Early Modern Europe Quizzes

The culture wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries involved two basic "camps": one privileged venerable old texts such as the Bible and ancient Greek and Roman authors and inclined to traditional interpretive models; the other privileged empirical evidence and inclined to new interpretive models. Which of the following phrases describes those basic camps, using terms drawn from the era?

"the ancients versus the moderns"

Which of the following was not part of the Counter-Reformation (sometimes also termed the Catholic Reformation)? Think carefully about information from lecture as well as the textbook reading

An action plan fro the reunion of all Protestant and Catholic Churches by 1600

_____ became even more likely in Europe in the period after the Protestant Reformation.

Being killed for one's religious beliefs

Explaining the purposes behind his monumental project, _____, philosophe ____ voiced a powerful conviction that this massive repository of information would ensure that generations to come would "by becoming better instructed [also] become more virtuous and happy."

Encyclopedie; Denis Diderot

Which of the following best represents the general trend in combined European literacy rates between 1500 and 1800?

GRADUAL rise in literacy from 8% to 30%

Which of the following figures and developments did we discuss in connection with the High and Late Middle Ages?

Hundred Years' War, Marco Polo, Crusades, urbanization, Avignon papacy, bubonic plague, Thomas Aquinas

If you were an educated person in Poland (circa 1450) who wanted to go to study medicine at the University of Bologna in Italy, which of the following languages would you absolutely have to have known how to speak, read, and write?

Latin

If it were the year 1450 and you wanted to see the papacy in all its glory, where would you go? Click the general area on the map below

Middle of Italy

Which of the following influential eighteenth-century writers has a commemorative statue on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall here in Boston?

Phyllis Wheatley

All of the following might be considered part of the "Crisis of the Seventeenth Century" EXCEPT:

The Battle of Mohacs

Which of the following statements accurately represents a distinctive feature of enslavement in the African context that contrasts with experiences of enslavement in the Atlantic World? (Do read carefully, as not all statements are factual.)

The enslaved in Africa often maintained considerable status and honor, and remained socially incorporated

Many working people in early modern Europe belonged to _____, organizations that not only oversaw production of goods (such as cloth) but also protected the social welfare of members and their families

craft guilds

Olaudah Equiano establishes his credibility, legitimacy, and respectability as an author for his (predominantly) white European readers in shrewd ways; his status claims include all of the following EXCEPT:

his mastery of Ancient Greek and Latin

Which of the following served as sources of basic education for children in the early modern world?

home-schooling by parents, village schools run by older women, religiously-affiliated schools run by clerics

Considering especially what you learned in the Wiesner-Hanks reading for this week, the myriad ways of studying, categorizing, and regulating a person's body and physical behaviors in the early modern world challenge the idea that the early modern centuries (even the later ones) gave rise to which of the following "isms"?

individualism

In Chapter 2, Wiesner-Hanks uses early-modern conceptions of everything from the body and sexuality to various categories of corporate identity (family, religion, social class, occupation) to challenge the notion posited by earlier generations of scholars that the period 1450-1600 witnessed the rise of _______

individualism

Among the factors spurring process of urbanization in the High Middle Ages (ca. 1050-1250), the expansion of trade and _________ stand as among the most important.

population growth

Select the objects borrowed from elsewhere in the world that contributed to the development of the European printing press with moveable type, and the commercial viability of printed books

printed cottons, wood-block printing, rag-based paper

To judge by the fact that Pietro Andrea Mattioli's Commentarii went through 45 printed editions and many vernacular translations in the century after it was first printed (1554), people surely found this work useful. Still, the 900 engraved illustrations to be found in this work have been accused of having a "chintz," which means:

privileging artistic symmetry over natural variations

The title page of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan (1651) exemplifies which metaphoric conception of the body?

the body politic

All of the following were true of Sultan Suleiman I's reign EXCEPT:

the brutal suppression of Christian and Jewish practices within the Ottoman Empire

Which of the following was among the most historically significant elements in the Peace of Westphalia (1648)? (Do read carefully; not all of the options relate to the Peace of Westphalia.)

the conceptualization of a state's sovereignty within its borders

Which of the following "discoveries" significantly influenced the decision of the Spanish crown to move from an exploratory to a colonial presence in the Americas?

the quantities of silver at Potosì

The Italian Wars/ Hapsburg-Valois Conflict (1494-1559) serve as an object lesson in all the following developments EXCEPT:

the waning of Spanish (Hapsburg) influence in European geopolitics

All of the following events contributed in some fashion to the intense critical spirit of the humanist enterprise. For now, no need to trace complicated connections; just put these events in chronological order, from earlier to later.

