Europe Ready for a Change
This economic and political system organized medieval society around land, loyalty, and service between lords and vassals.
What is feudalism?
Florence, Venice, and Genoa were examples of these politically independent communities that became centers of Renaissance wealth and culture.
What are city-states?
This Renaissance intellectual movement focused on classical learning and the abilities and achievements of human beings.
What is Humanism?
Renaissance artists used this technique to create the illusion of depth and three-dimensional space on a flat surface.
What is perspective?
This inventor is associated with the development of movable-type printing in Europe during the 1400s.
Who was Johannes Gutenberg?
These Church documents became controversial when some people believed payments connected to them could reduce punishment for sins.
What are indulgences?
The Black Death helped weaken this system because labor shortages allowed surviving workers and peasants to demand better wages and greater freedom.
What is the feudal system?
Italy's location on this sea made cities such as Venice and Genoa important centers for trade between Europe, North Africa, and Asia.
What is the Mediterranean Sea?
Humanist scholars looked to the writings and ideas of these two ancient civilizations for inspiration.
What are ancient Greece and Rome?
In linear perspective, parallel lines appear to meet at this point in the distance.
What is the vanishing point?
The printing press made books less expensive primarily because books could now be produced in this way.
What is faster and in much larger quantities?
This German monk publicly challenged the sale and abuse of indulgences in his Ninety-Five Theses.
Who was Martin Luther?
Growing trade contributed to the Renaissance by helping this social group gain wealth and influence in European towns and cities.
Who were merchants/the merchant class?
This powerful Florence banking family used its wealth to support artists, architects, and scholars.
Who were the Medici?
This Northern Renaissance Christian Humanist used satire and scholarship to criticize corruption and encourage reform within Christianity.
Who was Erasmus?
Renaissance artists studied the human body in order to improve this feature of their paintings and sculptures.
What is anatomical realism or accurate human proportion?
Greater access to printed books contributed to an increase in this skill among Europeans.
What is literacy?
In 1517 Luther's criticisms became famous after he wrote this document challenging Church practices surrounding indulgences.
What are the Ninety-Five Theses?
Explain why the population loss caused by the Black Death could actually help create economic and social change in Europe.
What is: Labor shortage increased workers' bargaining power and weakened feudal relationships?
Explain how competition among Italian city-states encouraged Renaissance achievements rather than preventing them.
What is: Competition encouraged patronage and achievement?
Italian Humanism and Christian Humanism shared an interest in education, but Christian Humanists especially wanted education to accomplish this goal.
What is Reform Christian society?
Leonardo da Vinci's careful observation of anatomy, nature, engineering, and art demonstrates what important Renaissance idea?
What is the belief that observation, learning, and human ability could be used to better understand the world?
Explain why the printing press changed the balance of power between educated elites and ordinary Europeans.
What is: Broader access to information
Nepotism, absenteeism, and pluralism created demands for reform because they were examples of this larger problem.
What is Church corruption / abuse?
Historians often describe the Renaissance as both a continuation of and a break from the Middle Ages. Give one piece of evidence supporting each side of this argument.
What is: Continuity + change response supported by evidence?
Italy had access to wealth from trade and physical reminders of ancient Rome. Explain why the combination of these two factors was especially important to the Renaissance.
What is: Wealth funded culture while classical heritage supplied inspiration?
Explain how Humanism could encourage people to question established institutions even though Humanists did not necessarily want to destroy those institutions.
What is: Critical inquiry encouraged people to identify and question problems?
A medieval painting and a Renaissance painting both show a religious scene. The Renaissance figures display emotion, realistic bodies, depth, and individual facial expressions. What intellectual movement is most clearly reflected in those artistic choices, and why?
What is Humanism?
Before printing, a reformer's criticism might remain local. After printing, the same criticism could spread across Europe. What does this demonstrate about the relationship between technology and historical change?
What is: Technology accelerated the spread and impact of ideas?
Martin Luther initially criticized indulgence abuses, but the disagreement eventually became a larger conflict over this fundamental issue.
What is religious authority?
Trade, the Black Death, weakening feudalism, and growing towns all contributed to the Renaissance. Identify the larger historical pattern connecting these developments.
What is the Shift toward an urban, commercial, more socially mobile society?
A historian argues, “Geography alone caused the Renaissance to begin in Italy.” Use evidence from the unit to challenge this claim.
What is: Geography mattered, but trade, banking, patronage, competition, and classical heritage also mattered?
Erasmus criticized problems within Christianity but did not begin a separate Protestant church. Why is this distinction important when connecting Humanism to the Reformation?
What is: Humanism encouraged reform but was not itself Protestantism?
Renaissance artists continued creating religious works while also emphasizing realism, classical influences, and the individual. Explain why this makes it inaccurate to describe the Renaissance simply as a rejection of religion.
What is: Renaissance thinkers often blended religious traditions with Humanist/classical ideas?
Which was more historically significant: the invention of the printing press itself or the ideas people chose to print? Defend a historically supportable response.
What is: Accept either position with strong historical reasoning connecting technology and ideas?
Explain why Martin Luther's challenge became a major European movement while earlier criticisms of Church abuses had often remained more limited. Use at least two historical factors.
What is: the printing press + existing reform demands + Humanism + political protection / suppport?