World History Test #2 (Thursday, November 21, 2019)

What did the Civil Service Exam cover?

Chinese government, Chinese history and culture, and the teachings of Confucius

Who was responsible for bringing the Old World and New World together?

Christopher Columbus

Explain what the relationship was between raw materials and manufactured goods.

Europe began to advance technologically, thanks to the Scientific Revolution and worldwide trade. A system developed where Europe would import raw materials (like sugar, tobacco, and cotton) from the New World and then make things out of them in European factories. This is called manufacturing. For example, sugar was used to make rum, tobacco to make cigars, and cotton to make clothing and cloth goods (called textiles). These were called manufactured goods. European countries would then sell these manufactured goods to other countries.

How did curiosity motivate Europeans to explore the world?

Europeans were interested in new places because of three intellectual movements happening in Europe: humanism, the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution.

Why did Europeans want to sail to Asia specifically?

Europeans were motivated to find a direct water route from Europe to Asia so that they could access the riches of China and India (silk, spices, etc.) without having to go through the Middle East and having to pay high taxes to the Ottoman Empire and the other groups who controlled the Silk Road and Indian Ocean trade.

How did religious fervor motivate Europeans to explore the world?

Many European explorers were motivated by religious feelings and wanted to convert new people to Christianity. This is also called proselytizing or missionizing.

What dynasty tried to restore Chinese culture after the Mongols?

Ming

What are natural resources?

Natural resources (or raw materials) are anything that is buried in your soil or that grows on your land or that lives on your land that you can sell for money. Examples: iron, salt, copper, gold, etc. in the land; wood from trees or cotton from cotton plants or wheat from grain; wool or leather or bone from animals). Basically, anything that you can make out of minerals or plants or animals and sell to someone else.

Who was persecuted during the Spanish Inquisition?

Non-Catholics

Why didn't China explore the oceans more?

They were isolationist

What was the second major split in Christianity?

(You already know about the "Great Schism" (between Catholic and Orthodox Christians) around the year 1000.) At the end of the Middle Ages, another Christian split occurred. In 1517, Martin Luther protested against the Roman Catholic Church. He wanted to reform (change) certain things they were doing, like selling indulgences. This protest/reform movement is called the Protestant Reformation. As a result of the reformation, the Catholic Church split into the existing church on one hand and into various Protestant sects on the other.

How long was the Civil Service Exam?

3 days

What is a colony?

A colony is land owned by another, more powerful country (called the "mother country.") (Although it was a cruel mother!) For example, Mexico was a colony of Spain (Spain was the mother country). Brazil was a colony of Portugal (Portugal was the mother country). The United States was made up of colonies of England (England was the mother country). You can also call the mother country the "colonizer" or the "colonialist" country, and call the colony the "colonized" country.

divine right

Absolute monarchs claimed a "divine right" to rule, similar to the Mandate of Heaven in China, saying that God had put them on the throne. A good example of an absolute monarch claiming divine right was Louis XIV in France.

How did the Ming emperors try to restore Chinese culture?

Although China tried to stay isolated from other cultures (the Chinese saw themselves as superior to other cultures, whom they called "barbarians"), the Mongols eventually conquered China. The Mongols created their own dynasty, the Yuan dynasty. After the Mongols were defeated, the Ming dynasty rose to power. The Ming worked on making China "Chinese" again (not Mongol), by emphasizing Chinese culture and the teachings of Confucius.

What were American religions like before Europeans came, and why did the Europeans try to change them?

Although the different American empires (Aztec, Inca, Maya) and tribes of native Americans living here were very different from one another (some were farmers, some were hunters and gatherers; they spoke many different languages and had different cultures), they had similar polytheistic, nature-based religions. The Europeans who came all worked very hard to try to convert all the people they met to Christianity. Religious feeling was so intense in Europe that finding and converting people was as much a reason for exploring as was finding gold, treasure, or trading goods like pepper or spices.

Which two cultures inspired the Renaissance?

Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome

How and why were Europeans able to navigate the oceans?

