Various Authors - World History

This edition published in 2012 by Arcturus Publishing Limited
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eISBN: 978-1-78212-655-3
CH000697US
Supplier 03, Date 0112, Print Run 1288

Designers: Q2A India and Talking Design
Editors: Rebecca Gerlings and Alex Woolf

The sixteenth century was a time of great changes in world history. Europeans began to explore the world, opening up trade routes and colonizing new lands. Over the following centuries, different regions of the world would interact and influence each other to a greater extent than ever before. Technological advances in the eighteenth century laid the foundations for an industrial revolution, fundamentally changing the way we live and work. Ideas about human rights, freedom and equality inspired political revolutions in France, America and Russia. And great-power rivalries led to two destructive world wars.

In this book, you can learn about the complex developments over the past 500 years that have shaped the modern world. Along the way, you will discover many fascinating facts about about modern world history. Who was the first European to reach India by sea? How did Britain come to rule an empire that covered nearly a third of the Earths land surface? And how did the Boston Tea Party spark the American Revolution? You will find the answers to these and many other questions in the pages of this book.

The European Renaissance lasted from about 1450 to 1650. The French word Renaissance means rebirth. This period brought an end to the Middle Ages and marked the start of the modern world. Every part of life, including art, politics, trade and learning took a new turn. The Renaissance began in Italy, and spread throughout Western Europe.

1. Did the Renaissance change music?

During the Renaissance, musicians learned many things about the science of sound waves, which helped them to create the kind of music they wanted. Composers studied Greek drama and were inspired to create the opera.

2. Who was Mona Lisa?

The Mona Lisa is probably the most famous painting ever created. It was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. The model is said to be Lisa Gherardini, who was the wife of a nobleman. The painting is in the Louvre, Paris.

3. What was in fashion in Renaissance Florence?

Women shaved or plucked off their eyebrows. Even the Mona Lisa has none.

Q What led to the Renaissance?

A Italy, surrounded by sea on three sides, was a center of trade. More money and exposure to other cultures led people to expand their ideas. They were also inspired by the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome. People were eager to learn, and they studied literature, art, history and science. For the first time, art and literature were not restricted to religious subjects.

Statue of Dante in Verona, Italy
Dante (12651321) was an Italian poet, famous for his work The Divine Comedy . He had a major influence on later Renaissance poets and writers.

Q What was Renaissance literature about?

A Renaissance literature was based on Greek and Roman classics. The poetry of Francesco Petrarch and the stories of Giovanni Boccaccio in Italy, as well as the witty writing of Desiderius Erasmus in Holland and Franois Rabelais in France were among the new forms of literature that recalled the Greek and Roman classics. People realized that there were many forms of literature apart from religious books. Major authors like Shakespeare changed the way people looked at themselves and at the world around them. Many forms of literature today, like the novel, owe their birth to Renaissance ideas.

Hans Holbein the Younger (14971543)
A German painter famous for his portraits, Hans Holbein the Younger painted the king and many of the nobles in the court of England.

Q What was special about Renaissance art?

A Artists became interested in drawing the human figure as it really is. They learned to use light and shadow. Wall paintings on wet plaster (called fresco paintings) became common, as did tempera paints that were mixed with egg yolk. Oil painting became popular toward the end of the Renaissance.

The Last Judgment
This is a detail from the famous fresco painted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

Q Who were the most famous artists?

A Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael in Italy, and Durer in Germany, were the most famous artists of the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci created paintings like the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa . Michelangelo created sculptures such as the Pieta and painted the roof of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Raphael painted the popes apartments, also in the Vatican. Durer created engravings like Knight, Death and the Devil . All these are still admired by millions of people today.

Master painter
The Marriage of the Virgin a painting by Raphael (14831520), one of the best artists in Italy during the Renaissance. This famous painting is now in Milan.

Q Who was Gutenberg?

A Gutenberg invented Europes first printing press with moveable type in 1445. The first book he printed was the Bible. The printing press meant books were much cheaper and easier to produce than before. It allowed people to read the work of ancient scholars, whose work had been forgotten during the Middle Ages. It also meant that books were available to many more people. People who had never seen books before could now learn to read and expand their horizons and their ambitions.