Culture, Science, and Technology, 1450-1750

Question 1

~Printing press

Answer 1

● A feasible, movable-type version
● Invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 1430s
● Exerted a steadily growing influence over hte way information was disseminated over great distances and to large audiences

Question 2

~Gunpowder weaponry

Answer 2

● Originated in China during the 1100s and spread to the Middle East and Europe during the 1200s and 1300s
● It was not until the 1400s and afterward that it fundamentally changed warfare
● Gunpowder empires experienced gunpowder revolution

Question 3

~Gunpowder revolution

Answer 3

● States learned to deploy cannon and hand-held weapons like muskets in sieges and abttles
● To build new fortresses better able than medieval castles to withstand cannon attacks
● (In the case of Europe) to create oceangoing ships capable of traveling vast distances and carrying gunpowder weapons

Question 4

~Marine and navigational technology

Answer 4

● Combined European technology and others that had arrived from China via the Middle East
● Launch the European age of exploration

Question 5

~Astrolabe

Answer 5

● Measured latitude

Question 6

~Compass

Answer 6

● Determining direction

Question 7

~Better maps

Answer 7

● Came from better knowledge of cartography and astronomy

● More precise understanding of the stars’ movements further advanced their navigational skills

Question 8

~Sailing ships

Answer 8

● Europeans learned to build sturdy and maneuverable sailing ships that could travel far out intot he open ocean
● These vessels had deeper keels for greater stability
● Sternpost rudders (a highly effective steering system first used in China)
● Lateen sails on several masts with complex systems of rigging
- Unlike square sials on a single mast, these allowed boats to sail in the direction they needed to even in unfavorable winds

Question 9

~Caravel

Answer 9

● First ship that enabled true oceanic exploration

● Largely invented by the Portuguese, who combined square sails with lateen sails for better control over direction

Question 10

~Galleon/Carrack

Answer 10

● Larger ships then caravel
● Soon followed caravel
● All of them were used for purposes of trade and war alike

Question 11

~Intellectual orthodoxy

Answer 11

● Popular in the Middle Ages
● A fixed set of ideas taken from certain ancient Greek and Roman thinkers were combined with Catholic doctrine
● Scholars were moving away from this

Question 12

~Nicolaus Copernicus

Answer 12

● Polish astronomer
● Provided mathematical proof for the heliocentric theory
● It took more than another century after Copernicus published his findings for hte helicentric theory to be accepted as fact htroughout Europe

Question 13

~Heliocentric theory

Answer 13

● Earth and other planets revolve around the sun

● Ran counter to the standard wisdom

Question 14

~Geocentric theory

Answer 14

● Earth sat at the center of the universe
● Handed down by the Greek scientist Ptolemy, it found favor with religious authorities in Europe, especially the Catholic papacy
- It placed human beings–God’s greatest creation, in the Christian view–at the heart of all existence

Question 15

~Scientific Revolution

Answer 15

● Pace of scientific discovery accelerated during the 1600s and early 1700s

Question 16

~Scientific method

Answer 16

● Early in the 1600s, thinkers such as Rene Descartes of France and Roger Bacon of England laid the groundwork for formal logic and the modern scientific method, in which observation and experimentation are used to prove theoretical hypothese
● This revived the mode of scientific thinkin that had arisen among the ancient Greeks, but it was more systematic and rigorous

Question 17

Galileo

Answer 17

● Italian physicist who confirmed and popularized Copernicus’s theories (along with German astronomer Johannes Kepler)
● He was tried by the Inquisition and forced to reject his own scientific conclusions in public

Question 18

~Isaac Newton

Answer 18

● 1642-1727 of England
● Famous for the laws of motion, his thoughts on the concept of gravity, and as one of the two methematicians who invented the system of calculus
● He took the discoveries of his day and tied them together into a single system of thought–Newtonian physics–backed up by mathematic proof– 1687
- Not until Einstein’s thoery of relativity in the early 1900s would his fundamental principles be seriously challenged or altered

Question 19

~Theravada/Hinayana

Answer 19

● Schools of thought
● Emphasized simplicity and meditation
● Were more popular in South Asia