Bubonic Plague (first wave), the Western/Papal Schism begins, the Italian Wars

If you were an Anglican in the year 1595, where would you most likely be living? Click the relevant region on the map below

England

Thinking about Wiesner-Hanks's account, as well as Wednesday's lecture, which of the following states best exemplify the emergent embrace of large-scale commerce during the seventeenth century -- even if it wasn't "capitalism" by modern definitions?

England and the Dutch Republic

Which of the following fifteenth-century (i.e., during the 1400s) technological developments does Wiesner-Hanks emphasize as catalysts for sociocultural change over the long-term?

Gunpowder weaponry, printing press with moveable type

In the sixteenth century (1500s), religious doctrine intertwined with political and often social issues as well. All of the following exemplify this intertwining except one; choose the option below that is NOT fit.

King Charles VIII of Frances invades Italy, igniting the so-called "Italian Wars"

______ stands as one famous example of the considerable rise in the status of the artist during the Renaissance era.

Michaelangelo Buonarotti

Fill in the name of the relevant state missing from the statement below. The Thirty Years' War might be classified, however problematically, as a "war of religion" up to a point; and that point would be the open alliance of Catholic France with Lutheran ____ against the Catholic Hapsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire

Sweden

Anabaptists could be denounced and persecuted by Catholics and by other Protestants for their refusal to _____

accept a state church

Paracelsus's (al)chemical healing exemplifies the blend of magic, faith, and emergent empiricism characteristic of the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; according to him, which of the following must the physician possess to be truly effective in healing their patients?

love

We have evidence of the studio humanitiatis serving all of the following aims EXCEPT____

marriage strategies

Which of the following early modern technological advancements helped the ideas of Protestant reformers like Martin Luther reach a wide audience in Europe?

the printing press

René Descartes's description of the human body in mechanistic terms might seem reasonable to us now; but many seventeenth-century readers were shocked by:

the way Descartes minimizes the role of the soul in bodily motion

All of the following statements EXCEPT ONE accurately reflect aspects of society and culture in Africa and the Americas that challenge the old narrative of a more "advanced" Europe gaining global hegemony because other world regions lacked the sophistication to respond actively to invasion. Select the statement that is NOT true.

Africans and indigenous Latin Americans usually approached European merchants and military personnel with hatred and violence.

Robert Burton's _______ exemplifies the interconnections between humoral theory, emotion, and character prevalent in early modern medicine.

Anatomy of Melancholy

Eighteenth-century conceptions of "enlightened" rule and the strengthening of monarchical power sometimes went hand-in-hand, as we see in the case of ___ of Russia in the 1770s.

Catherine II

By the middle of the sixteenth century (that is, circa 1550) a printed book of average length without any fancy "add-ons" (such as a hard-bound cover or illuminations) would cost approximately the same as a ___.

Chicken

Which of the following statements accurately represents one positive consequence of exchanges between western Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas in the period 1450-1600?

Circulation of plants and animals between regions gradually improved nutrition around the world.

Enlightenment thinkers advocated that natural rights (human liberties) should be extended to every single human being, including women, the poorest members of society, and non-Europeans.

False

It is surprising that Galileo Galilei ever managed to publish anything, since a cabal of Roman Catholic priests had been determined to prove him a heretic from the very beginning of his career.

False

The Battle of Lepanto (1571) constituted a decisive victory for "Christendom," putting Western European states in a position of global hegemony and effectively ending their longstanding practices of trade and diplomacy with the Ottoman Empire.

False

The first and most powerful voices in the abolitionist movement were those of Quakers, who condemned the commodification of human beings on moral grounds.

False

The structure of the Ottoman Empire favored absolutist trends of the seventeenth century; no competing authorities challenged the sultan's power.

False

When discussing marriage, the Florentine merchant's window Alessandra Strozzi seemed primarily concerned with:

Financial stability

Textbook writers still position monarchical absolutism as one of the central themes of the seventeenth century. As research continues, however, that decision seems a bit problematic. Rulers in many polities certainly aspired to absolutist control, but we really only have one "textbook" case of absolutism:

France

Martin Luther was not the first "protestant" against the Roman Catholic Church. Groups critiquing various aspects of Catholic doctrine and practice BEFORE the advent of Lutheranism include which of the following? Select ALL that apply.

