World History 1500 to
Present
Unit 2 Vocabulary: Age of Exploration, New
Global Age and Economy, Commercial
Revolution, Scientific Revolution, Absolutism
and the Enlightenment
SOL WHII 1 a-e; 6 a-c; 4 a-f and 5 a-e
Prince Henry the
Navigator
 This
Portuguese royal set up
a school for navigation and
was an essential part in
getting Europeans onto the
seas in the Age of
Exploration
Vasco da Gama
 This
Portuguese explorer was
the first European to round the
Cape of Good Hope and make
it to India in 1498.
Christopher Columbus
 This
person sailed West from
Spain in 1492 to reach India.
He didn’t make it, but
thought he did, and called
the natives he encountered
“Indians.”
Hernando Cortez
 This
Spanish conquistador built a
new city over ancient
Tenochtitlan, promoted the sugar
industry and spread Catholicism
among the natives of present day
Mexico.
CORTES
Ferdinand Magellan
 This
explorer, although he
died in the Philippines, is the
one credited with the first
circumnavigation of the
globe.
Francis Drake
 This
Sea Dog was a pirate
who sailed for England and
took pleasure in raiding
Spanish ships.
Columbian Exchange
 This
term refers to the complex
exchange of food, animals, and
diseases that happened as a
result of contact between vastly
different people when Europeans
came to the Americas.
Christopher Columbus =
Columbian Exchange
Elizabeth I
 This
monarch of England is
responsible for firmly
establishing England as a
Protestant nation and ruling
over a great age in literature
and drama.
Philip II
 This
devout Catholic
monarch of Spain spent a lot
of money fighting religious
wars and sent a fleet of
warships to attack England.
He failed.
Charles I
 This
English king is best
known for being tried and
convicted of treason and
executed by beheading.
Cavaliers
supported Charles
during English
Civil War
“Carolina
Tartan”,
from Stuart
Kings of
Scotland
Thomas Hobbes
 This
social contract theorist had
a negative view of humans and
believed that an absolute
monarch was needed to keep
people in line. He wrote The
Leviathan.



Human Nature = Bad
Absolute Monarchs =
Good
No such thing as
“natural rights”
The Leviathan
Oliver Cromwell
 This
Puritan leader of the
Roundheads won the English
Civil War and took the title of
“Lord Protector” when he
announced that England was
a Commonwealth
ROUNDHEADS
supported Cromwell
in the English Civil
War
Charles II
 This
ruler of England was
invited to claim the crown that
his father lost (along with his
head) after the leading
Roundhead died. He made life
in England “fun” again.
Glorious Revolution
 This
refers to the bloodless
overthrow of a king when
William and Mary took the
throne of England
1688
English Bill of Rights
 This
document helped create
a system of government
based on the rule of law and a
freely elected parliament. It
made England a
constitutional monarchy.
English Bill of Rights - England - 1689
An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the
Subject and Settling the Succession of the
Crown……and laying down some basic
rights for Englishmen
• Limits the power of the king/queen
• Sets out rights of Parliament:
freedom of speech in Parliament,
regular elections, petition
• Only civil courts were legal
• Freedom of Protestants to have arms
for defense, no standing army in
peace time, cruel or unusual
punishment, excessive bail,
• Generally reflected some of John
Locke’s popular ideas about consent
of the governed
Hapsburg Family
 This
powerful family held lands
all over Europe and maintained
their grip on the royal houses of
Europe by marrying inside the
family again, and again, and
again…….
King Alfonso XII
of Spain, circa 1915
Maria Theresa
 This
capable monarch was
the first woman to rule her
family lands in her own
name.
Huguenots

This is the term for French
Calvinists who were
persecuted by Catholics.
Marguerite de Valois,
Princess of France
(daughter of Catherine
Medici)
A
PROTESTANT....
how disgustingly
awful!
Henry Bourbon of
Navarre, a
Protestant
“Paris is
worth a
Mass”
Edict of Nantes

Henry of Navarre issued this
when he became King Henry
IV of France (and a Catholic)
to protect French Calvinists
from persecution.
…Which will later
be revoked by the
Sun King,
Huguenot Henry marries a
Catholic……
…and becomes
Catholic…..
Louis XIV!!
…and issues an order for protection for fellow French
Protestants/Huguenots!
Louis XIV
 This
glorious monarch of
France made French culture
extremely popular in Europe.
He called himself the “Sun
King.”
Peace of Westphalia, 1648
 This
treaty ended the major
religious wars of Europe in
the mid 17th century.
By 1648…the 1555 Peace of Augsburg was to be observed
by every country, meaning, the ruler of each country or
nation would determine the religion for that area, but
people could practice whatever religion they wanted.
Nicolaus Copernicus
 This
astronomer is best
known for developing the
heliocentric, or sun-centered
model of the universe.
1543 book “On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly
Spheres”
Johannes Kepler
 This
astronomer is known for
discovering that planets orbit
in an elliptical fashion rather
than in perfect circles
Around 1600, he publishes
law on planetary motion.
Galileo Galilei
 This
person used a telescope
to prove the heliocentric
theory was true and got into a
of trouble with the Catholic
Church
1610, book The Starry Messenger
got him in trouble with the
Catholic Church
Isaac Newton
 This
person put his
revolutionary ideas about
gravity into a book called
Principia.
1687, Newton
publishes Principia
William Harvey
 This
person discovered that
the heart was the most
important organ responsible
for the circulation of blood in
the human body
1628, Harvey
publishes On the
Motion of the
Heart and Blood
Peter the Great
 The
monarch of Russia was
determined to modernize his
country and use terror and
brutality to push his reforms
on the Russian people.
John Locke
 This
writer of the Enlightenment
believed humans were essentially
good and were born with natural
rights that a government was
obligated to protect. He advocated
“justifiable rebellion” when
governments failed to satisfy the
social contract. He wrote Two
Treatises on Government.




Human Nature =
Good
Government by
Consent of the
Governed
Natural Rights exist
and must be protected
by governments
Revolution to Instill
active government is
OK
Montesquieu
 This
Enlightenment thinker
believed that a government
could not protect the liberties
of the people unless the
government power were
separated into branches. He
wrote The Spirit of Laws.
Rousseau
 In
his work, The Social Contract,
this Enlightenment thinker
explained his concept that an entire
society agrees to be governed by its
general will.