AP EURO Semester 1 Study Guide

RENAISSANCE AND EXPLORATION

Italian Renaissance: “Rebirth” (French)

  • What: a time of modern thinking, science, art, and philosophy

    • Worldview: 

      • Medieval Worldview: church was the ultimate authority and the point of life was to get to Heaven

      • New Worldview: humans are capable of living a good and meaningful life; we are created to create

      • Secularism: interest in non-religious aspects of life- focus more on material world than after life

      • More focus on ancient languages and classical texts

      • Humanism: emphasizes human potential, individual achievement, and a virtuous life through education

  • When: 1300-1600

  • Who: applied almost exclusively to upperclassmen- peasants didn’t have time to focus on anything except survival

    • Renaissance Man: accomplished at everything; wit, honor, intellect, creativity, etc. 

    • Medici family: wealthy banking family that unofficially ruled Florence

      • Cosimo de Medici: most powerful Medici

      • Lorenzo the Magnificent: grandson on Cosimo de Medici- great patron of the arts

    • Social Classes

      • Gradi: old money nobles

      • Popolo Grosso: new money

      • Burgher: middle class (often sided with Popolo Grosso in fights)

      • Popolo Minuto: lower of economic classes

    • Signoria: council of 8 members of powerful guilds in Florence

    • Sforza family: Dukes that ruled Milan

    • Ludovico the Moor: a powerful leader who ruled Milan and led to the French invasion

    • Charles VIII: led the French army’s march on and takeover of Italy

    • Ferdinand of Aragon: allied with the Papal States and kicked France out of Spain (started French/Spanish rivalry)

    • Pope Alex VI: most corrupt Pope who assisted France in entering Italy again

    • Petrarch: believed the light returned with the Renaissance

      • “Father of Humanism”

      • Wrote in Italian so people could understand

    • Leonardo Bruni: first to use the term humanism and to study history

    • Nicolo Machiavelli: “the end justifies the means”

      • It doesn’t matter how a leader acts as long as he gets the desired result

      • “It is better to be feared than loved”

    • Baldassare Castiglione

      • Wrote Book of the Courtier

      • Work on social etiquette: the qualities needed to be a gentleman

      • First ‘self help’ book

  • Where: started in Italy, spread north

    • Italian City States

      • Republic of Florence

      • Duchy of Milan

      • Papal States (Rome)

      • Venice

      • Kingdom of Naples

  • Important Events:

    • Ciompi Revolt: uprising of the poor in Florence

      • Reasons: 

        • 1. Feuding between old and new money

        • 2. Social anarchy created with Black Death

        • 3. Collapse of the great houses

      • Effect: created a 4 year reign of the lower classes before Medici family

    • French Invasion of Italy: 

      • French took control of Italy after Ludovico asked for help defending Milan

      • They then marched throughout Italy

    • Formation of the League of Venice: 

      • Spanish alliance with Papal States

    • Decline of City States: relied too much on international corporation to defend against invaders

    • Invention of the Printing Press: invented by Johannes Gutenberg- encouraged the growth of vernacular literature

  • Italian Renaissance Art: 

    • Patronage: wealthy families commissioned art to show their wealth/power and support artists

    • New Themes: 

      • No longer solely religious depiction- resulted in church losing power

      • Embraced the natural world and human emotions

    • New Style: 

      • More realistic

      • More symmetrical

      • Perspective: 3D effects

      • Chiaroscuro: the use of light and dark colors to create the illusion of depth

      • Sculpture: often free standing designed to be seen ‘in round’

      • Architecture: more inspired by Greek/Roman architecture- emphasized simplicity, symmetry, and balance

      • Contrapposto: when a figure stands with more weight on one leg

    • Artists and Artworks: 

      • Donatello: Bronze stature of “David”

        • First Renaissance artist to sculpt nude figures

      • Sandro Botticelli: 

        • “Birth of Venus”

        • “Primavera”

      • Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance man

        • Painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, writer, scientist

        • “Mona Lisa”

        • “Vitruvian Man”

      • “School of Athens”

        • Humanist painting that represents the 4 pillars of human knowledge: law, poetry, philosophy, theology

      • Michelangelo: 

        • “David”: Glorified the human form (possibly his lover)

        • “Pieta”: Shows human emotion

Northern Renaissance

  • What: had more of a religious focus than the Italian Renaissance

    • Christian Humanism: trying to improve and reform the church; emphasized education and the power of human intellect

    • Skepticism

  • When: 1400-1600 (slightly later than Italian Renaissance)

  • Who:

    • Erasmus: most famous Christian humanist

      • Made translations of the Bible

      • Sought to reform the church and not destroy it

    • Thomas Moore: Civic humanist

      • To achieve harmony, people must sacrifice individual rights

    • Michel de Montaigne: skeptic and developed the essay form

    • Shakespeare: greatest English writer whose works reflected the Renaissance

  • Where: Germany, England, Netherlands, Belgium, France, etc.

