Unit 5 Links
Unit Introduction
Although the 1400s were still often violent and troubled times, Europe had recovered from the worst chaos of the Middle Ages. Trade was thriving once again. In prosperous Italy, a thousand years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the art and philosophy of the Greeks and Romans was being rediscovered and blended with Christian culture. Meanwhile, the authority of the ancient and corrupt Roman Catholic Church was challenged leading to a permanent split with its protesting malcontents.
In the late 15th century AD, spurred on by the quest for gold and glory and the will to spread Christianity, Europeans seeking a safer, quicker route to the riches of Far East Asia stumbled upon the Americas by accident. Within a few decades, 95% of the native population of the North and South American continents was dead from disease, enslavement, and conquest. By the 1600s, Western Europe, fueled by trade in the Americas and Asia, was growing strong. In the tense environment following the Protestant Reformation and with the reach of European ships stretching around the globe, competition between religions and nations grew intense. Rich from trade, conquest, and heavy taxes and driven by belief in their absolute authority to govern granted directly from God, the power of European kings reached its peak. |
Louis XIV, the Sun King, was one of France's most important monarchs. He wielded absolute power from ruled 1643 to 1715. The royal purse, the army, industry, and administration were all reformed and trade blossomed. Louis XIV also greatly encouraged the arts. The château of Versailles is the finest achievement of his reign.
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Unit Objectives
- Explain how interest in classical learning and religious reform contributed to increased global interaction.
- Explain the political, social and economic reasons for the rise of powerful centralized nation-states and empires.
- Analyze the effects of increased global trade on the interactions between nations in Europe, Southwest Asia, the Americas and Africa.
- Explain how and why the motivations for exploration and conquest resulted in increased global interactions, differing patterns of trade, colonization, and conflict among nations.
- Explain the causes and effects of exploration and expansion.
- Analyze colonization in terms of the desire for access to resources and markets as well as the consequences on indigenous cultures, population, and environment.
- Analyze the role of investment in global exploration in terms of its implications for international trade.