Transcript The Transformation of the West, 1450-1750

The Transformation of the
West, 1450-1750
Italian Renaissance
• Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince—realistic
discussion of how to seize and maintain power
• Experimented with new ways to rule, not
necessarily through divine right, but wanted to
improve the general welfare
• Built more professional armies
• 1st time diplomacy used in the West through
ambassadors
Renaissance moves North
• 1500 French & Spanish monarch invade
Italy reducing political independence
• Atlantic trade routes reduce importance of
the Mediterranean portshurting Italy’s
economy
• $$increased ceremony with kings
• Literature—Shakespeare & Cervantes
Renaissance moves North
• Ordinary people weren’t effected much by
the Renaissance
• Peasants and artisans continued on as
before
The Commercial Economy and a
New Family Pattern
• Improved quality of pulleys and
pumps in mines
• Forge stronger iron products
• Printing—German Johannes
Gutenberg invented moveable
type causing literacy to gain
ground
• Family pattern changed to a
later marriage age and focus
on nuclear family
– Needed property to marry
– Provided for birth control that
kept the population down
PROTESTANT
REFORMATION
"When the coin in the coffer
rings, the soul from purgatory
springs."
Indulgence
"In the authority of all
the saints, and in
compassion
towards thee, I
absolve thee from
all sins and
misdeeds, and
remit all
punishment for ten
days."
The Protestant and Catholic
Reformations
• 1517—Martin Luther, German
monk, nailed the 95 theses to
the Wittenberg church door
• Protested
– Selling indulgences, grants of
salvation
– Only faith could gain salvation,
church sacraments were not
the path
– Challenged the authority of the
pope
– Monasticism was wrong,
priests should marry
– Bible needed to be translated
so ordinary people could have
direct access to its teachings
The Protestant and Catholic
Reformations
• Luther received wide support
– German nationalist reaction because resented the
authority and taxes of the pope
– German princes saw it as an opportunity because the
Holy Roman Emperor was Catholic
– Princes ability to gain independence and seize church
land
– Luther suggested state control of the church as an
alternative to papal authoritysounded good to the
princes
– Peasants saw the attack on authority as sanctioning
their own rebellions against their landlords
– If faith was the main way to salvation, they moneymaking was ok
The Protestant and Catholic
Reformation
• Henry VIII in England
– Set up the Anglican
church
– Challenge the ability to
divorce in attempt to
produce a male heir
– He ended up with 6
wives in all and
executed 2 of
themshowing the
poor treatment of
women in politics
The Protestant and Catholic
Reformation
• Jean Calvin, French but base support
in Geneva
– Believe in God’s predestination of those
who would be saved
– Ministers became moral guardians and
preachers of God’s word
– Sought the participation of all believers in
local church administrationpromoted
wider access go government
– Promoted education to read the Bible
– Created a strong minority group and
Puritans will bring it to North America in
the 1600s
The Protestant and Catholic
Reformation
• Catholic response
– Able to keep Catholicism solidly in the south
and parts of Eastern Europe
– A church council met and refuted protestant
tenets
– A new religious order, the Jesuits, became
active in politics, education, and missionary
work especially in Asia and the Americas
The End of Christian Unity in the
West
• Series of religious wars
– In France—Calvinist vs Catholics
• Edict of Nantes 1598—granting tolerance
– In Germany—the Thirty Years’ War 1618
• German Protestants & Swedish Lutherans vs the
holy Roman emperor backed by Spain
• Devastating to Germany; 60% population died
• Treaty of Westphalia 1648
• Granted tolerance and gave Protestant
Netherlands independence from Spain
The End of Christian Unity in the
West
• In England—English
Civil War 1640-1660
– Religious issues
– Claims of parliament
to rights of control over
royal actions
– 1688-1689 limited
toleration was granted
to most Protestants,
but not Catholics
Oliver Cromwell
King Charles II
The End of Christian Unity in the
West
• Religious wars led to limited acceptance of
religious pluralism, but Christian unity
could not be restored
– led some people to be suspect of religion—
could there be a dominant single truth
