Deck 10: Renaissance Europe: a World Transformed, 1400-1500

Question 1

How did Emperor Maximilian enhance his image and reputation?

A) He sought military victories.
B) He initiated a massive building program, including the construction of a new palace.
C) He pursued a literary career, something no ruler had attempted before.
D) He followed the example of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and patronized several explorers.
E) He employed notable artists and humanists to commemorate his lineage and deeds.

Answer 1

He employed notable artists and humanists to commemorate his lineage and deeds.

Question 2

Who did Henry VII of England enlist to maintain order and ensure that his policies were enforced at the local level?

A) great barons who controlled private armies
B) services of the church, principally bishops and abbots
C) justices of the peace, unpaid local officials recruited from the ranks of local notables
D) mayors of the larger towns
E) members of Parliament because it was already part of their duties

Answer 2

justices of the peace, unpaid local officials recruited from the ranks of local notables

Question 3

During the "Babylonian Captivity," the papacy in Avignon

A) freed Rome from the Lombards.
B) did exactly what the English kings wanted.
C) resorted to dubious methods to increase revenue.
D) repealed the fiscal policies of Innocent III.
E) was captured briefly by Muslim forces.

Answer 3

resorted to dubious methods to increase revenue.

Question 4

Who governed Venice?

A) The Duke of Venice ruled the city and its empire.
B) The Signoria, composed of the richer merchants, ruled the city and its empire.
C) The papacy, through its papal legate, ruled the city and its empire.
D) The wealthiest bank in Venice ruled the city and its empire.
E) Male members from patrician families formed a Great Council that ruled the city and its empire.

Question 5

What were the five major political powers in Italy in the early fifteenth century?

A) Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal States, and a Spanish court ruling in Naples
B) Venice, Milan, Florence, Pisa, and Genoa
C) Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome, and Sicily
D) Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal States, and Pisa
E) Venice, Milan, the Papal States, Bologna, and Tuscany

Question 6

Who was the French monarch known as "the universal spider" to his enemies because of his skill at weaving webs of intrigue and his success extending the power of the crown?

A) Philip Augustus
B) Charlemagne
C) Louis XI
D) Philip IV
E) Charles VII

Question 7

Before Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in 1453, what humiliation had already been suffered by the Byzantine empire?

A) The Byzantines were forced to sell the formula for Greek Fire, a deadly weapon.
B) The previous Byzantine emperor had negotiated a union of the Eastern Orthodox Church with the Latin Church in hopes of garnishing support.
C) The Byzantines were already paying enormous tribute to the sultan.
D) In 1452 Jerusalem was seized by Muslim forces.
E) German knights had assumed control over Greece and other lands previously held by the Byzantines in Europe.

Question 8

Why was the marriage in 1469 of Isabella and Ferdinand especially fortuitous for Spain?

A) Isabella's dowry made Ferdinand the richest prince in Europe.
B) Isabella was the heir of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Spain.
C) Ferdinand's Aragon had ties with the Medici bankers of Florence.
D) It combined Castile's proficient military with Aragon's economic power.
E) It ended the feud between the Spanish crown and the Catholic Inquisition.

Question 9

After defeating imperial armies, what concessions were granted to the Hussites?

A) They were given control over papal territory in Bohemia.
B) They were permitted to trade with the Ottoman Turks after the latter had conquered Constantinople.
C) They were granted representation in the College of Cardinals.
D) They were allowed to use Bibles written in Slavic.
E) They were allowed to use their own liturgy and give Communion with both bread
And wine.

Question 10

The nobility and clergy constituted the first two estates of the French Estates General.Who else was granted the right to be represented?

A) two more estates, one composed of the peasantry and one of town representatives
B) one more estate composed of urban merchants, traders, and the peasantry-basically everyone else
C) two more estates composed of knights from shires and town representatives
D) one more estate made up of the sons of the nobility sitting in the second estate
E) a third estate composed of the king's ministers

Question 11

What was the "Great Schism"?

A) It was the division between England and France in the Hundred Years' War.
B) It was the division between Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christianity.
C) It was the name given to the divorce between Henry II of England and Queen Eleanore of Aquitaine.
D) It was a period when more than one pope ruled simultaneously.
E) It was the term used by a Parisian bishop when he condemned several of Aquinas's conclusions.

