AP Euro: Important people

Girolamo Savonarola

(1452-1498) Dominican friar, attacked government of Florence (Lorenzo de' Medici), corruption of Pope Alexander VI, became religious leader of Florence, eventually excommunicated and executed by pope, shows that common people did not share worldly outlook of elite

Petrarch

(1304-1374) thought he was living at the start of a new era, new age of intellectual achievement, father of humanism

Lorenzo Valla

(1406-1457) humanist, defended pleasures of senses as the highest good, proved church documents false

Giorgio Vasari

(1511-1574), art historian

Donatello

(1386-1466) statues express an appreciation for the variety of human nature, revived classical figure

Leonardo da Vinci

(1452-1519) contributed to modern concept of artist as an original thinker, saw art from a scientific POV and science from an artistic POV, true "Renaissance man"

Castiglione

wrote The Courtier, sought to fashion the young gentleman into the courtly ideal, trained in physical, spiritual, intellectual and artistic pursuits

Laura Cereta

(1469-1499) humanist, had to choose between marriage or a life of study

Niccolo Machiavelli

(1469-1527), wrote The Prince, showed how a ruler should gain, maintain and increase his power, concludes that humans are inherently selfish, combine qualities of fox and lion, two basic ideas: one permanent social order reflecting God's ideals cannot be established and politics has its own laws and ought to be a science

Thomas More

(1478-1535), wrote Utopia, presents a revolutionary view of society, believed society's flawed institutions were responsible for corruption and war, necessary to reform social institutions that molded the individual

Erasmus

(1466-1536), believed education was the means to reform, and that Christianity is Christ's life, humanist

Martin Luther

(1483-1546), articulated the widespread desire for reform of church and deep yearning for salvation, very conscientious friar, but doubted the value of the monastic life, troubled by sale of indulgences, writes 95 Theses and launches Protestant Reformation

John Tetzel

friar appointed to sell indulgences

Ulrich Zwingli

(1484-1531), introduced Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, convinced that Christian life rested on the Scriptures

John Calvin

(1509-1564) developed Calvinism, believed in predestination-God selects certain people for salvation and condemns the rest, emphasized the absolute sovereignty and omnipotence of God and total weakness of humanity, held Genevans to a high standard of morality, emphasized aggressive, vigorous activism

John Knox

(1505-1572), dominated movement for reform, persuaded Scottish parliament to enact legislation ending papal authority

Ignatius Loyola

(1491-1556) founded the Jesuit order, goal to help souls, spread Christian ideals through education

Prince Henry "the Navigator"

(1394-1460) established a school for the study of geography, sent expeditions down the coast of Africa

Christopher Columbus

discovered the New World, cruel and ineffective governor of Spain's Caribbean colony, sought a more direct route to the East Indies, laid the foundation for Spanish imperial administration in the Canary Islands

Ferdinand Magellan

(1480-1521), commissioned by Charles V to find a direct route to the spices of Molucca off the southeast coast of Asia, proved the earth was round and much larger than Columbus had estimated

Hernando Cortes

(1485-1547), conquered the Aztec Empire, subjugated northern Mexico

Francisco Pizarro

(1470-1541), conquered the Inca Empire in Peru, established the Spanish viceroyalty in Peru

Michel de Montaigne

(1533-1592), introduced early modern skepticism, developed the essay to express his thoughts and ideas

William Shakespeare

(1564-1616), most famous playwright of all time, original characters, great understanding of human psychology, diverse plots, unexcelled gift for language, appreciated classical culture, individualism and humanism

Peter Paul Rubens

(1577-1640), representative of the baroque painters, colorful style characterized by animated figures, melodramatic contrasts and monumental size, enormously successful

Richelieu

(1585-1642), ruled as regent in place of Louis XIII, set in place the cornerstone of French absolutism, reshuffled royal council to curb the power of the nobility, established intendant system—intendants appointed directly by the monarch, solely responsible to him, enforced royal orders and weakened the power of the nobility, established French Academy to standardize language

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

(1619-1683), appointed minister of finance by Louis XIV, applied system of mercantilism to France, believed France should be self-sufficient, attempted to accomplish this through state support of industries, created a powerful merchant marine to transport French goods, hoped to make Canada part of a vast French empire

