Transcript Slide 1

Chapter 16
The Transformation of the West, 1450-1750
– 1450-1750 dramatic changes
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Still agricultural
Commercially active
Manufacturing base
Science at center of society
Shifting ideas of family/nature
Increased bureaucratization – sound familiar?
Reasons for change
• Dominance of international trade
• Overseas expansion
• Combination of commerce, state, culture, and
technology
• 1450-1650 – series of cultural shifts
• 1650-1750 – Scientific Revolution > Enlightenment
The First Big Changes: Culture and
Commerce
– The Italian Renaissance
• Artistic movement
• Challenged medieval values/styles
– Examine old truths
• Why in Italy?
– Urban, commercial economy
– Competitive city-states – an arts race?
• New themes
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Writing in Latin
Secular subjects – love/pride
Classical/human-centered themes
Religion declined as focus
Humanism – humankind as focus of intellectual/artistic
• Political Theory – Niccolo Machiavelli
– End justifies means – better to be feared then loved
• Other effects
– Improved banking techniques
– Merchants became more profit-seeking
– Political rule based on ability to improve well-being/city’s
glory
– Professional armies/improved tech. – conflict among citystates
– Diplomacy – exchange of ambassadors
The Renaissance Moves Northward
• Fall of Italian power
– French/Spanish invasions
– Atlantic trade routes reduced Mediterranean importance
– Spread to North – France, Germany, England
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Classical art/architecture
Greek/Latin literature
Humanists wrote in vernacular – own language
Writers more popular culture – low-brow –
Shakespeare
– bodily functions
– human passions
– Set new classics
• Political Change > toward greater state power
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Revenue increase > greater ceremony/pomp aka blowing $
Kings – Francis I – patrons of arts/architecture
State-sponsored trading companies
Military conquest
Feudal/religious justifications not as important as state
• Renaissance effects
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Kings still restricted by power of local lords
Peasants not touched by Renaissance values
Economics same
Men more bravado – women more domestic
Changes in Technology and Family
• Technological Changes
– Learned from Asia
» Pulleys/pumps for mines
» Stronger iron
– Printing press – Johannes Gutenberg – movable type
» Books helped expand Renaissance
» Literacy gained ground
» Source for new thinking
• Family structure
– European-style family
» Late marriage
» Nuclear families not extended
– Goals/reasons
» Limit birth/family size
» Husband/wife importance
» Linked family to property holdings – can’t marry till own property
The Protestant and Catholic Reformations
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Protestant Reformation
– Martin Luther – 1517 – German monk 95 Theses
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Indulgences
Only faith brings salvation – not Church
Sacraments not important
Monasticism wrong
Translate Bible to vernacular
– Why did people buy into Luther’s views?
• Political Leaders
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Nationalist – don’t want pope’s taxes
gain more power over Holy Roman Emperor
seize church lands
State control of church
• Ordinary People
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Justification for rebellion against lords – Luther’s response?
Notion of work – other careers seen as positives
Moneymaking OK
Christian bias against moneymaking – Christ’s view of rich?
Anglican Church
– Henry VIII has marriage/fertility issues – takes his ball and
goes home
• Women disposed of easily for political reasons
• Daughter Elizabeth I – Protestant
• Jean Calvin – Geneva, Switzerland – Predestination
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Priests as moral guiders
Local believers participate in church administration
Education to read Bible
These would be your Puritans/Pilgrims with the Thanksgiving hats
• Catholic Reformation – more severe or more open?
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Special council meetings
Revived Catholic doctrine
Restated importance of sacraments
Tried to get rid of superstition/magical beliefs
Jesuits – politics, education, missionary work
The End of Christian Unity in the West
– Series of religious wars
• Germany – Thirty Years War – 1618 German Protestants
vs. Holy Roman Emperor
– Destroyed German power/population
– Treaty of Westphalia 1648 – princes can choose
• English Civil War – 1640s
– Religious problems combined with…
– Parliament wants power
Effects of Religious Wars
• Limited acceptance of religious pluralism
• Religious doubts? Wait a second…there’s more than one way
to see God?
• Shift in power – France, England, Netherlands up, Spain/Italy
down
• Philosophical changes
– Less connection between God and nature
– Focus on family life – love husband/woman
• Women’s Rights
– More emphasis on happy marriage
» a. Emphasis on affection
– But…no more convents, fewer options – must get married
• Growing literacy
The Commercial Revolution
• New world economy – greater commercialization
– Increased trade
– New goods
• Causes
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Increased inflation
Import of gold and silver – prices up
New wealth needs new products
Borrowing cheap – companies take more risks – easier to pay back
Great trading companies
» New profits
» New managerial skills
» Colonial markets
• Agricultural specialty areas – not just self-sufficient
• Gradual switch to commercial farming
• Specialization in villages/cities
– Increased purchasing power of ordinary citizens
» 1600 West 5x as much as S. European
» b. Furniture, wine
Social Protest
– Growing proletariat – people without access to property
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Population growth/inflation – had to sell property
Became manufacturers
Became paid laborers
Cities – beggars/wandering poor
– Popular protest results
• Demanded protection from poverty/loss of property
– Effects of 17th century protests
• Social tension
• United peasants through songs, common causes
– Witchcraft persecution – 17th century
• Europe/New England
• Method of blaming poor
• Conflict about family/role of women
Science and Politics: The Next Phase of
Change
– Scientific Revolution
• Affected intellectual life
• Promoted change in popular outlook
– Did Copernicus Copy?
