- What other period or periods of history that you have already studied offer parallels to
Europe's "iron century"? What difference do you detect between the problems of the fourteenth
century and those of the period 1560-1660?
- What were the causes of the "price revolution"? Why was inflation harder on the poor than on
the rich?
- What was the impact of the price revolution on governments?
- Assess the validity of this statement about Europe's "iron century": "Given prevalent attitudes,
newly arisen religious rivalries made wars inevitable."
- What made the religious wars of the latter half of the sixteenth century more brutal than those
previously fought by Europeans, including the medieval crusades?
- What was the importance of the Peace of Augsburg? What were its weaknesses?
- Summarize the provisions of Henry IV's Edict of Nantes. In what ways did it advance
religious freedom? In what ways was religious freedom still limited?
- Explain why antagonisms between Catholics and Protestants in the Netherlands led to a revolt
against Spanish rule.
- Why was the defeat of the Spanish Armada "one of the most decisive battles of Western
history"?
- How did religious disputes contribute to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War? Why did
religion become subordinated to other issues in the course of the conflict?
- Explain why access to huge quantities of American silver failed to prevent Spain's economic
decline.
- What did each of the following contribute to the development of strong central government
in France: Henry IV, the duke of Sully, Cardinal Richelieu?
- Why did the revolt known as the Fronde fail to check the growth of centralized absolutism in
France?
- Louis XIV was "the most effective royal absolutist in all of French history." What made him
so?
- "Compared to the civil disturbances of the 1640s in Spain and France, those in England
proved the most momentous in their results for the history of limited government." Explain this
statement.
- What were the reasons for the unpopularity of King James I among his English subjects? Did
he fully deserve this unpopularity?
- Describe the part played by each of the following in causing the English Civil War: the
Puritan religious movement, the Crown's struggle for increased revenue, the Stuart rulers'
political doctrines, the Scottish war of 1640.
- The period of the Commonwealth and Protectorate constitutes England's only experiment
with a republican form of government. Why was the experiment abandoned? Was it a complete
failure?
- To what extent was the witchcraft hysteria of the period 1560-1660 a religious phenomenon?
What other factors help account for it?
- Compare the political theories of Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes. Which of them was more
absolutist in his point of view? Why was Hobbes generally unpopular with royalists in spite of his
championing of absolutism?
- What is the social and psychological significance of Cervantes' greatest work?
- Describe briefly the characteristics of Shakespeare's plays from each of the three periods that
mark his career as a dramatist.
- Both the Mannerist and the Baroque styles of painting reflected the influence of religion.
What were the differences between the two styles?
- What baroque characteristics are found in the work of Rubens?
- What is the justification for claiming Rembrandt as the greatest of all Netherlandish painters?
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