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Avicenna

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Latin translations of the Iranian philosopher Ibn Sina. They had a great influence because of their sophisticated blend of Aristotelian and Islamic philosophy.

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Cosimo de' Medici

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This Florentine banker, nicknamed "the Magnificent" spent immense sums on paintings, sculpture, and public buildings

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Desiderius Eurasmus

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This influential humanist from northern Europe wrote a new edition of the New Testament in Greek as well as other influential works

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Edward III

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the son of Princess Isabella and King Edward II of England. He laid claim to the French throne in 1337, but the French courts wouldn't let him, so he decided to fight for his rights. This led to the Hundred Years War.

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Francesco Petrarch

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a humanist poet who proclaimed a revival of the classical Greco-Roman tradition he felt had for centuries lain buried under the rubble of the Middle Ages.

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Fugger family

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This Augsburg family had ten times the lending capital of their nearest rivals and were at the top of Europe's banking system by 1500

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Geoffrey Chaucer

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poet whose many works show the influence of Dante. Wrote in vernacular language. Author of the Canterbury Tales.

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Jan van Eyck

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Flemish painter who mixed his pigments with linseed oil in place of the egg yolk of earlier centuries. His oil paints dried more slowly and gave pictures a superior luster. His technique was quickly copied by Italian painters.

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Johann Gutenberg

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published the Gutenberg Bible of 1454, the first book in the West printed from movable type, which exhibited a beauty and craftsmanship that bore witness to the printer's years of experimentation.

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Leonardo da Vinci

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Painter of The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, he is the most famous man of the Renaissance

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Marco Polo

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a young merchant who set out from Venice in 1271 and reached the Mongol court in China. He served Khubilai Khan for many years as an ambassador and governor for a Chinese province. His dramatic accounts of his adventures are questioned by some historians.

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Medici family

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This Florentine family operated banks in Italy, Flanders, and London, and controlled the government of Florence

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Michelangelo

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da Vinci's younger contemporary who painted frescoes of biblical scenes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, sculpted statues of David and Moses, and designed the dome for a new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

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Thomas Aquinas

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a brilliant Dominican priest who taught theology at the University of Paris. Wrote the most notable scholastic work Summa Theologica. Associated with Scholasticism.

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Vasco da Gama

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Portuguese explorer. In 1497-1498 he led the first naval expedition from Europe to sail to India, opening an important commercial sea route

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Avignon Papacy

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After Philip 'the fair' of France arrested the pope, he engineered the election of a French pope and moved the papal residence here

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Canterbury Tales

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lengthy poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the last dozen years of his life. Contains often humorous and earthy tales told by fictional pilgrims on their way to the shrine of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury. They present a vivid cross-section of medieval people and attitudes.

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Flying buttresses

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These were a hallmark of the Gothic design and stabilized high, thin, stone columns allowing large windows and high ceilings

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Gothic cathedrals

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large churches originating in 12th-century France; built in an architectural style featuring pointed arches, tall vaults and spires, flying buttresses, and large stained-glass windows.

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Guild

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in medieval Europe, an association of men (rarely women), such as merchants, artisans, or professors, who worked in a particular trade and banded together to promote their economic and political interests. They were also important in other societies, such as the Ottoman and Safavid Empires.

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Hanseatic League

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an economic and defensive alliance of the free towns in northern Germany, founded about 1241 and most powerful in the 14th century.

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Humanists

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European scholars, writers, and teachers associated with the study of the humanities (grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, languages, and moral philosophy), influential in 15th century and later.

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Magna Carta

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"Great Charter" that King John of England was forced to sign. It affirmed that monarchs were subject to established law, confirmed the independence of the church and the city of London, and guaranteed the nobles' hereditary rights.

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Printing press

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a mechanical device for transferring text or graphics from a woodblock or type to paper using ink. Ones of these that used movable type first appeared in Europe in about 1450.

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Three-field system

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a rotational system for agriculture in which 2 fields grow food crops and one lies fallow. It gradually replaced the 2-field system in medieval Europe.

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Universities

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degree-granting institutions of higher learning. Those that appeared in the Latin West from about 1200 onward became the model of all modern ones.

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Water wheel

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a mechanism that harnesses the energy in flowing water to grind grain or to power machinery. It was used in many parts of the world but was especially common in Europe from 1200 to 1900.

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Black Death

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an outbreak of bubonic plague that spread across Asia, North Africa, and Europe in the mid-14th century, carrying off vast numbers of peoples. One in three Europeans died.

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Fourth Crusade

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a Venetian-inspired assault in 1204 against Constantinople that temporarily eliminated Byzantine control of the passage between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, allowing Venice to seize Crete and expand its trading colonies.

