Machiavelli & The Printing Press

​​Machiavelli

The Printing Press

Niccolo Machiavelli

• Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469 in Florence, Italy.

• He wrote The Prince in 1513. This was a guidebook on ruling based on his experiences working for the government of Florence.

• "The ends justify the means": rulers use whatever methods necessary to ensure success

Multiple Choice

What book did Machiavelli write?

• The Prince

• The Communist Manifesto

• The Wealth of Nations

• Mein Kampf

Multiple Choice

What is meant by Machiavelli's belief that "the end justifies the means"?

• the public always acts in its own best interest

• leaders may use any method to achieve what is best for the state

• pleasing all of the people at any given time is possible

• leaders must always act for the common good

Multiple Choice

Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince advocated that a ruler should

• obtain power from a social contract with the people

• place the needs of subjects first

• apply Christian teachings to all decisions

• employ absolute power to maintain order

• Johannes Guttenberg created the printing press in 1568.

• The printing press was a wooden device designed to use movable wooden type and ink to quickly produce large numbers of pages for books.

• Printers could create hundreds of books a day.

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Multiple Choice

Who created the printing press?

• Leonardo Da Vinci

• Johannes Guttenberg

• Niccolo Machiavelli

• Martin Luther

Open Ended

What was the printing press?

• Before the printing press, books were written by hand by monks living in monasteries.

• The process created few books which made them expensive.

• After the printing press, books became more affordable.

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Open Ended

How were books made before the printing press was invented?

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is true after the invention of the printing press?

• books became more affordable

• monks continued to copy by hand

• books were harder to find

• When the printing press was invented, the people of Europe were still very religious.

• They demanded access to religious texts.

• The first book to be mass produced was the Christian Bible.

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Multiple Choice

What was the first book to be mass produced by the printing press?

• The Torah

• The Prince

• The Christian Bible

• The Ninety-Five Theses

Open Ended

Why was the Christian Bible the first book to be mass produced by the printing press?

• Between 1568 and 1600 millions of books were written and produced throughout Europe.

• Ancient Greek and Roman texts were printed and sent all over Europe which helped the Renaissance spread.

• High, middle, and even some low class people hurried to learn to read, which resulted in literacy rates increasing.

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Multiple Choice

Which of the following spread throughout Europe due to the printing of ancient Greek and Roman texts?

• The Reformation

• the Renaissance

• the Counter Reformation

• the Enlightenment

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is an effect of the printing press?

• literacy rates increased

• scientific discoveries were less likely to be known

• interest in the Americas declined

• the Middle Ages

• A second impact that the printing press had was the social changes.

• Educated people began to challenge the authority of the church all over Europe.

• Word spread that the church couldn't explain things better than Renaissance men and lost even more authority.

Multiple Choice

In what way did the increased literacy affect the power balances of Europe?

• reforms in government led to political intrigue

• spies were easily identified and arrested

• higher numbers of educated people lead to more challenges to church authority

• scroll paper became more expensive

Multiple Choice

Which statement best expresses the philosophy of humanism?

• God selects those to be saved

• the pope expresses the ultimate word of God

• people have potential and can improve themselves by learning

• a person's life on Earth is merely a preparation for the afterlife

Multiple Choice

A major reason that the Renaissance began in Italy was that

• Italian city-states had grown wealthy from trade

• farmers produced vast surpluses

• merchants supported the Green Revolution

• many European scholars migrated to this area