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Western Civ.
Chapter 14, 15 & 16
| Definition | Term |
|---|---|
| The period from the late 15th to 18th centuries when European nations explored, conquered, and colonized territories. | Age of Expansion |
| A Venetian traveler whose 13th-century journeys to Asia under the Mongols inspired later European exploration with tales of wealth and wonder recorded in The Travels. | Marco Polo |
| An ancient navigational instrument used by sailors to determine latitude by measuring the angle of celestial bodies, crucial for long-distance sea travel. | Astrolabe |
| Portuguese prince (1394–1460) who sponsored expeditions along Africa’s west coast, founding navigation schools that advanced maritime exploration. | Prince Henry the Navigator |
| Portuguese explorer who, in 1488, became the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope, paving the way to reach Asia by sea. | Bartholomeu Dias |
| Portuguese sailor who reached India in 1498 via the Cape of Good Hope, establishing a direct oceanic trade link between Europe and Asia. | Vasco da Gama |
| A major Portuguese trading post established in India that became the center of Portugal’s Asian spice trade empire. | Goa |
| A Genoese explorer, sponsored by Spain in 1492, who sailed west across the Atlantic and reached the Caribbean, initiating lasting contact between Europe and the Americas. | Christopher Columbus |
| Italian navigator whose voyages to the New World clarified that the Americas were separate continents; his name was used for “America”. | Amerigo Vespucci |
| Portuguese explorer sailing for Spain whose 1519–1522 expedition achieved the first circumnavigation of the Earth, proving global sea connectivity. | Ferdinand Magellan |
| A 1494 agreement dividing newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal, approved by the pope to avoid conflict. | Treaty of Tordesillas |
| Spanish conquerors who subdued native empires in the Americas, seeking personal glory and wealth under royal authorization. | Conquistadors |
| An advanced Mesoamerican civilization located in present-day Guatemala and Mexico known for mathematics, astronomy, and writing, which declined before Spanish contact. | Maya |
| A powerful Mesoamerican empire centered in Tenochtitlán (modern Mexico City) and conquered by Hernán Cortés and his allies in 1521. | Aztec |
| A vast South American empire located in the Andes, known for engineering and organization, conquered by Francisco Pizarro in the 1530s. | Inca |
| Spanish conquistador (1485–1547) who led the expedition that conquered the Aztec Empire through alliances and disease impact. | Hernan Cortes |
| Spanish conquistador (1478–1541) who captured the Incan leader Atahualpa and overthrew the empire of Peru for Spain. | Francisco Pizarro |
| A deadly European disease that devastated Indigenous populations in the Americas, facilitating European conquest and colonization. | Smallpox |
| Christian clergy, often Catholic, sent to convert native peoples in newly conquered territories, justifying colonization through religious purposes. | Missionaries |
| An approximate number referring to the Africans forcibly transported across the Atlantic through the slave trade by the 18th century. | 10 Million |
| A lucrative crop grown on plantations in the Caribbean and South America that drove the demand for enslaved labor. | Sugarcane |
| Founded in 1602, it was a state-supported Dutch trading enterprise that dominated Asian spice trade and colonial markets. | Dutch East India Company |
| An English company founded in 1600 that gradually expanded its trade and political control in India. | British East India Company |
| A business structure that allowed investors to share profits and risks in exploration ventures, a precursor to modern corporations. | Joint-stock Trading Company |
| An institutional marketplace where company shares could be traded; early forms arose in Amsterdam and London in the 17th century. | Stock Exchange |
| An early form of capitalism based on trade and investment rather than industrial production, fostering global markets. | Commercial Capitalism |
| An economic theory promoting government regulation of trade to maximize exports and accumulate bullion, driving imperial competition. | Mercantilism |
| The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, culture, and goods between Europe, Africa, and the Americas following Columbus’s voyages. | Columbian Exchange |
| A 1569 world map by Gerardus Mercator that preserved accurate direction for navigation but distorted landmass size near the poles. | Mercator Projection |
| The process in early modern Europe by which religious influence declined in political, social, and intellectual life, as states pursued policies based on practical, worldly concerns rather than church doctrine. | Secularization |
| A widespread belief in demonic magic that led to mass witch hunts and trials, often targeting women and reflecting social tension, religious fear, and scapegoating during the age of crisis. | Witchcraft |
| A devastating conflict across Central Europe, initially sparked by Protestant–Catholic tensions within the Holy Roman Empire. It ended with the Peace of Westphalia. | Thirty Years' War |
| A fragmented collection of independent principalities and kingdoms in Central Europe, nominally ruled by emperors of the Habsburg dynasty. The Thirty Years’ War greatly weakened its central authority. | Holy Roman Empire |
| A political system in which rulers claimed absolute authority, governing by divine right and centralizing all state functions under the monarchy. | Absolution |
| Chief minister to Louis XIII who reduced the power of the nobility, strengthened royal authority, and developed a network of royal officials known as intendants. | Cardinal Richelieu |
| The “Sun King”. Model absolute monarch who centralized power, expanded administration, controlled the nobility at Versailles, and made France the dominant power in Europe. | King Louis XIV of France |
| A lavish royal complex built outside Paris by Louis XIV; symbolized royal power and served as a tool to control the French nobility through ceremony and dependency. | Palace of Versailles |
