AP US History Flashcards: Transatlantic Trade

What this deck covers

This deck focuses on Transatlantic Trade, giving you a quick way to review the definitions, rules, and examples that matter most for AP US History.

How to use these flashcards

Work through these flashcards in short sessions. Try to answer each prompt before flipping the card, then revisit any cards you miss until the explanation feels automatic.

Flashcard 1: What is an enumerated good in the context of British trade regulation?

Answer: A listed colonial export restricted to shipment to England. These goods like tobacco and sugar had to go through British ports first.

Flashcard 2: What was mercantilism as practiced by European empires in the Atlantic economy?

Answer: State-directed trade to build bullion and national power. Colonies existed to enrich the mother country through controlled trade.

Flashcard 3: What European economic theory emphasized accumulating bullion and maintaining a favorable balance of trade?

Answer: Mercantilism. Nations sought to export more than import to accumulate wealth.

Flashcard 4: What was the main economic purpose of colonies under mercantilism?

Answer: To supply raw materials and serve as a captive market. Colonies existed to enrich the mother country economically.

Flashcard 5: Which region of Africa supplied many captives to British North America and the Caribbean in the 1700s?

Answer: West Africa. Gold Coast and Senegambia were major sources of enslaved people.

Flashcard 6: What term describes colonial merchants legally avoiding restrictions by routing goods through approved ports?

Answer: Entrepôt trade. Used intermediary ports to technically comply while circumventing intent.

Flashcard 7: What was the primary export that drove New England participation in Atlantic commerce and shipbuilding?

Answer: Cod fish. Abundant North Atlantic fisheries created a valuable export commodity.

Flashcard 8: What plantation export crop most transformed the economy and demography of the Caribbean?

Answer: Sugar. Required massive enslaved labor, making Caribbean colonies majority African.

Flashcard 9: What was the main commodity distilled in New England and traded within the Atlantic economy?

Answer: Rum. Made from West Indies molasses, creating profitable triangular connections.

Flashcard 10: Identify the broad economic effect of transatlantic trade on British North American port cities in the 1700s.

Answer: Rapid growth of seaport economies and merchant wealth. Trade created wealthy merchant class and urban development.

Flashcard 11: What does "enumerated goods" mean in the Navigation Acts?

Answer: Listed colonial exports required to be shipped to England or English colonies. Specific products like tobacco had to go through England first.

Flashcard 12: What is the Navigation Acts policy goal in British colonial trade?

Answer: Channel colonial trade through English ships and ports. Protected British shipping monopoly and customs revenue collection.

Flashcard 13: What term describes the Atlantic trading system linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas in the early modern era?

Answer: Triangular trade. Named for the three-way route connecting three continents through trade.

Flashcard 14: What was the Columbian Exchange in the context of transatlantic trade?

Answer: Transfer of crops, animals, people, and diseases across the Atlantic. Began in 1492, reshaping global ecology, demographics, and economies.

Flashcard 15: What was the Royal African Company's main role in the English Atlantic economy in the late 1600s?

Answer: English monopoly trade in enslaved Africans. Company held exclusive rights to English slave trade until 1698.

Flashcard 16: What term describes the exchange of plants, animals, people, and diseases between hemispheres after 1492?

Answer: Columbian Exchange. Biological and cultural transfers between Old and New Worlds.

Flashcard 17: What was the primary labor system that expanded to support Atlantic plantation exports?

Answer: Chattel slavery. Enslaved people were legally property, bought and sold like goods.

Flashcard 18: Which option best identifies a typical Americas-to-Europe cargo in the triangular trade: A) enslaved people B) plantation staples C) manufactured goods?

Answer: B) plantation staples (for example, sugar, tobacco, rice). Raw agricultural products were the colonies' main exports to Europe.

Flashcard 19: What term describes colonial practice of violating trade regulations through illegal commerce?

Answer: Smuggling. Colonists evaded trade restrictions to maximize profits.

