Reconstruct the story of the European Rebirth that began after the last crusade while paying special attention to this gradual shift of power from the East to the West.
Based on your reading of chapter eleven “Meanwhile in Europe’ (pages 199-216), answer the following questions.
How did the previously discussed Crusades lead to the exploring impulse that would later be called the ‘Age of Discovery’? Give examples of famous European explorers and their achievements in navigation…
What is the Italian Renaissance? Why did it happen in Italy? How did it change Italian society?
The Middle Ages in Europe saw the rise of illiteracy where only clerics were able to read and the only book worth reading was the Bible in Latin. How did books gradually begin to resurface in European knowledge? What was the reaction of the Catholic Church upon the rediscovery of Greek texts? And how did these texts inspire the establishment of the early European universities?
How did the corruption of the Catholic Church lead to the Protestant Reformation? What is the content of this ‘protest’? and how did it attempt to reform Christianity?
What are some of the non-religious consequences (cultural, political, and scientific…) of the Protestant Reformation?
What is mercantilism? How could it be considered as a consequence of the birth of the nation-state as a new form of political organization? And how did it thrust Europe forward into the world?
Explain how the synergy of different religious, political, and scientific developments led to the resurgence of Europe after the Middle Ages…