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Asian Migration Theory – the idea that North America (and later South America) came to be settled by people as hunters followed large game animals across a land bridge between Asia and North America known as Beringia around 15000-13000 B.C.E. – was first proposed by a Spanish priest named [BLANK-1]. His theory is now widely accepted by historians, archaeologists, and scientists to explain how the majority (but not all) of Native Americans came to settle North and South America.

Part 3 Essay Question (40%): Your essay should have an introduction with a clear and specific thesis, a body with evidence, and a conclusion that reinforces your central argument. Select the option you feel the most comfortable with and answer it to the best of your ability. You may find it helpful to write out a brief outline of the essay before you begin writing.Choose ONE (1):What was the impact of the Renaissance on European civilization? Identify and explain the key legacies of the Renaissance. How did social and ideological changes enacted in the Renaissance lead to a larger gap between elites and commoners? Why do some historians select the Renaissance as the founding moment of modern Europe?What issues led ordinary Christians and church reformers to come to question the Catholic Church around the fourteenth century? Which problems with the church continued in the lead-up to Martin Luther’s break with the Catholic Church in 1517? How did the Protestant Reformation seek to address these issues with the church? How did the Catholic Reformation attempt to correct these problems?Who were the dominant economic powers in the Afroeurasian trade? Who were relatively minor players in the trade? Why? What were the prized trading goods and how did trade occur between 1450 and 1600? What ultimately led to the declining importance of the Afroeurasian trade?

[BLANK-1] was an Austrian-based dynastic family that used marriage ties and wealth to strengthen their power across Europe. This family dynasty reached its height under Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and extended its territory well beyond the Holy Roman Empire, with lands in Austria, Netherlands, Spain, Northern Italy, and elsewhere. This group was among the staunchest defenders of Catholicism in the period of religious turmoil brought on by the Protestant Reformation. They engaged in frequent wars against the Ottoman Empire, and also the French (despite the shared Catholic religion between them). They were among the groups to suffer the greatest loss of political power following the results of the Thirty Years’ War.

In Medieval Europe, [BLANK-1] were commoners who worked the land of a noble lord’s manorial estate. They were given the use of the land and the lord’s protection in exchange for a portion of the crop (called a rent) and other labor services. They lived in small villages near a church and the lord’s manor house and ate a meager diet of bread with a few vegetables – meat was reserved for only a few days a year such as great feast days like Christmas or Easter. While these people were sometimes connected to their lord’s land by legal and financial arrangements, they were technically free and could leave the land. They were not bound to the lord’s land.

[BLANK-1] was caused by a bacterium, Yersinia Pestis, and devastated Europe in its initial outbreak from 1346-1350, and periodically returned (with somewhat less devastating results) for centuries afterward. Death tolls from this plague vary wildly, but range from 100-200 million dead and between one-half and two-thirds of Europe’s populace dying from the disease. In large cities and university towns, such as Florence in Northern Italy and Cairo in North Africa, as much as 90% of the populace were killed. The disease spread along maritime trade routes initially, and the vector for the disease were fleas housed on Black Rats that stowed away on trading vessels. The Catholic Church’s ineffective approach to the disease sent many Christians into spiritual disarray and contributed to the institution’s crisis.

[BLANK-1] were a nomadic group of Euroasian Steppe People who were founded around 552 and were the first Inner Asian people to found large states and leave a written record. They never united, however, and often fought against one another, rarely founding a lasting state. They came into frequent conflict with both Tang China and the Byzantine Empire. By the tenth century, most members of this group converted to Islam, however, they did not adopt Arabic trappings. They maintained their own distinct culture, language, customs, and identity distinct from Arab Muslims.

[BLANK-1] by Bernal Díaz del Castillo chronicled the process by which Hernán Cortés and his men gained allies out of potential enemies among Native American groups. In this account, Díaz del Castillo explains how a local leader, Xicotenga, initially attempted to attack his group before being dissuaded from doing so and then persuaded to ally against the Mexicans. The end of his account suggests that Cortés’s group of conquistadors were weary from war and were considering abandoning their designs against the Mexicans (the Aztecs) before they established peace and cooperation with Xicotenga.

Also known as the Ancestral Pueblos, [BLANK-1] were ancient Native American groups that were located in the four-corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah and built sites like Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. They were noted for their adobe cliff dwellings and their vast trade network through which coastal shells, timber, and other goods circulated. They tended to be organized into matrilineal groups.

[BLANK-1] described the cultural importance of the tianguiz, or marketplace, in Mexica society. Marketplaces were held in extremely high esteem, housed shrines with food offerings, and had feast days dedicated to their honor. Marketplaces specialized in certain goods, with the marketplaces in Azcapotzalco and Itzocan dedicated to selling slaves (usually prisoners of war who would be used as human sacrifices). The slaves set aside for human sacrifice would be ritually bathed, dressed in fine clothes, treated divinely, given the best food to eat, and then sacrificed to the gods.

Around 320, after more than a century of political fragmentation following the collapse of the Mauryan Empire, much of northern India was unified into a state of Indian self-rule called [BLANK-1]. It was founded by Chandragupta I (who took his imperial name from a previous Mauryan ruler). It was a Hindu state, but was religiously tolerant of other faiths and saw major advances in the sciences and arts. Arabic numerals (the numerical system that we use today) and place-value notation were invented in this Indian state. The government was decentralized with a quarter harvest tax and a monopoly on salts and metals. An invasion by the Huns in 450 was repelled, but it fatally weakened the state which collapsed around 480.