西方文明历史英文介绍

The rise of Western empires (15001800)
• By 1500, Europe had caught up to the rest of the world technologically and was beginning to surpass it. • Western explorers: Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, James Cook, and Ferdinand Magellan • powers to arrive in the Americas were the Spain, Portugal, Swedes, Dutch, English, and French. • The West began purchasing slaves in large numbers and sending them to the Americas.
The Early Middle Ages (AD 500-1000)
• the dominant faith in Western Europe: Christianity. • By the early eighth century, Iberia and Sicily had fallen to the Muslims. • the "West" became synonymous with Christendom, the territory ruled by Christian powers; Germany converted to Christianity; Vikings became Christians, Magyars converted to Christianity, Poles adopted Christianity
History of Western civilization
Βιβλιοθήκη Baidu
Antiquity (before AD 500)
• The division of Europe into a Western (Latin) and an Eastern (Greek) part • the final separating Roman and Eastern Christianity occurred only in the 11th century. • invasion by barbarian tribes (Visigoths, Ostrogoths)
The Renaissance and Reformation (1500-1650)
• Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton • These events led to the so-called scientific revolution, which emphasized experimentation. • The other major movement in the West in the sixteenth century was the Reformation, which would profoundly change the West and end its religious unity (1517). Protestants, Calvinist Church, Anglican Church • the Thirty Years' War between Protestants and Catholics (1618-1648).
The High Middle Ages (1000-1300)
• By the year 1000 feudalism had become the dominant social, economic and political system in the West. • the Great Schism (Catholic Church, Orthodox Church) • The Church was the most powerful institution in Medieval Europe. • the foundation for constitutional monarchy (England, Magna Carta, Parliament) • In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to conquer the Holy Land from Muslim rule.
The Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance (1300-1500)
• Hundred Years' War between England and France (1337-1453) • Another event to devastate Europe in the Later Middle Ages was the Black Plague, which arrived in the 14th century (a third of Europe's population died). • the growth of towns and cities in the West and improved the economy of Europe. • Renaissance began in Italy (a new age of scientific and intellectual inquiry). the Renaissance spread northwards to the rest of the West
• Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg developed a printing press, which allowed works of literature to spread more quickly. • reconquering the Iberia peninsula from its Muslim rulers. • In 1492, a Spanish expedition of Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas during an attempt to find a western route to East Asia.