AP European History Notes

The Italian Renaissance

The Renaissance was a revival of interest in classical texts from ancient Greece and Rome.
It marked a shift toward a more secular and individualistic way of thinking.
Renaissance education was defined by humanism, which emphasized the study of classical history and literature as the foundation for education.
Civic humanism, as seen in the writings of Machiavelli and Castiglione, prepared young men for careers in public service.
Increased trade and advancements in banking and bookkeeping created wealth.
New commercial elites, such as the Medici, became patrons of the great Renaissance artists.
Francesco Petrarca, known as Petrarch, was a fourteenth-century Italian poet who developed an interest in classical text from ancient Rome.
Petrarch journeyed through Italy in search of lost classical texts and recovered many writings of the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero.
Petrarch is known as the "Father of Humanism" for his role in reviving scholarly interest in classical studies.

Renaissance Art

Renaissance art focused on naturalistic portrayals of human subjects in imitation of the classical art of ancient Greece and Rome.
Emphasis on balance, the use of linear perspective to give a three-dimensional appearance, and bright colors.
Scenes from classical literature were favorite subjects, showing the influence of humanistic studies.
Raphael's painting, The School of Athens, depicts Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle.

The Northern Renaissance

Following the invention of the printing press, interest in humanistic studies spread to Northern Europe.
Northern Renaissance writers, such as Erasmus and Thomas More, began producing their own printed works that were inspired by classical authors.
Northern Renaissance writers were heavily influenced by Christian humanism, focusing more on Christian principles and social reform.
Italian Renaissance authors, were more individualistic and secular in their approach.
Erasmus of Rotterdam, a Dutch humanist scholar, was a proponent of Christian humanism.
In his book, The Praise of Folly, Erasmus used the Gospels to criticize Catholic Church practices, such as the wealth of the bishops.
Erasmus advocated for social reform using classical texts.

Absolutism

Louis XIV of France ascended to the throne at a young age, facing plots from nobles during the Fronde.
Louis XIV limited the power of the nobility by moving the capital to Versailles, selling titles, and ensuring the military answered directly to the king.
He undermined the power of the nobility by making political and social privileges dependent on the will of the king.
Other European monarchs, especially in Prussia and Russia, followed the French example and consolidated power as absolute monarchs.
These rulers justified their power by divine right, arguing that any attempt to limit their power was a challenge against God.

Dutch Golden Age Painting

The art of the Dutch Golden Age was dominated by genre paintings focused on depictions of real-life scenes or illustrations of Dutch adages and moral lessons.
Dutch Golden Age painters often depicted individual components realistically but combined the different elements to make a scene that could not have reflected an actual moment.
The combination of naturalism and moralizing is exemplified by Jan Steen's painting, The World Turned Upside, which provides a moralistic treatment on the danger of wealth using realistic portrayals of a Dutch home and the material goods of a wealthy Dutch family.

Constitutionalism

Charles I of England attempted to begin his reign in 1625 as an absolute monarch, leading to conflict with Parliament, supported by the gentry and religious dissenters like the Puritans and the English Calvinists.
John Locke's ideas of a social contract between the people and the government were popular among the Parliamentarians.
The conflicts escalated into the English Civil War.
William III and Mary II in the Netherlands were invited to rule as joint monarchs in the Glorious Revolution.
They signed a Bill of Rights that limited the power of the monarchs by establishing the Parliament as the governing body of England.
The Parliament was not subject to undue influence by the monarchy.

The Catholic Reformation

The Protestant Reformation prompted the Catholic Church to begin an internal process of reform that culminated in the Council of Trent.
The Catholic Reformation, also called the Counter-Reformation, implemented new practices to curb the worst excesses of the medieval church, while reaffirming its theological interpretation of scripture.
Influenced by the humanist movement, the Church began to require a higher level of literacy among priests.
The Church placed limits on the sale of indulgences, eliminated the absenteeism of medieval bishops, and stopped the sale of church offices.
The Catholic Church did not fundamentally alter its interpretation of Christian doctrine.
It rejected Luther's idea of salvation by faith alone, reaffirming its doctrinal position that salvation was achieved through a combination of faith and good works.
It reaffirmed the importance of the church hierarchy, especially the ultimate authority of the Pope.
The Jesuit order, founded by Ignatius of Loyola, was developed to support the Catholic Church in spiritual warfare against the Protestant reformers.

