Transcript Transformation of Western Europe: 1450-1750 CE

Transformation of Western
Europe: 1450-1750 CE
Early Modern Period
Unit 3
Major Trends
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Renaissance: 14-16th centuries
Reformation: 16th - 17th centuries
Scientific Revolution: 16th - 17th
centuries
Absolutism: 17th - 18th centuries
Age of Enlightenment: late 17th - 18th
century
Renaissance
Social
• Some upper-class women receive education; maintain
traditional social structures
• European-style family; emphasis on nuclear family
• Later marriage ages - regulated family size; population
control
• Increased tensions between upper and lower classes
Political
• Machiavelli
• Competitive regional city-states in Italy created new ideas of
competitive political families (Medicis in Florence)
• Rulers influenced by banking, commerce and humanism
Interactions
• Result of commercial activities with other regions based in
Italy trading port cities
• Spreads from northern Italy through Northern Europe
(France, Germany, Low Countries, England, Eastern
Europe)
Renaissance Culture
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Renaissance art focused more on the
individual and on secular affairs - very
influenced by humanism
Realism
Perspective
Influence of Greek and Roman art and
architectural details
Realistic body proportions; domes; sculptures
Northern Renaissance artists still paid close
attention to religion, however
Renaissance
Economic
– Commerce initiates all of the other changes during
the Renaissance
– Created more global economy based on Italy port
cities
– Result of the Crusades and contact with the
Middle East
– Also result of invention of printing press
– Emphasis on household economy
– Surge in banking thanks to families such as the
Medicis in Italy
– Feudalism still present in some Northern
European areas
Reformation - Main Details
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1517 - German priest Martin Luther posts 95
Theses on Church door in Wittenberg,
Germany
Challenges papal authority, monasticism,
indulgences, nepotism, role of church in
government, human relationship with God
Faith alone brings salvation
Spreads very quickly throughout Europe gain support of many German princes
Major religious conflicts in Holy Roman
Empire, Eastern Europe (Bohemia), England,
France, Spain, the Netherlands
Reformation
Social:
– Promotes greater educational opportunities to lower classes Bible printed in vernacular
– Increased emphasis on equality through religion
– Emphasized marital love
Political
– Princes see opportunity to take control from Emperor and
pope
– Challenged role of Religion in Government
– Great political turmoil due to religious wars
– Treaty of Westphalia - Netherlands gains independence;
rulers choose religion of their people
– Edict of Nantes (France): ends persecution of Huguenots
(French Protestants)
– Act of Supremacy (England): English monarch is head of
Anglican Church
– Parliamentary power is promoted by many Protestant ideas
– Spanish Inquisition
Reformation
Interactions
– Religious wars hurt European population
– Thirty Years War kills approximately 1/3 of Germany’s
population (Germany, France, Sweden, England,
Switzerland, Eastern Europe, Austria)
– Increased missionary work through Roman Catholic
Church - Counter Reformation
Cultural
– Spreads thanks to the printing press
– Emphasis on personal connections - de-emphasized role of
priests, religious authority figures
– Promote reading the Bible
– New religions: Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglican, etc
– Counter-Reformation - Jesuits
– Witch hunts (Europe, American colonies)
Economic - religious wars dramatically decreased economic
potential during periods of warfare
Absolute Monarchies
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Divine Right of Kings
Monarchs gain power over:
– Legislation
– Taxation
– Armies
Strong centralized authority
Control over bureaucracy
Vastly limited power of the nobles
Absolute monarchies in France, Prussia, Austria,
Russia
Constitutional/Parliamentary governments in Britain
and the Netherlands
More on Absolutism (and the Enlightenment) later….
Europe
after the
Peace of
Westphalia
(1648)
Population Growth and
Urbanization
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Rapidly growing population due to
Columbian Exchange
– Improved nutrition
Role of the potato (considered an aphrodisiac
in 16th and 17th centuries)
 Replaces bread as staple of diet
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– Better nutrition reduces susceptibility to
plague
– Epidemic disease becomes insignificant
for overall population decline by mid-17th
century
Population Growth in Europe
180
160
140
120
100
Millions
80
60
40
20
0
1500
1700
1800
Urbanization
500000
450000
400000
350000
300000
Madrid
Paris
London
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
1550
1600
1650