Classical and Medieval Europe
Exam Preparation Guide
Course Introduction
This course explores the major social, political, religious, and cultural developments in Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire through the late Middle Ages. Students will examine the transformation of classical civilizations, the rise of Christianity and Islam, the formation of medieval kingdoms, and the growth of feudal societies. The course also delves into the daily lives of ordinary people, the evolution of art and architecture, and the intellectual legacies of early European thinkers. Through primary sources and modern scholarship, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the forces that shaped Europe during these pivotal centuries.
Recommended Textbook
Western Heritage The Volume 1 11th Edition by Donald M. Kagan
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Chapter 1: The Birth of Civilization
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Nile River was considered to be a major highway, primarily because it connected
A) fishers to the Mediterranean Sea
B) herdsmen and hunters to the desert
C) swamps to inlets
D) Upper and Lower Egypt
Answer: D
Q2) The Sumerians developed the first known system for writing, made up of thousands of characters that represented both words and ________.
A) numbers
B) sounds
C) units of measure
D) animals
Answer: B
Q3) What two factors led to the downfall of the kingdom of Ur?
A) invasion and inflation
B) inflation and famine
C) famine and invasion
D) invasion and civil war
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: The Rise of Greek Civilization
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a long-lasting contribution that tyranny made to the development of Greek civilization?
A) increased communication with the rest of the Mediterranean world
B) cultivated arts and literature
C) broke the grip of the aristocracy and gave power to talented citizens
D) All of these are correct.
Answer: D
Q2) Which of the following was a result of the First Messenian War?
A) Messenians were reduced to the status of serfs.
B) Spartans were reduced to the status of serfs.
C) Messenians did not need to work the land that supported them.
D) Spartans lost land to the Messenians.
Answer: A
Q3) Like most ancient peoples, the Greeks were ________, and religion played an important part in their lives.
Answer: polytheists
Q4) A Greek traitor showed the Persians where a hidden ________ was located, so they could attack the Greeks from behind.
Answer: mountain trail
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Chapter 3: Classical and Hellenistic Greece
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Sample Questions
Q1) Aristotle considered the middle class to be the most stable because it possessed the quality of ________, which gave power to neither the rich nor the poor.
A) compassion
B) moderate wealth
C) competition
D) industry
Answer: B
Q2) Which of the following best describes the policies favored by Pericles following the First Peloponnesian War?
A) reckless
B) expansionist
C) isolationist
D) conservative
Answer: D
Q3) The Macedonian cavalry was made up of nobles and clan leaders called ________.
Answer: Companions
Q4) ________ established the theory of the lever in mechanics and invented hydrostatics.
Answer: Archimedes
Page 5
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Chapter 4: Rome: From Republic to Empire
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Sample Questions
Q1) Romans entrusted their leaders with the power to issue commands and enforce those commands, if necessary.This power was called ________.
A) posse comitatus
B) coloni
C) humanitas
D) imperium
Q2) The concept of humanitas, which the Romans borrowed from Greece, emphasized ________ in education.
A) discipline
B) athletics
C) vocational training
D) critical thinking
Q3) After two major wars, the Romans cited a technical breach of the peace to spitefully destroy ________.
A) Athens
B) Carthage
C) Gaul
D) Etruria
Q4) One of the rewards held out to defeated enemies in Italy was Roman ________.
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Chapter 5: The Roman Empire
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Sample Questions
Q1) Septimius Severus changed conditions in the Roman army for what reason?
A) to help falling recruitment
B) to restore the army's prestige
C) to improve morale
D) in accordance with changing Roman morals
Q2) As the Roman government became more efficient, it took on more functions.To pay for these services, Rome ________.
A) instituted "sin" taxes on tobacco and alcohol
B) minted fewer coins, hoping speculators would take them out of circulation
C) imposed taxes on farmers who lived outside of Italy
D) sold bonds
Q3) The elaborate civilian bureaucracy established by Constantine included four praetorian prefects, twelve vicars, and almost a hundred provincial governors.The system was corrupt despite ________.
