Social+West+and+the+Changing+World+Balance

= Social = By: Charlie Rosenblum

Rise of the West
 * Key features in medieval culture and society were being questioned
 * Church under attack
 * Medieval philosophy passed
 * Lives of economic activities of ordinary Europeans were in disarray
 * Bubonic plague spread to Europe
 * 30 million people died

Zheng He
 * General
 * Eunuch
 * Muslim
 * He led an expedition to across the West Ocean
 * Confucians court advisers say that the voyages wasted tens of myriads of
 * Money
 * Grain
 * Men
 * Governments burned the ships and the records of Zheng He's voyages

Florence, Italy
 * For a time, merchants were the ruling class
 * Because of this, they became in contact with Greek and Roman antiquity
 * Thus Humanism was created
 * Sciences, knowledge, and arts improved
 * It wouldn't have happened without the social contact with the outside world
 * Led to a golden period in Florence

Christopher Columbus
 * Asked King Ferdinand and Queen Elizabeth to sail the oceans
 * In search of Islands and continents to conquer
 * King Ferdinand and Queen Elizabeth agreed
 * If he succeeded, he and his sons would become admirals, dons, and governors
 * Found that the winds in the Atlantic Ocean travel like a circle