They Changed Their World and Ours Quiz

Answer: Nicolas Appert

In 1795, Nicolas Appert (c.1750-1841) began experimenting with methods to create portable airtight containers for the storage of food. After fourteen years and countless experiments, including an attempt at preserving food in glass bottles that had been sealed and then boiled, he finally settled on steel cylinders lined with tin.

This canning method not only affected the way troops were handled but it would also eventually revolutionize the storage, transportation, shelving, purchasing, and cooking of food across a number of different cultures and societies. Consider the exponential number of women's lives that were made less burdensome and the even larger number of lives changed by a diet of canned foods. To this day, some continue to use the word "appertisation" for what we often refer to as "canning".

Answer: Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516) was at birth given the Jheronimus van Aken, but signed his paintings with "Bosch", presumably a reference to the town in which he was born and spent most of his life, Hertogenbosch. In 1488, he joined the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, a confraternity consisting of mostly lay members seeking to advance the glorification of Mary, the Mother of Christ. Bosch was a very religious individual, as is apparent from not only the titles but also the images of his paintings, which include "The Temptation of St. Anthony", "The Crucifixion of St. Julia", "The Last Judgment", "The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things", "Allegory of Gluttony and Lust", and "Death and the Miser".

Many of the paintings consist of a conglomeration of several smaller images that would seem to be the result of influences like Freud, Dali, and Kafka, but, of course, this is chronologically impossible.

In the Hell panel from "The Garden of Earthly Delights", one can see, for example, a bagpipe shaped more like a fig and appearing to have the color and texture of some gastric organ as well as a giant hawk chick with urns on its feet, a cauldron on its head, and a naked man protruding from its beak while there are blackbirds flying out of the naked man's buttocks. Bosch influenced a number of artists after him, most notably the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Answer: Dominic

St. Dominic of Caleruego (Santo Domingo) (1170-1221) created an approach to heresy that would radically alter what had become Christianity's primary methods of violence. He became the first of the Catholic Church's great preachers and tremendously emphasized the power education and communication had as tools for eradicating heresy. Unfortunately, the Inquisition was just beginning to organize around the last years of Dominic's life, but the seeds Dominic had planted and the Dominican Order he had created and led eventually replaced the inhumane and frightening methods of the earlier Church.

Dominic spent ten years among the schools of Palencia in present-day Spain, and while there, he at one point sold all of his furniture, clothes, and manuscripts to give money to those who were starving during a great famine that was occurring at that time. In the early 1200s, he was part of a program to convert the Cathars in France, a group of Christians labeled as heretics because of their gnostic and dualistic beliefs. While here, he sponsored and participated in a number of debates and began emphasizing the role of preaching in the process of conversion. He also advocated that preachers should live ascetic and humble lives. This part of his life obviously influenced his eventual establishment of the Order of Preachers or the Dominican Order as it later was called. The Order of Preachers began in 1215 with Dominic and six followers who lived in a house donated to them in Toulouse. The Order began preparing friars who radically traveled throughout Europe rather than live as monks behind closed walls. These friars would move from town to town preaching and converting more and more people to Christianity. Dominic set himself up as head of his organization that consisted of several chapters throughout Europe, an organization quite different from the traditional small independently-run monasteries of the past. Some of these chapters were established near universities, and soon the Dominican Order became associated with learning as well as preaching.

Answer: Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe (c.1659-1731) was born Daniel Foe in London, England. He was at different times in his life a trader of wool, wine, and hosiery, and his business ventures were eventually responsible for his great debt, which some estimates list as 17,000 pounds.

In 1685, Defoe was arrested for his involvement in the Monmouth Rebellion, an attempt to overthrow the very Catholic King James II. He was eventually pardoned, and became a close ally of King William III, serving as one of his secret agents spying on Catholics and their interests. Defoe eventually became known as a great and popular pamphleteer, meaning he wrote short articles and essays published in booklets.

