Virginia SOL World History II (WHII) Module 4: a complete overview of the world in 1500, the Reformation, the Age of Exploration, the Enlightenment, and the Atlantic revolutions

What Module 4 actually demands

Module 4 opens the WHII course (1500 to the present), drawing on WHII.2 to WHII.8. You need the world in 1500, the Reformation, the Age of Exploration and the Columbian Exchange, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, the age of absolutism and the English move to constitutional monarchy, and the American and French Revolutions. The dominant skills are cause and effect and tracing how Enlightenment ideas inspired revolutions.

This guide ties together the matching dot-point pages, each with its own practice questions: the world in 1500, the Reformation, the Age of Exploration, the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, absolutism and the English revolutions, and the American and French Revolutions.

The world in 1500

In 1500 the world held many powerful empires, and Europe was one region among several: the Ottoman (Middle East and southeastern Europe), the Mughal (India), Ming China, Japan, Songhai (West Africa), and the Aztec and Inca (the Americas). Long-distance trade linked these worlds, and Europe's hunger for direct sea routes to Asian goods would soon drive exploration.

The Reformation

The Reformation split Western Christianity. Caused by Church corruption (especially the sale of indulgences) and spread by the printing press, it began with Luther's 95 Theses (1517), produced Lutheranism, Calvinism, and the Church of England (Henry VIII), and provoked the Catholic Counter-Reformation (Council of Trent, Jesuits). Its effects: a divided Europe, religious wars, and stronger secular rulers and nation-states.

The Age of Exploration

Driven by "God, gold, and glory" and enabled by the compass and the caravel, Europeans sailed the oceans. Columbus reached the Americas in 1492; da Gama reached India; conquistadors destroyed the Aztec and Inca. The consequences were vast: the Columbian Exchange (plants, animals, people, and diseases that devastated Native populations), the Atlantic slave trade, and mercantilism driving colonial empires.

The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment

The Scientific Revolution used the scientific method; Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton showed the universe follows knowable laws. The Enlightenment applied reason to government: Locke (natural rights, consent), Montesquieu (separation of powers), Voltaire (free speech), and Rousseau (social contract, popular sovereignty). These ideas challenged absolutism and inspired revolutions.

Absolutism and the revolutions

Absolutism (Louis XIV, Peter the Great) concentrated power by divine right; England moved to constitutional monarchy through the Civil War and the Glorious Revolution (1688) and the English Bill of Rights (1689). The American Revolution (Declaration of Independence, Constitution) and the French Revolution (Bastille, Declaration of the Rights of Man, Reign of Terror, Napoleon) turned Enlightenment ideas into new governments.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and application questions covering Module 4. Attempt them under timed conditions, then check against the solutions.

1. Name three major empires that existed in the world in 1500. (2 marks)
2. State what Martin Luther protested in the 95 Theses and the year. (1 mark)
3. Explain two effects of the Reformation. (2 marks)
4. Define the Columbian Exchange. (2 marks)
5. Explain what mercantilism was. (2 marks)
6. Name two scientists of the Scientific Revolution and a discovery of each. (2 marks)
7. Match natural rights, separation of powers, and the social contract to their Enlightenment thinkers. (3 marks)
8. Explain the significance of the Glorious Revolution and the English Bill of Rights. (2 marks)
9. Put these French Revolution events in order: the Reign of Terror, the storming of the Bastille, the rise of Napoleon. (2 marks)