CHAPTER 18 - TRANSFORMATION OF EUROPE - KEY TERMS

Italian Renaissance

14th and 15th century movement influencing political forms, literature, and the arts; consisted largely of a revival of classical culture.

Niccolo Machiavelli

author of The Prince; emphasized realistic discussions of how to seize and maintain power.

Humanism

philosophy, or ideology, with a focus on humanity as the center of intellectual and artistic endeavor.

Northern Renaissance

cultural and intellectual movement of northern Europe; influenced by earlier Italian Renaissance; centered in France, Low Countries, England, and Germany; featured greater emphasis on religion than the Italian Renaissance.

Johannes Gutenberg

introduced movable type to western Europe in the 15th century; greatly expanded the availability of printed materials.

Martin Luther

German Catholic monk who initiated the Protestant Reformation; emphasized the primacy of faith for gaining salvation in place of Catholic sacraments; rejected papal authority.

Protestantism

general wave of religious dissent against the Catholic church; formally began with Martin Luther in 1517.

Jean Calvin

French Protestant who stressed doctrine of predestination; established center of his group in Geneva; in the long run encouraged wider public education and access to government.

Catholic Reformation

Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation; reformed and revived Catholic doctrine.

Jesuits

Catholic religious order founded during Catholic Reformation; active in politics, education, and missionary work outside of Europe.

Edict of Nantes

1598 grant of tolerance in France to French Protestants after lengthy civil wars between Catholics and Protestants.

Thirty Years War

war from 1618 to 1648 between German Protestants and their allies and the Holy Roman emperor and Spain; caused great destruction.

Treaty of Westphalia

ended Thirty Years' War in 1648; granted the right of individual rulers and cities to choose their own religion for their people; Netherlands gained independence.

English Civil War

conflict from 1640 to 1660; included religious and constitutional issues concerning the powers of the monarchy; ended with restoration of a limited monarchy.

Proletariat

class of people without access to producing property; usually manufacturing workers, paid laborers in agriculture, or urban poor; product of the economic changes of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Witchcraft persecution

outburst reflecting uncertainties about religious truth and resentments against the poor, especially women.

Scientific Revolution

process culminating in Europe during the 17th century; period of empirical advances associated with the development of wider theoretical generalizations; became a central focus of Western culture.

Copernicus

Polish monk and astronomer; disproved Hellenistic belief that the sun was at the center of the universe.

Galileo

publicized Copernicus’s findings; added own discoveries concerning the laws of gravity and planetary motion; condemned by the Catholic church for his work.

Isaac Newton

English scientist; author of Principia; drew the various astronomical and physical observations and wider theories together in a neat framework of natural laws; established principles of motion and defined forces of gravity.

Deism

concept of God during the Scientific Revolution; the role of divinity was limited to setting natural laws in motion.

John Locke

English philosopher who argued that people could learn everything through their senses and reason; argued that the power of government came from the people, not from the divine right of kings; they had the right to overthrow tyrants.

Absolute monarchy

concept of government developed during the rise of the nation-state in western Europe during the 17th century; monarchs held the absolute right to direct their state.

Louis XIV

French king who personified absolute monarchy.

Glorious Revolution

English political settlement of 1688 and 1689 which affirmed that parliament had basic sovereignty over the king.

Frederick the Great

Prussian king who introduced Enlightenment reforms; included freedom of religion and increased state control of the economy.

Enlightenment

intellectual movement centered in France during the 18th century; argued for scientific advance, the application of scientific methods to study human society; believed that rational laws could describe social behavior.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Enlightenment English feminist thinker; argued that political rights should be extended to women.