How did the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution introduce new cultural and intellectual movements as well as new ways of thinking about the world from 1350-1700?

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History 105, Emerging European Civilization, Spring 2018

Midterm Exam

Your midterm exam will be given out on Monday, March 12th and is due on Sunday, March 18th by 11:59pm on Canvas. This is a take-home midterm exam and you have one week to complete the exam. You may access and work on the exam at any time throughout the week. Since this is a take home exam, it is open book and open notes (you are allowed to use all your class notes and readings). However, you must work individually and not with any other students in the class. Additionally, do not take any information from websites (use lecture notes, textbook reading, and primary source readings from class) to answer the IDs and essay questions. Remember to always write in complete sentences and to use your own words.

First Section (50 pts): Choose ten out of the following fifteen identifications (IDs). I will only grade the first ten that you answer. You should include the following information: who/what the term is (1 pt), when and where (1/2 pt each), what happened (1 pt), why the term is historically important (2 pts).

Please write in complete sentences.

  1. Vasco de Gama 2. The Thirty Years War 3. Humanism 4. The Black Death

  2. Martin Luther 6. The English Reformation 7. Bartolome de las Casas 8. Calvinism

  3. The French Wars of Religion 10. Elizabeth I 11. Louis XIV

  4. The Printing Press 13. Conquistadors 14. Galileo Galilei 15. Niccolo Machiavelli

Second Section (50 pts): You will choose to write on one out of the following three essay choices. You must base your answers on an analysis of the primary source readings we have done in class. While you can use lecture material and textbook readings for background, you will need to use the primary sources from class to build your argument and fully answer the question. When you quote directly from the primary source be sure to use quotation marks and cite your source. (author, page number). The essay should be 3-4 pages in length.

  1. How did the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution introduce new cultural and intellectual movements as well as new ways of thinking about the world from 1350-1700? Do you see more similarities and/or differences between the Renaissance and medieval world? Why or why not?

  2. Why did Europeans begin to expand outside their borders into a more global world in the 15th through 18th centuries (1400s-1700s)? How did this new growth impact European society as well as the peoples incorporated into these expanding empires?

  3. How did Reformation ideas (both Protestant and Catholic) interact with politics to spark the age of religious wars in early modern Europe (1500-1700)? Why did these wars eventually end and how did European states develop new models of political life in their search for order following the wars of religion?

You must choose which primary sources you will use in the essay depending on the essay question that you decide to answer. The strongest essay is one that develops a thesis (or argument) and uses evidence from the primary sources to support that thesis in order to answer the essay question. The following is a list of primary sources that you may choose from to answer the questions:

Primary Sources from class:

Francesco Petrarch, Letters to Cicero

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Giorgio Vasari, Life of Leonardo da Vinci

Hernando Cortes, Letters to Charles V

Miguel Leon Portilla, An Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico

Bartolome de las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies

Desiderius Erasmus, Julius Excluded from Heaven

Martin Luther, Letter to the Archbishop of Mainz

Martin Luther, Treatise on Marriage

The Council of Trent, Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent

Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises

Charlotte d’Arbaleste, Escape from the Massacre

Otto Guericke, The Sack of Madgeburg

English Parliament, The Bill of Rights

Duc de Saint-Simon, The Court of Louis XIV

Galileo Galilei, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina

 

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