Download European Worldview Pre-Contact

European Worldview PreContact
A long time ago in a landmass far, far away…
• 1492 generally considered the beginning of the
Age of Exploration.
• Before this, Europe was beginning to recover the
massive population loss during the Black Plague
(1350s).
• Europe was primarily made up of Feudal
Monarchies. This is the time of knights in shining
armor, but beginning to give way to social
progress, technological changes, and the
pressures of resource shortages with
increasingly demanding trade relationships.
• The pressures of a surging population and
resource needs set the stage for the Age of
Exploration, but there is more to the story…
We split the Key Concepts of European
Worldview into three categories:
Social : Education
• Available to elites in the rich merchant class as
well as for nobility and royalty.
• During the pre-contact years, most higher
education happened through the Church,
which had a central position in most aspects of
European life.
• Only about 15% of the population was
educated.
• Most families needed their children to work
just to survive.
• Key Idea: Literacy was not common in working
class/poor people in Europe. Education was a
lower priority than labour.
Social : Family Dynamics
• European families tended to be nuclear, with
parents and children. Sometimes economic
conditions would make it necessary for larger
extended families to live together. Noble
families tended to be large as well, with
resources being plentiful.
• Most European families, even nobles, tended
to be very patrilineal. This means that
inheritance and power in the family and
society went to the eldest males.
• Exceptions did exist. Notably, there were a few
powerful queens, including Queen Elizabeth I who
could inherit power when no male heir was present.
• Marriages were typically arranged. Even marriages in
the nobility were usually made for alliances. Peasants
married their women off for dowries or to lessen the
resource burden on the family.
• It was also in this period that the church began
to have a bigger role in weddings themselves.
Before this, marriages did not require religious
approval.
• Key Idea: Patrilineal families meant that men had
most of the power, money, and choice in
European society. Women were often treated as
property.
Political : The Church and State
• Churches had a lot of political power in Europe
during the pre-contact period.
• However, there were conflicts among the rising Protestant
religions and the dominant Catholics. France had a lot of religious
strife and England was often threatened because of its
Protestantism.
• Key Idea: Church and State were more politically connected. For
example, idiot sons set up to inherit patrilineal wealth could
always have a place bought for them in the church so they would
stay out of the way.
Political : Feudalism
• Feudalism is a hierarchy of social and political
organization with the King on top.
• Though Feudalism was declining…
• Feudal Monarchies were the most common form
of government in Europe. Absolute Monarchy
deriving from “Divine Right of Kings” (God
empowers a monarch to rule) was practiced in
France and Britain at this time.
• Key Idea: all power and authority emanate from
the monarch.
Economic: Land Use
• Feudalism was supported by large rural
populations, most of which did not own the
farms they worked.
• Key Idea: Lands and resources were
commodities that could be owned by titles,
giving an individual the benefit of any output
created by farming, industry, or trade.
• Taxes could be money or goods like crops, and
service almost always meant military service.
• Key Idea: in Feudalism, the profit of labour
flowed upward, with everyone paying taxes and
owing service to the feudal rank above their
own.
Economic: Employment and Trade
• Mercantilism: belief that a nation’s prosperity is
determined by self-sufficiency. Market
dominance and acquisition of resources are
primary goals.
• Key Idea: Trade was very important. Shipping
and piracy became commonplace.
• Many working people had specialized trades
(such as shoemaking, blacksmithing, or even ale
brewing) but most were feudal laborers who had
poor working conditions, little money of their
own, and few chances to improve their situation.
The Age of Exploration Begins
• Columbus begins it in 1492, working for Spain.
Britain begins exploring in 1496 and France in
1524.
• Three Main Reasons for Exploration:
• Fame (Social)
• Many explorers became famous. For example: Colombus,
Jacques Cartier, and John Cabot (worked for England and
explored the Maritimes and Eastern Canada).
• Fortune (Economic)
• The search for a trade route to Asia would enrich
whichever country discovered it, but trade and
exploitation of local populations in newly discovered
lands also made both individuals and their powerful
sponsors wealthy.
• White Man’s Burden (Political)
• Refers to the concept that it is the duty of Europeans
to colonize and civilize the “underdeveloped” world.
This especially means religious conversion and
general adoption of European worldviews and
culture by Non-Europeans. This is ethnocentrism: the
belief in the superiority of one culture or people over
others.