A) steady pay and good benefits
B) spies and secret informants
C) the freedom granted each bureaucrat
D) the use of paper money
Q4) Diocletian divided the empire into four parts, led by a quartet known as the
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Chapter 6: Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Creating a New
European Society and Culture (476 1000)
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Sample Questions
Q1) Because he condemned idolatry and immorality, Muhammad was ________.
A) chased out of Medina
B) chased out of Mecca
C) forced to wear a hair shirt
D) removed as his people's leader
Q2) Pope Leo IIIs coronation of Charlemagne and the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire did not simply benefit the new emperor. Leo hoped ________.
A)that the new empire would destroy Constantinople
B)Charlemagne would create the office of pontifex maximus for him
C)to gain leverage over the king and enhance the churchs stature
D)to be the next emperor
Q3) In the early Middle Ages, the three-field system was used, combining crop rotation and the use of ________.
A) burning
B) horse pasture
C) fallow fields
D) artificial fertilizer
Q4) As part of their argument about their superior position, bishops from Rome cited Jesus's words to the apostle ________ in the Gospel of Matthew.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: The High Middle Ages: The Rise of European Empires
and States
(1000 1300)
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Sample Questions
Q1) The church reform movement of the early tenth century was based in ________.
A) Cluny
B) Otto's court
C) Wittenberg
D) the Vatican
Q2) The job of the royal executives, called ________, was to monitor the royal officials responsible for local governmental administration.
A) enquêteurs
B) baillis
C) paysans
D) prévôts
Q3) What was the Domesday Book?
A) a county-by-county survey of property
B) a book of theories as to how Armageddon would occur
C) an account of the battle of Hastings and the conquest of Britain
D) instructions on how to blend monarchical and parliamentary elements of government
Q4) According to the Christian doctrine of ________, at the moment of consecration, the bread and wine of Communion become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Medieval Society: Hierarchies, Towns,
Universities, and Families (1000 1300)
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Sample Questions
Q1) Tournaments came to be viewed as problematic because ________.
A) even mock battles could be deadly
B) fierce competition often ended in bitter feelings
C) regional rivalries encouraged disunity
D) they could be deadly
Q2) In the twelfth century, knighthood was legally restricted to men of ________.
Q3) What were the key tenets of Abelard's teachings? Why did they get him into trouble? How did his perspective change in later life?
Q4) Wergild payments can be used as evidence of _________.
Q5) Refer to Map 8-1 on page 244.Based on this map, which of the following statements is most accurate?
A) In the Middle Ages all of continental Europe was linked by trade networks.
B) Russia remained outside of European trade networks.
C) Trade routes on land took more time than trade routes via water.
D) Trade routes via water were restricted to the Mediterranean.
Q6) Why was the official Carolingian marriage policy entirely positive for women?
A) They lost their legal rights during the transition.
B) They gained greater dignity.
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C) Their labor as household manager and child bearer greatly increased.
D) They were now forced to take multiple husbands.
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Chapter 9: The Late Middle Ages: Social and Political
Breakdown (1300 1453)
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Q1) The Treaty of Troyes in 1420 disinherited the legitimate heir to the French throne and proclaimed ________ the successor to the French king, Charles VI.
A) Henry V
B) Charles VII
C) Henry VI
D) Richard II
Q2) Who reestablished the papacy in Rome in 1377?
A) Boniface VII
B) Gregory XI
C) Celestine V
D) Clement V
Q3) ____________, the religion of Russia, added strong cultural bonds to the close commercial ties that had long linked Russia to the Byzantine Empire.
Q4) In 1309, Clement V moved the papal court to ___________, an imperial city on the southeastern border of France.
Q5) Discuss the impact of Mongol rule on Russian social and political institutions.Do you believe the system of administration established by the Mongols contributed to their eventual collapse in the region? Explain.
Page 12
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Chapter 10: Renaissance and Discovery
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Q1) The appeal of ________ lay in its flattering view of human nature, which distinguished between an eternal sphere of being and the perishable world in which humans actually lived.
