Renaissance & Humanism
This person is a financial supporter of the arts, funding the work of artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
What is a Patron?
He wrote the 95 Theses in 1517 to challenge Church corruption and the sale of indulgences.
Who is Martin Luther?
The system used by the Ottoman Empire to conscript (draft) Christian boys for state service, training many to become Janissaries.
What is the Devshirme System?
This instrument helped early European sailors determine their latitude (North or South position) by observing celestial bodies.
What is the Astrolabe?
The most valuable commodity that was the focus of the early Portuguese and Dutch trade in Asia.
What are spices?
This Italian city-state is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance.
What is Florence?
This German invention by Johannes Gutenberg drastically accelerated the spread of Luther's ideas across Europe.
What is the Printing Press?
This Safavid Shah modernized the army and weakened the influence of the powerful Qizilbash tribal leaders.
Who is Shah Abbas I?
This ship, equipped with lateen (triangular) sails, was critical in allowing the Portuguese to sail against prevailing winds.
What is the Caravel?
The Dutch joint-stock company (VOC) wielded this power that normally belonged only to a sovereign nation.
What is the power to wage war, sign treaties, or mint money?
This core Renaissance philosophy focused on secular learning and the potential of the individual rather than purely religious subjects.
What is Humanism?
John Calvin’s key doctrine which asserts that God has already determined who will be saved.
What is Predestination?
The highly trained, elite Christian-slave infantry that formed the core of the Ottoman Sultan's military.
What are the Janissaries?
This Portuguese explorer was the first to successfully sail around the Cape of Good Hope and reach Calicut, India, opening a direct sea route to Asia.
Who is Vasco da Gama?
The economic and military system in West Africa where rulers traded human captives for European firearms, escalating internal conflict.
What is the Gun-Slave Cycle?
He is the Renaissance artist who painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling and sculpted the David.
Who is Michelangelo?
This was the most significant political impact on England after Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church.
What is the King/Monarch becoming the head of the Church of England (or Anglican Church)?
The primary religious division that led to constant warfare between the Sunni Ottoman and Shi'ite Safavid Empires.
What is the Sunni-Shi'ite Split?
This was the initial goal of the Portuguese when they began building "factories" (fortified trading posts) along the West African coast.
What was to trade for gold/ivory/spices (or use as a stopover on the way to India)?
The Qing Dynasty's policy that restricted all European trade to one port and required transactions to be conducted through licensed Chinese merchants.
What is the Canton System?
This is the primary difference between Humanist beliefs and medieval beliefs regarding the focus of study and life.
What is secular learning versus religious doctrine? (or individual potential versus obedience to the church?)
This person developed laws of gravity and motion as well as inventing calculus.
Who is Isaac Newton
This Russian monarch is famous for defeating Sweden to gain a "Window on the West" by founding the city of St. Petersburg.
Who is Peter the Great?
The military innovation that allowed the Ottoman Empire to conquer Constantinople in 1453.
What were massive cannons (or gunpowder artillery)?
The policy of "Seclusion" implemented by the Tokugawa Shogunate, which banned Christianity and severely limited foreign trade.
What are the Sakoku Edicts?