Question 12

How did the Italian states manage relationships among themselves after multiple wars in the fifteenth century?

A) They devised a diplomatic system with assigned resident ambassadors to one another's capitals.
B) They selected champions from each city to serve in tournaments; the winning champion meant that city dictated terms.
C) The papacy was chosen as the final arbiter for crucial disputes.
D) A special court was created with delegates from each city to hear disputes.
E) The Holy Roman emperor was called upon to settle major disputes.

Question 13

Why were the Lollards considered so dangerous by clerical authorities?

A) Clerical authorities feared the high number of noble followers among the Lollards that might pose a military threat.
B) The Lollards had the ear of several English kings; the church feared that these English kings might turn against the church.
C) Since the Lollards emphasized literacy among both genders, church leaders feared that the Lollards would undermine the church's traditional hierarchy.
D) Certain Lollards had made direct threats against the pope himself and English bishops.
E) The Lollards had discovered documents that exposed the papacy's involvement in the Hundred Years' War.

Question 14

What happened to most of the Italian republican states in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries?

A) They continued to expand, even beyond the peninsula.
B) They came under the control of the papacy.
C) They increased in number by the fifteenth century.
D) Most were able to form democratic governments.
E) Princes took over.

Question 15

In the second half of the fifteenth century, England was torn by the Wars of the Roses.Which two factions vyed for control of the crown?

A) the Plantegenents and the Angevins
B) the Yorkists and the Lancastrians
C) the Tudors and the Lancastrians
D) the Woodvilles and the Edwardians
E) the Henricians and the Marians

Question 16

How did Florentine authorities pay for the large public debt caused by the war with Milan in the 1420s?

A) They invaded Sicily and seized its treasury.
B) They began dealing in the slave trade to increase profits.
C) They took out an enormous loan from the papacy.
D) They devised the catasto, a wealth tax based on a census of the city's population.
E) The treaty with Milan included a reparations clause that compelled Milan to pay for damages.

Question 17

Why were outside European powers able to impose their wills upon Italian states in the sixteenth century?

A) The Italians were never known for their military prowess.
B) Almost all humanists were pacifists and urged negotiation over armed conflict.
C) The papacy declared that the only just wars were wars directed against Muslims; thus, Italian states were unprepared for defensive wars.
D) Monarchical states had so many more resources, including improved military technology, than the smaller Italian city-states.
E) The Italians mistakenly relied on their financial power instead of military forces to sway international negotiations.

Question 18

Besides Columbus discovering the New World in 1492, what other momentous event(s) occurred that year in Spain?

A) Spanish Christians were officially expelled.
B) Spain annexed Florence.
C) Cortes conquered the Aztecs.
D) Granada, the last Muslim stronghold, was defeated, and Spain expelled the Jews.
E) Spain annexed Portugal.

Question 19

The arquebus had an impact outside the battlefield.How did it help bring about social change?

A) Its use by men of lower social status foreshadowed the end of social dominance by knights of the noble class.
B) Owning such an expensive weapon gave immediate status to the ordinary soldier.
C) Since the weapon came from Asia, Asian mercenaries found many more opportunities to serve in European armies.
D) Women could fire arquebuses, so they obtained more opportunities to serve in militias.
E) Because arguebuses were so heavy, they had to raise the service age for men, as only older men, not youths, could fire them.

Question 20

Who rivaled the French king and received recognition from the Holy Roman emperor as a king and independent status for Burgundy?

A) Charles the Bold
B) Louis IX
C) Cosimo de Medici
D) Henry Tudor
E) Maximilian

Question 21

How did Gutenberg significantly improve the printing process?

A) He was the first to create blocks of letters.
B) He removed all side illuminations on pages, which greatly increased the speed of printing.
C) He formulated an oil-based ink that would stick to the metal type and then transfer neatly onto paper.
D) He invented a better kind of paper.
E) He devised an assembly line of workers that simplified and quickened the printing process.

Question 22

What was the connection between humanism and diplomacy?