  • Northern Renaissance Art:

    • Themes: 

      • Focus on everyday people

      • Death

      • More religious depictions

    • Style: 

      • Extremely detailed (especially backgrounds)

      • Darker colors

    • Artists and Artworks: 

      • Jan Van Eyck: oil painter

        • “Ghent Alterpiece”

        • “Arnofini Portrait”

      • Pieter Bruegel: portrayed ordinary people

New Monarchies

  • What: consolidation of power in France, England, and Spain

    • Characteristics

      • Reduced noble power

      • Military revolution- increased monarchial power

      • Reduced political power of clergy

      • Created more efficient bureaucracies

      • Increased political influence of bourgeoisie

      • Increased national debt

    • Opposition to monarchical power: 

      • Nobles: resented their less of power

      • Clergy: saw the pope as their leader, not the king

      • Independent Towns: resisted centralized control

  • When: 1460-1550

  • Who: French, English Spanish

    • Valois Dynasty

      • Louis XI: “Spider King”

        • Created a large royal army used to weaken the nobility and cut into urban independence

        • Doubled France’s Land

        • Removed power from clergy 

      • Francis I

        • Concordat of Bologna: King appointed the bishops, not the Pope

    • Tudor Dynasty

      • Henry VII

        • Star Chamber: nobles were tried without a proper jury

        • Parliament gained power as well: Tudor’s didn’t have full power

    • Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille: unified Spain

      • Their kingdoms were united but still constitutionally separate

        • Reconquista: removing Muslims from Spain

        • Spanish Inquisition: monarchy enforced the national Catholic Church

Commercial Revolution

  • Causes: 

    • Roots in Middle Ages

    • Population growth 

    • Price revolution: long slow upward trend in prices

    • Emerging empires sought to increase their economic power

    • Rise in capitalism

  • Features:

    • Chartered companies: states provided monopolies in certain areas

    • Joint-stock companies: investors pooled resources for a common purpose

    • Stock Markets emerged: in Antwerp

    • First Enclosure Movement: in England- wealthy landowners enclosed their lands to improve sheep herding

    • “Putting out” industries”: emerged in countryside for cloth production

    • New industries: cloth, mining, printing, book trade, shipbuilding, etc. 

    • New consumer goods: sugar, rice, tea

    • Mercantilism: nations sought to have self sufficient economy by exporting more than importing

  • Significance: 

    • Slow transition from rural, isolated, society to towns

      • Serfs improved social position

      • Migration to towns led to higher crime, poverty, unemployment, and sanitation problems

    • Age of exploration occured

    • Bourgeoisie grew in political and economic significance

  • When: 1400-1600

Age of Exploration

  • Causes

    • “God, Glory, Gold”

    • Christian crusades

    • Rise of new nation-states

    • Renaissance search for knowledge

    • Advances in cartography- first world map

    • Tech advances:

      • Compass, ships, astrolobe, etc.

    • Commercial revolution resulted in capitalist overseas investments

    • Religious desire to convert pagan peoples

  • Portugal’s Exploration:

    • Established commercial network along African coast

    • Prince Henry the Navigator: financed many explorations

    • Bartholomew Dias: first to round tip of Africa

    • Vasco di Gama: found sea way to India

    • Amerigo Vespucci: mapped “America”

    • Brazil: Portugal’s major colony (brought in many African slaves)

  • Spain’s Exploration: 

    • Christopher Columbus: reached the Bahamas- thought it was India

    • Bartholomew de las Casas: priest and former conquistador who publicly criticized Columbus’ ruthlessness with the natives

    • Treaty of Tordesillas: divided new world between Spain and Portugal

    • Magellan: first to circumnavigate the globe

    • Conquistadors: conquered the natives in the Americas to claim the land for Spain

      • Cortes: conquered the Aztecs

      • Pizzaro: conquered the Incas

  • Spanish Empire in the New World

    • “Golden Age of Spain”

    • Encomienda System

      • Reduced native slavery, increased international slavery

      • Mercantilist philosophy

      • Colonies existed to benefit their mother country

      • gold/silver mining brought in more wealth than a year of English taxes

      • Exploitation laws were very poorly enforced

    • Mestizos and Creoles

      • Mestizos: the children of Spanish men and native women

      • Creoles: Spanish who were born in the New World to Spanish parents

  • Dutch East India Company: expelled Portuguese from Sri Lanka and Spice Islands and took over trade

