2nd 9 weeks Terms B

Renaissance

period from 1300s-1600s in which Europeans emphasized art, classical history, creativity, education, and innovation; challenged many medieval European ideas and helped begin the Early Modern Period.

humanism

Belief that people should focus on their powers of reason to explain the world, not only religion, and that people can fully understand everything in nature; based on Classical Greek ideals.

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 in place of Catholic sacraments for gaining salvation; rejected papal authority.

indulgence

Catholic Church’s practice of forgiving someone’s sins or decreasing punishment so that person spends less time in purgatory before going to heaven.

predestination

Protestant Christian belief that god already knows if a person will be “saved” (go to heaven) before he/she is born, so a person cannot do good works to make up for sins

Anglicanism

Protestant religion based in England that made the English monarch the head of the Church; kept traditions from the Catholic Church but developed new interpretations and became more protestant over time.

Puritan

Protestant Christian who wanted to reform the Church of England (Anglican Church) to remove Catholic influences; emphasized education to read the Bible and personal morality and relationship with god.

Catholic Counter Reformation

religious movement to make changes to the Catholic Church in response to the Protestant Reformation; attempted to end practices like simony and priests having children.

Spanish Inquisition

attempt to remove challenges to the Catholic Church from Spain; investigated and punished people accused of having different religious views (Jewish or non-Catholics).

Jesuit

branch of Catholic priests dedicated to education, missions to convert people to Catholicism, scholarship, and defending the Catholic Church; focused on spreading Catholicism and preventing the spread of protestant religions.

95 Theses

document written by Martin Luther, a German priest, who challenged specific practices and traditions of the Catholic Church, including simony and selling indulgences; one of the documents that began the Protestant Reformation.

sacrament

religious ceremony that represents an important event in life/religion; Catholics believe there are seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, Holy Communion, marriage, penance, becoming a priest, and last rights) but Protestants only agree on two (baptism and communion).

Edict of Nantes

1598 decision by the French King Henry IV to give more religious freedoms to Protestants living in the Catholic country; Protestants were allowed to inherit land, attend schools, and receive care in hospitals without being denied because of their religion.

intendant

part of the French bureaucracy; represented the king in specific parts of the kingdom; appointed by the king and had power to supervise/check on other government officials and became more powerful than many local leaders/aristocrats

East India Companies

British, French, and Dutch trading companies that obtained government monopolies of trade to India and Asia; acted independently in their regions by creating their own alliances, treaties, and governments to promote and control trade.

Columbian Exchange

movement of food, animals, ideas and people from the New World to the Old World and vice versa; resulted in population growth in the “Old World” because of better nutrition; major effect in the Americas was the introduction of European diseases and deaths of Native Americans.

mercantilism

economic system in which colonies support the Mother Country by producing raw materials and selling them to the European country, which uses then to make manufactured goods they sell to the colonists; the goal is to accumulate as much gold and silver as possible.

indentured servitude

system in which a farmer paid for someone to travel to the Americas in exchange for that individual working on the farm for a certain amount of time.

chattel slavery

system of considering slavery as a condition that is inherited from parents (usually mother) instead of as a punishment for a crime, debt, or capture in war; fewer opportunities to gain freedom and more restrictions and limits on freedom.

casta system

Spanish class system developed in New Spain that placed peninsulares (people born in Europe) at the highest positions with the most benefits and control of the government, criollos (people with European parents born in the colonies) next with some opportunities for political and economic control, mestizos in the middle (parents European and indigenous) with fewer rights, and other groups of multiple ethnicities at the bottom of society.

encomienda system

grants of land and indigenous laborers given to Spanish conquerors and settlers in Latin America; based on system of manorialism and established a system in which Europeans were able to benefit the most economically by forcing indigenous people to work for them (focus on mining) in exchange for food, protection, shelter, and becoming Christian.

hacienda system

plantation system developed in New Spain because of increased population of colonists and deaths of enslaved indigenous people; Spanish colonists given land to farm and raise cattle to sell and allowed to use coerced labor based on workers owing money to the landowners and working it off (rarely happened)

African Diaspora

forced removal of African people (larger percentage of men than women) to other parts of the world as forced labor; largest populations in South America, Europe, and Asia.

Bartolomé de las Casas

Dominican friar who supported peaceful conversion of the Native American population; opposed forced labor and advocated for more rights for indigenous peoples.

Moctezuma II

 last independent Aztec ruler; killed during Cortés' conquest.

galleons

large, heavily armed ships used to carry silver from New World colonies to Spain and East Asia (to buy goods).