A) Humanists were the best translators and were needed to compose treatises.
B) Since humanists began to fill most academic positions, they inevitably trained the future generation of political leaders.
C) The humanists had always displayed a keen interest in international studies; naturally they were drawn to international relations and diplomacy.
D) The new profession of ambassadors, essential to diplomacy, needed humanist skills to meet their job requirements.
E) The curricula for diplomatic studies and humanist studies were extremely similar.

Question 23

Who was the first European to see the Pacific from the land side in 1513?

A) Ferdinand Magellan
B) Hernán Cortés
C) Amerigo Vespucci
D) Christopher Columbus
E) Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Question 24

According to many specialists, the population of the Americas fell from approximately 50 million in 1492 to as low as ________ by 1650.

A) 500,000
B) 1 million
C) 6 million
D) 10 million
E) 30 million

Question 25

Which European state in 1444 began to transport slaves by ship directly from western Africa to ports of their choosing, bypassing the trans-Saharan routes?

A) Spain
B) Venice
C) Portugal
D) France
E) Florence

Question 26

What event prompted the Portuguese and others to find a new avenue to the sources of spices?

A) The collapse of Indonesia in 1433 sparked a rush to enter the spice market.
B) The Venetians ended their exclusive trade treaty with the Ottoman Turks in 1445.
C) The fall of most of the Italian states to other European powers in the late fifteenth century allowed the Portuguese to expand.
D) After the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, they controlled the spice trade and could raise taxes at will.
E) The invention of sailing ships in the late fifteenth century encouraged more trade.

Question 27

What practical goal did humanists intend the study of the classics to achieve?

A) It would inculcate the conviction that democratic government is inherently best.
B) It would encourage governments to fund public education.
C) It was the best way to make oneself a moral agent and to persuade others to do so as well.
D) It would promote peace and goodwill among all peoples.
E) It would end or, at least, diminish religious bigotry and intolerance.

Question 28

Most northern Italian slaves were

A) men who worked on farms.
B) educated Muslims working in banks or accounting positions in large-scale businesses.
C) members of families that knew a specialized craft or skill.
D) war captives from other Italian states.
E) young women bought to serve as domestic workers.

Question 29

Contrary to his contemporary jurists, what did Petrarch find in Roman law texts?

A) He found justification for Florence's treatment of her rival, Pisa.
B) He focused on the context of the laws, rather than assuming parallels between the lost Roman world and his own.
C) He observed connections between the texts and the Christian Bible.
D) He discerned the philosophical underpinnings of Roman law, which he traced back to earlier Greek jurists.
E) He found a mirror to his own society; Italians of his day thought and acted just like their ancestors.

Question 30

What was Christine de Pizan's explanation for why girls appeared less intellectual than boys?

A) Women were more spiritually minded than men and, therefore, had less interest in secular matters.
B) If daughters were sent to school, then they would learn as much as sons, and they would be as intellectually competent as boys.
C) Teachers paid less attention to girls than boys in the classroom; therefore, it seemed that girls were less engaged.
D) There was no discrepancy in learning; the notion that girls appeared less intellectual was manufactured by male critics.
E) Since there were so few female teachers, girls naturally appeared reluctant to speak.

Question 31

What disease was transported from the New World to the Old?

A) influenza
B) meningitis
C) small pox
D) syphilis
E) dysentery

Question 32

The beguines were notable for

A) sending missionaries into Muslim-held countries.
B) allowing women, as well as male priests, to preach.
C) encouraging laywomen to challenge contemporary expectations of married women.
D) having the highest entrance requirements into convents.
E) composing a new literature about the lives of the sisters and treatises on contemplation, written by and for women.

Question 33

What ancient or medieval text most likely influenced Christopher Columbus to consider a westward passage to the sources of spices?

A) The Arthurian legends told of rich civilizations in the West where Merlin learned his magical arts.
B) Livy's History of the Romans gave detailed information about the Amazons and their access to gold and spices.
C) Not a single text, but several texts taken from the Muslim House of Wisdom sparked Columbus's imagination.
D) Ptolemy's Geography convinced Columbus that only a passable space of water separated Asia from Europe.
E) Viking records of voyages to the West were recently discovered, to which Columbus had access.

Question 34

Which European explorer was the first to reach Calicut on the Malabar Coast, which was the center of the spice trade?

