Ch 2. Study Guide Flashcards
What is a city-state
A city, and the surrounding territory forms an independent state
Define republic
A state in which power is held by the people
What is Hinterland?
The country around a city-state
What was the silk road?
A travel route that merchants traveled to sell and purchase goods such as silk and spices.
What was Florence?
One of the five city-states. This was where the first banking house was started, by the Medici family who was the government of the city-state at that time.
Who was Marco Polo?
A merchant who traveled to Asia and established the silk road.
What was physical geography?
The branch of geography dealing with natural features and processes.
What is Usury?
The practice of charging interest when loaning money to someone.
What were the Crusades? What were two important factors that came out of it.
They were a religious war between the Muslim and Christians. They were fighting for the holy land, Jerusalem. Two important results for the Europeans were 1. trade and 2. contact with Muslim civilization.
What is the difference between physical geography and human geography?
Physical geography focuses on the physical location of the land, resources and climate, whereas human geography focuses on things like the people, and population.
What were the four reasons that made the Italian city-states so successful?
- Geography, 2. Climate, 3. Leadership, 4. Social organization.
Who was the most powerful family in Florence?
The Medici family
Name some factors of goods and trading.
The Silk road really contributed to this, as this was the main way to get luxury goods that they may have otherwise not have gotten. Pepper was at this time a very important part of their life. It was considered more than its weight in gold.
What were the two factors of worldview that best fit the Italian city-states at this time?
View of the good life, sources of ethical wisdom.