Hussites and Lollards

Which does NOT accurately reflect a concern expressed by the author about the advent of the printing press with moveable type?

Johannes Trithemius worried about immoral printed books corrupting young people.

This brief quotation comes from one of the primary source readings you had for this week; it highlights a central aspect of the theology articulated by which of the following Reformation-era thinkers?

John Calvin

Among the most courageous figures whom we have considered so far would be the poet ___________, whose epic celebration of the Battle of Lepanto (1571) also urged King Philip II to consider black Africans to be as capable as white Europeans of embodying Christian piety and humanistic excellence.

Juan Latino

The sixteenth century (1500s) was a time of religious and political upheaval throughout Europe. Put these events in chronological order, from earliest to latest.

Luther refuses to recant his disagreements with the Roman Catholic Church at the Diet of Worms; Henry VIII breaks with the Roman Catholic Church, making himself the head of the Church of England; The Roman Catholic Church convenes the Council of Trent to affirm and clarify its teachings in response to the Protestant Reformation; territorial rulers in the Holy Roman Empire cease fighting and agree that each ruler will decide whether their territory is Lutheran or Catholic at the Peace of Augsburg; King Henry IV (king of France) issues the Edict of Nantes, declaring that French Protestants (Huguenots) have the right to live and worship in France, even while Catholicism remained the official state religion

European states and their representatives had a complex package of motivations for traveling west across the Atlantic and, in time, even establishing colonies. Which of the following aims were common? Check ALL that apply for the centuries and regions we have discussed so far.

Opportunities for landless nobles to acquire land on a scale impossible back in Europe, the accumulation of wealth from plantations and mines increasingly dependent upon the labor of enslaved Africans, A desire to get around Ottoman and Italian "middle-men" who where entrenched along the established eastward-moving trade routes., The hope, deepening with the progress of the European Reformations, to build a "New Jerusalem" in the "New World."

Nicolaus Copernicus's On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres (1543) certainly innovated; but that innovation depended in large measure upon Renaissance humanists' engagement with ancient authors in the original languages. Which of the following ancient Greek philosophers offered an important precedent for Copernicus's heliocentric model?

Plato

Provide the name of the place missing in the statement below. Please be as specific as possible (e.g., "Boston" rather than "the United States"). Timothy Brook speculates that the Dutch woman in Vermeer's painting "Woman Holding a Balance" is weighing silver that actually originated in the mines of

Potosí

The English political philosopher John Locke argued that government exists to protects the ______ of the governed. In this formulation, he undermined previously posited foundations for governmental authority such as fatherhood, divine right, or an original contract between the king and society (as Hobbes had theorized).

Property

We have now considered ways in which the eighteenth-century Atlantic World was at least as much African as European, if not more so. Beyond demographics, we explored social, cultural, and religious practices that Africans used to maintain a sense of continuity and connection even amidst profound dislocation -- continuities that ultimately blended with other elements (indigenous and European) to forge a profoundly hybrid Atlantic culture. One specific example we explored in this regard was the dance form called ______, , in which elements of historical memory, conceptions of healing, and different musical elements (African and Spanish), all fused.

Rumba

Humanists typically distinguished their work form that of ____

Scholastics

In Early Modern Europe ___ laws were issued y the secular elite to enforce social hierarchies by dictating the ways that different groups of people should dress

Sumptuary

Put the following figures and events in chronological order, from earlier to later

Thomas Aquinas, Bubonic plague (first wave), Christine de Pizan, Fall of Constantinople, Juan Latino

Please put the following figures in chronological order, from earlier to later.

Thomas Aquinas, Niccolo Machiavelli, Paracelsus, Thomas Hobbes

Fill in the name (first and last) of the person missing from the following statement. Working in coalition with The Sons of Africa, as well as conducting extensive research of his own, ___ shed new light on the horrific and senselessly destructive conditions to be found on slave ships

Thomas Clarkson

As different as their writings could be, the humanists Petrarch and Erasmus shared one fundamental commitment: intense study of original source material from antiquity

True

By the later seventeenth century, most Western European states had largely shifted their attention from the Mediterranean world to the Atlantic world.

