Spanish Conquest
What was the major economic goal of European exploration during the Age of Discovery?
To find a direct sea route to Asia and gain access to valuable goods such as spices.
What was the main economic activity of the French colonies in North America?
The fur trade.
What was mercantilism?
An economic system in which European governments sought to increase national wealth and power by controlling trade.
Why did European colonists increasingly rely on enslaved Africans for labor?
Colonists needed a large labor force for plantations, while Indigenous populations had been devastated by disease
What was the main cause of the huge decline in Indigenous populations after European contact?
European infectious diseases.
Why were relationships with Native Americans important to the French in North America?
The French depended on Native Americans to acquire the fur for the fur trade
What is a favorable balance of trade?
When a country exports (sells) more valuable goods than it imports (buys).
What types of products were enslaved workers forced to produce on plantations?
Cash crops such as sugar, tobacco, and coffee.
Name two technologies that gave Spanish forces advantages when fighting some Native American empires.
Firearms, horses, steel weapons, and armor.
What was the main focus of the English colonial economy?
Agriculture, including farming and cash crops.
Where were many raw materials and cash crops in the Triangular Trade produced?
The Americas.
What was the Middle Passage?
The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
Who had the highest status in the Spanish colonial caste system?
Spaniards born in Europe
What colonial possessions were often considered the most valuable to European empires, and why?
Caribbean colonies because they produced highly profitable cash crops such as sugar.
What happened to raw materials from the Americas in the Triangular Trade?
They were shipped to Europe, where they were processed into manufactured goods.
What were working conditions like for enslaved people on plantations?
They faced long hours of forced labor, physically demanding work, and harsh discipline.
What was the Encomienda system?
A Spanish colonial labor system in which Spanish colonists received the right to demand labor from Indigenous people. essentially slavery
How were French and English relationships with Native Americans generally different?
The French relied more on trade and alliances, while English colonists more often sought Indigenous land for farming and settlement.
Explain the basic flow of the Triangular Trade.
Raw materials and cash crops from the Americas were sent to Europe.
Europe sent manufactured goods to Africa (and the Americas).
Enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas.
How did some African rulers and merchants participate in the Atlantic Slave Trade?
Some captured or acquired prisoners and other captives and traded them to European merchants for manufactured goods.