The Renaissance
One of the most well-recognized names of the Renaissance period was this man: a sculptor, inventor, scientist, and artist who shares his name with a ninja turtle and whose mispronounced name became a Tiktok meme.
Who is Leonardo da Vinci?
This revolution produced the first modern democracy when a group of colonies rose in revolt against the British Crown due to grievances around taxation.
What is the American Revolution?
This man, an ambitious artillery officer, became Emperor of France and exerted tremendous power over the nations of Europe -- until he was exiled. Twice.
Who is Napoleon?
Dr. Edward Jenner developed the first one of these to protect people against disease by introducing a small amount of it into the body to train the immune system against it; in this case, it was for smallpox.
What is a vaccine?
This word is the root of the word "colonization", meaning "a territory controlled politically by a different country".
What is a colony?
During the Renaissance, European countries strove to study and emulate (or be more like) these two classical civilizations.
Who are ancient Greece and Rome?
This "revolution" wasn't a violent revolution, but it referred to the process by which technology changed all aspects of industry in the mid-1700s.
What is the Industrial Revolution?
This composer completed his Fifth Symphony in the year 1808, which opens with one of the most famous musical lines in all of history: "dun-dun-dun-dah!"
Who is Ludwig van Beethoven?
Glassmaking technological advances allowed lenses to be produced for these inventions, which were used to observe the night sky.
What are telescopes?
This trade, named for a shape, referred to the journey that ships would take in three legs: first from Europe to Africa carrying goods, then from Africa to North America carrying slaves, then from North America to Europe carrying crops.
What is the triangular (or triangle) trade?
This English Renaissance playwright wrote 39 plays, was a prolific poet, and is said to have invented some 1,700 English words.
Who is William Shakespeare?
This "Canadian" company was founded by the British Empire in the year 1670, and was given royal authorization to do business in Rupert's Land; however, it went bankrupt and ceased operations in 2025.
What is the Hudson's Bay Company?
This explorer is credited with completing the first successful circumnavigation of (or voyage around) the world in 1522.
Who is Ferdinand Magellan?
This was arguably the most important invention of the Early Modern Period; it featured a boiler that turned water into gas and used it to drive wheels, which started the Industrial Revolution.
What is the steam engine?
This empire largely abolished slavery (except in its possessions in India) in 1833 - a little over 30 years before the United States.
What is the British Empire?
During the Renaissance, Galileo, an Italian scientist, ran famous experiments by dropping differently weighted balls from this famous Italian structure to prove that the weight of an object had no effect on how gravity acted on it.
What is the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
Ming China was able to help this Asian country repel a Japanese invasion in the year 1598, restoring the Kingdom of Joseon to an independent power.
What is Korea?
This man split the Catholic Church and created the Protestant branches of Christianity when he rebelled against the church, writing a 95-point list on why the church's selling of sin cancellation was wrong.
Who is Martin Luther?
These handheld long guns were perfected during the Early Modern Period, using a ball that was loaded down the barrel of the weapon and mechanisms like matches, flints, and percussion caps to spark the gunpowder.
What are muskets?
The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494, drew a line through South America, and the treaty said only Spanish colonies would lie to the west of it and only Portuguese colonies would lie to the east of it. It's the reason this South American country speaks Portuguese to this day.
What is Brazil?
What is birth?
During the French Revolution, members of the National Assembly were locked out of their building by the king, so they went next door to this type of sports facility and swore an oath, named for the facility to this day, to stay together and keep meeting until they had a new constitution for France.
What is a tennis court?
After winning the Battle of Sekigahara in the year 1600, this man unified Japan under his new military government, called a shogunate.
Who is Ieyasu Tokugawa?
This device, largely considered to have been invented in 1837, allowed long-distance communication using Morse Code: the operator would push a button that would close an electrical circuit and produce a sound.
What is the electric telegraph?
This country led the only successful slave revolution against the French from 1791-1804, and established this country in the Caribbean.
What is Haiti?