HIST 341
RENAISSANCE, REFORMATION, AND REVOLUTION

1. Catalog Entry

History 341. Renaissance, Reformation, and Revolution (B)
Three hours lecture (3).

Prerequisite: 3 hours of History at 100-level

A study of European history from 1300-1815 with emphasis on the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, royal absolutism, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution and Napoleon.

2. Detailed Description of Content of Course

I. The Renaissance

A. Introduction
B. Crises of the Fourteenth Century

1. Economic
2. Demographic

C. Roman Catholic Church
D. The Principal States of Europe and International Rivalries

1. The Holy Roman Empire
2. Spain
3. France
4. England
5. The invasion of Italy, the imperial election of 1519, and the Hapsburg-Valois rivalry
6. States of Italy

E. The Revival of Learning

1. The Renaissance, an urban movement
2. Why the Renaissance began in Italy
3. Humanism

a. Petrarch
b. Boccaccio

4. The acquisition of manuscripts
5. The founding of libraries
6. The improvement of humanistic study

F. Italian Renaissance Vernacular Literature
G. Italian Renaissance Art
H. The Renaissance in Northern Europe

1. Characteristics of northern humanism
2. Spanish, French, English, and German humanism
3. Erasmus

I. Northern European Renaissance Art
J. The Age of Discovery

1. A new route to Asia
2. Columbus

K. Science and Invention

II. The Reformation

A. Forces Leading to the Protestant Revolt
B. Reformers Before the Reformation
C. The German Reformation to the Peace of Augsburg

1. Martin Luther
2. The organization of the Lutheran Church
3. The Augsburg Confession to the Peace of Augsburg

D. John Calvin and the Revolt in Switzerland

1. Calvin's religion
2. The spread of Calvinism

E. Henry VIII and the Revolt in England
F. The Catholic Reformation
G. The Religious Wars

III. Europe, 1648-1815

A. The Age of the Baroque
B. The Emergence of the Great Powers
C. Seventeenth Century Economics (Mercantilism)
D. The Struggle for Control of Europe: the Wars of Louis XIV
E. The Seventeenth Century Intellectual Revolution

1. The overthrow of medieval astronomy
2. The overthrow of medieval anatomy and physics
3. Science, philosophy, and the search for truth

F. European Rivalries and the Struggle for Control of the World

1. The War of the Austrian Succession
2. The Seven Years' War

G. The Age of the Enlightenment

1. Rationalism and the search for natural law
2. Deism
3. The Physiocrates and free trade
4. The beginnings of the industrial revolution

H. The Era of the Enlightened Despots
I. The French Revolution and Napoleon

3. Detailed Description of Conduct of the Course

The class meets three hours a week. The course is taught primarily using a lecture format with considerable time devoted to discussion of ideas from the lectures. All students are required to read several (usually three) textbooks. The class discussions of the books are an important element of the course.

4. Goals and Objectives of the Course

1). Students will demonstrate an understanding of the historical background of early modern Europe.
2). Sudents will describe the geographical setting of the European world from 1300 to 1815.
3). Students will study other cultures and develop an awareness of the complexity of cultural change.
4). Students will discuss the relationship of the past to the present by showing the influences of the

Renaissance, Reformation and Revolutionary Europe on today's world.

5. Assessment Measures

Assessment of the student's success in the course is based on the grades for written book reviews, two major tests, and a comprehensive final exam.

6. Other Course Information

None.

7. Review and Approval

Date Action Reviewed by
January 2005 Reviewed and Approved by Charles McClellan