Explorers & Expeditions
This explorer's 1492 voyage led to the first sustained contact between Europe and the Americas.
Who is Christopher Columbus?
This European country was the first to establish a global maritime empire, controlling key ports in Africa and Asia.
What is Portugal?
This staple crop from the Americas became a key food source in Europe, leading to population growth.
What is the potato?
This triangular trade route involved the exchange of slaves, raw materials, and manufactured goods across the Atlantic.
What is the Atlantic Slave Trade?
This Spanish priest spoke out against the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples and advocated for their rights.
Answer: Who is Bartolomé de las Casas?
This Portuguese explorer was the first to reach India by sea in 1498, opening up the spice trade.
Who is Vasco da Gama?
This agreement between Spain and Portugal, brokered by the Pope in 1494, divided the world into two zones of exploration.
What is the Treaty of Tordesillas?
This devastating disease, brought by Europeans, wiped out a significant portion of the Indigenous population of the Americas.
What is smallpox?
The Spanish Empire relied heavily on silver mines in this region to fuel its global trade and economy.
What is Potosí (in modern-day Bolivia)?
Indigenous people led this massive rebellion in 1680 in the Southwest against Spanish colonizers.
What is the Pueblo Revolt?
This explorer's crew was the first to circumnavigate the globe, though he did not survive the journey.
Who is Ferdinand Magellan?
This company, founded in 1602, became a powerful force in Asian trade and established Dutch control over the spice trade.
What is the Dutch East India Company?
This type of livestock, introduced by Europeans, transformed the lifestyle and mobility of many Native American tribes.
What is the horse?
This Chinese dynasty limited European trade to the port of Canton, enforcing strict control over foreign merchants.
What is the Qing Dynasty?
This Indigenous empire, led by Moctezuma II, was defeated by Spanish forces and their native allies in 1521.
What is the Aztec Empire?
This Spanish conquistador overthrew the Aztec Empire with the help of native allies in 1521.
Who is Hernán Cortés?
This English settlement, founded in 1607, was the first permanent English colony in North America.
What is Jamestown?
These two American crops were highly valued in Africa and Asia for their caloric content and versatility.
What are maize (corn) and sweet potatoes?
This economic policy encouraged European nations to acquire colonies and accumulate wealth through trade monopolies.
What is mercantilism?
The forced relocation of Native Americans, resulting from European colonization, led to significant population declines due to this factor.
What are diseases (e.g., smallpox)?
This Chinese admiral led seven major expeditions across the Indian Ocean, showcasing the power of the Ming Dynasty.
Who is Zheng He?
This French explorer founded Quebec in 1608, establishing the foundations of French colonization in North America.
Answer: Who is Samuel de Champlain?
This term refers to the unintentional transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Old and New Worlds.
What is the Columbian Exchange?
This system of forced labor required Indigenous peoples in Spanish America to work in mines and plantations.
What is the encomienda system?
This system of racial classification developed in colonial Latin America, categorizing individuals based on their European, African, and Indigenous ancestry.
What is the caste (casta) system?