Deck 14: Global Encounters and the Shock of the Reformation, 1492-1560

Question 1

What was the conflict in the 1490s between Portugal and Spain, and how was it settled?

Answer 1

Answer would ideally include the following. Portuguese and Spanish interests began to clash in the 1490s because both Portugal and Spain were engaged in extensive overseas exploration. After the voyages of Columbus, Pope Alexander VI mediated the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, a pact that divided the Atlantic world along an imaginary demarcation line; everything east of that line-most important, the West African coast and the route to India-was reserved for Portugal, while all lands and oceans to the west of the line were assigned to Spain. Brazil was still unknown to Europeans at that time, and Portugal went on to claim it in 1500.

Question 2

Describe the new era of slavery up to the early sixteenth century.

Answer 2

Answer would ideally include the following. Slavery had existed since antiquity-captives of war and piracy were enslaved, and slave traders sold Africans to Christians. In the Middle East, slaves served as soldiers, and desperate, impoverished parents sometimes sold their children into slavery. In European cities of the Mediterranean, most slaves were used for domestic work, while others worked as galley slaves. After the Portuguese explorations in Africa, slavery increased vastly. African slaves were used in agriculture, especially sugar production, on the Atlantic islands and in Brazil.

Question 3

What was the Columbian exchange, and what consequences did it have for Europe, Africa, and the Americas?

Answer 3

Answer would ideally include the following. The Columbian exchange was the movement of plants, animals, goods, metals, pathogens, and people between Europe, Africa and the Americas. It began with Columbus, who brought firearms, horses, pigs, cows, chickens, goats, sheep, cattle, wheat, melons, and sugarcane to the Americas; on his second voyage, he brought slaves from the Caribbean back with him to Spain. The Europeans brought infectious diseases, including smallpox, to the New World, and they brought back syphilis to Europe. The Spanish brought back tobacco, cacao, sweet potatoes, corn, and tomatoes to Europe; slave traders brought these items to West Africa. African yams, millet, and rice were brought from Africa to the New World. The Columbian exchange fundamentally changed eating and dietary patterns on three continents. It also led to the deaths of vast portions of the indigenous population in the Americas, mostly through infectious diseases, to which it had no immunity. And it uprooted entire African populations, bringing them over to the New World as slaves.

Question 4

Who was Desiderius Erasmus, and what ideas did he put forward in The Praise of Folly (1509)?

Question 5

Who were the Evangelicals, what social groups did they represent, and why were they important to the spread of Martin Luther's reform movement?

Question 6

Who proposed the doctrine known as predestination, and what is the belief represented by this term?

Question 7

How did Protestantism become established in England?

Question 8

How did the approach of missionaries in the Americas differ from that of missionaries in China and Japan?

Question 9

What was the Peace of Augsburg, and to what extent did it succeed in quelling religious conflict in Europe?

Question 10

How did changes in military technology place a growing financial burden on monarchs?

Question 11

What were some of the causes of the European voyages of exploration of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries? What impact did these voyages have on both the peoples that were conquered and the societies back home?

Question 12

Why did Martin Luther break with the church and usher in the Protestant Reformation? In your response, please discuss the stages in Luther's journey away from the church.

Question 13

How did radical Protestant movements lead to significant challenges to the existing social order? What were the consequences of these challenges? In your response, please discuss two major challenges that arose.

Question 14

What were the boldest steps taken by the Catholic church to renew and reinvigorate itself in the face of the Reformation?

Question 15

Describe the relationship between artists and the political elite during the Renaissance. Who were some of the notable artists that came out of this period, and how did their work reflect that relationship?

Question 16

What began the first phase of European overseas expansion?

A) Christopher Columbus's discovery of America
B) Portuguese exploration of the West African coast
C) Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe
D) Vasco da Gama's voyage to India

Question 17

Why did the Spanish and Portuguese take a sudden interest in overseas maritime expeditions in the fifteenth century?

