The European World c. 1500
Social structures and economic change
Population: The Black Death (1348); in places killing 30- 50% of the population.
Population levels only starting to pick up towards the end of the 15th century.
Social structures: The household (urban, rural, noble); often a unit of taxation, but also a
unit of support and identity.
The countryside
Elements of continuity: economic system based on agriculture. Peasantry constituting c. 90
per cent of population.
Post Black Death, better opportunities for peasants (bigger holdings, higher wages).
However, Black Death is not the only agent of change. Uprisings in France 1358 and England
1381.
What happens to serfdom? Dies off (or is on its last legs) in England, France, disappeared
even earlier in Italy. However, serfdom is intensified in some parts of Eastern Europe.
Urban economic and social development
Guilds: organise and control production; controlled entry; also providing training and mutual
support.
Banking: Money-lending and credit (developed by the Italians), by 1500 banks are
permanent fixtures in towns. 1460 – foundation of Medici bank, Florence. Banks enable a
wider commercial network.
Administrative centres: schools, hospitals and provision of welfare (looking after
abandoned children, orphans, the elderly and especially the urban poor)
Printing presses: By 1500, printing presses in over two hundred cities/towns in Europe.
Religious and intellectual life
Ordinary people:Religion dominates lives in an organic way(baptism/marriage/last
rites). Saints/relics/pilgrimages/penance/indulgences bring money/material gains to the
Church.
The papacy: has had its fair share of tribulations, with the Great Schism (two rival popes, at
one point three popes (1378-1417))
Heretical movements: the Albigensian (Cathar) heresy, led to a crusade in the 13th century.
Waldensianism. 14-15th centuries saw the Lollard (followers of John Wyclif in England) and
Hussite (Jan Hus in Bohemia) heresies.
Challenges from within the Church: Movements for spiritual and intellectual revival (such
as Erasmian humanism), and instances of radical populism (Girolamo Savonarola in
Florence)
Clashes between Church and State: kings and popes fight over ecclesiastical appointments.
Intellectual developments
Renaissance humanism: By 1500, Italy under the influence of the Renaissance for over a
century and ideas start influencing the rest of Europe (England, France, Germany and the
Low Countries).
Humanist goal – recovery of the moral, artistic and intellectual potential of man. Key early
thinkers Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), Giovanni Boccacio (1313-1375) later on, works of
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499).
Humanists look backwards, not forward: cyclical view of human development. The
movement promotes areturn to the wisdom of the classical world e.g. Erasmus, Adages. 1462:
re-founding of Platonic Academy in Florence.
The medieval legacy?Petrarch (1304-74; the father of humanism) defined the middle ages as
a 'Dark Age' cut off from the classical period. Not true: continuities in Latin, law, philosophy,
medicine, but also universities (a useful medieval invention, providing education since the
12th century).
Practical uses of the humanists: they promote service of public domain and get involved in
government e.g. Machiavelli, Thomas More. But there are tensions between certain classicalhumanist assumptions and some Christian tenets (for example, in Thomas More’s Utopia).
Power and authority in Europe
1400 – a rather fragmented picture: c. 1,000 autonomous polities across Europe.
1500- European states (France, England, Scotland, Spain) have defined their territories
against their neighbours and have established centralised monarchies.
J.H. Elliott – ‘Composite monarchies’ (the fragments that made up the political scene in 1400
are glued together to become larger entities) e.g. Aragon-Castile, English rule over Ireland
and Wales, France re Burgundy. A move towards 'aggregation' rather than 'disintegration'
- Holy Roman Empire – 1500 division into six Imperial Circles (Reichskreise), each with
own assembly (Kreistag).
Centralised states but with stronger element of negotiation: The power struggle between
monarchs and the nobility continues. Nobility assemble together in representative institutions
e,g. cortes in Spanish territories, parliaments in England and Wales, parlements in France.
Professional administration: Universities supply states with educated staff trained in law.
Some of whom also write about state sovereignty, legitimacy, and so on.
Warfare: In 1453 the Hundred Years War between England and France ends (after 116
years). A move towards standing armies. Warfare now conducted on a larger scale.
Relatively more efficient tax collection systems are now in place, supplemented by
borrowing.
Italian city states: organised on different principles e.g. Venice, Florence, Lucca, Genoa,
Milan.e.g. Republican self-governance with different levels of participation among citizens.
Expansion of Europe
Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) funds expeditions in North and West
Africa.
1487 – Bartholomeu Dias sails round Cape of Good Hope, charts the sea route into India.
1494- Treaty of Tordesillas is signed, drawing a line down the Atlantic Ocean, off the west
coast of Africa, giving Spain the right to hold everything to the West
1498 – Vasco da Gama navigates the Cape of Good Hope and reaches Malabar coast of
India.
1500 - Pedro Alvares Cabral lands in Brasil and claims it for Portugal.