AP European History Key Terms & People (Europe and the World: New Encounters, 1500-1800 and State Building and the Search for Order in the 17th Century) - Chapters 14 & 15 (Unit 2)

Here are all the AP key terms and people from chapters 14 and 15 in “Western Civilization” by Jackson J. Spielvogel, which focuses on the Age of Exploration with European overseas expansion to acquire more land, which leads into unfair treatment of Amerindians and slaves, and State Building through Absolutism, where by the end of the 17th century, Europe began to grow in secularization, absolute, and limited monarchs, which became a turning point in the evolving modern state system in Europe, which was reflected through achievements in European literature and arts. These two chapters cover European history from 1488-1725.

Henry the Navigator

(1394-1460) Portuguese prince who promoted the study of navigation and directed voyages of exploration down the western coast of Africa in 1471 because of his founding of a school in 1419 for navigators and the probing for gold; motivated by "his great desire to make increase in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and to bring him all the souls that should be saved" through his contemporaries, the seeking of a Christian kingdom as an ally against the Muslims, and acquiring trade opportunities for Portugal

Hernán Cortés

(1485-1547) Spanish explorer and conquistador in which he asked his Spanish natives if it wasn't their duty to make sure that the Mexicans "are introduced into and instructed in the holy Catholic faith," in addition to spiritual and secular affairs; led to the fall of the Aztec Empire in 1531 due to diseases, in which Spain controlled northern Mexico

conquistadors

"conquerors"; leaders in the Spanish conquests in the Americas, especially Mexico and Peru, in the sixteenth century (e.g. Hernán Cortés)

"God, Glory, Gold"

the primary motives of the Age of Exploration and conquest for European explorers due to fantastic lands explained in Medieval literature, Marco Polo's "Travels" when his family of Venice traveled to the East, which leads to European expansion in the Renaissance, and religious zeal, which was very strong in Portugal and Spain, where Muslims had been strongly ousted in the Middle Ages; influenced explorers like Henry the Navigator, Christopher Columbus, and Hernán Cortés

Treaty of Tordesillas

(1494) an agreement between Spain and Portugal through spheres of influence (the route east around the Cape of Good Hope was the Portuguese and the route across the Atlantic was the Spanish)

Francisco Pizarro

(c. 1475-1571) Spanish explorer who landed on the coast of South America with 180 men and brought steel weapons; took over the Incas in 1535 due to smallpox, which made him establish Lima a capital for a new colony of the Spanish Empire

encomienda

in Spanish America, a form of economic and social organization in which a Spaniard was given a royal grant that enabled the holder of the grant to collect tribute from the Indians and use them as laborers; Spaniards would protect the Indians, pay them wages, and supervise their needs; abolished because of Bartolomé de Las Casas to give more protection for the Indians

Bartolomé de Las Casas

(1474-1566) Dominican friar who saw the horrific treatment of the Indians, which made the government abolishing the encomienda system to protect the natives more

viceroy

the administrative head of the provinces of New Spain and Peru in the Americas, according to a legislation of 1542; served as the king's chief civil and military officer and was aided by advisory groups called audiencias, which worked as supreme judicial bodies; led to the giving of extensive rights for Catholic monarchs in Spain over ecclesiastical affairs in the New World, which led to appointing bishops and clergy and missionaries converting and baptizing hundreds of thousands of Indians

colonies

territories under the full or partial political control of a foreign power, often occupied by settles from that country exploited for economic gain, resources, or strategic advantage; the Age of Exploration led to the establishment of these because of Europeans looking for new trade routes, wealth, and territory

colonial empires

political and economic systems, where a dominant nation, mostly a European one, explores, conquers, settles, and exploits other territories around the world; mother countries controlling overseas or distant lands for resources, markets, and power, which often leads to the forcing of a colonizer's culture, language, and the degrading of indigenous institutions

Dutch East India Company

a trading company established by the Netherlands in 1602 to protect and expand its trade in Asia; set up a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to supply food and other resources and provisions to Dutch ships for their route to the Spice Islands, which led to knocking the Portuguese out of the spice trade in Southeast Asia

triangular trade

a pattern of trade in early modern Europe that connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas in an Atlantic economy (European merchant ships carried goods, like guns and cloth, to Africa in exchange for slaves, then sent to the Americas to be sold); 275,000 estimated enslaved Africans took part, while 2,000 went to the Americas alone at the time the Atlantic slave trade was popular