Many of these were political in nature, but several were concerned with other matters, such as literary criticism, history, paranormal occurrences, and economics.

In fact, Defoe became a pioneer of economic journalism. Unfortunately, his success and popularity as a political satirist eventually resulted in his being imprisoned. Upon the death of William III and the ascension of Queen Anne to the throne, Defoe was arrested and charged with seditious libel for his writing and publishing his satirical pamphlet "The Shortest-Way with Dissenters". For three days he was placed in a pillory, a cage of either wood or metal upon a post used for public shaming and then locked up in Newgate.

He published his first work of fiction, "Robinson Crusoe", in 1719, and as he died in 1731, he had only a short career as a writer of novels. However, what an impact he had. His approach to writing fiction began an evolution of the European novel that culminated in the late 1800s during the realist movement, of which the influence still exists to this day. Aside from his other well-known and celebrated novel "Moll Flanders", Defoe wrote a few others, including "Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress", "Memoirs of a Cavalier", "Captain Singleton", and "Colonel Jack".

Answer: Claude Monet

Claude Monet (1840-1926) was born in Paris, France, but spent only the first five years of his life there before his family moved to Le Havre in the Normandy region. On those well-known beaches and while still a teenager, he met the artist Eugene Boudin, who became his mentor and exposed him to the rare practice of painting "en plein air" or painting outdoors in the open air. Monet's life was forever altered, and he expressed about this experience, "Suddenly, a veil was torn away. I had understood--I had realized what painting could be". Rather than painting according to established rules and studio guidelines, he began to paint various scapes--seascapes, landscapes, river scenes, etc.--as they appeared in the reality of the moment and from a particular angle or vantage point. Of great importance was the artist's individual consideration and interpretation of the way a scene appeared at different times of the day under different conditions of sunlight, shade, and other factors of the atmosphere. Equally important was the consideration of how an item's color was affected by its juxtaposition to another.

When Monet coupled his approach to art with his free and rapid brush strokes that ignored the lines and contours artists had been taught to respect, the result was a radical style of images that are so celebrated to this day. Monet is also known for his tendency to capture scenes from common everyday life as well as for adding a sense of mystery, magic, or surrealness to these scenes by habitually painting numerous studies of the same motif to capture how something's appearance changed as time passed during the length of one day. Besides "Impression, Sunrise", other significant works of his include "Coquelicots, La Promenade (Poppies)", "Woman with a Parasol--Madame Monet and Her Son", "Saint Lazare train station, Paris", "Study of a Figure Outdoors: Woman with a Parasol, facing left", "Rouen Cathedral at Sunset", several entitled "Water Lillies", and several others entitled "Weeping Willow" (which were painted in dedication to fallen French soldiers of World War I).

Answer: Benito Juarez

Benito Pablo Juarez Garcia (1806-1872) was born in the mountain village of San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca, to parents who were descendants of the indigenous people of Mexico. Juarez worked as a laborer in cornfields and as a shepherd until he was twelve years old, when he moved to the city of Oaxaca to receive an education.

A priest and bookbinder there took notice of Juarez's intelligence and got him into the local seminary to prepare him for the priesthood. Juarez ended up pursuing law instead, and he became a Oaxaca city councilman in 1831 and a local judge in 1841. Eventually, he rose to become governor of the state of Oaxaca, a position he held from 1847 to 1852.

In 1853, he was exiled by General Santa Ana, who had established himself as dictator of Mexico.

While governor, Juarez had refused to supply any more troops to Santa Ana's losing cause against the United States during the Mexican American War, and he had been voicing strong objections to Santa Ana's corrupt administration. Living in New Orleans, Louisiana, Juarez helped draft the "Plan of Ayutla", which outlined the strategy for Santa Ana's removal from power. Eventually, Juarez returned to Mexico and was elected President of the country under the Constitution of 1857.