Question 20

~Mahayana

Answer 20

● Predominated in East Asia
● Put more of a premium on rituals, deities, and concepts of an afterlife
● Approaches like Zen/Ch’an differed greatly from sects like Pure Land

Question 21

Sufism

Answer 21

● Mystical strain within Islam
● Continued to flourish after taking root between the 900s and the 1300s
● Emphasizing communion with Allah over doctrinal strictness

Question 22

~Sunni-Shiite split

Answer 22

● Had divided most Muslims from the minority who viewed Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali, not hte Umayyad caliphs, as Mohammed’s rightful sucessor
● Ongoing conflict between the Ottoman Empire (Sunni) and Safavid Persia (Shiites)

Question 23

~Shiism/Twelver Shiism

Answer 23

● Differed even more from Sunni
● Form a majority in nwhat is now Iran and is a sizable minority in many other places
● Belive that correct interpretations of Islamic doctrine and Sharia law flow from the teachings of 12 religious authorities called imams

Question 24

~Imams

Answer 24

● 12 religious authorities aht Shiites believe the interpretations of Islamic doctrine came from
● Include Ali and the 11 leaders who followed him until the mid-800s
● Considered have entered a hidden spiritual state by Shiites (someday he is supposed to return as a messiah figure known as the Mahdi)

Question 25

~Protestant Reformation

Answer 25

● Affected not just matters of faith, but culture, politics and the way Europeans spread Christianity to other parts of the world
● Printing press played a key roe in spreading new religious ideas across Europe

Question 26

~Eastern Orthodoxy

Answer 26

● Prevailed in and around Bzantium
● During the 1300s and 1400s, Byzantium’s graual weakening, followed by its destruction in 1453, left Orthodoxy politically weakened and confined mainly to Europe’s Slavic and Balkan periphery

Question 27

~Roman Catholicism

Answer 27

● Dominated the larger central and western parts of hte continent prior to the 1500s
● During the 1300s and 1400s, the power and prestige of the papacy waned, thanks first to its forced transfer from Rome to the French city of Avignon for most of hte 1300s, and hten to several decades of confusing and painful rivalry between two papacies, each of which claimed allegiance from all Catholics
● Even after the restoration of a single pope to Rome, growing corruption within the Catholic hierarchy worsened hte situation
● Until the early 1500s, Catholic authorieis were able to crush any opposition

Question 28

~Martin Luther

Answer 28

● German monk who protested the sale of indulgences in his hometown in 1517
● Wrote Ninety-Five Theses
● He was excommunicated and threatened with arrest and death when he refused the pope’s order to retract his criticism
● Founded Lutheranism

Question 29

~Ninety-Five Theses

Answer 29

● Luther launched a general attack against church abuses and certain parts of Catholic doctrine

Question 30

~Lutheranism

Answer 30

● The first of Europe’s major Protestant denominations

● Founded in the 1520s

Question 31

~John Calvin

Answer 31

● French scholar who established a theocratic community in the Swiss city of Geneva and preached an even stricter form of Protestantism–Calvinist

Question 32

~Calvinism

Answer 32

● Causght on in France (known as the Huguenots, an oppressed minority)
● Dutch Republic (the Reformed Church)
● Parts of England (the Puritans)
● Scotland (the Presbyterians)
● Predestination–arguing that whether a person wouldbe saved or not was known to God from the beginning of time

Question 33

~Church of ENgland/Anglican Church

Answer 33

● Henry VIII formed it
● Many beliefs and practices separated Protestants from Catholics
● THe former favored institutional simplicity, incontrast tot he bureaucracy of the Catholic Church, and sacraments were less important to them as well

Question 34

~Protestants

Answer 34

● Did not venerate hte saints or the Virgin Mary the way Catholics did
● Allowed thier clergy to marry
● Salvation by grace
● Conducted services in their own languages (as opposed to Latin)
● Protestants were encouraged to read scripture for themselves
- Translation of the Bible into numerous languages, and made education and literacy a particular priority among many Protestant populations

