Vocabulary
What was the Columbian Exchange?
The movement of plants, animals, people, diseases, and goods between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia after 1492.
Name two gunpowder(land based) empires
Ottomans, Mughals, Safavid, Ming, Russians
What explorer's 1492 voyage began sustained connections between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia?
Name one cash crop associated with Atlantic plantations.
Sugar, tobacco, cotton, or coffee.
What year is commonly used as the starting point for the Columbian Exchange?
1492
What is a Joint-Stock Company?
A network of businesses or investors who combine money to fund overseas ventures
What empire conquered Constantinople in 1453?
The Ottomans
Why did diseases such as smallpox have such devastating effects on Indigenous populations in the Americas?
Indigenous populations had limited previous exposure to many diseases from Afro-Eurasia.
What is the name of the system that used enslaved labor to produce crops such as sugar and tobacco for profit?
Plantation system
Europeans wanted wealth, power, and to spread Christianity. These motivations are often summarized with these three words.
God, Gold, Glory
What is colonialism?
European control over foreign territories and peoples
Why did gunpowder weapons help rulers build large empires?
They gave armies powerful weapons that could help defeat enemies, capture cities, and strengthen centralized authority.
What food from the Americas eventually became an important staple for populations in parts of Europe and Asia?
The potato
Why was Chattel Slavery different from past forms of slavery?
Chattel slavery treated enslaved people as legally owned property for life, with slavery generally becoming hereditary and increasingly tied to race and human sin.
European exploration connected the Americas to existing trade networks. How did this contribute to the development of new economic systems?
It expanded markets and trade, increased access to resources and cash crops, encouraged investment and profit-making, and contributed to the growth of capitalism and global trade.
What is globalization?
The movement of people, goods, ideas, and diseases across large distances.
(Increased interconnectedness of the world)
Why is it misleading to think that gunpowder was the only reason these empires became powerful?
Their success also depended on strong governments, armies, taxation, geography, trade, leadership, and political organization.
What crop became particularly important to European colonizers because it could be sold for enormous profits and required large amounts of labor?
Sugar
What was the Middle Passage and why was it especially deadly?
It is the route that transported slaves between Africa and the Americas. Enslaved Africans were transported under brutal, overcrowded, and unhealthy conditions.
What do gunpowder empires and European overseas empires have in common?
Both used military power, political organization, and economic resources to expand and maintain control over territories.
What is capitalism?
An economic system based on private ownership, investment, and the goal of making profit.
What did the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires have in common besides using gunpowder?
They were large, centralized empires that ruled diverse populations and used religion, military power, and government institutions to maintain authority.
Why can the Columbian Exchange be considered more than simply an "exchange of food"?
It involved plants, animals, diseases, people, labor systems, economic resources, and cultural changes.
Give TWO ways enslaved people resisted their enslavement.
Escape, rebellion, sabotage, work slowdowns, preserving cultural traditions, or creating maroon communities.
How did the way we perceive history change after Columbus "discovered" America?
History was defined by (and limited to) regions. World history, as we know it, did not emerge until we were all connected.