Assignment: You will write a 2-3 page double spaced (12 point font and normal margin sizes) essay on ONE of the following questions below. You will pick a question from ONE of the following topics: The Renaissance, Exploration and the Atlantic World, and/or The Reformations. This essay asks you to analyze the primary sources that we discussed for each topic in our zoom discussion classes. Remember to form a central thesis (or argument) to answer the question and support your argument with relevant and specific evidence from the primary source texts. You can use background information from the video lectures and textbook reading but the focus of your analysis should be the primary sources that we discussed in our class zoom discussions to prove your points. Your essay will be assessed according to your ability to demonstrate critical thinking, textual analysis, clear use of evidence, and an understanding of the course material. You may use parenthetical citation of (author, page number) to cite your sources. For instance: (Bisticci, 171 ) or (Cortes, 236). This essay is due on
1. How was the Renaissance similar and/or different from the Middle Ages in Europe and how did the context of the Italian city-states produce the intellectual and artistic movement of the Renaissance? Use the primary sources of the plague documents and Vespasiano’s Portrait of Cosimo de’Medici to answer the question.
2. Why did Europeans embark on new exploration in the Atlantic world and how did Europeans interact with and treat those they encountered (indigenous groups and Africans) during the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries? Use the primary sources of the letters of Hernando Cortes, the Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, and Olaudah Equiano’s memoir to answer the question
.3. Why did the Protestant Reformation begin and how did Reformation ideas spread throughout Europe in the sixteenth century?Use the primary sources of Erasmus’ Julius Excluded from Heaven, Martin Luther’s Sermon on Indulgences, and Johann Tetzel’s Rebuttal Against Sermon on Indulgences to answer the question.