  • France’s exploration:

    • Quebec- France’s first settlement in the New World

    • Eventually they lay claim to over half of North America

  • England’s Exploration

    • Jamestown

    • Thousands of Englishmen came very unprepared to North America

The Slave Trade

  • English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch transported thousands of slaves from Africa to their colonies in the New World

  • Triangular Trade

    • Europe → textiles, rum, guns →Africa

    • Africa → slaves → Americas

    • Americas → sugar, tobacco, lumbar, cotton, gold/silver → Europe

  • The Columbian Exchange

    • Exchange of goods across the Atlantic

      • Plants

      • Animals: 

        • To Europe: turkeys

        • To America: pigs, horses, cattle, sheep, chickens

      • Diseases: 

        • To America: smallpox, typhus, malaria, black plague, etc.

      • Foods: 

        • To Europe: pumpkins, squash, corn, tomatoes, chocolate, tobacco

        • To America: wheat, rice, olives, citrus, apples\


AGE OF REFORMATION

Prelude to the Reformation

  • Religious Context: 

    • Corruption in the Catholic Church

      • Renaissance Popes- not spiritual leaders

      • Clergy focused on personal gain

      • Clergy held multiple offices

    • People wanted more meaningful religious expression and certainty of salvation

      • Salvation was ‘mechanized’

      • People sought salvation through veneration of relics and indulgences

    • Rules were from the Catholic church, not the Bible

    • Johann Tetzel: promised purchase of indulgences (freedom from purgatory for money)

      • “When a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs”

  • Social Context: 

    • General dissatisfaction with grand wealth of the Catholic church

    • Middle class were more open minded

    • Kings disputed with church over property taxes, legal jurisdiction, and influence

The Protestant Reformation

  • Features of Protestantism

    • 1. Justification by faith

    • 2. Priesthood of all believers

    • Authority of the scriptures

    • Right and duty of each Christian to interpret scriptures

  • Martin Luther: disagreed with church’s teachings

    • Romans 1:17: “The just shall live by faith”

      • Changed his viewpoint- can’t work your way to heaven

    • 95 Theses

      • 95 problems Martin Luther had with the Catholic church- nailed to the door of his church

        • Considered the birth of the reformation

    • 4 Tracts

      • 1. “Sermon on Good Works”: attacked Catholic Church’s teachings on good works

      • 2. “To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation”: 3 walls that wreck Christianity

        • Superiority of the pope and clergy

        • Papal claim to have exclusive rights to interpret scripture

        • Claim that only a pope can declare law

      • 3. “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church”: people held captive in 3 areas

        • Denial of communion to common people

        • Transubstantiation

        • Mass as means to salvation

      • 4. “Freedom of Christian Man”: humanity is only bound by God

  • Reformation in England

    • Catholic church was vigorous in England, but in order to legitimize his reign and divorce his wife, Henry VIII made himself the Head of the English Church and turned England Protestant

    • He seized all monasteries and gave their land to the upperclass

  • Anabaptists

    • Formed in Switzerland

    • They believed in adult baptism rather than infant baptism

    • anti-government/anti-theocracy

  • John Calvin: Calvinism

    • Most militant and uncompromising of all Protestant sects

    • Believed in Predestination

    • Had a much greater impact on other Protestant sects: Presbyterians, Puritans, Hueguenots

The Catholic Counter Reformation

  • The Council of Trent

    • The Catholic Church attempted to counter the Reformation by establishing official Catholic ideas

      • Established equal validity of scripture and church traditions

      • Salvation is through both good works and faith

      • Transubstantiation was reaffirmed

      • Monasticism, celibacy of the clergy, and Purgatory were reaffirmed

      • Approved the Index of Forbidden Books: anything that went against the Catholic Church or supported Protestantism

      • Abuses of the sale of Indulgances curtailed

    • This brought southern Germany and eastern Europe back to Catholicism

Wars of Religion

  • When: 1560-1648

  • Dutch Revolt

    • William of Orange: led the Netherlands and Flanders against the Spanish Inquisition

    • United Provinces of the Netherlands formed in 1581

  • Spanish Armada

    • Protestant Queen Elizabeth refused Catholic King Philip’s marriage proposal

    • Then she helped the Dutch Revolt

    • He wanted revenge and to turn England Catholic again- he sent the Spanish Armada to attack England

