Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Protestant Reformation
Scientific Revolution
Warfare was nearly constant in Europe during the early Modern Era. List the
wars and examine their economic and human costs. Why were these wars
fought and what was the outcome and significance in European history?
How did the European states pay the piper? Were politics and
warfare related to European economies and economic development
from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century?
Wars were waged for political gain, and the high cost of
warfare demanded further increases in revenue.
Monarchs promoted alliances with commercial elites, as
well as across religious boundaries. States also began to
tax the nobility and raise those taxes directly. Colonialism
helped promote economic growth, and government
protection and stimulus further increased economic
development. On the other hand, Spain is an example of
a country that kept increasing its military expenditures
without promoting economic development. It also
ignored alliances for the sake of religious uniformity and
aristocratic privilege.
A statement by the French scholar Loys Le Roy regarding the 1700s was that
he was living at a turning point in world history.
Was Le Roy correct?
First, Europe was ascending to power and the Ottoman Empire was declining from
power.
Second, were the events that contributed to this ascension to power by the
Europeans
On an intellectual and cultural level, there was the Protestant Reformation that
shattered Latin Christian unity, but opened the way for intellectual freedom and
encouraged some to challenge traditional ideas.
The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment laid an intellectual foundation for the rise
of European world dominance.
Next, were the economic and social changes that contributed to European power.
The rise of a bourgeoisie and the expansion of maritime trade with the support of
government were instrumental in this change.
Government support took the form of joint-stock companies and other projects to improve
economic conditions.
This led to reliance on conquest for control of the trade routes and flow of the bullion and even
further production within the country, or the concept of mercantilism.
Lastly the European state development and the efforts of European monarchs to
consolidate their control were through absolutist policies, therefore we see the Age of
Absolutism.
The constant warfare of the era also produced positive results for states.
These wars inspired the creation of large standing armies, better skilled soldiers, and
military hardware.
These military improvements proved to be essential in the coming centuries of
Europes rise to world dominance.
Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire failed to unify Europe while the
European royal monarchies centralized their state control in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
There were attempts by Charles V to unify Europe under the rule of the Holy
Roman Empire.
His Hapsburg Empire included the Iberian peninsula and eventually the French catholics.
There single minded purpose was to prevent the expansion of Islam into Europe and after
the Battle of Mohacs and the defeat of Hungary to the Ottomans, their resolve deepened.
Following the death of Charles, the Holy League defeated the Ottomans in a great naval
battle at Lepanto in 1571.
Although the Ottoman Empire was turned away in 1529, Charles V eventually gave
up his goal of European unification after decades of bitter fighting.
Spain, France, and England began to build successful states based on political
centralization and religious unity.
Royal authority was boosted by limiting the authority of the church, although
different nations took a wide array of routes to that end.
For example, Spain united behind the Inquisition after the Reconquistalsion of the
Jews and Muslims from the Iberian peninsula.
France switched from Calvinism back to Catholicism following the 100 Years War
(Paris is worth a mass)
England created the Church of England (Henry VIII and Tudors and Stuarts)
Monarchs also promoted national institutions, such as standardized national
languages and political offices and national armies.
There were disparities among the various social classes in European urban society
between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Who were the bourgeoisie? What
conditions did the poorer classes endure?
There are some of the basic difficulties of explaining the experiences of women. First, women
generally lived in patriarchal societies and therefore ranked below men throughout the world.
However, social class played an extremely important part in defining their life experiences.
Women of the elite class enjoyed a life much different from those of the lower classes.
Most European women married and their lives were defined by their husbands status and their
children.
Widowed and single women had lower status.
Single women had few opportunities open to them; however, becoming a nun was one of the few
respectable options for a single life.
There continued to be a tradition of arranged marriage versus romantic marriages among Europeans.
Among the elite classes arranged marriage remained important, but among the lower classes romantic marriage
became fashionable.
Some women of the elite or bourgeois class were educated; in fact, Europe led the world in female
literacy.
Men and women of lower classes did not have access to education.
The Christian belief that women were morally inferior to men led accusers to assume that women,
especially widows and single women, were more susceptible to the devils temptations.
Women also performed the function of midwife as well as healer where they influenced life and death.
This role made them likely to be accused over men as well.
How can one explain the witch-hunts that swept through Europe in the late sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries? Who were the victims? Why were so many of the accused
women?
The minds of most Europeans were shaped by a mixture of Christian and folk
traditions.
Europeans believed in supernatural and magical causes for events. Disasters such
as crop failures could be construed as punishment for sin or considered due to evil
magic.
In the seventeenth century, authorities tried over a hundred thousand people, threefourths of them women, for practicing witchcraft.
Many were tortured until they confessed to casting spells and using evil magic, and
many were executed.
The Christian belief that women were morally inferior to men led accusers to assume
that women, especially widows and single women, were more susceptible to the
devils temptations.
Women also performed the function of midwife as well as healer where they
influenced life and death.
This role made them likely to be accused over men as well.
Explanations for these witch-hunts vary.
Some believe that women who were outside of male authority, such as widows, were
accused because of their potential independence and power in society.
It is also posited that the witch-hunts were a violent reaction to the social tensions, rural
poverty, and environmental strains.
Finally, historians also consider that some of the accused were actually practicing witchcraft
against their enemies.
How did the basic tenets of Lutheranism and Calvinism differ from
those of Catholicism? What was the Catholic response to the
Protestant Reformation?