Ap European History Essay Example for Free

Ap European History Essay After reading and studying this chapter, you should be able to discuss the meanings of the term renaissance. You should be able to explain the economic context for the Renaissance, the new status of the artist in Renaissance Italy, and the meanings of the terms humanism, secularism, and individualism as applied by scholars to the Renaissance. Also, you should be able to explain how the Italian Renaissance affected politics, the economy, and society. Finally, be able to elaborate on the evolution of medieval kingdoms into early modern nation-states, and the spread of Renaissance humanism northward. Chapter Outline I. The Evolution of the Italian Renaissance A. Economic Growth as the Basis of the Renaissance 1. Venice, Genoa, and Milan grew rich on commerce between 1050 and 1300. 2. Florence, where the Renaissance originated, was an important banking center by the fourteenth century. B. Communes and Republics 1. In northern Italy the larger cities won independence from local nobles and became self-governing communes of free men in the twelfth century. 2. Local nobles moved into the cities and married into wealthy merchant families. This new class set up property requirements for citizenship. . The excluded, the popolo, rebelled and in some cities set up republics. 5. By 1300 the republics had collapsed, and despots or oligarchies governed most Italian cities. C. The Balance of Power among the Italian City-States 1. City patriotism and constant competition for power among cities prevented political centralization on the Italian peninsula. 2. As cities strove to maintain the balance of power among themselves, they invented the apparatus of modern diplomacy. 3. In 1494 the city of Milan invited intervention by the French King Charles VIII. 4. Italy became a battleground as France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Emperor vied for dominance. 5. In 1527 the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sacked Rome. II. Intellectual Hallmarks of the Renaissance A. Individualism 1. Renaissance writers stressed individual personality, greatness, and achievement, in contrast to the medieval ideal of Christian humility. B. Humanism 1. The revival of antiquity took the form of interest in archaeology, recovery of ancient manuscripts, and study of the Latin classics. 2. The study of the classics became known as the â€Å"new learning,† or humanism. 3. Humanist scholars studied antiquity not so much to find God as to know human nature and understand a different historical context. 4. Humanists derided what they viewed as the debased Latin of the medieval churchmen. C. Secular Spirit 1. The secular way of thinking focuses on the world as experienced rather than on the spiritual and/or eternal. 2. Renaissance thinkers came to see life as an opportunity rather than a painful pilgrimage toward God. 3. Lorenzo Valla argued that sense pleasures were the highest good. 4. Giovanni Boccaccio wrote about an acquisitive, sensual, worldly society. Renaissance popes expended much money on new buildings, a new cathedral (St. Peter’s), and on patronizing artists and men of letters. III. Art and the Artist A. Art and Power 1. In the early Renaissance, corporate groups such as guilds sponsored religious art. 2. By the late fifteenth century individual princes, merchants, and bankers sponsored art to glorify themselves and their families. Their urban palaces were full of expensive furnishings as well as art. 3. Classical themes, individual portraits, and realistic style characterized Renaissance art. 4. Renaissance artists invented perspective and portrayed the human body in a more natural and scientific manner than previous artists did. B. The Status of the Artist 1. Medieval masons were viewed as mechanical workers/artisans. Renaissance artists were seen as intellectual workers. 2. The princes and merchants who patronized artists paid them well. 3. Artists themselves gloried in their achievements. During the Renaissance, the concept of artist as genius was born. 4. Renaissance culture was only the culture of a very wealthy mercantile elite; it did not affect the lives of the urban middle classes or the poor. IV. Social Change A. Education and Political Thought 1. Humanist writers were preoccupied with education for morality and virtue. 2. Baldassare Castiglione’s The Courtier (1528) presented an image of the ideal man as master of dance, music, the arts, warfare, mathematics, and so on. 3. Daughters of the elite received an education similar to sons and a few went on to become renowned painters or scholars. 4. In The Prince (1513), Niccolo Machiavelli argued that politics could not follow simple rules of virtue and morality—that it ought in fact to be studied as a science. B. The Printed Word 1. Around 1455 in the German city of Mainz, Johan Gutenberg and two other men invented the movable type printing press. 2. Methods of paper production had reached Europe in the twelfth century from China through the Near East. 3. Printing made government and Church propaganda much more practical, created an invisible â€Å"public† of readers, and stimulated literacy among laypeople. C. Clocks 1. City people involved in commerce had a need to measure time. 2. By the early fourteenth century mechanical clocks were widespread in Europe. . Mechanical clocks and precise measurement of time contributed to the development of a conception of the universe in measurable, quantitative terms. D. Women and Work 1. Early modern culture identified women with marriage and the domestic virtues. 2. Women were involved with all economic activity connected with the care and nurturing of the family, as well as working outside the home. 3. Women during the Renaissance worked in a variety of businesses—for example, sailmaking—and even in a few isolated cases managed large enterprises. Wealthy women were usually excluded from the public arena and instead managed their households. E. Culture and Sexuality 1. Women’s status in the realm of love, romance, and sex declined during the Renaissance. 2. Writers such as Castiglione created the â€Å"double standard†? women were to be faithful in marriage, while men need not be. 3. Penalties for rape in Renaissance Italy were very light. 4. In spite of statutes against â€Å"sodomy,† generally referring to male homosexuality, Florentine records from the fifteenth century show a lot of homosexual activity going on, usually relations between an adult male and a boy. F. Slavery and Ethnicity 1. In medieval and Renaissance Europe many Slavic, Tartar, Circassian, Greek, and Hungarian slaves were imported. 2. Beginning in the fifteenth century the Portuguese brought many black African slaves into Europe. 3. Within Africa the economic motives of rulers and merchants trumped any cultural/ethnic/racial hostility toward Europeans. They sold fellow Africans into slavery apparently without qualms. 4. Africans did not identify themselves as â€Å"black,† but as members of more than 600 different tribal and ethnic groups. 5. Black slaves were an object of curiosity at European courts. 6. The Renaissance concept of people from sub-Saharan Africa was shaped by Christian symbology of light and darkness? blacks represented the Devil. Race did not emerge as a concept until the late seventeenth century. V. The Renaissance in the North A. Northern Humanists 1. In the late fifteenth century students from northern Europe studied in Italy and brought the Renaissance home. 2. Thomas More (1478–1535) of England argued that reform of social institutions could reduce or eliminate corruption and war. 3. The Dutchman Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) was an expert in the Bible and Greek language who believed that all Christians should read the Bible. 4. Francois Rabelais (1490–1553) ridiculed established institutions such as the clergy with gross humor in Gargantua. 5. Flemish artists came to rival the Italian Renaissance painters. VI. Politics and the State in the Renaissance (ca 1450–1521) A. Centralization of Power 1. Some scholars have viewed Renaissance kingship as a new form, citing the dependence of the monarch on urban wealth and the ideology of the â€Å"strong king. In France Charles VII (r. 1422–1461) created the first permanent royal army, set up new taxes on salt and land, and allowed increased influence in his bureaucracy from middle-class men. He also asserted his right to appoint bishops in the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. 3. Charles’s son Louis XI (r. 1461–1483) fostered industry from artisans, taxed it, and used the funds to build up his army. He brought much new territory under direct Crown rule. 4. In England Edward IV ended the War of the Roses between rival baronial houses. 5. Henry VII ruled largely without Parliament, using as his advisers men with lower-level gentry origins. 6. Henry’s Court of the Star Chamber tried cases involving aristocrats and did so with methods contradicting common law, such as torture. 7. Although Spain remained a confederation of kingdoms until 1700, the wedding of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon did lead to some centralization. Ferdinand and Isabella stopped violence among the nobles, recruited â€Å"middle-class† advisers onto their royal council, and secured the right to appoint bishops in Spain and in the Spanish empire in America. . Popular anti-Semitism increased in fourteenth-century Spain. In 1478 Ferdinand and Isabella invited the Inquisition into Spain to search out and punish Jewish converts to Christianity who secretly continued Jewish religious practices. 9. To persecute converts, Inquisitors and others formulated a racial theory? that conversos were suspect not because of their beliefs, but because of who they were racially. 10. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain.