Middle Passage

the journey of slaves from Africa to the Americas as the middle leg of the triangular trade, where African slaves would be closely packed, which led to deaths due to storms, and if survived, diseases, which led to higher mortality rates (averaging around 10%)

Atlantic slave trade

a long and brutal trade system from the 16th to 19th centuries that saw the transportations of 12 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas as slaves, which included the triangular trade and the Middle Passage; started with the Portuguese discovering profit in Africa and sugar cane contributing the process; took part as planters, domestic servants, agricultural workers, and household people; a way for Europeans to get gold, guns, and goods; led to depopulation, high mortality rates, poverty, and increased warfare and violence in Africa

British East India Company

a joint-stock company granted by a royal charter by Elizabeth I in 1600 for the purpose of controlling trade in India and when its chief representative was the aggressive British empire-builder, Robert Clive; well aided by the refusal of the French government to provide financial support for French efforts in far-off India

asiento

a privilege and system earned by the British in 1713, where 4,500 slaves a year were transported to Spanish Latin America and was the first entry for Britain into Spanish American markets; started mainly due to the British and French economic rivalry in the Portuguese and Spanish colonial empires in Latin America

Price revolution

the dramatic rise in prices (inflation) that occurred throughout Europe in the 16th and early 17th centuries, mostly due to foodstuffs, especially evident in wheat; famous example of this was set off at the Potosi silver mines in Bolivia, as 16 million kilograms of silver and 185,000 kilograms of gold entered the port of Seville

Columbian Exchange

(1492) the reciprocal importation and exportation of plants and animals between Europe and the Americas; led to proper diets and a rapid increase in population due to an improvement in nutrition

joint-stock company

a company or association that raises capital by selling shares to individuals who receive dividends on their investment while a board of directors runs the company (e.g. the British East India Company); made commercial expansion of the 16th and 17th centuries easier and was a way that the Dutch East India Company opened the Spice Islands and Southeast Asia to Dutch activity

commercial capitalism

an early form of capitalism where merchants and traders made profits mainly through buying, selling, and exchanging goods rather than producing them; developed during the 16th and 17th centuries as overseas trade and colonial markets expanded; shifted wealth and economic power from landowners to merchants who controlled trade and investment

mercantilism

an economic theory that held that a nation's prosperity depended on its supply of gold and silver that the total volume of trade is unchangeable; believed that the government should play an active role in the economy by encouraging exports and discouraging imports, especially through the use of tariffs; practices include supporting trading companies, implementing protectionist trading policies, and encouraging the manufacturing of products to be used in trade; also focused on the role of the state, believing that state intervention in some aspects of the economy was desirable for the sake of the national good

Witchcraft

the practice of magic by people supposedly in league with the devil; trials that affected the lives of many Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries that were held mainly in Western Europe (not in Spain and Portugal) and were dangerous; widespread factors include religious uncertainties and social condition problems; less popular due to religious wars, the stability of governments, and the growth of educated people

Thirty Years' War

(1618-1648) a war that was a Europe-wide struggle and started with the failure of the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and the struggle between Catholicism and Calvinism, where also some historians see this as part of a larger conflict for European leadership between the Bourbon dynasty of France and the Habsburg dynasties of Spain and the HRE; took place in the Germanic lands of the HRE; was split into the Bohemian, Danish, Swedish, and French Phases; ends with the Treaty of Westphalia, which adds Calvinist as an accepted faith guarantees the division of Germany and HRE religiously and politically, and ends the "wars of religion"

Gustavus Adolphus

(1594-1632) Swedish king and military genius who was responsible for reviving Sweden and transforming it into a great Baltic power, but unfortunately was killed in the Battle of Lützen in 1632, which made Swedish forces ineffective in Germany; developed the first standing army of conscripts, notable for the flexibility of its tactics; reorganized the government through an assembly of nobles, clergy, townsmen and peasants called the Riksdag, where real power was with the monarchy and nobility, which makes the government of Sweden an example of constitutionalism

Military Revolution

a phrase that describe the military changes from 1550 to 1660, in which military power was considered essential to a ruler's reputation and power, which leads to the tensions of building and effective military machine; not true, if viewers see the gradual military developments in the rest of the 17th century, like standing armies

absolutism

a form of government in which the sovereign power or ultimate authority rested in the hands of a monarch who claimed to rule by divine right and was therefore responsible only to God (e.g. Louis XIV's reign in France); sovereignty meant that it was consisted of the authority to make laws, tax, administer justice, control the state's administrative system, and determine foreign policy

divine-right monarchy

a monarchy based on the belief that monarchs receive their power directly from God and are responsible to no one except God; Jacques Bossuet was a chief theorist in this idea, where he explained that government was divinely ordained so that humans could live in an organized society; the monarchy that Louis XIV lived by during his reign

