AP European History: Summer Work
Overview:
You will be required to read, review, and analyze two chapters of the textbook over the summer. This
effort is aimed at keeping us on track to finish the entire course before the next AP test (next May). You
will be tested on these materials in the first week of the 2015-2016 school year. Good luck and e-mail me
if you have any issues, crichard@trsd.net.
Chapter 13: The Renaissance
Textbook questions:
1. Describe how the period of economic growth between 1050 and 1300 influenced the Renaissance.
2. Define Renaissance.
3. In regard to trade, how did Genoa and Venice benefit from their geographical position in Europe?
4. How did Florence gain an economic edge over cities like Genoa and Venice?
5. How did the commune system help create a merger of the feudal nobility and the commercial
aristocracy in northern Italy in the 1300’s and 1400’s?
6. Why did the popolo fail in their attempts to govern the communes of northern Italy?
7. Describe the governments of northern Italy by the fifteenth century.
8. How did Italian city-states use balance of power politics and alliances to keep the peace in Italy
during the 1400’s?
9. Explain this statement, “the failure of the city-states to form some federal system, consolidate, or at
least establish a common foreign policy led to the continuation of the centuries-old subjection of the
peninsula by outside invaders.”
10. How did Francesco Petrarch define the time period known as the Renaissance? Explain his
rationale.
11. Define individualism.
12. What was the emphasis of humanism?
13. Define secularism.
14. How did the ability to loan money connect to secularism?
15. How did rising prosperity change social values in 1400’s Italy?
16. Describe the different ways in which the arts were sponsored during the Renaissance.
17. How did Renaissance art “mirror” reality?
18. How did Renaissance artists view their own work? Also, how did society reward them for their
work?
19. Why was education important during the Renaissance?
20. How did The Prince influence the political world during the Renaissance?
21. How did the printing press change Europe?
22. How did the use of clocks change life in Europe?
23. What was the role of women during the 1400’s and 1500’s in Europe?
24. List three examples of sexuality during the Renaissance that we would find unusual today.
25. What were some differences between the humanists of northern Europe and those of southern
Europe?
26. What were the two fundamental themes that ran through Erasmus’s work?
27. Write a brief description of politics and the state in the Renaissance Era with regard to France,
England, and Spain.
Chapter 14: The Reformation
Textbook questions:
1. According to Machiavelli, why were Italians corrupt during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries?
2. What were the three main critiques of the church in the early sixteenth century?
3. What types of immoral behavior did many priests exhibit in the years before the Reformation?
4. How were many priests and bishops avoiding their responsibilities in the years leading up the
Reformation?
5. Describe the connection between the church and the nobility in many European countries in the
years leading up to the Reformation.
6. Overall, what were some of the ways in which commoners displayed their affections to the Catholic
Church?
7. What did the Catholic Church try to do at the ecumenical council?
8. How was faith important to Martin Luther’s Christian belief system?
9. Define indulgence. Also, how did the indulgence system work?
10. What concepts did Luther explain in the “Ninety-five Theses on the Power of Indulgences?”
11. What happened at the Diet of Worms?
12. Describe the four theological questions that Luther tried to answer by creating the Lutheran
Protestant faith.
13. What were Luther’s ideas with regard to the sacraments?
14. Why was Luther’s message about Christianity successful? List at least three different reasons.
15. Describe the kingdom of Charles V. How did he come to inherit such a vast kingdom?
16. Why were many princes interested in rejecting the Catholic Church? What did they have to gain
from this venture?
17. Define predestination.
18. What was unique about the Anabaptists view of Christianity?
19. Why were the Anabaptists punished for their beliefs?
20. Write a summary that includes a description of the Reformation of the Churches in England,
Scotland, Ireland, and Eastern European.
21. What was the Counter-Reformation?
22. What were some of the achievements of the Catholic Church during the Council of Trent?
23. What were the goals of the Jesuits?
24. Was the Reformation a revolution, or a continuous search for reform? Explain.