Moliere

(1622-1673), French playwright, plays that followed classical models but were based on careful social observation, made bourgeoisie the butt of his ridicule

Jean Racine

(1639-1699), plays that analyzed the power of love, based on Greek and Roman legends, focused on the conflict of good and evil

Gaspar de Guzman, Count-Duke of Olivares

appointed administrator of Spain by Philip IV, devised new sources of revenue

Miguel de Cervantes

(1547-1616), wrote Don Quixote, characterized 17th c. Spain

William Laud

(1573-1645), archbishop of Canterbury, insisted on complete uniformity in church services, attempted to impose a new book of prayer on Scotland in 1637, the Scots revolted

John Locke

(1632-1704), wrote Second Treatise of Civil Government, maintained that people set up civil governments to protect life, liberty and property, a government that oversteps this is a tyranny and must be overthrown, also wrote Essay Concerning Human Understanding, put forth the tabula rasa theory, which suggests that all ideas are derived from experience

Nicolaus Copernicus

(1473-1543), felt that Ptolemy's rules for the movement of the planets detracted from the majesty of a perfect universe, preferred the idea that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the universe, suggested a universe of staggering size, destroyed idea of crystal spheres, attacked by religious leaders, events brought credibility to the Copernican hypothesis (new star, new comet)

Tycho Brahe

(1546-1601), established himself as Europe's leading astronomer, collected a mass of data, believed that all planets revolved around the sun and that system revolved around the earth-moon system

Johannes Kepler

(1571-1630), made sense of Brahe's observations, formulated three laws of planetary motion: 1) orbits of planets are elliptical, 2) planets do not move at a uniform speed in their orbits, 3) the time a planet takes to complete its orbit is precisely related to its distance from the sun

Galileo Galilei

(1564-1642), challenged old ideas about motion, elaborated on and consolidated the experimental method, now people could conduct controlled experiments, formulated the law of inertia, which explained that an object continues in motion forever until stopped by an external force, applied experimental method to astronomy

Isaac Newton

(1642-1727), united experimental and theoretical/mathematical sides of science, created a set of mathematical laws to explain motion and mechanics, created the law of universal gravitation

Francis Bacon

(1561-1626), argued that new knowledge had to be pursued through empirical, experimental research, formulated empirical method, claimed it would result in highly practical knowledge

Rene Descartes

(1596-1650), discovered analytic geometry, showed that geometric figures could be expressed as algebraic equations and vice versa, established Cartesian dualism, which reduced everything to physical and spiritual entities

Bernard de Fontenelle

(1657-1757), sought to make science witty and entertaining to a borad non-scientific audience, helped bring science into conflict with religion, skeptical about absolute truth and the claims of organized religion

Pierre Bayle

(1647-1706), skeptic, French Huguenot who found refuge in the Netherlands, examined religious persecutions and beliefs of the past in his Historical and Critical Dictionary, concluded that nothing can be known beyond all doubt, believed in open minded toleration

Montesquieu

(1689-1755), used wit as a weapon against cruelty and superstition, applied critical method to government in The Spirit of Laws, argued that despotism could be avoided through a separation of powers, believed a strong, independent upper class was very important

Voltaire

(1694-1778), struggled against legal injustice and unequal treatment before the law, shared Montesquieu's enthusiasm for English institutions, mixed glorification of science and reason with an appeal for better institutions and individuals, did not believe in social and economic equality in human affairs, challenged Christianity, believed in a deistic God (the great Clockmaker), hated all forms of religious intolerance

Baron Paul d'Holbach

(1723-1789), argued that human beings were machines completely determined by outside forces, deeply hostile toward religion

David Hume

(1711-1776), argued that the human mind is nothing but a bundle of impressions which originate in sense experiences, reason cannot tell us anything that cannot be verified by sense experiences, undermined the Enlightenment's faith in reason

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(1712-1778), greatly influenced by Diderot and Voltaire, committed to individual freedom, felt civilization destroyed the individual, believed the general will reflected the common interests of the people, and that it must be interpreted by a small, far-seeing minority, called for greater love and tenderness towards children