Question 35

~Salvation by grace

Answer 35

● The belief that only God’s forgiveness–not good works, observance of rituals or the power of the pope–could bring a worshipper to heaven

Question 36

~Catholic Counter-Reformation

Answer 36

● In response to the Protestant Reformation
● Eliminated the worst of its corruption
● Reaffirmed the authority of the pope, gave new powers to the Holy Inquisition and created an Index of Forbidden Books that remained in place until the 1960s

Question 37

~Religious wars

Answer 37

● Europe suffered a series of religious wars between the 1520s and the 1640s, as Catholic monarchs tried in vain to stem, and even reverse, the spread of Protestantism

Question 38

~Missionary activity

Answer 38

● Spread certain faiths over wide distances
● Throughout Asia, this was a time of especially active proselytization of Buddhism and other religious extended their reach in this manner as well

Question 39

~Global spread of Christianity

Answer 39

● Went hand-in-hand with Europe’s campaign of worldwide exploration and colonization, starting int he late 1400s and continuing throughout the rest of this period
● Won a surprising number of converts in Asia, even though in some cases, political leaders reacted to the new religion with hostility, either immediately or eventually
● Christianity was imported to Northa nd South America, first by the Catholic Spanish and Portuguess, then also by French Catholics and Protestant English and Dutch

Question 40

~Francis Xavier

Answer 40

● Jesuit who brought Christianity to both South and East Asia

Question 41

~Catholicization of Latin America

Answer 41

● Remains as a particular testament to the power of Christianity’s presence

Question 42

~Syncretic religions

Answer 42

● Faiths that emerged from the blending of two or more religions’ traditions
● Many arose from Europe’s colonization of the New World, as well as the forcible transfer of African slaves there

Question 43

~Vodun/Voodoo

Answer 43

● Dveloped among African-descended populations thorughout the Caribbean and hte Gulf of Mexico, duee to the mixing of animistic spirit worship from West Africa not just with animistic practices native to the Americas, but also with elements drawn from Christianity
● Example of syncretic religions

Question 44

~Cult of saints

Answer 44

● Indigenous worshippers came to identify their own polytheistic gods and goddesses with the large array of saints venerated by Catholics
● This logic made it easier for Spanish and Portuguese missionaires ot win converts in teh Americas

Question 45

~Virgin of Guadalupe

Answer 45

● A much-loved depiction of Mary as a native girl and even today a symbol of central importance in Mexican Catholicsm
● Equated Mary with Aztecs’ own mother goddess

Question 46

~Sikhism

Answer 46

● Emerged as an independent tradition
● Categorized by others as a syncretic faith
● Joining certain aspects of Hundu theology with the monotheism associated with Islam
● Founded in the late 1400s, in the PUnjab region of India by Guru Nanak
● The ten Sikh gurus, who led the religion until the death of the tenth guru in 1708, taught that meditation and virtuous behavior would help worshippers penetrate the veil of maya, or worldly illusion, and thereby come to know Waheguru, or th eone true god
● Over time, Sikhism has grown into one of the world’s largest organized religions, with almost 30 million followers

Question 47

~Cultural interaction

Answer 47

● Continued as it had in previous centuries but received an extra boost during these years from Europe’s campaigns of exploration, and especially from the movement of Europeans and Africans to Northa nd South America
● Arrival of European merchants and colonizers in Africa and Asia affected local cultures and Europeans in turn were influenced by the arts and crafts brought back from these far-off places

Question 48

~Transatlantic impact on the Americas

Answer 48

● Whose languages, religons, artistic traditions, and music were all profoundly reshaped by the importation of European and African culture
● Mixed populations of various types appearing over time

Question 49

~Political use of art and architecture

Answer 49

● Continued as it had in previous centuries
● Impressiv eartworks and buildings showed off th epower and grandeur of various rulers and regimes, and helped to legitimate them as well
● Cultural patronage, the organizin gof elaborate court dnaces and the staging of musical or dramatic performances all ccontributed to the same goals

Question 50

~Versailles

Answer 50

● Built by Lous XIV to demonstrate his power as an abosulute monarch and avidly imitated by other European rulers

