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Credit Sprint / Study guides / World History Unit 4

Credit Sprint's Guide to AP® World History, Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections, c. 1450 to c. 1750

AP® weight 12–15%

New maritime technology allowed Europeans to reach the Americas and Asia by sea. The result was the Columbian Exchange, global trade in silver and goods, colonial empires, the Atlantic slave trade and major changes in society and labor.

The Atlantic systemEurope Africa Americas goods, guns enslaved people sugar, silver, tobacco

What you need to know

  • Portugal led in exploration with Henry the Navigator, the caravel and the astrolabe, building trading posts along Africa's coast and in the Indian Ocean. Spain sponsored Columbus in 1492 and conquered the Aztec and Inca empires.
  • The Columbian Exchange moved crops, animals and diseases between hemispheres. Smallpox killed a very large share of Native Americans, while crops such as maize and potatoes increased Old World populations.
  • The Atlantic slave trade forced millions of Africans to work on plantations producing sugar, tobacco and cotton. The triangular trade tied Europe, Africa and the Americas together, and the mercantilist policy of European powers aimed to build wealth through colonies and exports.
  • Silver from Potosí and Mexico financed trade with Asia. Spanish galleons connected Manila with Acapulco, and Chinese demand for silver tied the global economy together.
  • The Dutch East India Company and other joint-stock companies financed trade and colonial ventures. The Dutch, French and British built trading empires in Asia and the Americas.
  • Colonial societies were stratified. In Spanish America, the casta system ranked people by ancestry, while Native peoples, Africans and Europeans created new cultures through blending and conflict.

Exam traps

Watch forSilver was a global currency. Do not describe the Spanish colonies as only supplying sugar and tobacco.
Watch forThe Columbian Exchange affected the Old World as well as the New, because American crops changed Asian and European diets.
Watch forMercantilism means state control of trade to build national wealth. It is not the same as free-market capitalism.

Key terms

  • Caravel: A small, maneuverable Portuguese ship that could sail close to the wind and helped explore the African coast.
  • Henry the Navigator: The Portuguese prince who sponsored voyages down the African coast in the 1400s.
  • Columbian Exchange: The transfer of plants, animals, people and diseases between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after 1492.
  • Conquistador: A Spanish conqueror, such as Cortés or Pizarro, who took Native American empires with guns, horses, disease and allies.
  • Encomienda: A Spanish system giving colonists the right to Native labor and tribute.
  • Mita system: A Spanish adaptation of the Inca labor tax that forced Native people to work in the silver mines of Potosí.
  • Casta system: A Spanish colonial racial hierarchy that ranked people by ancestry.
  • Mercantilism: An economic policy in which states build national wealth by exporting more than they import and controlling colonies.
  • Joint-stock company: A business owned by shareholders who share profits and risks, such as the Dutch East India Company.
  • Atlantic slave trade: The forced shipment of millions of Africans to the Americas, mostly to work on plantations.
  • Middle Passage: The brutal Atlantic voyage that carried enslaved Africans to the Americas.
  • Triangular trade: A network linking Europe, Africa and the Americas through the exchange of manufactured goods, enslaved people and plantation crops.
  • Plantation economy: A system of large farms producing cash crops for export, such as sugar, using enslaved labor.
  • Potosí: A Bolivian mountain with huge silver mines that financed the Spanish empire and global trade.
  • Manila galleon: A Spanish ship that carried silver from Acapulco to Manila to trade for Chinese goods.
  • Treaty of Tordesillas: A 1494 agreement dividing newly claimed lands between Spain and Portugal.

Practice questions

Five of the 46 Unit 4 questions in Credit Sprint. Every choice is explained in the app.

1. Which technological development most helped Portuguese and Spanish sailors undertake long Atlantic voyages in the 1400s?
  1. The caravel, the astrolabe
  2. The airplane and the radio
  3. The steamship and the telegraph
  4. The railroad and the canal lock
Show answer

The caravel, the astrolabe. Caravels sailed well against the wind, and the compass and astrolabe let pilots find direction and latitude when out of sight of land.

2. How did Hernan Cortes overcome the Aztec Empire in 1519-1521?
  1. He defeated them solely with a huge army from Spain
  2. He allied with Indigenous enemies of the Aztecs,
  3. He bought the city from Moctezuma
  4. He received help from the Ming navy
Show answer

He allied with Indigenous enemies of the Aztecs,. Thousands of Tlaxcalan and other allies joined him, and an epidemic killed many defenders, helping a small Spanish force take the capital.

3. The triangular trade connected
  1. Australia, Canada and Brazil through wool
  2. China, India and Japan through silk
  3. Russia, Persia and Egypt through grain
  4. Europe, Africa and the Americas through goods
Show answer

Europe, Africa and the Americas through goods. Manufactured goods went to Africa, enslaved people crossed the Middle Passage to the Americas, and plantation products such as sugar returned to Europe.

4. The Protestant Reformation began in 1517 when Martin Luther
  1. became pope and ended the Catholic Church
  2. led the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs
  3. converted to Islam after traveling to Istanbul
  4. challenged Church practices such as the sale of indulgences
Show answer

challenged Church practices such as the sale of indulgences. His Ninety-five Theses spread through the printing press, sparking religious division and political conflicts across Europe.

5. What did Maroon communities in the Americas represent?
  1. Settlements of escaped enslaved people who resisted slavery
  2. Indigenous trading networks in the Andes
  3. Groups of European missionaries
  4. Colonial governments set up by the Spanish crown
Show answer

Settlements of escaped enslaved people who resisted slavery. Maroons in Jamaica, Brazil (such as Palmares) and elsewhere built independent societies, sometimes making treaties with colonial powers.