Renaissance & Reformation
This movement during the Renaissance focused on studying classical Greek and Roman ideas and emphasizing human potential.
Humanism
This form of government gives a ruler total power.
absolute monarchy
This 1776 document announced that the American colonies were independent from Britain.
The Declaration of Independence
This assassination in 1914 started World War I.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
This deadly World War I weapon sprayed hundreds of bullets per minute and made charging across no man’s land extremely dangerous.
machine gun
This invention by Johannes Gutenberg helped ideas spread quickly during the Renaissance and Reformation.
The printing press
This French king ruled as an absolute monarch and famously said, “I am the state.”
King Louis XIV
This French revolutionary period from 1793–1794 was led by radicals like Robespierre and used the guillotine to execute thousands of suspected enemies.
The Reign of Terror
This style of fighting used deep trenches and led to a stalemate on the Western Front.
trench warfare
This Renaissance artist painted the Mona Lisa.
Leonardo da Vinci
This German monk started the Protestant Reformation by posting the 95 Theses in 1517.
Martin Luther
This English scientist explained gravity and wrote Principia Mathematica.
Isaac Newton
This event in 1789, when a Paris prison was stormed, symbolized the start of the French Revolution.
The Storming of the Bastille
This secret British ship sinking by Germany helped push the United States toward entering the war.
The sinking of the Lusitania
This scientific idea says the Earth revolves around the Sun.
The heliocentric theory
This Renaissance political thinker wrote The Prince, arguing rulers should sometimes use ruthless methods to keep power.
Niccolò Machiavelli
This Enlightenment idea argued that government power should be divided into different branches to prevent tyranny.
separation of powers
This South American revolutionary leader helped free countries like Venezuela, Colombia, and Bolivia from Spanish rule and became known as “The Liberator.”
Simón Bolívar
This 1919 treaty officially ended World War I and placed heavy blame and penalties on Germany.
The Treaty of Versailles
During the French Revolution, French society was divided into three groups called the clergy, the nobility, and the common people. Together they were known as this.
The Three Estates
This church meeting in the 1500s launched reforms and helped start the Catholic Counter-Reformation.
The Council of Trent
This Enlightenment thinker believed people had natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
John Locke
This Haitian revolutionary leader helped lead the only successful slave revolt in history.
Toussaint Louverture
This German war plan involved quickly defeating France before turning to fight Russia by marching through Belgium.
The Schlieffen Plan
During World War I, Germany used U-boats to sink enemy ships without warning, including merchant and passenger ships. What was this strategy called?
Unrestricted submarine warfare