Renaissance and Exploration Flashcards

Which statement best describes the central goal of Renaissance humanism in fifteenth-century Italy?

Answer: Using the study of classical Greek and Roman texts to develop human potential and civic engagement

Humanists studied classical literature, history, and rhetoric to cultivate virtue and prepare citizens for active public life. This emphasis on civic engagement and human potential distinguished them from medieval scholastics.

Which was the most significant effect of Johannes Gutenberg's introduction of movable-type printing in mid-fifteenth-century Europe?

Answer: Texts became cheaper and could circulate more widely, which accelerated the spread of humanist and later reform ideas

Printing lowered the cost and increased the speed of reproducing texts, so new ideas reached far more readers. This helped spread humanism and later aided the Reformation.

Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince is best understood as a reflection of which historical context?

Answer: Political fragmentation and foreign invasion in Italy, which led to a pragmatic focus on how rulers gain and keep power

Machiavelli wrote after the French invasion of 1494 exposed the weakness of the divided Italian states. He gave realistic advice about maintaining power that was based on effectiveness rather than conventional Christian morality.

Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier promoted which Renaissance ideal?

Answer: A well-rounded person skilled in arms, letters, and the arts, who displays accomplishments with effortless grace

Castiglione described the ideal courtier as educated, athletic, and artistically accomplished, and as showing these skills with apparent ease. This reflects the Renaissance ideal of the versatile, well-rounded individual.

Which description best characterizes the Portuguese approach to overseas expansion in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries?

Answer: A network of fortified coastal trading posts along Africa and the Indian Ocean to control the spice trade

Portugal sought control of trade by establishing fortified coastal posts in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. Vasco da Gama's 1498 voyage to India opened a direct sea route to the spice markets.

Which of the following was transferred from the Americas to Europe as part of the Columbian Exchange and helped support population growth, especially in northern Europe?

Answer: The potato

The potato originated in the Americas and, once adopted in Europe, produced a high-calorie crop on small plots of land. Wheat, horses, and smallpox were carried from the Old World to the Americas.

What was the main purpose of the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas?

Answer: To divide newly claimed lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a north-south line

Spain and Portugal agreed to a line of demarcation in the Atlantic to settle competing claims, with Spain receiving lands to the west and Portugal to the east. This arrangement later gave Portugal a claim to Brazil.

In Spanish America, the encomienda system primarily involved which arrangement?

Answer: Colonists were granted the right to demand labor and tribute from indigenous people, who were in theory to be protected and Christianized

Under the encomienda, the Crown assigned groups of indigenous people to Spanish colonists, who could extract labor and tribute. In return, they were supposed to provide protection and religious instruction, though abuse was widespread.

What was a major economic consequence of the large inflow of American silver into Spain and the rest of Europe in the sixteenth century?

Answer: Widespread price inflation, often called the Price Revolution

The influx of silver, especially from mines such as Potosí, increased the money supply faster than goods were produced, which pushed prices up across Europe. This is known as the Price Revolution.

Northern European Christian humanists such as Desiderius Erasmus are best characterized by which approach?

Answer: Applying classical learning and a return to original scriptural sources to promote inner piety and criticize clerical corruption

Erasmus combined humanist scholarship with Christian reform, producing a Greek New Testament and satirizing church abuses in works like In Praise of Folly. He stressed a simple, inward piety.