Books and Resources
The Shaping of Western Civilization
Author: Michael Burger
Time Period: 10000 BC-PRESENT
About The Book
Michael Burger’s goal in this inexpensive overview is to provide a brief, historical narrative of Western civilization. Not only does its length and price separate this text from the competition, but its no-frills, uncluttered format and well-written, one-authored approach make it a valuable asset for every history student.
The Shaping of Western Civilization begins with the ancient Near East and ends with globalization. Unlike other textbooks that pile on dates and facts, Shaping is a more coherent and interpretive presentation. Burger’s skills as writer and synthesizer will enable students to obtain the background required to ask meaningful questions of primary sources.
About The Author
Michael Burger is an historian of medieval Europe and the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Auburn University at Montgomery. He is the author of Bishops, Clerks, and Diocesan Governance in Thirteenth-Century England: Reward and Punishment (Cambridge University Press) and the editor of the two-volume reader Sources for the History of Western Civilization (University of Toronto Press).
Study Questions
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Regarding Maps
The earliest civilizations of the West-”Egypt and Mesopotamia-”grew up around rivers, which provided water for agriculture.
The Assyrians treated rebels against their authority extremely harshly and deported those they conquered to other parts of the empire in order to break down their sense of ethnic identity. Although the Persians executed rebel leaders, they respected the ethnic identity of those they conquered. Local laws and customs were maintained and the empire was administered at the local level by local elites.
Regarding Figures
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question
Defining Terms
Define “civilization.”Reveal Answer
Strictly speaking, “civilization” refers to life in cities, although in popular usage “civilized” usually means “cultured” or “refined.”
Define “Fertile Crescent.”Reveal Answer
The Fertile Crescent is the area stretching from Egypt to Mesopotamia that marks especially good agricultural lands and the places where the first civilizations of the ancient Near East originated.
Define “cultus.”Reveal Answer
Cultus is the pleasing of a god through ritual.
Define “theocracy.”Reveal Answer
Theocracy means rule by a god or gods.
Define “Mesopotamia.”Reveal Answer
Mesopotamia (Greek for “the land between the rivers”) is the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that produced the first civilization.
Define “polytheism.”Reveal Answer
Polytheism is the belief in many gods.
Define “Neolithic Revolution.”Reveal Answer
The Neolithic Revolution is the beginning of agriculture.
Define “monotheism.”Reveal Answer
Monotheism is the belief in only one god.
Short-Answer Questions
Jericho was one of the first towns that emerged as a result of the Neolithic Revolution. People now could settle in one place and agriculture could support a larger population. By ca. 8000 BC Jericho was a community of 2,000 people who had built a large tower and wall.
What does the Babylonian New Year’s festival illustrate about the Babylonians’ relationship with their patron god?Reveal Answer
The Babylonian New Year’s festival shows that the Babylonians believed they were ruled by their patron god Marduk. Each year during the festival, the king had to humble himself before Marduk and swear that he had performed his duties in the past year. Thus, Marduk was the real ruler; the king merely his servant.
What change did Akhenaton impose on the Egyptians and how well did they adapt to this change?Reveal Answer
Akhenaton (who began as pharaoh Amenhotep IV) attempted to impose monotheism on the Egyptians. He promoted the worship of the god Aton and banned the worship of other gods. After his death, the Egyptians reverted to the worship of Amon and the other gods, suggesting that the Egyptians didn’t find monotheism very appealing.
Other kings received their authority from gods who, since they were much like human beings themselves, might commit unjust acts. As a result, kings could be unjust and still claim to represent these gods. Yahweh, however, was not humanlike in that he was the definition of “good.” Thus, when a Hebrew king acted unjustly, he could not claim to do so with Yahweh’s approval, so he could not claim to represent Yahweh in that instance. Any moral person who recognized this was justified in reproaching the king.
What does the story of Inanna and Shukaletuda show about Mesopotamian ideas about the gods?Reveal Answer
The story of Inanna and Shukaletuda shows that the Mesopotamians thought of their gods as very human-like, with human limitations and frailties. The goddess Inanna was neither omnipotent nor omniscient. She could be raped by a human being. She didn’t know who the culprit was or (at least at first) where he was.
Many Greek myths show the influence of ancient Near Eastern myth. Like those of the ancient Near East, the Greek gods had human-like characteristics and required animal sacrifices. Both traditions have a story of a god replaced by his son; both have flood stories. Greek and Near Eastern myth both hold women responsible for evil in the world. Both cultures associated women with matters of the flesh and men with matters of the spirit.
Long-Answer Questions
Compare and contrast Egyptian and Mesopotamian culture. How can you explain any differences you find?Reveal Answer
Consult Chapter 1 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
What is the “problem of evil” and how did religions of the ancient Near East deal with this problem?Reveal Answer
Consult Chapter 1 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 1 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
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Defining Terms
Define “aretÄ“.”Reveal Answer
AretÄ“ means “virtue” or “excellence.”
Define “agÅn.”Reveal Answer
An agÅn was a competition.
Define “Hellas.”Reveal Answer
“Hellas” was what the Greeks called ancient Greece. They called themselves “Hellenes.”
Define “Archaic period.”Reveal Answer
The Archaic period was ca. 800-ca. 500 BC.
Define “Classical period.”Reveal Answer
The Classical period was ca. 500-323 BC.
Define “dÄ“mos.”Reveal Answer
The dÄ“mos was “the people;” in political terms it meant the body of adult male citizens who were eligible to participate in politics.
Define “Hellenistic.”Reveal Answer
Hellenistic means “Greekish” or “Greek-like” and refers to the culture resulting from the fusion of Greek and Near Eastern culture as a result of Alexander the Great-™s conquests.
Define “barbaroi.”Reveal Answer
Originally, “barbaroi” simply meant someone who did not speak Greek, but came to also mean “barbarian.”
Long-Answer Questions
Consult Chapter 2 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
How did the political history of the Greek poleis influence the development of Greek philosophical thought?Reveal Answer
Consult Chapter 2 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
How is the search for “fundamental underlying unity” exemplified by Greek philosophers? How did this search change over time?Reveal Answer
Consult Chapter 2 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
How did Greek attitudes toward the non-Greek world evolve from the Archaic period through the Hellenistic period?Reveal Answer
Consult Chapter 2 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Regarding Figures
Compare Figures 2.1 and 2.2. How do they reflect the influence of the ancient Near East on Greek civilization?Reveal Answer
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consider Figure 2.6. How does it reflect the cultural fusion of the Hellenistic Period?Reveal Answer
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Short-Answer Questions
The Greeks had a relatively positive view of war and admired men who were great warriors. War was an opportunity for displaying one’s arête by decisively defeating the enemy.
The early polis was defined as an extended family, or kin group. A Greek was expected to act not only in his own interest, but in the interest of his family. Defining the polis as a family gave otherwise individualist Greeks a reason for loyalty to their polis.
What effect did the Persian Wars have on the Greeks’ image of themselves and their attitudes toward the Persians?Reveal Answer
The Greeks saw themselves as heroes for having won an agÅn against the Persians. They began to see the Persians as inferior to Greeks, or natural slaves in fact. The term “barbarian,” which originally meant simply “non-Greek,” came to have the pejorative connotation of “uncivilized” or “uncultured.” Greeks also began to cut themselves off from non-Greek artistic influences.
What was the metabolÄ“ politeiÅn?Reveal Answer
The metabolÄ“ politeiÅn was the “cycle of constitutions,” the movement back and forth between democracy and oligarchy in the Classical period. Many poleis were divided between two factions: those supporting oligarchy (rule of the wealthy) and those supporting democracy (rule by the people). Control of the polis often switched back and forth between these two factions, creating great instability in the polis.
Solon’s reforms allowed all Athenian male citizens to vote for archons and allowed men who were not wealthy (but also not poor) to serve as hoplites. Classifying people by wealth rather than by clan undermined the old clan structure and so undermined the notion of the polis as one big family.
The Athenians eased tensions between rich and poor by providing the poor with income derived from Athenian silver mines and the Athenian empire. Athenians received money for serving as sailors in the Athenian fleet, serving on juries, and working on public works projects. Poorer Athenians could also be settled on land confiscated from rebellious poleis.
