European History Flashcards

Flashcards covering key topics from c.1450-c.1648, including the Renaissance, Reformation, and societal changes.

What is the Feudal System?

A system where peasants received land in return for serving a lord or king, especially during war.

What were the Crusades?

A series of military expeditions in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries.

What was the Black Death?

The bubonic plague pandemic that occurred from 1346-1353.

What are the Middle Ages?

A period in European history from the collapse of Roman civilization to the Renaissance.

Who are Humanists?

Intellectuals who study classical civilizations and texts, focusing on human beings.

Who was Petrarch?

Father of Humanism (1304-1374), who viewed the Middle Ages as a period of darkness.

Who was Cicero?

An accomplished poet, philosopher, rhetorician, and humorist from Rome (106 B.C.E.-43 B.C.E.).

Who was Lorenzo Valla?

He demonstrated Petrarch’s method by disproving the Donation of Constantine.

Who was Marsilio Ficino?

Studied Plato's Greek work and used the idea of platonic love.

Who was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola?

Composed the humanist work “Oration on the Dignity of Man”.

Who was Niccolo Machiavelli?

Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian best known for The Prince.

What is Geometric Perspective?

Using mathematics to help create the appearance of space and distance in two-dimensional settings.

Who was Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici?

Italian banker and politician who established the Medici family as effective rulers of Florence.

Who was Leonardo da Vinci?

Created The Last Supper and Mona Lisa, studied nature, and dissected human bodies.

Who was Andrea Palladio?

An Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture.

Who was Desiderius Erasmus?

Criticized the church in Praise of Folly and emphasized inner faith in Handbook of the Christian Knight.

What did the New Monarchies do?

Established monopolies on tax collection, employed military force, and gained the right to determine the religion of their subjects.

What was the Peace of Augsburg?

An agreement where Germany could choose between Catholicism and Lutheranism.

Who was Ferdinand of Aragon?

King of Aragon who sponsored Christopher Columbus' voyage and unified Spain with Isabella I.

What was the Spanish Inquisition?

Judicial institution that combated heresy in Spain from 1478-1834.

What did advances in navigation, cartography, and military technology do?

Enabled Europeans to establish overseas colonies and empires.

What is Mercantilism?

Trade generates wealth.

What was the Treaty of Tordesillas?

An agreement between Spain and Portugal that created separate spheres of influence.

What was the Columbian Exchange?

The exchanges of new plants, animals, and diseases between Europe and the Americas.

What is monarch’s control of religious institutions

Religious conflicts became a basis for challenging this.

What is the Act of Supremacy in 1534?

The official split between the Church of England came with this.

What was the Elizabethan Settlement?

Religious and political arrangements made for England, a measure of religious tolerance for Puritans.

Who were the Huguenots?

French Calvinists

What was the Concordat of Bologna (1516)?

Granted the Catholic Church authority to collect income from French churches and allowed the King of France to tax the clergy.

Who was involved in the War of the Three Henrys - 1585-1589?

Henry of Guise, Henry of Navarre, and Henry III of Valois.

What did the Edict of Nantes do?

Recognized Catholicism as the official religion of France.

Who was Charles V?

Holy Roman Emperor (1519) as well as King of Spain (1516)

What was the origin of the Thirty Years War 1618-1648?

Began after the King of Bohemia, Matthias died without heirs, so his kingdom became catholic. Bohemians revolted against Catholicism, preferring Calvinism.

Who was Sir Ignatius of Loyola?

Founded the Jesuit society, which acted as missionaries in the Americas and East Asia.

What was the Roman Inquisition?

Introduced in 1542 to stop Catholics from converting to Protestantism

What did the Council of Trent (1543-1563) do?

Established Latin as the Church’s language, created an Index of Prohibited Books, and introduced Clerical Celibacy

When did the English Civil Wars begin?

Began after the death of Elizabeth I of Tudor

What is Absolutism?

A Government in which the King or Queen rules with absolute power

What is Parliament?

An assembly of representatives that makes and enforces laws

What is the Magna Carta?

Issued in June 1215, and declared that the king and his government were not above the law

What was the Restoration (1660)?

Restored Charles II (Charles I’s son) to the throne.

What did the English Bill of Rights do?

Established parliamentary sovereignty

What was the Agricultural Revolution?

Advancements in Agricultural Technology; the Agricultural Revolution raised productivity and increased the food supply

What is Insurance?

a contract that protects valuables from an unexpected incident

What is the Order of Revolutions?

Agricultural → Commercial → Industrial

What is The Act of Abjuration: Union of Utrecht declares independence from Philip II and Spain connected to?

Dutch Golden Age

What came about for European states after the Peace of Westphalia?

After the Peace of Westphalia, the wars of religion nearly ended in European states

What Louis XIV Wars?

