Deck 1: The Rise of Europe

Question 1

Most of what is now meant by "modern" made its first appearance in

A) ancient Greece.
B) Imperial Rome.
C) Europe.
D) ancient Egypt.

Answer 1

Europe.

Question 2

Which of the following is least characteristic of modern civilizations?

A) almost instantaneous communications
B) a wide network of finance and trade, loans and debts, investments and bank accounts
C) pressures for increased democracy
D) a general increase in traditional customs and religion

Answer 2

a general increase in traditional customs and religion

Question 3

St. Augustine's book, City of God, proclaimed that

A) the church should have control over political and temporal affairs.
B) the government should control religion.
C) the spiritual power of the city of Jerusalem would conquer Rome.
D) spiritual and political power were separate and independent.

Answer 3

spiritual and political power were separate and independent.

Question 4

The achievements of Charlemagne included all of the following except

A) the conquest of Constantinople, which reunited the Roman Empire.
B) the promotion of the study of ancient learning
C) the creation of a new and more stable coinage
D) the conquest of parts of Spain, Italy, and Bohemia

Question 5

By the fifth century the entire Roman world was formally Christian;

A) no other religion was officially tolerated.
B) several pagan sects, however, threatened Christianity.
C) the new religion, however, tolerated the older forms of worship.
D) nonetheless, the greatest thinkers remained outside the church.

Question 6

By A.D. 700, Latin Christendom

A) was the predominant power in the world.
B) was totally eclipsed by Byzantium.
C) began to threaten the Arab world.
D) was a region in chaos.

Question 7

During the "Dark Ages," the Christian church was the only organized institution that

A) maintained a tie with the civilized past.
B) could control the Western barbarians.
C) successfully fended off Arab invaders.
D) supported the new social order.

Question 8

Despite its dazzling achievements, China did not generate, as Europe did in the Middle Ages, the forces that ultimately led to the modern scientific and industrial world. All of the following can help explain why except

A) Europe lacked China's all-encompassing empire, provoking more competition between kings, lords, and towns.
B) conformity was not one of the primary European virtues.
C) with religion and the church kept distinct from the state, the question of what Europeans should do with their lives was less dependent on the political powers than in China.
D) Europe discovered such crucial inventions as gunpowder and printing before the Chinese.

Question 9

By the fifteenth century serfdom had disappeared from most of Western Europe. Why?

A) The kings of England and France had liberated their serfs.
B) Because of economic forces associated with the growth of towns.
C) Because of the influence of the crusaders returning from the Holy Land.
D) Because of the lack of available land in the rural areas, most serfs ran away to the cities.

Question 10

Land use was improved through the three-field system, which divided arable land

A) into three parts which were rotated from year to year.
B) among the clergy, the peasants, and the local aristocracy.
C) for the purpose of planting, grazing, and building.
D) into separate village communities.

Question 11

A notable feature of feudalism was

A) its mutual or reciprocal character.
B) the lord's exploitation of the serfs, who received nothing in return for their services to the lord.
C) its decentralization.
D) its inability to diversify.

Question 12

Under manorialism

A) only the king was sovereign.
B) serfs were bound to the soil.
C) vassals maintained their independence from lords.
D) none of the choices are correct.

Question 13

The growth of parliaments all over Europe in the thirteenth century

A) preceded the rise of departments of government.
B) reflected a desire to represent the individual.
C) showed the similarities of institutions in Latin Christendom.
D) indicated the degree of unity among the European nation-states.

Question 14

During the High Middle Ages, the church

A) was omnipresent.
B) was still trying to convert the barbarian hordes.
C) was marginal to everyday life.
D) gave up its traditional commitment to education.

Question 15

What, for medieval Europeans, was the problem raised by the rediscovery of Aristotelian thought? How did Thomas Aquinas resolve this problem? In what way did scholastic philosophy lay the foundation for later European thought?

Question 16

Describe the general workings of the feudal system. What were its main characteristics? How did feudalism benefit the different social classes? Did it reinforce inequality?

Question 17

What significant economic and political developments made possible the prosperity and advanced civilization of the High Middle Ages (the eleventh to thirteenth centuries)?

Question 18

Medieval civilization grew primarily out of a fusion between Roman and Germanic societies. What were the most important contributions of each to the Middle Ages?

Question 19

What was the impact of the Arabic/Islamic conquests on medieval Europe? What did the crusades have in common with those conquests?

Question 20

In what sense did Charlemagne's reign mark the true beginning of the Middle Ages?

Question 21

How did the idea of representative government develop in the medieval monarchies of the West?

Question 22

After about 500 A. D. Europe entered the so-called Dark Ages. Is this term justified? What were the characteristics of the period? Why should they have been considered "dark"?

Question 23

To what extent were the medieval monarchs of England, France, and Germany able to consolidate their power by about 1300? What methods did the kings employ to bolster their rule? In particular, how did they manage to increase their sources of revenue?

Question 24

What factors, already present in the Middle Ages, help to explain why Italy and Germany, but not England or France, were slow to unify politically?

Question 25

What was the relationship between the church and secular powers during the Middle Ages?

Question 26

Consider the rise of Christianity. How did early Christian views on the human experience compare with the views of Greeks?

Question 27

How did Christianity become the dominant European religion? How and when did it spread to every corner of Europe?

Question 28

What were the major factors favoring population growth in the tenth and eleventh centuries? What was the role of technology?

Question 29

How did towns represent a challenge to feudalism?

Question 30

Describe the life of the common man or woman living on a manor. How did their experiences differ from the experiences of people living in towns? How did the status of poor rural dwellers change over the course of the Middle Ages?

Question 31

What were the causes of the movement for reforming the Catholic Church in the High Middle Ages? How did people attempt to overcome those problems?

Question 32

How did the growth of trade impact feudalism?

Question 33

The Greco-Roman world broke into three segments in the early Middle Ages. Why? How did religion influence the division?

Question 34

How did the expansion of Latin Christendom, Greek Christendom, and the Muslim world bring each of these three entities into conflict with each other? Where was conflict most intense?

Question 35

How did the crusades expand the breadth of Latin Christendom? Compare the direction of the major crusades with the barbarian invasions and the inroads made by Muslims in earlier centuries.

Question 36

Did Christianization last in the areas targeted by the crusades? Evaluate the success of the crusades in the Iberian Peninsula, the Holy Land, and Eastern Europe and Asia.