Renaissance

Rebirth of Greco-Roman Ideas, Art , and

Architecture

Florence, Italy

A center of medieval European trade and finance and one of the

wealthiest cities of the time. Florence is considered the birthplace
of the Renaissance.

Medici Family

The Godfathers of the Renaissance

Giovanni de'Medici (1360-1429) was born into a relatively poor
Florentine family and received only a nominal inheritance when his
father died.He founded the Medici Bank in 1397, which became the
most successful bank in Florence by his death in 1429.

Classicism
Clarity in style, adhering to
principles of elegance and
symmetry, and created by
attention and adherence to
traditional forms.

Renaissance Man

A person whose expertise spans a significant number of

different subject areas. (Leonardo da Vinci, for
example)

Leonardo da Vinci

Michelangelo

Realism
Realism in the visual
arts and literature is
the general attempt
to depict subjects as
they exist in objective
reality, without
embellishment or
interpretation and "in
accordance with
secular, empirical
rules.

Perspective

The School of Athens by Raphael (1518), a fine example of

architectural perspective with a central vanishing point.

Humanism

Beginning in the late 1300s, a group of scholars centered in the Italian

city-state of Florence began to look to the past for inspiration. These
scholars were later called humanists because they stressed human
innovation instead of spiritualism. The humanists studied the classics
the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans. In the works of the classics,
Renaissance scholars found a way of thinking similar to their own time.
They believed this outlook had not been explored since the fall of Greece

Machiavelli

Petrarch

Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri

between 1308 and his death in 1321. The poem describes Dante's
travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven; but at a deeper level, it
represents allegorically the soul's journey towards God.

Erasmus
Prince of Humanists
Erasmus lived against the
backdrop of the growing European
religious Reformation; but while he
was critical of the abuses within
the Church and called for reform,
he kept his distance from Luther
and continued to recognize the
authority of the pope. Erasmus
emphasized a middle way, with a
deep respect for traditional faith,
piety and grace, and rejected
Luther's emphasis on faith alone.

William Shakespeare

Protestant
Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century schism within

Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and
other early Protestants, who objected to ("protested") the doctrines,
rituals, and structure of the Roman Catholic Church. This led to the
creation of Protestant churches.

Indulgences
By making a contributing
money to the church, a
sinner would receive a
partial indulgence not to
commit further sins, while
at the same time,
diminishing the time period
that he was to suffer in
purgatory for remission of
his sins.

Martin Luther

Lutheranism

Ninety-Five Theses

The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of

Indulgences was written by Martin Luther in 1517 and is
widely regarded as the initial catalyst for the Protestant
Reformation. The act was a protest against clerical abuses,
especially the sale of indulgences to limit time in purgatory.

Justification by Faith

In Protestantism, righteousness from God is credited to the

sinner's account through faith alone, without works.

John Calvin
A Christian theologian and
pastor, John Calvin regularly
preached sermons in
Geneva, Switzerland. He
preached the doctrine of
predestination and the
absolute sovereignty of
God. Calvin's writing and
preachings provided the
seeds for the branch of
theology that bears his
name, Calvinism. The
Reformed and Presbyterian
churches have spread the
theology of Calvinism
throughout the world.

Calvinism

Predestination

Predestination is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God.
John Calvin interpreted biblical predestination to mean that God willed
eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others.

Henry VIII

King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death, Henry was the second
monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, HenryVII. Besides his
six marriages, Henry VIII is known for his role in the separation of the Church
of England from the Roman Catholic Church.

Anglicanism

One of the major branches of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation

and a form of Christianity that includes features of both Protestantism
and Roman Catholicism. It represents the offspring of the Church of
England established by King Henry VIII, and recognizes the archbishop
of Canterbury as its leader.

Counter Reformation

Its aim was to reclaim the superiority of the Roman Catholic

Church during the Protestant Reformation.

Council of Trent
After 20-years of debate,
the Council of Trent
established the basis for
Catholic Counter
Reformation. Decrees
were issued covering
every aspect of Church
authority, from the
chastity of priests to
reform of the
monasteries.

Jesuits

Ignatius Loyola was charged with forming the Jesuits, a band of

militant missionaries whose task was to reconvert the converted.

Johann Gutenberg

Prince Henry the

Navigator

Portuguese Naval Academy Development of the caravel,

lateen sail, and navigational maps

Ferdinand Magellan

Magellans expedition completed the

first circumnavigation of the Earth,
although Magellan himself did not
complete the entire voyage, being killed
during the Battle of Mactan in the
Philippines.

Dutch East India Co.

Trading company founded by the Dutch in 1602 to protect their trade in

the Indian Ocean and to assist in their war of independence from Spain.
The company prospered through most of the 17th century as the
instrument of the powerful Dutch commercial empire in the East Indies.

Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange, also known as the Grand Exchange, was the
exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves),
disease, and ideas between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia following the
voyage to the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492.

