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Teacher's Notes:
Each of the four articles presented here comes from the World and I Online's
"Millennial Moments" series. Each one focuses on events and movements that
radically altered the daily life and culture of Europe, and ultimately affected
the course of human history.
Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to
· Extrapolate and paraphrase information from the text.
· Discern the cultural and historical underpinnings of the Age of Exploration,
Protestant Reformation, the growth of information technology, and the artistic
trends born in the Renaissance.
· Understand how these various periods/ movements altered European life and
ultimately affected the course of history.
· Extend learning by researching a major figure in one of these movements.
· Extend learning by illustrating each of the articles and creating meaningful
captions for these illustrations.
I. Columbus and the Age of Exploration
Vocabulary:
guises
reviled
lauded
quintessentially
littoral
reconquista
zeal
inexorably
inextricably
cosmography
animated
thwarted
empirical
obscurantism
apocryphal
circumnavigation
Reading and Critical Thinking Questions:
1. Author Michael Marshall avers that "since 1792, (Columbus) ... has been
resurrected in a number of guises to serve a variety of causes." In what ways
has the image of the famous explorer been reshaped at various times to reflect
contemporary sensibilities?
2. Explain the author's statement that European pioneers, especially Columbus
and Prince Henry the Navigator, were "animated by the attitudes of the
Crusades." What specific enterprises did these explorers venture in this spirit?
3. Explain Marshall's assertion that globalization really began in the sixteenth
century. What challenges did this set into motion?
II. The Rise of Protestantism
Vocabulary:
pagan
infusion
redemption
radical
pervaded
sacraments
rationalist
ascribed
ecclesiastical
temporal
ordo
synthesis
precepts
conducive
germinal
cataclysmic
bourgeois
perpetual
ascetic
Biblicism
Reading and Critical Thinking Questions:
1. Identify several Protestant tenets, originating with Martin Luther, which
brought forth "cataclysmic social consequences," according to author Paul
Gottfried. Be sure to put these in your own words and contrast them to previous
beliefs and practices.
2. Discuss Max Weber's belief about Protestantism's unintentional promotion of
the capitalist spirit.
3. How did Thomas Aquinas embody the rationalism of scholastic thought? (What
teachings did he expound in his writings using rationalist "proofs"?)
4. In what two ways, according to the author, did Protestant Biblicism impact
society?
III. From Movable Type to Data Deluge
Vocabulary:
pundit
integral
mosaic
seminal
genteel
frenetic
surge
nationalism
nascent
pious
vernacular
heretical
foment
typography
entity
archetype
prototype
vying
ubiquity
miasma
deluge
devolve
analogue
primeval
Reading and Critical Thinking Questions:
1. In what ways, according to the authors, did Gutenberg's printing press
radically alter European life?
2. Explain the authors' reference to the modern world as "all-at-once." In what
specific ways is technology likely to make life in the twenty-first century even
more "all-at-once"?
3. The writers present two different perspectives on the direction in which
Americans are currently moving in response to emerging technologies: an
optimist's view and a pessimist's view. Paraphrase each of these. Which view do
you share?
IV. The Renaissance Mind Mirrored in Art
Vocabulary:
flourish
feudalism
humanism
secularization
burgeoning
pervasive
mystical
derisive
piety
Gothic
impetus
revere
delineated
seminal
despotic
undergird
segued
disseminate
Naturalism
fledgling
evocative
fresco
rationalism
dictum
edifice
arbiter
epigrammatic
irrevocable
epitome
Reading and Critical Thinking Questions:
1. In her introduction, the author asserts that the Renaissance "sprang forth in
response to the need for outlets through which some basic human desires,
generally denied in the medieval order of things, could be expressed and find
fulfillment." What specific human desires is the author referring to here? Why
do you suppose these were repressed throughout the medieval period?
2. Discuss the Renaissance worldview that now informed artistic works.
3. Discuss the emergence of Naturalism and the philosophy upon which this was
based. How did this artistic form reflect the Renaissance worldview?
4. Discuss the linear perspective and the ways in which this, too, reflected
Renaissance sensibilities.
5. Paraphrase the lofty sentiments of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola regarding
the dignity of man. How did such beliefs find expression in the work of
Renaissance artists, especially Michelangelo and Botticelli?
Extension:
1. Using the Internet and/or print sources, investigate the life and works of
one of the explorers, writers, reformers, artists, or inventors named in one of
these articles. Present your findings to the class in a PowerPoint presentation.
2. Find or create several illustrations for each of the articles. Write an
informative caption for each illustration.
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