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The Western Experience, 8/e

Mortimer Chambers, University of California - Los Angeles
Barbara Hanawalt, Ohio State University
Theodore Rabb, Princeton University
Isser Woloch, Columbia University
Raymond Grew, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Economic Expansion and a New Politics

Problems for Analysis

I. Expansion at Home


1		What were some of the economic and social consequences of population increase?



2		What developments in prices, commerce, and industry evidenced economic growth? Why? What were the consequences of this for the quality of life of the different social classes?

II. Expansion Overseas


3		What motivated exploration and expansion?



4		Distinguish between the Portuguese and Spanish patterns of exploration and expansion. What part did the size of Spain and of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century political and military developments play in this difference?



5		What were the costs of European exploration and expansion? Who bore them? What were the benefits? Who gained them?

III. The Centralization of Political Power


6		What developments and policies characterized the "new monarchies" of Western Europe?



7		Compare any two "new monarchies," focusing on the developments that distinguished the two, despite their similarities.

IV. The Splintered States


8		Who became the holders of power in the Holy Roman Empire and much of Eastern Europe with the failure of central authority to grow ? What were the consequences for the lower classes?

V. The New Statecraft


9		What distinguished diplomacy during the sixteenth century from that of previous time? Why did Italy play such an important role in this?



10		Machiavelli and Guicciardini were original observers of contemporary political events. What was so importantly new about their observations? In what ways did their observations reflect the events of their times?

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