Midterm Study Guide

1) Describe some of the major events or ideas that defined and began the Modern era.

• The plague 1348, caused a new social order, made people more aware, and started the public works movement
• Christopher Columbus 1492 voyage, finding of the Americas, colonization, and slave trade
• Renaissance, the rebirth, It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe, marked beginning of the Early Modern Age.

2) What was the Great Dying? Was this a genocide? Was it a cultural genocide?

• It is when the Europeans came to the Americas with their diseases that were foreign to the Native Americans, causing them to die rather rapidly. South America affected most because 95% of them died in the span of 30 years. The Europeans were unaware of that they carried disease and thought it was the power of God. Even so, they had to know it was them causing the death. Do to Native Americans dying out, so did their culture. The Europeans even forced them to learn Christianity and made them their slaves.

3) Why did Europeans have an advantage over native peoples when they arrived in the Americas?

• Geography: European Atlantic states were well positioned for involvement in the Americas
• Disease: most of the natives died because of disease
• Weapons/Technology: iron, gunpowder weapons, and horses gave Europeans an initial advantage over people in the Americas

4) What were the motivations of Europeans in engaging in exploration and conquest during the early Modern era?

• Spanish: South America, silver/explore, made families with Native women, work done by Native slaves
• Portugal: Brazil/Caribbean, sugar/explore, made families with Native and African women,work done by Native and then later African slaves
• British: North America, came to escape religious persecution/ to stay/African slave trade, made families with other European women and sometimes Native women (very taboo), work was done by indentured servants and then African Slaves

5)  What was unique about slavery as it was practiced in the Americas? Discuss the different ways people experienced slavery in the Spanish highlands, Brazil/Caribbean, and North America, with an emphasis on the long term demographic changes that took place.

• 1st time it revolved around race
• The atlantic slave trade happened because there was too much work and too few people (maximized the productivity in north america
• Spanish: Slavery with Natives; was the most harsh 95% died within 30 years
• Portugal: Slavery with Natives and Africans, Christopher Columbus believed that Indians would serve as a slave labor force for Europeans, especially on the sugar cane plantations off the western coast of north Africa. Had the most slaves, made up like 90%
• British: Slavery with indentured servants and Africans, had about 4% life expectancy was 7 years , most died in the middle passage

6) Explain the significance of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.

• Sci Rev
• Application of a human process to understand the physical world
• More interest in scientific thinking rather than basing stuff off of religion
• there was a revolutionary change in world view
• The period saw a fundamental transformation in scientific ideas across mathematics, physics, astronomy, and biology in institutions supporting scientific investigation and in the more widely held picture of the universe. The scientific revolution led to the establishment of several modern sciences.

7) Explain the significance of the French Revolution of 1789 and in what sense it was related to the North American and Haitian revolutions.

• it removed power from a small group of elite rulers and established a democratic leadership representing the French citizenry. Much like the American Revolution that shortly preceded it, the French Revolution was focused on eliminating imperial rule.
• This is was because the haiti rev because it gave hope. It should them it was possible

8) The Haitian revolution was the only successful slave revolution in history. Why was this important?

• Gave hope for other things: feminism, abolition, and nationalism.
• Gave message of equality

9) Explain what Strayer means by “echoes of Atlantic revolutions,” give examples of these, and apply this concept to a contemporary cultural artifact such as the song “Same Love” http://genius.com/Macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-same-love-lyrics .

• Everything happened in a back and forth motion
• Same Love had same message of equality