Study Guide
Exploration and Colonization Mid-Unit Quiz on Monday, September 22
I. Kingdom of the Kongo
A. Almost always had a male rule (king)
B. Queen Nzinga took over from her brother and was able to stop
Portugal from completely taking over the kingdom and enslaving
all of the kingdom’s people.
II. Taino Kingdom
A. The Taino people lived in the Caribbean Islands
B. The environment and nature were very important to the Taino
C. Spanish colonization and enslaving of the Taino people almost
completely wiped out the Taino people in about 60 years
III. Spice Islands spices – most sought were cinnamon, peppercorn, nutmeg, cloves
IV. Reasons Europeans did not go to the Spice Islands
A. afraid the earth was flat; they’d fall off if they went too far south
B. did not quite know where the Spice Islands actually were
C. Arab traders told stories of hideous monsters and flesh-eating birds
V. Portugal
A. Dias was the first to sail around the tip of Africa.
B. Many of daGama’s crew died of scurvy.
C. Cabral accidentally landed in Brazil.
VI. Spain
A. Columbus landed in the Caribbean, not the Spice Islands
B. Las Casas spoke out against Indian slavery.
C. Magellan:
1. named the Pacific Ocean.
2. had the crew who was the first to circumnavigate the globe.
VII. Vocabulary
A. monopoly: complete control
B. archipelago: a chain of islands
C. strategy: a clever plan
D. negotiations: talks between two or more countries or people about
how to handle a situation
E. circumnavigate: go completely around something (example: the world)
F. scurvy: a disease caused by not getting enough (lack of) vitamin C