Literacy; Communication; Education - AP European History

Miguel Cervantes wrote the (arguably) most famous piece of Spanish literature, Don Quixote, in the early seventeenth century. Cervantes' influence on the Spanish language can be compared to that of Shakespeare on the English language—modern-day Spanish would be near-unrecognizable without his impact.

In the late fifteenth century, Italian scholars developed a new form of education that they branded "humanism," which quickly spread across all of Europe and helped ignite both the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. The start of humanism began with the rediscovery of Latin and Greek texts, which prompted new ideas and focuses, including a Christian neoplatonism, a focus on the individual, and a challenge to traditional religion.

Under the Spanish system of Encomienda, Spanish colonial administrators were granted by the Spanish crown specific percentages of the native population of their territory to work in slave-like conditions. In exchange, the Spanish colonial administrators were expected to educate the overworked and suffering native people in the Christian faith.

Adolf Hitler wrote the manifesto, Mein Kampf, or "My Struggle," in which he outlined his political ideology and vision for Germany. The second of two volumes was published in 1926.

Scottish economist Adam Smith advocated private enterprise, free trade, and lassiez-faire economics in his classic work popularly known as The Wealth of Nations (1776).

The Reformer Martin Luther was not the first person to try and create a Bible in a vernacular language instead of the Latin Vulgate used by the Catholic Church. Luther's translation was more successful, though, because he had the advantage of having printing presses that could produce more and more versions for easier access by parishioners. The German in Luther's Bible was a regional Saxon dialect, but over time Luther's Bible translation helped standardize modern German.

Cyrus Field was an American inventor and businessman who, along with other financiers and pioneers, founded the Atlantic Telegraph Company. In 1858, they laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable that connected Great Britain with North America.

Leonardo Bruni was a Florentine politician and historian who lived in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. He is most notable for producing a historical account of the development of Florence, one of the most famous historical works of the Early Modern period. Bruni's history of Florence was notable, and fairly unique for the time, because it was a secular history. He employed narrative structure and presented his historical analysis in a way that would still be familiar to readers today.

Dante was an Italian writer and poet who lived in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. His most famous works The Divine Comedy and The Inferno, were written in vernacular Italian rather than Latin. To write in vernacular Italian was innovative for the time period, and helped to lay the foundations for the modern Italian language.

The printing press had already been invented in China some centuries earlier by the time Gutenberg began to popularize it in the fifteenth century. His addition of movable type allowed books to be produced far more efficiently. Gutenberg's innovations caused a literary revolution in European society. Books began to be published in vernacular languages, and many more people suddenly had access to information and education. Ideas could be spread around the continent more quickly than ever, which would contribute to the success of the Protestant Reformation.

Erasmus is the most well-known of the Northern Christian humanists. He lived in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and wrote extensively on the gradual reform of society and the importance of peace and reason. He was a devout Catholic, but also unafraid to be sharp in his criticism of the church. His most famous book In Praise of Folly is a criticism of many of the excesses of the church. His second most famous work Handbook of a Christian Knight was written as an educational manual for humanist Christians, advising them how to live practically and successfully as pious humanists.

The scientific revolution began in the sixteenth century and really took off in the seventeenth century. Across Western and Central Europe, the age of religion was coming to an end, and the age of rationalism and skepticism was on the rise. The French Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London were both established in the seventeenth century in order to promote scientific research, inquiry, and understanding.

Johannes Müller, usually referred to by his Latin name Regiomontanus, was a mathematician and astronomer in the fifteenth century. His work trying to situate the positions of various “heavenly bodies” relative to Earth was instrumental in the greater understanding of mathematics and astronomy that would emerge during and after the Copernican Revolution.

All of these men (particularly Chaucer, who lived in the fourteenth century) could lay claim to having dramatically influenced the direction of the modern English language; however, only one option from this list lived in the sixteenth century, and that was William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is widely considered the greatest writer in the history of the English language and often called the greatest writer of any language (although this is of course wildly subjective). He lived in the Elizabethan era and wrote plays, poems, and sonnets in vernacular English. Of particular note was his massive contribution of original words and phrases to vernacular English.

Sir Thomas More was an advisor to Henry VIII and a contemporary of Erasmus. The two shared ideas about Christian humanism and a dedication to the Catholic faith. More’s most famous work is called Utopia, and it provides an outline of an ideal (some might even say utopian) society.

The Jesuit Order (also known as the Society of Jesus) was founded in the 1540s in the early years of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Among other things, they were tasked with establishing schools throughout Catholic Europe to give religious educations to young people, partly in order to convince them that salvation depended on them remaining in the Catholic fold. The Jesuit Order was (and remains) known for their emphasis on rigorous, intellectual religious training.

Miguel de Cervantes wrote possibly the most famous piece of Spanish literature, Don Quixote, in the sixteenth century. Cervantes wrote in vernacular Spanish, and is often credited as among the earliest and most influential proponents of vernacular Spanish as both a language of common interaction and high artistic achievement. Don Quixote remains one of the most lastingly culturally influential pieces of literature in any language; that it was written in vernacular Spanish at a key time in the language's development cannot be overlooked or understated.

Benvenuto Cellini wrote the most famous autobiography of the Renaissance period. His autobiography is celebrated as an early example of high-level life writing, and is also revered by historians for the insight it provides into sixteenth-century Italian life.

Early widely used languages in Europe were Greek and Latin. These languages were commonly used in trade, as they were read and spoken by people of many nations, regardless of their first language. By the time of the Renaissance, Greek and Latin were replaced by vernacular Italian. During the Golden Era of French history, the reign of Louis XIV in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, French became the common language of Europe— spoken by courtiers, diplomats, artists, and intellectuals.