As Europe became more technologically advanced (thanks to the Scientific Revolution), and more interested in the wider world (thanks to the Renaissance), Europeans began to build ships that could sail across the ocean.

Why did reading the Bible help to create different kinds of Christianity?

As more people became literate and read the Bible for themselves, they started to have different opinions/interpretations of what the Bible teachings meant

Why was Italy more sophisticated than the rest of Western Europe?

Because it traded heavily with the Middle East

Why did the printing press create so many books?

Because printing book is much faster than copying them by hand

What does no one expect?

Besides Muslim conquests and the Crusades, another example of violence in the name of religion at the end of the Middle Ages was the Spanish Inquisition. European Christians reconquered Spain, which had been under Muslim rule for centuries, by the year 1500 (This was called the "Reconquista.") There was then a bloody effort to expel non-Christians from Spain and to convert everyone to Catholicism. People found practicing their religions in secret were sometimes tortured and killed. Many non-Catholics were kicked out or left Spain.

Besides being sources of raw materials and labor, what else were colonies good for?

Besides being a source of free raw materials and free or cheap labor (workers/slaves), there was another perk involved with owning a colony. Colonies became instant markets for mother countries' manufactured goods-- basically, the mother countries would sell clothing or rum or whatever to the colonists (whose raw materials they had basically stolen to make the goods). So having colonies full of consumers helped the mother countries get even richer. (If you remember, this is partly why the Boston Tea Party happened).

Was the Church more important in medieval times or in Renaissance times?

Both, but probably most in medieval times

What are the three main types of Christianity?

Catholicism (the original type), Eastern Orthodoxy (split off from Catholicism during the Great Schism in 1054), and Protestant Christianity (of which there are many types, which stem from Martin Luther's 95 Theses in 1517).

How did colonies provide Europeans with gold and silver?

Europeans were very excited about finding silver and gold in the ground in some Latin American countries. The creation of silver mines in Bolivia, Mexico and Chile made the Spanish Empire very rich. The Spanish forced thousands of Native Americans to work in these mines.

How did a desire to get rich motivate Europeans to explore the world?

Everyone wanted to make money from trade. Originally, Europeans wanted to buy spices directly from Asia, because they were paying a lot to Middle Eastern merchants for spices. Even though they didn't get a direct route to the spice islands, they got rich from exploring by seizing land, and using that land to create gold and silver mines and plantations with cash crops. So they were able to make a lot of money by stealing land and resources. Owning more land also let them create trading posts around the world, which increased their wealth.

Why did Europeans want to explore the world?

For at least five reasons: curiosity, religious fervor, to get rich, to compete with other European empires, and to "civilize" non-European people.

Why was the Church angry at Galileo?

He suggested that the earth revolves around the sun, which appeared to contradict the Bible

What is humanism?

Humanism is being less focused on religion and more focused on human thinking and experience.

Why did Europeans create colonies?

In order to get more and more raw materials, Europeans sailed all over the New World. Europeans wanted to control lots of land so that they could take lots and lots of raw materials that they could turn into manufactured goods to sell for gold and silver. When a European ship would land somewhere, they would basically steal the land from the current residents (usually Native Americans) and set up a colony.

Where did the Renaissance start?

Italy

How did the Renaissance affect art in Europe?

One impact of the Renaissance was that artists and sculptors started to paint and sculpt regular people and scenes, instead of only religious themes. Their art also became more realistic as they relearned and perfected artistic ideas such as scale, proportion and perspective. Some of the most beautiful art to come out of Europe was produced during the Renaissance.

How did competition motivate Europeans to explore the world?

Portugal, Spain, France, England and Holland (and later, Germany, Belgium, and others) all were racing each other to be the first country to sail to new lands and to secure land from which to create trading posts. Since land was valuable, the empires who conquered the most land became the most powerful empires.

How did thinking their culture was better than others' motivate Europeans to explore the world?

Racist ideas about European superiority to other peoples probably arose to justify Europeans' taking over of other lands, and then became a motivator, too, as Europeans sought to "civilize" non-European peoples, because they thought their culture/civilization was better than other cultures.

