Drivers of change: trade, technology, religion and new ideas
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Flip to reveal answersName the four broad drivers that pushed societies into transition (1400–1700).
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Question
Name the four broad drivers that pushed societies into transition (1400–1700).
Answer
Trade and exploration, technology, religious change, and new ideas — reinforced by economic change and state-building.
Question
What was the Columbian Exchange?
Answer
The two-way transfer of crops, animals and diseases between the Americas and the rest of the world after 1492.
Question
Why did American silver matter to world trade?
Answer
It poured bullion into Europe and on to Asia, funding commerce, fuelling inflation and paying rulers' armies.
Question
Who invented the movable-type printing press, and roughly when?
Answer
Johannes Gutenberg, around 1450 — enabling the mass spread of ideas and slowly raising literacy.
Question
How did gunpowder weapons change state power?
Answer
Cannon could smash castles, so strong rulers could crush rebellious nobles and build bigger, more centralised states.
Question
What began the Protestant Reformation, and when?
Answer
Martin Luther's protest against Church abuses in 1517, spread rapidly by the printing press.
Question
What was the Catholic (Counter-) Reformation?
Answer
The Catholic Church's fight-back — reforming abuses at the Council of Trent and using new orders like the Jesuits.
Question
What was Renaissance humanism?
Answer
A revival of classical Greek and Roman learning that prized human reason and returning to original sources.
Question
How did the early Scientific Revolution challenge authority?
Answer
Thinkers like Copernicus tested old ideas by observation, daring to question traditional teaching about the universe.
Question
What was the 16th-century Price Revolution?
Answer
A long rise in prices — roughly tripling — driven by population growth and the inflow of American silver.
Question
How did banking and credit help rulers?
Answer
Bankers such as the Fuggers lent large sums, so kings could borrow to fund wars and administration ahead of tax income.
Question
What does 'state-building from above' mean here?
Answer
Rulers using new silver, credit and gunpowder armies to centralise power and drive change downward onto society.
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Full study notes for Drivers of change: trade, technology, religion and new ideas
Topic 9.1 hub
A framework for societies in transition
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