| A | B |
|---|
| Lorenzo de Medici | art patron and Renaissance ideal, clever politician who held Florence together in the 1400s |
| Francesco Petrarct | Florentine and early Renaissance humanist who wrote Sonnets to Laura |
| Leonardo da Vinci | Renaissance artist and inventor, known for Mona Lisa and The Last Supper |
| Michelangelo | Renaissance sculptor, engineer, painter, architect, and poet, known for sculptures of Pieta and David |
| Raphael | master Renaissance painter known for The School of Athens |
| Baldassare Castiglione | author of The Book of the Courtier, defined the Renaissance Man |
| Niccolo Machiavelli | diplomat and author of The Prince, a guidebook for rulers on how to gain and maintain power |
| Albrecht Durer | the "German Leonardo" known for his engravings of religious subjects |
| Jan van Eyck | Flemish painter known for realistic portrayals of townspeople and religious scenes |
| Francois Rabelais | French humanist, monk, physician, Greek scholar and author of Gargantua and Pantagruel |
| William Shakespeare | English poet and playwright, known for Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Richard III |
| Miguel de Cervantes | Spanish author of Don Quixote, an adventure tale that mocked traditional ideas of chivalry |
| Johann Gutenberg | developed the printing press and printed a complete edition of the Bible using movable type |
| Protestant Reformation | religious movement calling for reform in the Catholic Church that led to a division in the Christian church |
| Martin Luther | German monk whose protests against the abuses of the Catholic Church began the Protestant Reformation |
| Peace of Augsburg | signed in 1555, this agreement ended religious wars between the Holy Roman Empire and the Lutheran princes, allowed each prince to decide the religion of his land |
| John Calvin | French priest and lawyer who published his religious beliefs in the Institutes of Christian Religion which included the belief in predestination |
| Huguenot | French protestants |
| John Knox | Calvinist preacher who led a rebellion in Scotland |
| Henry VIII | British king who separated from the Catholic Church in order to annul his marriage and take a new wife |
| Elizabeth I | English queen who ruled from 1554-1603, adopted The Book of Common Prayer for the English church, and established a series of reforms |
| Council of Trent | called by the Pope in 1545 to help reform the Catholic Church, which reaffirmed traditional Catholic views |
| Inquisition | a Church court set up during the Middle Ages which used secret testimony, torture and execution to root out heresy |
| Jesuits | religious order founded by Ignatius of Loyola to spread the Catholic faith |
| Teresa of Avila | Spanish nun who worked to reorganize and reform convents and monasteries throughout Spain |
| Nicolas Copernicus | scientist who proposed the heliocentric theory |
| Johannes Kepler | German astronomer and mathematician who calculated the orbits of the planets revolving around the sun |
| Galileo Galilei | Italian astronomer who assembled a telescope and proved that the Earth moved around the sun, causing major division in the Catholic Church |
| Francis Bacon | Englishman who stressed experimentation and observation to gain knowledge |
| Rene Descartes | Frenchman who emphasized human reasoning as the best road to understanding, published Discourse on Method |
| Isaac Newton | English scientist who explained the theory of gravity and developed laws of motions and mechanics |
| Robert Boyle | Chemist who distinguished between individual elements and chemical compounds; he also explained the effect of temperature and pressure on gases |
| Tainos | West Indian people first encountered by Columbus |
| Hernan Cortes | Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztecs and Tenochtitlan |
| Malinche | Aztec woman who served as a translator for Cortes |
| Moctezuma | Aztec emperor defeated by the Spanish |
| Francisco Pizarro | Spanish conquistador who overtook the Incas in Peru |
| Atahualpa | Incan leader who was kidnapped and killed by the Spanish |
| Council of the Indies | Spanish council that monitored colonial officials, maintaining strict control |
| Bartolome de las Casas | Spanish priest who worked to end abuses against Native Americans |
| New Laws of the Indies | passed in 1542, these laws forbid the enslavement of Native Americans |
| Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz | Refused admission to the Univ of Mexico, this girl later became know of the greatest poets of the Spanish language |
| Samuel de Champlain | founder of the first permanent French settlement in Quebec |
| Louis XIV | French king who wanted to strengthen royal power and income by an overseas empire |
| Jamestown | First permanent English colony, built in 1607 |
| Pilgrims | English setters who came to Plymouth, MA seeking religious freedom |
| Mayflower Compact | document which set out guidelines for governing the North American colony |
| French and Indian War | 7-years War, a struggle for power in North American between the British and the French |
| Treaty of Paris 1763 | officially ended the French and Indian War, ensured British dominance in North America |
| Middle Passage | Terrible voyage that took Africans to slavery in the Americas |