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Great Western Schism

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a division in the Latin (western) Christian Church between 1378 and 1415, when rival claimants to the papacy existed in Rome and Avignon.

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Hundred Years' War

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series of campaigns over control of the throne of France, involving English and French royal families and French noble families. The French won!

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Reconquest of Iberia

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beginning in the 11th century, military campaigns by various Iberian Christian states to recapture territory taken by Muslims. In 1492 the last Muslim ruler was defeated, and Spain and Portugal emerged as united kingdoms.

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Renaissance (European)

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a period of intense artistic and intellectual activity, said to be a "rebirth" of Greco-Roman culture. Usually divided into an Italian one, from roughly the mid-14th to mid-15th century, and a Northern (trans-Alpine) one, from roughly the early-15th to early 17th century.

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Scholasticism

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a philosophical and theological system, associated with Thomas Aquinas, devised to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy and Roman Catholic theology in 13th century.

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Afonso I

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the Christian manikongo (king) of Kongo who begged the king of Portugal to stop the slave trade because unauthorized Kongolese were kidnapping and selling people, even members of good families. He received no reply from the Portuguese.

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Atahualpa

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last ruling Inca emperor of Peru. Executed by the Spanish.

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Bartolomeu Dias

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Portuguese explorer who in 1488 led the first expedition to sail around the southern tip of Africa from the Atlantic and sight the Indian Ocean.

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Christopher Columbus

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Genoese mariner who in the service of Spain led expeditions across the Atlantic, reestablishing contact between the peoples of the Americas and the Old World and opening the way to Spanish conquest and colonization.

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Ferdinand Magellan

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Portuguese navigator who led the Spanish expedition of 1519-1522 that was the first to sail around the world.

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Francisco Pizarro

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Spanish explorer who led the conquest of the Inca Empire of Peru in 1531-1533.

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Henry the Navigator

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Portuguese prince who promoted the study of navigation and directed voyages of exploration down the western coast of Africa in the 15th century.

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Hernán Cortés

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Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Mexico in 1519-1521 for Spain

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Moctezuma II

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Aztec emperor who died while in custody of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés

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Zheng He

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an imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa.

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Caravel

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a small, highly maneuverable 3-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in the exploration of the Atlantic.

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Conquistadors

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early-16th century Spanish adventurers who conquered Mexico, Central America, and Peru.

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Gold Coast (Africa)

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region of the Atlantic coast of Western Africa occupied by modern Ghana; named for its gold exports to Europe from the 1470s onward.

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Conquest of the Aztec

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Cortés heard of this rich empire and pushed towards the capital of Tenochtitlan. The emperor Moctezuma II tried to use diplomacy rather than warfare, but they took him prisoner, looted his treasury, interfered with the city's religious rituals, and massacred hundreds. The people tried a rebellion, and in the confusion, Moctezuma was killed. An epidemic of smallpox also killed many.

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Conquest of the Inca

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These people were weakened when Francisco Pizarro came to conquer them, because they had just had a family fight for the throne. Pizarro arranged to meet their emperor, Atahualpa, and then attacked him. Atahualpa offered a huge ransom, which the Spanish took and then executed him anyway.

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Charles I (England)

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ruled for 11 years without summoning parliament; raised funds by getting money from wealthy subjects and applying existing tax laws more broadly; eventually, he called Parliament when there was a rebellion in Scotland, and Parliament insisted on strict guarantees that the king would never again ignore them. He refused, leading to the English Civil War, in which he was executed.

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Charles II (England)

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Parliament restored the Stuart line in this person. He ruled England from 1660-1685. His brother James II inherited the throne after him.

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Charles V (HRE)

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Holy Roman Emperor at the time of the Reformation, he was involved in allowing Luther to live as well as granting Protestant princes the right to choose the religion of their lands. He retired to a monastery.

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Copernicus

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a Polish monk and mathematician who said that the planets revolve around the sun, not the earth. This heliocentric idea was controversial.

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Galileo Galilei

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Italian man who built a telescope that allowed him to discover that heavenly bodies were not perfectly smooth spheres. In other words, the earth was not alone in being heavy and changeable.

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Habsburgs

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a powerful European family that provided many Holy Roman Emperors, founded the Austrian (later Austro-Hungarian) Empire, and ruled 16th-17th century Spain.

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Ignatius Loyola

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Founder of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, he was a former mercenary who became a priest and 'fought' for the church in the Catholic Reformation

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Isaac Newton

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an English mathematician who carried Galileo's demonstration that the heavens and earth share a common physics to its logical conclusion by formulating mathematical laws that govern all physical objects. Made the Law of Gravity and had a role in developing calculus.

