QUESTIONS
1. Where did the Jews live in Ancient Times?
2. Do you remember any of the stories of David?
3. What finally became of the kingdom over which David ruled?
4. What era in the history of the world begins with the birth of Jesus Christ?
5. Why did the Romans forbid the Christians to worship? How did the Romans punish them? How long after the birth of Christ before the emperors allowed the Christians to worship undisturbed?
A MONASTERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Abbey of Saint-Germain des Prés
as it appeared in 1361 with wall, towers, and moat or ditch6. What is the name of the first Roman emperor who became a Christian? What name was soon given to the worshipers of the old Roman gods?
7. By what titles were the leaders of the Christians named? What two kinds of clergy were there?
Important date: 325 A.D., when the Roman Empire became Christian.
QUESTIONS
1. What is meant by the "Middle Ages" or the "Mediaeval" period?
2. Show on the [map[13], what part of the Roman Empire was conquered by the Mohammedans.
3. Mention the Roman names of England, France, Germany, and Spain, Why were they changed to what they are now?
4. What people early in the Middle Ages began to emigrate from their homes to the Roman Empire? What did they do for a living?
5. Where did the Goths live? Who taught them the Christian religion? When the Goths entered the Roman Empire what did they ask of the inhabitants? Did they destroy much? How many years separated the capture of Rome by Alaric from its capture by the Gauls?
6. What tribes conquered England or Britain? What tribes conquered Roman Gaul or France? How long before Constantinople was captured?
7. What was the effect of these raids and wars upon many cities? Who tried to keep fresh the memory of what the Greeks and the Romans had done? Who used the language of the Romans?
8. Tell the story of the way the English became Christians. Who taught the Christian religion to many Germans? From what city did the Slavs receive missionaries?
9. What different names are given to the inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden who became rovers over the seas? Where did they make settlements?
10. Tell the story of how Leif the Lucky discovered America. Why did the Northmen leave Vinland?
EXERCISES
1. Point out on the map all the places mentioned in this chapter.
2. On an outline map mark the names of the peoples mentioned in the chapter on the countries where they settled.
3. Ask children in school who know some other language than English what are their names for England, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.
Important dates:
Alaric's capture of Rome, 410 A.D.
Discovery of America by the Northmen, 1000 A.D.
QUESTIONS
1. Mention the names of heroes or hero-kings of the Middle Ages. What stories have you learned about these heroes?
2. Who was the hero-king of the English? How did he early show his love of books? What did he do to help his people to a knowledge of books?
3. How did he succeed better than other kings in driving back the Danes? Why has he been called the creator of the English navy?
4. What was the name of the Norman duke who conquered the English and ruled over them? Did this conquest hinder or help them?
5. Why should we remember Henry II gratefully? Explain an ordeal and a trial by battle. How were the first juries formed and what did they do? How were they afterwards divided?
6. For what was King Richard most celebrated? What sort of a king was his brother John?
7. Why was the Charter which John was forced to grant called "Great"? Repeat some of its promises. Did the English soon forget these promises?
8. Who asked the townsmen to send several of their number to talk over affairs with the clergy and the nobles? What was this body finally called? Into what two bodies was it divided?
9. What is a "representative system"? Why was it an invention? What did the Romans do when they lived in towns distant from Rome and wanted to take part in elections or help make the laws?
EXERCISES
1. Learn and tell one of the King Arthur stories and a part of the story of the Niebelungs. Find a story about Charlemagne, Frederick the Redbeard, St. Louis, or St. Stephen.
2. Collect pictures of war vessels, those of old times and those of to-day, and explain their differences.
3. Find out how men nowadays decide whether an accused man is guilty.
4. What is the name of the assembly in your state which makes the laws? What assembly at Washington makes the laws for the whole country?
QUESTIONS
1. Why did the memory of the Greeks and Romans remain longer in France and Italy than in Germany and England?
2. What different classes of people were there in the Middle Ages? What was the difference between a parish priest and a monk?
3. How did the nobles gain a living? Were they useful? In what sorts of houses did they live? Describe a castle. What was the "keep"?
4. How were the sons of nobles trained? What was a page? How was a young man made a knight? What were the duties of a knight?
5. Were the farmers or peasants prosperous and happy in the Middle Ages? How did the townsmen learn to protect themselves? What was a guild? Why are many Europeans proud of their cities?
6. Why is Venice especially interesting? Why do we remember Genoa?
7. From what language did French, Italian, and Spanish grow? How were the changes made in the old language? Where did the English get their language? Was it just like the English we speak?
8. What did the boys study in the Middle Ages? What did the word "university" mean then? Name two or three universities founded then which still exist. What did the Arabs teach Christian students?
9. What sort of buildings did men in the Middle Ages especially like to build? Are these buildings still standing? Why do we admire these great churches?
