AP European History Exam Notes: Renaissance to Contemporary Europe

The Italian Renaissance

  • The Renaissance, meaning "rebirth," was a European movement rooted in rediscovering classical texts from Ancient Greece and Rome.
  • It began in Italy with the elites, and Petrarch is considered "The Father of the Renaissance" for developing humanism.
  • Humanism focused on the unlimited potential of human beings as an end in themselves.
  • Philology, the study of language development, helped Lorenzo Valla identify Church document forgeries, challenging the Church's authority.
  • Renaissance thinkers emphasized human potential, supporting secularism and individualism.
  • The printing press facilitated the rapid spread of humanist ideas.
  • Civic humanism applied humanistic principles to politics and economics.
  • Machiavelli's "The Prince" advocated maintaining power at all costs, even through brutality or kindness, marking a shift from virtue-based rule.

Renaissance Art

  • Renaissance art expanded from religious themes to include personal, classical, and political subjects.
  • Wealthy families like the Medici family patronized artists, emphasizing naturalism and geometric perspective.
  • Notable examples include Leonardo da Vinci’s "The Last Supper," Michelangelo’s "David," and Raphael’s "The School of Athens."
  • Women were encouraged to read the classics but not expected to be artists or writers.

The Northern Renaissance

  • The printing press enabled the spread of the Italian Renaissance to Northern Europe, with an emphasis shifting to religious and Christian frameworks.
  • Northern Renaissance art focused on ordinary objects and people, maintaining a naturalistic style.
  • Thinkers sought a return to simpler Christianity, blending Christianity and humanism into Christian Humanism.
  • Christian Humanism emphasized societal reform through religious enthusiasm and led to an impulse for reform.
  • Erasmus, a Christian humanist, critiqued corruption in institutions and hierarchies, advocating for education in classics and the Bible for societal reform.

The Printing Press

  • Johannes Gutenberg's printing press used movable type, enabling mass production of books and increasing literacy rates.
  • The technology disseminated ideas rapidly and cheaply, leading to the spread of Renaissance and classical texts.
  • Increased demand for vernacular literature promoted national cultures.

The Rise of New Monarchs

  • New monarchs aimed to consolidate power by taking it from nobles and the Church.
  • Methods included top-down religious reform, such as Henry VIII's creation of the Church of England.
  • The Treason Act criminalized not recognizing the Church of England.
  • Bureaucratic power was extended through taxation systems.
  • The Peace of Augsburg (1555) allowed princes to determine the religion of their territories.
  • Commercial and professional groups gained political power through banking, exemplified by the Medici and Fuggers families.
  • New concepts of a secular state emerged, diminishing the political influence of the Church.

European Exploration and Empire-Building

  • Motivations for European expansion were gold, god, and glory.
  • Mercantilism aimed to increase national wealth by building gold and silver reserves through a favorable balance of trade.
  • The Catholic Church sought to spread Christianity, with Jesuits leading missionary efforts.
  • European states competed for power, establishing maritime empires with new technologies.
  • Advancements included cartography, the caravel, and navigational instruments like the magnetic compass and astrolabe.

Rival Empires and the Treaty of Tordesillas

  • Portugal focused on sea trade, establishing a trading post empire around Africa.
  • Spain discovered the Americas, leading to conflicts with Portugal.
  • The Treaty of Tordesillas drew a Line of Demarcation, dividing territories between Spain and Portugal to calm tensions.

The Columbian Exchange

  • The Columbian Exchange resulted in the transfer of goods, plants, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the New World.
  • The Americas gained smallpox, rice, and wheat.
  • Europe gained maize, tomatoes, potatoes, cacao, and precious metals.
  • This exchange shifted economic power to Atlantic states and facilitated the transition from feudalism to early capitalism.

The African Slave Trade

  • The plantation economy in the Americas led to a demand for enslaved labor.
  • Africans were targeted due to their unfamiliarity with the land and existing contact with Europeans.
  • The economic incentive to maximize the number of enslaved Africans resulted in brutal conditions during the Middle Passage.

