Deck 1: The Rise of Europe

Question 1

Which of the following is a characteristic of the New Stone Age?

A) Use of sharp tools
B) Creation of religious sects
C) Formation of dialects
D) Use of currency

Answer 1

Use of sharp tools

Question 2

Modern times were immediately preceded by a period of a thousand years that historians called:

A) the Ancient Period.
B) the Greco-Roman Period.
C) the Middle Ages.
D) the Dark Ages.

Answer 2

the Middle Ages.

Question 3

The major languages of Europe belong to the _____ language family.

A) Altaic
B) Austronesian
C) Finno-Ugric
D) Indo-European

Answer 3

Indo-European

Question 4

The Greeks formed tiny city-states, all independent and:

A) far away from one another.
B) often at war with one another.
C) democratic.
D) autocratic.

Question 5

Which of the following is true of Greek thinkers?

A) They looked for rational or natural explanations of the human condition.
B) They extended the web of myth.
C) They ignored the variety and confusion they saw.
D) They used demonic possession to explain human sickness.

Question 6

Latin was the basis for all of the following languages except:

A) French.
B) Italian.
C) Romanian.
D) German.

Question 7

The Romans conquered Greece in 146 B. C.E and rapidly:

A) destroyed all that was Greek.
B) destroyed most of Greek culture.
C) absorbed much of Greek culture.
D) adopted the political system of the Greek city-states.

Question 8

By the fifth century, the entire Roman world:

A) was formally Christian, and no other religion was officially tolerated.
B) had religious beliefs rooted in paganism.
C) were Gentiles, and Christianity was not tolerated.
D) was formally Christian, but the greatest thinkers remained outside the church.

Question 9

On an intellectual level, Christianity marked:

A) a return to Greek philosophy.
B) a rejection of individual dignity.
C) a revolution.
D) another elitist religious movement.

Question 10

St. Augustine's book, City of God, proclaimed that:

A) the material world was most important.
B) political authority had divine character.
C) spiritual and political power were held to be inherently divine characteristics.
D) spiritual and political power were held to be separate and independent.

Question 11

Caesaropapism:

A) was condemned by the emperor of Constantinople.
B) was the doctrine proclaimed by the bishop of Rome to increase his authority.
C) meant that one ruler held both political and spiritual power.
D) was espoused by St. Augustine.

Question 12

By 700 C. E., Latin Christendom:

A) was the predominant power in the world.
B) was marked by freedom from barbarian invasion.
C) was conquered by Arabs.
D) was a region in chaos.

Question 13

Under the impact of the Germanic invasions of the West, _____.

A) trade increased
B) political life flourished
C) security and civil order disappeared
D) manufacturing increased marginally

Question 14

During the "Dark Ages," the Christian church was the only organized institution that:

A) maintained a tie with the ancient civilizations.
B) could control the Western barbarians.
C) was broken into numerous religious sects.
D) remained intact in England.

Question 15

The authority of the papacy in Rome grew out of:

A) the concept of Caesaropapism.
B) papal opposition to the barbarian invaders.
C) the absence of any strong secular authority in the city.
D) the doctrine of "Petrine supremacy."

Question 16

The "Donation of Constantine," widely believed genuine until the fifteenth century, _____.

A) gave the pope the power of investiture in the Holy Roman Empire
B) officially granted the pope control of Rome
C) converted all of the Roman Empire to Christianity
D) provided bread and circuses for the people of Rome

Question 17

In 800 C. E., the pope needed a protector against both barbarians and Byzantium. He therefore:

A) declared that the Dark Ages had begun.
B) hired Arab mercenaries to defend his territories.
C) crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne emperor of the West.
D) called upon the English and Irish for assistance against Charlemagne.

Question 18

The empire established by Charlemagne did not last due to the:

A) Great Schism.
B) political pretensions of the Byzantine Empire.
C) devaluation of the money supply.
D) invasion of barbarians in the ninth century.

Question 19

The Great Schism of 1054 between the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches signified all of the following except the:

A) definitive division of the Christian world into eastern and western halves.
B) downfall of Constantinople to the Turks.
C) severing of another of the Latin West's ties with antiquity.
D) growing emergence of the Latin West as an independent center of civilization.

Question 20

Which of the following statements is true about Europe's population?

A) Its distribution suddenly grew more dense about the year 1000.
B) Western Europe's population, sparse even in Roman days, became more so after year 500.
C) After the year 1000, Europe's population expanded steadily for two or three hundred years.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 21

In the High Middle Ages:

A) the concept of progress developed.
B) barbarians continued their assaults upon Europe.
C) slavery became essential to production.
D) slavery gave way to serfdom.

Question 22

Land use was improved through the three-field system, which:

A) resulted in two-thirds of the land coming into annual use.
B) divided arable land among the clergy, the peasants, and the local aristocracy.
C) divided arable land for the purpose of planting, grazing, and building.
D) resulted in less effective employment of animals.

Question 23

The three-field system used during the Middle Ages:

A) increased the annual land used.
B) decreased the annual land used.
C) temporarily reduced food supply.
D) caused farmers to migrate to the city.