What was the Lycurgan system and what was its purpose?Reveal Answer
The Lycurgan system was the system that allowed the Spartans to continue to dominate the helots. All Spartan boys were raised by the state after the age of eight and given military training. Adult Spartan males were all full-time warriors who ate in common messes. This system de-emphasized individual achievement and family ties and emphasized service to the state.
Greek philosophers, including the pre-Socratics, searched for an underlying unity that would explain a multitude of phenomena.
Sophists were professional teachers who claimed to teach wisdom. They argued, unlike the philosophers, that one could not uncover eternal, unchanging standards of right and wrong, and that human beings determined standards of “right” and “wrong.” This attitude was likely influenced by the democracies of Classical Greece that made the laws for each polis.
After defeating the poleis led by Athens at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, Philip of Macedon controlled the Greek poleis through the League of Corinth. His son Alexander exercised military dominance over the Greeks after Philip’s death.
Regarding Maps
Consider Map 2.1. Why should one not speak of a “Greek kingdom” or “Greek empire” in the ancient period?Reveal Answer
The primary political unit of ancient Greece was the polis or independent city-state. The Greek poleis were dispersed widely across islands or mountainous terrain: the Greek mainland, the Aegean Islands, and the coast of what is now Turkey. Under this circumstance, Greek populations were cut off from each other, making it difficult to unite into a larger political unit.
Many more Greek poleis were established all over the Mediterranean and along the Black Sea coast.
Alexander’s empire stretched all the way from Greece to Egypt in the south and the Indus River to the east. After his death, his empire was replaced by at least four Hellenistic successor states.
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Defining Terms
Define “pietas.”Reveal Answer
Pietas is defined as “dutifulness to something beyond oneself.”
Define “mos maiorum.”Reveal Answer
Mos maiorum means “the way of the forbearers,” that is, the traditions of the ancestors.
Define “auctoritas.”Reveal Answer
Auctoritas was a kind of moral authority that a distinguished person wielded in ancient Rome. It was different from “potestas” or “power.”
Define “The Senate.”Reveal Answer
The Roman Senate was an assembly of current and former magistrates that advised the consuls, magistrates, and assemblies. In theory, it was merely an advisory body, but in the early Republic its advice was rarely ignored.
Define “novus homo.”Reveal Answer
A novus homo, or “new man,” was a person elected to the consulship who was not a member of the nobility. As Rome’s empire expanded and wealth poured into Rome, such “new men” became less common.
Define “latifundia.”Reveal Answer
Latifundia were large estates owned by wealthy Romans.
Define “otium cum dignitate.”Reveal Answer
Otium cum dignitate was “leisure with dignity,” that is, a cultivated leisure. By the third century BC, a Roman demonstrated that he was wealthy enough for such leisure by a knowledge of Greek philosophy and literature.
Define “populares.”Reveal Answer
Populares were Roman politicians in the second and first century BC who used the citizen body to oppose the Senate and the aristocracy.
Define “optimates.”Reveal Answer
The optimates were Roman politicians in the second and first century BC who advocated deferring to the leadership of the Senate.
Define “First Triumvirate.”Reveal Answer
The First Triumvirate was an alliance of the three most powerful men in the Roman world: Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Marcus Crassus. These three essentially ruled the Roman Republic ca. 62-53 BC.
Define “principate.”Reveal Answer
The principate was the form of government established by Augustus after the end of the civil wars. He claimed to have restored the Republic. By appearing to honor Roman tradition and the mos maiorum, Augustus was able to disguise what was essentially a military dictatorship.
Long-Answer Questions
Consult Chapter 3 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 3 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 3 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Regarding Figures
Consider Figure 3.1. How does the bust of the old Roman man reflect an important Roman value?Reveal Answer
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consider Figures 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4. How do these figures reflect the creation of a Greco-Roman culture?Reveal Answer
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
How does Figure 3.5 illustrate what the Romans meant by “Greek,” or “Hellenic,” culture?Reveal Answer
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Regarding Maps
Consider Map 3.1. How did the Roman Empire differ geographically from the other empires discussed so far?Reveal Answer
The Roman Empire was a maritime-based empire.
Short-Answer Questions
Historians do not have contemporary accounts of early Roman history because Romans only began to write their own history at the end of the third century BC. Moreover, only fragments of these third-century histories survive. The earliest surviving histories of Rome date from the first century BC.
What made Lucretia a Roman heroine?Reveal Answer
She acted out of a concern for the common good rather than self interest. She did not want other wives to commit adultery using rape as an excuse. Lucretia preferred to die rather than set a bad example.
What values did the Romans hold dear?Reveal Answer
Romans valued self-sacrifice for the common good, the ideal of rural life, the customs of their ancestors, and the authority of fathers.
All magistrates were elected for only a year and all had colleagues in office; also, tribunes had the power to veto any legislation.
How much influence did the Senate have in legal terms under the Republic? In practical terms? Why?Reveal Answer
Legally, the Senate merely advised the magistrates and assemblies. In practice, however, the Senate ruled the Roman Republic for most of its history. The Senate, made up of older, experienced men who had held office, had such auctoritas, that is, moral authority, that people were reluctant to go against its advice. Moreover, being made up of senior politicians, the Senate collectively exercised tremendous patronage.
What role did the Roman notion of citizenship play in the creation of the Roman Empire?Reveal Answer
The Romans were quite willing to grant citizenship, partial citizenship, or potential citizenship to the peoples they conquered. This discouraged rebellion by giving the conquered a reason to be loyal to Rome. This willingness to grant citizenship also created a large manpower base for the Roman army.
How does the Second Punic War illustrate the effects of Rome’s policy towards conquered peoples?Reveal Answer
Most of Rome’s Italian allies, despite having been conquered by Rome, remained loyal to Rome even after Hannibal invaded Italy. In addition, Rome had the manpower necessary to absorb the loss of three armies to Hannibal.
How does Cicero’s prosecution of Verres illustrate a problem that the growth of Rome’s empire entailed?Reveal Answer
As Rome became wealthy from its empire, winning elections became more and more expensive. Politicians often went into debt getting elected consul. They recouped their losses later when governing a province. Provincial governors had ample opportunity to extract wealth from the provinces through clients and outright extortion. Cicero prosecuted Gaius Verres, the governor of Sicily, for such corruption.
On one hand, Romans adopted or imitated many elements of Greek high culture:
history, literature, philosophy, religion, rhetoric, art, and architecture. On the other hand, Romans liked to think of themselves as simple country people and they associated the Greeks with the corruption of luxury-loving city life. In addition, Romans found Hellenistic civilization distasteful because they associated it with kingship.What “constituencies for change” had emerged in the Roman Republic by the second and first centuries BC?Reveal Answer
By the second and first centuries BC, a number of groups had reason to be dissatisfied with the Roman Republic: Roman citizens who had lost their land, Italians and provincials who wanted full citizenship, wealthy men who resented being excluded as “new men,” nobles who weren’t rich enough to enjoy the prerequisites of their ancestors, and large numbers of slaves in Italy. Politicians representing these various interests leveraged their support for their own political ambitions in a way that de-stabilized the Republic.
Tiberius Gracchus passed a land reform law without consulting the Senate. When a tribune vetoed his bill, Tiberius had the popular assembly remove him from office. Traditionally, however, Roman politicians expected to be limited by their colleagues in office. After his term as tribune expired, Tiberius proposed immediately running again for the tribunate, violating the tradition against successive terms in office.
Octavian wanted to be seen as the savior of the Republic. Although he kept control of the army in his own hands, he tried to appear to be governed by the mos maiorum, accepting only traditional offices and powers. In 27 BC, he asked the Senate for permission to retire to private life, but then allowed the Senate to persuade him to accept certain powers. This charade was necessary in order to impart to him some of the auctoritas traditionally reserved for the Senate.
The empire had both its critics and its admirers. Sometimes the same person both praised and criticized the empire. The historian Livy thought Rome “the greatest nation on earth,” ordained by the fates to rule. At the same time, he referred to the “vices” of Augustus’s time. Aelius Aristides, a Greek provincial with Roman citizenship, thought Romans ruled justly and brought peace. He also admired the Roman notion of citizenship. The Roman historian Tacitus believed the old Roman Republic superior to the Empire. He saw the “civilizing” of “barbarians”-”living in cities, learning Latin and the liberal arts-”as a means of enslaving them. In this, he may well have been influenced by the traditional Roman admiration of rural simplicity-”think Cincinnatus.
