Exploration & Motivations
This European motivation for exploration focused on spreading Christianity.
What is God?
This term describes the exchange of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
What is the Columbian Exchange?
This empire controlled much of Central and South America after Spanish conquest.
What is the Spanish Empire?
This forced migration moved enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean.
What is the Middle Passage?
This economic theory argued that a nation’s power depended on accumulating wealth through trade.
What is mercantilism?
This religion spread widely in the Americas due to European colonization.
What is Christianity?
This economic motivation pushed European states to seek direct access to Asian trade goods.
What is gold (or profit from trade)?
These Old World diseases caused massive population decline in the Americas.
What are smallpox and measles?
This labor system required Indigenous people to work for Spanish landowners.
What is the encomienda system?
Most enslaved Africans were sent to this region rather than North America.
What is the Caribbean or Brazil?
Colonies were expected to exist mainly to benefit this group.
What is the mother country or metropole?
This social hierarchy in Spanish colonies ranked people based on ancestry.
What is the caste system?
These three motivations are often summarized as the “Three Gs.”
What are God, Gold, and Glory?
This American crop became a staple food in Europe, Africa, and Asia due to its high calorie yield.
What is the potato (or maize)?
This system replaced encomienda and tied Indigenous laborers to the land.
What is the repartimiento system?
This economic system relied on enslaved labor to produce cash crops.
What is the plantation system?
This trade system connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
What is the Triangular Trade?
People of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry were called this.
What are mestizos?
This technological innovation allowed sailors to calculate latitude more accurately at sea.
What is the astrolabe?
This animal, introduced by Europeans, transformed transportation and warfare in the Americas.
What is the horse?
This colonial administration system placed royal officials directly under the Spanish crown.
What are viceroyalties?
This African role in the slave trade involved capturing and selling prisoners of war.
What is African participation in slave trading networks?
This Spanish trade route connected the Americas to Asia across the Pacific Ocean.
What is the Manila Galleon trade?
This group was at the bottom of colonial social hierarchies.
Who are enslaved Africans and Indigenous peoples?
This Chinese maritime innovation, later adopted by Europeans, improved ship navigation and safety.
What is the magnetic compass?
The Columbian Exchange most directly caused this demographic change in the Americas.
What is population collapse of Indigenous peoples?
This empire focused heavily on fur trading and missionary activity rather than plantation agriculture.
What is the French Empire?
This was a major demographic effect of the slave trade on Africa.
What is gender imbalance and population loss?
This Asian good created high demand for silver from the Americas.
What is Chinese silk or porcelain?
This was a long-term global result of transoceanic interactions.
What is increased globalization and cultural exchange?