| Asante | led by Osei Tutu, the _____ conquered neighboring tribes and organized a new kingdom |
| Usman dan Fodio | Fulani scholar who set up an Islamic state in West Africa |
| Boer | Dutch immigrants who lived and farmed in South Africa |
| Shaka | leader of the Zulus who waged war and conquered neighboring tribes |
| Great Trek | Boer families escaped British rule in South Africa by travelling north in covered wagons |
| Colombian Exchange | global exchange of people, plants, and animals - even technology and disease |
| commercial revolution | the price revolution, growth of capitalism and new business methods that changed the way Europe did business |
| putting-out system | distribution of wool to peasant cottages where it was spun into thread and woven into cloth |
| Hapsburgs | ruling family of the Empire that included the Holy Roman Empire and the Netherlands |
| siglo de oro | "golden century," time in Spain of brilliant art and literature |
| El Greco | "the Greek," artist who settled in Spain and painted religious scenes and royal portraits |
| Diego Velazquez | Spanish painter known for his vivid portraits of Spanish royalty |
| Miguel de Cervantes | Spanish author of Don Quixote |
| St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre | massacre of 3000 Huguenots by Catholics at a royal wedding celebration |
| Edict of Nantes | issued by Henry IV in 1598, it allowed religious toleration for Huguenots |
| Fronde | uprising in France where nobles, merchants, peasants, and the urban poor all rebelled |
| Versailles | Louis XIV's elaborate palace, a symbol of his wealth and power |
| War of the Spanish Succession | fought over attempt to unite France and Spain under one monarch |
| James I | followed Elizabeth I, first Stuart monarch, believed in divine right |
| Charles I | followed James I, absolute monarch who fought with Parliament and began the English Civil War |
| Petition of Right | prohibited king from raising taxes without the consent of Parliament |
| Cavalier | supporters of Charles I in the English Civil War |
| Oliver Cromwell | led Parliament (and the Roundheads) against Charles I in the English Civil War |
| Leveller | Group who thought that poor men should have equal say in government with the upper classes |
| English Bill of Rights | Documents signed by William and Mary ensuring the superiority of Parliament over the English monarchy |
| Peace of Westphalia | treaty that ended the Thirty Years War, France gained territory on its Spanish and German frontiers |
| Maria Theresa | first female ruler of Hapsburg lands |
| War of the Austria Succession | between Maria Theresa and Frederick of Silesia, where Maria Theresa preserved her empire and won the support of the people |
| Frederick the Great | king of Prussia known for his brilliant use of the army |
| Seven Years' War | was fought in Europe, India, and North America, ended with the Treaty of Paris |
| Peter the Great | Russian ruler who forced western technology and social customs on the Russian people |
| St. Petersburg | Peter the Great's new capital city, a symbol of modern Russia |
| Vitus Bering | Danish navigator hired by Peter the Great to explore Siberia and Alaska |
| Catherine the Great | German princess who became empress of Russia, an efficient and ruthless absolute monarch |
| Thomas Hobbes | wrote Leviathan, said people are naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish |
| John Locke | believed people were basically reasonable and moral, had certain natural rights - life, liberty, and property |
| Baron de Montesquieu | thinker and author of The Spirit of the Laws, believed in separation of powers to protect liberty |
| Voltaire | famous philosophe who used his writing to expose corruption in the government |
| Denis Diderot | created The Encyclopedia and wanted to change the way of thinking |
| Jean-Jacques Rousseau | controversial philosophe who believed people were born good by corrupted by society, believed in the general will |
| Mary Wollstonecraft | British social critic who encouraged equal rights for women |
| The Wealth of Nations | book by Adam Smith that argued that the free market should be allowed to regulate business activity |
| Candide | story by Voltaire that made fun on European society |
| Joseph II | enlightened despot, Hapsburg emperor, traveled in disguise to find out the problems of his people |
| Johann Sebastian Bach | German composer who wrote works for organ and choirs |
| George Frederick Handel | German compose who wrote Water Music and the Messiah |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | child musical prodigy, important composer and performer |
| Daniel Defoe | English novelist, author of Robinson Crusoe |
| Act of Union | 1707, the joining of England and Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain |
| Tories | English political party made up of landed aristocrats who wanted to preserve older traditions |
| Whigs | English political party made up of businessmen who supported religious toleration and Parliament over the crown |
| Robert Walpole | Whig leader considered to be Britain's first prime minister |
| George III | British king who ruled for 60 years and ended up losing the American colonies during the Revolution |
| Navigation Acts | passed by Parliament to regulate colonial trade and manufacturing, not strictly enforced |
