CHAPTER 18

Transformations in Europe, 15001750

I0. Culture and Ideas A0. Religious Reformation 10. In 1500 the Catholic Church, benefiting from European prosperity, was building new churches including a new aint !eter"s #asilica in Rome. !ope $eo % raised money for the new basilica by authori&ing the sale of indulgences. '0. (he )erman mon* +artin $uther challenged the !ope on the issue of indulgences and other practices that he considered corrupt or not Christian. $uther began the !rotestant Reformation, arguing that sal,ation could be by faith alone, that Christian belief could be based only on the #ible and on Christian tradition. -0. (he !rotestant leader .ohn Cal,in formulated a different theological position in The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Cal,in argued that sal,ation was )od"s gift to those who were predestined and that Christian congregations should be self/go,erning and stress simplicity in life and in worship. 00. (he !rotestant Reformation appealed not only to religious sentiments, but also to )ermans who disli*ed the Italian/dominated Catholic Church and to peasants and urban wor*ers who wanted to re1ect the religion of their masters. 50. (he Catholic Church agreed on a number of internal reforms and a reaffirmation of fundamental Catholic beliefs in the Council of (rent. (hese responses to the !rotestant Reformation, along with the acti,ities of the newly established ociety of .esus 2the .esuits3 comprise the 4Catholic Reformation.5 60. (he !rotestant Reformation led to a number of 4wars of religion,5 the last of them being concluded in 1607. #0. (raditional (hin*ing and 8itch/9unts 10. European concepts of the natural world were deri,ed from both local fol* traditions and .udeo/Christian beliefs. +ost people belie,ed that natural e,ents could ha,e supernatural causes. '0. #elief in the supernatural is ,i,idly demonstrated in the witch/hunts of the late si:teenth and early se,enteenth centuries. In the witch/hunts o,er 100,000 people 2three/fourths of them women3 were tried and about half of them e:ecuted on charges of witchcraft. -0. +odern historians ha,e sought to e:plain the witch/hunts as manifestations of fear of unattached women or in terms of social stress. ome scholars belie,e that poor and marginal people may ha,e belie,ed that they were capable of witchcraft and welcomed the notoriety and attention gained from public confession. C0. (he cientific Re,olution 10. European intellectuals deri,ed their understanding of the natural world from the writings of the )ree*s and the Romans. (hese writings suggested that e,erything on earth was reducible to four elements; that the sun, moon, planets and stars were so light and pure that they floated in crystalline spheres and rotated around the earth in perfectly circular orbits.

'0. (he obser,ations of Copernicus and other scientists including )alileo undermined this earth/centered model of the uni,erse and led to the introduction of the Copernican sun/centered model. -0. (he Copernican model was initially critici&ed and suppressed by !rotestant leaders and by the Catholic Church. <espite opposition, printed boo*s spread these and other new scientific ideas among European intellectuals. 00. Isaac =ewton"s disco,ery of the law of gra,ity showed why the planets mo,e around the sun in elliptical orbits. =ewton"s disco,eries led to the de,elopment of =ewtonian physics. 9owe,er, =ewton and other scientists did not belie,e that their disco,eries were in conflict with religious belief. <0. (he Early Enlightenment 10. (he ad,ances in scientific thought inspired European go,ernments and groups of indi,iduals to >uestion the reasonableness of accepted practices in fields ranging from agriculture to laws, religions, and social hierarchies. (his intellectual mo,ement, which assumed that social beha,ior and institutions were go,erned by scientific laws, is called the Enlightenment. '0. (he Enlightenment thin*ers were also influenced by the Reformation and by accounts of other cultures 2including .esuit accounts of China3. -0. (he new scientific methods pro,ided the enlightened thin*ers with a model for changing European society. (hese thin*ers were not a homogeneous group; they drew inspiration from disparate sources and espoused a ,ariety of agendas. +ost were optimistic that the application of reason would lead to human progress. 00. (he ideas of the Enlightenment aroused opposition from many absolutist rulers and from clergymen, but the printing press made possible the sur,i,al and dissemination of new ideas. II0. ocial and Economic $ife A0. (he #ourgeoisie 10. Europe?s cities e:perienced spectacular growth between 1500 and 1@00. '0. (he wealthy urban bourgeoisie thri,ed on manufacturing, finance, and especially on trade, including the profitable trade in grain. -0. Amsterdam?s growth, built on trade and finance, e:emplifies the power of se,enteenth/century bourgeoisie enterprise. 00. (he bourgeoisie forged mutually beneficial relationships with the monarchs and built e:tensi,e family and ethnic networ*s to facilitate trade between different parts of the world. 50. !artnerships between merchants and go,ernments led to the de,elopment of 1oint/stoc* companies and stoc* e:changes. )o,ernments also played a *ey role in the impro,ement of Europe?s transportation infrastructure. 60. (he Anglo/<utch wars of the se,enteenth century pro,ide e,idence of the growing importance of trade in international affairs. @0. (he bourgeois gentry gradually increased their ownership of land; many entered the ran*s of the nobility by marrying into noble families or by purchasing titles of nobility. #0. !easants and $aborers 10. 8hile serfdom declined and disappeared in 8estern Europe, it gained new prominence in Eastern Europe. '0. African sla,es, wor*ing in the Americas, contributed greatly to Europe?s economy. -0. It is possible that the condition of the a,erage person in 8estern Europe declined between 1500 and 1@00. 00. =ew 8orld crops helped 8estern European peasants a,oid star,ation.

