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THE TRANSFORMATION
OF EUROPE
Chapter 17
Humanist Education and Literature
 Focused on secular themes
 Accepted classical beliefs (renew society)
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Individualism: emphasis on dignity & indiv. worth
Human Improvement: develop talents through activities
Recover ancient manuscripts (orig. sources)
 Wrote in common vernacular
 Petrarch: wrote sonnets about his lost love
 Lorenzo Valla: used textual-critical method
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Falsely Believed and Forged Donation of Constantine
Annotations on the New Testament
 Machiavelli: (The Prince): analyzed politics
Machiavellian Quotes
 If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe
that his vengeance need not be feared.
 Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey
immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims
for his deceptions.
 Men should be either treated generously or destroyed,
because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy
ones they cannot.
 Politics have no relation to morals.
 The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will
need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.
Spread of Renaissance Ideas
 First throughout Italy – then West. Europe
 Reshaped European civilization
 Civic Humanism: service to the republic
 Princely Ideal: study classics to properly rule
 The
Courtier – B. Castiglione
 City-Life (stronger in indep. Italian city-states)
 Social groups: wealth and ability replace
nobility
 Middle-class: gained wealth and power
 Peasants were still at the bottom of society

More opportunity to leave the manor
Italian Renaissance Governments
 Florence: originally a republic; controlled by the Medici
 Medici brought in humanist ideas
 Majority of tax burden was on the upper-class
 Savanarola led a short-lived revolt against the Medici
 Rome: ruled by the pope
 Cardinals made up the wealthiest portion of the pop.
 Renaissance popes were viewed as corrupt
 Promoted projects to beautify Rome
 Venice: ruled by a doge in a republican setting
 Council of Ten helped govern/run the city
 Gained prosperity through trade
 Classical architecture; influenced by Byzantines and the West
Renaissance Art
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Expressed own values, emotions, attitudes
Works were as life-like as possible
Devoted to religion – had secular overtones
Learned to give perspective/expression
Architecture:
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Return to classical style (arches, domes, columns)
Architects took credit for their work
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Brunelleschi: the dome for the cathedral in Florence
Ren. Art Continued
 Sculpture:
 Return to classical style
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Free-standing, nude figures
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Donatello: first to sculpt a nude sculpture
Michelangelo: began in Florence, moved to Rome
Ghiberti: baptistery doors in Cathedral of Florence
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Giotto: first to paint realistically
Massacio: first to use lighting and perspective
Da Vinci: “Renaissance Man” (Mona Lisa & Last Supper)
Best known sculptors:
 Painting:
 More realistic, less symbolic (capture human emotion)
 Renaissance Painters
Michelangelo: painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Raphael: most notable was paintings of “Virgin Mary”
Northern Renaissance
 1400s: ideas spread throughout W. Europe
 War
helped with continued contact w/ others
 Da Vinci was brought to Paris by Francis I
 Trade fostered spread of ideas
 French Renaissance
 Blended
Gothic and Classical design
 Writers were inspired by Petrarcha
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Ronsard (sonnets); de Montaigne (essay); Rabelais (comic)
Northern Humanism
 Differences in Northern Humanism
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Ideas were adapted to meet needs
Focused on Christian writing
Used textual-critical method to interpret patristic writings
Wanted to renew Church to 1st Century purity
 Christian Humanism (wanted to reform the church)
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Humanist learning combined with Bible study
Erasmus: “Go Back to the Sources”
Study Greek and Hebrew
 Used biting humor to make his point
 Translated the N.T. using Valla’s t-c method
 Found inaccuracies in other translations
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Northern Painters
 Relied on Medieval models
rather than classical ones
 Jan & Hubert van Eyck
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Painted scenes from the
Bible
Developed the technique of
oil on canvas
English Renaissance
 Began in 1485 with Henry VII
 English Humanists were interested in social issues
 Thomas More (Utopia): criticized his society by comparing
it to “the ideal one”
 William Shakespeare:
 Drew on ideas from medieval heroes & classical legends
 Wrote about universal human qualities
 Economic and Social change
 Spain led the conquest to the Americas
 Rapid population growth (1460 – 1560)
 Agricultural price increase (1400s – 1600s):
 Wages did not increase
The Protestant Reformation
 Martin Luther (1483-1546) attacks Roman Catholic
church practices, 1517
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Indulgences: preferential pardons for charitable donors
