Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Renaissance is the rebirth of Art, Culture, and Literacy from the
1300s to the 1500s.
Who was he: da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, and
mathematician.
Shakespeare-Style of plays
Who was he: An English poet and playwright between 1590 and 1613.
What are his Styles of Plays: He wrote comedies, historical plays, and
tragedies.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther, was a German Monk who is upset about the selling of
indulgence by the Catholic Church and voices his dissatisfaction in his
writings know as the 95 theses. This leads to the Protestant
Reformation and eventually the restructuring of the Catholic Church
John Calvin
John Calvin, trained as a priest and lawyer and was also unhappy with
the Catholic Church. He leaves the Church and creates his own religion
based around his idea of predestination.
This was a court set up by the Catholic Church to get people to recant
their ideas by torturing them :
It gave the Catholic Church control through fear, not only in religion,
but also in politics. This led to fear and dislike of the Church.
This is the Global trading network of goods between Europe and its
colonies, named after Christopher Columbus:
Britain: Wealth and they become a World Power
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was an established physicist and mathematician, and is
credited as one of the great minds of the 17th century Scientific
Revolution. With discoveries in optics, motion and mathematics,
Newton developed the principles of modern physics. He is most
famous for his law of gravitation.
Natural Law
A body of principles that are considered to be inherent in nature and
have universal application in determining whether human conduct is
right or wrong.
Social Contract
This is an implicit agreement among the members of a society to
cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual
freedom for state protection. Theories of a social contract became
popular in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries among theorists such as
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as a means
of explaining the origin of government and the obligations of subjects.
Heliocentric
The theory that places the Sun as the center of the universe, and the
planets orbiting around it. The heliocentric model replaced
Geocentrism, which is the belief that the Earth is the center of the
universe.
Napoleonic Code
The is the French civil code established under Napolon I in 1804. The
code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion,
and specified that government jobs should go to the most qualified.
Maximilien Robespierre
He was a lawyer and politician who becomes the leader of the
Committee of Public Safety and become the chief architect of the Reign
of Terror:
Napoleon Bonaparte
He proclaims himself the Emperor of France, he gets France out of the
turmoil that followed the revolution, but loses the War against his
European neighbors and is forced to abdicate his position:
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing
processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820
and 1840.
Communism-Karl Marx
Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating
class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly
owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities
and needs.
Karl Marx was a German Philosopher who wrote the pamphlet the
Communist Manifesto, which led to the early idea of Communism:
Imperialism-Impact on Africa
This is the expansion of European powers and their conquest and
colonization of African and Asian societies, mainly from the sixteenth
through the nineteenth century
Direct Control-Imperialism
In a direct rule, a colony would be governed by foreign officials while
no self-rule was given to natives. The goal was assimilation of the
colony into an empire. Government institutions were based on
European governments.
Indirect Control-Imperialism
In an indirectly ruled colony, local government officials might be used,
while the native upper-class was given limited self-rule over the
colony. The goal was to Westernize future leaders of a colony in order
to perpetuate a powers control.
Boxer Rebellion
In 1900, in what became known as the Boxer Rebellion (or the Boxer
Uprising), a Chinese secret organization called the Society of the
Righteous and Harmonious Fists led an uprising in northern China
against the spread of Western and Japanese influence there.
Tokugawa Shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the Tokugawa bakufu and the
Edo bakufu, was the last feudal Japanese military government which
existed between 1603 and 1868.
Militarism: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong
military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests.
Alliance: a union or association formed for mutual benefit, especially between countries or
organizations. As tension starts to build by the imperial nations during the late 1800s, groups of
nations signed treaties to protect themselves in case of war. When war between Serbia and AustriaHungry breaks out these Alliances draw the major world powers into war.
Trench Warfare
This is a strategy used during World War I, in which the armies attacked
each other from fortified ditches. This style of fighting led to a
stalemate and prolonged the War.
Treaty of Versailles
the treaty imposed on Germany by the Allied powers in 1920 after the
end of World War I which demanded exorbitant reparations from the
Germans, took territory from the Central Powers, and redrew
boundaries.
Adolf Hitler
He is the leader of the Nazi Party and becomes Chancellor of Germany
in 1933. He does away with the Weimar Republic and declares himself
as premier leader of Germany. In 1939 he invades Poland and starts
World War II.
Joseph Stalin
He becomes the Communist leader of the Soviet Union after the death
of Lenin. At the beginning of World War II he signs a Non-aggression
pact with Hitler, but is drawn into the war when Germany breaks the
Non-aggression pact.
Non-aggression Pact
This is an agreement between nations not to fight each other if a war is
declared.
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that
produced the first atomic bombs during World War II. Most of the work
and testing of the atomic bomb was done in New Mexico.
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization
established 24 October 1945 to promote international co-operation.
The organization was created following the Second World War to
prevent another such conflict.
Marshall Plan: U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall issued a call for a comprehensive program
to rebuild Europe. Fanned by the fear of Communist expansion and the rapid deterioration of
European economies in the winter of 19461947, Congress passed the Economic Cooperation Act in
March 1948 and approved funding that would eventually rise to over $12 billion for the rebuilding
of Western Europe.
Division of Germany: After Germany's defeat in the Second World War, the four main allies in
Europe - the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France - took part in a joint
occupation of the German state. With the original understanding that the country would eventually
be reunified, the Allied Powers agreed to share the responsibility of administering Germany and its
capital, Berlin, and each took responsibility for a certain portion of the defeated nation. This
arrangement ultimately evolved into the division of Germany into a Western and an Eastern sector,
thereby contributing to the Cold War division of Europe.
Arms Race
The nuclear arms race was central to the Cold War. Many feared where
the Cold War was going with the belief that the more nuclear weapons
you had, the more powerful you were. Both America and Russia
massively built up their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. This further
increased the tension between the two Superpowers.
N.A.T.O.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization: an organization formed in
Washington, D.C. (1949), comprising the 12 nations of the Atlantic Pact
together with Greece, Turkey, and the Federal Republic of Germany, for
the purpose of collective defense against aggression.
Warsaw Pact
In response to the development of N.A.T.O. the Soviet Union and it
Satellites formed the Warsaw Pact: organization formed in Warsaw,
Poland (1955), comprising Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany,
Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the U.S.S.R., for collective defense
under a joint military command.
Containment
U.S. Containment policy was the first major policy during the Cold War
and used numerous strategies (Truman Doctrine, Marshall plan etc.)to
prevent the spread of Communism abroad. The Idea behind this was to
treat Communism like a diseases that there was no cure for, and
quarantine it so it did not spread.
Domino Theory
This was a Theory developed by the U.S. during the Cold War, the idea
behind it was that if one East Asian country fall to Communism, the
nations surrounding it would also fall to Communism. This theory is
why the U.S. gets involved in Vietnam.
NAFTA
North American Free Trade Agreement
Apartheid-South Africa
was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through
legislation by the National Party (NP), the governing party from 1948 to
1994.