10. What do we call the time when men began to study once more Roman and Greek books, and began to imitate the ways of living and thinking common in the Graeco-Roman world? Who was the first of these "new" men? Where especially did men search for Greek books?
11. What invention helped men spread far and wide this new knowledge? How do the Germans come to have "Gothic" type? Where do we get our Roman and italic type? What books did the Venetian printer Aldus print? Name a famous English and a famous German printer.
12. What besides ancient books did the men of the Renaissance like to study and imitate?
EXERCISES
1. Find out what titles of noblemen are used now in different European countries. In what country are men often knighted? Why are they knighted? What title shows that a man is a knight?
2. Collect pictures of armor and of castles, especially of castles still standing. Collect pictures of old town walls.
3. Collect pictures of Venice and Genoa, especially from advertising folders.
4. Find the names of several large American universities. Do the students live in "colleges" as students did in the Middle Ages?
5. Tell one or two stories from the Arabian Nights. Collect pictures of Arabian costumes and of Arabian buildings in Spain, or Africa, or Asia.
6. Collect pictures of English and European cathedrals. Find pictures of churches in America which resemble them.
REVIEW
How ancient civilization was preserved
1. What ruined so many ancient cities?
2. Who tried to preserve the memory of what the Greeks and the Romans had done?
3. What language did the churchmen continue to use?
4. How did the missionaries help?
5. How did Alfred teach the English some of the things the Romans had known?
6. What did the Arabs teach the Christians which the Greeks had known?
7. What was studied at Bologna? How did the universities help in preserving the ancient knowledge?
8. What did Petrarch do to find lost books? What did other men of Petrarch's time do?
9. What help came from the invention of printing?
10. From what besides books did the men of the Renaissance learn about the Greeks and the Romans?
HUSBANDMAN AND COUNTRY WOMAN OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY
QUESTIONS1. What dangers threatened traders in the Middle Ages who traveled by sea or land? What was a fair?
2. What products were brought from the East? By what routes? Point these out on a map. What rival trading cities were in Italy? How did the Venetians get their wares to London?
3. Who were the Crusaders? Why did they attack the Mohammedans? What did the Venetian traders gain by these wars? Describe a large Venetian ship of this time.
4. When was the compass invented? Why was it dangerous to sail great seas and oceans without a compass? Tell how an astrolabe was made.
5. What at first kept men from attempting to sail to eastern Asia? Who was Marco Polo? Describe his adventures. How did he return to Venice? How did people learn about the lands he had visited?
6. Why after 1453 was it necessary to find a sea route to Asia? What did Prince Henry the Navigator succeed in doing? How was the Cape of Good Hope discovered? Who went with Diaz on this voyage?
7. Who first sailed to India by the Cape of Good Hope? Was the voyage profitable? What city was made rich by the new trade?
EXERCISES1. Find from a map in the geography how many miles goods must have been carried to reach Venice from Persia, India, the Moluccas, or China. How far is it from Venice by sea to Bruges or London?
2. Where and how do we now obtain cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves?
3. What line of emperors has been recently ruling over China? Where has been their capital? Find out about the present Mongols. Collect pictures of China and Japan.
4. Read a longer account of Marco Polo.
5. Study the geography of Portugal. Collect pictures of Portugal. Find out if many Portuguese are living in the United States.
REVIEWSTEPS TOWARDS THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Greek colonies in Italy, Gaul, and Spain.
Roman conquest of Gaul, Spain, and Britain.
Viking voyages to Greenland and Vinland.
Venetian trade in spices with the East, and Venetian voyages to London and Bruges.
Marco Polo's travels in China and the East.
Portuguese voyages down the coast of Africa and about the Cape of Good Hope.
QUESTIONS
1. What plan did Columbus form? Why was it bolder than the plan Diaz had carried out in 1487, or even than that Da Gama carried out a few years later? Why did men like Columbus and Diaz desire to find a sea route to India? Had anybody before Columbus believed the earth round?
2. What mistake did Columbus make in estimating the size of the earth? Why was this a fortunate error?
3. From what countries did Columbus try to obtain help? Why did he find it so hard to secure this? What event in Spain finally favored his cause? Who were the Moors?
4. Why was Columbus surprised when he saw the natives in the West Indies? Why were the Indians on their side surprised?
5. What islands did Columbus find and claim for Spain on his first voyage? How many other voyages did he make? What new lands did he find on his later voyages? What did he think he had found?
6. Why did the enemies of Columbus in Spain call him the Admiral of Mosquitoland, the man who discovered a land of vanity and deceit, the grave of Spanish gentlemen? What did they mean by this?
