Answer:
Mercantilism was based on the idea that a nation's wealth and power were best served by increasing exports and so involved increasing trade
Although the Crusades are popularly viewed as religiously inspired campaigns to recapture the Holy Land, students should recognize them as a result of the social and economic events in Europe between 1000 and 1200. Religious and secular leaders seeking to end the fighting among feudal lords seized upon the Crusades as a means of redirecting that aggression. Feudal knights who would not be inheriting their family properties eagerly enlisted in the Crusades as a way to win wealth or status. The idea of the pilgrimage was a powerful one, and the Crusades were basically armed pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The various Crusades ultimately failed. The sack of Constantinople was a fitting denouement to the whole concept. The interaction with the East brought to Europe not only Arabic translations of Greek texts, but also original Arabic and Iranian scientific and philosophical works.
City-states in ancient Greece
They were called "Polis", every Polis produced enough to feed their population. They had their own institutions, laws, currency and army. The belief was that each Polis was protected by their own God, who should they owe respect and sacrifice.
They were ruled by an elite group whose authority was indisputable.
Examples of the two most important city-states that practiced oligarchy in ancient Greece
- Athenas: the government was form by the wealthiest. They were the owners of the land and they had the means to buy weapons to defend the Polis. They formed children in a fisical and intelectual ways. The society in Athena was divided into the
- citizens: divided between the rich and the poor
- metecos: foreing people who where not consider citizens, but they could pay taxes and be part of the army.
- slaves: men and women submitted to a master.
Athenian politics evolved to democracy
- Sparta: it was the rival city of Athenas. It was always ready to go to war. The military education started since childhood. They were forced to take a military politic in the face of constant need to dominate peoples submitted as a result of its territorial expansion.
The obsession with militarization was such, that newborn babies were checked to fulfill with physical patterns of a warrior, if they were not, they were slaughtered.
It was a government by the nobles.
Spartan society was divided into
- Ilotas: slaves without political rights, workers of the land
- Periecos: free farmers, but they must be part of the army if they are needed.
- Espartiatas: nobles, those who took part in politics
The scientific revolution, which emphasized systematic experimentation as the most valid research method, resulted in developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and chemistry. These developments transformed the views of society about nature.