A) They hoped to conquer the Chinese and Persian Empires.
B) Their governments hoped to use the proceeds from the spice trade to put down uprisings spawned by movements for religious reform in northern Europe.
C) They sought to gain control of the spice trade and use its profits in the struggle against Islam.
D) Merchants from India and China asked for their help in bypassing the Ottoman armies and navies that had seized control of the caravan routes that linked up to the eastern Mediterranean.

Question 18

Which breakthrough helped make possible the European voyages of discovery in the fifteenth century?

A) The discovery that the world was round and not flat
B) The use of the caravel, a small three-masted ship
C) The invention of iron-plated ships that allowed European fleets to defeat their enemies
D) The use of the armada technique, in which many ships would sail simultaneously

Question 19

Christopher Columbus became one of the first European explorers to

A) plot an accurate sea route from Spain to India.
B) begin a regular slave trade based in the Caribbean.
C) establish a permanent European presence in the Americas.
D) launch an expedition to circumnavigate the globe.

Question 20

According to this map, who can be credited with circumnavigating the globe during the sixteenth century?
​
​
​

A) Christopher Columbus
B) Bartholomeu Dias
C) Ferdinand Magellan
D) Vasco da Gama

Question 21

Which of the following statements is supported by this map?
​
​

A) Much of Asia was unknown to Europeans before 1450 when Vasco da Gama sailed to India.
B) The Spanish led voyages near the Americas, while Portugal led voyages near Africa.
C) Spain set up several colonies in Africa as a result of frequent voyages and travels south of Europe.
D) Christopher Columbus can be credited for the discovery of Australia as well as a variety of islands in the Indian Ocean.

Question 22

Which of the following was true of the institution of slavery in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries?

A) It was practiced solely by Christian kingdoms.
B) It was directed primarily by Christians against Muslims and by Muslims against Christians.
C) It was common throughout the Mediterranean, African, and western Asian worlds.
D) It was coming under fire from abolitionists.

Question 23

Which of the following contributed to the success of Hernán Cortés (1485-1547), who was sent by the Spanish crown to the Americas in search of gold?

A) Homogeneity within the Aztec Empire
B) The support of indigenous peoples subjugated by the Aztecs
C) The numerical superiority of the Spanish armies
D) The relative backwardness of the Aztec imperial administration and military

Question 24

Why did the Spanish and Portuguese increasingly rely on dark-skinned Africans to serve as slaves in their colonies in the Atlantic and the New World by the sixteenth century?

A) They believed that most dark-skinned Africans were Muslims and as such were long-standing enemies of Christianity.
B) Because so many of the indigenous peoples of the New World had been worked to death or had perished from European illnesses, the Europeans needed an alternative source of cheap labor.
C) They argued that the native Americans were lazy and unsuited to plantation labor.
D) They found that the costs of transporting African slaves to the New World were lower than the costs of transporting European slaves across the Atlantic.

Question 25

What does the Columbian exchange refer to?

A) Columbus's trade with the Arawaks and Caribs during his four voyages to the New World between 1492 and 1504
B) The systematic exploitation of Africans and native Americans made possible by Columbus's voyages and subsequent European conquests
C) The expansion of the slave trade to the New World
D) The movement of peoples, plants, animals, manufactured goods, precious metals, and diseases between Europe, Africa, and the New World

Question 26

Which European explorer conquered the highlands of Peru, adding it to the Spanish Empire in the 1530s?

A) Hernán Cortés
B) Amerigo Vespucci
C) Christopher Columbus
D) Francisco Pizarro

Question 27

Johannes Gutenberg was the first European to successfully develop which of the following?

A) The printing press
B) The three-masted ship
C) Paper mills
D) Book-binding

Question 28

In The Praise of Folly (1509), Erasmus

A) lampooned many of the un-Christian values held dear by his Christian contemporaries, such as pomposity, greed, and lust for power.
B) attacked the papacy for its massive construction projects, such as the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome.
C) spoke out against the foreign missionary work of groups such as the Jesuits, arguing that Europe needed their work at home.
D) used quotations from ancient classical works to criticize contemporary views on political and religious issues.