Coercive Labor
During the period of 1450 to 1750, the
introduction of slavery and
improvements in agriculture in the
Americas brought a strict form of rule
over the indigenous people and black
slaves. This form of ruling was known as
coercive labor, however, the diversity of
cultures in the Caribbean, Latin America,
and the English colonies brought
changes in the form in which it was used,
which included the rights of slaves and
indigenous people, commodities
produced, and freedoms granted by their
masters.

New France

Gold, Glory, God

The Spanish that explored and conquered parts of the

New World had three basic ideas that motivated them-Gold, Glory, and God.

Thirty Years War

The Thirty Years' War (1618
1648) was a series of wars
principally fought in Central
Europe, involving most of the
countries of Europe. No single
cause can accurately be
described as the main reason for
the fighting. Initially, it was
fought largely as a religious war
between Protestants and
Catholics in the Holy Roman
Empire; however, gradually, it
developed into a more general
conflict involving most of the
great powers of the time. In this
general phase the war became
less specifically religious and
more a continuation of the rivalry
for European political power,

English Civil War

The English Civil War (16421651) was a series of armed conflicts

between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers). The
English Civil War led to the trial and execution of Charles I, the exile of
his son, Charles II, and replacement of English monarchy with, first, the
Commonwealth of England (164953), and then with a Protectorate
(165359), under Oliver Cromwell's personal rule.

Edict of Nantes

The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of

France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France (also known
as Huguenots) substantial rights in a nation still considered
essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to
promote civil unity.

Copernicus

Heliocentrism
the Sun is the center of the Solar
System.

Mercantilism

Wealth is Power Power is Wealth

Mercantilism is the economic doctrine that government control of
foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the military
security of the country. In particular, it demands a positive balance of
trade. It required building a network of overseas colonies, forbidding
colonies to trade with other nations and the monopolizing markets.

Absolute Monarchy
Absolute monarchy is a
monarchical form of government
in which the monarch exercises
ultimate governing authority as
head of state and head of
government; his or her powers are
not limited by a constitution or by
the law. An absolute monarch
wields unrestricted political power
over the sovereign state and its
people. Absolute monarchies are
often hereditary. King Louis XIV of
France is considered to be the
epitome of an absolute monarch.

Sir Isaac Newton

An English natural philosopher, generally regarded as the most original

and influential theorist in the history of science. In addition to his
invention of the infinitesimal calculus and a new theory of light and color,
Newton transformed the structure of physical science with his three laws
of motion and the law of universal gravitation.

Caravel
A caravel is a small, highly
maneuverable sailing ship
developed in the 15th
century by the Portuguese
to explore along the West
African coast and into the
Atlantic Ocean. Caravels
were much used by the
Portuguese for the oceanic
exploration voyages during
the 15th and 16th
centuries in the age of
discovery.

Lateen Sail

The lateen (triangular) sails gave a Portuguese caravel speed and the
capacity for sailing windward. (upwind)

Mestizos

A person of mixed racial ancestry, especially of mixed European and

Native American ancestry.

Hernn Corts
Hernn Corts was a Spanish
explorer who is famous for his
march across Mexico and his
conquering of the Aztec Empire
in Mexico. The Aztec Empire
was ruled by Montezuma II.
Corts arrived in Mexico in
March 1519 with a group of
about 600 men and a few
horses. He made his way
inland to the Aztec capital city,
Tenochtitln. Along the way, he
made friends with a native
group called the Tlaxcalans,
who were enemies of the
Aztecs. The Tlaxcalans helped
Corts against the Aztecs.

Francisco Pizarro

On November 16, 1532, Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish explorer and

conquistador, springs a trap on the Incan emperor, Atahualpa. With
fewer than 200 men against several thousand, Pizarro lures Atahualpa
to a feast in the emperor's honor and then opens fire on the unarmed
Incans. Pizarro's men massacre the Incans and capture Atahualpa,
forcing him to convert to Christianity before eventually killing him.

Vasco de Gama

James Cook

Middle Passage

The Middle Passage was the

stage of the triangular trade in
which millions of people from
Africa were shipped to the New
World, as part of the Atlantic
slave trade.

Brunelleschi
One of the foremost architects and
engineers of the Italian
Renaissance. He is perhaps most
famous for his discovery of
perspective and for engineering
the dome of the Florence
Cathedral, but his
accomplishments also include
other architectural works,
sculpture, mathematics,
engineering and even ship design.

Northern Renaissance

Vernacular
A vernacular is the native
language or native dialect of a
specific population. Martin Luther
translated the Bible into the
German vernacular, which was the
first non-Latin version of The
Bible.

The Inquisition

The Inquisition was a Roman Catholic tribunal for discovery and

punishment of religious heresy, which was marked by the severity of
questioning, torture, punishment and lack of rights afforded to the
accused.