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Defining Terms
Define “dominate.”Reveal Answer
From dominus, or “lord,” this was the style of government established by Diocletian in 384 to end the third-century crisis. It was essentially a theocratic monarchy in which the emperor claimed to get his authority from the gods.
Define “proskynesis.”Reveal Answer
Proskynesis was the ritual prostration before Near Eastern kings that was taken over by the Hellenistic monarchs. When Diocletian established the dominate, he began to require proskynesis as well.
Define “clergy.”Reveal Answer
The clergy were leaders of the Christian community who began to emerge in the second century AD. The episkopoi (“overseers”) evolved into bishops; the presbyteroi (“elders”) came to be priests.
Define “Montanists.”Reveal Answer
In the second century, Montanists resisted the development of a rigid Christian hierarchy by claiming that God spoke to them directly. Their personal experiences trumped both the canon and the clergy.
Define “ascetic.”Reveal Answer
Ascetics imposed self-denial upon themselves in order to live up to the highest Christian ideals. One of the earliest ascetics was St. Antony (ca. 250-ca. 350), who gave up his worldly wealth to go into the Egyptian desert to fast and live in animal skins. Communities of ascetics developed into monasteries.
Define “Nicene Creed.”Reveal Answer
Constantine called the Council of Nicaea in 325 to settle the dispute between Arius, who argued that God and Jesus could not both be divine, and his opponents, who argued that they most certainly were. Arius lost. The Nicene Creed was the formal statement of belief issued by the council.
Define “foederati.”Reveal Answer
Germanic tribes with whom the Romans began, in the third century, to make treaties to defend the borders of the empire against other Germans.
Define “missi dominici.”Reveal Answer
Charlemagne attempted to overcome the independence of his counts by sending his personal representatives (missi dominici, or “the lord’s sent ones”) to check up on them.
Define “manorialism.”Reveal Answer
“Manorialism” is a historian’s term to describe the relationship existing between peasants and lords in the ninth and tenth centuries. Peasants were serfs, that is, bound to their lords’ estates, and rendered him labor service. They expected protection from their lords and his court handled all disputes. The serfs answered to no authority higher than their lord-”no king or emperor.
Define “Christendom.”Reveal Answer
The West was a localized society by ca. 1000. No united empire or kingdom existed. The only sense of identity that transcended the local level was that of being a Christian. “Christendom” was the united Christian community, a union of religion and society.
Define “feudalism.”Reveal Answer
Feudalism is a term currently out of fashion among historians. Traditionally, it referred to a social system in the West in the ninth and tenth centuries that revolved around the relationship between lord and vassal. A vassal gave his lord military service, advice, and loyalty. The lord gave his vassal an estate (“fief”) and justice. Vassals swore fealty to their lord in the ceremony of homage. Many have criticized this picture of society as being too tidy and the reality as being much messier. The word “vassal” shows up relatively infrequently in early medieval documents. Many people who weren’t peasants didn’t think of their land as fiefs as all, but as land they owned. Sometimes the word “fief” was applied to land not held by anyone. Oaths of fealty could simply mean a promise not to harm. Referring to “feudalism” assumes an order that did not exist at the time.
Long-Answer Questions
Consult Chapter 4 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 4 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
How did the position of “Roman emperor” change from the time of Augustus to that of Charlemagne?Reveal Answer
Consult Chapter 4 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Regarding Maps
In the fifth century, various Germanic groups took over what had been the western half of the Roman Empire. Yet, in the eastern half, the Roman Empire endured as the Byzantine Empire.
Islam originated in the Arabian Peninsula, but by the eighth century had taken over what had been part of the Roman Empire from Spain through North Africa to Mesopotamia. (It also spread further east into what had been the Parthian Empire, modern Iraq and Iran.)
The Franks had set up a kingdom encompassing what would become France, much of Germany, Switzerland, and parts of Austria and Italy. The Muslims dominated North Africa and Spain. The Byzantine Empire controlled parts of the Mediterranean, southern Italy, and Greece.
Regarding Figures
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
How do Figures 4.4 and 4.5 help you understand what “Rome” meant to Charlemagne and his court?Reveal Answer
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Short-Answer Questions
How did Edward Gibbon’s thinking influence the choice of 476 as the traditional date for the fall of Rome?Reveal Answer
Gibbon argued that one of the causes of Rome’s fall was the “barbarians,” that is, the Germanic groups that took over what had been the western half of the Roman Empire. In 476, one of these Germanic leaders, Odoacer, deposed the Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus and packed the imperial regalia off to Constantinople. The western half of the empire would not have a “Roman emperor” again for four hundred years.
What do historians mean by “Late Antiquity”?Reveal Answer
Some historians argue that the coming of Christianity and the barbarians did not mark a fundamental break with the Roman past. They do not end the period of the ancient world and begin the Middle Ages ca. 500, but argue that “Late Antiquity” should be dated from ca. 200 to ca. 750.
From Commodus’s death in 192 to Diocletian’s accession in 284, any general with an army at his back could try to become emperor. The period was characterized by constant civil war between generals vying for the throne. There was no reason to recognize someone as emperor other than his power to enforce his claim. That meant anyone with the power could make the claim. The Senate’s authority to name emperors carried less and less weight.
The crisis of the third century greatly increased demands on local elites by requiring higher taxation; local decurions were expected to themselves make up the difference if tax collections came up short. Under the circumstances, the practice of paying for local community buildings, which such men had done as service to the community, also became a great burden. As a result, more men tried to avoid serving as decurions, getting exemptions or fleeing to their country estates. As urban commerce declined, the estates of local elites began to be self-sufficient. In the end, these developments led to the decline of cities in the West.
The Christian Church responded in two ways. First, Christian communities, through a long, slow process, decided which writings were authoritative. Second, leaders of the Christian community emerged who had the authority to decide who was a member of the Christian community and who wasn’t. By the second century these bishops were believed to have received their authority from Jesus through the first twelve apostles.
What did early Christianity have in common with Islam?Reveal Answer
Islam, like Christianity, was a monotheistic religion. It, too, had a holy book, the Quran. Muslims believed that the Bible-”both Old and New Testament-”were holy. The prophet Mohammed, in fact, claimed to be the final prophet of the God of the Old Testament. Both Islam and Christianity (after Christianity became the religion of the empire) believed in theocracy in which the political sphere and the religious sphere were integrated.
In early Christianity, five cities were important enough for their religious leaders to have the special status of “Patriarch.” Rome was the only city in the West to have this designation, and as the eastern and western halves of the empire drifted apart, the prestige of the bishop of Rome was greater than that of any other bishop in the West. In time, bishops of Rome claimed that Christ had made the apostle Peter the head of the church. Since Peter was the first bishop of Rome, his successors inherited his special status.
Charlemagne relied on his personal relationship with his followers, which rested on the force of his personality and the gifts that, in Germanic tradition, they expected from him.
Why did the Carolingian Empire collapse?Reveal Answer
Charlemagne’s grandsons, the sons of Louis the Pious, insisted on dividing the empire among themselves in Germanic fashion. Hence, in 843 the Treaty of Verdun split the empire into thirds. Moreover, in the ninth century, Charlemagne’s empire was attacked by Muslims from the south, Magyars from the east, and Vikings from the north. The continued raids of the Vikings in the later ninth and tenth centuries meant that people looked to local lords, not a central government, to protect them.
How can one describe the society that replaced the Carolingian Empire as “a society without rules”?Reveal Answer
Disputes were not settled by reference to law but by force and negotiation.
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Defining Terms
Define “High Middle Ages.”Reveal Answer
The High Middle Ages is the period in the West ca. 1000-ca. 1300.
Define “Late Middle Ages.”Reveal Answer
The Late Middle Ages is the period in the West ca. 1300-1500.
Define “body politic.”Reveal Answer
Although this idea originated in the tenth century, and is rooted in even earlier thought, in the twelfth century, John of Salisbury articulated the view that society was like a body: each part had its own function and worked smoothly with the others. In this organic notion of society, the king is the head and his advisors the heart; soldiers are the hands; governors of the provinces are the eyes, ears, and tongue; tax collectors are the stomach; and peasants and craftsmen are the feet.
Define “liberties.”Reveal Answer
In the Middle Ages, liberties were rights over others.
Define “lay investiture.”Reveal Answer
Lay investiture was the appointment of members of the clergy by laymen.