Changing a Lifestyle in Only Six-Weeks :: Health Diet Nutrition Excersize Essays

Changing a Lifestyle in Only Six-Weeks Jennifer is a twenty-year-old college student struggling with body image issues. She is a size eight. She has never developed an interest in athletics and has never exercised in her life. She has no muscle tone and has a high body fat percentage. Jennifer is not confident about her body. She wants to be skinny and is constantly dieting. Instead of eating healthy and balanced meals, she skips meals often. When she does eat, she eats only fried foods like French fries and hamburgers and refuses to eat fruits and vegetables. Samantha is Jennifer's friend at college. She is an athlete. She is a runner and a weight lifter. She is training for the Boston Marathon, her second marathon, that is three months away. She runs for an hour three days a week and on the weekends runs for longer distances. She also weight lifts three times a week in the gym. Samantha is very confident and is in the best shape of her life. She eats a lot of fruits, vegetables, and lean protein. She has very defined muscles and a low body fat percentage. Jennifer admires Samantha's discipline in exercise and healthy eating, but she resists exercising and eating well. She is afraid to become too muscular and develop a manly physique. Jennifer strives to look like a supermodel, not like an athlete. Samantha encourages Jennifer to go to the gym to weight lift with her but Jennifer refuses. Jennifer lacks motivation and is not interested in participating in ?masculine? activities like bodybuilding. After months of coercing, Samantha finally convinces Jennifer to go to the gym with her. Jennifer succumbs because she hopes to meet some hot guys at the gym. Samantha convinces Jennifer to go to the gym with her three days a week for six weeks. After that, if she does not like it, Samantha will never bother her again about taking up an exercise regime. When Jennifer arrives for the first time at the gym, she is surprised to see how many women are working out with weights. Half of the people weightlifting are women. Jennifer also observes that the majority of women have very feminine physiques. They are muscular, lean, and have very attractive figures. Jennifer was expecting to see very few women weightlifting. In addition, she expected those women to be very muscular and masculine looking.

