Renaissance
This invention, perfected by Gutenberg in the mid-15th century, allowed Renaissance ideas and classical texts to spread rapidly across Europe.
What is the Printing Press?
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses in 1517 were primarily directed against this church practice.
What are indulgences?
Polish astronomer proved earth wasn’t the center of the universe the sun was, all planets revolved around the sun. The Earth goes around the sun every 365 days, earth tilts and when it rotates around the sun, the angle makes for the seasons.
Who is Nicolaus Copernicus?
This principle held that governments exist to protect natural rights—life, liberty, and property—and that citizens can overthrow rulers who violate them.
What is the social contract?
Beginning in 1618 in the Holy Roman Empire, this conflict initially pitted Catholics against Protestants but later expanded into a pan-European political struggle involving France, Spain, Sweden, and the Habsburgs.
What is the Thirty Years’ War?
This intellectual movement placed human potential and classical learning at the center of study, influencing literature, education, and scientific inquiry during the Renaissance.
What is humanism?
Made the 95 Theses and was a Protestant Reformer.
Who is Martin Luther?
This Italian scientist improved the telescope, discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter, and was forced to recant heliocentrism before the Inquisition.
Who is Galileo Galilei?
This economic theory, emerging during the Enlightenment, argued that free markets and limited government interference best produce wealth.
What is laissez-faire?
This 16th-century Catholic movement aimed to reform the Church internally, combat Protestantism, and reaffirm core doctrines through councils, new religious orders, and missionary activity.
What is the Counter Reformation?
In The Prince (1513), this Florentine political theorist argued that rulers must sometimes act immorally to maintain power, emphasizing pragmatism over morality.
Who is Niccolò Machiavelli?
This reformer’s doctrine of predestination became central to his movement in Geneva, influencing later Protestant traditions.
Who is John Calvin?
This German mathematician formulated the three laws of planetary motion based on Tycho Brahe’s data.
Who is Johannes Kepler?
This principle maintained that governments should rule with the consent of the governed, challenging the divine right of kings.
What is Popular Sovereignty?
This 18th-century Scottish philosopher authored The Natural History of Religion, analyzing the origins and evolution of religious belief through a naturalistic lens.
Who is David Hume?
In this 1576 work, Jean Bodin argued that the state is sovereign, society must be well-organized, rulers should follow God’s laws, and, for the sake of stability, different religious groups could coexist within the commonwealth.
What is Six Books of the Commonwealth?
This 1555 agreement allowed German princes to choose whether their territories would follow Catholicism or Lutheranism.
What is the Peace of Augsburg?
This French philosopher emphasized deductive reasoning and wrote Discourse on Method, famously declaring, “I think, therefore I am.”
Who is René Descartes?
Written by Baron De Montesquieu, examined the various types of government, but unlike Bodin he did not favor absolute power in a monarchy. His time in Britain made him much more favorable to constitutional forms of government. The Catholic church soon listed both Persian Letters and The Spirit of Laws on its Index of forbidden books.
What is the Spirit of Laws?
This Holy Roman Emperor from the Habsburg dynasty sought to re-Catholicize his domains, provoking resistance that escalated into war.
Who is Ferdinand II?
Enacted in 1559, this policy under Elizabeth I established a state church that blended elements of Catholic ritual with Protestant doctrine, aiming to unify England religiously.
What is Elizabeth I's Religious Settlement?
This 1648 treaty ended the Thirty Years’ War and recognized the principle of state sovereignty over religion.
What is the Pease of Westphalia?
This astronomical model, first fully outlined by Copernicus in 1543, placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe, directly challenging the Ptolemaic system.
What is the Heliocentric Theory?
This Enlightenment philosopher, author of Critique of Pure Reason (1781), argued that humans should “dare to know” (sapere aude) and defined Enlightenment as mankind’s emergence from self-imposed immaturity.
Who is Immanuel Kant?
This 1598 royal decree, issued by Henry IV, granted limited toleration to Huguenots and helped end the French Wars of Religion.
What is the Edict of Nantes?