Define “Cathars.”Reveal Answer
The Cathars were a heretical group in southern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They were radical dualists, believing that things of the spirit were good and material things were evil. As a result, they believed that Jesus could not have had a physical body that was crucified. Pope Innocent III called a crusade-”the Albigensian Crusade-”against them in 1209.
Define “humanism.”Reveal Answer
Humanism centers on the study of human beings and includes disciplines such as rhetoric, ethics, politics, and history.
Define “Renaissance.”Reveal Answer
The Renaissance was a movement centered in Italy, ca. 1300-ca. 1500. It was meant to be a “re-birth” of the classical culture of ancient Greece and Rome.
Long-Answer Questions
Consult Chapter 5 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 5 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
How did developments in government and the church affect the relationship between the two?Reveal Answer
Consult Chapter 5 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Regarding Maps
Consider Map 5.1. How did the Angevin empire develop? How does it illustrate developments of the High Middle Ages?Reveal Answer
England and Normandy came to be governed by the same ruler when William, Duke of Normandy, conquered England. One of William’s successors, Henry II, inherited not only William’s lands, but also the French county of Anjou from his father. Moreover, he married Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had inherited the French county of Aquitaine. Thus, Henry II came to rule England, Normandy, Anjou, and Aquitaine, making him the most powerful ruler in Europe. The development of the Angevin empire illustrates the growth of larger territories governed by a single person.
In the eleventh century, Christians began the “reconquista,” the reconquest of Spain from the Muslims. This was largely accomplished by the mid-thirteenth century; by 1247, only Granada held out against the Christians. This re-taking of Spain from the Muslims would not have been possible without the expansion of the West’s economy and population.
Regarding Figures
Consider Figures 5.1 and 5.2. How can you explain the development of Gothic architecture?Reveal Answer
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
How do Figures 5.3 and 5.4 illustrate one of the central concerns of Renaissance humanists?Reveal Answer
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Short-Answer Questions
In the Middles Ages, society was seen as composed of “those who fight” (knights), “those who pray” (the clergy), and “those who work” (the peasants).
Because of improvements made by the Carolingians in agriculture, the population of Western Europe began to expand in the eighth century. This expansion continued, and possibly even accelerated, ca. 1000-1300. The increased population produced more food, which in turn supported a population surplus-”that is, people who did not have to spend their lives producing food. This excess population could participate in commerce and live in emerging centers of commerce, i.e. towns.
How did the economic and population expansion of the High Middle Ages lead to the expansion of Christendom’s borders?Reveal Answer
The greater wealth and larger population of Western Europe made possible several movements that had the effect of expanding the borders of western Christendom: the Crusades (the attempt by Christians to re-take the Holy Land from the Muslims); the “drive to the east” (the conquest of pagan territory by German Christians); and in Spain, the reconquista (the reconquest of Spain from the Muslims).
What was the “investiture contest”?Reveal Answer
The investiture contest was the conflict between Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV over who had the right to appoint bishops.
What were the goals of the Gregorian Reform?Reveal Answer
The goals of the Gregorian Reform were to prohibit lay investiture, simony, and clerical marriage. These goals aimed at distinguishing the clergy from the laity and making them independent of the laity.
What were the effects of the Gregorian Reform?Reveal Answer
The Gregorian Reform had a number of effects. It led to a long period of conflict between secular authority and the church over lay investiture, usually resulting in a compromise. But the Gregorian Reform also had the result of increasing the prestige of the clergy by making clear their difference from laymen, of increasing men’s fear of women because of the threat women seemed to pose to clerical celibacy, of increasing intolerance of non-Christian groups such as Jews, of non-normative groups such as homosexuals, and of increasing the desire to root out heresy.
The creation of larger territories ruled by a single authority led to the emergence of rigid laws, permanent courts, and a professional judiciary. Because it led to more inflexible rules, it also led to a greater distinction between categories of people, such as serf and free, and greater definition of their rights.
How does the story of Henry II and Thomas Becket illustrate a common conflict in the High Middle Ages?Reveal Answer
Henry II of England and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, came into conflict over the issue of whose court-”secular or church-”would hear cases of clergymen accused of secular crimes. This conflict was the result of the spread of both royal and church courts in the High Middle Ages. Because of the development of parallel court systems, questions about jurisdiction became common.
“No taxation without representation.” How does this sum up the emergence of the English Parliament?Reveal Answer
English kings had a tradition of consulting with their great lords, the barons. As royal courts and more rigid laws emerged, the barons also wanted their kings to be governed by set law. The failure of kings to consult their barons before making important decisions, such as to raise the scutage the barons owed, often led to baronial rebellions. In the thirteenth century, these barons claimed to represent not just the barons but “the community of the realm.” Eventually, English kings also began to consult with representatives of the towns and shires. Over time, the obligation of the king to consult “the community of the realm,” and of it to give or withhold permission, for example, to raise taxes, came to apply not only to the barons but also to the representatives of lesser members of the kingdom. These representatives of the “community of the realm” came to be known as Parliament and came to have the power to accept or reject new taxes. Moreover, because Parliament was also a royal court, it was a place for handling petitions; over time Parliament became the highest court in the land.
In the early Middle Ages, nature seemed disorderly and unpredictable, subject to the whim of supernatural powers. But as people came to recognize reason as an authority, they came to view the natural world as a rational place created by a rational God.
The idea that nature was predictable was shaken in the Late Middle Ages as a result of widespread famine and the Black Death. This is reflected in scholarly ideas such as the development of “nominalism,” which is predicated on the idea that human reason is limited. Scholars began to emphasize God’s potentia absoluta, God’s power to do anything, including override the laws of nature.
Why do some historians argue that the Renaissance did not see fundamentally new developments in the West?Reveal Answer
Some historians argue that the developments of the Italian Renaissance can be seen earlier in the Middle Ages. For example, writers of the classical world, like Aristotle, were admired in the Middle Ages. The “discovery of the self” can be compared to Renaissance individualism. Autobiographies were written in the High Middle Ages. Moreover, some historians also see the Italian Renaissance as simply an Italian version of developments in other parts of the West in the Late Middle Ages, such as a rejection of the rationalism of high-medieval scholasticism.
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Defining Terms
Define “indulgence.”Reveal Answer
In theory, an indulgence was an official recognition by the church that the recipient had done a good deed by giving a gift of money to the church. Repentance for sin was still required. In practice, by the Late Middle Ages, the practice was widely corrupt and indulgences were essentially sold to recipients.
Define “solifidianism.”Reveal Answer
Solifidianism is Luther’s idea of “salvation by faith alone;” that is, good works could not help one get into heaven.
Define “predestination.”Reveal Answer
The doctrine of predestination is the idea that God will decide who will have faith and go to heaven and who will not.
Define “Jesuits.”Reveal Answer
In the sixteenth century, Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, a religious order dedicated to fighting the Protestant Reformation.
Define “German Peasants’ Revolt.”Reveal Answer
The German Peasants’ Revolt was a peasant revolt that erupted in Germany in 1524 against landlords trying to re-impose serfdom. The peasants attempted to apply Luther’s stress on the Bible as a source of authority to their own social condition and demanded that serfdom be justified by the Bible.
Define “Radical Reformation.”Reveal Answer
The Radical Reformation refers to small groups of Protestants, such as Anabaptists, who took Protestant ideas to the extreme. Some groups of Anabaptists, for example, banned private property.
Define “politique.”Reveal Answer
A politique was someone for whom peace and political stability was more important than correct doctrine.
Define “doctrinaire.”Reveal Answer
A doctrinaire was someone for whom religious correctness was more important than peace and political stability.
Define “Nicolaus Copernicus.”Reveal Answer
Copernicus was an astronomer who, in the sixteenth century, challenged the accepted geocentric (“earth-centered”) notion of the universe and proposed a heliocentric (“sun-centered”) universe.
Long-Answer Questions
Consult Chapter 6 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 6 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 6 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Regarding Maps
What does Map 6.1 suggest about the power of the Habsburgs at the beginning of the sixteenth century?Reveal Answer
Habsburg power was international. Members of the Habsburg family ruled Spain, the southern half of Italy, the Netherlands, and Bohemia.
How does Map 6.2 indicate how Spain became the most powerful country of the sixteenth century?Reveal Answer
Spain took the lead in colonization, staking claims to territory in South, Central, and North America. The silver Spain obtained from Central and South America helped Philip II make Spain the most powerful nation of the sixteenth century.
