Western Civilization Honors: Third Quarter

• January-February Syllabus
• Introduction to the Modern Period
• Exploration Readings
• Age of Exploration Reading Guide
• Scientific Revolution Reading Guide
• The English Revolution
• The Enlightenment

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JANUARY-FEBRUARY SYLLABUS   

Cycle 1:  Exploration, Commercial and Scientific Revolution  

• WP: Introduction to Modern Period; WP: Download reading guide
• TX: The Columbian Exchange and Global Trade (pp. 120-123)  
• WP: Exploration Readings
• TX:  Reading guide questions, Parts 1 ( q. 5, 6) and  Part 2 are due.

Cycle 2:  Scientific Revolution

• (Continue discussion of exploration)

• QUIZ (Will include only material on Exploration, section 1 and 2)

• TX: Scientific Revolution (pp. 165-170)

• QUIZ: Exploration, section 3/Scientific Revolution

Cycle 3:  English Revolution

• WP: Background to Religious Tensions; Machiavelli, More, Elizabeth I; James I

• TEST: EXPLORATION AND SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

• TX: Reading Guide: Q. 1-5; 

• (Continue discussion of English Civil War)

Cycle 4:  Enlightenment 

• TX: Reading Guide: Q 6-11

• QUIZ: The English Revolution

• TX:  Reading Guide: The Enlightenment  (Part 1)

• WP:  Readings Set One

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Age of Exploration Reading Guide

Chs. 3/4:  Exploration of the East and the Atlantic World

Part one:  Europeans Explore the East (pp. 80-88)

1.   Read Previewing Themes (80) Main Idea and Why it Matters Now (83)

• What is the most important economic result of European exploration?

• Why is technology a key factor in the age of exploration?

2.   List key factors that help to explain European exploration after 1400.

3.   What technological improvements made exploration possible?

4.   Portuguese Explorations:

• What route did the Portuguese explore to get to the riches of  Asia? (See also map on  87.)

• What role did government play in Portuguese exploration?

• What kinds of luxury goods from Asia were the Portuguese looking for? 

5.   What was the impact of the Portuguese spice trade for European consumers?

6.   Answer the questions on the map on p. 87.

7.  Identify the following : Prince Henry (the Navigator); Bartolomeu Dias; Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus; Alexander VI; Treaty of Tordesillas; Ferdinand Magellan; Dutch East India Company

Part 2:  The Atlantic World (pp. 100-119) (Skim sections 1-3 and respond to the following.)

1.   Look at the map on 104: where are the areas of Spanish settlement in the Americas?

2.   Why is Columbus a controversial figure in history (109)?

3.   Where are the earliest English settlements in North America (111).  

4.  Look at the map on p. 113.  What is the most significant change in colonial control of North America between 1754 and 1763?  What war produced this outcome?

5.   What is the impact of disease on Native Americans (114)

6.   In the Atlantic Slave Trade section...

• Spotlight on Slavery (115): What is a key difference between historical slavery and the Slave trade associated with the exploration of the Americas?

• Note the scale of the Atlantic Slave Trade (116): how many people were enslaved? What area in the Americas absorbed most Africans slaves? What area absorbed the fewest Africans?

• Define the terms, "Triangular Trade" and "Middle Passage"(117-118).

• List the long-term consequences of African slavery for American culture and population .

Part 3:  The Columbian Exchange and Global Trade (pp. 120-123)

1.   Define the term Columbian Exchange; give examples in both directions; assess its negative impact.

2.   What is meant by the term Commercial Revolution.

3.  List key characteristics of  the economic system of capitalism.  How did colonization and trade contribute to its development?

4.   What were joint stock companies and how did they encourage people to invest in overseas trading ventures?  

5.   Explain the following about the economic policy of mercantilism:

• What was its goal

• What two ways did the system  hope to achieve this goal

• What role was played by colonies

• What advantages did it give to the "mother country"

6.   How did the Commercial Revolution change life in Western Europe?

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Scientific Revolution Reading Guide

Ch. 6: The Scientific Revolution, pp. 165-170

1.   Review the Main Ideas and Why It Matters Now on p. 165. Be sure you are able to identify/ define all terms and names listed at the top of p. 165.

2.   What two sources were unquestioned authorities for Westerners? What view of the universe was accepted without question throughout the Middle Ages and on whose ideas was it based? 

3.  How did Church teaching specifically contribute to the medieval view of the universe?

4.    What is meant by "the Scientific Revolution?" What factors led to the Scientific Revolution?

5.   What is the heliocentric theory and how did the following contribute to it?

• Copernicus and On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies

• Kepler

• Galileo and  Starry Messenger; and Dialog on the Two World Systems

• Sir Isaac Newton and Principia Mathematica

6.   What is the scientific method?  What did Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes contribute?

7.   Describe the contributions of Janssen, van Leeuwenhoek, Torricelli, Vesalius, Harvey, Jenner.  

8.  Read the last paragraph of the section. What social, political, and intellectual movement movement of the 1700s will be inspired by the new rational, orderly view of the scientific revolution?

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