Chapter 17 Introduction Western civilization changed dramatically between 1450 and 1750 While remaining an agricultural society, the West became commercially.

Chapter 17 Introduction• Western civilization changed dramatically between

1450 and 1750• While remaining an agricultural society, the West

became commercially active and developed a strong manufacturing sector

• Science became a centerpiece of intellectual life for the first time in the history of any society

• Governments increased their power and changes resulted in overseas expansion and growing commercial dominance

• There was also considerable internal conflict with the changes brought about by the Renaissance and Enlightenment, which brought a new spirit of discovery and achievement to Europe

I) The First Big Changes: Culture and Commerce

• Europe moved into a new role in world trade during the 15th century

• Development occurred internally as a result of the Renaissance

• This was followed in the 16th century by the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic response

• A new commercial and social structure grew in Europe

a) The Italian Renaissance• The Renaissance began in Italy during the 14th and 15th

centuries as individuals challenged medieval intellectual values and styles

• Urban commercial economy and competitive state politics stimulated the new movement

• Petrarch and Boccaccio wrote in Italian instead of Latin and emphasized secular topics such as love and pride, challenging existing canons

• Religion declined as a central focus as a new realism appeared in painting as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo changed styles in art and sculpture

• Niccolo Machiavelli advanced ideas in political theory similar to those of the Chinese legalists.

• Overall Italian Renaissance culture stressed themes of humanism, a focus on humankind as the center of intellectual and artistic endeavor.

• City-state rulers were dedicated to advanced well-being and merchants moved into profit-seeking capitalistic ways.

b) The Renaissance Moves Northward

• Italy had declined as the center of the Renaissance by the 16th century as the movement spread north in what became known as the Northern Renaissance.

• Centered in France, the Low countries, Germany and England, the northern renaissance spread to eastern Europe

• Northern humanists were more religious than the Italians, and writers Shakespeare, Rabelais and Cervantes mixed classical themes with elements of medieval popular culture

• Northern rulers interest in military conquest increased and they tried to control the church. They were also patrons of the arts and sponsored trading companies and colonial ventures. Kings such as Francis I in France imported Italian sculptors and architects to create their classical style palaces.

• Classical styles replaced Gothic and education changed to favor Greek and Roman classics

c) Changes in Technology and Family

• Fundamental changes in Western society were underway by 1500.

• Contacts with Asia had improved technology and printing helped to expand religious and technological thinking.

• Printing was introduced in the 15th century when German Johannes Gutenberg introduced moveable type, building on Chinese printing technology. Soon books were distributed in greater quantities which expanded the audience for Renaissance writers.

• A European style family emerged where people married at a later age and emphasized a nuclear family of children and parents rather than the extended families of most agricultural societies.

• Later marriage was a form of birth control and resulted in controlling population expansion

d) The Protestant and Catholic Reformation

• By the 16th century the Catholic Church was facing serious challenges• Martin Luther (1517) taught that faith could only be gained through

salvation and challenged many Catholic beliefs including papal authority, monasticism and priestly celibacy. He said the Bible should be translated into vernacular

• Luther resisted papal pressure and gained support in Germany where papal authority and taxes were resented. The Lutheran version of Protestantism, or the wave of religious dissent, urged state control of the church as an alternative to papal authority.

• Other Protestant groups appeared, In England King Henry VIII established the Anglican Church and Frenchman Jean Calvin insisted on the principle of predestination.

• The Catholic church did not sit still under the Protestant attack, and under a Catholic Reformation a council revived doctrine and refuted key Protestant tenants such as the idea a priests had no special sacramental power and could marry.

• The Catholic church was unable to restore unity, but much of Europe remained under its authority. A new order called the Jesuits spearheaded educational and missionary activity.

e) The End of Christian Unity in the West

• The Protestant and Catholic quarrels caused a series of religious wars during the 16th and 17th century. These disputes ended in France with the Edict of Nantes in 1598, although subsequent French kings cut back on Protestant rights.