Regarding Figures
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Short-Answer Questions
Luther challenged the Catholic Church on several points of doctrine. First, he argued that one was saved by faith alone and that good works played no role in salvation. For Luther, the only source of spiritual authority was the Bible, which he believed should be read literally. Luther also rejected the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. He believed that during communion the bread and wine were turned into flesh and blood by the individual’s faith, not the authority of the priest. He believed in the “Real Presence” during communion; that is, that Christ’s real flesh and blood was present. Finally, Luther believed in the “priesthood of all believers,” the idea that the clergy had no special position because everyone faced God alone.
How can certain aspects of Protestant belief be seen as a product of the High and Late Middle Ages?Reveal Answer
Protestant beliefs echoed some of the developments of the High and Late Middle Ages. Protestants stressed the faith of the individual believer just as several religious movements of the High Middle Ages had emphasized the individual’s interior response to religion. In the Late Middle Ages, movements such as nominalism and humanism challenged reliance on reason; Luther rejected reason as a way to explain what happened to the bread and wine during communion. The doctrine of predestination represented a God similar to the God of the nominalists: not a God of reason, but a God of will who could do anything He wanted. Protestant rejection of the clergy was part of a long tradition of criticism of immoral and corrupt clergy. The Protestant emphasis on reading the Bible for oneself was little different from the Christian humanist desire to read and study scripture. Both Protestants and humanists felt a sense of historical distance between themselves and the past.
The Catholic Church did not alter its doctrine in the face of Protestant criticism. At the Council of Trent, the Church adopted transubstantiation as official church doctrine. Baroque art emerged as a way to express Catholicism’s appeal to the senses. While the Catholic Church re-affirmed the special status of the clergy, it did attempt to reform corrupt clergy by, for example, enforcing celibacy. The Church established schools to train the clergy and made efforts to ensure that people understood Catholic doctrine. Catholic clergy copied Protestant ministers by preaching to the congregation and put greater emphasis on the memorization of catechisms, or short summaries of doctrine. There were renewed efforts to root out heresy, and the Inquisition courts of the Middle Ages were revived. There were also efforts to re-convert Protestants. The Jesuits were established for this purpose.
As a result of Protestant emphasis on the “priesthood of all believers” and the reading of the Bible for oneself, women had greater spiritual equality. In the early years of the Reformation, women had greater freedom to preach. While in family life the husband was still expected to rule his wife and children, for Protestant women their priest was no longer available as an alternative source of authority. Women did lose the possibility of the monastic life and a choice of a life as something other than a wife and mother. Protestant communities also made prostitution illegal.
Why did his “Ninety-five Theses” not have the effects that Luther expected? What happened instead?Reveal Answer
Luther taught that everyone should read the Bible for themselves, but he assumed that everyone would draw the same conclusions from it that he did. He was surprised to realize that instead there were many different interpretations of the Bible that led to the splintering of the Protestant movement.
Were the series of wars fought in France in the second half of the sixteenth century purely religious in origin?Reveal Answer
The Guise family was Catholic while the Bourbons were Protestant. Civil war between Guise and Bourbon was a religious conflict, but it was also a conflict between the French king and powerful nobility. Catherine de Medici (the mother of three French kings) wanted to end fighting between Protestants and Catholics because she believed that such warfare threatened the monarchy’s ability to control the country and its nobles.
Why did Henry VIII join the Protestant cause?Reveal Answer
Henry VIII badly wanted a legitimate son to succeed him when he died, but he and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, had only one living child: a daughter. Because of political considerations, the pope would not grant Henry an annulment. By becoming Protestant and breaking with the papacy, Henry could become “Supreme Head” of the English Church and arrange for his own annulment.
Philip II saw himself as the defender of Christendom and this led him into several conflicts, not all of them successful. He did defend Europe from the Ottoman Turks. But he unsuccessfully sent the Armada against Elizabeth IÂ in an effort to bring Catholicism back to England. In an effort to squash Protestantism in the Low Countries, he sent in his troops. This move, however, backfired, leading to a revolt that ultimately resulted in the northern part of the Low Counties becoming the independent, and Protestant, Netherlands.
In Protestant countries, rulers came to exercise greater leadership over church affairs. Some Protestant rulers, such as Henry VIII, actually came to head the national church. In Catholic counties, rulers were in a better position to get concessions from the pope because they were needed to combat Protestantism. For example, in 1523 the Spanish king was granted the right to appoint all bishops in his kingdom.
The Thirty Years’ War began as a religious war between the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand, and the Protestant nobles of Bohemia. Yet, Catholic France eventually sided with the Protestants because of its fear of Habsburg power. When Ferdinand issued the Edict of Restitution in 1629 without consulting the Empire’s representative, the Diet, many princes of the Empire, including Catholic princes, saw this as a threatening extension of imperial power. Catholic princes like Maximilian, duke of Bavaria, resisted the Edict, and Maximilian eventually sided with France against Ferdinand. Sweden and France (aided by the duke of Bavaria) both sided with the Protestants. What had begun as a war over religion ended as a war over how much power the Holy Roman Emperor would exercise.
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Defining Terms
Define “ancien regime.”Reveal Answer
Ancien regime refers to the West (especially in France) in the years before the French Revolution-”a society made up of different orders that had different rights and an absolute monarchy that was trying to override the rights of other orders of society.
Define “Enlightenment.”Reveal Answer
The Enlightenment was a movement to apply the principles of the Scientific Revolution to all of human knowledge and society. Enlightenment thinkers wanted to use reason to test all knowledge and tradition.
Define “sans culottes.”Reveal Answer
The sans culottes were the working men and women who provided the raw force that backed the National Assembly in the early days of the French Revolution.
Define “God the clockmaker.”Reveal Answer
Sir Isaac Newton pictured God as a clockmaker. God designed the universe, and set it in motion with certain natural laws (such as the law of gravity), but did not interfere further.
Define “the crisis of the ancien regime.”Reveal Answer
The crisis of the ancien regime refers to the revolt of the political nation against absolute monarchies when these monarchies finally went too far in overriding traditional rights.
Define “the National Assembly.”Reveal Answer
The National Assembly was the representative assembly formed in June 1789 that claimed to represent all of France. The Third Estate simply declared itself a “National Assembly” when many members of the first and second estates-”i.e. the clergy and nobility-”insisted that each of the estates should have one vote. The Third Estate demanded voting by head rather than estate because it had as many members as the first and second estates together and represented most of the population. Eventually Louis XVI came to recognize the National Assembly and it came to rule France.
Define “Jacobins.”Reveal Answer
The Jacobins were the radicals of the French Revolution, favoring democracy and the end of the monarchy.
Define “the Terror.”Reveal Answer
The Terror was the most radical phase of the French Revolution. Maximilien Robespierre wanted to exterminate anyone who threatened France or the Revolution. Tens of thousands of people were guillotined in 1793-94 before Robespierre himself was executed.
Define “Congress of Vienna.”Reveal Answer
Representatives of a number of European states met at an international conference in Vienna in 1814-1815 to hammer out a peace that would bring stability after years of warfare. The Congress decided on a return to arrangements based on tradition, rather than those brought by the French Revolution.
Long-Answer Questions
Consult Chapter 8 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
How did the Enlightenment influence governments in the West in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries?Reveal Answer
Consult Chapter 8 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 8 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Short-Answer Questions
How did most philosophes view belief in God?Reveal Answer
Most philosophes, that is, the thinkers of the Enlightenment, were deists. They believed that reason supported a belief in the existence of a God, because the universe operated according to natural laws such as Newton’s law of gravity. But they did not believe in any particular religion because they thought that any organized religion, whether Christianity, Islam, or Judaism, was based on superstition, not reason and observation.
How did Enlightenment thinkers view society and how did it differ from the pre-Scientific Revolution view of society?Reveal Answer
The society of orders, the view of society that prevailed in the West until the seventeenth century, saw people as belonging to different groups with different rights. Enlightenment thinkers, however, viewed society as being made up of free and equal individuals.
Why did the philosophes believe in progress?Reveal Answer
To the philosophes it was clear that human knowledge was increasing. The Scientific Revolution had produced a superior view of nature. The philosophes believed that they, the thinkers of the eighteenth century, were superior to the thinkers of the Scientific Revolution because even Newton and Locke had believed in the superstition (to the philosophes) of Christianity. Philosophes also believed that humanity was in the process of recovering the virtues of the ancient world. As a result, some philosophes believed that this increase in understanding and knowledge could continue, perhaps until humanity was perfected.