Which art was more realistic, medieval or Renaissance art?

Renaissance art

What was the impact of the printing press?

Renaissance ideas (like humanism) and the Scientific Revolution spread quickly around Europe and beyond because of a new invention: the printing press. The printing press made it possible to create more books (since they didn't have to be copied by hand) and made books cheaper. This led to greater literacy (being able to read) in Europe.

What was the worst effect of the Age of Exploration?

The Age of Exploration had devastating, horrible effects for the peoples who were already living in the Americas. The worst was disease. Some historians estimate that perhaps as much as 90% of the Native American population were killed by unfamiliar European diseases, like smallpox, to which they had no immunity. This exchange of diseases was an unintended result of exploration; although it ultimately helped the Europeans to take over the Americas, they did not bring disease to the native peoples on purpose.

Which two cultures preserved Greek and Roman learning more than Western Europe did?

The Byzantine Empire and the Muslim Empires

How did the Age of Exploration cause cultural diffusion on a huge scale?

The European age of exploration caused huge cultural diffusion. Europeans brought new crops, new ideas, Christianity, conquest, and (by accident) disease to the native peoples of the New World. In turn, peoples in the Old World got new crops and kinds of food from the Americas.

absolute monarchy

The Middle Ages were followed by a period known as the "Age of Absolute Monarchs" (from about 1500-1800), when strong and powerful kings and queens ruled in Europe. These monarchs had almost absolute, or total power, unlike the weaker monarchs of the Middle Ages (when, remember, the real political power in Europe was the Catholic Church).

How did the entire globe become connected?

The New World was cut off from both Silk Road and Indian Ocean trade. When Europeans (like Christopher Columbus) started to explore the Atlantic Ocean, trade expanded to become worldwide, and the Old World and the New World were finally connected.

What was the Scientific Revolution?

The Renaissance also gave birth to the Scientific Revolution, the beginning of modern science in the west. This was shaped by interest in and discoveries in math and science. Instead of only relying on religious explanations for why things were the way they were, people tried to figure out the natural laws governing the universe (like gravity and magnetism). Thinkers begin to study astronomy, mathematics and navigation. Sometimes, these ideas brought scientists into conflict with the powerful medieval Catholic Church (an example is Galileo).

How were Europeans able to build ocean-going ships?

The Scientific Revolution (which happened along with humanism and the Renaissance) gave Europeans new technologies that they could use to navigate and engineer.

What was the Columbian Exchange?

The exchange of all of the new food, animals, people and disease from the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia) and the New World (North and South America) is called the Columbian Exchange, named after Christopher Columbus. The Columbian Exchange is how Native Americans got horses, and how the Irish got potatoes. It's how wheat came to America and chocolate came to Europe.

What is the Renaissance?

The period after the Middle Ages in Europe is known as the Renaissance, from about 1300-1600. Starting in Italy, this was a rebirth of learning and arts. (The Renaissance probably started in Italy since the Italians were heavily involved in trade with civilizations to the east.) It was inspired by an interest in classical (ancient Greek and Roman) learning and art, as well as by contact with the more sophisticated Byzantine and Muslim empires, who had been steadily building on classical knowledge. The Church became a bit less important, and personal experience based on learning and evidence (humanism) became more important.

How did the printing press jumpstart the Reformation?

The printing press also helped spread the ideas of the (Protestant) Reformation, since now an ordinary person could read and interpret the Bible for him/herself, and not just rely on the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. As more people gained access to the Bible, more interpretations of Christianity arose.

What was the Triangular Trade? Could you trace it on a map?

The transatlantic slave trade is also called the Triangular Trade, because of the triangular shape it makes if you draw the trade lines among West Africa, Europe, and the eastern coast of the Americas.

What was the Middle Passage?

