Marco Polo Because Why Not

Front 1

Circumstances enabling his travels in the east

Back 1

emergence of smoother commercial trade routes like the Silk Road

Front 2

Marco Polo

Back 2

Venetian merchant who traveled through Asia for twenty years and published his observations in a widely read memoir.

Front 3

legacy of his writings

Back 3

had an enormous effect on the European imagination

Front 4

Why was trade so short?

Back 4

hostilities in Mongol empire

Front 5

Genghis Khan

Back 5

"Oceanic Ruler", the title adopted by the Mongol cheiftain Temujin, founder of a dynasty that conquered much of southern Asia.

Front 6

legacies of the Mongolian empire

Back 6

Silk Road

united China under Mongol rule & connected it to western and central Asia

Front 7

Ottoman Empire

Back 7

during the 13th c., the Ottoman dynasty established itself as leader of the Turks. From the 14th to 16th c's, they conquered Anatolia, Armenia, Syria, and N. Africa as well as parts of SE Europe, the Crimea, and areas along the Red Sea. Portions of the Ottoman Empire persisted up to the time of WWI, but it was dismantled in the years following it.

Front 8

Ottoman social reform

Back 8

slavery carried the backbone of Ottoman government and were critical to the lives of Turkish upperclass

commerce and business remained largely in the hands of non-muslims and jews in particular found refuge in the Ottoman Empire

Front 9

Ottoman political reform

Back 9

reduced European access to the Black Sea

carefully tending to the industrial and commercial interests of Istanbul

trade routes redirected to feed the capital

became naval power in the Eastern mediterranean as well as in the Black Sea

Front 10

Ottoman religious reform

Back 10

Ottoman sultans were Sunni Muslims

dealt harshly with other Muslim sects

extremely tolerant of non-Muslims

organized the major religious groups of the empire into legally recognized unites and permitted them considerable rights of self-government

careful to protect and promote the authority of the Greek orthodox patriarch over the Orthodox christians of the empire

Front 11

The Columbian Exchange

Back 11

the widespread exchange of peoples, plants, animals, diseases, goods, and culture between the African and Eurasian landmass (on the one hand) and the region that ecompasses the Americas, Australia, and the Pacific Islands (on the other); precipitated by the voyage of Columbus in 1492

Front 12

Christopher Columbus

Back 12

A genoese sailor who persuaded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to fund his expedition across the Atlantic, with the purpose of discovering a new trade route to Asia. HIs miscalculations landed him in the Bahamas and the island of hispaniola in 1492

Front 13

Balboa

Back 13

Spanish explorer first viewed the Pacific Ocean from the Isthmus of Panama, narrow divide b/w Pacific and Atlantic

Front 14

Amerigo Vespucci

Back 14

among the first to champion the fact of the new world's existence, name adopted as description of new world

Front 15

Ferdinand Magellan

Back 15

proposed to see whether a route to Asia could be found by sailing around S. America, voyage demonstrated that the world was simply too large for any such plan to be feasible at that time. 1/5 ships that left Spain actually returned and Magellan himself had been killed

Front 16

Cortes

Back 16

recieved a land grant from the SPanish crown and acted as magistrate of one of the first towns established in Hispaniola. Headed an expedition to the mainland. Conquered and defeated Aztec king Montezuma II.

Front 17

Franciso Pizarro

Back 17

toppled the highly centralized empire of the Incas, took advantage of ongoing Civil war in the reigning dynasty and brought smallpox

Front 18

Vasco de Gama

Back 18

opened a viable sea route between Europe and the Far Eastern Spice trade

Front 19

Prince Henry the Navigator

Back 19

a member of the Portuguese royal family, encouraged the exploration and conquest of W. Africa and the trade in gold and slaves.