Question 51

~Summer Palace

Answer 51

● An exquisite garden complex constructed near Beijing by hte Qing emperors

Question 52

~Red Fort

Answer 52

● In Delhi, the Residence of hte Mughal emperors, erected by Shah Jahan, who also commissioned hte Taj Mahal

Question 53

~Availability of culture

Answer 53

● Particularly in Afro-Eurasia, it steadily widened
● Not just elite members of society, but merchant and middle classes (in some cases the lower classes) enjoyed greater access to art, literature and musical and dramatic performances

Question 54

~Renaissance

Answer 54

● Had begun in Italy during the late 1200s and early 1300s

●Spread to the rest of Europe and ocntinued until the early 1600s

Question 55

~High Renaissance

Answer 55

●The era of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci

●By the late 1400s and early 1500s, Italy was in the midst of it

Question 56

~Northern Renaissance

Answer 56

●Featured hte Dutch philosopher Erasmus, the English scholar Thomas More, the Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes and the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare

Question 57

~Erasmus

Answer 57

● Dutch philosopher

● Known for his religious debates with Luther, as well as his satirical novel

Question 58

~Thomas More

Answer 58

● English scholar
● Invented the term topia in his book of hte same name
● Lost his life to Henry VIII by remaining Catholic in the face of the king’s Anglicanism

Question 59

~Miguel de Cervantes

Answer 59

● Spanish novelist
● Author of , the tale of an aged knight bewildered by the changes caused by Europe’s transition away from the medieval period

Question 60

~Baroque

Answer 60

● Cultural style that followed the Renaissance
● Dominated EUropean painting, architecture, and music from the early 1600s through the early to md-1700s
● Emphasized the bold, the dynamic, and the colorful, and was often used by political and reliigous elites to impress hte public and to legitimize their policies

Question 61

~Enlightenment

Answer 61

● During the 1700s, Europe, as well as its colonies in teh Americas, experienced this
● A philosophical and intellectual movement that put full confidence in the power of rational thought to solve social and political problems and to understnad the wider world
● Provided much of the intellectual justification for the American and French revolutions in the late 1700s

Question 62

~Mimar Sinan

Answer 62

● Ottoman architectural innovation reached its peak during the 1500s and early 1600s due to him
● He desigend more than eightly mosques with large domes and tall, thin minarets

Question 63

~Blue Mosque

Answer 63

● The renowned mosque in Istanbul

● Built by one of Sinan’s students

Question 64

~Carpet-weaving

Answer 64

● Stook out in both Turkey and Persia as a key art form and also as a profitable enterprise that generated a high volume of foreign trade

Question 65

~Miniature painting

Answer 65

● Arose in Persia during the 1300s and 1400s, then spread to the Ottoman Empire and Mughal India in the early 1500s
● These vibrantly colored illustrations, collected in albums called muraqqas, featured many subjects, including portraits, because hte traiditional disapproval of depicing human subjects had always been weaker in Persia than in Arabia and the areas neighboring it
● Did not strive for the same level of exact realism as Renaissance artists in Europe did, or apply the laws of perspective as rigorously as they did

Question 66

~Herat and Tabriz workshops

Answer 66

● The most famous miniatures were produced at these workshops in Persia

Question 67

~Topkapi Palace

Answer 67

● The most famous miniatures were produced at the Palace in Istanbul

Question 68

~Sculpture and carving

Answer 68

● Remained dominant art form in Africa
● Used wood, metal and ivory
● Much was abstract

Question 69

~Abstract

Answer 69

● Deliberately avoiding the replication of visual reality

● Many of African art was abstract during this period

Question 70

~Textile arts and basketry

Answer 70

● Prominent art form during these years in Africa

● Featuring highly complex geometric patterns

Question 71

~African architecture

Answer 71

● Influenced by Arabs and European colonists, who built fortresses and residence along the coasts of East and West Africa

Question 72

~Oral tradition

Answer 72

● Where tales, songs, and poems were concerned, the oral tradition far overshadowed written works, which were rare

Question 73

~Griots/djeli

Answer 73

● Professional storytellers acted as entertainers, historians, musicians, and advisers to kings and rulers