• German and Swedish Protestants fought against the Holy Roman emperor and Spain in the Thirty Years’ War (1618) and German power and property did not recover for a century.

• The war was ended in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia, which allowed rulers to choose their official religion and gave Protestant Netherlands independence from Spain.

• Religion was an important issue in the English Civil War and the long religious wars affected Europe's balance of power, with France gaining power and Spain losing dominance.

• Religion and daily life were now regarded as separate as individuals became less likely to recognize a connection between god and nature.

• Love between spouses was encouraged and literacy was became more widespread.

f) The Commercial Revolution• Western economic structure underwent fundamental

redefinition during the 16th century as commercialization spurred price inflation as product demand surpassed availability.

• Great trading companies were formed to take advantage of colonial markets, stimulating manufacturing.

• Developments stimulated population growth and prosperity was shared by all classes in Western Europe.

• A new rural and urban proletariat suffered from increased food prices, and the many changes stimulated popular protest in the 17th century.

g) Social Protest• The Renaissance, Reformation, and economic changes produced many

divisions within Europe by the 19th century. Growing commercialization created the beginnings of a new proletariat in the West, people without access to wealth producing property.

• Population growth and rising food prices hit hard at the poor, and many people had to sell their small plots of land.

• The Renaissance created a new wedge between the elite and the masses, with the proletariat depending on orders from merchant capitalists to keep busy in their cottages. Others were forced to move to the cities, where beggars and wandering poor began to affect Western society.

• Popular rebellions demonstrated the social tensions as groups called for a political voice or suppression of landlords and taxes.

• The risings failed because the wealthy and literacy had spread widely among classes who became suspicious of the poor.

• An unprecedented outburst against suspected witches arose in the same decades in parts of Western Europe and New England, where between 60,000 and 100,000 were accused and killed. The witchcraft persecution reflected new resentment against the poor, and the hysteria revealed new tensions about family life and the role of women.

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II) Science and Politics: The Next Phase of Change

• A revolution in science peaked in the 17th century.

• Although the Scientific Revolution most affected intellectual life, it also promoted changes in popular outlook.

• This sealed the cultural reorientation of the West.

• More decisive forms of government arose, centering on variations of the nation-state.

a) Did Copernicus Copy?

• Copernicus discredited the belief that the earth was the center of the universe through astronomical observation and mathematics in the 16th century.

• His discovery set off other scientific advances in motion.

• We do not know if Copernicus copied from recently discovered similar findings of two Arab scholars, al-Urdi and al-Tusi in the 13th century, or he came to his conclusions independently.

b) Science: The New Authority• Scientific research followed Medieval patterns in the 16th

century.• After Copernicus, Johannes Kepler was another important

figure, resolving the basic issues of planetary motion.• The appearance of new instruments allowed advances in

biology and astronomy• Galileo publicized Copernicus’s work and his condemnation by

the Catholic church showed the difficulty religion had in dealing with the new scientific attitude.

• English physician John Harvey demonstrated circular movement of the blood in animals, with the heart as the “central pumping station”.

• Advances were accompanied by improved scientific methodology, Francis Bacon urged the value of empirical research and Rene Descartes established the importance of skeptical review of all received wisdom.

b) Science: The New Authority• Isaac Newton argued for a framework of natural laws,

establishing the principles of motion and defining forces of gravity, publishes Principia Mathematica in 1687.

• The scientific revolution quickly spread among the educated, and as witchcraft hysteria declined a belief grew that people could control their environment

• John Locke stated that people could learn all that is necessary through their senses and reason

• Deism argued God did not regulate natural law but simply set them in motion, and assumptions about the possibility of human progress emerged.

c) Absolute and Parliamentary Monarchies

• The feudal balance between monarchs and nobles came undone in the 17th century

• Monarchs gained new powers in warfare and tax collection

• In France rulers centralized authority and formed a professional military and bureaucracy in a system called absolute monarchy.

