The World After 1350
What deadly disease spread across Afro-Eurasian trade routes during the 1300s?
The Black Death/ Bubonic Plague
What Renaissance intellectual movement emphasized classical learning and the study of human life, history, literature, and ethics?
Humanism
What seasonal winds helped sailors travel across the Indian Ocean?
Monsoon winds
What Portuguese prince sponsored early voyages along the African coast but did not personally make most of those voyages?
Prince Henry
Which explorer reached the Caribbean in 1492 while attempting to reach Asia?
Cristopher Columbus
What city connected the Mediterranean and Black Sea worlds and was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453?
Constantinople
Which Italian city became famous for banking, the Medici family, art, and Renaissance culture?
Florence
Which Ming admiral commanded major maritime expeditions across Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean?
Zheng He
What cape became famous for Portuguese sailors’ fears about dangerous waters and whether ships could return?
Cape Bojador
Which explorer reached Calicut, India, in 1498?
Vasco da Gama
What trade network connected West Africa with North Africa and the Mediterranean?
Trans-Saharan Trade
What invention associated with Johannes Gutenberg allowed written material to be reproduced much more quickly?
Movable-type printing / the printing press
What West African city became famous for trade, Islamic scholarship, books, and manuscripts?
Timbuktu
What Portuguese sailing technique involved sailing out into the Atlantic to find favorable winds for the return voyage?
Volta do mar
What agreement did Spain and Portugal make in 1494 to divide their overseas claims?
The Treaty of Tordesillas
Which empire captured Constantinople in 1453 and became a major power in the eastern Mediterranean?
The Ottoman Empire
What were the mercenary soldiers employed by many Renaissance Italian city-states called?
Condottieri
Name two important Indian Ocean port cities studied in this quarter.
Any two of Calicut, Malacca, Hormuz, Aden, or Kilwa
Which explorer rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488?
Bartolomeu Dias
Why did the Treaty of Tordesillas not mean Spain and Portugal actually controlled everything on their side of the line?
The treaty divided Spanish and Portuguese claims, not actual control, and many of those lands were already inhabited and governed by other peoples.
Why is it inaccurate to say that the fall of Constantinople simply cut Europe off from Asian trade and caused European exploration?
Trade continued after 1453, and Portuguese maritime exploration had already begun before Constantinople fell.
In the chapters of The Prince studied in class, what question does Machiavelli ask about whether rulers should be loved or feared?
Whether it is better for a ruler to be loved or feared; Machiavelli argues that if a ruler cannot be both, it is safer to be feared.
Besides trade, name three ways Islam spread or became established across parts of Africa and Asia.
Any three of migration, rulers, scholarship, pilgrimage, intermarriage, or local conversion
Name two specific technologies or forms of maritime knowledge that helped Portuguese sailors make longer voyages, and explain how each helped.
Any two correctly explained, such as the caravel for maneuverability, compass for direction, astrolabe for estimating latitude, portolan charts for coastal information, dead reckoning for estimating position, or knowledge of Atlantic winds and currents for planning routes.
Vasco da Gama and Columbus began with the same broad goal. What was that goal, and how did their results differ?
Both wanted better access to Asian trade. Da Gama sailed around Africa and reached India, while Columbus sailed west and reached the Caribbean instead of Asia.