    • Most ships crashed before they arrived because of storms

    • Spanish lost extremely badly

  • French Wars of Religion

    • 9 years from 1562-1589

    • Power struggle between 3 noble families: Bourbons, Valois, Guise

      • 3 noble Valois sons ruled one after the other: Catherine de Medidi was regent for them

    • Bourbon family (Huguenots) were set to take the throne if the Valois family couldn’t produce an heir

    • St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: August 24, 1572

      • Marriage of Margaret of Valois to Bourbon Henry of Navarre

      • Henry of Guise had a leader of the Huguenots murdered

      • Catherine ordered massacre of Huguenots in response- 20,000 killed

    • Edict of Nantes 1598

      • Granted a degree of religious toleration to Huguenots (public worship and worship is Paris not allowed)

  • 30 Years War War

    • Failure of the Peace of Augsburg

    • 4 Phases

      • 1. Bourbon Phase

        • Defenestration of Prague- triggered the war in Bohemia

          • Two HRE officials were thrown out a window

      • 2. Danish Phase

        • Albrecht Von Wallenstein: mercenary general paid by the emperor to fight for the HRE

        • Edict of Restitution: declared all church territories must return to Catholic

      • 3. Swedish Phase

        • Gustavus Adolphus: allied with Protestant forces

      • 4. French Phase

        • Cardinal Richelieu: allied with Protestant forces (even though France was Catholic)

        • Habsburgs lost

    • Treaty of Westphalia

      • Renewed Peace of Augsburg 

      • Added Calvinism as an accepted religion

      • Dissolution of the Holy 

  • English Civil War

    • Clash between King Charles I and Parliament over power and religion

    • Royalists (Cavaliers) vs. Parliamentarians (Roundheads)

    • Parliament’s New Model Army crushed Royalists at Naseby

    • Charles I was executed in 1649 for treason

    • Monarchy abolished

      • Cromwell ruled

      • People hated him eventually because he was too strict

      • Monarchy restored in 1660 (Charles II) with Parliament stronger


ABSOLUTISM AND CONSTITUTIONALISM

Absolutism in France

  • Cardinal Richelieu: became first minister of France

    • Ruled France for Louis XIII because he was so young

    • Started to oppress Huguenots

    • Goal was to defeat Habsburg

  • Cardinal Jules Mazarin

    • Chief minister for Louis XIV

    • Ruled alongside Queen Mother Anne of Austria (affair)

    • Louis XIV was 4 when he became king

  • Louis XVI

    • Longest reigning European monarch in history

    • Believe in divine right of king

    • The “Sun King”

    • Worked hard at ruling and wanted a personal role in the councils (“I am the State”)

    • Revoked Edict of Nantes

    • Built Versailles

      • Moved his court to Versailles

      • Became the center of political, social, and cultural life

      • Glamorous but gross

      • Extreme etiquette rituals 

    • Enthusiastic patron of arts

  • Mercantilism in France: Jean-Baptiste Colbert

    • Senior financial officer of Louis XVI

    • Mercantilism: more exports than imports

  • Wars of Louis XIV

    • François le Tellier- Louis’ Secretary of War

      • Goal: expand France

    • War of Spanish Succession

      • In 1700 Charles II of Spain dies without any heirs- he bequeathed his throne to Louis XVI’s grandson

      • Old  treaty saying Spain would be split up if no heirs were born

      • War over right to rule- France won

      • Peace of Utrecht: ended war in 1713, allowing Louis’ grandson to remain king of Spain

Absolutism in the East

  • Eastern vs French Absolutism

    • Eastern: 

      • Based on a powerful nobility, weak middle class, and widespread serfdom

    • French: 

      • Nobility’s power had been limited, middle class was relatively strong, and peasants were generally free from serfdom

  • Serfdom

    • Serfdom revived in eastern Europe

    • Non-serf peasants were also affected

    • In Poland: nobles  had complete control over peasants and could legally kill them

  • The Austrian Empire: The Habsburgs

    • After War of Spanish Succession, Habsburg power was concentrated in Austria

    • Not a national state, multiethnic

    • Important Rulers

      • Ferdinand II: for Thirty Years War

      • Ferdinand III: centralized government

      • Leopold I:

        • restricted Protestantism

        • Siege of Vienna: repelled Turks

      • Emperor Charles VI

Absolutism in Russia

  • Society continued to transform

    • Nobles gained more power and exemptions

    • Peasants lost rights

    • “Old Believers” of Orthodox Church resisted the influx of Protestantism

    • Western ideas

  • Peter the Great

    • Military: Peter’s major concern

      • Large navy built on the Baltic

      • Great Northern War: Russia vs Sweden

        • Treaty of Nystad: Russia gained Latvia and Estonia

    • Modernization and Westernization

      • Industrial serfdom

      • Books translated into Russian

      • Western clothing

      • 1st Russian Bible

      • Became world’s largest country

    • Government

      • Crown owned all land: nobles and landowners owed lifetime service to state

      • Table of Ranks: 14 hierarchical levels- merit based

    • St. Petersburg

      • Peter sought to create a similar city to Amsterdam

      • Peterhof: palace similar to Versailles

      • Became capital of Russia

      • “Window to the West”