Question 24

In a strict sense, the system of feudalism applied only to:

A) the peasantry and serfs.
B) the military or noble class.
C) the priests and monks.
D) town and city dwellers.

Question 25

Which of the following statements is true of the manorial system?

A) The lord could expropriate the villagers or drive them away.
B) The serfs were bound to the soil.
C) The circulation of money increased.
D) None of these are correct.

Question 26

By 1100, Europe experienced:

A) a decrease in the overall population.
B) a decline of political rights.
C) the rise of towns and commerce.
D) the continued isolation of villages and towns.

Question 27

In towns, merchants and craftsmen formed guilds, which provided:

A) personal liberty.
B) a free market for producers.
C) a means of vocational education.
D) immunity for producers from consumers.

Question 28

The spirit of the medieval economy was to:

A) increase competition.
B) prevent competition.
C) increase production.
D) maintain the barter system.

Question 29

Early parliaments represented:

A) the nation.
B) the people.
C) the collective interests of the country.
D) the individual citizen.

Question 30

The growth of parliaments all over Europe in the thirteenth century:

A) reflected the power of the monarchy.
B) strengthened the idea of a representative government.
C) indicated the beginning of modern feudalism.
D) indicated the degree of unity among the European nation-states.

Question 31

Lay investiture was:

A) the practice of popes appointing secular rulers.
B) the practice of emperors appointing bishops.
C) favored by the Roman Catholic Church.
D) prohibited by the Holy Roman Emperor.

Question 32

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the queen of the sciences was:

A) astronomy.
B) astrology.
C) theology.
D) gastronomy.

Question 33

In the twelfth century, a great stream of new knowledge poured into Europe. It was derived from:

A) the Arabs.
B) the Turks.
C) the Vikings.
D) the Chinese.

Question 34

The crusades were made possible by all of the following factors except:

A) the growth of Italian shipping.
B) the rise of a sense of European identity and purpose.
C) the recruitment and conversion of Muslims to Christian campaigns.
D) the emergence of more orderly feudal monarchies.

Question 35

Despite its dazzling achievements, China did not generate, as Europe did in the Middle Ages, the forces that ultimately led to the modern scientific and industrial world. All of the following can help explain this except:

A) Europeans, such as Marco Polo, travelled to China, but the Chinese did not venture out of their territory.
B) conformity was not one of the primary European virtues.
C) the question of what Europeans should do with their lives was less dependent on the political powers than in China, especially with religion and the church kept distinct from the state.
D) Europe discovered such crucial inventions as gunpowder and printing before the Chinese.

Question 36

From roughly 500 C. E. on, Europe entered the "Dark Ages." Is this term justified? What were the characteristics of the period? Why were they considered "dark"?

Question 37

What were the significant contributions of Charlemagne as emperor of the West?

Question 38

Describe the general workings of the feudal system. What were its main characteristics? How did feudalism benefit the different social classes? Did it reinforce inequality?

Question 39

Medieval civilization grew primarily out of a fusion between Roman and Germanic societies. What were the most important contributions of each to the Middle Ages?

Question 40

What are the factors that help to explain the slow political unification of Italy and Germany, but not England or France, in the Middle Ages?

Question 41

What was the relationship between the church and secular powers during the Middle Ages?

Question 42

What significant economic and political developments led to the prosperity and advanced civilization of the High Middle Ages (the eleventh to thirteenth centuries)?

Question 43

How did the idea of representative government develop in the medieval monarchies of the West?

Question 44

To what extent were the medieval monarchs of England, France, and Germany able to consolidate their power by about 1300 C. E.? What methods did the kings employ to bolster their rule? In particular, how did they manage to increase their sources of revenue?

Question 45

What, for medieval Europeans, was the problem raised by the rediscovery of Aristotelian thought? How did Thomas Aquinas resolve this problem? In what way did scholastic philosophy lay the foundation for later European thought?

Question 46

What was the impact of the Arabic/Islamic conquests on medieval Europe? What did the crusades have in common with those conquests?

Question 47

The Greco-Roman world broke into three segments in the early Middle Ages. Why? How did religion influence the division?

Question 48

How did the expansion of Latin Christendom, Greek Christendom, and the Muslim world bring each of these three entities into conflict with each other? Where was conflict most intense?

Question 49

How did the crusades expand the breadth of Latin Christendom? Compare the direction of the major crusades with the barbarian invasions and the inroads made by Muslims in earlier centuries.

Question 50

Did Christianization last in the areas targeted by the crusades? Evaluate the success of the crusades in the Iberian Peninsula, the Holy Land, Eastern Europe, and Asia.

Question 51

Consider the rise of Christianity. How did early Christian views on the human experience compare with Greek views?

Question 52

How did Christianity become the dominant European religion? How and when did it spread to every corner of Europe?

Question 53

What were the major factors favoring population growth in the tenth and eleventh centuries? What was the role of technology?

Question 54

How did towns represent a challenge to feudalism?

Question 55

How did the growth of trade impact feudalism?

Question 56

Describe the life of the common man or woman living on a manor. How did their experiences differ from those of people living in towns? How did the status of poor rural dwellers change over the course of the Middle Ages?

Question 57

What were the causes of the movement for reforming the Catholic Church in the High Middle Ages? How did people attempt to overcome those problems?