West European Studies

Italian renaissance period was one of the most productive periods in the history of art. Most outstanding art pieces in various fields such as architecture, sculpture and also painting were created. It is in this period that great artists came up with wonderful innovations in various fields making the beginning of an era in the history of arts. Major aspects in Italian renaissance art development The works of art that were created during this period were a clear indication of the level of creativity...

Mankind has practiced slavery since the beginning of recorded history. References to this practice in which individuals are considered to be properties of others are evident in the Bible and other ancient literary materials. Societies that practiced slavery usually held individuals against their will and forced them to do various chores. By around the 15th century, the European traders started to engage in slavery around the coasts of Africa, especially at the historic Slave Coast, which consisted...

1. Discuss the reasons for the outbreak of the Reformation. What long term and short term factors led Luther (1483   1546) to condemn the practices of the Church What additional criticisms did Luther have Lastly, what impact did the Reformation have on German society during Luthers life after the posting of his 95 theses in 1517 The decades of renaissance and reformation in Europe were characterized by religious, political and legal conflict. For instance, in Germany, conflict in the church...

France is a Western Europe country with a population of approximately 60.4 million people as by July 2004. France has a diversity of religions but the dominant religion is Roman Catholic with Jewish religion having the least followers (Kwintessential, 2010). These preliminary diversities in ethnicity and religion signal a diverse French culture. This paper discusses French culture by looking into different beliefs and attitudes common to French people. Language is also a central part of French culture...

The renaissance represents a period of an enormous study and renewal of classical antiquity. Literally, the term renaissance means rebirth and is used to refer to the rebirth of learning that first started in the 14th century in Italy, spread to England by the 16th century and then to the North where it ended in mid 17th century. Intellectual and geographical discoveries also characterized the renaissance. This rebirth and the discoveries brought a tremendous change in the civilization of the Western...

Power is a very controversial idea. There is no standard and exact definition of what it is but the whole mankind has a full understanding of what its about. Each generation, each nation and each individual have its own experience of what is power is and therefore, power is not a naive idea that we are yet to understand instead a dynamic idea that keeps on acquiring new meanings for itself. Germany is one of the most important countries in the history not only of Europe but in the whole world,...

During the first century AD, each of the Roman empires emperors desired to expand their empire.  Some did it for riches, others did it to keep their neighbors in order.  By the beginning of the 100s, the Roman Empire had expanded to Gaul and most of central Europe (Burstein 325).  They also controlled Britain, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, north Africa, and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean (Burstein, 325).  The empire would soon become too large for any one emperor to successfully...

Despite their differences in both work and focus, Charles Darwin and Karl Marx did find a common ground on certain points of belief. Karl Marx held a firm belief that nature existed for the benefit of man, and had begun to do so due to mans early attempts to control natures actions. In his viewpoint, nature is not an independent entity from mankind. Mother Nature serves man, who controls it through the use of invention and progress in technology. Man manipulated and analyzed nature from the perspective...

Despite a difference of around two millennia, or 2000 years, the claims to freedom of the Greek philosopher Socrates and the German Leader of the Protestant Reformation Martin Luther lend themselves to both similarities and differences. Although there are more differences than similarities, the two works have both not only expressed the dreams and aspirations of these two great man but especially changed the societies in which they lived, although gradually. This paper will discuss the similarities...

1. In what ways might the early-medieval empires of the Carolingians, Abbasids, and Byzantines be seen as a break with the civilization of the Mediterranean in Roman and immediate post-Roman times This is dependent on the geographic areas where they were situated.  The Carolingians were concerntrated in what is now Franced and Germany.  In their case, their culture was primarily Germanic in nature.  Snce they embraced Christianity, they had the support of the nascent Christian church...