A) Ferdinand Magellan
B) Vasco Da Gama
C) Pedro Álvares Cabral
D) Amerigo Vespucci
E) John Cabot

Question 35

What was Coluccio Salutati's most important contribution to humanism?

A) He translated the complete works of Plato into Latin.
B) He persuaded the papacy to employ humanists.
C) He convinced his colleagues to adopt a uniform writing style.
D) He founded the Florentine Academy.
E) He invited Manuel Chrysoloras to teach Greek in Florence.

Question 36

What solution did Conciliarists advance to end the conflict among the multiple popes and their competing claims to legitimacy?

A) They argued that a general council of the church would best hear God rather than one individual.
B) They contended that since their members represented both spiritual and secular authorities, they had a stronger claim to legitimacy than any one pope.
C) They claimed that all previous major decisions affecting the church were made by church councils, not an individual pope.
D) They argued that their council had never communicated with Muslim authorities, but the divisive popes had done just that.
E) They devised a formula that calculated that the cardinals', bishops', and others' votes outweighed the vote of any one pope.

Question 37

Confraternities were

A) business corporations, first created in Italy.
B) religious corporations of laypeople that practiced religious acts communally.
C) forerunners of modern college fraternities.
D) criminal organizations composed of former priests.
E) religious organizations composed of priests and nuns, condemned by the papacy.

Question 38

Potentially the most explosive of all the new European technologies in the fifteenth century was

A) the printing press.
B) the portolan chart.
C) the sextant.
D) the spinning jenny.
E) double-entry bookkeeping.

Question 39

What made portolan charts so much more useful for explorers and sailors?

A) The new maps traced the primary routes that connected the various ports.
B) The new maps showed ocean currents and wind currents.
C) The new maps highlighted where the most expensive materials were located.
D) The new maps were completely waterproof.
E) The new maps pointed out where indigenous people were weakest and less able to defend themselves.

Question 40

On what basis did Bartolomé de Las Casas plead to the Spanish crown to end the exploitation of Native Americans?

A) He argued that the Native Americans were highly intelligent, deserved decent living conditions and the opportunity to become Christians.
B) He claimed that if the Native Americans were treated better they would perform better and increase profits for their managers.
C) He contended that the Native Americans were not use to such hard labor, and managers would suffer diminishing returns if they continued to exploit the native workers.
D) He believed that the Native Americans were distant relatives of the Europeans and should be treated accordingly.
E) He recognized the potential of the Native Americans and warned the Spanish crown not to antagonize a future, powerful enemy.

Question 41

In addition to defeating his rival, Richard III, Henry Tudor also commissioned the translation of England's law, previously in Latin and Anglo-Saxon, into English.

Question 42

Just as the Florentine government was extraordinary for allowing more men to be involved in the governing system, it was also extraordinary for refusing to attack its closest neighbors.

Question 43

Besides becoming specialists in historical studies and political science, what other discipline did humanists master?

A) Humanists delved into experimental science.
B) Humanists were known for their proficiency in alchemy and magic.
C) Humanists were especially interested in classical music theory.
D) Humanists revived every form of philosophy taught in the ancient world.
E) Humanists devoted considerable attention to world religions.

Question 44

The Ottomans maintained peace through their huge empire by using the millet system; it allowed Christians and Jews to live in their own semiautonomous communities, but with leaders approved by the state.

Question 45

The Spanish would eventually control most of Italy, directly or indirectly.

Question 46

Czech scholars learned much from Wycliffe and his followers on the other side of Europe.

Question 47

Columbus never understood exactly what he had discovered.

Question 48

The humanist Lorenzo Valla used his humanist skills to show that the so-called Donation of Constantine was

A) a work written by Constantine's predecessor, Diocletian.
B) a work written by Pope Sylvester, not Constantine.
C) an invalid work because Roman law would not have allowed an emperor to intervene in religious matters.
D) a medieval forgery based on the parchment on which it was written.
E) a medieval forgery based on its language and terms.

Question 49

To what error or issue in medieval writing were humanists especially sensitive?