EXERCISES
1. Find pictures of the ships of Columbus or of the sailing ships of other explorers of that day. How does the deck arrangement on those differ from the ocean steamships of to-day? What advantage would ships like those of Columbus have over present steamships in exploring strange coasts? What disadvantages?
2. Draw up a list of reasons why Columbus's sailors were afraid to go on and wished to turn back to Spain.
3. Trace on an outline map the voyage of Columbus. Mark where Columbus found land, and where he expected to find Japan and China. What great mass of land was really very near the island he first discovered? [(See map[15].)]
4. Find from the maps on [(Greek World)[7], [(Roman World)[14], [(The world after Polo's journey[16])], and [(The world as known after Columbus[17])], how much more the Romans knew of the world than the Greeks had known, the Europeans after Marco Polo's journey than the Romans, and the Europeans after Columbus's voyage than after Marco Polo's journey.
Important Date--1492. The discovery of America by Columbus.
The facsimile's transcription reads as follows:
Nunc Vero et hae partes sunt latius lustratae, et alia quarta pars per Americum Vesputium (ut in sequentibus audietur) inventa est quam non video cur quis jure vetet ab Americo inventore sagacis ingenii viro Amerigen quasi Americi terram, sive Americam dicendam: cum et Europa et Asia a mulieribus sua sortita sint nomina. Ejus situm et gentis mores ex bis binis Americi navigationibus quae sequuntur liquide intelligidatur.
QUESTIONS
1. Why were the early American explorers disappointed at finding two continents between Europe and Asia?
2. What land did John Cabot discover? Where did he think this land was? Why did the English people take little interest in this voyage?
3. Why was our country named America? Do you think that Americus Vespucius deserved so great an honor? By what name did the Spaniards continue to call the new region? Why did the Spaniards have one name and the other Europeans another name for a long time?
4. How did Balboa come to find the Pacific Ocean? Why did men search for a passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific more vigorously after Balboa's expedition?
5. Why has Magellan's voyage been called the greatest one in history? What three things had Magellan shown the European world?
EXERCISES
1. Make out a list of the explorers mentioned in this chapter who helped in the discovery of the New World, and place opposite the name of each the name of the land he discovered.
2. Trace Magellan's voyage on the map,[173.gif], and make a list of the lands or countries he passed. Look at the map of North America on this old map, and at the one on [229.gif]. How do you account for the queer shape of North America on the old map?
Important date
1519-21. Magellan's ship made the first voyage around the world.
QUESTIONS
1. In what ways did the Aztecs resemble the Europeans? How did they differ from them? Why were the Spaniards particularly anxious to conquer Mexico?
2. Why did many of the Mexicans refuse to fight the Spaniards? How many soldiers and Indian allies did Cortés lose in one battle? How long did it take Cortés to conquer Mexico?
3. What other Indian people was conquered a few years later? By whom? What seemed to be the main object of these conquerors, Cortés and Pizarro, in their expeditions?
4. Why did the Spaniards make slaves of the Indians in the West Indies? Why did they later cease making slaves of Indians and begin making slaves of negroes? What share had Las Casas in this change?
5. What good work did the priests and monks in the Spanish Missions accomplish? What became of the Aztecs or other Indian tribes in Mexico?
EXERCISES
1. Find all you can about the houses, food, clothing, and occupations of any Indians living in your part of the United States, or if none are there now, learn this from your parents or from some neighbor who knew the Indians. Did they resemble the Aztecs in these respects or the West Indians?
2. Review the account of emigrating to Spanish America four hundred years ago. Who could not go to Spanish America then? Find out who may not come into the United States to-day. What did it cost one traveler to get to America in the sixteenth century? Find out the cost of a voyage from Europe to America to-day. How long did it take to make such a voyage? Find out the usual length of a voyage from Europe to-day.
QUESTIONS
1. What story had Ponce de Leon heard in the West Indies? What did he find? Why did he call the new country which he discovered Florida? What was included in Florida as the Spaniards understood it?
2. What was De Soto looking for in North America? How long did he search? What did he find? Was he disappointed? What was he planning to do when he died? Why was his journey very remarkable? Through what present states of the United States did he pass?
3. Where did the Spaniards expect to find the Seven Cities? Why did he expect to find them there? What was the story of the Seven Cities? Of the Seven Caves?
4. What did Coronado expect to find at the Seven Cities of Cibola? What did he find there? Why did he go far on into North America in search of Quivira? What did he find on the way to Quivira? What did he find Quivira to be?
5. What did Coronado think of his own discoveries? What had he found out of interest or value to the rest of the world? Which of the present states of the United States did his route touch?
REVIEW
1. Review the effect of the discoveries of Columbus (map, 161.gif), Magellan (map, 173.gif), De Soto (map, 195.gif), Coronado (map, 202.gif), on the knowledge of the new world.
Important date--1541. The discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto.