Deck 16: E: Cultural Transformations Religion and Science 1450-1750

Question 1

Personal Reflection: Looking back from the twenty-first century,did the benefits of the Scientific Revolution outweigh its drawbacks?

Answer 1

•The Scientific Revolution fundamentally altered ideas about the place of human beings in the cosmos.
•It sharply challenged both the teachings and the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
•It substantially eroded religious beliefs and practices in the West.
•It challenged ancient social hierarchies and political systems and played a role in the revolutionary upheavals of the modern era.
•It was used to legitimize racial and gender inequalities.
•When married to the technological innovations of the Industrial Revolution,science fostered both the marvels of modern production and the horrors of modern means of destruction.

Question 2

Comparative Analysis: Evaluate the state of scientific learning and advancements in China, the Islamic world, and Europe in the early modern era.

Answer 2

•The Islamic world had generated the most advanced science in the world between 800 and 1400,with achievements in mathematics,astronomy,optics,and medicine.
•Libraries in the Islamic world exceeded those in Europe.
•In China,elite culture was sophisticated and secular.The kaozheng movement emphasized research based on evidence,much as the Scientific Revolution in Europe emphasized observation and experimentation.However,in China it was applied more to the study of the past than to the natural world.
•After 1000,Chinese technological accomplishments and economic growth were unmatched.
•In Europe,scientific thought emphasized human reason and natural explanations for events;it affirmed that the world was a physical reality governed by natural laws.
A really good answer might note that scientific thought in Europe spawned related movements that sought to apply human reason to human affairs,not just the physical universe.

Question 3

Comparative Analysis: Compare and contrast the spread of Western European Christianity with that of Islam during the early modern period.

Answer 3

•Christianity evolved from a largely European cultural tradition into a world religion during the early modern era.
•Christianity had its greatest success where European colonial powers ruled (especially the Americas and the Philippines),where there was an overwhelming European presence,where the established society had been defeated and disrupted,and where no literate world religion was already established.It should be noted that,in these regions,the converts blended and assimilated Christianity into patterns of local culture and belief.
•Western Christianity also spread to China,but Christian missionaries in China focused primarily on converting the official Chinese elite and sought to make Christianity attractive by pointing out parallels between Christianity and Confucianism.There were fewer conversions in early modern China than in Spain's New World empire.
•By the early modern era,Islam was already a transregional religion,and it continued to spread during the period.
•The Mughal and Songhay empires helped to establish Islam more firmly in India and West Africa,respectively.
•In sub-Saharan Africa,in the eastern and western wings of India,and in Central and Southeast Asia,the expansion of the Islamic frontier continued throughout the early modern era.This expansion depended primarily on wandering Muslim holy men,Islamic scholars,and itinerant traders,and often involved a blending of Islamic and local traditions.
•During the early modern period,Islamization extended modestly even to the Americas,where enslaved African Muslims planted their faith,particularly in Brazil.