Like Christians, the philosophes believed in a golden age in the distant past, a fall, a kind of redemption, and finally a happy ending. Christians believed in the golden age of the Garden of Eden before humans had sinned, while for the philosophes classical Graeco-Roman civilization was a golden period. This golden age was ended by sin (for Christians) and by Christianity (for the philosophes). For Christians, the life and death of Jesus redeemed human beings and led to a better age; the philosophes believed that the Scientific Revolution ended the superstition of the past and would also lead to a better future. Finally, while Christians looked forward to Jesus Christ’s second coming and heaven, the philosophes believed that humanity would progress and, perhaps, eventually achieve humanity’s perfection on earth.
What stereotype of women emerged from the Enlightenment?Reveal Answer
During the ancien regime some women-”wives and mistresses-”exercised influence over the absolute monarchs of Europe. Because these women came to be associated with artificial court life and manners, philosophes came to associate women with luxury and artificial manners. In addition, philosophes came to associate artifice and convention with salons, social gatherings often presided over by women. As a result, the stereotype of women that emerged from the Enlightenment was that women were artificial, unserious, and so unsuited to public life.
Why did Louis XVI summon the Estates General in 1789?Reveal Answer
Louis XVI desperately needed to raise money to service the national debt. As a result, he decided to tax the first and second estates (i.e. the clergy and nobility). But these estates had accepted absolutism in exchange for their tax privileges. They insisted that such a change in tax structure could not be imposed without calling the Estates General, France’s representative assembly that had not met since 1614.
How does Adam Smith’s economic theory reflect the assumption that society is made of up free and equal individuals?Reveal Answer
Adam Smith (1773-1790) was an economist who provided the basis for the modern discipline of economics. In The Wealth of Nations (1776), Smith set out the law of supply and demand: greater supply of an object drives down its cost, and the greater demand for an object drives up its cost. This assumes that producers and consumers are roughly equal to each other, and that buyers and sellers act independently.
In the nineteenth century, what did “liberals” favor?Reveal Answer
Nineteenth-century liberals believed in laissez-faire economics-”that is, the non-intervention of government in the marketplace. They believed in the freedom of the individual, equality before the law, and republican government or limited monarchy.
The Industrial Revolution was the application of non-human, non-animal power to machines to create mass-produced goods. It began with the production of textiles. In the late eighteenth century, water power was applied to the fly shuttle and spinning jenny to increase the amount of cloth produced. By the end of the eighteenth century, steam power replaced water power. When the cotton gin made more cotton available for steam-powered machines, the amount of cloth produced by British textile factories vastly outdistanced what could be made by hand.
Regarding Maps
Nothing unified these territories except the accident of being ruled by the Habsburg family.
Consider Map 8.2. How successful was Napoleon in spreading the ideas of the French Revolution?Reveal Answer
Napoleon conquered much of the West and brought the principles of the Revolution to the Low Countries, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Poland.
Regarding Figures
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
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Defining Terms
Define “Romanticism.”Reveal Answer
Romanticism was a reaction against the Enlightenment. It was not a coherent system of thought but, in general, Romantics rejected a reliance on reason and celebrated instead the mysterious, the unconstrained, and the unique.
Define “nationalism.”Reveal Answer
Although no definition of “nation” is perfect, in the nineteenth century it usually referred to people who shared the same language and customs. Nationalism was the belief that people who were part of the same nation were a community and should be united politically.
Define “volkgeist.”Reveal Answer
In the nineteenth century, Johanne von Herder argued that each nation had its own “guiding spirit”-”volkgeist-”that gave it a national character different from every other nation.
Define “Frankfurt Assembly.”Reveal Answer
The Frankfurt Assembly was a revolutionary assembly of middle-class liberal Germans who met in Frankfurt in an attempt to create a liberal united Germany. It produced a constitution with a constitutional monarchy and an elected assembly. But stresses between working-class and middle-class elements caused the Assembly to look to the Prussian king for protection. When he refused the crown it offered him, most of the Assembly’s members admitted defeat; the remainder was dispersed by the Prussian army.
Define “Marxism.”Reveal Answer
Marxism is Karl Marx’s idea that all of human history is the history of struggle between classes over the means of production.
Define “social Darwinism.”Reveal Answer
Social Darwinism was the application of Darwin’s ideas about natural selection to human society. Some social Darwinists thought in terms of national cultures that competed against each other; others thought in biological terms-”competing races or classes.
Define “natural selection.”Reveal Answer
Natural selection was Charles Darwin’s theory about how species evolve. Random variations give certain individuals advantages in survival. Successful individuals pass these variations on to their offspring. Over long periods of time, this process results in the creation of a different species.
Long-Answer Questions
Consult Chapter 9 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 9 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Explain the role of the search for a sense of community in the political life and thought of the nineteenth century.Reveal Answer
Consult Chapter 9 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Short-Answer Questions
How was the Romantic view of nature similar to that of the Enlightenment thinkers? How was it different?Reveal Answer
Both Romantics and philosophes glorified the natural world. But they admired different aspects of it. Enlightenment thinkers were interested in understanding the physical laws that governed nature. For them, reason was a tool to understand the natural world. Romantics, however, were uninterested in reason or understanding nature. They wanted to experience its power and beauty. They wanted to experience particular aspects of nature-”such as a beautiful sunset or glorious sunrise-”rather than concern themselves with unchanging laws of nature as did the philosophes.
Edmund Burke criticized attempts during the French Revolution to substitute reason for custom and tradition. He argued that tradition was the accumulation of the wisdom of the ages, while reason simply reflected the ideas of the current generation. Burke wasn’t against all change, but he thought changes should be made slowly and gradually. His views of tradition and of the French Revolution became characteristic of many Romantics.
For centuries Greece had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Nationalism influenced Greeks living in the Aegean who wanted to overthrow Ottoman rule and establish an independent Greece. One of the secret nationalist societies led a rebellion in 1821 and, with the help of Britain, France, and Russia, Greek nationalists established the country’s independence.
The pressure of Hungarian nationalism eventually compelled Emperor Franz Joseph to agree to a compromise with nationalists-”the so-called Dual Monarchy. A Hungarian government in Budapest was given its own parliament and control over internal Hungarian affairs. Here, Franz Joseph ruled as King of Hungary, rather than as the Austrian Emperor. Hungary’s military, foreign policy, and finances remained integrated with that of the Austrian Empire.
How did Bismarck unify Germany?Reveal Answer
Bismarck unified Germany through a series of wars. As prime minister of the state of Prussia, he maneuvered Prussia (allied with Austria) into a war with Denmark over Schleswig and Holstein, ethnically German provinces controlled by Denmark. After Denmark’s defeat, Prussia took control of Schleswig and Austria took control of Holstein. Subsequently, Bismarck provoked a war with Austria that he quickly won; Austria’s defeat allowed him to take over a number of German provinces, including Holstein. It also made clear that Prussia was the great power in Germany, rather than Austria, traditionally the leading German state. A final war with France added Alsace-Lorraine to Prussian control. This war with a non-German state also provoked an overflow of German nationalist feeling. This allowed Bismarck to declare a “German Empire.”
What happy ending did Marx’s view of history predict?Reveal Answer
Marx argued that the current struggle between the proletariat working classes and the bourgeois factory owners would be the last class struggle in human history. It would end in a proletarian revolution that would create a classless society. All the means of production would be held in common so there would no longer be any reason for conflict.
Why was Darwin’s idea of natural selection so shocking to people of the nineteenth century?Reveal Answer
Darwin’s idea of natural selection was shocking in the nineteenth century because he argued that change came about through chance; nature had no natural tendency towards progress. His theory thus challenged the Enlightenment belief in progress. His was a random universe with no plan and no happy ending. Thus, it also challenged belief in a benevolent God.
How did nationalism change in the nineteenth century?Reveal Answer
In the early nineteenth century, nationalists had expected nation states to arise from grass-root movements that would peacefully result in more or less democratic and liberal governments. During the nineteenth century, however, those nation states that were united were done so through force from above. As a result, a certain ruthlessness characterized nationalism in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Westerners, like most people, assumed that their civilization was superior to other civilizations. The idea that the West had a duty to civilize the non-Western world was encouraged by several developments of the nineteenth century. The Christian revival contributed to the work of Christian missionaries who saw it as their obligation to spread Christianity, and so Western civilization. The social Darwinism of the later nineteenth century also justified Western rule. The very fact that Westerners were able to take over the rest of the world demonstrated the West’s greater fitness; hence, Western imperialism was natural. While some believed that non-Westerners could successfully adopt Western civilization, others assumed the superiority of the West to such an extent that they argued that Westerners should rule non-Westerners for their own good forever.