The transatlantic slave trade was a terrible experience for captured Africans even before they reached the New World. The ocean voyage from Africa to the Americas, known as the Middle Passage, was a horrible experience. People were confined to the lower decks and chained together. If you were a captured African, you would have been likely been seasick, frightened, hungry, in pain, angry, miserable, surrounded by the waste and vomit of other prisoners, and unable to communicate with Africans and Europeans who didn't share your language. Some people tried to escape by jumping overboard. It was a terrible, terrible voyage. Once Africans got to the New World, their fate was not much better: enslavement on a plantation to create raw materials for the Europeans.

How was the transatlantic slave trade different from other slavery in world history?

There has been slavery throughout world history. (There was slavery in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and Rome and Mexico, to name a few places. Warring African tribes had captured people and made them slaves. There was a slave trade among Muslim traders in North Africa also.) But the transatlantic slave trade was different than any slavery that came before or after. First, it involved the biggest number of people enslaved in history. Thousands of Africans were stolen from their homes and forced into slavery. Second, racist ideas were created and used to justify the slave trade, and the spread of these ideas has led to entrenched racism in many countries (including ours) to the present day. So the transatlantic slave trade racialized slavery in a way that has had a lasting impact on racial equality, both in terms of inequalities of money and power and in terms of attitudes.

What was the transatlantic slave trade?

This unfair system, where Europeans stole Native Americans' land and infected them with deadly diseases, got even worse with the development of the transatlantic slave trade. Basically, Europeans needed lots of people to grow all of the raw materials that they wanted (like sugar, or cotton). But when they made Native Americans work in their mines and on their plantations (huge farms), many of the Native Americans died of disease. So, they needed people to do the work who weren't Native American (and who weren't European, since they didn't want to do the farming themselves). So Europeans began to steal people from Africa to work on the plantations. This was called the transatlantic slave trade, because people were taken from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean and brought to the Americas as slaves.

What was the civil service exam?

To get a job in Chinese government, people took civil service exams, a rigorous three-day series of tests about the workings of the government and the teachings of Confucius. The civil service system made Chinese society fairer because the most qualified people got the best jobs (jobs didn't just go to those who were related to those already in power, as happened in most places). However, only people who had the luxury of studying for these tests for years and years were able to do well on them, so poor people were pretty much excluded from the system.

How did people explain life during the Scientific Revolution?

Using natural laws, like gravity and magnetism, instead of only religious ideas

When were the Middle Ages?

We typically saythat it's about 1,00 years, from the year 500 to around 1500. (Ancient Times —> Middle Ages —> Age of Exploration) The Middle Ages started when the Roman Empire fell (around 500 AD) and ended when Europeans started exploring the oceans (from the early 1400s to the early 1600s)

Explain mercantilism.

When a country exports more than it imports in order to get lots of money, gold and silver, it is called mercantilism. Most European countries during the Age of Exploration wanted to build up their treasuries of gold and silver, so we would call them mercantilist. They looked for raw materials that they could turn into manufactured goods to sell for money.

What dynasty came first, Yuan or Ming?

Yuan

Who could have explored the oceans but was not encouraged to?

Zheng He

Why did the printing press increase literacy?

because it was easier for people to get copies of books

What are artistic scale and proportion?

being sure to draw things with their proper size

How did humanists try to understand the world?

by observing and learning from their own study and experience

What did humanism lead to?

increased literacy (being able to read and write) during the Renaissance.

Which art was more religious in nature, medieval or Renaissance art?

medieval art

What's another name for raw materials?

natural resources

manufactured goods

products that have been made from a raw material (usually processed in a factory)

What's another name for natural resources?

raw materials

What are some examples of manufactured goods?

rum, clothing, cigars

What techniques did Greek, Roman and Renaissance artists use to make their art look realistic?

scale, proportion and perspective

What is artistic perspective?

showing objects in the distance to be smaller, so the drawing looks more 3-D

What are some examples of raw materials?

sugar, cotton, tobacco

What was the first book to be mass-produced by the printing press?

the Bible

Which came later, medieval times or the Renaissance?

the Renaissance

What are the two main ways that cultural diffusion happens?

through trade and through conquest.

How does religion spread?

through trade, through conquest, and via missionary work (also called proselytizing or conversion)