Question 29

In 1517, Martin Luther wrote ninety-five theses or questions for debate that attacked

A) the despotic behavior of John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli.
B) Pope Leo X, whom Luther described as the Antichrist.
C) the doctrine of the Trinity and infant baptism.
D) the sale of indulgences.

Question 30

In Freedom of a Christian (1520), Martin Luther argued that

A) faith, not good works, saved sinners from damnation.
B) a corrupt church and priesthood invalidated the Eucharist.
C) clerics should be free to pursue intellectual debate wherever it might lead.
D) Christians should be free to form their own churches and select their own priests.

Question 31

Why did Luther advocate for what he called the "priesthood of all believers"?

A) He believed that the clergy did not need seminary training, since all truths were to be found in the Bible.
B) He believed that the Bible alone contained all teachings necessary for Christians and that a small caste of clerics should find its power reduced.
C) He believed that all Christians should be allowed to enter the priesthood, regardless of social class, gender, or region of origin.
D) He believed that true believers in all religious faiths could lead lives of impeccable virtue.

Question 32

The Evangelicals who supported Luther's call for reform in the church included

A) heretics who had been pushed to the fringes of society.
B) social groups most ready to challenge clerical authority-merchants, artisans, and literate urban laypeople.
C) those in the upper echelons of the church.
D) the priest Johann Tetzel.

Question 33

Who or what helped to spread the ideas of the Lutheran Reformation?

A) Clergy in Switzerland who adopted Luther's views on the sacraments and justification by faith
B) German clerics based in Rome who passed Luther's ideas to like-minded individuals in Spain and Italy
C) Jan Hus's followers in Bohemia, who harbored resentment over the execution of their leader
D) Pamphlets, woodcuts, and cartoons appealing to both the educated and the illiterate

Question 34

Why did Luther escape the fate of Jan Hus, even though Luther attacked the church, called for radical reforms, and even praised Hus at the Imperial Diet of Worms?

A) Luther was German and had protection as a subject of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
B) Luther did not insist on receiving the Eucharist as both the bread and the wine.
C) Luther enjoyed the protection of a powerful prince, Frederick the Wise, the elector of Saxony.
D) Luther was too widely known and far too popular to be openly tried or executed.

Question 35

On what topic did Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) and Martin Luther (1483-1546) differ?

A) The question of the Eucharist
B) The purpose of confession
C) The need for an ecclesiastical hierarchy
D) Clerical celibacy

Question 36

What October 18, 1534, act of Protestant provocation unleashed persecution by Parisian Catholics of all Protestants and religious dissidents?

A) The Affair of the Placards
B) The Luther Affair
C) The Columbian Exchange
D) The Imperial Diet of Worms

Question 37

At the center of his theology, Calvin placed the doctrine of predestination, which argued that

A) every man, woman, and child who truly believed in Christ and his teachings was destined to enter heaven.
B) God had preselected every human being for either damnation or salvation, and that those elected to be saved were known only to God.
C) God had predestined Calvin and his followers to practice true Christianity.
D) the lives of all people were predestined, except for their choice between good and evil.

Question 38

When Michael Servetus, who had published books criticizing Calvin and challenging the concept of the Trinity, passed through Geneva in 1553, Calvin

A) called for his execution.
B) challenged him to a debate.
C) ordered that he be allowed safe passage.
D) had him deported to face inquisitions in Rome.

Question 39

John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536)

A) argued that all Christians should institute governments based on the laws and commandments found in Christian scriptures.
B) delineated the doctrines, organization, history, and practices of Christianity in a systematic and logical manner.
C) insisted that Christian religion should not be mixed with politics or government.
D) argued for religious toleration of "men of faith," whether they were Christians, Jews, or Muslims.

Question 40

The Protestant reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin shared a belief in the importance of education and

A) the equality of men and women.
B) the sanctity of individual rights.
C) a willingness to use violence to enforce their beliefs.
D) a passion for classical philosophy and literature.

Question 41

Why did Henry VIII take the first steps that would ultimately result in severing the English church's ties with Rome in 1527?