Jacques Bossuet

(1627-1704) French theologian who was a chief theorist in a divine-right monarchy in his "Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture"; argued first that government was divinely ordained so that humans could live in an organized society; also believed that God established kings and through them reigned over all the peoples of the world, so their power is absolute; lastly believed that because God would hold a king accountable for his actions, he believed that kings faced serious responsibilities as well as real limits on their power

Cardinal Richelieu

(1585-1642) Louis XIII's chief minister and politique (because his policies reflected Catholic France's paramount diplomatic concerns as political, not religious) who initiated policies that eventually strengthened the power of the monarchy by eliminating political and military rights of the Huguenots into more reliable subjects; also laid down the foundation for absolutism in France and allied with Protestant forces to defeat the HRE in the Franco-Swedish phase of the Thirty Years' War

intendants

royal officials in 17th-century France who were sent into the provinces to execute the orders of the central government; sent out by Cardinal Richelieu, in which the functions of these grew; conflict with provincial governors happened because of the use to weaken the nobility; the corrupt of state finances of this basic system made many people benefit from the system's inefficiency and injustice that the government faced strong resistance when it tried to institute reforms, where also the taille (an annual direct tax usually levied on land or property) was raised; the system continued by Louis XIV to make his government more efficient and centrally controlled

Cardinal Mazarin

(1602-1661) Italian who was Cardinal Richelieu's trained successor that was allowed by a regency under Anne of Austria to dominate the government; controlled France when Louis XIV was just four years old and lived through a noble revolt called the Fronde (1648-1652) due to the nobles' resentment of the centralized administrative power being built up at the expense of the provincial nobility, who allied with the members of the Parlement of Paris, who opposed the new taxes levied by the government to pay the Thirty Years' War costs, and with the Parisians, who were also angry at the additional taxes

Louis XIV of France

(1643-1715) the "Sun King" for being the source of light for all of his people who believed in the theories of an absolute monarchy and divine-right monarchy and was able to restructure the central policy-making machinery of government because it was part of his own court and household; removed high nobles and princes of the royal princes, who considered it their natural function to assert the policy-making role of royal ministers, from the royal council famously lived at the Palace of Versailles, a "pleasure prison" for the aristocrats, which became a symbol for the French absolutist state and his power; able to exercise both political and economic control over the provincial courts with the parlements; issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, which makes Huguenots leaving France for England; fought four costly wars for his desire for military glory and increase in power, including the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713); leaves France in social and economic ruins after his death

Palace of Versailles

the large royal residence and court created in the 17th century by Louis XIV of France, which came to set the standard for monarchies and aristocracies all over Europe; cost of building this court and other palaces, maintaining his court, and pursuing his wars made finances a huge issue for Louis XIV; residence of the king of France, a reception hall for state affairs, an office building for the members of the king's government, the home of thousands of royal officials and aristocratic courtiers, and the home to the high nobility and princes of the blood; a symbol for the French absolutist state and Louis XVI's power; was a court ceremony during Louis's life there

parlements

provincial law courts in France that were responsible for registering new laws sent to them by the king; historians saw that Louis XIV was able to exercise both political and economic control, in relationship with these, even though local officials could still block the execution of policies they disliked, indicating that an "absolute monarch" might not be always absolute

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

(1619-1683) French controller general of finances who sought to increase the wealth and power of France through general adherence to mercantilism, which stressed government regulation of economic activities to benefit the state, which also helped Louis XIV's financial problems with building the Palace of Versailles and other palaces, maintaining his court, and pursuing his wars; founded new luxury industries to decrease the need for imports and increase exports

War of the Spanish Succession

(1701-1713) the most important and last of Louis XIV's four wars, in which the war started due to the suspicion that Louis XIV would consolidate the French and Spanish thrones, which started because of Charles II's abdication from the throne of Spain to be given to a grandson of Louis XIV, and the possible result could mean the destruction of the balance of power system in Europe; England, the Dutch Republic, Habsburg Austria, and German states vs. France and Spain; includes the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, where John Churchill defeats Louis's forces; ends with the Treaty of Utrecht, which confirmed that Philip V as the Spanish ruler, which would ignite a Spanish Bourbon dynasty until the 20th dynasty, the separation of the Spanish and French thrones, which maintains the European balance of power system, the earning of the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium), Milan, and Naples to Austria, and the addition of possessions for Brandenburg-Prussia and England

