World History from 1350 to 1815 Flashcards
Black Death
In the mid 1300’s, an Asian form of Bubonic Plague showed up along the coastal trading ports in Europe.
Up to 40% of Europe’s population died.
BP caused economic destruction for urban areas and renewed the hatred of Jews who were blamed for the outbreak.
Gutenberg’s Printing Press
Introduced in 1450, allowed books and ideas to quickly spread throughout Europe. Part of the Northern Renaissance.
Italian Renaissance
Began in Florence and financed by wealthy families such as the Medicis.
Stressed human achievements and tried to imitate the artistic qualities of Ancient Greece and Rome. Methods to create more realistic artwork emerged.
Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a guide on how to gain and keep power through any means necessary.
Humanism
Stressing the idea of human achievement
Atlantic Slave Trade
Refers to the trading, primarily of African people, to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. It lasted from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Most enslaved people were shipped from West Africa and Central Africa and taken to North and South America. One part of a three-part economical system known as the MIddle Passage of the Triangular Trade.
Protestant Reformation
Officially began in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, Saxony. A primary concern for Luther was the “selling of indulgences” (forgiveness of sin without formal confession).
Emphasis on biblical doctrine only and only recognizes two sacraments: baptism and communion.
European Exploration
Europe desired a more direct trade route to China. Portugal’s Prince Henry (the Navigator) opens a navigation school with the goal to train sailors to eventually sail around Africa and into the Indian Ocean (Vasco de Gama accomplishes this in 1487).
1492 Columbus sets sails across Atlantic for different route.
Treaty of Tordesillas
1494 the Pope negotiates a Line of Demarcation between Spain and Portugal, divides the world by a line of longitude.
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is the economic theory that the wealth of a nation depends upon its capital. First and foremost Mercantilism was state control over human behavior: the belief that many aspects of a nation’s economy had to be regulated. With the acquisition of colonies came the recognition that their purpose was to satisfy the needs of the mother country. The regulation of economic activities in the colonies, then, centered around the accumulation of wealth for the mother country, at the colonies’ expense. It became the leading cause of the American Revolution.
Absolutism
political philosophy that absolute rulers had absolute control of all aspects of government. The Divine Right of Kings.
Enlightenment
Developed mainly in France during the 18th century. Major writers included John Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Montesquieu.
Northern Renaissance
Main focus was literature instead of art. Major writers of the time were Erasmus, Thomas More, and Shakespeare.
Gutenberg’s printing press was invented.
