Age of Exploration Vocabulary Words PDF

Age of Exploration Vocabulary List WORD DEFINITION 1. Age of Exploration A time period when European countries explored other areas of the world in search of land, goods, and trading partners. This was also called the Age of Discovery. 2. Hemisphere One-half of the Earth. The northern and south...

Age of Exploration Vocabulary List WORD DEFINITION 1. Age of Exploration A time period when European countries explored other areas of the world in search of land, goods, and trading partners. This was also called the Age of Discovery. 2. Hemisphere One-half of the Earth. The northern and southern hemispheres are divided by the equator. The eastern and western hemispheres are divided by the meridian. 3. Trade Route A path used by traders. 4. Navigation The art of guiding a ship from place to place safely. 5. Caravel A small, fast ship used by Spanish and Portuguese explorers for long journeys. 6. Magnetic Compass A navigational tool that uses a magnetized needle. This magnetic needle aligns with the Earth’s magnetic field to point north. 7. Astrolabe A tool to measure a ship's latitude at sea by measuring the angle between the horizon and the stars. 8. Colonization The act of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area. 9. Conquistador A colonizer, especially one of the Spanish conquerors in the New World. 10. Pre-Columbian Civilization Indigenous civilizations which rose, flourished, and fell in the Americas before 1492. 11. Slavery When a person owns another person as property. 12. Atlantic Slave Trade From 1500-1800, millions of Africans were captured and forced onto ships going to the Americas. Once there, they were sold into slavery. 13. Columbian Exchange An exchange of diseases, plants, animals, and humans between the Old World and the New World. 14. Old World The part of the world that was known by Europeans before the Age of Exploration; The eastern hemisphere (Europe, Asia, and Africa). 15. New World The part of the world that was not known by Europeans before the Age of Exploration; the western hemisphere (North and South America).