One of the underlying ideas of this unit is rebellion and change. During the 15th through 18th centuries Europeans began challenging old ways of doing things and seeking new paths and ideas. This is evident in the Renaissance, where Europeans rediscovered the culture and art of ancient Greece and Rome, and during the Reformation, when many people began to challenge the authority of the Catholic Church and the traditional worldview at the time. Across the continent, humanism began to take hold which encouraged people to place an emphasis on the human experience and to use their senses and reasoning to understand the world around them.
Explore a time in your own life when you challenged an old way of doing things or questioned authority.
• How did you create a new way of doing things or forge new paths?
• Your task will be to describe this event in your life and to specifically compare it to one of the major changes that you learned about in this chapter such as the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, or Exploration.
• Your essay must be at least 400 words in length and have at least one paragraph in which you explain how your experience was similar to one of these past events.