Choose an option from the Essay section of your Study Guide,…
Choose an option from the Essay section of your Study Guide, and compose a response here. Answer your choice with at least two well-developed paragraphs. Each paragraph should consist of about 4-6 sentences. How did the emergence of Islam change the history of the Middle East, between the 7th and 8th centuries? What were the central aspects of the faith that made it so popular? What reasons (or leaders) could be cited for the rapid advance of Islam throughout Eurasia and Africa during the Medieval Period? How did conflicts between European Christendom and the Caliphates arise, leading to the Crusades and the Reconquista? What kinds of economic and intellectual legacies did the rise of Medieval Islam have to the world at large, between 700 and 1200 CE? Be sure to cite specific persons, places, or events in your answer. Examine how European nation-states like England, France, and Spain, began to develop as the Medieval Period ended. How did Kings consolidate their power and gain more control over the nobility? As these nations unified, were kings able to keep absolute power over their kingdoms? Why or why not? What traces of this late-Medieval process do we still see in our world, all around us today? Be sure to cite specific persons, places, or events in your answer. In a few paragraphs, explain how the social and economic changes the Crusades (1087-1291) and the Black Plague (1347-1351) caused, eventually propelled Europe to the Renaissance (1350-1600). How did the social and economic order of the Renaissance differ from that of the late Medieval Period? How did the rediscoveries of Mathematics, Science, and the Arts, help motivate European navigators like Columbus, to venture across the Atlantic from 1492 onward? Be sure to cite specific persons, places, or events in your answer. Why was Spain the first among European powers to conquer and colonize the New World? Were the factors surrounding the rise of Spain political, economic, religious, or scientific? What kind of economic system did Spain establish in its colonies? Was Spain able to maintain its superior status in the Americas into the 1600s? Why or why not? What became the overall Spanish legacy to the New World? Be sure to include relevant persons, places and events in your answer. Why were the leaders of the Protestant Reformation successful in breaking the centuries-old monopoly of Roman Catholicism? In your answer, name two Protestant leaders that influenced the direction of the movement, between 1517 and 1600. Were there differences of belief between Protestant leaders? If so, what were they? Was the Reformation to blame for the chaos of the Thirty Years’ War, or of the civil war in England? Be sure to support your answer with specific names and events.