world cultures midterm

MEDIEVAL EUROPE

Origins of Medieval Period

• Emperor Constantine rebuilt Byzantium → became Constantinople
• Became known as the Byzantine empire   * reached its peak under emperor Justinian, who ruled with complete authority

Characteristics of the Middle Ages

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Causes of split between Eastern and Western churches

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ISLAM

Formation of Islam

• linked to Judaism and Christianity
• Jesus among prophets (Muhammad’s the final prophet)
• Islam - submission of will to Allah
• Muslim - one who has submitted to Islam

Early Leaders

• Muhammad - preached to Meccans; monotheistic message against Paganism (practiced by tribesmen and merchants); received revelations through Gabriel; was the last prophet

Beliefs of Islam

• Pillars and norms   * Shahadah: creed - acknowledge there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Prophet   * Salah: prayer 5 times a day facing Mecca   * Zakat: almsgiving - payment to support poor Muslims   * Hajj: a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime   * Sawm: fasting for one month during Ramadan

Message of the Quran

• Contains sacred word of God as revealed to Muhammad; emphasizes honesty, generosity, and social justice; harsh penalties for crimes like stealing or murder
• people of the book - Muslims profess faith in same God as Jews and Christians; Quran teaches that Islam is final & complete revelation (Torah & Bible have partial revelation)
• Vocabulary terms

Factors contributing to the permanence of Islamic Conquests

• Persia & Byzantine internal weaknesses
• bold and efficient fighting   * mastery of desert warfare   * Bedouin camel & horse cavalry overwhelmed traditional armies
• Arabs welcomed as liberators
• common faith under Islamic rule

Sunni vs. Shiite division

Spread of Islam

• Meccans convert to Islam after Muhammad returns from hajj
• mostly through trade

Islamic Empires

• Four Caliphs   * Abu Bakr - wealthy merchant, Khadija’s father (father-in-law)   * Umar - leading advisor, nominated Abu Bakr   * Uthman - part of the Umayyads, led Meccan clan   * Ali - Muhammad’s cousin, married his daughter Fatima
• Umayyads - descendants of Uthman, first dynastic caliphate, ended with Abbasid Campaign   * Muawiya - until 680, descendants of Mu’awiya after
• Abbasid - continued until 1258, mainly in title only

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THE MIDDLE AGES

Towns

• Trade   * trade guilds - protective organizations formed by artisans and craftspeople (gained voice in government, people viewed themselves as having basic rights, not subject to masters); merchant and craft guilds (controlled, protected, and promoted economic activities by ensuring stable market, including quality and prices; guilds controlled membership and established steps: apprenticeship, journeyman, and master)
• Impacts   * dominated by feudal lords   * lords granted charters (provided safety and independence to peasants)   * towns created to recruit skilled laborers to produce goods for lords and bishops   * social mobility - town growth allowed peasants/serfs to take skills to new urban centers; freedom and profit enabled economic opportunity & rise in social status; peasant/serf migration led lords to provide more favorable terms to keep them; town growth and better terms led to improved life for peasants/serfs (+ greater social mobility)   * merchants possibly rooted in serfdom   * played major role in transition from feudal society     * German provinces - towns under tight control of the princes     * Italian provinces - towns become city-states during the Renaissance

Crusades

• Results in Europe   * First Crusade - crusaders capture Jerusalem in 1099 and divide land along the coast into four Crusader states (County of Edessa, Principality of Antioch, County of Tripoli, Kingdom of Jerusalem)   * Second Crusade - Muslims retake Edessa , Saladin retakes Jerusalem; Europeans fail to retake Edessa   * Third Crusade - led by Richard I of England “The Lion-Hearted”, Philip II of France, and Frederick I “Barbarossa” of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany); Philip II leaves after arguing with Richard about an engagement with Philip’s sister, Frederick I drowns in the Saleph River; Richard & Saladin make peace (Saladin keeps Jerusalem but allows Christians to enter)   * Fourth Crusade - Pope Innocent III attacked many Christian cities with a group of French knights (became excommunicated); nothing achieved in terms of Holy Land