Q2) ________ was by far the most effective and outspoken critic of the Spanish conquerors.
A) Michel de Montaigne
B) Francisco Pizarro
C) Bartolomé de Las Casas
D) Hernán Cortés
Q3) Who sponsored Genoese adventurer Christopher Columbus?
A)Catherine of Aragon
B)King Henry VIII
C)Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain
D)Archduke Phillip
Q4) Humanism prepared the way for Protestant reforms in which of the following countries?
A)England, France, and Spain
B)France, England, and Denmark
C)Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain
D)England, France, and Germany
Page 13
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Chapter 11: The Age of Reformation
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Q1) Discuss how Conrad Grebel and Ulrich Zwingli differed in their religious objectives.
Q2) The Roman Catholic Church recognized the need for reform and met from 1545-1563 at the _______.
A) Peace of Augsburg
B) Marburg Colloquy
C) Council of Trent
D) Diet of Worms
Q3) Ignatius of Loyola taught good Catholics to ________.
A) submit without question to higher church authority and spiritual direction
B) bring any reform ideas to a council where they would be considered
C) only question the doctrines of the church in privacy to avoid public controversy
D) encourage religious innovation
Q4) The West European family was ____________, or nuclear, consisting of a father and a mother and two to four children.
Q5) Established in mid-sixteenth-century Geneva, ___________ believed strongly in both divine predestination and the individual's responsibility to reorder society according to God's plan.
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Chapter 12: The Age of Religious Wars
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Q1) Which analogy is most accurate?
A) Bavaria is to the Catholic as the Palatinate is to Protestantism.
B) Belgium is to the Catholic as England is to the Calvinist.
C) Italy is to Counter-Reformation as Germany is to Anglican.
D) France is to the Catholic as Prussia is to the Calvinist.
Q2) At the end of the third phase of the Thirty Years' War, Ferdinand issued the Edict of Restitution and struck panic in the hearts of Protestants ________.
A) in Bohemia
B) everywhere
C) in Sweden
D) in France
Q3) During the course of the Thirty Years' War, the war went through ____________ distinguishable periods.
Q4) What were Elizabeth I's reasons for ordering the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots? Do you think Elizabeth I had any other options in the matter? Why or why not?
Q5) The new _____________ wealth brought dramatic social change to the peoples of Europe during the second half of the sixteenth century.
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Chapter 13: European State -Consolidation in the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries
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Q1) A Roman Catholic religious movement known as ____________ arose in the 1630s in opposition to the theology and political influence of the Jesuits and adhered to the teachings of St.Augustine.
Q2) King Louis XIV won the support of the French ________ by supporting their local influence and social status.
Q3) Russian victory in the Great Northern War led to ________.
A) the decline of Poland
B) a permanent Russian influence on European affairs
C) an alliance with England
D) an alliance with Finland
Q4) The idea of the divine right of kings was attractive to monarchs because it effectively ________.
A) gave them free license over their people
B) ended the influence of the church in secular matters
C) made them free of noble rule
D) created an alliance between the nobles and commoners
Q5) The absolutist model is best represented by ________.
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Q6) Describe the rise of Prussia in the 1600s and 1700s.How did Prussia's emergence as a European power shape its state and culture?
Chapter 14: New Directions in Thought and Culture in the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
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Q1) Pascal's attitude toward reason was that it was ________.
A) un-Christian
B) of little use
C) insufficient for grasping religious concepts
D) superior to faith in understanding the world
Q2) Hobbes saw human beings as ________.
A) naturally docile
B) basically good
C) basically just
D) self-centered, power-hungry creatures
Q3) The learned societies that emerged in the 1600s are best described as ________.
A) forums for intellectual exchange
B) political clubs
C) social gatherings
D) closely linked to universities
Q4) The condemnation of ___________ by Roman Catholic authorities in 1633 is the single most famous incident of conflict between modern science and religious institutions.
Q5) Bernini was hired by Urban VIII to decorate ________.
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