Question 74

~Sundiata epid

Answer 74

● The most famous African saga during these years
● A frictionalized account of the adventures and accomplishements of the chieftain who, in rea life, founded the Mali empire in the 1200s
● Took shape during the 1300s and remained popular for centuries afterward

Question 75

~Ming dynasty cultural dynamism

Answer 75

● Famous for their fine porcelain, as well as literary masterpieces like Wu Chengen’s

Question 76

~Journey to the West

Answer 76

● Highly successful novel written by Wu Chengen
● Published in the late 1500s
● Narrates the travels of the seventh-century monk Xuanzang to India, but in the form of an adventure fantasy starring the half-beast Monkey King as Xuanzhang’s companion

Question 77

~Qing dynasty

Answer 77

● Its cultural attainments included the construction in the mid-1700s of hte beautiful Summer Palace outside Beijing

Question 78

~Tokugawa shogunate

Answer 78

● Brought about certain cultural changes
● On one hand, Japan's samurai class maintained many of the traditions and styles
● On the other, new art forms arose in response to the growing wealth of merchants and the urban classes in general

Question 79

~Kabuki theater

Answer 79

● Especially popular in Tokugawa shogunate
● Featured acrobatics, swordplay, and scenes of city life
● Contrasted greatly with the older, more elegant Noh drama favored by the upper classes

Question 80

~Ukiyo-e

Answer 80

● Became affordable due to woodblock printing
● It was dirven largely by urban, middle-class tastes

Question 81

~South Asian culture

Answer 81

● Miniature painting caught on here as a dominant art form

● THe 1600s were also an age of architectural magnificence in South Asia

Question 82

~Taj Mahal

Answer 82

● India’s most famous landmark
● The white marble mausoleum built in Agra by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife
● Shows the architectural magnificence in South Asia

Question 83

~Red fFort

Answer 83

● Shah Jahan’s initiative

● The mammoth was constructed as a royal residence in Delhi

Question 84

~Creole and mestizo traditions

Answer 84

● The blending of European, African and indigenous elements gave rise to the mixed cultures
● A powerful impact on language, religion, music and art

Question 85

~Mesoamerican codics

Answer 85

● An example of the interchange between native and European literary practices
● Wirtten in the Aztec lands during the 1500s, after the Spanish conquest
● Written by Aztec converts to Catholicism, partly in Nahuatl, partly in Spanish, and partl in Latin
● They combine the pre-Columbian tradition of codex-painting and the European emphasis on writing

Question 86

~What did printing press help spread and what was the consequence?

Answer 86

● Literary works, scientific theories, and discoveries, religious debates, and new ideas in general spread more rapidly and more widely than had ever been possible in previous centuries
● Elevate literacy rates quickly among the upeer and middle classes, and gradually among the lower classes as well
● Expansion of a given society’s network of libraries, publishers, schools, universities, and musums, further boosted hte power of ideas and new knowledge to affect historical events

Question 87

~What are the scientific and technolgoical innovations during this period?

Answer 87

● Printing press
● Gunpowder
● Marine/navigational technology
● Scientific revolution–astronomy

Question 88

~What did the incorporation of gunpowder weaponry lead to?

Answer 88

● The formation of huge armies consisting of infantry soldiers (as opposed to more expensive and increasingly old-fashioned cavalry)
● Increase the social and economic burdens of war and enormous costs invovling with converting tot he new style of warfare
- Including conscripting and supplying everlarger armies
● Provided many states with the crucial incentive they needed to centralize their political systems and to modernize their bureaucracies and tax-gathering systems

Question 89

~What were the marine and navigational technologies at that period?

Answer 89

● Compass
● Astrolabe
● Better maps
● Sailing ships
● Sternpost rudders
● lateen sails
● Caravel

Question 90

~Which nations were safer havens for scientific pioneers?

Answer 90

● Protestant nations such as England and the Dutch Republic

● Only in the 1700s did it become less risky for thse in Catholic countries to challenge church doctrine

Question 91

~What were some of the ideas that were discovered or proven during the Scientific Revolution?

