Economic
Renewal and Wars of Religion: 1560-1648
(Notes from pp. 104-146, History of the Modern World,
R.R. Palmer)
Economic
Renewal
- The Opening of the
Atlantic
- The
Portuguese in the East
- The
Discovery of America
- The
Spanish Empire in America
- The Commercial
Revolution
- Economic Growth:
Population growth; steady rise in prices; widening trade market
- Decline of the
Medieval Guild Economy
i. In which the Master
owns means of production and provides his own labor as well, assisted by
apprentices and day laborers ii. Production to order, rather
than bulk commodities produced for an international market
- Emergence of
Entrepreneur and Banker
i. Entrepreneur
risks investment in operation to earn a profit
ii. Bankers
lend money at an interest iii. Capital
Investment creates new industries: printing, mining, ship building, equipping
armies iv. International
trade in bulk commodities and in cloth i. The
national government asserts policies which supplant local guild tariffs. ii. Mercantilist
economists believed in creating self-sufficient economies which import only
raw materials and export only finished products (ie
woolen clothing). Mercantilists believed that the wealth of a country was
measured by the amount of bullion stored in the country’s treasuries. iii. National
Tariffs were imposed to support the sales of a nation’s finished products. iv. Governments
subsidized consortiums to engage in international trade (ie
The East India Company).
- Changing Social
Structure
a. The Feudal Nobility evolves
into the Aristocracy:
i. Rather than relying solely on income from
estates, nobles had to supplement their income by service to king and church
or even by engaging in business enterprises (i.e. middle class behavior)
ii. The aristocracy maintained an edge over the
rising bourgeoisie by emphasizing their ancestry as badge of status.
b. The Growth of the Bourgeoisie
i. F. bourgeois: town dweller vs. Marx bourgeoisie:
owners of capital and means of production
ii. The Bourgeoisie was a highly Stratified Class:
New Heirarchy:
1) Urban
elites (like the Medici in Florence) dominated city states.
2) Merchants,
Bankers, Ship Builders
3) Learned
Professions: Law and Medicine, Government Officials, Judges, Tax Officials
4) Clergy,
Guild Members, Wholesale Merchants
5) Shop
Keepers, Innkeepers, Barrel Makers, Tanners
6) Journeymen
Workers, Apprentices
c. Lower
Class
i. Still the Vast Majority of the Population:
Wages rose slower than prices, so economic change hurt this class.
ii. Working Poor: peasants, unskilled wage
earners: miners, fishermen, sailors, servants, porters, water carriers,
chambermaids, washer women, footmen, coachmen, stable boys, lackeys,
excrement removers.
iii. Unemployed, unemployable, vagabonds
Wars of
Religion: Political and Religious Conflict over Economic Spoils

Europe in 1600
- The Hapsburg Bid for
Dominance: Catholic Spain (Netherlands, Northern Italy, South America)
and Holy Roman Empire (Austria, Hungary and Poland) vs. the Dutch, English
and French
- The Ambitions of
Philip II and Hapsburg Spain
i. In 1556 Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire, abdicated, leaving Austria, Bohemia and Hungary to his brother
Ferdinand and everything else to his son Philip.
ii. Philip II of Spain (1527-1598)
1) King
of Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Milan, Naples, Tunis
2) He
claims England and France, and all of America.
3) Strict
Catholic: leader of the Counter-Reformation, the church’s counter offensive
against Protestantism
4) Built
the Escorial in Madrid as his palace
b. Timeline
i. 1567: Protestant Revolt in the Netherlands
ii. 1569: Catholic Revolt in England
iii. 1570: Elizabeth I of England excommunicated
iv. 1572: Catholics in France purge Huguenots: St.
Bartholemew’s Day Massacre
- The Revolt of the Netherlands (1566-1588)
a. Antwerp
and Amsterdam were rich international trading centers: the gateway of trade to
Northern Europe.
b. Neither a Dutch nor a Belgian
nationality exists; instead, the Netherlands’ seventeen principalities had been
conquered by the Duke of Burgundy and inherited by Philip II.
c. 1566: the rich northern provinces
revolt against Spanish rule
d. Philip II sends in the Duke of Alva
and institutes the Inquisition.
e. The Provinces descend into civil
war.
f. Protestant Alliance with England
(Elizabeth I vs. Mary Queen of Scots)
g. 1578: War rages between Protestant
North and Catholic South with Antwerp as the prize: a possible staging ground for
an invasion of England.
h. 1585: The English enter the war.
i. English and Dutch sea raids vs.