Were all reform movements of the nineteenth century founded on Enlightenment principles? Explain.Reveal Answer
Some reform movements of the nineteenth century were based on Enlightenment principles. The campaign against slavery and for women’s rights was based on the Enlightenment notion of equality, as was socialism-”the idea that wealth should be more equitably distributed. The widening of the franchise and the establishment of representative assemblies where they had not existed before also reflected Enlightenment emphasis on human equality. Other attempts at reform, however, were based on social Darwinism, which rejected human equality while it embraced the idea that knowledge should be gained through reason and observation. Eugenics attempted to improve humanity by discouraging the reproduction of “defective” or “inferior” individuals. The Boy Scouts were founded to aid Britain in its competition against other nations. Governments had their own reform agendas. The spread of mandatory public education was a way to mould citizen attitudes and to encourage economic development.
The philosophy of “existentialism” was a modernist response to the fear of the loss of individual freedom. Several developments contributed to this fear. Sigmund Freud, working in the Enlightenment tradition of reason and observation, argued that human behavior is shaped by the subconscious mind, a mind of which the individual is unaware. The Industrial Revolution, too, posed a threat to the individual, producing as it did a “mass society” by the mass production of goods. Politics, too, was part of a “mass society” in which, because so many now had the vote, the individual appeared to count less. In response to these developments, existentialism advocated the radical freedom of the individual. The individual was free to choose what to be by his or her actions.
Regarding Maps
What does Map 9.1 suggest about barriers to nationalist ambitions in the nineteenth century?Reveal Answer
Nationalists faced opposition from both smaller states that stood to lose out from unification into a larger nation state and from larger multinational states that contained national groups within their borders. Smaller German principalities, such as Hesse and Hanover, would be subsumed in the creation of a “greater Germany.” In Italy, independent states, such as Tuscany and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, would be absorbed into an Italian nation state. In addition, the Austrian Empire, which contained within its borders a number of national groups-”Magyars, Serbs, Italians-”opposed nationalism. The Ottoman Empire was also an obstacle to nationalist ambitions as in the nineteenth century; it contained what would become Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Albania.
Consider Map 9.2. What technology allowed the West to take over so much of the rest of the world?Reveal Answer
Technology made Western imperialism possible in two ways: medical knowledge and military technology. Malaria was a tropical disease that posed a real threat for Westerners in the early nineteenth century. During the course of the century, however, quinine began to be used to combat the disease. And Western firepower was technologically so superior to anything available to the non-Western world that small groups of Westerners were able to defeat much larger native armies. Two of the few non-Western states to retain their independence-”Abyssinia and Japan-”survived by importing Western military technology.
Regarding Figures
How does Figure 9.1 reflect Romantic themes?Reveal Answer
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
How does Figure 9.5 illustrate abstract expressionism? What is the artist trying to do?Reveal Answer
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
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Defining Terms
Define “Triple Alliance.”Reveal Answer
The Triple Alliance, also known as the “Central Powers,” consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. When war came, however, Italy abandoned its allies.
Define “Archduke Franz Ferdinand.”Reveal Answer
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo by Serbian nationalists touched off the Great War.
Define “John Maynard Keynes.”Reveal Answer
Keynes was an economist of the 1930s who encouraged governments to respond to economic downturns by spending more, not less. Government spending was needed to boost demand, and in turn employment, even if governments had to borrow to do so. Keynesian economics has been very influential in the West.
Define “totalitarianism.”Reveal Answer
Totalitarianism means that the government controls all aspects of life, even private life.
Define “nomenklatura.”Reveal Answer
The nomenklatura were the government bureaucrats of the Russian Communist Party who managed the centrally planned economy.
Define “fascism.”Reveal Answer
Fascism was a totalitarian ideology that gave power to a dictator. Fascists were nationalists who claimed that the community of the nation subsumed all other communities, including that of the workers. Unlike communism, fascism accepted private property and private businesses, while always claiming the right to direct the economy as necessary.
Define “Cold War.”Reveal Answer
The Cold War was the name given to the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II. This conflict never broke out into open war between the two sides, but they fought several proxy wars in third world countries.
Define “multiculturalism.”Reveal Answer
Multiculturalism is the idea that cultures have value just by existing, that no culture is superior to any other, and that a society is better off having many cultures.
Define “Mau Mau rebellion.”Reveal Answer
The Mau Mau rebellion was a revolt by the Kikuyu in the British colony of Kenya. As a result of this rebellion, the British government decided it could no longer hold on to its African colonies.
Define “Islamism.”Reveal Answer
Islamism is a radical form of Islam that seeks to re-create the medieval Islamic state, governed by Sharia law, but without toleration of Jews and Christians.
Short-Answer Questions
One of the reasons that the Great War was so much deadlier than previous wars was the degree of control governments exercised by the early twentieth century. Centralized governments commanded huge resources in terms of men, industry, and trade. Much of the nation’s energy could thus be focused on the war effort. In addition, advances in military technology-”heavy artillery, accurate rifles, and machines guns-”made warfare deadlier than ever before. And because soldiers had no means of moving quickly over the battlefield, the war bogged down into trench warfare, which often consisted of troops being sent out of the trenches-””over the top”-”to be mowed down by machine gun fire.
European empires caused a European war to become a world war. Japan went into the war against Germany in the hopes of grabbing Germany’s colonies in Asia. Troops from colonies in Asia and Africa fought in the trenches in France. Canada and Australia sent troops to fight for Britain. In addition, the war spread to the Middle East and North Africa when the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany and Austria. America entered the war as a result of the sinking of American ships by the Germans.
What was the cause of the Great Depression?Reveal Answer
The Great Depression was triggered by the stock market crash of 1929, when agriculture was already weak. More and more Americans began investing money in stocks as the stock market continued to shoot up. More and more were borrowing money to buy these stocks. When the bubble burst and the stock market fell, stocks lost so much value that banks lost the money they had loaned to investors to buy the stocks. Many banks failed; many people lost their life savings. This crisis greatly shook confidence in growth and investment. Without investment, businesses could not operate, people lost their jobs, and the economy collapsed.
In Latin America, the Great Depression led to unstable governments and power struggles between oligarchies, dictators, and the army. In Europe and North America, the Great Depression led to the rise of the Left and much greater government intervention in the economy. In France, the socialists came to power. In the US, as part of the “New Deal,” the government created make-work projects to fight unemployment and paid farmers not to grow certain crops in order to raise agricultural prices. The US government also began to provide payments to the elderly and unemployed. Canada introduced unemployment insurance. Governments also began to impose tariffs on foreign goods in order to protect them from foreign competition.
As a result of discontent with war and industrial conditions, the Tsar’s control of Russia had slipped away by 1917. Although a Provisional Government was declared after the Tsar abdicated, it was unable to fully control the country. Its determination to stay in the war undermined its support from much of the populace. In much of Russia, “soviets,” or workers’ councils, were becoming more and more powerful. Vladimir Lenin’s faction, the Bolsheviks, eventually took over the Petrograd Soviet. In November 1917, Lenin took control of the Provisional government, putting the Bolsheviks, or extreme communists, in control of Russia.
The cult of personality-”Lenin’s and Stalin’s-”was one way that Russian communism departed from strict Marxist ideology, which emphasized class conflict, not individuals. But there were others. At the beginning of the Revolution, Russia had an agrarian economy. Marx had assumed that workers’ revolutions would take place in industrialized countries. To build a socialist country in Russia meant transforming it from a country of peasants to one of industrial workers. So Stalin had to industrialize Russia so that it could meet Marx’s definition of a society of workers. Moreover, Marx had argued that with socialism, the state would wither away. In Communist Russia, the state became all-powerful. Communist Russia also had a more traditional relationship between the sexes than Marx had imagined. While women initially gained greater equality under communism, in the long run women were still assumed to be responsible for the home. Finally, while Marx had rejected nationalism in favor of a community of workers, and had seen socialist revolution as a world-wide event, Stalin was willing to settle for “socialism in one country,” and to concentrate on industrializing Russia rather than fostering world revolution. Stalin was quite willing to appeal to Russian nationalism in the face of the German invasion.