 Writes Ninety-Five Theses, rapidly reproduced with
new printing technology
 Excommunicated by Pope Leo X in 1521
 1520s-1530s dissent spread throughout Germany
and Switzerland
The Demand for Reform
 Luther’s expanded critique
 Closure of monasteries
 Translations of Bible into vernacular
 End of priestly authority, especially the Pope

Return to biblical text for authority
 German princes interested
 Opportunities for assertion of local control
 Support for reform spreads throughout Germany
Reform outside Germany
 Switzerland, Low Countries follow Germany
 England: King Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547) has conflict
with Pope over requested divorce
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England forms its own church by 1560
 France: John Calvin (1509-1564) codifies Protestant
teachings while in exile in Geneva
 Scotland, Netherlands, Hungary also experience
reform movements
The Catholic Reformation
 Roman Catholic church reacts
 Refining doctrine, missionary activities to Protestants, attempt
to renew spiritual activity
 Council of Trent (1545-1563) periodic meetings to
discuss reform
 Society of Jesus (Jesuits) founded by St. Ignatius
Loyola (1491-1556)
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Rigorous religious and secular education
Effective missionaries
Witch Hunts
 Most prominent in regions of tension between
Catholics and Protestants
 Late 15th century development in belief in Devil and
human assistants
 16th-17th centuries approximately 110,000 people put
on trial, some 60,000 put to death
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Vast majority females, usually single, widowed
Held accountable for crop failures, miscarriages, etc.
 New England: 234 witches tried, 36 hung
Religious Wars
 Protestants and Roman Catholics fight in France
(1562-1598)
 1588 Philip II of Spain attacks England to force
return to Catholicism
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English destroy Spanish ships by sending flaming unmanned
ships into the fleet
 Netherlands rebel against Spain, gain independence
by 1610
The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1645)
 Holy Roman emperor attempts to force Bohemians
to return to Roman Catholic Church
 All of Europe becomes involved in conflict
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Principal battleground: Germany
 Political, economic issues involved
 Approximately one-third of German population
destroyed
The Consolidation of Sovereign States
 Emperor Charles V (r. 1519-1556) attempts to revive
Holy Roman Empire as strong center of Europe
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Through marriage, political alliances
Ultimately fails
Protestant Reformation provides cover for local princes to assert
greater independence
 Foreign opposition from France, Ottoman Empire
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Unlike China, India, Ottoman Empire, Europe does not develop
as single empire, rather individual states
Charles V abdicates to monastery in Spain
Sixteenth-century Europe
The New Monarchs
 Italy well-developed as economic power through
trade, manufacturing, finance
 Yet England, France, and Spain surge ahead in 16th
century, innovative new tax revenues
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England: Henry VIII
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Fines and fees for royal services; confiscated monastic holdings
France: Louis XI, Francis I
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New taxes on sales, salt trade
The Spanish Inquisition
 Founded by Fernando and Isabel in 1478
 Original task: search for secret Christian
practitioners of Judaism or Islam, later search for
Protestants
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Spread to Spanish holdings outside Iberian peninsula in
western hemisphere
 Imprisonment, executions
 Intimidated nobles who might have considered Protestantism
 Archbishop of Toledo imprisoned 1559-1576
Constitutional States
 England and Netherlands develop institutions of
popular representation
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England: constitutional monarchy
Netherlands: republic
 English Civil War, 1642-1649
 Begins with opposition to royal taxes
 Religious elements: Anglican church favors complex ritual,
complex church hierarchy, opposed by Calvinist Puritans
 King Charles I and parliamentary armies clash
 King loses, is beheaded in 1649
The Glorious Revolution (1688-1689)
 Puritans take over, becomes a dictatorship
 Monarchy restored in 1660, fighting resumes
 Resolution with bloodless coup called Glorious
Revolution
 King James II deposed, daughter Mary and husband
William of Orange take throne
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Shared governance between crown and parliament
The Dutch Republic
 King Philip II of Spain attempts to suppress
Calvinists in Netherlands, 1566
 Large-scale rebellion follows, by 1581 Netherlands
declares independence
 Based on a representative parliamentary system
Absolute Monarchies
 Theory of Divine Right of Kings
 French absolutism designed by Cardinal Richelieu
(under King Louis XIII, 1624-1642)
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Destroyed castles of nobles, crushed aristocratic conspiracies
Built bureaucracy to bolster royal power base
Ruthlessly attacked Calvinists
Louis XIV (The “Sun King,” 1643-1715)
 L’état, c’est moi: “The State – that’s me.”