Absolutism in Prussia

  • Hohensollerns

    • Frederick William: “The Great Elector”

      • Strict calvinist: granted religious tolerance

      • Established Prussia as a great power

      • Created most effective and efficient army in Europe

    • Frederick I: “The Ostentatious”

      • First Prussian King

      • Focus on education: built universities and welcomed immigrant scholars

      • Fought two wars against Louis XIV

    • Frederick WIlliam I: “The Soldier’s King”

      • Most important Hohensollerns King

      • Military focus: turned Prussia into the “Sparta of the North”

        • Goal was to avoid war by deterrents


SCIENTIFIC, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

Scientific Revolution

  • Causes:

    • New universities

    • Renaissance: rediscovered ancient mathematics, philosophies, arts, etc

    • Navigational problems with sea voyages

  • Who: 

    • Nicolaus Copernicus: heliocentrism

    • Tycho Brahe: built best observatory in Europe

    • Johan Kepler: studied planetary motion (Kepler’s Laws)

    • Galileo Galilei: studied speed, velocity, acceleration, free fall, etc

    • Isaac Newton: Newton’s Laws of Motion and universal gravitation

    • Francis Bacon: formalized Scientific Method

    • Rene Descartes: deductive reasoning

    • Vesalius: Flemish physician who drew detailed anatomical models

    • William Harvey: English royal physician

    • Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek: developed powerful microscopes

    • Paracelcus: experimented with chemicals and drugs as treatment


  • Effects: 

    • Led directly to the Enlightenment

    • Improvements in exploration

    • Experimentation helped accelerate the agricultural revolution

    • Improvements in medical knowledge later led to medical advancements

    • Less support of witchhunts

    • Science and religion were in acute conflict until 18th and 19th century

The Enlightenment

  • New Ideas: 

    • Deism: the belief that God is real but hands off

    • Secularism: the separation of religion from other aspects of life

    • Liberalism: a political and philosophical ideology that centered on individual liberty, equality, and consent

    • Laissez Faire: a policy of minimal government intervention in the economy

    • Salon Movement: private social gatherings where artists, intellectuals, and philosophers discussed ideas, literature, and politics

    • Skepticism: a philosophical approach that questions and doubts all accepted beliefs

    • Determinism: a concept where all events are viewed as the inevitable result of prior causes and natural laws

    • Atheism: a radical intellectual position questioning the existence of God

  • French Enlightenment

    • Philosophes: French philosophers

      • Voltaire: leading French philosopher- deism, secularism, religious toleration, argued with anyone who disagreed with him

      • Marquis de Condorcet: identified stages of human progress

      • Montesquieu: hated absolutism, wanted separation of powers

      • Jean-Jacques Rousseau: social contract, romantic movement, education, against women’s rights

      • Denis Diderot: wrote the Encyclopédie, atheist, determinism

      • Olympe de Gouges: demanded equal rights for women

    • Physiocrats: French economists who believed that wealth came solely from agriculture

      • François Quesnay: sought to reform farming system with laissez faire agriculture

  • Other Enlightenment thinkers

    • John Locke: government’s role is to protect natural rights (life, liberty, property)

    • Immanuel Kant: conscience placed in us by God, separated science and morality

    • Marquis de Beccaria: sought to humanize criminal law

    • Adam Smith: laissez-faire economy, supply and demand

    • Mary Wollstonecraft: promoted equality for women’Paul d’Holbach

    • David Hume: secularism, skepticism

Enlightened Despotism

  • Frederick the Great: greatest ruler in German history

    • Fought Austrian Succession and Seven Years War

    • Enlightened Reforms: 

      • “First Servant of the State”

      • Religious freedom

      • Promoted education

      • Codified and streamlined laws

      • Freed state serfs

      • Abolished capital punishment

      • Encouraged immigration

      • Encouraged industrial growth

  • Catherine the Great: one of the greatest rulers in European history

    • Lover of French culture

    • Enlightened reforms:

      • Imported western culture, educational reforms, restricted use of torture, limited religious toleration

    • Shortcomings: 

      • Only nobles benefited, while serfdom became more severe