How did the Western powers attempt to appease Hitler in hopes of avoiding another war?Reveal Answer
France and Britain made numerous territorial concessions to Hitler in hopes that he would be satisfied and make no further demands. In 1936, Hitler moved German troops into the demilitarized Rhineland. Since this area had traditionally been part of Germany, Britain found it easy to justify, despite French dismay at the loss of this buffer zone. In 1938, Germany annexed Austria, which was ethnically German. In 1938, Britain and France allowed Germany to take the Sudetenland (an ethnically German province) from Czechoslovakia, but in March, 1939, Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia as well. It was only when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, that Britain and France finally went to war.
After the Second World War, two superpowers dominated the globe: the United States and the Soviet Union. Each superpower was able to enforce peace among the nations that fell within its sphere of influence. The United States led NATO, which included Britain, France, and West Germany, and SEATO, which included Australia and Thailand. The US’s military dominance was such that no Western European nation could consider going to war without its support. There was no danger, for example, of another war between Britain and Germany. The US also wielded considerable influence over the foreign policies of their allies, for instance, forcing Britain and France to withdraw their troops from Suez in 1956. The Soviet Union did much the same in Eastern Europe. But the Soviet Union imposed far greater control on the internal politics of its allies, invading Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 when unhappy with internal developments.
How did the feminist movement show the influence both of the Enlightenment and of postmodernism?Reveal Answer
The “first wave” of American feminism was based on Enlightenment notions of equality rooted in a common human nature. Nineteenth-century feminists, for example, demanded the right to vote alongside men. A new wave of feminism that began in the 1960s also fought for equality-”in access to education, employment, etc. But in the 1970s, a “radical feminism” emerged, a feminism that was not based on the idea of a common humanity. Radical feminism was influenced by postmodernism and its emphasis on culture and the rejection of universal values. This version of feminism was a separatist movement that rejected all institutions that were a product of male dominance. These feminists aimed to control culture in order to exercise their own autonomy. They might, for example, redefine the word “bitch” so that it became not a word to demean women, but a way of describing themselves. Radical feminists argued that women had a culture quite distinct from masculine culture, one that should be celebrated.
The West produced Western-educated Africans and Asians who used Western ideas such as nationalism and Marxism to resist Western imperialism. Ho Chi Minh was born in Vietnam but became very westernized. While living in France, he became both a nationalist and a communist, and then returned to Vietnam to fight against the Western powers. Jomo Kenyatta is another example of someone who employed Western ideas in the service of liberation from Western powers. Kenyatta studied in Britain before returning to Africa to lead the Kenyan independence movement. While living in the West, he was influenced by both nationalism and Marxism.
How did neoliberalism triumph in the 1980s and 1990s?Reveal Answer
Neoliberals (sometimes called “conservatives”) believed that the government should interfere with the economy as little as possible. In the 1980s and 1990s more and more countries in the West adopted market-friendly policies. When Margaret Thatcher became prime minister of Britain in 1979, she de-nationalized industry and reduced taxes and regulation. President Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980, promised to reduce taxes and curtail the welfare state in the US. In Canada, Brian Mulroney cut spending on social programs. In the mid-nineties, Fernando Henrique Cardosa of Brazil promised to end policies protecting Brazilian industries from foreign competition. At the same time, President Bill Clinton reformed welfare policies in the US. In Britain, the “New Labour” Party adopted market-orientated policies and ceased calling itself “socialist.” Free trade agreements were passed in South America, North America, and Europe. Even the Soviet Union allowed more free-market activity when it adopted perestroika (“restructuring”).
Long-Answer Questions
Consult Chapter 10 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 10 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Consult Chapter 10 of your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Regarding Maps
Consider Map 10.1. How did nationalism and the system of alliances contribute to the outbreak of the Great War?Reveal Answer
Serbian nationalists longed for a greater Serbia that included all the Serbs of the Balkans. Two partly Serbian provinces, however-”Bosnia and Herzegovina-”were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When Serbian nationalists assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, the Austro-Hungarian government demanded that Serbia assist in apprehending the assassins. The Austrians hoped for an excuse to go to war with Serbia. Germany promised to support Austria-Hungary against Russia as well as Serbia. Russia was allied with France and Britain. France wanted to recover the province of Alsace-Lorraine from Germany, while Britain feared a powerful Germany. As a result, the conflict between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire led to a war involving all of the great powers of Europe.
Consider Map 10.2. How did liberal democracy fare in Italy and Germany after the Great War?Reveal Answer
After World War I, both Italy and Germany were taken over by fascist dictators who offered their countrymen unity, not democracy. In Italy, Benito Mussolini and his Black Shirts emerged from disorder after the war to offer Italy stability and a sense of solidarity. Fascists such as Mussolini argued that liberal democracy, like socialism, encouraged conflict. Fascism, however, offered unity. When Mussolini came to power in 1922, he was determined to end the conflict inherent in liberal democracy. All other political parties were banned; dissidents were imprisoned. Mussolini established a “corporative state” that brought together workers and owners under the power of the state to regulate the economy. In Germany, the Weimar Republic established at the end of the war was an unpopular and weak government. Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party-”the National Socialist German Workers’ Party-”came to power promising national unity. The Nazis accomplished this in several ways. They emphasized that Germans, or “Aryans,” were fundamentally different from-”and superior to-”Jews and other “inferior” groups. A cult of personality surrounding Hitler, like that surrounding Mussolini, was another way of fostering German unity: everyone was personally loyal to the same leader. The Nazis emphasized that the Germans were one volk, or people, despite class differences. At the same time, the Nazi party controlled all aspects of life.
Consider Map 10.3. What proxy wars did the United States and the Soviet Union fight during the Cold War?Reveal Answer
Because of the threat of nuclear annihilation, the United States and the Soviet Union did not fight an outright war during the so-called “Cold War.” They did, however, fight several proxy wars, supporting opposite sides in a conflict. The Korean War was one such proxy war. Korea had been divided at the 38th parallel since the end of World War II. The Soviet Union backed a communist government set up in north Korea, while the US backed a nationalist government in the south. In 1950, the communist north attacked the south in an effort to unite the country. The US sent in troops to protect the south. Thus, while the US and Soviet Union were never in direct conflict, they supported different sides in the war. Much the same happened in Vietnam. After the French left Indochina in 1954, the Soviet Union supported a communist government in the north while the US supported an anti-communist regime in the south. North Vietnam supported communist insurrection in the south, and, in 1964, invaded the south. In support of South Vietnam, US troops fought the communists, who eventually succeeded in uniting the country in 1975. In the Middle East, the US supported Israel against Arab states such as Egypt who were supported by the Soviets. In Latin America, the US supported opponents of the Soviet-backed Sandinistas, both the Samoza government and, later, the contras. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, the US sent money and guns to the Mujahedin resisting the Soviets.
When the Soviet Union and the “pax communista” dissolved, groups who had been forced to live in peace by the communists resumed their nationalistic conflicts. Ethnic Armenians who wanted independence from Azerbaijan led to war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In the former Yugoslavia, Serbs murdered thousands of Muslims and ethnic Albanians in what has become known as “ethnic cleansing.” In turn, Albanians murdered large numbers of Serbs in Kosovo.
Regarding Figures
Consult your textbook to craft your own answer to this question.
Maps
- Map 1.1 The Ancient Near East before the Assyrian and Persian Empires
- Map 1.2 The Assyrian and Persian Empires
- Map 2.1 Greek cities
- Map 2.2 Greek colonization
- Map 3.1 The Roman Empire at its greatest extent
- Map 4.1 The Roman Empire divided and successor kingdoms
- Map 4.3 The Carolingian empire and its division
- Map 5.1 The West in the High and Late Middle Ages
- Map 6.1 Europe ca. 1500
- Map 6.2 The West and the Americas ca. 1648
- Map 7.1 Europe ca. 1600
- Map 8.1 Germany and Habsburg family lands in the eighteenth century
- Map 9.1 Europe in the nineteenth century
- Map 9.2 Western world empires in 1914
- Map 10.1 World War I: Allies and Central Powers
- Map 10.2 Europe in the 1930s
- Map 10.3 The world in the Cold War
- Map 10.4 The former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia