Unit 4 Vocabulary: Connecting Hemispheres

Renaissance & Reformation

v  Renaissance: (15th-16th centuries) A rebirth of European culture that began in the Italian city-states, with a spirit of inquiry, a rediscovery of classical learning, & improvements in painting & architecture

v  Secularism: Having no religious or spiritual basis; not pertaining to or connected with religion; related to concerns of the world

v  Leonardo da Vinci: a sculptor, inventor, painter, best known for the Mona Lisa and Last Supper

v  Michelangelo: a Florentine artist known for the David, Pieta, fresco paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

v  Humanism: A Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied classical texts and focused on human potential and achievements

v  Niccolo Machiavelli: a courtier & politician in Florence. Wrote The Prince, a guidebook in how to secure and maintain political power

v  Copernicus: (1473-1543) Polish astronomer who believed that the Earth orbited the sun. His work was banned by the Church

v  Galileo Galilei: (1564-1642) Italian scientist who studied motion. His observations with a telescope confirmed the Copernican theory. He was tried and convicted by the Church

v  Johann Gutenberg: developed a printing press with movable type in Germany around 1450

v  Indulgences: a pardon releasing a person from punishments due for a sin

v  Martin Luther: (1483-1546) was a Augustinian monk who posted his 95 Theses on a church door in Germany

v  95 Theses: attack against the church and challenged the Pope’s right to sell indulgences

v  John Calvin: (1509-1564) He began a new Protestant Church in Geneva based on belief in predestination, faith as a key to salvation, and a strict moral code

v  Predestination: already decided by God

v  Reformation: Movement begun in Germany by Martin Luther in 1517 in which many Christians left the Catholic Church for Protestant Churches

v  Counter-Reformation: was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648), and was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation.

v  Council of Trent: a meeting of Roman Catholic leaders called by Pope Paul III to rule on doctrines criticized by the Protestant Reformation

v  Elizabeth I: (1533-1603) English Queen who created a strong, centralized monarchy based on national unity and a sharing power between monarchy and Parliament

v  Inquisition: A Roman Catholic tribunal for investigating and prosecuting charges of heresy-especially the one active in Spain during the 1400s

The Americas: Pre-Columbian Empires to Colonies

v  Maya: A Pre-Columbian civilization in Guatemala & the Yucatan. They cultivated corn and had achievements in building and the creation of a numbering system

v  Inca: A Pre-Columbian civilization in the Andes Mountains. The Inca excelled at engineering, and developed new food crops like potatoes

v  Aztec: A Pre-Columbian civilization in Central Mexico with a highly complex social organization, a yearly calendar, and a tradition of human sacrifices

v  Prince Henry: Prince of Portugal who developed a new, lighter sailing ship and sponsored expeditions along the coast of Africa

v  Christopher Columbus: (1451-1506) Italian sailor who sailed for Spain to find a westward route to Asia. In 1492, instead of reaching the East Indies, he landed in the Americas.

v  Columbian Exchange: Exchange of products and idea between Native Americans and Europe that developed out of the “encounter” by Columbus

v  Vasco da Gama: discovered an all-water route from Europe to India by sailing around the southern tip of Africa in 1497

v  Ferdinand Magellan: Portuguese explorer, led the 1st expedition of ships to circumnavigate the world

v  Hernando Cortes: Was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire

v  Conquistadores: The Spanish soldiers, explorers, and fortune hunters who took part in the conquest of the America in the 16th century

v  Montezuma: Aztec emperor

v  Francisco Pizarro: Spanish conquistador who conquered the Incan Empire

v  Encomienda System: a grant of land made by Spain to a settler in the Americas, including the right to use Native Americans as laborers on it

v  Atlantic Slave Trade: (16th-19th centuries) buying, transporting, and selling of Africans for work in the Americas

v  “Middle Passage”: The voyage that brought captured Africans to the West Indies, and later to North and South America, to be sold as slaves (middle leg of the triangular trade)