A) He had been persuaded to convert to Protestantism after a personal meeting with Martin Luther.
B) He had experienced a vision that told him he had to set up his own church independent of Rome or face military defeat and humiliation.
C) He believed that this would strengthen his position in his struggle with Parliament for power.
D) He wanted to divorce his aging wife and marry again so that he could produce a male heir to the throne.

Question 42

What legislation passed by Parliament in 1534 made Henry VIII head of the Church of England?

A) The Act of Supremacy
B) The Peace of Augsburg
C) The Head of Church Act
D) The Reformation Act

Question 43

How did Martin Luther respond to the German Peasants' War?

A) He sided with the peasants, arguing that they had a right to religious and social freedom.
B) He refused to get involved because he was afraid that doing so might jeopardize his position with Frederick of Saxony.
C) He condemned the peasants, because he believed that even tyrannical rulers should be obeyed.
D) He condemned the nobles for slaughtering thousands of rebels across Germany.

Question 44

What precedent was set by Luther's position during the Peasants' War of 1525, as well as by his subsequent teachings?

A) Religious disputes would henceforth be settled through repression and warfare in Protestant lands.
B) The laity was given a greater role in church affairs; no longer would both policy and religious practice be under the exclusive control of an ecclesiastical hierarchy.
C) Such things as religious conviction, passion, faith, and zeal would be prized above extensive knowledge of church dogma.
D) The Lutheran church would depend on the state-that is, on established political authority-for its protection and would in turn support the state.

Question 45

According to this map, most of the urban violence during the Peasants' War in 1525 occurred
​
​
​
​

A) in areas of general conflict.
B) along the borders of the Holy Roman Empire.
C) in the Netherlands
D) in areas of severe conflict.

Question 46

The Anabaptists were Christian communities that

A) rejected the practice of adult baptism.
B) adopted Lutheran teachings on baptism.
C) rejected uniformly all forms of violence and warfare.
D) urged adult believers to undergo rebaptism.

Question 47

The Münster Anabaptists believed that the end of the world was near and therefore

A) urged their followers to eat, drink, and be merry.
B) abolished traditional marriages and allowed men to have multiple wives.
C) led invading armies into the Netherlands and Switzerland to defeat the followers of reformers they deemed heretical.
D) allowed Jewish communities back into Münster to hasten the second coming.

Question 48

How did Luther fundamentally change medieval church practices toward the scriptures?

A) He cut back the number of the sacraments, which had included the reading of the scripture during the mass.
B) He ordered every one of his followers to read the Bible at home and at family gatherings.
C) He produced a German translation of the Old and New Testaments that allowed the laity to read scripture for itself.
D) He urged that all Christians learn Hebrew and Greek, allowing the laity to encounter the scripture for the first time.

Question 49

What caused secular governments in both Catholic and Protestant regions of Europe to begin to assume the responsibility for public charity?

A) An overall increase in poverty and hardship and the rise of a work ethic that included growing hostility toward the poor
B) Competition between Protestant and Catholic regions over how best to minister to the poor and increase the size of their communities in these contested regions
C) Pressure from the popes and from local rulers who had come to sympathize with the poor and downtrodden in society
D) The discovery and introduction of scientific and quantitative approaches to solving the problem of poverty

Question 50

In the sixteenth century, attitudes toward marriage within the church changed, and Protestant reformers denounced

A) the idealized patriarchal family.
B) the end of clerical celibacy.
C) sexual immorality.
D) the government's regulation of marriage.

Question 51

Which modern-day religious group is descended from the Anabaptists of northwestern Europe?

A) The Presbyterians
B) The Müntzers
C) The Lutherans
D) The Mennonites

Question 52

What council is most closely associated with the movement for Catholic renewal in the sixteenth century?

A) The Council of Trent
B) The Council of the Latin Vulgate
C) The Diet of Worms
D) The Council of the Eucharist

Question 53

Who founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)?

A) Francis Xavier
B) Pope Paul III
C) Ignatius of Loyola
D) Emperor Charles V

Question 54

Which of the following was declared by the first Mexican Ecclesiastical Provincial Council in 1555?

