European shifts from conflict

1
European shifts from conflict

• Protestant Reformation
• Scientific Revolution

2
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?

• There was widespread death and destruction of the
  religious wars of Catholics versus Protestants as
  well as the internal and international wars of
  the era.
• The financial expense of these wars should also
  be addressed. Despite the enormous costs in human
  life and money, these wars led to tremendous
  innovations in weaponry and skill.
• All states developed armies and navies according
  to their particular needs.
• For instance, England, an island nation, had no
  standing army and a large navy.
• The continental states had much larger armies
  than navies.
• Refinements (rather than revolutions) in
  technology, in such areas as firearms, shipping,
  and metallurgy, were important, as were advances
  in communications and transportation.
• The development of modern diplomacy was a lasting
  result of that era of warfare, which was evident
  in the precarious and shifting balances of power.

3
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.

4
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.

5
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.

6
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?

• The contrasts in wealth in Europe were startling.
  
• The new well-off class of urban dwellers,
  referred to by the French as the bourgeoisie, got
  its wealth from manufacturing, finance, and
  trade.
• Its connections to the monarchy and the
  monarchys need for revenue were important.
• There were many contrasts of the new wealthy
  class with the rural aristocracy, as well as
  contrasts between the urban poor and the artisan
  classes, in areas such as marriage, education,
  and child rearing. Although serfdom had been on
  the decline in Europe for a long time, the
  peasantry lived under worse conditions as a
  result of constant warfare, economic conditions,
  and environmental problems. By 1700 the
  introduction of American crops improved the diet
  by providing potatoes and corn to peasants.
  Deforestation hit the peasantry hard as it
  eliminated a big resource for the peasantry of
  lumber and wild game as well as nuts and berries.
  Many peasants were forced to move to the urban
  areas where they became beggars, prostitutes, and
  criminals. The misery of these people erupted in
  uprising and mob violence.

7
Describe the experiences of women in seventeenth-
and eighteenth-century Europe

• 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.
• These changes had important demographic results.
• Delaying marriage also resulted in the rise of
  brothels and rape in society.
• Education was also determined as much by class as
  gender.
• 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.
• Witchcraft issues were gender issues as well.
• 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.

8
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, three-fourths 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.

9
Describe the intellectual revolution of the
Scientific Revolution. Why did it begin? Who were
some of the notable minds responsible for this
revolution? Was there widespread acceptance of
their ideas?

• The origins of the Scientific Revolution emerging
  out of the Renaissance rediscovery of Greek
  thought.
• In the sixteenth century some great thinkers
  began to challenge the discoveries of the Greeks,
  particularly Aristotle, and begin a movement to
  explain the workings of the universe based on
  natural causes and mathematics.
• The contributions of Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler,
  Galileo, and Newton all combined to alter the way
  of thinking established by Aristotle.
• The heliocentric theory of the universe was
  intertwined with the Age of Discovery and
  Exploration.
• Galilieo was condemned for his writings.
• The scientific method also made contributions to
  social thought, which, along with economic and
  political changes, resulted in the Enlightenment.

10
How did the basic tenets of Lutheranism and
Calvinism differ from those of Catholicism? What
was the Catholic response to the Protestant
Reformation?

• These differences hinged on the differing
  emphases on the path to salvationthe Catholic
  belief in salvation through good works, the
  Lutheran emphasis on faith, and the Calvinist
  belief in predestination.
• The different philosophies regarding church
  ornamentation and hierarchies were also
  prominent.
• The Catholic Reformation addressed the
  Protestant challenge at the Council of Trent.
• While many Catholic beliefs were clarified, the
  council mostly reaffirmed papal and church power.