The Commercial Revolution

  • The shift from a trading economy to a money economy led to the rise of banks, such as the Bank of Amsterdam (1609).
  • Silver from the Cerro Rico mountain caused the Price Revolution, triggering inflation.
  • Landowners shifted from subsistence farming to generate profit, leading to the Enclosure Movement.
  • A new economic elite emerged, exemplified by France’s Nobles of the Robe.
  • Peasants moved to urban areas, leading to urban poverty and strain on city resources.

Causes of the Protestant Reformation

  • The Church was entangled in political matters and seen as corrupt, with practices like simony and indulgences.
  • Martin Luther challenged these practices, emphasizing salvation as a gift from God, the priesthood of all believers, and the Bible as the ultimate authority (Sola Scriptura).
  • His 95 Theses, spread by the printing press, sparked the Protestant Reformation.

Reformation Spreads

  • John Calvin systematized Protestant doctrine, emphasizing predestination.
  • Calvinism thrived in economically advancing Atlantic states like Geneva and Amsterdam.
  • Anabaptists, radical Protestants, advocated adult baptism and separation of church and state.

Reformation & State

  • The Protestant Reformation challenged both church and state authority.
  • The Church of England originated from Henry VIII's desire for a divorce and remained mostly Catholic in practice, but Elizabeth the 1st and the Puritans shifted it towards Calvinistic Calvinists, causing conflict with monarchs and eventually leading to the English Civil War.

Religious Wars in France

  • France, primarily Catholic, experienced the spread of Protestantism (Huguenots).
  • The Massacre of Vassy (1562) and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572) led to ongoing conflict.
  • Henry of Navarre, a Calvinist who later converted to Catholicism, ended the religious wars with the Edict of Nantes, granting religious toleration.

Religious Wars in Spain

  • Under Habsburg rule, Spain aimed to maintain Catholic unity.
  • Philip II confronted the Ottoman Empire and opposed the fracturing of Christianity.
  • The Dutch Rebellion and the English navy's strength led to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, increasing Protestantism.

The Thirty Years' War

  • The Thirty Years’ War began as a localized conflict in Bohemia between Catholics and Protestants over the Peace of Augsburg.
  • Four phases shifted from religious to political motivations.
  • The Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended religious wars, included Calvinism in the Peace of Augsburg, weakened the Holy Roman Empire, and transitioned the reason for war from religion to balance of power.

The Catholic Counter-Reformation

  • The Catholic Church addressed complaints but reaffirmed traditional principles.
  • The Jesuit Order was formed to educate Catholics and root out heresy.
  • The Council of Trent reaffirmed salvation through faith and work, seven sacraments, and the importance of church dogma.
  • This council resulted in the permanent division between Catholics and Protestants.

Society in the 16th Century

  • Social hierarchies were based on class, religion, and gender.
  • Merchant elites experienced social mobility through wealth.
  • Catholicism remained dominant despite regions of religious tolerance, such as Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the Peace of Augsburg.
  • European societies were largely patriarchal, with more rigid structures in the upper classes.

State Regulation & Witchcraft Craze

  • City governments created laws to regulate public morals, previously managed by the Church.
  • Protestant states outlawed prostitution and restricted Carnival excesses.
  • Public punishments were enforced to maintain order.
  • Witchcraft beliefs persisted, leading to the persecution and execution of thousands, largely women, accused of being in league with the devil.

Absolutism

  • Defined: process by which political power was transferred away from the nobility and the church and toward the monarchy.
  • James the 1st believed in divine right of kings and parliments reistent fights with james led to the Egnlsi civil war
  • How Louis the 14th implemented absolutism ( France)
  • Built the palace of versaillsi to keep and eye and make nobility fight for favor.
  • Revoked the edict of nantes
  • Westernization: Patronized philosophes (Enlightenment thinkers) and artists.
    Limited religious toleration and outlawed torture.
    Expanded Russian territories, most notably through the partition of Poland