Key Concepts in Medieval to Enlightenment History and Trade

Local Trade

Exchange of goods within villages and nearby regions; included food, tools, wool, livestock, and handmade goods.

Long-Distance (Global) Trade

Trade connecting Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; focused mainly on luxury goods.

Early Global Trade Networks (500-1300 CE)

Silk Roads, Indian Ocean trade routes, and Trans-Saharan routes linking China, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

Christopher Columbus (1492)

Explorer who initiated contact between Europe and the Americas while sailing for Spain.

Labor Guilds (1300s-1400s)

Organizations that regulated training (apprentice, journeyman, master), wages, prices, and quality of goods.

Textile Centers of Medieval Europe

Florence (Italy), Flanders (Bruges and Ghent), and Milan specialized in textile manufacturing.

Muslim Traders

Dominated Mediterranean and Indian Ocean trade routes during the Middle Ages.

Bubonic Plague / Black Death (1347-1351)

Disease originating in China/East Asia that killed about one-third of Europe's population.

Effects of the Black Death

Labor shortages, peasant revolts, decline of feudalism, economic instability, and weakened Church authority.

Humanism

Renaissance belief emphasizing human potential, classical learning, education, and individual achievement.

Renaissance

Cultural rebirth beginning in Florence, Italy during the 1300s, inspired by Greek and Roman ideas.

Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation

Luther posted the 95 Theses in 1517, criticized indulgences, and taught salvation by faith alone.

John Calvin

Protestant reformer (1530s) who believed in predestination and strict moral discipline.

Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

Queen of England who strengthened Protestantism and led the Church of England.

Huguenots

French Protestants (Calvinists) persecuted in Catholic France, especially during events like the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572).

Scientific Method

Process of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and conclusion developed during the 1600s.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1543)

Proposed the heliocentric theory, placing the sun at the center of the universe.

Galileo Galilei

Supported heliocentrism through telescopic evidence and was tried by the Inquisition in 1633.

Enlightenment

Intellectual movement of the 1600s-1700s emphasizing reason, science, natural rights, and progress.

Philosophes

Enlightenment thinkers who criticized absolutism and promoted reason and freedom.

Thomas Hobbes (1651)

Author of Leviathan; believed humans need strong government to maintain order.

John Locke (1689)

Argued governments exist to protect natural rights: life, liberty, and property.

Montesquieu (1748)

Supported separation of powers and checks and balances.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)

Believed government should reflect the general will of the people through a social contract.

Adam Smith (1776)

Supported laissez-faire capitalism and free markets in The Wealth of Nations.

Paris Salons

1700s social gatherings where Enlightenment ideas were discussed and spread.

Deism

Belief that God created the universe but does not interfere in human affairs.

French Revolution (1789-1799)

Overthrow of absolute monarchy caused by inequality, debt, and Enlightenment ideas.

Three Estates of France

First Estate (clergy, tax-exempt), Second Estate (nobility, privileged), Third Estate (common people who paid most taxes).

Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789)

Third Estate vowed to create a constitution.

Fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789)

Symbolized the collapse of absolute monarchy.

Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789)

Declared equality, liberty, and natural rights for citizens.

National Assembly

Revolutionary body that ended feudalism and wrote a constitution.

Industrial Revolution

Economic transformation beginning in England in the mid-1700s using machines, factories, and new energy sources.

Reasons the Industrial Revolution Began in England

Agricultural Revolution, political stability, natural resources, capital, and geography.

Key Textile Inventions

Flying Shuttle (1733), Spinning Jenny (1764), Water Frame (1769), Spinning Mule (1779), Power Loom (1785).

Steam Power

James Watt's improved steam engine (1769) allowed factories and transportation to expand.

Transportation Advances

Steamboat (1807) and early railroads (1825) improved trade and movement.

Effects of the Industrial Revolution

Urbanization, factory system, child labor, pollution, and rise of capitalism.

Congress of Vienna (1814-1815)

Meeting to restore monarchies and maintain balance of power after Napoleon.

Klemens von Metternich

Austrian leader of the Congress of Vienna who supported conservatism and opposed revolution.

Conservatism

Political ideology favoring tradition, monarchy, and social stability.

Concert of Europe (1815-1848)

Alliance among major European powers to prevent revolutions and preserve balance of power.

Balance of Power

Political principle ensuring no single country dominates Europe.