7/8 World History

Week 28

The Reformation & Early Colonialism

Monday Do Now

What were the main advantages that the Spanish had over the Native Americans thanks to their geographic location?

Objective Students will apply their knowledge of Spanish conquest to answer a document-based question (DBQ)

• Time to work on DBQ in class

Exit Ticket How is answering a DBQ different from a regular essay prompt?

Tuesday Do Now

What do you remember about the Catholic Church?

Objective

Students will understand the meaning and impact of the Protestant Reformation

The Reformation

Catholic Church Abuses • By the early 1500's, the Catholic Church was

more powerful than it ever had been before. The economic prosperity of the Renaissance led to a flood of donations to the Church, and the lands the Church directly ruled in Italy were generating more taxes.

• The Catholic Church had also started a new practice to raise money: selling indulgences. Indulgences had been around for centuries, particularly during the Crusades. They were pardons for sins that were issued by the pope.

• Now, to raise money, the Church was selling indulgences to the general public for a variety of sins. Small sins (like lying or having impure thoughts) were cheaper to buy, while big sins (like assault or rape) were more expensive.

• Although many people liked buying indulgences because it was an easy way to make up for sins, some people (particularly priests) thought that it was immoral and shouldn't be allowed.

Martin Luther • Martin Luther was one of those priests who

disagreed with the sale of indulgences. In the year 1516, the pope decided to make money to repair his palace by sending an official all around Germany to sell indulgences.

• Martin Luther was so outraged at the idea of someone having their sins forgiven in exchange for money that he began to write a series of essays about everything he thought was wrong with the Catholic Church, including the sale of indulgences.

• In 1517, Luther decided to turns his essays into a protest by nailing each one (all 95 of them) to the front doors of his local cathedral. In his 95 Theses, Luther didn't just criticize the Catholic Church, he also described how he thought the Church should be.

• The Church took this matter very seriously. No one was allowed to question the authority of the Church, especially if they were a priest who had sworn an oath of obedience. When Luther refused to take back the things he had written, the Church excommunicated him (kicked him out of the Church), and he fled into hiding to avoid being put to death.

Church of England • Although Martin Luther was punished for his criticisms

of the Church, his forbidden ideas proved to be popular. One of his most popular ideas was that the weekly church service should be given in local languages instead of Latin, which ordinary people couldn't speak. Many people also agreed that the Bible should be translated into languages besides Latin, which the Church also didn't allow.

• At first, Luther's ideas spread mostly inside Germany, but soon started spreading all around Western Europe. The first major kingdom to adopt a form of Luther's ideas was England.

• When Henry VIII was refused a divorce by the pope in 1534, he decided to break off from the Catholic Church to form a new church for his country, which he called the Church of England. The Church of England (also called the Anglican Church) took most of the inspiration for its structure from the ideas of Martin Luther.

• The Anglican Church worshipped in English using an English-language Bible, priests were allowed to marry, and forgiveness of sins could not be bought with money.

A copy of the Tyndale Bible, the first English-language Bible

Wars of Religion • Not all people, though, were interested in Martin

Luther's church reforms. Raised their entire lives in the Catholic Church, many Europeans felt loyal to the Church and believed that Martin Luther and his followers were evil and swayed by the devil.

• The beliefs of Martin Luther came to be known as Protestantism because they were a protest against the practices of the Catholic Church.

• In countries that were split between Catholicism and Protestantism, violence began to erupt into a series of conflicts known as the Wars of Religion. The Wars of Religion were mostly in Germany, the Netherlands, and France, but most parts of Europe were effected to some extent.

• In England, the fight between Catholicism and Protestantism got its most violent during the reign of Queen Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, who broke England away from the Catholic Church.

• She continued to believe that Protestantism was evil, and during the five years of her reign, she burned to death around 300 Protestant preachers, leading the English people to give her the nickname "Bloody Mary."

Queen Mary I of England

Thirty Years War • The most devastating of the Wars of Religion

was the Thirty Years War, which lasted from 1618 to 1648. The conflict began as a dispute inside Germany, where the northern kingdoms had adopted Protestantism and the southern kingdoms remained Catholic.

• Soon, both sides brought in allies to help them fight. The kingdoms of Spain, Hungary, and Croatia joined the Catholics. The kingdoms of the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden joined the Protestants.

• Over the thirty years that it lasted, the war was one of the most devastating in Europe's history. Both sides ruthlessly burned the towns, farms, and castles of its opponents, leaving Germany a desolate war zone.

• By 1648 both sides agreed to a treaty without any clear winner. In all, over 8 million people had been killed in battle or starved to death because of the burnt farms. One-third of the cities in Germany were completely destroyed, and 35% of the population was dead.

Counter-Reformation • In response to the threat of Protestantism, the

Catholic Church began its own Counter-Reformation. Instead of taking Martin Luther's criticisms to heart, they clung even more firmly to their beliefs.

• In order to "purify" the Church, they began a series of Inquisitions - religious courts whose purpose was to find and punish "evil" people. To the Inquisition priests, "evil" people included anyone with Protestant sympathies, who believed in other religions (like Jews or Muslims), and anyone suspected of practicing witchcraft.

• The standard for evidence in these Inquisition trials was low - just a rumor that someone was secretly a Protestant or a witch would be enough to get them convicted. Most people convicted by an Inquisition court were sentenced to death by burning at the stake. Tens of thousands of people were put to death as a result of the Counter-Reformation, and in the end it served its purpose: to firmly divide Europe between allegiance to Catholicism or Protestantism.

Exit Ticket

What were some of the changes that Protestants wanted in the Catholic Church?

Homework

• Protestantism reading & questions

Block Day Do Now

African slavery played an essential part in most of the European colonies in the New World. How do you think millions of Africans were transported from one continent to another? What kinds of supplies and people would be needed to make that happen?

Objective Students will understand the underlying economics of early American colonialism

• New Spain reading

• Early New World Colonialism slideshow

Protestantism Quiz 1. Who started the Protestant Reformation? 2. Which War of Religion devastated Germany in the early 1600's? 3. Name one of the four early branches of Protestantism.

Protestantism Quiz 1. Martin Luther was against the Catholic practice of selling what items intended to forgive someone for a sin? 2. What was the first major European country to break off from the Catholic Church? 3. The belief in predestination has to do with which of the following topics: a) which countries are Protestant or Catholic, b) modest clothing, c) how long it took God to create the world, or d) how many people would enter heaven someday?

Exit Ticket

How were Native American and African slavery in the Americas similar? How were they different?

Homework • Slave Life reading & questions

Friday Do Now

How was life for slaves different in different parts of the New World?

Objective Students will use multimedia materials to understand colonial-era slavery

• “Roots,” part 1

Exit Ticket Do you think that modern films are capable of showing what the experience of slavery was actually like? Did you feel that this film was accurate, based on what you've learned?