| Continental Congress | colonists who met to decide about breaking away from England, created an army with George Washington in command |
| George Washington | leader of the Continental Army |
| Battle of Saratoga | turning point in the American Revolution when the Americans defeated the British in 1777, persuaded France to side with America |
| Treaty of Paris 1783 | ended the American Revolution, forced Britain to recognize the independence of the United States of America |
| Bill of Rights | first 10 amendments to the US Constitution, recognized basic rights of the people that the government must protect |
| ancien regime | old French class system made up of the first, second, and third estates |
| Jacques Necker | financial adviser to Louis XIV |
| cahiers | notebooks listing the problems of the three estates |
| Tennis Court Oath | National Assembly delegates swore to remain together and write a constitution for France |
| National Assembly | delegates of the Third Estate who claimed to represent the people of France |
| Bastille | French prison stormed by revolutionaries on July 14, 1789 |
| Great Fear | attacks on villages and towns that caused panic |
| tricolor | red, white, and blue badge that was eventually adopted as the national flag of France |
| Legislative Assembly | had the power to make laws, collect taxes, and decide on war (created by the Constitution of 1791) |
| Declaration of Pilnitz | the king of Prussia and emperor of Austria threated to intervene with the revolutionaries on behalf of the monarchy |
| Jacobins | French revolutionary political club made up of middle-class lawyers or intellectuals |
| Committee of Public Safety | 12-member committee with absolute power to save the French Revolution |
| Maximilien Robespierre | leader of the Committee of Public Safety, began the Reign of Terror to save the Revolution |
| Directory | created by the Constitution of 1795, a five-man group that ruled with a two-house legislature |
| Olympe de Gouges | female journalist who supported women's rights by writing Declaration of the Rights of Women |
| La Marseillaise | French national anthem |
| Jacques Louis David | artist who painted in the classical style and documented events of the Revolution |
| Consulate | three-man governing board overthrown by Napoleon |
| Concordat of 1801 | Napoleon's peace with the Catholic Church, kept the Church under state control but allowed religious freedom for Catholics |
| Napoleonic Code | new law code that called for equality of all citizens before the law, religious toleration, and advancement based on merit |
| Confederation of the Rhine | made up of 38 nations and under the control of Napoleon, formerly the Holy Roman Empire |
| Battle of Trafalgar | British admiral Horatio Nelson smashed the French fleet off the coast of Spain |
| Continental System | Napoleon's attempt to blockade European ports to British goods |
| Joseph Bonaparte | Napoleon's brother, replaced the king of Spain |
| Duke of Wellington | leader of the British army who went to support Spain against France |
| Marie Louise | Austrian princess and Napoleon's new wife, gave him a family connection to the royalty of Europe |
| scorched earth policy | Russian retreat from Napoleon where they burned all crops and villages that might aid the French |
| Waterloo | Napoleon's final defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army |
| Clemens von Metternich | represented Austria at the Congress of Vienna |
| Quadruple Alliance | Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain pledged to act together to maintain the balance of power and suppress revolutions in Europe |
| Charles Townshend | urged farmers to grow turnips to restore the soil |
| Jethro Tull | inventor of the seed drill |
| Thomas Newcomen | developed a steam engine powered by coal to pump water out of mines |
| James Watt | Scottish engineer who improved the steam engine and became known as "the father of the industrial revolution" |
| Abraham Darby | he used coal to smelt iron, discovering a way to remove impurities from coal |
| John Kay | invented the flying shuttle, which sped up weaving |
| James Hargreaves | produced the spinning jenny, which spun many threads at the same time |
| Richard Arkwright | invented the waterframe, which used water power to speed up spinning |
| George Stephenson | developed the steam-powered locomotive |
| Luddite | rioters who smashed machines and burned factories as resistance against new industrial technology |
| John Wesley | founder of the Methodist church |
| Methodism | religious movement which encouraged the need for personal faith and the adoption of sober and moral values |
| Thomas Malthus | predicted that the population would outpace the food supply |
| iron law of wages | states that when wages are high families have more children, but more children means a greater supply of labor which leads to lower wages |
| John Stuart Mill | utilitarian who argued that actions are right of they promote happiness and wrong if they cause pain |
| Utopians | early socialists who tried to build self-sufficient communities in which all work was shared and all property was owned in common |
| Karl Marx | author of The Communist Manifesto who believed that economics was the driving force in history |