– Affected the balance of power
The End of Christian Unity in the
West
• Changes in view of religion
– Protestants resisted the idea of miracles
– Promoted greater concentration on family life
– Encouraged love between husband and wife
– Protestants abolished conventsfewer
options for women other than marriage
– Promoted growing literacy
The Commercial Revolution
• Massive amounts of gold and silver from
Spain’s colonies
• $$ in Europe &
Americas led to increase
demandinflation (like
Mansa Musa)
• $$ being worth less led to merchants taking out
loanstrading companies like the Dutch East
Indies Company
The Commercial Revolution
• Colonial markets stimulated manufacturing and
specialization
• Standard of living improved for almost everyone
(by 1600 the average person owned 5Xs more
stuff)
• Proletariat, poor in the West, were plagued by
higher food prices and had to sell their
landsome became paid agricultural and
manufacturing labor and others wandered
begging
• West developed a negative attitude about
poverty that hasn’t changed
The Commercial Revolution
• 1600s led to popular protest and worried
peasants
• Also anxiety about witches (60,000 to
100,000 were killed)
– Poverty
– Women
– Tensions in family life
Science: The New Authority
• Copernicus—disproved Hellenistic belief
that the earth was the center of the
universe; that the sun was
• Johannes Kepler—planetary motion;
optics;
• Vesalius—anatomy
• New technologies—microscope &
telescope
Science: The New Authority
• Galileo—proved Copernicus and worked
with gases
• John Harvey—circular movement of blood
• Francis Bacon—scientific method
• Rene Descartes—provided a skeptical
view
• Isaac Newton—framework of natural laws;
principles of motion; gravity;
Science: The New Authority
• Ideas were printed!!! and distributed!!!
• Challenged witchcraft accusations
• New belief that people could control their
environment
• Deism—may be a divinity, but role is to set
natural laws in motion
• John Locke—we learn everything we need to
know through our senses and reason (like
Daoism); faith was irrelevantview that human
nature was essentially good not full of sin
Absolute and Parliamentary
Monarchies
• France was the model for the new
monarch
– Stopped convening the medieval parliament
– Blew up castles of dissident nobles
(gunpowder)
– Appointed a bureaucracy of merchants and
lawyers
absolute monarchy
“I am the state.” Louis XIV
Absolute and Parliamentary
Monarchies
• Louis XIV of France
– Decreased internal tariff to decrease barriers
to trade
– Mercantilism—government should promote
the internal economy to improve tax revenues
and to limit imports from other nations
– Sought guaranteed markets in their colonies
Absolute and Parliamentary
Monarchies
Britain & the Netherlands stood apart from the
trend of absolute monarchy
• Parliament won sovereignty over the king
• John Locke—power comes from the
people, not from divine rule
The Nation State
• Shared culture and language
• Loyalty
• Rising idea that the sate should act in the
peoples self-interest
The West by 1750
Political Patterns
•
•
•
•
Changes were less significant
English had a bloated parliament
Popular concern for great representation
Prussia had greater changes
– Creating a military and bureaucratic organization
– Greater religious freedom
– Promoted better agriculture methods and the use of
the potato
• Seven Years’ War—battle of colonial empire
The West by 1750
Enlightenment Thought and Popular
Culture
• Scientific revolution Enlightment
• Applying scientific method to the study of
human society
• Rational laws
• Against cruel punishment; decent society
could rehabilitate criminals
• Constitutions to curb privilege
• Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations)—
economic behavior
The West by 1750
Enlightenment Thought and Popular
Culture
• Denis Diderot—Encyclopedie compiled
scientific and social scientific knowledge
• Human beings are good and improvable
• Blind faith and refusal to tolerate diversity
is wrong
• Mary Wollstonecraft—feminism
• Reading clubs and coffee houses
The West by 1750
Ongoing Change in Commerce and
Manufacturing
• Began purchasing processed foods—
refined sugar and coffee
• Paid professionals for entertainment—
circuses
• 3-field system constrained agriculture
• Fertilizers, stockbreeding, seed drills and
scythes and the spread of the potato
• Capitalism—investment in hopes of bigger
profitdomestic system