 Magnificent palace at Versailles, 1670s, becomes his
court
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Largest building in Europe
1,400 fountains
25,000 fully grown trees transplanted
 Power centered in court, important nobles pressured
to maintain presence
Absolutism in Russia:
The Romanov Dynasty (1613-1917)
 Peter I (“the Great,” r. 1682-1725)
 Worked to modernize Russia on western European model
 Developed modern Russian army, reformed Russian
government bureaucracy, demanded changes in fashion:
beards forbidden
 Built new capital at St. Petersburg
 Catherine II (“the Great”, r. 1762-1796)
 Huge military expansion
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Partitions of Poland, 1772-1797
Social reforms at first, but end with Pugachev peasant
rebellion (1773-1774)
The European States System
 No imperial authority to mediate regional disputes
 Peace of Westphalia (1648) after Thirty Years’ War
 European states to be recognized as sovereign and
equal
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Religious, other domestic affairs protected
 Warfare continues: opposition to French expansion,
Seven Years’ War
 Balance of Power tenuous
 Innovations in military technology proceed rapidly
Europe after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648.
Population Growth and Urbanization
 Rapidly growing population due to Columbian
Exchange
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Improved nutrition
 Role
of the potato (considered an aphrodisiac in 16th
and 17th centuries)
 Replaces bread as staple of diet
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Better nutrition reduces susceptibility to plague
Epidemic disease becomes insignificant for overall population
decline by mid-17th century
Population Growth in Europe
180
160
140
120
100
Millions
80
60
40
20
0
1500
1700
1800
Urbanization
500000
450000
400000
350000
300000
Madrid
Paris
London
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
1550
1600
1650
Early Capitalism
 Private parties offer goods and services on a free
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market
Own means of production
Private initiative, not government control
Supply and demand determines prices
Banks, stock exchanges develop in early modern period
Joint-Stock Companies (English East India Company,
VOC)
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Relationship with empire-building
 Medieval guilds discarded in favor of “putting-out”
system
Impact of Capitalism on the Social Order
 Rural life
 Improved access to manufactured goods
 Increasing opportunities in urban centers begins depletion of
the rural population
 Inefficient institution of serfdom abandoned in
western Europe, retained in Russia until 19th century
 Nuclear families replace extended families
 Gender changes as women enter income-earning
work force
Capitalism and Morality
 Adam Smith (1723-1790) argued that capitalism
would ultimately improve society as a whole
 But major social change increases poverty in some
sectors
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Rise in crime
Witch-hunting a possible consequence of capitalist tensions
and gender roles
The Copernican Universe
 Reconception of the Universe
 Reliance on 2nd-century Greek scholar Claudius Ptolemy of
Alexandria
 Motionless earth inside nine concentric spheres
 Christians understand heaven as last sphere
 Difficulty reconciling model with observed planetary
movement
 1543 Nicholas Copernicus of Poland breaks theory
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Notion of moving Earth challenges Christian doctrine
The Scientific Revolution
 Johannes Kepler (Germany, 1571-1630) and Galileo
Galilei (Italy, 1564-1642) reinforce Copernican
model
 Isaac Newton (1642-1727) revolutionizes study of
physics
 Rigorous challenge to church doctrines
The Enlightenment
 Trend away from Aristotelian philosophy and Church
doctrine in favor of rational thought and scientific
analysis
 John Locke (England, 1632-1704), Baron de
Montesquieu (France, 1689-1755) attempt to discover
natural laws of politics
 Center of Enlightenment: France, philosophes
 Voltaire (1694-1778), caustic attacks on Roman
Catholic church: écrasez l’infame, “erase the infamy”
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Deism increasingly popular
The Theory of Progress
 Assumption that Enlightenment thought would
ultimately lead to human harmony, material wealth
 Decline in authority of traditional organized religion