Maps
Found on almost every map, this graphic symbol clearly shows the orientation of North, South, East, and West.
What is a COMPASS?
This rigid, hierarchical system exchanged land for military service and labor, ensuring that everyone knew their exact place in medieval society from birth.
What is the feudal system (or feudalism)?
To avoid the serious academic offense of plagiarism, you must include this structured entry in your bibliography to give proper credit to the original creator of an idea or quote.
What is a citation (or a reference)?
The ultimate "Renaissance Man," this brilliant thinker, scientist, and artist painted the Mona Lisa and filled notebooks with futuristic designs for flying machines.
What is Leonardo da Vinci?
Sponsored by Spain in 1492, this Italian navigator’s journals reveal that his primary focus upon making landfall was finding gold and evaluating how easily the local Taino people could be subjugated.
What is Christopher Columbus?
These imaginary lines run vertically from the North Pole to the South Pole and measure how far east or west you are from the Prime Meridian.
What are lines of LONGITUDE?
Making up over 85% of the population, these legally bound labourers were tied to the lord's land, forced to farm it, and forbidden from leaving without permission.
What are serfs (or peasants)?
A strong inquiry question should never be a simple "yes or no" or a single-fact Google search. Instead, it must be this type of question that requires deep analysis, evidence, and explanation.
What is an open-ended question?
This core Renaissance philosophy shifted the focus away from strictly religious, afterlife-centred thinking and instead celebrated human potential, reason, and individual achievement.
What is Humanism?
This term refers to the actual physical practice of a powerful nation taking over a foreign territory, exploiting its resources, and sending its own people to live there permanently as settlers.
What is Colonialism?
This map feature tells you the relationship between a specific distance on the map (like 1 cm) and the actual distance on the Earth's surface (like 10 km).
What is a MAP SCALE?
Because the vast majority of Europeans were illiterate, these religious buildings became the exclusive centres of knowledge, where monks spent lifetimes hand-copying books.
What are monasteries?
When testing a source for credibility, researchers look out for this four-letter term that means a strong, often unfair inclination or prejudice toward one specific point of view.
What is bias?
Renaissance thinkers didn't just invent new ideas—they actively revived, translated, and studied the forgotten philosophies, math, and science from these two ancient Mediterranean civilizations.
What are Ancient Greece and Rome (or Classical Antiquity)?
Derived from the Latin word for "command," this term refers to the overarching policy, idea, or mindset of a powerful nation extending its authority by conquering other territories or establishing economic and political control over them.
What is Imperialism?
Often tucked into a corner, this essential map element explains what the different symbols, colors, and shading on the map actually represent.
What is a MAP LEGEND?
This terrifying religious punishment meant being completely cut off from the Catholic Church and its sacraments, effectively condemning a person—even a king—to hell in medieval eyes.
What is excommunication?
This historical skill requires you to understand the social, cultural, and emotional context of people living in the past, rather than judging their actions entirely by modern 21st-century values.
What is historical perspective-taking (or historical empathy)?
This Polish astronomer deeply shaken the Renaissance worldview by publishing mathematical proof that the Earth revolved around the Sun, directly challenging centuries of church-approved science.
What is Nicolaus Copernicus?
This dominant early modern economic theory viewed global wealth as a finite pie, meaning a mother country had to strictly maximize its exports, minimize its imports, and hoard as much gold and silver as possible to win.
What is Mercantilism?
On a topographic map, when these brown lines are drawn incredibly close together, it means the terrain in that area is doing this.
What is getting VERY STEEP (OR RISING SHARPLY)?
By wiping out over a third of Europe's population, this catastrophic event inadvertently gave surviving serfs massive leverage to demand higher wages, shattering the traditional feudal system.
What is the Black Death (or the Bubonic Plague)?
If a researcher is reading a modern textbook analysis of the Black Death that quotes directly from a 1348 diary entry, the modern textbook is a secondary source, while the diary quote inside it represents this.
What is a primary source?
This powerful, wealthy banking family essentially funded the Italian Renaissance by using their massive fortune to act as patrons for artists like Michelangelo and Donatello.
What is the Medici Family (or the House of Medici)?
This term describes the massive, planet-wide transfer of plants, animals, cultures, and technologies between the Eastern and Western hemispheres following European contact.
What is the Columbian Exchange?