Dutch War (1672-1678), Nine Years War, War of Spanish Succession

Who used a lot of money for a lavish lifestyle was when he appointed Jean-Baptiste Colbert?

Louis XIV

After what did France offer full civil equality to Jews?

France soon offered full civil equality to Jews

Who was Francis Bacon?

Used inductive reasoning (empiricism)

Who was Rene Descartes?

Used deductive reasoning (rationalism)

Who was Galileo?

Invented the telescope and discovered new celestial bodies

What book did Newton write?

Principia Mathematica (the law of gravity)

Who was Harvey?

There’s a single system of blood that starts from the heart

What is Empiricism?

Knowledge based on sensory experience

What's John Locke's view?

Humans are given natural rights by God

What did Mary Wollstonecraft write?

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

What did Voltaire (Deist) advocate for?

Advocated for freedom of religion

Who was Denis Diderot (Atheist)?

Believed all human knowledge could be categorized, and published the Encyclopedie

What are Salons?

a room in a private home (decorated nicely) where intellectual conversations occur

What is individual decision making based on?

individuals in an economy make decisions based on self-interest

What's Adam Smith's Nickname?

“Father of Capitalism”

How did it effect the Improvements in Health?

Scientific Revolution → Physicians applied new techniques to treat infectious diseases → Understanding of conditions relating to public health and inoculation

Who was Mary Wortley Montagu?

An English medical pioneer who was responsible for the smallpox inoculation to Western Europe (variolation)

Who was Edward Jenner?

invented an inoculation (vaccine) for smallpox using the cowpox virus to create immunity

What did John Wesley found?

Emphasized the individual relationship with God (personal)

What is Neoclassicism?

An Aesthetic attitude based on the art of Greece, Rome, and ancient times

What is Enlightened Absolutism?

Rulers embraced Enlightenment ideas that could further their goals, but rejected concepts that limited their own political power

Who had an Edict of Tolerance (1787)?

Louis XVI of France

Who was Johann Gottlieb Fichte?

Germany felt that Germany had a duty to lead others because of its outstanding qualities

What was the Crimean War (1853)?

War between France, Britain, and the Ottoman Empire vs. Russia on the Crimean Peninsula

Who was Otto von Bismarck?

Chancellor of Germany, who used realpolitik and force to unify Germany, which threatened the balance of power in Europe

What did the Conservative Party protect the interests of?

Britain's Political Parties

Who was Thomas Hobbes?

Philosopher that believes the only way to avoid civil war is to institute an absolute sovereign power that has the final authority everywhere

What did Different models of political sovereignty do?

Affected different economic relationships among states

What did Commercial Rivalries do?

Influenced diplomacy and warfare among European states

What did the Grand Alliance consist of?

Grand Alliance → England, the Dutch Republic, and Austria

Grand Alliance

After William took the English throne in 1688, he worked to form what?

Why European powers declined?

Had previously dominated political structures?

When did Seven Years' War (1756-1763) began?

Began when Austria tried to regain control of Silesia, which it had lost to Prussia

What is the Diplomatic Revolution?

The French alliance with the Habsburgs is known as this

What was resulted from the French Revolution?

The French Revolution resulted from a combination of long-term social and political causes, as well as Enlightenment ideas, exacerbated by short-term fiscal and economic crises

What was a common economic problem?

Commoners were being taxed heavily to pay the debts of Louis XIV

What are the Three Estates?

1st: Catholic Clergy - 1% of population, 10% of land

What were Bourgeois Grievances?

They lacked the technical status of nobility, which was enjoyed by the first two estates

What bread problems did the revolution have?

Louis XVI removed price controls from bread, leading to high prices, bread shortages, and widespread famine

August 4th, 1789 during French revolution?

The National Assembly abolishes feudalism and the economic privileges of nobility and the clergy

How did Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) effect it?

he Catholic Church was subordinated to the state, peasants didn't have to pay 10% of their income to the church, and bishops and priests had to be elected by the government

Wrote Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen

Olympe de Gouges

Replaced France’s discombobulated collection of regional laws with a national code

Civil Code

What does the Congress of Vienna attempt to restore?

After the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) attempted to restore the what?

What did Romanticism do?

challenged Enlightenment rationality and emphasized that human beings are endowed with both reason and emotion, and that emotion is a valuable and informative part of the human experience

Was there Eastern and Southern Europe lagged in industry?

Eastern and Southern Europe lagged behind in industrial development

Where did the Industrial Revolution began?

Began in Britain

made textile weaving eight times faster

Spinning Jenny

How did they protect their industry design?

Britain made it illegal to take blueprints of British technology out of the country

Second Industrial Revolution

1870-1914: Massive growth in European manufacturing

What caused the long depression?

Railroads

Essentially, tariff all English goods until Germany was on equal footing, and then gradually re-introduce free trade

Essentially, tariff all English goods until Germany was on equal footing, and then gradually re-introduce free trade