Exploration Vocabulary

Reminder: There is a vocab quiz on Monday!

Leif Ericson - Viking navigator who went on a voyage to Greenland. On his way he was blown off course and discovered the area of North America known as Nova Scotia today. He named this land Vinland.

Treaty of Tordesillas - An agreement signed by Spain and Portugal to split the known world in half between them. The Pope drew a line through a map and the treaty gave almost all of the New World to Spain to colonize. Portugal got to lay claim to Brazil, Africa, and India. 

mercantilism - economic policy in which a nation controls its trade, agriculture, industry, and money to bring as much wealth as possible into the country.

cartography  - science of making maps and globes

astrolabe - instrument designed to measure and plot the position of stars

circumnavigate - to sail completely around something

ballast - a heavy substance placed inside of a ship to improve stability and control.

colonization - process of taking over territory, creating a government, and settling towns.

Columbian Exchange - the exchange of people, plants, and animals, and ideas between the Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere.

capitalism - economy based on the private ownership of property and the use of property to compete for profits or gains in a market.