Philip IV of Spain

(1605-1665) Spanish king whose reign was supposed to offer hope for a revival of Spanish energies, even in the capable hands of his chief minister, Gaspar de Guzman, the count of Olivares; efforts of the domestic reform decrees, aimed at reducing the Catholic Church's power and the landed aristocracy, and a political reform program to further centralize the Spanish government and its possessions in monarchical hands, were proved unsuccessful due to their desire to pursue Spain's imperial glory and by a series of internal revolts, especially with the ignition of the Thirty Years' War and the end of the war with the Treaty of Westphalia to formally give recognition to Dutch independence; lost parts of the Spanish Netherlands and territory in northern Spain and France with the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659, which marked the end of Spain as a great power

Brandenburg-Prussia

a small, open German territory that grew in the 17th century under the Hohenzollern family, combining the Electorate of Brandenburg with the Duchy of Prussia and other territories by the only person of the Hohenzollern ruler, in which it consisted of three disconnected masses in western, central, and eastern Germany; successful due to the building of a competent and efficient standing army through the General War Commissariat, Junkers, who were members of the Prussian landed aristocracy through the new bureaucratic machine, the wise decisions in taxation by exempting nobles from them and giving them the highest ranks in the army, reinforcing serfdom, and mercantilism through Frederick William of Prussia

Hohenzollern family

the dynasty under the evolution of Brandenburg into a powerful state in the 17th century, where in 1409, came to rule the insignificant principality in northeastern Germany; inherited some lands in the Rhine valley in western Germany, and then received the duchy of Prussia, which the dominions of the house of became known as Brandenburg-Prussia

Frederick William the Great Elector

(1640-1688) ruler who laid the foundation of the Prussian state during the midst of the Thirty Years' War, in which he created a competent and efficient standing army along with the General War Commissariat to levy taxes for the army and oversee its growth and training, which included the Prussian landed aristocracy known as the Junkers, who dominated their provincial Estates General, which also later became the most efficient army in Europe, unified his Rhine holdings of Brandenburg and Prussia to become a strong state, wise and strong on taxation (exempted the nobles from this), and encouraged industry and trade through mercantilism

boyars

the Russian nobility; group that gained greater control over the peasants during Ivan III's reign in Russia, but were later crushed by Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) to extend the autocracy of the tsar, since he was the first tsar of Russia

Peter the Great of Russia

(1689-1725) ruler who traveled to the West from 1697-1698 in hopes to westernize Russia, focused on reorganizing the Russian army and the creation of a navy, reorganized the central government, partly along Western lines, created the Senate in 1711 to supervise the administrative machinery of the state, divided Russia into eight provinces to impose the rule of the central government, raised taxes due to militarism, which made unfortunate peasants opposed in his rule, demanded that all members of the landholding class serve in either civil or military offices, instituted the Table of Ranks to create opportunities for non-nobles to become nobles by serving the state, adopted mercantilistic policies, created state control over the Russian Orthodox Church by creating the Holy Synod, introduced Western culture into Russia, was successful in the Great Northern War (1701-1721) with the acquisitions of Estonia and Latvia, and constructed the new Russian capital at St. Petersburg in 1703

Suleiman the Magnificent

(r. 1520-1566) sultan who put the Ottomans back on Europe's map after internal problems and the need to consolidate their eastern frontiers made them unsuccessful; advanced up the Danube and seized Belgrade and Hungary, but unsuccessful in seizing Vienna; still held nominal control over the south of the Mediterranean Sea, even after the defeat of the Battle of Lepanto in 1571; had a well-trained bureaucracy of civil servants that continued to administer state affairs very well; his army included the Janissaries, which were composed of Christian boys showing their loyalty to the sultan; could possibly murdered his brothers to avoid challenges to his rule

liberum veto

voting in Polish parliament had to be unanimous for changes to be made; thus, little could be done to systematically strengthen the kingdom; meetings of the Sejm (Polish diet) could be stopped by a single dissenting member, reduced government to virtual chaos; makes Poland a confederation of semi-independent estates of land nobles and a battleground for foreign powers, like Russia and Prussia

