Chapter 16
Discussion and Review
Magna Carta 1215

Taxation only with representation
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Right to trial
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no unusual taxes except by agreement of
people’s representatives
trial to be proven guilty by peers
Limits to royal power
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monarch must govern by law not by whim
Guaranteed the nobles hereditary rights
By 1500, the English parliament became a
permanent check on royal power
Hundred Years’ War, 1337–1453
Joan of Arc: Turning point
From 1429 to 1431,
Joan’s successes
in battle rallied the
French forces to
victory.
 French armies
continued to win
even after she was
executed by the
English for heresy.

Emergence of Monarchs

Affects of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453)

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Monarchs had a stronger central government, more
stable national boundaries, and stronger representative
institutions
New military technology



The longbow, crossbow (metal tipped arrows) and
firearm made soldiers more important and knights
less valuable.
made castles and knights obsolete
Development of professional standing army


Taxed land, merchants, and church
Parliamentary Institution

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
Became a permanent check on royal power
Parliament in England
Estates General in France
Black Death


By 1347, the bubonic
plague had spread to
Europe
The bubonic plague, or
"Black Death” strikes


3 forms:
Bubonic (flea bite),
Pneumonic (air),
Septemic (bodily fluid)
1200 - 1500

Major problems

the Black Death



Improvements

wars led to technological innovation and eventual unity, with
strong centralized governments


Crossbow with metal tipped arrows and gunpowder
Renaissance was a period of cultural rebirth



Killed 1/3 of Western Europeans 25 million
Led to peasant revolutions, end to serfdom, demand for higher wages
Leonardo Da’Vinci (Mona Lisa, Last Supper)
Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel, David)
By 1500 Europeans were extending their reach
around the world.
What was the Renaissance?
Renaissance, French word for "rebirth"
 What was reborn??
 a desire to imitate the classical world
Greece & Rome
 a time of creativity and change-spirit of
adventure
 a time of intellectual and economic
changes that occurred in Europe

Why Did the Renaissance Begin
in Italy?

Italian city-states had
grown into prosperous
centers of trade and
manufacturing.
“New Learning” and Medieval Thought
Creates Problems For???

Many of the new ideas
were based on logic and
reason



Challenged Christianity
Christian scholars, tried
to resolve the conflict
between faith and
reason.
Scholasticism used
logic to support
Christian beliefs.
The Role of Florence


center of banking, trade and
manufacturing
Became the cultural center of
Europe whose patron influence
by the Medici Family made it
possible
Humanism’s Impact
Results
 Focused on secular themes not religious
 Experienced an age in which artistic, social,
scientific and political thought turned in new
directions
 Appreciation for the arts as a product of
mankind; not just a religious symbol

Machiavelli



Niccolò Machiavelli, was
an Italian statesman and
writer
His best-known work, The
Prince, describes cunning
and unscrupulous
methods for rulers to gain
and keep power.
Prince must rule with fear
but avoid being hated
Works of Renaissance Artists
Rise of cities

Trading cities in Europe
Offered social freedoms
 Often independent states
 Often charter (immunity) cities where residents
could claim freedom

Merchant Banking
 Organized private shareholding
companies, developed checking accounts,
improved bookkeeping techniques
 Led to a growing middle or merchant class

Describe the changes in civic life associated
with urban growth in later medieval Europe.


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Jews
 were connected to the growing fields of business
and money-lending.
 Often blamed and persecuted for social ills
 Catholic church condemned usury (charging
interest on loans)
Guilds – association of craft specialist
 regulated business practices and the labor of the
working classes
 reinforced the divisions of male and female work.
Agricultural and commercial surpluses spurred
technological, artistic, and architectural growth.
The Printing Revolution

Printing originated

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
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China, but western Europeans
improved it significantly
Johann Gutenberg
Perfected the art of printing in 1454
New ink suitable for printing on paper,
movable type consisting of individual
letters, mechanical printing press
(pressed ink type onto sheets of
paper)
Led to spread of literacy and
European intellectual development.
Rise of Modern Universities in the
Latin West
College and universities
 Emerged as the new centers of learning
after the 1200s
 Became a degree seeking institution
 Generally specialized in a particular
branch of learning


All courses taught in Latin
The Reconquista
• By 1492, the Muslims
were driven out of the
last Iberian stronghold
(Granada)
• First Spain and later
Portugal expelled all
Jews and Muslims from
its territory