Scientific Revolution
The major shift toward observation, experimentation, and evidence in Europe from about 1500–1700
What is the Scientific Revolution?
Early scientists who studied nature to understand God’s creation
Who were natural philosophers?
A navigation tool that used magnetism to show direction
What is the compass?
The Portuguese royal who sponsored early exploration
Who was Prince Henry the Navigator?
Spain’s main focus for empire building
What were the Americas?
The exchange of goods, animals, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds
What is the Columbian Exchange?
The step-by-step process scientists used to test ideas
What is the scientific method?
The Renaissance value that encouraged curiosity and investigation
What is humanism?
Improved navigation tools created during the Renaissance
What are maps (or Renaissance maps / cartography)?
The explorer who rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488
Who was Bartolomeu Dias?
The system of colonial rule using viceroys
What was colonial government (or viceroyalty system)?
The economic theory that measured wealth in gold and silver
What is mercantilism?
The belief that Earth was the center of the universe
What is the geocentric theory?
This navigation instrument was used by sailors to measure the position of stars to determine latitude at sea.
What is an astrolabe?
The ship improvement that allowed sailors to steer more easily
What is the sternpost rudder?
The explorer who reached India by sea in 1498
Who was Vasco da Gama?
The 1494 agreement dividing lands between Spain and Portugal
What was the Treaty of Tordesillas?
A favorable balance of trade meant this
What is exporting more than importing?
The scientist who proposed the heliocentric theory in 1543
Who was Nicolaus Copernicus?
The English philosopher who argued knowledge must come from observation and experiments
Who was Francis Bacon?
The instrument that made studying distant objects in space possible
What is the telescope?
The explorer who reached the Americas in 1492
Who was Christopher Columbus?
The empire that focused more on trade than conquest
The empire that focused more on trade than conquest
The forced voyage enslaved Africans endured across the Atlantic
What is the Middle Passage?
The English scientist who united motion on Earth and in space with universal laws
Who was Isaac Newton?
How did the Catholic Church react to scientific advancements during the Scientific Revolution?
The Church often resisted or condemned ideas that challenged traditional teachings and Scripture, such as heliocentrism, and in some cases censored or punished scientists like Galileo.
The economic period that changed banking, trade, and business practices
What is the Commercial Revolution?
The explorer whose crew completed the first voyage around the world
Who was Ferdinand Magellan?
The Spanish king whose Armada failed against England
Who was Philip II?
The three-part trade system linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas
What is triangular trade?