Question 1
Which of the following two statements best characterizes the information (i.e., is the most “true”) from chapters 16 and 17?
Group of answer choices
The Renaissance was able to flower in northern Italy because that region had avoided many of the crises that affected the rest of Europe.
The Renaissance was able to flower in northern Italy because the crises of the Middle Ages made Italians stronger and more adaptable.
Question 2
Which of the following two statements best characterizes the information (i.e., is the most “true”) from chapters 16 and 17?
Group of answer choices
Italy and the Italian city-states struggled to reach the level of prosperity they ultimately achieved because of the political power of the Catholic Church and the popular idea that conspicuous wealth and consumption was evil. In addition, the Italian city-states avoided much trade with nearby regions, such as the Middle-East, because of ingrained animosity towards Muslim countries.
Italy and the Italian city-states were able to prosper economically because they engaged heavily in foreign trade, adopted and adapted foreign concepts, and catered to a desire for consumption and luxury.
Question 3
Which of the following two statements best characterizes the information (i.e., is the most “true”) from chapters 16 and 17?
Group of answer choices
The Renaissance in northern Italy was marked by political instability; however, the rich spread their wealth around and managed to bring the majority of the population out of poverty.
The Renaissance in northern Italy was marked by political stability on the one hand, but by conflict between the rich and much poverty amongst a large portion of the population.
Question 4
Which of the following two statements best characterizes the information (i.e., is the most “true”) from chapters 16 and 17?
Group of answer choices
The wealthiest city-state of Italy during the Renaissance was Venice, due to its control of the spice trade. Milan was wealthy, but controlled by despots, while and Florence prospered under a system that valued civic engagement and education.
Rome was an important city-state because of its control of trade with the Middle East, but Milan was the wealthiest of the city-states because it held the main market of the spice trade, while Florence was troubled by frequent uprisings against the wealthy.
Question 5
Which of the following two statements best characterizes the information (i.e., is the most “true”) from chapters 16 and 17?
Group of answer choices
Although the “humanism” of the Renaissance celebrated the achievements of great thinkers and so-called “Renaissance men,” in general humanism was little more than a celebration of greed and was despised by the Catholic Church because it insulted the power of the clergy and the church’s position in society, as well as being blasphemous towards God.
The “humanism” of the Renaissance considered humankind to be God’s greatest creation and celebrated education, innovation, and creativity. However, humanistic ideals were different for males and females.
Question 6
Which of the following two statements best characterizes the information (i.e., is the most “true”) from chapters 16 and 17?
Group of answer choices
The Italian Renaissance ended because of internal fighting and shifting alliances among the city-states as well as pressure from European rivals.
The Italian Renaissance ended because the “scholastic” tradition of the Catholic Church eventually overcame the “humanistic” movement towards more liberal education.
Question 7
Which of the following two statements best characterizes the information (i.e., is the most “true”) from chapters 16 and 17?
Group of answer choices
The city-states of northern Italy were eventually overwhelmed by outside forces because they ignored war in favor of trade, and they had too much reliance on gunpowder as their sole method of defense against the monarchies of the north.
The emphasis on trade and independence of the northern Italian city-states was eventually overcome by the emphasis on war, expansion, and control of various monarchies of northern and western Europe.
Question 8
Which of the following two statements best characterizes the information (i.e., is the most “true”) from chapters 16 and 17?
Group of answer choices
The year 1492 is significant in the history of Spain because it is the year that Christopher Columbus sailed for the New World and the year that the Christian monarchs defeated the last Muslim kingdom.
The year 1492 is significant in the history of Spain because it is the year that most Jews and Muslims converted to Christianity and swore loyalty to the Spanish Christian monarchs and the pope.
Question 9
Which of the following two statements best characterizes the information (i.e., is the most “true”) from chapters 16 and 17?
Group of answer choices
In the fifteenth century, England fought an internal war that eventually led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the installation of semi-democratic system in the form of Parliament; in addition, the death penalty was abolished and the criminal code was reformed.
In the fifteenth century, England suffered a thirty-year civil war for control of the English crown which eventually resulted in a brutal but efficient monarchy in which nobles were kept in line through threat and punishment and the general populace was subject to severe criminal prosecution and punishment.
Question 10
Which of the following two statements best characterizes the information (i.e., is the most “true”) from chapters 16 and 17?
Group of answer choices
The Holy Roman Empire of the fifteenth century was politically and militarily superior to the monarchy of France because the Holy Roman Empire had a type of parliament, the Diet, which was able to centrally control the wealth and military power of the empire, while the French monarchy emerged severely weakened from the One Hundred Years’ War and the king was little more than a figurehead.
In contrast to the fragmented and weakened state of the fifteenth-century Holy Roman Empire, France in that century saw the solidification of control over the nobility in the form of a strong king. A good amount of this difference if fortune could be attributed to the weakness of the Diet-controlled Holy Roman Empire as opposed to the more centralized control of the French monarchy.
