Exploration
This term describes the three main reasons Europeans explored: Gold, Glory, and ___.
God (the three G's)
Sailing for Spain in 1492, this Italian-born explorer became the first European to reach the Americas in the modern era.
Christopher Columbus
Under this economic theory, nations sought to export more than they imported and accumulate gold and silver.
Mercantilism
This brutal leg of the Triangle Trade carried enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
The Middle Passage
This Portuguese-designed ship with triangular sails could sail against the wind, making ocean exploration far more practical.
The caravel
This country led the way in ocean exploration during the 1400s, establishing a school for navigators under Prince Henry.
Portugal
This Portuguese explorer was the first to sail an all-water route from Europe around Africa to India in 1498.
Vasco da Gama
This type of business allowed many investors to share the cost and risk of expensive overseas voyages.
A joint-stock company
This labor system granted Spanish colonists the right to demand forced work and tribute from Native Americans.
The encomienda system
Sailors used this instrument to measure the angle of the sun or stars above the horizon to determine their latitude.
The astrolabe
Europeans wanted a sea route to Asia partly because this empire had blocked overland trade routes to the East.
The Ottoman Empire
Though he died in the Philippines, his expedition became the first to circumnavigate the globe (1519–1522).
Ferdinand Magellan
The British East India Company and Dutch East India Company are examples of this type of enterprise.
Joint-stock companies (multinational trading companies)
European colonists needed enslaved African labor primarily for these large-scale agricultural operations.
Plantations
This navigational device, which always points north, helped sailors maintain their heading even when stars were hidden.
The magnetic compass
This 1494 agreement between Spain and Portugal divided the newly discovered world along a north-south line through the Atlantic.
The Treaty of Tordesillas
This Englishman's 1497 voyage to North America gave England its legal claim to the continent.
John Cabot
This term describes the difference between the value of goods a country exports versus what it imports.
The balance of trade
This conquistador conquered the Inca Empire in South America by capturing Emperor Atahualpa.
Francisco Pizarro
What was the significance of the caravel in maritime exploration?
It was a fast and maneuverable ship design that allowed for long-distance voyages
This term describes the massive movement of plants, animals, diseases, and ideas between the Old World and the New World after 1492.
The Columbian Exchange
This conquistador defeated the Aztec Empire in Mexico using steel weapons, horses, disease, and local alliances.
Hernán Cortés
This major shift in European economic life — bringing banking, credit, insurance, and global markets — grew directly out of the Age of Exploration.
The Commercial Revolution
Historians use this term to describe the 50–90% decline in Native American populations caused mainly by European diseases after 1492.
The Great Dying (also accepted: The Columbian Exchange demographic collapse)
Spanish-born colonists who held the highest rank in the colonial social class system were called this.
Peninsulares