The Great Questions from History

The Age of Discovery & the Renaissance

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THE AGE OF DISCOVERY

  1.  Which European nation began exploring the Atlantic in the 15th century?
  2.  What were they searching for?
  3.  What forced them to do this?
  4.  Who was Bartolomé Diaz?
  5. What was Vasco Da Gama the first to do and when? Why was this relevant?
  6.  Where are the Spice Islands?
  7.  Why was spice so important?
  8.  Where was Christopher Columbus from?
  9.  Where did he wish to sail to?
  10.  Who financed his expedition?
  11.  Did he think the Earth was flat?
  12.  What Rodrigo de Triana famously say when he sighted land?
  13.  Where did he think he had landed?
  14.  What did he call the island where he landed?
  15.  How many expeditions did Columbus make to the New World?
  16.  When did he discover the New World?
  17.  Why was the new continent named after Vespuccio and not Columbus?
  18.  What was the Columbian exchange?
  19.  What products did Europe bring back from the New World?
  20.  What products did Europe take to the New World?
  21.  Was the discovery of the New World positive or negative?
  22.  Why do the indigenous Indians not refer to the arrival of Columbus as a ‘Discovery’?
  23.  What was La Leyenda Negra ?
  24.  What was the treaty drawn up between Portugal and Spain so that each nation could protect their new possessions?
  25.  When was this treaty signed?
  26.  If the treaty was supposed to give all new territories in the New World to Spain, how was it that Portugal ended up with Brazil?

Los Conquistadors

27.  Where in Spain was Hernán Cortés from?

28.  What had he studied?

29.  Why did he travel to the New World?

30.  Which civilisation did he conquer?

31.  Why was this civilisation expecting Cortés?

32.  What was the name of their capital city?

33.  Where was the capital built?

34.  What is a causeway?

35.  What was the name of their king?

36.  Who did they think Cortés was?

37.  What was the name of the year in which Cortés arrived?

38.  What was the name of the Indian tribe that helped Cortés?

39.  What happened during la Noche Triste (the Night of Tears)?

40.  Why did Hernán Cortés ask after Martín López as they escaped the city?

41.  What illness had greatly affected and weakened the Aztecs?

42.  What is the name of city where Tenochtitlan used to stand?

43.  Who conquered the Incas?

44.  Which part of Spain was this conquistador from?

45.  What was the name of the Incan king?

46.  What is the name of the famous hidden 15th century Incan city that was discovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham?

The Renaissance

47.  What are the dates of the Reniassance?

48.  What does the word Renaissance mean and why was it used to refer to this period in history?

49.  What started the Renaissance?

50.  What was Humanism?

51.  What famous Greek statue did they find in Rome in 1502?

52.  Why had Europe forgotten the works of Ancient Greece & Rome?

53.  What is considered the first building of the Renaissance?

54.  Who built the dome on the cathedral of Florence?

55.  Why is it such an important structure?

56.  What is the name of the famous banking family of Florence who were important patrons of the arts?

57.  What is the name of the world’s first art gallery in Florence?

58.  What was the name of the first Renaissance painter?

59.  What did he do to prove he was a genius?

60.  In what ways is Renaissance painting different from the painting that preceded it?

61.  What was ‘Vitruvian Man’ and who drew it?

62.  Name one painter, one architect and one sculptor of the Quattrocento ?

63.  Name one architect, one painter and one sculptor of the Cinquecento ?

64.  Who built St. Peter’s in Rome?

65.  Name three great works by Michelangelo

66.  Why was proportion so important in Renaissance architecture?

67.  What artistic technique was invented during the Renaissance?

68.  What is your favourite building of the Renaissance and why?

69.  What is your favourite building of the Renaissance

70.  Tell me all you know about Da Vinci

The Reformation & Counter-Reformation

71.  Who sparked the Reformation?

  1.  What did he want to reform?
  2.  What was his famous action that ignited the Reformation?
  3.  What new form of Christianity grew out of the Reformation?
  4.  Why did the northern princes of Europe change to this new form of Christianity?
  5.  How did the Catholic Church respond to the movement of the Reformation?