Black Plague

• Causes/results   * causes - carried by fleas on asian black rats; brought to Europe on ships returning from Asia   * spread - enabled by overcrowding in cities and homes; many aristocratic and prosperous families slept in one room/bed (peasants were worse off); poor sanitation (streets filled with garbage, human waste, and dead animal carcasses); people were malnourished prior to the plague (poor health = weaker immune system, caused by poor harvests due to heavy rain so lost 25% of crops); people feared contaminated water (didn’t bathe)   * results - 1/3 of the European population died (most deaths in cities, cities like Florence and other major cities lost 1/2 of their populations); affected town economy (countryside less affected); accelerated economic decline that began in earth 14th century; recovery took 100 years; higher wages due to decrease in workers; increased demand for peasant labor (decline of serfdom); better agricultural production with less workers--mostly sheep herding; clergy died from helping the sick; Jews were blamed for the plague and persecuted; art reflected pessimistic outlook of the time; northern Europe had a morbid fascination with death (shown in art), population didn’t reach pre-plague levels until mid-16th century

Medieval Church

• Problems associated with it that are in need of reform (issues leading to Reformation)

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RENAISSANCE

Medieval vs. Renaissance

• renaissance - rebirth of classical civilization (revival of Ancient Greece and Roman civilization); transition from medieval to modern; cultural awakening; focus on humanism
• Sought to bring Europe out of disorder and disunity
• Placed greater emphasis on individual achievement
• Tried to understand the world with more accuracy
• Italy - Florence, Venice, Milan; some are republics ruled by wealthy merchant class, center of trade and banking; Rome was ruled by the Pope and was part of the Papal states

Artists/writers

• perspective - draw people as they appear in real life; things in the foreground larger than things in the background   * studied anatomy   * flesh, muscle and bone   * use of shadows and light created dimension   * write about people as they appear in real life   * present real people with real human problems in this world
• artists - paintings and sculptures looked like real people; showed human nature including warts and flaws
• writers - portray real people; have high ideals but show how humans fall short; are realistic and critical of human beings; are humorous

Humanism

• philosophy of the Renaissance   * rediscovery of man as an individual   * affirms his ability to improve life through reason rather than submitting blindly to tradition or authority   * believed that education should stimulate creativity   * emphasized the study of various humanities   * grammar, rhetoric, poetry and history
• studied people and life in this world; stressed the importance of human beings; cared about the individual; each person has dignity and worth, and deserves the respect of every other person; purpose of learning is to achieve a happy life; live life to the fullest and welcome new experiences; better yourself in this world, rather than wait for a happy life in heaven

Northern Renaissance

• spread to northern Europe through trade, travel, and printed materials   * trade - Venice was the “big winner” in trade and shippedgoods north over the Alps to the rest of Europe   * travel - artists and scholars moved spread their techniques/ideas   * printed materials - Gutenberg’s printing press made Renaissance works more readily available and widespread

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REFORMATION

Causes

• humanists attack of Catholic Church abuses
• Luther - Catholic church theology brought into question
• printing press - allowed for ideas to be easily spread
• division within the Holy Roman Empire made it impossible to stop ideas

Sale of Indulgences

• indulgences - pardon that lessened the time of punishment faced for sins committed during a person’s lifetime; could be bought with money/gift to the church

Catholicism

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Martin Luther

• Criticisms and beliefs   * abandoned the idea of God as a vengeful deity and came to see Christ as a symbol of hope     * justification boy faith alone - sola fide   * accused by the Catholic Church of heresy   * wrote 95 theses     * Written as a response to Luther’s revulsion of the claims Tetzel and others were making about indulgences, Oct 1517     * Main Points       * Attacked the doctrine of the Treasury of Merit- indulgences could only be used to forgive sins against Church law, cannot be bought or sold       * Pope had no authority over souls in purgatory       * Emphasis on preaching of the Gospel   * address to German nobility

Other Reformations-

• Anabaptists, Calvinism, English Reformation   * Anabaptists - rejected infant baptism   * Calvinism - believes in predestination   * English Reformation     * Led by Henry VIII       * Sought to annul marriage to wife Catherine, only borne a daughter       * Wanted a male heir     * Pope refused to grant annulment       * Henry’s supporters suggested he take over the church         * Ended papal authority in England       * Henry gave church property to nobles to buy their support     * Ended decades later under Elizabeth I       * Middle child of Henry, sought religious compromise “Elizabethan Settlement”

Peace of Augsburg

• After several brief wars, a settlement signed in 1555   * Under this treaty, each prince chose a religion for his province, Catholic or Lutheran     * Many in the North choose Lutheranism     * Many in the South choose Catholicism