| A German state ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty; its leaders, such as Frederick William “the Great Elector,” built a powerful standing army and efficient bureaucracy, laying the foundation for Prussian militarism. | Prussia (Hohenzollern) |
| A dynasty that rebuilt power after the Thirty Years’ War, establishing control over diverse lands (Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria) and solidifying its influence through dynastic rule rather than centralized absolutism. | Austria (Hapsburg) |
| Established in 1613 after the Time of Troubles, the Romanov dynasty restored order, expanded autocracy, and led Russia’s transformation into a major Eurasian power. | Russia (Romanov) |
| The first Russian ruler to take the title of tsar; he expanded Russian territory, centralized royal authority, and used terror against his opponents. | Ivan IV |
| A chaotic period (1598–1613) following Ivan IV’s death, marked by famine, civil war, and foreign invasion until the Romanovs restored order. | Time of Troubles |
| Tsar who westernized Russia by reforming the military, government, and society, and founded St. Petersburg as Russia’s “window to the West”. | Peter the Great |
| A new capital city built by Peter the Great on the Baltic Sea to symbolize Russia’s modernization and European orientation. | St. Petersburg |
| Ruler of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1520–1566); expanded Ottoman territory into Europe and presided over the empire’s cultural and political zenith. | Suleiman the Magnificent |
| English Protestants who sought to reform the Church of England by eliminating Catholic elements and enforcing simple worship. Their conflict with the crown helped trigger the English Civil War. | Puritans |
| A conflict between Parliament and King Charles I over political power and religion; ended with the execution of Charles I and the rise of the Commonwealth. | English Civil War |
| Parliamentary general who led the Roundheads to victory in the English Civil War, dissolved Parliament, and ruled as Lord Protector under a Puritan military dictatorship (1653–1658). | Oliver Cromwell |
| The overthrow of the Catholic King James II of England by Parliament, which invited Protestant rulers William and Mary to assume the throne—ushering in a constitutional monarchy. | Glorious Revolution |
| A foundational English document limiting monarchical power and affirming civil liberties and parliamentary supremacy. | Bill of Rights |
| English political philosopher who wrote Leviathan (1651); argued that humans are naturally self-interested and require an absolute sovereign to maintain peace and order. | Thomas Hobbes |
| Philosopher who wrote Two Treatises of Government (1690); claimed that government exists to protect natural rights—life, liberty, and property—and must be based on consent. | John Locke |
| An artistic style of grandeur, movement, and emotional intensity that reflected both the Catholic Church’s power and absolutist authority. Examples include architecture by Bernini and music by Bach. | Baroque |
| Dutch painter renowned for his realistic portraits and use of light and shadow; his works reflect the secular, prosperous values of the Dutch Republic. | Rembrandt van Rijn |
| English playwright and poet whose works explored human nature, politics, and identity during the Elizabethan era. | William Shakespeare |
| French playwright who wrote satirical comedies criticizing social hypocrisy and moral pretension under Louis XIV’s patronage. | Jean-Baptist Moliere |
| A transformative period in the 16th and 17th centuries when new methods emerged based on observation, experimentation, and mathematical reasoning, replacing ancient and medieval explanations of nature. | Scientific Revolution |
| Ancient Greek astronomer whose geocentric model of the cosmos dominated Western thought for over a millennium, positioning Earth as the universe’s center with celestial bodies orbiting in perfect circles. | Claudius Ptolemy |
| Polish astronomer who challenged Ptolemy by proposing the heliocentric model of the universe, placing the sun at the center. His 1543 work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres launched the Copernican Revolution. | Nicolaus Copernicus |
| German mathematician and astronomer who formulated the three laws of planetary motion, demonstrating that planets orbit the sun in ellipses and move at varying speeds a critical advancement from earlier circular orbit ideas. | Johannes Kelper |
| Italian scientist and key figure in the Scientific Revolution who improved the telescope, confirmed Copernicus’s heliocentric theory through observation, discovered moons orbiting Jupiter, and developed laws of motion. | Galileo Galilei |
| English physicist and mathematician who synthesized earlier work in his Principia Mathematica, formulating the laws of motion and universal gravitation. | Issac Newton |
| English physician who discovered and demonstrated the circulation of blood driven by the heart, overturning centuries of medical orthodoxy based on Galen’s teachings. | William Harvey |
| French philosopher and mathematician who emphasized doubt and reason advocating rationalism as a path to knowledge and introducing Cartesian dualism separating mind and body. | Rene Descartes |
| French mathematician, physicist, and religious thinker who explored the relationship of faith and reason. He is known for Pascal’s Wager, proposing that belief in God is a rational bet given the potential gains. | Blaise Pascal |
| English philosopher credited with developing the scientific method based on inductive reasoning building knowledge from specific observations to broader generalizations rather than relying on tradition or deduction alone. | Francis Bacon |
| The philosophical approach emphasizing sensory experience and observation as the primary source of knowledge, closely associated with Bacon and the rise of experimental science. | Empiricism |
| A philosophical doctrine championed by Descartes that reason and intellect, rather than sensory experience alone, are the chief sources of knowledge, promoting logical deduction and mathematics. | Rationalism |
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