Personal log

If you are a biologist interested in working in the tropical rainforest's, briefly describe a research study you could complete at each level in the biological hierarchy, starting from the organisms level to the biosphere. 2. What are the two biotic variables that dictate type of terrestrial bimbo? Do aquatic and marine systems rely on the same two variables? Why or why not? 3. Which of the terrestrial boomers Is the most vulnerable to anthropogenic (human) Influence and why?What Is being affected? 4. Create a table that lists the bimbo, biotic variables that are elevate, and examples of organisms that would reside there. 5. Why arena species all over the planet? What influences dispersal? 6. What is the value of describing populations using density, dispersion, and demographic information? Be specific and be sure to demonstrate your understanding of the terms. 7. What are the two mall population growth models? What organisms may follow those growth models? 8.What factors influence t he populations described in #6? How do density-dependent and density-independent factors play a role? Chapter 41 1 . What are the five mall types of Interspecies Interactions discussed In the chapter? Describe each. . When Interactions result In a negative outcome for one species (e. G. Parasitism, predation, herbivore), the species that is affected will typically have a response to prevent that negative outcome. Describe examples of how species respond to these effects. 3.How do invasive species affect the natural populations? 4. What is the difference between a food chain and a food web? 5. What type of ecosystems would likely demonstrate bottom-up control? Top-down control? Why? 6. Is ecological disturbance a bad thing? Why or why not? Give an example to support your answer. 7. How did MacArthur and Wilson demonstrate the connection between area and species richness & diversity? Chapter 42 1 . Why do ecologists need to understand the laws of thermodynamics? How do they apply to a n ecosystem? 2.How much energy Is being transferred for each atrophic level? 3. What is primary production? What limits primary production in aquatic ecosystems? Why is primary production so low in the open ocean? 4. Why can we say that biochemical cycles are nature's way of recycling? 5. List the inputs and outputs (to the atmosphere) of each of the following biochemical cycles: a. Water cycle b. Carbon cycle d. Phosphorus cycle Chapter 43 1. What are the three levels of biodiversity? Is one level more important to study than the others?Why or why not? 2. What are the threats to biodiversity? Describe specific examples of each. 3. Why are small populations at risk? Describe specific issues associated with small populations. 4. Should we preserve land in multiple small patches or one large patch (SOLOS theory – single large or several small)? Using your knowledge of landscape structure and biodiversity, how would you establish a protected area and why? 5. How does climate cha nge affect species diversity and distribution? 6. What do we mean by the term â€Å"sustainability'?

A Review of Nirvana for Sale by Rachelle M. Scoot Essay

Nirvana for Sale by Rachelle M. Scott is an anthropological investigation into the intersection of wealth and piety in Thailand Theravada Buddhism. Through ethnographic methods, the book seeks to describe this relationship in a historically situated context. Thus, the book is concerned with cultural praxis within the context of religious discourses about wealth and piety. As a piece of ethnography, the work is competent, but draws little attention to the classic anthropological methodology of participant observation, characterized by long-term engagement with local cultural practices. Instead the claims made are gathered through an analysis of publications and dialogues within the Thailand Buddhist community, mostly centered on a†¦show more content†¦Next Scott examines how this embracement of a modernist prosperity-gospel model of Buddhism becomes problematized within the socio-historical context of the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s. After this, she expands the analysis looking at â€Å"the broader field of debate over the commercialization of Buddhism† and its commodification â€Å"as a product† as well as â€Å"the effects of consumerism on contemporary Thai society† (17). This is contextualized through an overview of the discourses of various â€Å"principle voices within this discussion† (17) such as Bhikkhu Buddhadasa, â€Å"a well known promoter of dhammic socialism. These diverse voices help to contextualize and complicate the discourse surrounding both the modernist prosperity Buddhism of Dhammakaya Buddhism through a post-modern commentary. It is this post-modern commentary that is the focus of the concluding chapter, in which she frames the commentary as a â€Å"rallying cry for religious reform† (17). Importantly, this work avoided a Marxist analysis of the commodification of religion such as is described by the Comaroffs. In doing so it avoids claims about authenticity that end up as essentializing Buddhism, and instead shows that it â€Å"is not a static entity; it is continuously created through space and time† (16). Another important epistemological consideration is Scott’s treatment of Orientalism and the rationalization of modern interpretations