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.
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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.
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
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• 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