AP World History Chapter 16

Martin Luther

A German monk criticized the Roman Catholic Church in his Ninety-five Theses and began the Reformation./Luther's writings had the unintended consequence of creating a massive schism in the Roman Catholic Church as kings and princes challenged the popes authority over them and the rising middle class in Europe found a religious legitimacy for their role in society.

Protestant

A Protestant is a member of a Christian church founded on the principles of the Reformation./Protestants and Catholics fought one another for religious and political dominance.

Bhakti movement

A devotional form of Hinduism that brought together the teachings of that faith and Islam, especially the Sufi form of Islam./This movement provided a means for social criticism and some of its devotees ignored caste distinctions.

Ninety-five Theses

A set of theses written by Martin Luther that condemned some practices of the Roman Catholic Church such as the selling of indulgences./Luther called for a reforming of the Church but his theses actually led to a divide between Christians.

Copernicus

Astronomer who produced a workable model of the solar system with the sun in the center which was contrary to the widely held belief that the sun moved around the Earth./It is likely that Copernicus based his ideas on works by Islamic astronomers 200 to 300 years before him.

European universities

Beginning in the 13th century European universities became "corporations" of intellectuals and scholars which had autonomy from the Church and State. /This autonomy created the necessary environment out of which the Scientific Revolution grew in the mid-16th and early 18th centuries.

Charles Darwin

Darwin was an English naturalist who devised the theory of evolution which stated that new species developed through competitive struggle./His ideas shook the foundations of religious thought.

Deism

Deism was a believe in God as a removed creator who did not interfere with the day to day workings of human life./This outlook of religion worked well with science as it took away the mysticism from religion.

Rene Descartes

Descartes emphasized the importance of logic and reason in understanding the physical world./Descartes believed that knowledge did not rely on divine revelation but in the reasoning of the human being.

John Locke

English philosopher who advocated the idea of a "social contract" in which government powers are derived from a contract between rulers and the ruled./This idea directly challenged the idea of Divine Right of Kings in that the contract should come from human ingenuity rather than God.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment was man's realization that knowledge could be obtained without the guidance of another./This movement believed that knowledge could transform human society.

Voltaire

French philosopher who wrote against religious intolerance./Voltaire wrote against intolerance by French royalty. He was a deist and idolized China as a country governed by elite secular scholars.

Sigmund Freud

Freud applied the scientific method to the workings of the human mind and to human emotions. Freud claimed that human behavior resulted from a constant struggle between irrational drives and our conscience./Freud's work was at odds with the thinkers of the Enlightenment.

Galileo

Galileo was an astronomer and mathematician who invented an improved telescope. He was able to see sun spots on the moon and to observe the moons of Jupiter./His findings challenged the views of the day including that the heavenly bodies did not change. These ideas became the basis for the idea that the universe is much bigger than previously thought.

Karl Marx

German philosopher who explained the changes in human history as a constant struggle between social classes./Marx saw himself as a scientist with scientific bases for his theories which put forth that socialism was an inevitable culmination of this struggle.

Immanuel Kant

Kant was a German philosopher who argued that enlightenment was the ability to know something without another's guidance./Kant believed in freedom of the press as a means to exercise reason publicly .

Sir Isaac Newton

Newton was an English scientist who formulated the concept of universal gravitation leading to the three laws of motion/Newton's ideas laid the groundwork for modern mechanics.

Puritans

Protestant group founded in England who brought their religious believes to North America though they did not attempt to spread them to the native population./These beliefs, which included an emphasis on education, moral purity, personal conversion, and civic responsibility, influenced the culture of the colonies in North America.

Matteo Ricci

Ricci was a Jesuit priest who sought to convert the Chinese to Christianity. To gain the trust and respect of the Chinese, Ricci and his fellow Jesuits learned the Chinese culture, language and Confucianism. They sought to engage the political elite in an exchange of scientific ideas and to find parallels between Confucianism and Christianity./Christianity was not widely accepted in China especially among the ordinary people.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau did not believe that children should be taught from books but instead should experience the world naturally./Rousseau believed that greed and envy was fostered by civilization.

Adam Smith

Smith was the father of classical free-market economic theory./Smith believed that his theories would lead to favorable economic growth.

Jesuits

The Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, was founded as a teaching and missionary order to resist the spread of Protestantism and to spread Catholicism./Jesuits were missionaries that spread Christianity to many parts of the world.

Divine Right of Kings

The idea that the legitimate rule of monarchs came from God./The thinkers of the Enlightenment challenged this idea.

German peasant revolts

These were widespread uprisings of German peasants who were protesting economic and social injustices./ These uprisings were partially a result of the spread of Luther's ideas.

Council of Trent

This was a congress to respond to the grievances brought to light by Martin Luther and to reform the Roman Catholic Church./This reformation of the church was accompanied by a crackdown on dissidents which included the censorship of books, fines, exile, penitence, and sometimes the burning of heretics.

Edict of Nantes

This was a decree issued by Henry IV which granted religious tolerance to French Protestants./This decree was an effort to bring peace to France between its Protestants and Catholics.

Reformation

This was a religious movement began in Germany when Martin Luther began a debate about abuses in the Roman Catholic Church./The Reformation resulted in the creation of Protestant churches and destroyed the unity of the Roman Catholic Church which had religious and political ramifications into the present.

Great Awakening

This was a religious revival in the American colonies and Protestant Europe that was a backlash to the ideas of Enlightenment./It included intense religious experiences such as fiery sermons and public repentance.

Thirty Years' War

This was a series of wars between Protestants and Catholics that began in the Holy Roman Empire but consumed most of Europe./At the end of the wars the boundaries of countries were altered and an agreement was made that each country was sovereign and could control its own religious affairs./This was the permanent end to religious unity in Europe. It was disastrous for Europe and especially Germany where it is estimated that 15 to 30 percent of the population died from violence, famine or disease.

Scientific Revolution

This was an era of intellectual and cultural revolution when scientists began questioning the teachings of the church and using the scientific method to form theories about the natural world./Much of our current scientific understanding has its foundation in this movement, and it altered man's view of his place in the universe.

Sikhism

This was another religion that combined the ideas of Hinduism and Islam. Is founder, Guru Nanak, came from the Bhakti movement, but stated there was no Hindu or Muslim, only God./This movement also ignored the caste system and allowed more participation by women.

Wahhabism

Wahhabism was born out of a reformation of the Islamic faith and was a conservative version of Islam which sought to return Islam to the teachings of the pure faith./This movement took hold particularly in central Arabia and became an expansive state there. It encompassed much of central Arabia by the nineteenth century.