In the 1860s, however, he then had to rally forces against Napoleon III's armies, which had invaded Mexico seeking to create a new empire under the rule of Maximilian of Austria. Troops loyal to Juarez's government were initially successful, and the Battle of Puebla is still celebrated today on Cinco de Mayo. However, the French troops regrouped, fought back, and won enough ground to declare Maximilian emperor. Juarez and his government retreated to Chihuahua and eventually accumulated enough strength to fight back, capture Maximilian, and execute him by firing squad. Of course, France was under pressure from the United States to withdraw from Mexico as it was in violation of the Monroe Doctrine, and Prussian troops in Europe were becoming a serious threat to France back home. Juarez was eventually re-elected as President of Mexico though the Constitution forbid it, and his administration was occasionally accused of corruption. Nevertheless, he is remembered today for his achieving recognition for Mexico as a sovereign nation and for his liberal advancements, which included a separation of church and state, a military that was subjected to civilian control, equal rights for Mexico's indigenous people, and other movements toward a more democratic society.

Answer: James Cook

Captain James Cook (1728-1779) is sometimes considered Britain's most famous if not most significant explorer. Over his lifetime, he sailed thousands of miles over ocean that had not been charted by any other European and claimed a great number of islands for Great Britain. Of course, of most significance was his subjection of Australia and New Zealand to British control.

He became the first European to circumnavigate New Zealand, sailed up the eastern coast of Australia, named Botany Bay, and proved that Australia was not connected to the Asian mainland or any of its islands. On a second voyage, he became the first known person to circumnavigate Antarctica. During his third voyage he claimed the Hawaiian islands (the Sandwich Islands, as he referred to them then), sailed up north through the Bering Strait, and then back south again to the Hawaiian Islands, where he was killed by natives who were protecting their king from arrest when Cook grew angry that the king was being to lenient toward natives who had stolen a British boat. Cook's scientific contributions were of tremendous importance as well.

He brought back countless samples of plants that were of great botanical significance and recorded several descriptions of flora in his journals. Furthermore, his superior knowledge and skill in navigation and cartography provided a greater understanding of the planet. Finally, because of his desire to maintain a healthy crew, he fed them on a diet of sauerkraut, which is rich in vitamin C, and thus protected them from the scurvy that was killing so many other captains' sailors.

Answer: Yoshida Shoin

Yoshida Shoin (aka Torajiro) (1830-1859) was born the second son of a Samurai and, according to the custom at that time, was fostered out to Yoshida Daisuke, his father's younger uncle. Daisuke died early, and Shoin's guardianship was passed on to an even younger uncle. Because Shoin was eventually to lead his uncle's school, Shokason-juku, Shoin's education was accelerated, and, while already a most intelligent child, he became highly knowledgeable, particularly in military arts and politics. At some point, he seemed to become obsessed with the idea that Japan would be subjugated by the West unless his country found some way to move beyond its traditional way of life.

In violation of the Samurai code, Shoin left his home before he had in his possession a written document permitting him to travel.

As punishment, he was stripped of his own Samurai status, and his father sent him to Edo to continue his education. Shoin's fate was now sealed. The timing of Shoin's move to Edo lends credence to a belief in the power of coincidence. Exactly at this moment in time, the American Admiral Matthew Perry and his fleet steamed into Tokyo Bay. From a certain perspective, the United States contributed to the spark that lit a movement that eventually led to World War II. Admiral Perry's arrival shocked Japan out of its isolation and convinced Yoshida Shoin more than ever that Japan had to evolve.

He made several attempts to leave Japan with Perry so that he might learn about the West's modernization and all its capabilities. After several denials, he decided he would stow away illegally only to be caught and thrown into prison. While in jail, he ran a school and began educating many young inmates, indoctrinating them in his beliefs about the danger Japan was in. Upon his release, he returned to his uncle's school and took up the role of chief educator there, continuing to win more and more students over to his cause. Eventually, he took up the sword himself, led a revolt, was captured and imprisoned, and ultimately executed. However, his ideas and students took up his cause, ended Japan's shogunate, and put Japan on its path to becoming one of the world's most powerful economic and military empires.

