World History and Geography: Medieval and Early Modern Times
The social, cultural and technological changes in Europe, Africa and Asia from A.D. 500-1789 and their continuing influence today
- The causes for the internal turmoil in and weakening of the Catholic church (e.g., tax policies, selling of indulgences)
- The theological, political and economic ideas of the major figures during the Reformation (e.g., Desiderius Erasmus, Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale)
- Protestants' new practices of church self-government and the influence of those practices on the development of democratic practices and ideas of federalism
- The names and locations of the European regions that remained Catholic and those that became Protestant and explain how the division affected the distribution of religions in the New World
- How the Counter-Reformation revitalized the Catholic church and the forces that fostered the movement (e.g., St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits, the Council of Trent)
- The institution and impact of missionaries on Christianity and the diffusion of Christianity from Europe to other parts of the world in the medieval and early modern periods; names and locations of missions on a world map
- The Golden Age of cooperation between Jews and Muslims in medieval Spain that promoted creativity in art, literature and science, including how that cooperation was terminated by the religious persecution of individuals and groups (the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain in 1492)
7.10 THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION AND ITS LASTING EFFECT ON RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS
- The roots of the Scientific Revolution (e.g., Greek rationalism; Jewish Christian and Muslim science; Renaissance humanism; new knowledge from global exploration)
- The significance of the new scientific theories (e.g., those of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton) and the significance of new inventions (e.g., the telescope, microscope, thermometer, barometer)
- The scientific method advanced by Bacon and Descartes, the influence of new scientific rationalism on the growth of democratic ideas and the coexistence of science with traditional religious beliefs
7.11 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN THE SIXTEENTH, SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES (THE AGE OF EXPLORATION, THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE AGE OF REASON)
- The great voyages of discovery, the locations of the routes and the influence of cartography in the development of a new European worldview
- The exchanges of plants, animals, technology, culture and ideas among Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the major economic and social effects on each continent
- The origins of modern capitalism; the influence of mercantilism and cottage industry; the elements and importance of a market economy in seventeenth-century Europe; the changing international trading and marketing patterns, including their locations on a world map; and the influence of explorers and map makers
- How the main ideas of the Enlightenment can be traced back to such movements as the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution and to the Greeks, Romans and Christianity
- How democratic thought and institutions were influenced by Enlightenment thinkers (John Locke, Charles-Louis Montesquieu, American founders)
- How the principles in the Magna Carta were embodied in such documents as the English Bill of Rights and the American Declaration of Independence