Dutch Republic

country that had its "golden age" in the 17th century, and another name for the United Provinces, which held center stage as one of Europe's great powers; underlined the importance of the shift of political and economic power from the Mediterranean basin to the countries on the Atlantic seaboard; gained recognition as the United Provinces of the Netherlands after its revolt in 1581 and gained recognition after the Treaty of Westphalia; an organized confederation of 7 provinces, each having a stadholder who was responsible for leading the army and maintaining order; had an economic decline by 1715 due to wars with France and England and burdens on finances and manpower; successful, though, with Amsterdam as the new financial and commercial capital of Europe with its canals, maritime expertise, turning raw materials into finished goods, and the chief port for the Dutch East India Company and Dutch West India Company; dominant in Calvinism, but split between Dutch Reformed and Arminians

James I of England

(r. 1603-1625) Stuart king who reigned after Elizabeth I's death and started a struggle between the king and Parliament; espoused a divine right of kings, which made Parliament feel alienated about him, which was normal under the Tudors to act on the premise that monarch and Parliament ruled England together as a "balance polity"; refused by Parliament for additional money needed by him to meet the increased cost of government; members of Parliament were composed of many Puritans (English Calvinists who wanted James to eliminate the episcopal system of church organization used in the Anglican Church) and Presbyterians and claimed "No bishop, no king" because the Anglican Church was a major support of the monarchy's authority; dissolves Parliament over issues of taxation and its demands for free speech due to Elizabeth's death, the wars' costs, and the bragging of his wealth

Charles I of England

(r. 1625-1649) son of James I who looked to keep firm control of the Church of England; had tax issues, in which he especially needed for war, which made him against Parliament, who passed the Petition of Right in 1628, which forced the king to not tax without their consent, unreasonable imprisonment, the quartering of soldiers in private houses, and the declaration of martial law in peacetime, but he later ignored these principles because of its limitations on royal power; ruled without Parliament from 1629-1640 and looked to find ways to collect taxes without the Parliament's cooperation, in which he also uses ship money; lives through a "Short Parliament" with a Scottish military revolt when he tried to impose the English Common Book of Prayer on the Scottish Presbyterian Church; lives through a "Long Parliament", which makes the limitations to his rule harsh; started the English Civil War by arresting Puritan M.P.s; the first European king to be executed by his subjects in 1649

English Civil War

(1642-1660) conflict that starts with Charles I attempting to arrest Puritan M.P.s, but a crowd came to its rescue; included the Parliament's creation of the New Model Army, which was composed primarily of Independents, including the famous Oliver Cromwell, where they defeat the Cavaliers and make Charles I surrender to the Scots in 1646; had a second fight when Charles took advantage of the division between parliamentary forces and the Presbyterians' want to disband the army and restore Charles I with a Presbyterian state church, where in the Pride's Purge, they capture Charles I, and leads to a "Rump Parliament", which removed non-Puritans from Parliament and the beheading of Charles I for treason; continued when new political and religious sects with radical minds, like the Levellers, emerged in the country, which made Cromwell frustrated, the difficulties of the "Rump", which leads to the Interregnum and the creation of the Commonwealth, and ends with the Restoration

Oliver Cromwell

(1599-1658) Puritan general and gentleman who refused Parliament's call to disband the army and helped the Roundheads past the Cavaliers in the first phase of the English Civil War, which later divides the Puritans and Presbyterians for the latter to restore Charles I with a Presbyterian state church; gets a decisive win in 1648 with the Pride's Purge, which creates a "Rump Parliament", removing any non-Puritans from Parliament; lived through the creation of the Commonwealth and the Interregnum (rule with no king) in 1649, and in that same year, takes power in England by becoming Lord Protector (a Puritan dictatorship) due to the frustration of new political and religious sects emerging and working with the "Rump Parliament"; destroyed both king and Parliament, whether if he was righteous and God-like or not; dissolved Parliament and divided England into 11 regions led by a major general; levied a land tax on Royalists and resorted to military force to maintain the Independents' rule

English Restoration

(1660-1688) the event that put the Stuarts under Charles II back on the throne when Cromwell's son ruled ineffectively; still forced Charles II to follow Parliament's power it had won during the English Civil War; made the Anglican Church the official church of England in 1661, which forced Catholics and Puritan Dissenters to conform to the Anglican Church, but Charles granted religious toleration; suspicious when Charles passed the Declaration of Indulgence, suspending laws that Parliament had passed against Catholics and Puritans, which makes Parliament to annul that act; passed the Test Act (1673), stating that only Anglicans could hold military and civil offices, which created the political parties of the Whigs (a pro-Parliament party) and Tories (a pro-monarch party); the creation of crisis happened after the accession of James II, an open Catholic who put Catholics at the high ranks in important jobs and issued a new Declaration of Indulgence, which starts the Glorious Revolution