• Copernicus – heliocentric theory – new thinking – proved Greeks
• Copied from Muslims or Chinese, Indian, Mayan or independent?
• Science becomes more a focus of Europe than anywhere else
– Science: The New Authority
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Scientific research can overrule/test existing theories
Galileo – conflict w/ Church over laws of gravity
William Harvey – circulatory system around heart
Rene Descartes – human reason can develop laws – accept nothing
1687 – Isaac Newton – Principia Mathematica – summarized
theories/observations
– Laws of motion, gravity
– Rational hypothesis + generalizations based on experiments
– Laws not blind faith
Effects / Why is this unique?
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Lectures/manuals for layman
Witchcraft seen as ridiculous
People control/calculate environment
Doctors based more on scientific diagnosis – no more
Lost and found section of newspaper – huh?
Attacks on religion
» miracles don’t make sense
» Deism – great clockmaker in the sky
» John Locke – faith irrelevant – jus need senses/reason
• Why is this unique?
– China/Muslim had science for practical reasons
– Europe – more pure science, understanding world
– West as center of advancement
Absolute and Parliamentary
Monarchies
– Feudal monarchies come to end
• Nobles lose influence after wars
• Heavy wars require more taxes/better administration
– Absolute Monarchy
• Modeled after France
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Parliament doesn’t meet
Blew up castles
Bureaucracy from merchants/lawyers
Appointed representatives to provinces
Professionalized army
» formal training officers – no longer nobility
» uniforms and support
» military hospitals/pensions – Hotel des Invalides
King Louis XIV – “I am the state”
– Patron of arts – government has cultural role
• Versailles – keep nobles busy
• Mercantilism – protect economy of nation
– Reduce internal tariffs
– Support manufacturing
– Limit imports from other nations – lose $
» Heavy import taxes
» Need colonies for natural resources/market
• Borrowed in Spain, Prussia (Germany today), AustriaHungary (Hapsburg)
– Focus on military, expansion/protection
• Parliamentary Monarchy
– Britain/Netherlands
– Central state + parliamentary
– England – civil wars – Glorious Revolution
» Parliament sovereign over king (slowly becomes
figurehead)
» Meets regularly
• Changing political theory
– John Locke
» Power from people
» Social contract between state/people to protect property
– Rousseau – right to protest
– Notions of limits to central authority
The Nation State
• Common culture/language
• Loyalty linked by cultural/political bonds
• Citizens believed gov’t should act for their interests
– France – bad harvest – state should do something
• Kept Europe divided and often at war
The West by 1750
– Political Patterns – became stagnant
• England – parliamentary routine – fight for power
• France – unable to tax nobles, church
• Central Europe – greater change
– Prussia – Frederick the Great – enlightened despot
» Greater religious freedom
» Better agriculture – potato
» Commercial coordination
» Harsh punishments cut back
• Continued war – link between states and war
Enlightenment Thought and Popular Culture
– France and Western Europe
• Applying scientific thought to human society
– Rational laws to describe social/physical behavior
» Criminologists – criminals should be rehabilitated
» Political scientists – careful constitutions to govern best
• Economics
– Adam Smith – Wealth of
Nations
• Competition good
• Government avoid regulation
• Let initiative and market forces
work
• Denis Diderot – Encyclopedie
– Basic principles of human
affairs
• Humans good
• Educated to be better
• Religions that rely on blind faith
are bad – attacked Catholic
church
• Progress possible if people set
free
• Feminist thinkers
– Salons
– Mary Wollstonecracft – new
political rights for women
– Journals written by women for
women
– Men to blame for women’s
lowly position
• Changes in habits/beliefs
– Reading clubs/salons
– Treat kids nicer
• Less swaddling – think Singapore
burrito of my kids
• Educational toys/books
– Love between family members
– Emotional bond in marriage –
what a crazy thought
• Move away from arranged
marriages
– Ongoing Change in Commerce and Manufacturing
• Purchasing – more processed products
• Entertainment – pay for live entertainment – status
improves
• New agriculture – 3 fold not as effective
– Drain swamps
– Technology – fertilizer, seed drills, stockbreeding
– Potato – improved food supply, delay due to Bible
• Increased manufacturing – colonial trade + internal
commerce
– Domestic system – done in homes, collected individually
– Replaced by factories – moving toward Industrial Revolution
– Manufacturers begin organizing labor – how best to make money
• Capitalism – invest in funds for profit
• Population increase
– Innovation and Instability
• Changes in stronger gov’ts that supported economics
• Reevaluation of family/children’s roles
– Children newly empowered, grow up to question system
• Political roles – enlightenment – what is my place in gov’t
• Unusual agricultural society – changes in commercial,
cultural and political world
• Global Connections
– 1450 Christianity makes them superior, but why do
other civilizations have better cities/econom
– 1750 – believed their rational thought better than
superstitions of others
• Most civilizations backward
• How cute – noble savage and exotic animals
– Changed views of Europe and others toward selves