European History Review Flashcards

A list of flashcards with questions and answers that review the key concepts from the lecture notes.

What was the main intellectual component of the Renaissance, and who was considered its father?

Humanism, and Francesco Petrarch

What did humanists believe about human nature and achievements?

They believed that human nature and achievements, evident in the classics, were worthy of admiration and contemplation.

What type of educational curriculum did humanists advocate for, and what was its goal?

A liberal arts curriculum focused on the study of classical history, philosophy, and literature, with the goal of producing individuals fit for civic leadership positions.

How did the development of the printing press affect the Catholic Church's control over information?

It weakened the Catholic Church’s control over information and promoted secularism.

What concept did Pico della Mirandola assert in his Oration on the Dignity of Man?

Humans were at the center of divine creation because of their unique gift of free will.

What was the Avignon Schism and who commissioned art to rebuild the Vatican's prestige after it?

A period in which bishops in both Rome and Avignon claimed to be the true pope. The papacy commissioned art.

Which ancient philosophers were featured in Raphael's The School of Athens, and what did they represent?

Plato (philosopher-led republic) and Aristotle (science and reasoning).

According to Machiavelli's The Prince, what qualities should a leader cultivate?

Leaders should learn from the shrewd and ruthless tactics of Roman emperors and should be feared rather than loved or hated.

What was Baldassare Castiglione's The Courtier about?

It became a manual of proper behavior for upper-class men and women, which also influenced the separate spheres model of gender inequality.

What was the main focus of the Northern Renaissance, and how did it differ from the Italian Renaissance?

The Northern Renaissance retained a more religious focus, which resulted in more human-centered naturalism.

What did Ferdinand and Isabella agree to in return for the Pope's allowance of them to appoint every church official in Spain?

To make Catholicism the national religion of Spain.

What was the significance of the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1492?

Spain and Portugal made an agreement through the Catholic Church over who can claim which areas in the New World.

What was the main factor that contributed to the Spanish victory over the Aztec and Inca empires?

The greatest factor contributing to European success was the Columbian Exchange, which spread European diseases.

What corrupt practices of the Catholic Church angered 16th-century Europeans?

Simony, nepotism, pluralism/absenteeism, and the selling of indulgences.

What were Martin Luther's key theological beliefs?

Salvation is initiated by God, authority is rested in the Bible alone, and the Church should not be a hierarchical clerical institution.

What was the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 and what did it establish?

An agreement between Charles V and the German Protestant princes that allowed each territory in the Holy Roman Empire to decide whether it was Catholic or Protestant.

What reforms did the Catholic Church undertake during the Catholic Reformation?

Internal reform, removing corrupt policies, and establishing new religious orders such as the Jesuits.

What was the purpose of the Council of Trent?

To address what reforms had to be made in the Church and lay a solid basis for the spiritual renewal of the Catholic Church and its faith, organization, and practice.

What was the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre?

An event in 1572 where thousands of Protestants were killed by Catholic mobs.

What was the Edict of Nantes and who issued it?

A decree that allowed Huguenots the right to worship in 150 traditionally Protestant towns throughout France, issued by Henry IV.

What role did Cardinal Richelieu play in French politics?

He became the first minister of France on behalf of Henry’s young son, Louis XIII, and sought to strengthen royal control and weaken the Habsburgs.

What was the Fronde and what caused it?

A series of uprisings from 1648-1653 resulting from Cardinal Jules Mazarin's failure to meet the costs of the Thirty Years' War.

What was the Edict of Fountainbleu, and what was its impact?

Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, causing 200,000 Protestants to flee from France.

What were the terms of the Peace of Utrecht?

It allowed Louis’s Bourbon grandson Philip to remain king of Spain on the understanding that the French and Spanish crowns would never be united.

What were the conflicting views on religion held by kings James I and Charles I and groups such as the Puritans and Separatists?

James I and Charles I wanted religious uniformity (everyone has to belong to the Church of England), while the Calvinist groups Puritans and Separatists wanted to “purify” and “separate from” the Catholic Church respectively.

Who were the Cavaliers and Roundheads in the English Civil War?

The Cavaliers supported the king, while the Roundheads (which included Oliver Cromwell) supported Parliament.

Nicolaus Copernicus is known for what theory?

Heliocentrism

What is the law of universal gravitation?

All objects are attracted to one another and the force of attraction is proportional to the object’s quantity of matter and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

What did the thinkers of the Enlightenment believe in?

Progress, freedom of thought and expression, education of the masses (including women), liberty to all men (battle against absolutism), and individualism.

What did John Locke write in The Social Contract?

The government is created to protect its citizens’ natural rights of life, liberty, property. He believed that the “divine right of kings” was illegitimate.

What agreement did Austria and France make during the 7 Years War

France aided Austria in winning back Silesia from the Prussians

What was the main outcome of France's loss in the Seven Years War?

Gave all of its North American colonies to England, and the balance of power shifted toward Britain.

What did the Declaration of the Rights of the Woman attack?

Rousseau’s homemaker view of women.

What followed the violence during the Reign of Terror?

The Thermidorian Reaction

What revolutionary ideas was Napoleon responsible for?

Such as the abolishment of serfdom, but at heart he was still a military dictator.

What was Austria and Prussia's role in Napoleon's defeat?

Austria and Prussia abandoned Napoleon and joined Russia and Great Britain in the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814.

What did Meternich believe?

He wanted stability within and between states, traditional institutions and aristocracy

What triggered protests from urban laborers and radical intellectuals during the 1800s?

The 181 Corn Laws placing high tarrifs on imported grain

What did Louis Pasteur advance?

His germ theory and pasteurization significantly advanced medicine in Europe

What did Marx claim as the engine of history?'

Class struggle over economic wealth

What was showcased in the Crystal Palace in 1851?

England’s enormous success in industrializing

What did Italian author Giuseppe Mazzini assert?

Asserted that language, historic traditions, unification based on “harmony and brotherhood,” and divine purpose defined a national people

What did the second Empire establish in 1852

Louis Napoleon elected, later crowne Napoleon III, and established a semi-authoritain regime

What did the Crimean War inform Tsar Alexander II that Russia needed to undergo?

Industrialization and social change

Where was proclaimed as an empire at the end of the Franco-Prussian war?

Hall of Mirrors in Versailles

What concept described the Europeans Fascination with Non-Western people?

Orientalism

Define the Schelieffen plan.

which planned for German forces to march through neutral Belgium, quickly defeat France, and turn and defeat Russia, was disintegrated when Belgium fought against the invading German forces.

What did US president Woodrow Wilson call for?

open diplomacy, a reduction in armaments, freedom of commerce and trade, national self-determination, and the establishment of the League of Nations.

What was The Treaty of Versailles?

Treaty of Versailles was a part of a larger series of treaties known as the Peace of Paris. It stripped Germany of its colonies, imposed upon it a massive penalty for warmongering, and forbade Germany from rebuilding its army to larger than 100,000 men.

Describe what kind of art, writing, and philosophy was prevelant in the early 1900s.

Impressionism, post-Impressionism, Expressionism, Dadaism,stream of consiousness writing, nihilism, and existentialism.

Decribe Nazi Germany's view's on women

outlawed abortion, discouraged women from holding jobs or obtaining higer education, and glorified domesticity and motherhood.

What was the Atlantic Charter?

It went over the Allies’s goals for peace, which included self-determination for nations and economic and social international cooperation