European Renaissance, Reformation and the Age of Exploration
What this domain tests
Questions here connect cultural change, religious conflict and overseas expansion. You need to explain causes and consequences, not just list names, and to recognise that these movements overlapped rather than forming a neat sequence.
Renaissance
- Humanism shifted attention to classical texts and human potential; Petrarch is an early figure.
- Patronage in Florence, especially the Medici, funded artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo.
- The printing press (Gutenberg, c. 1450) accelerated the spread of texts and criticism.
- Perspective and anatomy changed art; Machiavelli's The Prince analysed political power separately from Christian morality.
Reformation
- Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (1517) attacked indulgences; printing spread them rapidly.
- Luther was excommunicated in 1521 and defended himself at the Diet of Worms.
- John Calvin organised Reformed Protestantism in Geneva; the Council of Trent (1545–63) began Catholic reform.
- The Peace of Augsburg (1555) accepted cuius regio, eius religio in the Empire, but did not end religious conflict.
Exploration
- Columbus (1492) reached the Caribbean; Vasco da Gama (1498) reached India by sea; Magellan's expedition (1519–22) circumnavigated the globe.
- The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided Spanish and Portuguese claims.
- The Columbian exchange transferred crops, animals and diseases, with catastrophic demographic effects in the Americas.
Worked example
Explain why the Reformation spread so quickly. Reasoning: combine Luther's theological challenge, resentment of papal taxation, printing, and princely protection. A one-cause answer is incomplete.
Traps that cost marks
Treating the Renaissance as anti-religious; saying the Peace of Augsburg ended all religious war; confusing da Gama's route with Columbus's; presenting exploration as purely scientific rather than commercial and imperial.