13 Definitions and 3 questions about History World civilization (3-5 sentences for each one)

Historical essay questions: You will be required to answer  essay questions:

1. According
to the course lectures and readings, what was the ‘Great Divergence’ and how
would you best explain how and why it happened? In what ways were China and
Europe both similar to and distinct from one another in the 1500s?  What were the factors that made the
difference?  Was there any one factor
more important than the others?

2. What
was the Italian Renaissance?  How did it develop
out of the interactions between the the problems and characteristics of late
medieval civilization and the legacies of the classical civilizations and
values of Greece and Rome?  Why were the
northern Italian city-states such fertile ground for such a development?  What was the role of Catholicism in this
process?

3. Compare
and contrast the ways in which the Mongols invaded and controlled Chinese
society with the ways they invaded and controlled the Persian empire
(Kwarezmed) and the early Russian principalities.  How would you account for the differences?

Historical defentions, providing about 3-5 sentences
for each one, describing the event, person or process, and its historical
context and significance. 

The Magna
Carta

Machiavelli

The Black
Death

The
Spanish Inquisition

Francisco
Petrarch

The
Jannisseries

The Yuan
Dynasty in China

The
Christian ‘Reconquest’ of Spain

Eleanor
of Aquitaine

Emperor
Babur

Pastoral
societies (in general, with one or two specific examples)

Treaty of
Tordesillas

The Plauge (or Black Death)