Counter-Reformation

• Catholic Church sought to reform Catholic practices and bring back Protestants
• Council of Trent   * called to end corruption and worldliness in the church     * also settle issues of doctrine   * declared that salvation comes through faith and good works

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

Relationship to Renaissance/Humanism

• renaissance allowed more curiosity, investigation, discovery, and modern day knowledge
• people began using experiments and mathematics to understand “mysteries”

Scientific method

• state the problem
• gather info on the problem
• form a hypothesis
• experiment to test hypothesis
• collect, record, analyze data
• draw conclusions
• communicate, share data, answer questions

Inventors/thinkers

• Nicolaus Copernicus’ Heliocentric model - Sun-centered model of the universe and the earth is one of several planets that revolve around the sun
• Tycho Brahe - Provided evidence to support Copernicus’s theory, he set up an astronomical observatory to accumulate data about movements in the sky
• Johannes Kepler - Assistant to Brahe who used his data to calculate the orbits of the planets revolving around the sun, his calculations supported Copernicus
• Galileo Galilei - Assembled an astronomical telescope, he became the first person to see mountains on the moon and asserted that Jupiter’s moons operated exactly how Copernicus said the earth moves around the sun
• Isaac Newton - Invented calculus as a basis for uniformed natural laws and provided mathematics as a basis for explaining all motions
• Paracelsus- looked at the chemical causes behind sickness to treat patients
• Francis Bacon - Along with Descartes, rejected Aristotle’s assumptions and stressed the need for experimentation and observation
• Rene Descartes - Emphasized human reasoning as the best road to understanding, realized that doubt was the only thing he couldn’t question “I think, therefore I am”
• Andreas Vesalius - Published the first accurate and detailed study of human anatomy, provided careful and clear drawings which corrected errors from the past
• William Harvey - Described the circulation of the blood for the first time, he showed how the heart served as a pump to force blood through veins and arteries
• Anton Van Leeuwenhoek - Perfected the single-lens microscope, was the first human to see cells and microorganisms (bacteria), often called the founder of microbiology
• Robert Boyle - Explained all matter was composed of tiny particles and behave in certain ways, showed how temp. & pressure affected gases

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EXPLORATION

• Motivations/Reasons for Explorations   * Europeans remained in Europe for almost a thousand years   * economic motives     * merchants, adventurers, and state officials had high hopes for expanding trade     * also had hopes of finding precious metals     * some wanted to convert indigenous people to Catholic faith   * new sailing technology made voyages possible     * caravel - a small, fast maneuverable ship that had a large cargo hold and usually three masts with lateen sails   * increasing knowledge of wind patterns     * trade winds - winds blowing south and west in the north Atlantic     * westerlies - winds blowing from the west to the east

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ABSOLUTISM

Where kings derived power from

• divine right of kings - provided justification for absolutism by stating that the monarch’s authority came directly from God

Impact in England- kings, changes in power

• Tudors - Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I
• Stuarts - James I, Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, Charles II, James II   * James I, Charles I, Oliver Cromwell all ruled like absolute monarchs

Impact in Spain- kings, changes in power, lands controlled

• Charles V, Philip II (Philip III, Philip IV, Charles II)   * Charles V split empire between Philip II and Ferdinand   * Philip II - Spain, Spanish Netherlands, American colonies   * Ferdinand - Austria, Holy Roman Empire

Interactions between regions including alliances, marriages, religious dynamics

• Mary I and Philip II of Spain

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MAP SECTION

• Be familiar with the regions and their significance to the various topics noted above.  You may use the attached map for reference.

A - France; allied with britain in the dutch revolution which angered spain; 3rd crusade: Philip II goes back after getting into argument; Louis XIV wanted his grandson to take spain after their last ruler, but people didn’t want France and Spain allying due to too much power; Ferdinand

B - Byzantine empire; Constantinople was the capital; orthodox church after the great schism; called Pope Urban II for help which led to crusades; spread of Islam; fought Christians

C - Holy Roman Empire; Peace of Augsburg; Charles V ruled HRE and Spain, gave HRE to Frederick

D - Italy; Rome, Venice, Florence; Renaissance started in Florence; birth of humanism; profited from trade; has the pope; divided into city-states; scientific revolution

E - England; Tudors and Stuarts; english reformation; defended against spanish armada; absolute monarchy —> constitutional monarchy; Parliament; english civil war (roundheads vs cavaliers, roundheads won); english bill of rights; magma carta; exploration to americas and other places