Spanish galleons and New World outposts
j. 1587: Spanish organize invasion of
England; Mary Queen of Scots executed.
k. 1588: Spanish Armada of 130 ships, 30,000
troops, 2400 pieces of artillery is met by Sir Francis Drake in the English
Channel. A great storm disperses the fleet and dooms the invasion.
Results:
a. England emerges as Protestant power.
b. England emerges as dominant sea
power and colonial power.
c. East India Company is founded in
1600.
d. Netherlands is partitioned in 1609
(Dutch vs. Spanish Netherlands).
e. Amsterdam becomes dominant North Sea
port.
f. Dutch East India Company founds New
Amsterdam at port on mouth of Hudson River.
g. Spain begins decline as greatest
European power.

Massacre of the Innocents (1610) Peter Breughel, the Younger
- Disintegration and
Reconstruction in France
- During the first half
of the 16th c. France consisted of three hundred separate
states under the loose control of the King. Each principality or city
stubbornly defended its identity, autonomy, laws, courts, tariff,
taxes, and local parlements.
- The French Catholic
Church had long asserted its independence from Rome.
- The Reformation:
i. Calvin was a Frenchman
ii. Huguenots:
1. radical
protestants, not moderate Anglicans
2. One
half of the French nobility converted to this religion.
iii. These princes asserted the right to regulate
religion.
iv. Huguenots were particularly numerous in SW
France.
v. town movement: bourgeois oligarchy
- 1559: Henry II dies
and is succeeded by his 15 year old son, Francis II
i. The true power was really exercised by Henry
II’s wife, Catherine d’Medici, who influenced the
three kings who ruled from 1560-1590.
ii. During this tumultuous time, powerful factions
vied for control and four decades of Huguenot vs. Catholic civil war ensued.
iii. 1572:
St. Bartholemew’s Day Massacre at behest of
Catharine d’Medici: slaughter of Parisian Huguenots
iv. Rise
of politiques who support strengthening the
monarchy: Jean Bodin and the modern theory of
sovereignty: the absolute ruler
- Henry of Navarre, a
Huguenot chieftain, becomes King and then converts to Catholicism
i. Crowned Henry IV in 1589 and founded the
Bourbon dynasty.
ii. 1598: Edict of Nantes established a truce
between warring princes by dividing territorial rights and mandating
religious tolerance.
iii. 1614 Henry IV assassinated.
iv. 1618: Estates General called for last time
before 1789
v. Cardinal Richilieu,
a politique, became the Chief
Minister and worked to strengthen the central power of the state
- The Thirty Years War,
1616-1648: The Disintegration of Germany
- The Holy Roman
Empire: 300 states including French speaking regions, Poles, Czechs,
Hungarians, but dominated by German speaking people
- The Birthplace of the
Reformation: Martin Luther
- 1555: Peace of
Augsburg
i. Lutherans and Catholics make peace
ii. Calvinism starts to spread
- 1609: Catholic
Hapsburgs seek to establish a more modern, unified, sovereign state but
were opposed by the Dutch and French.
- 1618: Thirty Years of
War begins
i. Catholic-Protestant
German Civil War
ii. Holy Roman Emperor vs. Member States in Constitutional Struggle
iii. International War: French vs. Hapsburgs;
Spanish vs. Dutch, involving Denmark, Sweden and Transylvania
iv. Shifting loyalties of Soldiers of Fortune
- 1618-1625: Bohemian
Stage
- Czech
Hussites defenestrate ambassadors from the
emperor
- 1620:
Battle of White Mountain crushes Hussite
rebellion.
- Protestantism
is stamped out in Czech territories
- 1625-1629: Danish
Stage
- Duke
of Holstein (Danish) enlarges principality.
- Emperor
hires Wallenstein to oppose him.
- 1630-35: Swedish
Stage
i. Counter-Reformation flows over Germany
ii. 1629: Emperor’s Edict of Restitution
iii. Swedes hired by Dutch and French to fight
Catholics
iv. 1630-32: King Gustavus
Adolphus of Sweden is victorious at Breitenfeld and Lutzen, then is
killed
- 1635-48 French Stage
i. French enter war when armistice seems near
ii. War spreads to France and Northern Spain
- 1648: Peace of
Westphalia
i. Threat of Hapsburg/Catholic domination averted
ii. Stabilization of Protestant Catholic struggle:
Calvinism and Lutheranism recognized as legal.
iii. France and Sweden enlarge territorial
possessions
iv. Empire broken into 300 separate
principalities.
v. Empire possesses no power to make law or set
foreign policy.
vi. Physical wreck of Germany
1. 1/3rd
of population perishes
2. starvation,
fire, pestilence, homelessness, exposure
vii. France emerges as dominant
continental European power
|