William II and Mary

(1650-1702) and (1662-1694) monarchs who reigned after the abdication of James II due to his favoritism on Catholicism and their invitation by seven prominent English noblemen to invade England; confirmed as monarchs with the Revolution Settlement during the Glorious Revolution; accepted the English Bill of Rights in 1689 because of the Convention Parliament conclusion of James trying to subvert the constitution "by breaking the original contract between king and people" and made himself king when the throne was empty, which the document became the most evidential indication for constitutionalism in Europe

Glorious Revolution

(1688-1689) an un-Democratic and bloodless revolt that started with the abdication of James II and the huger specter of a Catholic hereditary monarchy, which also saw its issue of over who would be monarch; included the Revolution Settlement, declaring William II and Mary as monarchs, where they both passed the English Bill of Rights in 1689, which made the government of England constitutionalist; included the Toleration Act of 1689 granting Puritan Dissenters the right of free public worship, but didn't mean complete religious toleration; a 17th-century struggle between king and Parliament due to the fact that Parliament deposed one king and established another and demolished the idea of a divine-right monarchy, but they didn't have complete control of the government, since their power remained in the hands of the nobility and gentry, so the majority of English people also didn't have a say in political affairs of state

English Bill of Rights

(1689) a declaration of rights that were accepted by William II and Mary when they took the throne, which affirmed Parliament's right to make laws and levy taxes and made it impossible for kings to oppose or do without Parliament by specifying that standing armies could be created in peacetime without Parliament's consent, and also made sure that both election of members and debates in Parliament to be free and for the king to not interfere; other provisions include the rights of citizens to petition, bear arms (not Catholics), and not to be subject to excessive bail, which would later influence the creation of the U.S. Constitution in 1787; didn't settle the religious questions that had played a major role in England's troubles in the 17th century, but it became the hallmark for constitutionalism in Europe

Thomas Hobbes

(1588-1679) English philosopher who justified an absolute monarchy and wrote "Leviathan" in 1651; explained that human life was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" before society was organized; the creator of the "social contract" idea, claiming that a government is placed to control and suppress these ruthless and evil humans that couldn't live together without conflict; also created the fact that political sovereignty was put into the hands from the people who transfer it to the monarchy by indirect contract

John Locke

(1632-1704) English philosopher who had a different view of the "social contract" from Thomas Hobbes and argued against the absolute rule of one man, meaning he defended the Glorious Revolution and the idea of constitutionalism in England; claimed that humans lived in a state of equality and freedom rather than in conflict and stated that a government is created to protect a human's natural rights of life, liberty, and property in his "Two Treatises of Government" in 1690, which later influences Thomas Jefferson to create the Declaration of Independence in 1776

Mannerism

a 16th-century artistic movement in Europe that deliberately broke down the High Renaissance principles of balance, harmony, and moderation; painters, like El Greco, deliberately distorted the rules of proportion by portraying elongated figures that gave a sense of suffering and a strong emotional atmosphere filled with anxiety and confusion, which was a way to reflect the religious wars and the growth of absolutism; spread from Italy throughout Europe

Baroque art

an artistic movement of the 17th-century in Europe that used dramatic effects to arouse the emotions and reflected the search for power that was a large part of the 17th-century ethos; started and embraced in the Catholic Reformation, which reflected the glory and power of the Catholic Church; reflected absolutism, as well; especially used at the Catholic courts of the Habsburg in Madrid, Vienna, Prague, and Brussels; included artists like Peter Paul Rubens, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Diego Velázquez who looked to bring together the Classical ideals of Renaissance art with the spiritual feelings of the 16th century and heighten emotional intensity and created a sensuously real portrayal of physical ecstasy

William Shakespeare

(1564-1616) English poet and playwright who was the most famous dramatist during the Elizabethan era, the greatest age of English literature; became a playwright due to the potential to please the unique and different Elizabethan audiences because they were addicted to theater; a "complete man of the theater" for also being an actor and shareholder in the chief company of the theme, the Lord Chamberlain's Company, which played in theaters as diverse as the Globe (a circular unroofed structure holding 300 spectators) and the Blackfriars; a universal genius who was a master of the English language (influenced the addition of new words people use today) and had an incredible insight into human psychology, which influences poets and musical artists like Taylor Swift today; exhibited a remarkable understanding of the human condition with his poems, tragedies, and comedies