Reformation Society

The Reformation challenged existing norms, leading to a broader reorganization of society.
Both the Reformation and the Renaissance had challenged women's roles in the family, church, and society.
Martin Luther married Katherine Von Bora, providing a model for a Protestant family in which the men and women engaged in separate, but complementary tasks, in order to serve God.
Some radical reformers, such as the Quakers, argued that women should be ordained and occupy positions of religious authorities.
The Reformation challenged the Catholic hierarchy and shifted the task of regulating public morals from Church to state.
Many cities developed policies regarding prostitution, begging, public drunkenness, and other offenses that were considered immoral.
Offenders were punished through rituals of public humiliation, including the use of stocks, public whipping, or branding.

The Reformation

The Reformation was inspired by a desire to rectify the problems in the late medieval Catholic Church and to reinterpret Christian doctrines.
The Catholic Church was criticized for its accumulation of wealth from practices such as simony, which was the purchase of church offices, and the sale of indulgences, which were papal pardons intended to reduce or even eliminate punishment in the afterlife for sins committed while alive.
Martin Luther was a sixteenth-century Augustinian monk who challenged the Catholic Church, beginning with The 95 Theses, which were a list of reasons why indulgences should not be sold.
He disputed the doctrines restricting ordinary people's access to scripture or to God.
He developed the idea of sola scriptura, which means "only scripture", arguing that people only needed the Bible, not Catholic religious figures or practices.

Baroque Art

Baroque art, which used a highly ornate and extravagant style, was encouraged by the Catholic Church to oppose the austerity of Protestant art and architecture.
Baroque art placed great emphasis on grandeur, sharp contrasts, and detail to inspire an emotional response of awe and religious devotion.
Baroque artists mostly painted religious subjects, contrasting with the radical reformation's support of iconoclasm.
The influence of emotion and the desire to depict religious figures is evident in Bernini's The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, which dramatizes St. Teresa's account of a highly emotional visit from an angel.

Wars of Religion

Interest in reforming the Catholic Church spread rapidly due to the printing press.
John Calvin wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion, which rejected Luther's approach of incremental reform in favor of an entirely new system of systematic theology.
His approach gained followers among the Huguenots in France, the separatists in England, the Presbyterians in Scotland, and most of the inhabitants of the Netherlands.
The conflict between Reformers and the followers of the Catholic Church led to armed conflict.
In France, a dynastic power struggle among noble families with different religious allegiances led to the French Wars of Religion.
During the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, Catholic mobs killed thousands of Protestants.
The conflict ended when Henry IV of France, a former Huguenot, converted to Catholicism and was crowned king.
He issued the Edict of Nantes, which allowed religious pluralism.

New Monarchies

During the Middle Ages, monarchs were not very powerful and often had to defer to the power of the Church and the nobility.
In the fifteenth century, monarchs in England, France, and Spain began to centralize power by collecting taxes directly and exercising more influence on the religious life of their subjects.
These new monarchs set the stage for absolute monarchies that rule much of Europe two centuries later.
The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella unified the Christian kingdoms of Aragon and Castile in Spain.
They styled themselves as the "Catholic monarchs."
In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella completed the Spanish Reconquista when they conquered Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain.
They financed the war partly through a "crusade tax," which brought more money into the royal treasury.
After conquering Granada, the Catholic monarchs proclaimed that all of their subjects would be Catholic and that Muslims and Jews would be expelled from the country if they refused to convert.
They authorized and supported the Spanish Inquisition partly to make sure that these conversos did not lapse into heresy.
New monarchs gained wealth from centralizing tax collection, they were able to finance voyages of exploration and the development of new navigational technologies.

The Age of Exploration

In the fifteenth century, new navigational technologies, such as the magnetic compass and Mercator projection maps, made it possible for Europeans to sail beyond the Mediterranean Sea and the coastline of Europe.
After the Fall of Constantinople, European monarchs desired to find a nautical trade route to Asia.
The Portuguese sought to sail east around Africa, while Ferdinand and Isabella financed Christopher Columbus' voyage to find a westerly route to the Indies.
Upon discovering the New World, Europeans conquered native populations using new weapons technologies, such as firearms.
The Columbian Exchange is the most important legacy of the Age of Exploration.
Columbus' voyages began a permanent exchange of people, goods, food, animals, ideas, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds.
Europeans introduced livestock in the Americas and returned to Europe with tomatoes, potatoes, and tobacco.
A lack of immunity to European diseases had a devastating effect on native populations.
Spanish and French missionaries spread the Christian religion throughout North and South America.