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James II (England)

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inherited the throne after his brother Charles II. He provoked a new conflict by refusing to respect Parliament's rights and by baptizing his heir as a Roman Catholic. He was forced into exile in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

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Johannes Kepler

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German assistant to Tycho Brahe, who with Brahe strengthened and improved on Copernicus's model, showing that planets actually move in elliptical, not circular, orbits.

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John Calvin

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Swiss reformer who believed in the doctrine of predestination

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John Locke

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English political philosopher who wrote Second Treatise of Civil Government in 1690, which disputed monarchial claims to absolute authority by divine right. He said that rulers derived their authority from the consent of the governed and were subject to the law. It was citizen's right and duty to rebel if a monarch overstepped the law.

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Louis XIV

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French king who had Versailles built. Revoked the Edict of Nantes. Tried to expand France's borders but failed because of Britain's naval strength and the land armies of Austria and Prussia.

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Martin Luther

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Famous theologian who wrote the 95 theses objecting to the sale of indulgences by the church

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Phillip II (Spain)

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Spanish king who used the Inquisition to enforce religious orthodoxy. He sent a massive fleet of ships against England in 1588.

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Tycho Brahe

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Danish astronomer who strengthened and improved on Copernicus's model, showing that planets actually move in elliptical, not circular, orbits. Fun facts about him: he had a gold nose; he used a dwarf to spy on people; he and his friends would get his pet moose drunk for fun.

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Bourgeoisie

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in early modern Europe, the class of well-off town dwellers whose wealthy came from manufacturing, finance, commerce, and allied professions.

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Holy Roman Empire

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loose federation of mostly German states and principalities, headed by an emperor elected by the princes. Lasted from 962-1806.

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Indulgence

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the forgiveness of the punishment due for past sins, granted by the Catholic Church authorities as a reward for a pious act. Martin Luther's protest against the sale of these is often seen as touching off the Protestant Reformation.

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Jesuits

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the Society of Jesus. A religious order founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola. An important event of the Catholic Reformation. They helped stem the Protestant tide by their teaching and preaching.

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Joint-stock company

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a business, often backed by a government charter, that sold shares to individuals to raise money for its trading enterprises and to spread the risks (and profits) among many investors

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Mercantilism

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wealth based on ownership of precious metals (gold and silver); included development of colonies; believed that wealth was finite (in other words, if you get wealthy it's at someone else's expense)

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Spanish Armada

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the massive fleet of ships sent by King Phillip II to fight the English. The English won, which weakened Spain and began England's rise to naval dominance.

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Stock exchange

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a place where shares in a company or business enterprise are bought and sold

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Versailles

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the huge palace built for French king Louis XVI south of Paris. It symbolized both French power and the triumph of royal authority over the French nobility.

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Balance of power

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the policy in international relations by which, beginning in the eighteenth century, the major European states acted together to prevent anyone of them from becoming too powerful

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Catholic Reformation

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religious reform movement within the Latin Christian Church, begun in response to the Protestant Reformation. It clarified Catholic theology and reformed clerical training and discipline.

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Divine Right of Kings

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states that the monarch had absolute authority to rule in God's name on Earth

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Edict of Nantes

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granted religious freedom to Protestants. Made by King Henry IV of France.

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English Civil War

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(1642-1649) A conflict over royal versus parliamentary rights, caused by King Charles I's arrest of his parliamentary critics and ending with his execution. Its outcome checked the growth of royal absolutism and, with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the English Bill of Rights of 1689, ensured that England would be a constitutional monarchy.

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Enlightenment

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a philosophical movement in 18th-century Europe that fostered the belief that one could reform society by discovering rational laws that governed social behavior and were just as scientific as the laws of physics

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Little Ice Age

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a century-long period of cool climate that began in the 1590s. Its ill effects on agriculture in northern Europe were notable.

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Middle Passage

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The part of the Atlantic Circuit involving the transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas

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Peace of Augsburg

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declared by Charles V in 1555, this recognized the princes' right to choose whether Catholicism or Lutheranism would prevail in their particular states, and permitted them to keep the church lands they had seized

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Protestant Reformation

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religious reform movement within the Latin Christian Church beginning in 1519. It resulted in the "protesters" forming several new Christian denominations, including the Lutheran and Reformed Churches and the Church of England.

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Scientific Revolution

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the intellectual movement in Europe, initially associated with planetary motion and other aspects of physics, that by the 17th century had laid the groundwork for modern science

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Thirty Years War

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war from 1618-1648 that was the worst of the Holy Roman Empire's international conflicts. It caused long-lasting depopulation and economic decline.

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Witch-hunt

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the pursuit of people suspected of witchcraft, especially in Northern Europe in late 16th and 17th centuries.

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Austronesia

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islands of the central and south Pacific

AP World History Ch. 14-16 – Flashcards

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