II. Discuss the following two topics. For each topic use 3 or more examples of evidence to support your argument. Please begin each with a short outline, and then write a separate essay for A. and for B.

1. “Early Renaissance works of art which today we admire for their sheer representational virtuosity were part of a vigorously developing worldwide market in luxury commodities. They were at once sources of aesthetic delight and properties in commercial transactions between purchasers, seeking ostentatiously to advertise their power and wealth, and skilled craftsmen with the expertise to guarantee that the object so acquired would make an impact.” (Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance, 1996) Does Lisa Jardine accurately represent the cultural production of works of art in the Renaissance? To what extent do you think Renaissance works were meant to “advertise…power and wealth”? Discuss the above quotation in relation to both Worldly Goods as well as to primary sources from the Renaissance.
2. “It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural…The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.” (Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations,” 1993) What about the battle lines of the past? Discuss the “clash of civilizations” debate in relation to ONE ONLY of the following: 1) the Ottoman Empire of the 15th-16th centuries; or 2) Japan in the 17th century; or 3) China in the 17th-18th centuries.

Answer preview

The clash of civilization, as suggested by Samuel Huntington, is a theory that argues that the critical source of conflict in the post-Cold War will be the different culture and religion of people. However, even in the past, the division of humankind was highly attributed to the conflicts of culture or religion. In the Ottoman empire of the 15^th-16^th centuries, the significant threat posed to the Christian West was mainly due to their religious conflict with the Muslim…