CHAPTER
1
‹^75
The Great Voyages of
Exploration and Early
Colonization
IN THIS CHAPTER
Summary: In the fifteenth century, a more secular and ambitious culture emerged
as European nations began to explore and exploit new areas of the globe, includ-
ing Africa, the Americas, and the East. This chapter describes the growth of global
trade, the establishment of European colonies in new regions of the world, and the
severe stress on the traditional economic and social organization of Europe caused
by the new sources of wealth and power.Key Terms:
✪^ Spice trade The importation of spices from Asia into Europe, revived during
the Renaissance. The need to find shorter, more efficient routes gave impetus
to the great voyages of exploration of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
✪^ Haciendas^ The large estates that produced food and leather goods for the
mining areas and urban centers of the Spanish Empire in the New World.
✪^ Triangular Trade Networks The system of interconnected trade routes that
quadrupled foreign trade in both Britain and France in the eighteenth century.
✪^ The Middle Passage The leg of the triangular trade networks in which African
slaves were transported in brutal conditions across the Atlantic Ocean on
European trade ships.
✪^ Plantations The large estates in the West Indies, which produced sugar for
export to Europe.KEY IDEA12
CHAPTER
12_Bartolini_Ch12_075-080.indd 75 13/04/18 1:29 PM