50. 9igh consumption of wood for heating, coo*ing, construction, shipbuilding, and industrial uses led to se,ere deforestation in Europe in the late se,enteenth and early eighteenth centuries. hortages dro,e the cost of wood up. 60. As the price of wood rose, Europeans began to use coal instead of wood. ome efforts were also made to conser,e forests and to plant trees, particularly in order to pro,ide wood for na,al ,essels. @0. <eforestation had particularly se,ere effects on the rural poor who had relied on free access to forests for wood, building materials, nuts and berries, and wild game. 70. (he urban poor consisted of 4deser,ing poor5 2permanent residents3 and large numbers of 4unworthy poor5Amigrants, peddlers, beggars, and criminals. C0. 8omen and the Bamily 10. 8omen?s status and wor* were closely tied to their husbands? and families?. '0. Common people in early modern Europe married relati,ely late because young men ser,ed long periods of apprenticeship when learning a trade and young women needed to wor* to earn their dowries. (he young people of the bourgeois class also married late, partly because men delayed marriage until after finishing their education. $ate marriage enabled young couples to be independent of their parents; it also helped to *eep the birth rate low. -0. #ourgeois parents put great emphasis on education and promoted the establishment of schools. 00. +ost schools, professions, and guilds barred women from participation. III0. !olitical Inno,ations A0. tate <e,elopment 10. #etween 1516 and 151C Charles of #urgundy, descendant of the Austrian 9absburg family, inherited the thrones of Castile and Aragon, with their colonial empires, the Austrian 9absburg possessions, and the position of 9oly Roman Emperor. Charles was able to forge a coalition to defeat the Dttomans at the gates of Eienna in 15'C, but he was unable to unify his many territorial possessions. '0. $utheran )erman princes rebelled against the Brench/spea*ing Catholic Charles, sei&ing church lands and gi,ing rise to the )erman 8ars of Religion. 8hen Charles abdicated the throne, pain went to his son !hilip while a wea*ened 9oly Roman Empire went to his brother Berdinand. -0. +eanwhile, the rulers of pain, Brance, and England pursued their own efforts at political unification. #0. Religious !olicies 10. (he rulers of pain and Brance successfully defended state/sponsored Catholicism against the !rotestant challenge. '0. In England, 9enry EIII challenged papal authority and declared himself head of the Church of England. $ater English monarchs resisted the efforts of English Cal,inists to FpurifyF the Anglican Church. C0. +onarchies in England and Brance 10. In England, a conflict between !arliament and *ing led to a ci,il war and the establishment of a !uritan republic under Dli,er Cromwell. After the tuart line was restored, !arliament enforced its will on the monarchy when it dro,e Ging .ames II from the throne in the )lorious Re,olution of 1677 and forced his successors, 8illiam and +ary, to sign a document, the #ill of Rights, that limited the power of the crown. '0. In Brance, the #ourbon *ings were able to circum,ent the representati,e assembly *nown as the Estates )eneral and de,elop an absolutist style of

go,ernment. $ouis %IE"s finance minister Colbert was able to increase re,enue through more efficient ta: collection and by promoting economic growth while $ouis entertained and controlled the Brench nobility by re>uiring them to attend his court at Eersailles. <0. 8arfare and <iplomacy 10. Constant warfare in early modern Europe led to a military re,olution in which cannon, mus*ets, and commoner foot soldiers became the mainstays of European armies. Armies grew in si&e, and most European states maintained standing armies 2e:cept England, which maintained a standing na,y3. '0. In order to manage the large standing armies and in order to use the troops more effecti,ely in battle, Europeans de,ised new command structures, signal techni>ues, and marching drills. -0. <e,elopments in na,al technology during this period included warships with multiple tiers of cannon and four/wheel cannon carriages that made reloading easier. England too* the lead in the de,elopment of new na,al technology, as was demonstrated when the English Royal =a,y defeated pain"s Catholic Armada in 1577, signaling an end to pain"s military dominance in Europe. 00. 8ith the defeat of pain, Brance rose as the strongest power on continental Europe, while its ri,al England held superiority in na,al power. <uring the 8ar of the panish uccession, England, allied with Austria and !russia, was able to pre,ent the Brench house of #ourbon from ta*ing o,er the panish throne. 50. 8ith the 8ar of the panish uccession and with Russia"s emergence as a power after the )reat =orthern war, the four powers of EuropeABrance, #ritain, Austria, and RussiaAwere able to maintain a balance of power that pre,ented any one power from becoming too strong for about two centuries. E0. !aying the !iper 10. (he rulers of European states needed to raise new re,enue to pay the hea,y costs of their wars; the most successful made profitable alliances with commercial elites. (he panish, howe,er, undermined their economy by dri,ing out .ews, !rotestants, and the descendants of +uslims so that the bullion they gained from their American empire was spent on payments to creditors and for manufactured goods and food. '0. (he northern pro,inces of the =etherlands wrested their autonomy from pain and became a dominant commercial power. (he Hnited !ro,inces of the Bree =etherlands and particularly the pro,ince of 9olland fa,ored commercial interests, craftsmen, and manufacturing enterprises, and Amsterdam became a ma1or center of finance and shipping. -0. After 1650 England used its na,al power to brea* <utch dominance in o,erseas trade. (he English go,ernment also impro,ed its financial position by collecting ta:es directly and by creating a central ban*. 00. (he Brench go,ernment streamlined ta: collection, used protecti,e tariffs to promote domestic industries, and impro,ed its transportation networ*. (he Brench were not, howe,er, able to introduce direct ta: collection, ta: the land of nobles, or secure low/cost loans.