Flashcard 20: Which cash crop most directly drove the rapid expansion of slavery in the Chesapeake by the late 1600s?

Answer: Tobacco. Virginia's first profitable export crop required intensive labor.

Flashcard 21: Identify the Old World disease that caused catastrophic population decline among Native Americans after contact.

Answer: Smallpox. Native Americans lacked immunity to this European disease.

Flashcard 22: Identify the port city that became a major New England hub for the Atlantic slave trade in the 1700s.

Answer: Newport, Rhode Island. Northern port profited from distilling rum and trading for slaves.

Flashcard 23: What term describes trade conducted in violation of imperial regulations and customs laws?

Answer: Smuggling. Colonists evaded taxes and trade restrictions through illegal commerce.

Flashcard 24: What was the main economic purpose of colonies under mercantilist theory?

Answer: Provide raw materials and serve as captive markets. Colonies couldn't manufacture goods or trade freely with other nations.

Flashcard 25: What 1713 treaty granted Britain the asiento, a major legal foothold in the Spanish Atlantic trade?

Answer: Treaty of Utrecht. Ended War of Spanish Succession and expanded British trade privileges.

Flashcard 26: What was the Middle Passage in the context of transatlantic trade?

Answer: The forced sea voyage of enslaved Africans to the Americas. The brutal second leg of triangular trade across the Atlantic.

Flashcard 27: What term describes the British policy of loosely enforcing trade laws in the colonies before 1763?

Answer: Salutary neglect. Britain allowed violations to keep colonists content and productive.

Flashcard 28: What were the Navigation Acts designed to do within the British Atlantic system?

Answer: Restrict colonial trade to benefit England and English shippers. Laws required colonial goods to pass through English ports.

Flashcard 29: What was the primary labor system that made plantation exports profitable in the Atlantic World?

Answer: Chattel slavery. Enslaved people were legally property that could be bought and sold.

Flashcard 30: What was the triangular trade in the Atlantic world?

Answer: Three-part exchange linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Ships carried goods, enslaved people, and raw materials between continents.

Flashcard 31: Which commodity produced in New England distilleries was commonly exchanged in Atlantic commerce for captives?

Answer: Rum. Distilled from West Indies molasses, used as currency in Africa.

Flashcard 32: What was the Royal African Company primarily created to do in the British Atlantic system?

Answer: Monopolize the English slave trade to West Africa. Held exclusive rights until 1698, controlling British participation.

Flashcard 33: What was the key demographic consequence of Atlantic plantation economies in the Americas?

Answer: Large-scale forced migration of Africans and racialized slavery. Created African-majority societies in many American colonies.

Flashcard 34: What was the staple crop most associated with the Chesapeake export economy?

Answer: Tobacco. Virginia and Maryland's economy depended on this labor-intensive crop.

Flashcard 35: Which option best identifies a typical Europe-to-Africa cargo in the triangular trade: A) firearms/textiles B) sugar C) tobacco?

Answer: A) firearms and textiles. Europeans traded manufactured goods for enslaved people in Africa.

Flashcard 36: What does the term "Atlantic World" refer to in AP U.S. History?

Answer: Interconnected societies of Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Regions linked by trade, migration, and cultural exchange after 1492.

Flashcard 37: What was the asiento in the Atlantic world economy?

Answer: A contract granting rights to supply enslaved people to Spanish colonies. Britain gained this lucrative monopoly from Spain in 1713.

Flashcard 38: What term describes the forced ocean transport of enslaved Africans to the Americas?

Answer: Middle Passage. The brutal voyage across the Atlantic was the middle leg of triangular trade.

Flashcard 39: What was a key New England export that supported Atlantic trade by provisioning Caribbean plantations?

Answer: Fish. Cod fed enslaved workers on sugar plantations cheaply.

Flashcard 40: Which Caribbean export commodity became a major driver of the Atlantic economy and slave labor demand?

Answer: Sugar. Labor-intensive crop that made Caribbean colonies extremely profitable.