Traditions and Encounters, 2/e

Jerry H. Bentley, University of Hawai'i
Herbert F. Ziegler, University of Hawai'i

REACHING OUT: CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTIONS

Study Questions


1		Identify the most significant land and sea routes in the fourteenth century. What societies tended to control and profit from these routes?



2		What was the role of religion in the cultural interactions of this era? Which religion had the greater international impact, Christianity or Islam? Explain.



3		Give some specific examples of agricultural and technological diffusion along the trade routes.



4		Summarize the origins and the progress of the bubonic plague of the fourteenth century. Which regions were hit the hardest? Which regions were largely spared?



5		What were the social and economic outcomes of the plague?



6		How did the Ming dynasty rebuild the economy of China?



7		Note the kind of state to emerge in the fifteenth century in northern Italy, France, England, and Spain. Which was the most powerful state at this time?



8		What were some of the distinctive elements of the artistic Renaissance of western Europe in the fifteenth century?



9		How were the Ming Chinese able to establish a forceful presence in the Indian Ocean in the fifteenth century? When and why did this presence cease?



10		What were the Portuguese objectives in the exploration of the coast of west Africa? What did they accomplish?



11		What did Columbus hope to accomplish when he set forth across the Atlantic in 1492? What did he achieve?

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