A) Holy orders were not to be bestowed on Indians or people of mixed-race heritage.
B) Indians should not be baptized until they had been taught to speak Spanish.
C) Native or mixed-race people were not allowed to take communion.
D) Intermarriage between Europeans and Indians was banned.

Question 55

What helped European missionaries like Francis Xavier win large numbers of converts in Asia?

A) Their admiration of Asian civilization and willingness to use the sermon rather than the sword to win converts
B) Their reliance on European military superiority
C) The support offered by the network of Spanish merchants and traders, all of whom reinforced the Christian culture of the missionaries
D) Widespread fear of Islam in South and East Asia

Question 56

Which Italian writer wrote The Prince, a primer for those seeking to hold on to political power?

A) Baldassare Castiglione
B) Ludovico Ariosto
C) Michelangelo Buonarroti
D) Niccolò Machiavelli

Question 57

Which of the following factors helped lead Spain and France to end sixty years of warfare with the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559?

A) Looming financial bankruptcy
B) Spain's interest in diverting resources to overseas exploration
C) The Ottomans' victory at Mohács and the fear that all of Europe might fall to the Ottomans
D) A royal marriage alliance

Question 58

What actions did Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the French king Francis I take that shocked the Christian world?

A) Charles V invited all European Jews to come to his empire so that he could profit from their wealth, while Francis I instituted toleration for all Protestants who joined the French army.
B) Charles V seized Rome and allowed his troops to sack the city in 1527 to punish the pope for siding with France, while Francis I later made an alliance with the Turkish sultan against the emperor.
C) Charles V agreed to grant all Protestant princes their independence, but only after they helped him defeat France, while Francis I made an alliance with Henry VIII of England, a ruler he considered a heretic.
D) Charles V made an alliance with the Ottoman sultan in order to end fighting in the east so that he could concentrate on France, while Francis I, believing that God was punishing him, ordered the execution of all Jews and Protestants who refused to convert.

Question 59

Why did many European powers overextend their budgets and flirt with bankruptcy in the sixteenth century?

A) The cost of waging war had risen as a result of the need for larger armies and more expensive military technology.
B) Because of marriages between rival dynasties, the cost of maintaining lavish royal courts and palaces had increased dramatically.
C) Maintaining overseas colonies proved to be a significant drain on the royal budgets.
D) Kings and princes failed to undertake measures to ease the shortfall, including devaluing the currency and raising taxes.

Question 60

Why did the number of French Protestants increase in France until 1560?

A) A significant number of noble French families on the upper rungs of society had converted to Protestantism.
B) Kings Francis I and Henry II were secret Calvinists who welcomed conversions.
C) Calvinist missionaries from England and Germany used Paris as a base from which to convert French Catholics.
D) Divisions among Protestant reformers in Switzerland and Germany paradoxically unleashed a competition for converts in other European states.

Question 61

The Protestant cause finally took firm hold in England during the reign of which of the following English monarchs?

A) Henry VIII
B) Mary Tudor
C) Edward VI
D) Elizabeth I

Question 62

Which forces were represented in the Schmalkaldic League, which was defeated by Emperor Charles V?

A) France, England, and Scotland
B) The German Protestant princes and most of the imperial cities
C) The most prominent Italian city-states, the pope, and France
D) Hungarian princes allied with the Turkish sultan

Question 63

In 1555, the Peace of Augsburg forced Emperor Charles V to recognize the Lutheran church in the Holy Roman Empire

A) but retained Bavaria and Swabia as exclusively Catholic domains under Charles V's direct control.
B) and gave princes the sole right to determine the religion practiced in their lands.
C) and legalized other dissenting sects, such as the Anabaptists and the Mennonites.
D) but reasserted the inviolability of property owned by the Catholic church.

Question 64

According to this map, Calvinism took a strong hold in which area?
​

A) Spain
B) Norway
C) Scotland
D) France

Question 65

In this map of the Protestant Reformation, c. 1560, which body of water can be said to be a conduit for Protestant expansion?
​
​
​

A) The Atlantic Ocean
B) The Danube River
C) The Mediterranean Seat
D) The Baltic Sea