One of the most important outcomes of the conquest of Americas by the European colonial powers was the movement of plants, animals, technology, culture and strange diseases between the Americas and Europe or between the New World and the Old World. This is known as Columbian Exchange

(i) Martin Luther rejected the belief that ceremonies and penances would lead to salvation.
(ii) He argued that it was by faith alone that one could attain salvation.
(iii) The grace of God would be bestowed by the divine will alone and not by the deeds of the people.
(iv) Further, the Bible could be read and interpreted by all and not by the Church alone.
(v) Thus, he rejected the role of the Church as an intermediary between the individual and God.

(i) The invention of the printing press accelerated the process of modernisation.
(ii) Earlier, manuscripts were written by hand on animal skin called vellum.
(iii) Johannes Guttenberg invented the printing press in Germany in the middle of the fifteenth century.
(iv) The printing press enabled the production of multiple copies of a manuscript and they spread all over Western Europe.
(v) In less than fifty years after the invention of the Guttenberg printing press, about six million books had been printed.
(vi) The invention of printing press not only spread knowledge widely, but also promoted critical thinking.

1. As a result of the discovery of new lands and new sea routes, the economic centre of Europe shifted from the Italian city states to spain and Portugal.
2. They brutally killed the natives in their conquest and the remaining were employed under harsh conditions in gold and silver mines, and in plantations.
3. Many natives also died because of epidemic diseases brought by the colonizers.
4. The native people faced the dangers of deadly diseses.
5. The natives had to encounter from these deadly diseases.
6. The introduction of sugarcane led to the establishment of sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean islands and South America.
7. The mass extinction of the native population led to the import of slaves from Africa. Africa became the centres of slave trade.
8. Geographical discoveries led to commercial revolution.
9. The seventeenth century witnessed the emergence of various East India companies.
10. They are English East India Company the Dutch East India Company and the French East India Company.
11. The Portuguese enforced its monopoly on the spice trade of East Indies.
12. The Spaniards established monopoly over the mining and transportation of gold and silver in its colonies in the New World.
13. The English East India Company had monopoly trade in India and amassed huge wealth.
14.  Thus, the chief feature of mercantilism was exploitation of the resources of the colonies for the benefit of the colonisers.
15. It represented an important stage in the development of modern capitalism.

(i) The ltalian humanist Petrarch's Canzoniere, German theologian Martin Luther's Ninety-five theses and Portugal Prince Henry's Navigation School heralded the dawn of the modern era.
(ii) The Holy Roman Empire and the Roman Church became weak and discredited.
(iii) In their place nation states, new Churches that emphasized individual faith, and a commercial revolution based on mercantilism emerged.
(iv) The modern era was characterized by freedom of thought, individualism, rationalism, and economic and scientific progress.
(v) The changes ushered in were the Renaissance, Reformation and Geographical Discoveries.

(a) Discovery of new lands and sea routes shifted the economic centre from Italian city states to Spain and Portugal.

(d) Council of Trent reemphasized the importance of ceremonies and significance of the mass.