Age of Exploration Vocabulary

Colony: a group of people who leave their native country to form a settlement in a new country but are ruled by, or connected with the parent nation Conquistador: Spanish conqueror Mestizo: person of mixed Spanish and Native American parentage. Encomienda System: system of forced Native American labor used by the Spanish.

Pilgrims: English colonizers who established the English colony of Plymouth in 1620 after leaving England for being persecuted for their beliefs. Puritans: English group seeking religious freedom from England’s Anglican church. Sought to build model Christian community in the Americas.

New Netherlands: Dutch land holdings established in 1621 in North America, meant to be a colony for fur trading. Jamestown: first British colony in North America, established in 1607. Started as a commercial venture to bring profit back to England. New France: Colony established by French traders in North America in 1608.

Atlantic Slave Trade: The buying and selling of Africans for work in the Americas. Middle Passage: The voyage that brought captured Africans to the Americas. Triangular Trade: trade that involved shipping goods from Britain to Africa to be exchanged for slaves, slaves then being shipped to the West Indies and exchanged for sugar, rum, and other commodities, which were then shipped back to Britain.

Mercantilism: a system in which a country attempts to grow wealth through trade with other countries, exporting more than it imports and increasing stockpiles of gold and precious metals. Joint-Stock Company: Worked like a corporation with investors buying shares of stock of a company. Columbian Exchange: The global transfer of foods, plants, and animals during the colonization of the Americas. Capitalism: Economic system based on private ownership and the investment of resources, such as money, for profit.