Immanuel Kant

(1724-1804), greatest German philosopher of the age, believed in freedom of the press

Maupeou

appointed chancellor by Louis XV to crush the judicial opposition, abolished existing parlements

Cornelius Vermuyden

most famous of Dutch drainage engineers, directed drainage projects in Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire, reclaimed 40,000 acres

Jethro Tull

(1674-1741), tried to develop better methods of farming through empirical research, advocated using horses for plowing and sowing seed with drilling equipment

Adam Smith

(1723-1790), established the basis for modern economics, opposed mercantilism, advocated free competition, believed the purpose of the government was for defense, maintenance of civil order and support of key social institutions, claimed market would be regulated by an "invisible hand"

Edward Jenner

(1749-1823), collected data on the prevention of smallpox by cowpox, able to produce a vaccine for smallpox

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes

wrote What is the Third Estate?, argued that the nobility was a tiny, overprivileged minority and that the 3rd estate comprised the true strength of the French nation

Maximilien Robespierre

(1758-1794), head of the Committee of Public Safety, organized the Reign of Terror, executed by guillotine during Thermidorian Reaction

Edmund Burke

(1729-1797), criticized French Revolution, defended privileges of the monarchy and aristocracy, felt the revolution would only lead to chaos and tyranny

Mary Wollstonecraft

(1759-1797), wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Man and A Vindication of the Rights of Women, firm feminist, demanded education for women, advocated female participation in politics and an expansion of women's rights

Joseph Fouche

left in charge of the police state by Napoleon, organized a spy system to root out subversive people and potential opponents to Napoleon's regime

James Watt

(1736-1819), invented a more efficient steam engine, added a separate condenser to improve the Newcomen engine, solved the crisis of energy for Britain

Thomas Malthus

(1766-1834), wrote Essay on the Principle of Population, argued that population would always outstrip the food supply, believed people should marry later in life to reduce population growth

David Ricardo

(1772-1823), suggested the iron law of wages, which suggested that the pressure of population growth would always cause wages to sink to subsistence level

John Cockerill

built cotton-spinning equipment in Belgium, established modern ironworks, coal mines and built an industrial factory which produced locomotives and machinery

Fritz Harkort

business pioneer in the German machinery industry, built steam engines, imported materials from England, ambition resulted in large financial losses

Frederich List

(1789-1846), believed the growth of modern industry was of utmost importance, improved people's well-being and reduced poverty, believed promoting industry ensured national security, supported formation of the Zollverein among the German states, advocated a high protective tariff to protect domestic industry

Friedrich Engels

(1820-1895), wrote The Condition of the Working Class in England, claimed industrial capitalism had caused a dramatic increase in poverty, later the colleague of Karl Marx, wrote The Communist Manifesto

Robert Owen

(1771-1858), manufacturer in Scotland, believed employing children under 10 was detrimental to them and did not benefit factory owners, organized the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union, collapsed

Count Henri de Saint-Simon

(1760-1825), socialist, believed the parasites (aristocrats, lawyers, churchmen) of society must give way to the doers (scientists, engineers, industrialists), doers would carefully guide and plan the economy through public works projects

Charles Fourier

(1772-1837), advocated a socialist utopian made up of self-sufficient communities, supported the total emancipation of women, criticized marriage

Louis Blanc

(1811-1882), emphasized practical improvements, believed the state should set up workshops to reduce unemployment

Pierre Joseph Proudhon

(1809-1865), wrote What is Property?, argued that property was profit stolen from the workers, considered an anarchist

Karl Marx

(1818-1883), published The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels, believed the interests of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie were inevitably opposed, proletariat would triumph in a violent revolution

Georg Hegel

(1770-1831), believed each age is characterized by a dominant set of ideas, giving history pattern and purpose

William Wordsworth

(1770-1850), literary romanticist, used language of ordinary speech, wrote poems about simple subjects, simplicity and love of nature

Walter Scott

(1771-1832), personified romantic movement's fascination with history, re-created the spirit of historical events

Victor Hugo

(1802-1885), wrote lyric poetry, amazing range of rhythm, language and image, equated freedom in literature with social and political liberty