True

Early modern European marriage was a business arrangement involving contracts that stipulated many legal and financial agreements, including those regarding dowry and inheritance. By the sixteenth century, marriage contracts were not just a concern of the wealthy; ordinary people, including servants and artisans, had them drawn up.

True

In many areas in Europe during the sixteenth century (1500s), women served as regents and advisors to child kings, and occasionally ruled in their own right; a few of the many instances mentioned by Wiesner-Hanks were Isabella in Castile, Mary and Elizabeth Tudor in England, and Mary Stewart in Scotland. Beyond such prominent figures, however, it can be difficult to assess the boundaries of the possible even for elite women. Which of the falling statements is at least clearly FALSE?

Universities open their doors to women students

For an early modern European physician, heat was a primary agent of transformation within the body, which for them explained many physiological observations. You encountered a number of these ideas in Chapter 2 of the textbook. Here, there's ONE option that's incorrect; select that one

Women were banned from eating Chili peppers because they would become infertile if their body temperatures were raised

Among the global technologies that enabled European exploration in the early modern era were the compass and the sailing ship, one type of which had been used by Admiral _______ who led massive naval expeditions in the Indian Ocean in the first two decades of the fifteenth century (1400s).

Zheng He

As Wiesner-Hanks emphasizes, all of the following are reasons historians have offered for the rise of commercial power in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic EXCEPT:

an increasingly centralized monarchy

Early-modern alchemy, strange as it may seem to us, actually gave rise to what would become the modern field of

chemistry

Gunpowder artillery and weapons made of steel certainly assisted Spanish "conquerors" in their eventual rise to power in Central and South America. That said, two factors as or even more important in this outcome were: (1) strategic alliances with aggrieved populations chafing under imperial rule and, perhaps most of all, (2) European ________

diseases, which decimated local populations

According to Merry Wiesner-Hanks, which type of cultural activity gave Europeans who would not read the best chance to experience (and even to produce) vernacular literature?

drama

Which of the following institutions typically fell under the direct sponsorship (and control) of absolutist monarchs during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

learned societies

Which of the following reflects our current best estimate for the percentage of free people of color to be found anywhere in Europe or its colonies during the eighteenth century?

less than 2%

Wiesner-Hanks helpfully surveys many different features of culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, all of which would have attracted various sectors of society to some degree. Still, which of the following things do you think everyday people would have been most able to access?

newspapers

Maria Sybilla Merian and Domingos Álvares never met; but they were roughly contemporaries and covered some of the same Latin American terrain. If they had ever spoken to each other, which of the following topics do you think would have constituted the strongest shared interest between them, and perhaps a means to build a conversational bridge across their wildly different sets of circumstances?

plants and medicine

Jürgen Habermas influentially argued that during the eighteenth century a new and socially diverse space arose for discussion of ideas, art, politics, and culture; he called this space the

public sphere

In the broadest terms, the "Scientific Revolution" transpiring between roughly 1550 and 1700 can be characterized as an increasing emphasis on practice, method, and direct observation instead of a dogged reliance on

textual authorities

Early modern medicine gradually began to respond in new ways to treating disease, spurred in significant part by bubonic plague. Of the following five options, select the THREE that are examples of more effective medical techniques, practices, or institutions that we have discussed

the "hospital", quarantine, epidemiology

By the 1780s, different sectors of the French populace voiced grievances targeting absolutist policies and practices that had become entrenched during the previous century. In the "Cahiers de doléance" of 1789 (Wiesner-Hanks, Source 24), for instance, the long list of concerns emphasize:

unequal systems of taxation and elite privileges

Hieronymus Braunschweig understood pestilence (plague) to be caused by God's wrath, poisons arising variously from indigestion and from breathing contaminated air, and one other major culprit. Which of the following best encapsulates the third cause of plague that Brunschwig posits?

unfavorable astrological influences

Among the observable evidence supporting the new astronomy of Copernicus and Galileo was the ___ of 1618, which cut an irregular path across the sky that contradicted ancient models positing a perfect regularity in the motion of celestial bodies

comet

We discussed all of the following in connection with the expanding consumer culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries EXCEPT:

diamonds

Which of the following people or categories of people did Paracelsus's theories and methods of working MOST challenge?

learned physicians

Which of the following lucrative luxury goods spurred the initial development of plantation slavery in the 1480s?

sugar