by European merchants helped regional markets in Afro-Eurasia continue to flourish.