Eugene Delacroix

(1798-1863), greatest romantic painter in France, painted dramatic, colorful scenes that stirred the emotions

Joseph M. W. Turner

(1775-1851), notable English romantic painter, depicted nature's power and terror

John Constable

(1776-1821), English romantic painter, painted gentle landscapes in which human beings were at peace with their environments

Ludwig van Beethoven

(1770-1827), composer, used contrasting themes and tones to create drama

Edwin Chadwick

one of the commissions charged with relief to paupers, Benthamite, realized disease and death caused poverty, believed disease could be prevented by cleaning up the urban environment, reports became the basis of Britain's first public health law, believed in the miasmatic theory of disease

Louis Pasteur

(1822-1895), developed the germ theory of disease, found that the growth of bacteria could be suppressed by heat (pasteurization)

Joseph Lister

(1827-1912), found connection between aerial bacteria and wound contamination, developed anti-septic principle

Georges Haussmann

(1809-1884), appointed by Napoleon III to reorganize Paris, razed buildings to create wide boulevards (prevent easy construction of barricades), demolished slums, created parks and open spaces, improved water supply system

Auguste Comte

(1798-1857), French philosopher, wrote System of Positive Philosophy, postulated that all intellectual activity passes through predictable stages, developed positivist method, a discipline of sociology

Jean Baptiste Lamarck

(1744-1829), believed all forms of life had arisen through a process of continuous adjustment to the environment, flawed-believed characteristics acquired by parents over the course of their lives could be inherited by their children

Charles Darwin

(1809-1882), all life had evolved from a constant struggle for survival, believed that chance differences among members of a certain species allowed them to survive, variations eventually spread to entire species

Herbert Spencer

(1820-1903), Social Darwinist, saw the human race as driven toward ever greater specialization in the brutal economic struggle

Emile Zola

(1840-1902), realist writer, violently criticized social situation, strict determinist, famous for animalistic view of working class life, sympathized with socialism

Honore de Balzac

(1799-1850), wrote a panorama of post-revolutionary French life, characterize society is grasping, amoral, brutal, Darwinian struggle for wealth and power

Gustave Flaubert

(1821-1880), accuracy of psychological insight, portrays provincial middle class as petty, smug and hypocritical

Leo Tolstoy

(1828-1910), greatest Russian realist, probed deeply into the lives of his characters, fatalistic theory of history, regarded free will as an illusion

Cavour

dominant figure in Sardinia government 1850-1861, worked to consolidate Sardinia as a liberal constitutional state capable of leading northern Italy, worked for a secret diplomatic alliance with Napoleon III against Austria, regained Napoleon's support by ceding Savoy and Nice to France

Giuseppe Garibaldi

(1807-1882), personified the romantic, revolutionary nationalism of Mazzini, aimed to "liberate" the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, his Red Shirts roused the peasants and conquered Sicily

Sergei Witte

Russian minister of finance 1892-1903, believed industrial backwardness threatened Russia's power and greatness, encouraged building of railroads, established high protective tariffs to build domestic industry, put the country on the gold standard to strengthen Russia finances, used the West to catch up with the West

Leon Gambetta

moderate republican leader, preached a republic of truly equal economic opportunity, established absolute parliamentary supremacy in 1877 and 1879

Benjamin Disraeli

(1804-1881), extended the vote to all middle class males, aimed to broaden the Conservative party's traditional base of aristocratic and landed support

William Gladstone

(1809-1898), Liberal prime minister, introduced bills to give Ireland self-government that failed to pass

Edward Bernstein

(1850-1932), revisionist, argued that Marx's predictions had proved false, suggested socialists should combine with progressive forces to win gradual evolutionary gains for workers through legislation, unions and further economic development

Muhammad Ali

(1769-1849), appointed governor of Egypt by Turkish government, built his state on the strength of an army organized along European lines, reformed the government and improved communications, established a strong and virtually independent Egyptian state, encouraged the development of commercial agriculture

Ismail

succeeded his father as ruler of Egypt in 1863, promoted irrigation networks to stimulate production, supported construction of Suez Canal, established Arabic as official language, forced to allow Britain and France to oversee Egypt to pay its debts, abdicated in favor of his son, Tewfiq