• Louis XIV kept his nobles busy with social functions while he followed the economic theory of mercantilism, supporting internal and external measures to improve trade, manufacturing and colonial development

• Similar policies occurred in Spain, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary as absolute monarchies pushed territorial expansion

c) Absolute and Parliamentary Monarchies

• Britain and the Netherlands formed parliamentary regimes where parliament won basic sovereignty over the king.

• The English Civil War produced a final political settlement in 1688 and in 1689 during the so called Glorious Revolution parliament scheduled regular sessions and won the right to approve taxation which allowed it to monitor the King’s policies.

• A developing political theory built on this process said power came from the people, not from a divine right and that people had a right to revolt against unjust rule.

• Overall western Europe developed important diversity in political forms between absolute monarchy and a new kind of parliamentary monarchy.

d) The Nation-State

• Absolute and Parliamentary monarchies both shared important characteristics

• They ruled people with a common language and culture

• Ordinary people did not have a role in government, but they did feel government should act on their behalf

• The many competing nation-states kept the West politically divided and at war.

e) In Depth: Elite and the Masses

• The era of witchcraft hysteria ended in the 17th century• The elite no longer believed in demonic disruptions

and made new efforts to discipline mass impulses• Ordinary people also altered belief patterns becoming

more open to scientific thinking• While the elite were important agents pushing change,

ordinary individuals did not blindly follow their lead.• The European-style family was an innovation by

ordinary people

III) The West by 1750

• The growing international influence of the West continued into the 18th century

• Three great currents of change; commercialization, cultural reorientation and the rise of the nation-state

• Each current produced new changes that furthered the overall transformation of the West

a) Political Patterns

• Political changes were the least significant• England and France continued previous patterns• Enlightened despots in central Europe encouraged

greater political developments– Frederick the Great of Prussia introduced religious

freedom, expanding state economic functions, encouraged agricultural methods, promoted greater commercial coordination and equity, and cut back on traditional harsh punishment

• The major Western states were continually fighting each other– France and Britain fought over colonial empires– Prussia and Austria fought over land

b) Enlightenment Thought and Popular Culture

• The aftermath of the scientific revolution was a new movement called the Enlightenment.

• Centered in France, thinkers continued scientific research and applied these methods to the study of human society.

• They believed that rational laws could describe both physical and social behavior.

• The Enlightenment produced a basic set of principles concerning human affairs: humans are naturally good, reason was the key to truth, intolerant or blind religion was wrong. If people were free, progress was likely.

• A few enlightened thinkers argued for more specific goals such as economic equality and the abolition of private poverty, and even in England’s Mary Wollstonecraft case, women’s rights.

• Adam Smith maintained that the government should stand back and let individual efforts and the market forces operate the economy.

c) Ongoing Change in Commerce and Manufacturing

• General economic changes brought the beginning of mass consumerism to Western society

• Agricultural methods of medieval times altered as new methods of swamp drainage, nitrogen-fixing crops, improved stock breeding and new cultivation techniques appeared

• New world crops like the potato increased food supply and population growth

• Growth of commerce and agriculture spurred manufacturing. The domestic system of household production gave farmers additional work and important technological innovations, like the flying shuttle (1733) in weaving improved textile efficiency

• Many landless individuals found jobs in manufacturing, moving to the cities and living longer

d) Innovation and Instability

• Western society had become increasingly accustomed to change in commercial, cultural, and political affairs.

• New currents affected family structure and roused political challenges;– Enlightenment ideas of liberty and fundamental human

equality could be directed against existing regimes– Children were raised with less adult restraint and were

encouraged to value their individual self worth through parental love and careful education

• A new version of an agricultural civilization had appeared and was ready for more upheaval in the future

e) Global Connections: Europe and the World

• As Europe changed, so did its outlook on the world. Europeans began to criticize superstitions of other people, were proud of their science and rationalism

• Europeans increasingly believed, based on their Christianity, they were superior to all other peoples

• Europeans increasingly felt other civilizations were backward, perhaps not even civilized

• This development had powerful effect on both Europeans and the other civilizations they encountered

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