Answer: Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) began his career as a doctor and practiced medicine for most of the remainder of his life. However, while he understood that "Medicine [was his] lawful wife", he claimed that "literature [was his] mistress". In addition to the plays mentioned in the question, he wrote several others, including "The Cherry Orchard", "Three Sisters", and "The Bear".

His contributions to the art of theatre led to its transformation, not only for the audience but also the actors and directors themselves.

Modern theatre evolved into an art that relied less and less on presentation and action and depended more and more on characterization, mood, and a submerged text stirring beneath what an audience was seeing and hearing. In other words, realistic and ordinary dialogue was spoken to convey a profound if not poignant uncovering of the human heart.

Then, of course, there are his short stories. He initially wrote stories for financial reasons, but as he began to recognize what could be accomplished through the medium of fiction, he began to devote his energy to the short story as a work of art.

His contributions to this genre led to its evolution as well, and Chekhov is now celebrated as one of the greatest writers of short stories ever. He combined what he had experimented with in drama to the added benefits of narrative exposition and the exploration of his characters' psyches. Some of his celebrated stories include not only those mentioned in the question but also "The Death of a Government Clerk", "The Chameleon", "A Malefactor", "A Gentleman Friend", "The Darling","The Bet", and "The Student". "The Lady with the Dog", mentioned in the question, is considered by many scholars and critics to be one of the greatest short stories ever written. "The Steppe", also mentioned in the question, is more of a novella because of its length and is interestingly autobiographical. The piece is also considered one of his masterpieces. Chekhov also wrote one novel, "The Shooting Party". His influence as a writer has been worldwide, extending not only throughout Europe but also throughout the United States and Japan.

Answer: St. Elizabeth

Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231) led a remarkable life, for while she was born into the luxury of royalty that would have provided her a most welcomed alternative to the lives of most in Europe during the Medieval Period, she devoted her life to work and sacrifice to serve others less fortunate than she. Rather than rewards, she often received torment and suffering for her choices. Thus, she became the perfect representation of selflessness, humility, and piety. After marrying Louis IV of Thuringia (which at that time included parts of modern Hesse), she was constantly criticized by her mother-in-law for her dedication to her faith; while Louis believed in his wife enough that he entrusted her with looking after the local concerns of the people of their kingdom, his mother mocked Elizabeth for her spinning wool to make clothing for the poor, her frequent visiting of the sick, and her giving money, royal cloaks, and expensive ornaments to the poor whose lives had been devastated by catastrophic flooding and an outbreak of the plague. Her husband died of an illness en route to participate in the Sixth Crusade, and Konrad von Marburg, a mystic Franciscan who had been appointed her confessor, began to gain more and more control over Elizabeth's life through his influence. He convinced her to move from the castle, send her children away to other relatives, and take a vow of chastity, much to the dismay of her family back in Hungary who were politically ambitious. Worse, he convinced her to subject herself to brutal beatings to purify her from earthly corruption. Nevertheless, she continued to spend what was left of her short life in prayerful meditation and ministering to the sick and to the poor.

According to legend, the Miracle of the Roses occurred one day when Elizabeth had sneaked away from the castle to take bread to the poor. Her husband and several lords were returning from a hunting trip and found her covered in a large cloak that was apparently covering something beneath it. The lords began to accuse her of stealing from the castle, and Louis IV, trying to quell the growing suspicion surrounding his wife, demanded that she open her cloak. She obediently complied, and all that could be seen were red and white roses. Her husband is supposed to have never questioned her again.

The Miracle of the Crucifix in the Bed occurred after Elizabeth, while Louis was briefly away, permitted a leper to sleep in the bed she and her husband shared. Elizabeth's mother-in-law was outraged and immediately voiced her anger to Louis upon his return. When he went to investigate and pulled back the covers of the bed, he saw only an image of the Cross with Christ nailed to it.