Culture, Science, and Technology, 1450-1750 Flashcards
~Printing press
● 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
~Gunpowder weaponry
● 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
~Gunpowder revolution
● 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
~Marine and navigational technology
● Combined European technology and others that had arrived from China via the Middle East
● Launch the European age of exploration
~Astrolabe
● Measured latitude
~Compass
● Determining direction
~Better maps
● Came from better knowledge of cartography and astronomy
● More precise understanding of the stars’ movements further advanced their navigational skills
~Sailing ships
● 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
~Caravel
● First ship that enabled true oceanic exploration
● Largely invented by the Portuguese, who combined square sails with lateen sails for better control over direction
~Galleon/Carrack
● Larger ships then caravel
● Soon followed caravel
● All of them were used for purposes of trade and war alike
~Intellectual orthodoxy
● 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
~Nicolaus Copernicus
● 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
~Heliocentric theory
● Earth and other planets revolve around the sun
● Ran counter to the standard wisdom
~Geocentric theory
● 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
~Scientific Revolution
● Pace of scientific discovery accelerated during the 1600s and early 1700s
~Scientific method
● 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
Galileo
● 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
~Isaac Newton
● 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
~Theravada/Hinayana
● Schools of thought
● Emphasized simplicity and meditation
● Were more popular in South Asia
~Mahayana
● 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
Sufism
● Mystical strain within Islam
● Continued to flourish after taking root between the 900s and the 1300s
● Emphasizing communion with Allah over doctrinal strictness
~Sunni-Shiite split
● 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)
~Shiism/Twelver Shiism
● 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
~Imams
● 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)