European Conflicts
This 116-year conflict between England and France was fought primarily over claims to the French throne.
What is the Hundred Years' War?
He sparked the Protestant Reformation in 1517 by nailing his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenberg.
Who is Martin Luther?
In 1453, Sultan Mehmed II conquered this historic capital, effectively bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire.
What is Constantinople?
Sailing under the Spanish flag in 1492, this Italian explorer made landfall in the Caribbean while seeking a western route to Asia.
Who is Christopher Columbus?
This term refers to the vast, historical transfer of plants, animals, culture, and devastating diseases between the Old and New Worlds.
What is the Columbian Exchange?
She was a teenage peasant girl whose divine visions inspired French forces to lift the Siege of Orléans.
Who is Joan of Arc?
This Polish astronomer revolutionized science by mathematically proposing a heliocentric (sun-centered) model of the universe.
Who is Nicolaus Copernicus?
Known as "The Magnificent" in the West, this sultan led the empire to its golden age and expanded deep into Europe.
Who is Suleiman the Magnificent?
This Portuguese explorer's expedition completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the globe, though he died midway through the voyage.
Who is Ferdinand Magellan?
This specific, horrific leg of the Triangular Trade network forcibly transported millions of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.
What is the Middle Passage?
This English civil conflict pitted the House of Lancaster against the House of York for control of the crown.
What is the War of the Roses?
This Italian scientist faced an Inquisition trial for defending heliocentrism using his improved telescope observations.
Who is Galileo Galilei?
This was the official title held by the supreme absolute monarch who ruled over the Ottoman Empire.
What is a Sultan?
Signed in 1494, this treaty drew an imaginary line through the Atlantic, dividing all newly discovered non-Christian lands between Spain and Portugal.
What is the Treaty of Tordesillas?
This economic system drove European colonization, operating on the theory that a nation's power depended on stockpiling gold and maintaining a favorable balance of trade.
What is mercantilism?
The Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 ended the War of the Roses and established this powerful new royal dynasty.
What is the Tudor Dynasty?
This man formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation in this groundbreaking 1687 Latin text.
Who is Isaac Newton?
Because the Ottomans heavily taxed and controlled these overland networks, European nations began searching for ocean routes to Asia.
What are the Silk Road trade routes?
This Portuguese prince sponsored early voyages down the African coast and established a famous school for navigators.
Who is Prince Henry the Navigator?
Founded in Virginia in 1607, this settlement became the first permanent English colony in North America.
What is Jamestown?
The Hundred Years' War led to the growth of what idea in France and England?
What is nationalism?
This English philosopher and statesman popularized the modern scientific method, strongly advocating for empiricism and inductive reasoning over old academic traditions.
Who is Francis Bacon?
This elite standing army corps was composed of Christian boys who were converted to Islam and trained to be fiercely loyal to the Sultan.
Who are the Janissaries?
This Spanish conquistador led the expedition that overthrew the Aztec Empire and captured its capital, Tenochtitlan.
Who is Hernán Cortés?
This Spanish colonial labor system granted conquistadors the right to demand forced labor and tribute from indigenous populations in exchange for "protection" and Catholic instruction.
What is the encomienda system?