Answer 91

● States of matter (solid, gas, liquid)
● The question of whether lght consists of waves or particles
● The fact that living creatures are made of cells
● The concept of the vacuum
● The science of statistics
● Zoological and botanical taxonomy (the modern system of classifying animals and plants) began during the early 1700s

Question 92

~What were the scientific instruments invented or perfected furing the 1600s and 1700s?

Answer 92

● Telescope
● Microscope
● Pendulum clock
● Thermometer
● Barometer

Question 93

~What was the effect of Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment globally?

Answer 93

● Futhered hte intellectual growth of Europe to the point that by the 1700s, it was overtaking civilizations that had been more advanced at the beginning of this era (China, Persia, and Ottoman Turkey)
- Not just in a scholarly sense, but in terms of technology and global power

Question 94

~What did religion serve as in this period?

Answer 94

● Religion remained central to the lives of most people
- Even though religious beliefs and practices diversified in many ways
● Religion servedas hte cause of numerous wars and other conflicts, and it continued ot be used for political purposes, mainly to justify regimes and rulers

Question 95

~How was the Roman Catholic church corrupted?

Answer 95

● Church offices were sold, not earned by merit

● Certificates of forgiveness for sins (indulgences) were granted in exchanged for money

Question 96

~Why did people start to question Roman Catholic church?

Answer 96

● Caused many people to view the church as hypocritical and overly concerend with wealth and power
● Questioning spirit of hte Renaissance added to it

Question 97

~Why did Sikhism change from pacifistic to warrior-like?

Answer 97

● They embraced a warrior culture during the 1600s because of growing persecution, particularly during hte late 1600s, when the emperor killed the guru and provoked the creation of a powerful Sikh army called the Khalsa

Question 98

~How did hte availability of culture widen?

Answer 98

● As merchants earned bigger profits, and as states improved their tax-collecting capabilities, more money was there to be spent on art, expanding hte cultural marketplace
● As print technology becma emore commonplace, written works became easier and cheapter to produce, and literacy increased as a result
● Genres of art and literature specifically targeted toward popular audiences began to appear

Question 99

~What are prominent examples of art forms that catered to al classes, not just the elite?

Answer 99

● Novels like Cervantes’s
● Theatrical production like Shakespeare’s
● Paintings and other artworks commissioned by increasingly prosperious merchant and middle-class patrons, both during the Renaissance and the eras that followed

Question 100

~What was Islamic culture as a whole dominated by during this period?

Answer 100

● A synthesis of Arabic, Turkish, and Persian elements, with the last proving especially influential

Question 101

~Why didn’t Ottoman and Persian miniaturists strive for the same level of exact realism as Renaissance artists in Europe did?

Answer 101

● Due to their religious-philosophical conviction that the physical world was imperfect, and that art should present a more idealized (and thus slightly non-realistic) version of reality

Question 102

~Who were the best-remembered Ottoman painters?

Answer 102

● Nakkas Osman (late 1500s)

● Levni (early 1700s)

Question 103

~What wre the dominant art form in Africa?

Answer 103

● Scupture and carving

Question 104

~What materials were used in sculture and carving?

Answer 104

● Woord, metal and ivorry

Question 105

~What accounts for ‘s popularity?

Answer 105

● Part of its appeal was that its author, rather than imitating old-fasioned prose from earlier dynasties, wrote in a style that matched how people in his own time spoke
● This made it accessible to the middle classes, not just elite audiences

Question 106

~What was the highlight of South Asian culture during the period?

Answer 106

● The fusion of Indian traditions and Persian influences that took place under the Islamic Mughal emperors who ruled from Agra and Delhi, beginning in the early 1500s

Question 107

~What impact does European arrival has on American culture?

Answer 107

● Gave rise to mixed cultures
● Caued literature and writing to assume widespread importance for the first time in a region where written scripts had been extremely rare over the course of many centuries

Question 108

~What subjects did the Mesoamerican codices adress?

Answer 108

● Translations of Aztec pictograms
● Explanations of Aztec beliefs and customs (religious practices, folk medicine, the calendar system)
● Occasionally complaints about Spnaish abuses