Understanding World Societies:
Printed Page 581

Chapter Chronology

> CHAPTER 19 STUDY GUIDE

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

Now, take a step back and try to explain the big picture. Remember to use specific examples from the chapter in your answers.

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

  • What was revolutionary about the Scientific Revolution? How did the study of nature in the sixteenth century differ from the study of nature in the Middle Ages?
  • What role did religion play in the Scientific Revolution? How did religious belief both stimulate and hinder scientific inquiry?
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THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND ENLIGHTENED ABSOLUTISM

  • How did the Scientific Revolution contribute to the emergence of the Enlightenment? What new ideas about the power and potential of human reason were central to both developments?
  • What connections can you make between the state-building ambitions of central and eastern European absolute monarchs and their embrace of Enlightenment reforms?
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CONSUMERISM AND THE ATLANTIC WORLD

  • How did the growth and consolidation of the Atlantic economy shape the everyday lives of eighteenth-century Europeans?
  • How did Enlightenment thinkers deal with issues of gender and race? How did New World encounters shape their thinking?
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LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD

  • How did medieval and Renaissance developments contribute to the Scientific Revolution? Should the Scientific Revolution be seen a sharp break with the past, or the culmination of long-term, gradual change?
  • A noted historian has said that the Scientific Revolution was “the real origin both of the modern world and the modern mentality.” Do you agree or disagree with this characterization? Why?
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