APWH: Unit 4

• Causes of European expansion during this period

  • Technological
  • Political
  • Economic
• Technological causes

  • European adoption of Maritime technologies from classical Greek, Islamic and Asian world (e.g. magnetic compass, astrolabe, lateen sail)
  • European innovations in ship building (e.g. Portuguese Caravel)
  • Improved understanding of regional wind patterns
• Caravel


  Smaller and faster ship design used by the Portuguese, able to navigate inland waterways and loaded with cannons
• Political causes

  • Growth of state power and centralization, leading to monarchs playing a more significant role in economic decisions
  • Desire to find sea-based trade routes to Asia to bypass land-based empires controlling overland trade
• Mercantilism


  State-driven economic system that saw the world's wealth as a fixed pie, with the goal of maintaining a favorable balance of trade through exports and avoiding imports
• Joint stock company


  Limited liability business, often chartered by the state, funded by private investors
• States that used joint stock companies prospered, while those that stuck with state-sponsored voyages like Spain and Portugal declined in power and influence
• Joint stock companies


  • Dutch East India Company (VOC)
• Economic causes

  • Mercantilism
  • Joint stock companies
• Trading post empire


  Barebones trading posts (called factories) established to control trade, rather than full colonial rule
• Spain established colonial rule in the Americas and the Philippines, using methods like tribute collecting and coerced labor
• France sponsored westward expeditions to find a North Atlantic sea route to Asia, establishing a presence in Canada and the fur trade
• England established its first colony at Roanoke Island, later Jamestown, and sought to challenge Spanish and Portuguese control in the Indian Ocean
• The Dutch VOC gained independence from Spain and became the most prosperous state in Europe, dominating the Indian Ocean trade
• Columbian Exchange

  Transfer of new diseases, food plants, and animals between the Eastern and Western hemispheres
• Foods and crops transferred in the Colombian Exchange


  • European crops (wheat, olives, grapes)
  • African and Asian crops (rice, bananas, sugar)
  • American crops (maize, potatoes)
• The introduction of new crops from the Americas contributed to population growth in Europe, Africa, and Asia after 1700
• The transfer of animals like horses enabled more effective hunting by indigenous Plains peoples
• Tokugawa Japan initially welcomed European trade but later suppressed Christianity and isolated itself from European influence
• Maroon Societies


  • In Jamaica, led by Queen Nanny, they rebelled and fought back against colonial troops, eventually signing a treaty in 1738 recognizing their freedom
• Asante Empire


  • They were able to provide highly desired Goods that European Traders were after like gold, ivory, and enslaved people, which made them so rich that they were able to expand their military and consolidate political power over more and more of the region
• Kingdom of the Congo


  • They made strong diplomatic ties with the Portuguese and provided them with things like gold, copper, and enslaved people, and the king converted to Christianity to facilitate trade with Christian states, which led to the expansion of their power and wealth
• Sugar

  King of the goods traded in the Atlantic system, with Colonial plantations in the Caribbean specializing in the growth of sugar cane which was exported across the Atlantic to satisfy Europeans' growing demand
• Silver

  King of the wealth in the Atlantic system, with the Spanish mining silver in the Americas which was then transferred back to the Royal coffers, having a big effect in Europe
• Mita system


  A labor system developed and deployed by the Inca Empire, which the Spanish continued to use for their silver mining operations in the Americas
• Chattel slavery


  A form of slavery in which the purchaser has total ownership over the enslaved person, was race-based and hereditary
• Social effects of the African slave trade

  • Profound gender imbalance in West African states, changing of family structure leading to the rise of polygyny, and cultural synthesis resulting in the emergence of Creole languages in the Americas
• Indentured servitude


  An arrangement in which a laborer would sign a contract binding them to a particular work for a period of time, usually seven years, after which they could go free
• Encomienda system


  A Spanish system that divided indigenous Americans among Spanish settlers who were then forced to provide labor in exchange for food and protection
• Hacienda system


  A Spanish system in which indigenous laborers were forced to work on the fields of large plantations, similar to slavery
• Struggles of existing elites

  • The Russian boyars' loss of power to the absolutist Peter the Great in Russia