Exploration

Prince Henry the Navigator

Sponsored Portugal's exploration. Claimed Maderia and Azores, and later into Muslim North Africa, where he seized the port of Ceuta on the coast.

Vasco da Gama

This Portuguese navigator led four ships to the Cape of Good Hope and eventually reached the great spice ports in Asia. The result was highly profitable and Portugal seized trading centers on the Indian Ocean, giving it the status of world power.

Columbus

A Genoese navigator, he wanted to reach the East Indies by crossing the Atlantic instead of circumnavigating Africa, but instead he arrived in the Americas

caravel

15th to 17th century Spanish and Portuguese ships that were fast and small.

astrolabe

an ancient computer used for navigation, which could be adjusted to show what the sky looks like at certain times and locations.

compass

An instrument containing a magnetized pointer that shows the direction of magnetic north and bearings from it

Line of Demarcation

Set by Pope Alexander VI to divide the non-European world into two zones, Spain was granted the west and Portugal the east.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Signed between Spain and Portugal in 1494, this agreement divided the world outside Europe between the two countries.

Amerigo Vespucci

(1454-1512) an Italian sea captain who wrote about his voyages to Brazil which helped German cartographers create maps for the Americas.

Magellan

(1480-1521) Sept., 1519, sailed west by sea to Asia along the east coast of South America, reached the Philippines and died there. His ships were the first to circumnavigate the globe. (Technically a guy from spice islands was first to circumnavigate the whole world)

Dutch East India Company

Wealthy merchants formed this overseas trading corporation and used the state's resources for their private benefit. Its financial success expanded Dutch imperial and financial power.

sepoys

Indian soldier under European control

conquistadors

A spanish conquerer

Cortez

A Spanish-Cuban landowner who took 600 men on a trek to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec Empire's Capital. He captured Moctezuma and used him to gain more land and riches. Eventually, he destroyed Tenochtitlan which was later redeveloped into what we now know as Mexico City.

Pizarro

Conquistador who conquered the Incas. Inspired by Cortes. Took Atahualpa hostage and killed him even after the ransom was paid.

viceroys

Representatives who rule under a king's name. Were used to govern each province in the Spanish Empire. Monitored by the Council of Indies to assure they don't assume too much authority.

encomienda system

A forced labor structure that allowed the Spanish to have the right to demand labor/tribute from Native Americans, forcing them into brutal work in mines and on plantations. Thousands died and were replaced with thousands more because of this rapacious system

triangle trade

An international trade network connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas in the shape of a triangle across the Atlantic Ocean

Middle Passage

The transportation of slaves from Africa to the Americas. Many enslaved Africans died along the treacherous journey in brutal and unsanitary conditions

Columbian Exchange

A vast global market in the exchange of flora, fauna and goods between the Americas and Europe, and the permanent settlement of Europeans and Africans in North and South America

price revolution

The time period when there was a rapid increase in inflation

mercantilism

A theory in which the power of the state increases through the control of trade policy, which leads to the accumulation of gold and currency reserves. Today, this idea is often found in the arguments that say there should be more domestic manufacturing instead of buying manufactured goods from other countries. Those in favor of free trade are sharply critical of these ideas.

Ptolemy's Geography

An atlas documenting the knowledge of the geography of the 2nd century of the Roman Empire

Bartolome de las Casas

Campaigned against the maltreatment of indigenous peoples under Spanish rule in the Americas, and advocated for the use of African slave labor instead.

Pedro Cabal

Sailed west for India in 1500, arriving instead in Brazil, which he claimed for Portugal

Ponce de Leon

(1460-1521) a Spanish explorer and conquistador who discovered Florida in 1513

Vasco de Balboa

1475-1519 a Spanish explorer that led a party across Panama to the Pacific Ocean, which he called the South Sea (later renamed by Magellan)

Francisco de Coronado

1540-1542 a Spanish explorer that went through what became the southwest United States, went as far north as the present state of Kansas

John Cabot

A Genoese sailor, in 1497 and 1498 he made two voyages along the north east coast of North America. He was employed by king Henry VII of England. English claims to North America were based on his voyages.

Jacques Cartier

In 1534 he began his first voyage to Quebec in search of the Northwest Passage (a theoretical northern route to the Pacific which wasn't navigated until the twentieth century). In his second voyage, he sailed up the St. Lawrence River, as far as the present site of Quebec City. His voyages established France's claims to North America

quinto

1550, where grandiose house planned on the lines of his reconstruction of a Roman villa shown in the Quattro libri, but it was never finished

Joint Stock Company

is a forerunner of the modern corporation that was organized for undertakings requiring large amounts of capital. Money was raised by selling shares to investors, who became partners in the venture. An early joint-stock company being the Virginia Company, founded in 1606 to colonize North America.

Siege of Vienna

(Sept 12, 1683) A battle between the Ottoman Empire lead by Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa against a coalition of Polish, German, and Austrian armies led by Jan Sobieski (who became John III). Following its defeat, the Ottoman Empire never again made further territorial incursions into Europe, and Austrian power increased. As such, it is considered an important turning point in relations between east and west, and between Christianity and Islam.

Entrepeneur

Someone who takes financial risk for potential gain. These people were the earliest capitalists and investors in overseas trade.