Download Chapter 3 Economic Renewal and Wars of Religion

Chapter 3
Economic Renewal and Wars of Religion, 1560-1648
Chapter Summary
In the century after 1560, Europeans fought religious wars that pitted Catholics against Protestants.
These conflicts also involved political, constitutional, economic, and social questions. At the same
time, Europe was transformed by its contacts with Africa, Asia, and the New World and the birth
of capitalism. Trade expanded, new social classes emerged, and Europeans speculated about the
diversity of human cultures and races. The Portuguese were the first to establish a great trading
empire along the coast of Africa. Columbus paved the way for a Spanish empire with the discovery
of the New World. A commercial revolution within Europe itself took place against the
background of an expanding population and a price revolution. The landed aristocracy, the
peasantry, the middle classes, and the urban poor became the predominant social classes of
European society under the new economic system, sometimes with the encouragement or
discouragement of governments. Meanwhile, Philip II of Spain attempted to uphold not only his
imperial control of his vast holdings, but also to enforce Catholicism within his empire. In France,
the wars of religion were as much a feudal rebellion against the centralizing tendencies of the
monarchy as they were conflicts between Huguenots and Catholics. In Germany, the Thirty Years’
War pitted member states against the emperor, and turned into an international conflict involving
much of Europe. With the resolution of the Thirty Years’ War, religious divisions would no longer
be used in the struggle for territory, wealth, or strategic alliances among European sovereign
powers.
Chapter Outline
3.11 The Opening of the Atlantic
a. The Portuguese in the East
i. Portuguese trading empire
b. The Discovery of America
i. Conquest begins in the Americas
ii. Further explorations
c. The Spanish Empire in America
i. Spanish colonial rule
3.12 The Commercial Revolution
a. Changes in Commerce and Production
i. New entrepreneurs
ii. The “putting out” system
b. Capital and Labor
i. Divergence between capital and labor
ii. New industries
iii. New banking practices
iv. Commercial capitalism
c. Mercantilism
i. Opposition to guilds
ii. National markets
3.13 Changing Social Structures
a. Social Classes
i. The bourgeoisie
ii. Middle class growth and diversity
iii. The working class poor
b. Social Roles of Education and Government
i. New schools and universities
ii. Wider access to education
iii. Government and social classes
c. Eastern and Western Europe
i. Serfdom in eastern Europe
3.14 The Wars of Catholic Spain: The Netherlands and England
a. The Ambitions of Philip II
i. Philip’s goal
ii. The Escorial
iii. The Catholic offensive
b. The Revolt of the Netherlands
i. The Netherlands provinces
ii. Revolt of the Netherlands
c. The Involvement of England
i. England lends support to the Dutch
ii. The Union of Utrecht
iii. England as bulwark of Protestantism
iv. The Spanish Armada
d. The Results of the Struggle
i. Partition of the Netherlands
ii. The beginnings of Spanish decline
iii. The Moriscos
3.15 The Disintegration and Reconstruction of France
a. Political and Religious Disunity
i. Centralization vs. localism
ii. The Huguenots
iii. Opposition to Calvinism
b. The Civil and Religious Wars
i. St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre
ii. The Politiques
c. The End of the Wars: Reconstruction under Henry IV
i. Henry IV accepts Catholicism
ii. The Edict of Nantes
iii. The foundations of absolutism
d. Cardinal Richelieu
i. Renewed threat of civil war
3.16 The Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648: The Disintegration of Germany
a. Background of the Thirty Years’ War
i. Lutheran gains
ii. The complexity of the Thirty Years’ War
b. The Four Phases of the War
i. The Bohemian war
ii. French and Swedish alarm
iii. Gustavus Adolphus
iv. European involvement
c. The Peace of Westphalia, 1648
i. Lengthy peace negotiations
ii. Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire
iii. Germany fragmented
iv. System of sovereign states
Learning Objectives
Chapter 3 teaches students about:
1. the mixed consequences of the opening of the Atlantic, which included an expansion in trade
and an increase in wealth, but also the growth of the slave trade, population decimation, and
the destruction and transformation of cultures.
2. the population explosion and price revolution that signaled the rise of a capitalist system and
the transition from town-centered economies to national economies.
3. the relationship between new forms of production and the social classes of European societies.
4. the diversity of the newly emergent bourgeoisie and the impact of education and government
policies upon this increasingly influential social class.
5. the divergences between the development of eastern and western Europe.
6. Philip II’s encounters with the Dutch and English during his campaigns against Protestantism
and the consequences of the ensuing conflicts for both the Netherlands and England.
7. the feudalistic nature of the religious wars in France, and the tensions between centralization
and localism.
8. the ramifications of the issuing and revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
9. the variety of religious, civil, and international issues over which the Thirty Years’ War was
fought.
10. the fragmentation of Germany and the subsequent forestalling of German national unification.
11. the advent of the modern European system of sovereign states.
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How did the Portuguese establish an empire that reached down the coast of Africa to
India?
What were the competing ambitions of the church, the government, and the gentry in the
newly conquered territories of the Spanish-dominated New World?
Compare the treatment of Indians to the treatment of African slaves brought to the New
World.
Why was the discovery of Potosí crucial for Philip II’s European exploits?
How did production change as markets widened?
How did entrepreneurs circumvent the restrictions of towns and guilds?
Which new industries were stimulated by the opening of the Atlantic? Why had they
not flourished before the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries?
How and why did the practice of usury become an accepted aspect of banking?
How did mercantilism as an economic policy dovetail with the desires of rulers to centralize
and consolidate their authority?
How did mercantilism relate to the development of national markets?
What changes did the nobility undergo as a result of the commercial revolution?
Consider also the bourgeoisie and the working poor.
Why did the sixteenth century see increasing demands for education? How were those
demands met?
What was the relationship between education and social class?
What happened to serfs in eastern Europe in the sixteenth century? Why?
Why was Philip’s rule considered the siglo de oro, or Golden Age of Spain?
Why was the Inquisition sent to the Netherlands? Did it achieve its goal there?
In your opinion, how much of the Netherlands revolt was motivated by religious strife versus
political or economic grievances?
Why did England intervene on behalf of the Netherlands patriots? What did the defeat of the
Spanish Armada signal for England’s future?
What role did religion play in Spain’s decline? What economic factors compounded that
decline?
How did French Catholicism differ from the Catholicism of other countries?
Why was French Protestantism more extreme than in other places?
How did a succession crisis fuel religious tensions in France in the sixteenth century?
Why did Henry IV switch religious alliances several times?
What rights did the Edict of Nantes guarantee Huguenots? How was it later modified?
From which states did the Catholic and Protestant leagues of German states seek support for
their respective causes? In addition to religious alliances, what other factors shaped the
involvement of Spain, the Dutch, England, and France in the conflict?
How did the Swedes intervene in the Thirty Years’ War? What did they gain from their
involvement?
What were the consequences of the Peace of Westphalia for German unity? For
religious freedom? For the other states that had become embroiled in the war?
How did the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War shape European politics in the seventeenth
century?