Spanish Conquests in the Americas
Italian navigator in Spanish service: discoverer of America, 1492
Christopher Columbus
the name of Canada under French rule
New France
the buying, transporting, and selling of Africans for work in the Americas
Atlantic slave trade
the global transfer of plants, animals, and diseases that occurred during the European colonization of the Americas
Columbian Exchange
a land controlled by a distant nation
colony
a ruined village in E Virginia: the first permanent English settlement in North America, 1607
Jamestown
the transatlantic trading network along which slaves and other goods were carried between Africa, England, Europe, the West Indies, and the colonies in North America
triangular trade
the expansion of trade and business that transformed European economies during the 16th and 17th centuries
Commercial Revolution
Spanish conqueror of Mexico
Hernando Cortes
a group of people who, in 1620, founded the colony of Plymouth in Massachusetts to escape religious persecution in England
Pilgrims
the voyage that brought captured Africans to the West Indies, and later to North and South America, to be sold as slaves – so called because it was considered the middle leg of the triangular trade
middle passage
an economic system based on private ownership and on the investment of money in business ventures in order to make a profit
capitalism
the Spanish soldiers, explorers, and fortune hunters who took part in the conquest of the Americas in the 16th century
conquistadors
a Dutch colony on the Hudson (1613) and Delaware rivers: after 1664, included by England in the New York, New Jersey, and Delaware colonies
New Netherland
a labor system in which an individual is legally bound by a contract (called an "indenture") to work for an employer without a salary for a set period, usually 4 to 7 years, in exchange for basic necessities like travel, food, and shelter
indentured servitude
an economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and selling more goods than they bought
mercantilism
a grant of land made by Spain to a settler in the Americas, including the right to use Native Americans as laborers on it
encomienda
a conflict between Britain and France for control of territory in North America, lasting from 1754 to 1763
French and Indian War
Originally, Slav. A white person of East European (Slavic) descent.
slave
an economic situation in which a country exports more than it imports – that is, sells more goods abroad than it buys from abroad
favorable balance of trade