A) anachronisms: errors and inconsistencies that demonstrated that content was chronologically incongruous with its supposed author or its supposed time
B) hyperbole: extravagant exaggerations
C) excessive emotion: an emphasis on subjectivity instead of objectivity
D) fantasy: an emphasis on legends or mythical characters
E) triumphalism: the presentation of an era as superior to any previous era

Question 50

How did Giotto di Bondone depict his human subjects in paintings?

A) He used conventional symbols to convey spiritual attributes.
B) He applied perspective in order to situate his subjects more accurately in space.
C) He represented people, vividly and powerfully, expressing their emotions.
D) He depicted the oppressed and marginalized in his paintings, not saints or religious figures.
E) He concentrated on the use of color to portray certain moods.

Question 51

How was Machiavelli's The Prince radically different from conventional wisdom about how princes should rule?

A) He relied on Muslim authorities to counsel princes.
B) He incorporated humor and sarcasm to inculcate his ideas.
C) He drew all his examples from current events or individuals, rather than using any classical sources.
D) He advised princes to use whatever means necessary, including violence and deceit, to achieve their nationalistic goals.
E) He first imagined a perfect prince and then deducted the attributes a real prince should emulate.

Question 52

Besides superior sculptors and painters, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also employed as

A) civic engineers.
B) military engineers.
C) expert musicians.
D) ambassadors.
E) philosophers.

Question 53

The Lollards translated and published numerous editions of the Bible in English.

Question 54

Almost all black slaves, men and women, worked in agricultural-related jobs.

Question 55

The spice trade focused exclusively on products for humans to eat.

Question 56

What technique distinguished Jan van Eyck's artwork?

A) He learned how to apply oil paint in multiple thin layers and achieved finely detailed representations of every sort of surface, from stone to cloth, fur, and skin.
B) He was the first artist to accurately use perspective in order to depict subjects as if in real space.
C) He had studied human anatomy and therefore his human subjects appeared lifelike.
D) He mastered the medium of watercolor painting because he never found a patron and had to work on a budget.
E) His training as a sculptor enabled him to portray a three-dimensional effect.

Question 57

Although the papacy in Avignon reformed some of its institutions, including more
efficient systems for collecting revenues, not everyone looked on these changes as positive.

Question 58

In 1418 Filippo Brunelleschi convinced the construction committee responsible for finishing the city's Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore that he could

A) build an expansive dome without any pillars to support it.
B) add more windows than any church in Europe.
C) fill the church with more relics than any church in Italy.
D) complete the work in less than one year.
E) build the church with previously used materials, thus sharply reducing costs.

Question 59

Day-to-day governance over the city of Florence was handled by the Signoria, a group of nine officials chosen by lot for just two-month terms.

Question 60

To what professions or guilds did Renaissance artists belong before they were recognized as individual artists with a special genius?

A) They belonged to whatever guild patronized them the most; it varied by city.
B) Sculptors belonged to the builders' guild, painters to the architects' guild.
C) Sculptors were under the masons' guild and painters belonged to the physicians' and apothecaries' guilds.
D) They each had their own guild; later, those with exceptional talents worked independently of any guild.
E) Sculptors belonged to the masons' guild; painters were grouped with the actors' guild.

Question 61

Unlike Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo had good relations with all his patrons.

Question 62

Encomiendas were large estates in the New World, owned by Spanish overlords but governed by local chiefs who used war captives for labor.

Question 63

Discuss the impact of contact with the New World, on Europeans and on the peoples of the Americas.

Question 64

What was the "Great Schism"?

Question 65

Discuss why Europeans were drawn to the Indian Ocean, and discuss some of their expeditions.

Question 66

Identify the significant political developments in late medieval France.

Question 67

Late medieval humanists were the forerunners of modern humanists.

Question 68

In 1500, no European smoked tobacco; in 1600, Europeans of all social ranks smoked
or inhaled it.

Question 69

Why were John Wycliffe and the Lollards considered to be a threat to the established church?

Question 70

Why is Machiavelli's application of humanist skills considered to be so unconventional?

Question 71

How did European warfare transform in the later Middle Ages?

Question 72

Discuss the roots, agendas, and applications of Renaissance Humanism.

Question 73

Describe the development of the Florentine government from about 1350 to 1480.

Question 74

Discuss political developments in the Holy Roman Empire in the later Middle Ages.