SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION BASICS
This period shifted thinking from ancient texts to observation and experimentation.
Scientific Revolution
Proposed the heliocentric model.
Nicolaus Copernicus
Bottom-up reasoning from facts to conclusions.
inductive reasoning
The period of European overseas expansion in the 15th–16th centuries.
Age of Exploration
Spanish labor system that exploited Indigenous people
encomienda system
The centuries during which the Scientific Revolution took place.
16th–18th centuries
Discovered laws of planetary motion.
Johannes Kepler
Top-down reasoning from general ideas to specifics.
deductive reasoning
A major event in 1453 that disrupted trade routes.
fall of Constantinople
Social class of Spanish-born elites in colonies.
peninsulares
This replaced reliance on ancient authorities like Aristotle and Ptolemy.
observation and experimentation
Used experiments and the telescope; supported Copernicus.
Galileo Galilei
Knowledge gained through the senses and observation.
empiricism
Navigation tools like the compass and astrolabe improved this.
sea navigation
Forced movement of Africans across the Atlantic.
Atlantic slave trade
This old belief placed Earth at the center of the universe.
geocentric (Ptolemaic) model
Developed inductive reasoning and empiricism
Francis Bacon
Galileo’s contribution that emphasized testing ideas.
experimental method
Portugal led early exploration along Africa
Bartolomeu Dias
Two main causes of population decline in Indigenous peoples.
disease and forced labor
The belief that the universe operates like a machine governed by natural laws.
mechanical view of the universe
Discovered gravity and wrote Principia.
Isaac Newton
Newton combined these two types of reasoning
inductive and deductive reasoning
Spain funded this explorer’s voyage in 1492.
Christopher Columbus
The Catholic institution that influenced colonial life and education.
Catholic Church