Transformations in Europe,
1500 - 1750
I. Culture and Ideas
A. Religious Reformation
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Papacy – St. Peter’s Basilica
Indulgences
Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)
Salvation from faith in Jesus
Christ – not works
• Rejection of papal authority –
Protestant Reformation
• Bible, printing press
• German support/nationalism
Religious Reformation Continued…
• John Calvin (1509 – 1564)
• Faith not enough, salvation a gift
from God – “predestined”
• Organization, lifestyle
• Religious movements connected
to political circumstances
• Trent – Catholic Reformation
• Jesuits
• Wars of Religion
B. Traditional Thinking and Witch Hunts
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Folklore/magic
Christian teachings – miracles, devils, etc.
Natural events – supernatural causes
Lisbon – 1755
Accused women and their fates…
Reformation’s focus on the Devil
Fear of independent women
Women’s sphere of influence
C. The Scientific Revolution
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Influence of Greco – Roman sources/Bible
Aristotle – four elements and physics
Pythagoras
Scientific Revolution – observation
Nicholas Copernicus (1473 – 1543) –
heliocentric universe
• Tycho Braches and Johannes Kepler –
elliptical orbits
The Scientific Revolution
Continued…
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Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) – telescope
Challenge to religious/traditional beliefs
Galileo’s view of God’s truth
Jesuits, Roman Inquisition, The Starry
Messenger
• Robert Boyle – chemistry
• Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) – common physics,
law of gravity
• Hostility of the church, challenges to authority
D. The Early Enlightenment
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Laws of human behavior – Enlightenment
Resistance to Enlightenment thinkers
Reaction against religious violence
Appreciation of non – Western examples
of governance/behavior
• Optimistic about future of human
behavior/institutions
II. Social and Economic Life
A. The Bourgeoisie
• Population growth in
London, Paris
• Bourgeoisie –
work/lifestyle
• Netherlands – textile
industry, used foreign
raw materials, publishing
endeavors
• Amsterdam –
commercial fleets
dominated overseas
trade during 1600s
• Merchant ships – fluit,
“East Indiaman”
Dutch banks –
investments, capital
• Cartography
The Bourgeoisie continued…
• Family connections/merchant colonies in
European cities
• Alliances with monarchies
• Joint – stock companies
• Stock exchanges
• Canals
• British/Dutch competition – English supremacy
• Gentry – alliances with old nobility; exemption
from taxes
B. Peasants and Laborers
• Decline of serfdom/slavery in Western Europe –
relation to the Americas
• Challenges to peasants – Little Ice Age
• Impact of new crops from Americas by 1700
• Exports of wheat
• Deforestation – coke (1709), impact on peasants
• Spinning yarn
• Migration to cities - no relief from poverty
• Rebellions of the poor in Early Modern Europe –
resentment against privileged/landowning
classes, exemption from taxation
C. Women and the Family
• Women lower than men but mitigated by
class/wealth
• Importance of a good marriage
• Choice in marriage/reasons for age
• Abandoned children/rape
• Solid education for sons – languages,
business
• Exclusion/participation of women in
Renaissance, Scientific Rev.,
Enlightenment
III. Political Innovations
A. State Development
• Political diversity
• Holy Roman Empire –
German
• Charles V – Habsburg –
united Christian Europe vs.
Ottomans
• French/German opposition
• German Wars of Religion
and the Peace of Augsburg
(1555)
• France, Spain, England
strengthening central
authority
B. Religious Policies
• Spain/France – defended Catholicism
(Spanish Inquisition)
• French Wars of Religion – Henry of
Navarre, Edict of Nantes
• England – Henry VIII, Catherine of
Aragon, support of Parliament to make
English monarch head of Church of
England
• Disbanding of monasteries/church lands
• Not as many reforms as English Puritans
wanted
C. Monarchies in England and
France
• England – Charles I disbanded Parliament,
needed help to gather taxes, Parliament
wanted guarantees of rights – English Civil
War in 1642
• Charles I executed, Oliver Cromwell instated,
eventually Charles II restored
• James II a Catholic threat
• Queen Mary and William of Orange –
Glorious Revolution of 1688
• English Bill of Rights 1689
Monarchies in England and France
Continued…
• Estates General
• Monarchs sold
appointments/efficient tax
collection
• Louis XIV – Palace of Versailles,
kept political intrigues out of Paris
• French model widely admired
• John Lock (1632 – 1704) –
disputed divine right of monarchs,
authority from consent of the
governed
D. Warfare and Diplomacy
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Warfare common in Early Modern period
Expensive/destructive
Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648)
European armed forces much stronger – larger
armies, centralized command structures,
training, fortifications
Stalemates – navy
Henry VIII – investment in navy, influence of the
Dutch, creation of Great Britain
Prevented Spain/France from uniting
Balance of power
E. Paying the Piper
• Post 1600 – states needed more
revenue for militaries
• Alliances with rising commercial elite –
needed space AND support
• Spanish wars, religious expulsions,
and aristocratic exemption from taxes
• American gold/silver – inflation
• Netherlands revolted against Spanish
policies – 1648 achieved full
independence
Paying the Piper Continued…
• United Netherlands decentralized –
excelled in trade, commercial interests
• Rise of the English navy/merchant ships
• English “financial revolution” – taxed
aristocracy, collected taxes directly, central
bank
• France – some adjustments but stifled by
aristocracy