Unit 1 Test - AP Euro

Which important European developments paved the way for loosening the grip on the Church and Feudal System?

• The Crusades (helped Europeans and and Islamic scholars exchange ideas).

• The Black Death (decline of population led to the destruction of serfdom by improving wages for peasants)

Renaissance means…

Rebirth

What did the Renaissance introduce in the 1300’s with the Age of Discovery?

• Resurgence of classical learning, art, and values, of Greek-Roman antiquity.

• Individualism (secular ideology inspired by classical Greek-Roman writing and culture).

• Developments of navigation and cartography (overseas colonies, trade networks, connections across cultures)

• Advancement in agriculture and financing/banking

• Spread of Christianity with transportation (Salvation missions by Christians from Europe)

What’s humanism?

Focusing on human beings and their inherent dignity. More secular thinking

Where did the Renaissance begin?

Northern Italy

What is Scholasticism?

Focused on Roman Catholicism and religious inquiries, proving the existence of God.

Petrarch

• Father of Humanism

• Italian poet and scholar

• (1304-1374)

• Searched forgotten Latin manuscripts

• Key Discovery —> Letters to Atticus by Cicero

• Adopted Cicero as a model for writing in Latin

• Was one of the first scholars of his era to write in Italian vernacular.

Marsilio Ficono

• Italian humanist

• (1433-1499)

• Studied Greek + Works of Plato

• Connected Plato’s philosophy to more recent Christian theology

• Translated Plato’s well known writing into Latin

• Interested in “Platonic love”

• Got his studies financed by the Medici Family

Pico della Mirandola

• (1463-1494)

• Took philosophical views and blended them.

• Studied languages such as Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic), in the major learning centers (Paris, Bologna, Padua, and Florence).

• “Oration on the Dignity of Man” —> Place of humans and their relationship to God.

What did Liberal Arts Universities teach in the 15th century?

• History

• Moral Philosophy

• Eloquence

• Poetry

• Mathematics

• Astronomy

(Students were required to know classical Latin and Greek to read these works directly).

What did Humanists believe education could do?

• Allow humans to reach their potential

• Prepare them to be active, productive citizens

• Created secondary schools to teach the humanities to develop an individual who could excel in multiple areas

What challenges did the Catholic Church experience with the rise of secular Renaissance culture?

• Lost spiritual authority

• Christian humanists in northern Europe, focused on early texts of the Catholic Church, advocated for simpler form of Christianity and criticized practices that they believed were not based on Scripture

How did Humanists base their governments of antiquity?

Athens —> home of democracy

Roman republic —> representative government

Roman politician, Cicero, became secular model for active, engaged, and eloquent leadership.

Humanists saw classical examples of civic humanist culture, and sought to promote it in their own era.

Baldassare Castiglione

• Writer in Milan

• (1478-1529)

• The Book of Courtier

• This book outlined how to act like a proper gentleman or lady

• The ideal courtier: similar to a medieval knight but classically educated, skilled in the arts, and engaged in civic life.

• Also wrote about female courtier: educated, patron of the arts, helped her husband to rise to his fullest potential

Niccolo Machiavelli

• Began serving as a diplomat in republic of Florence

• Became familiar with French and German politics.

• Shift in political power in republic of Florence —> Machiavelli exiled

• The Prince —> most famous worked, better to be feared than loved.