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Chapter 15
The Age of Religious Wars and
European Expansion
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• Spain’s Empire
• Spain passed from grandeur to decline in little more
than a century.
– Mid 1500s, Spain was the greatest power on earth and the
master of Europe.
– Hapsburg dynasty was the leading power of western Europe,
originating in France, and coming to power in Spain through
marriages.
– Under Philip II, Spain was at the height of its political and
cultural power.
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• Philip II controlled Spain and her empire, the
Netherlands, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Sardinia,
and islands in the western Mediterranean.
• In 1580, Philip gained Portugal, thus securing control
of the Portuguese empire.
• Spain was undermined by internal resistance, French
and English hostility, and by revolt in the Netherlands.
• Under Philip II’s successors, Philip III, Philip IV, and
Charles II, it never recovered from in-fighting or from
the Thirty Years’ War.
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• Philip II (1556-1598)
• A “deskbound”
monarch.
• His vision for Spain?
• “One monarch, one
empire, one sword.”
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• Little interest in sharing power. As a result, he
disregarded the rights of the various Diets, and...
• Drove his imprisoned son to death.
• Drove the Inquisition.
• Drove the Dutch to rebellion.
• Drove the humiliated Aragonese to rebellion.
• His foes considered him “a murderer and a liar.”
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• Castillian Emphasis:
• Established the region of
Castile as the center of Spain
and the empire, with Madrid
as the capital.
• Castillian Spanish was the
official language at court.
• Castillian city of Seville
served as the hub of Spain’s
overseas trade.
• Aragon, feeling snubbed,
revolted in the 1590s.
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• Religious Problems:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Concerned about the loyalty of religious minorities in Spain:
Protestants
Marranos (Jews converted to Christianity)
Moriscos (Muslims converted to Christianity)
Drove the Inquisition to rid Spain of these minorities.
Moriscos revolted in 1569, but were crushed.
Also tried to impose Catholicism on the Netherlands.
Dutch Protestants revolted, and with English help, won
independence in 1581.
16th Century Religious Wars
• The Dutch Revolt--Overview
• The Dutch revolt was an explosive mix of
nationalism, religion, and money.
• Many Dutch resented foreign rule.
• Widely-held belief that Dutch trade and industry were
being taxed too heavily by the Spanish.
• Northern Dutch provinces were largely Calvinist.
16th Century Religious Wars
• The Duke of Alva’s
Reign of Terror
• 1567, Philip sent the
Duke of Alva to the
Netherlands
– Suppress revolt against
Spanish
– Wipe out Calvinism.
• 6 year reign of terror
– Thousands of Dutch
rebels executed.
• However, the revolt
continued.
16th Century Religious Wars
• Dutch Independence
• By 1579, Spanish rule was restored in the 10 southern provinces
(modern Belgium) that had remained Catholic.
• Largely Calvinist 7 northern provinces, with British aid, formed
the Union of Utrecht and continued the struggle against Spain.
– Led by William of Orange (aka, William the Silent).
• 1584, William assassinated by Spanish agents.
– But revolt continued.
• 1609, Spain finally agreed to a 12 year truce.
• Independence formally recognized by the Peace of Westphalia in
1648 (end of the 30 Years’ War).
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• Philip was outraged by the
interference of England’s
Elizabeth I in Spain’s affairs
in the Netherlands.
– Plotted with Mary, Queen of
Scots (cousin and claimant of
Elizabeth), to have the queen
assassinated.
• Plot failed.
• Mary executed.
– Developed a plan to conquer
England and restore
Catholicism.
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• Philip sent his fleet, the
Spanish Armada, to
defeat the British and
remove Elizabeth.
– Spanish fleet: 130 ships
and 20,000 men.
– Plan called for the
Armada to join forces
with a Spanish army near
Dunkirk and then carry
out an invasion.
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• British fleet: smaller,
more maneuverable
ships, and longer-range
cannon.
• Home court advantage.
• 7/21/1588, the Armada
entered the English
Channel, headed for
Dunkirk.
• 8 day battle ensued.
• “Protestant wind.”
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• Spanish fleet forced to retreat to the the
North Sea.
– Storms sank about 40 of the ships off the
coasts of Scotland and Ireland, killing some
10,000 men.
• Significance of this defeat of the
Armada?
– Marks the beginning of the decline of
Spain’s power.
Spain’s Empire & European
Absolutism
• Continuing Problems Weaken Spain
• Inflation.
• Causes?
• Growing population. More people demanding more
food led to increasing prices.
• Silver bullion flooding the market caused its value to
drop.
• Spain also borrowed money to finance their wars.
• Silver diverted to repay foreign banks.
• Ultimately, Spain was forced to declare bankruptcy
due to the high cost of the war with England.
French Wars of Religion
• Conflict Between Catholics and Huguenots
• France was predominantly Catholic.
• Of a population of 16 million, about 1.2 million were
Calvinist.
– Known as “Huguenots.”
• Many of these Calvinists were French nobility.
– Political as well as religious dispute
• Some of the French nobility supported the Huguenot cause as
part of their struggle against the power of the monarchy.
• Conflicts between Catholics and Huguenots led to more
than 3 decades of civil war.
French Wars of Religion
• King Henry II and His Heirs.
• 1547-89, France was ruled by a succession of ineffective rulers.
• Henry II (r.1547-59) was physically robust but weak-willed.
• Following his death, his widow, Catherine de’ Medici, a member of
the famous Florentine family, became the key figure during the
reigns of her 3 sons, who succeeded in order of birth to the French
throne: Francis II (r. 1559-1560), Charles IX (r. 1560-74), and
Henry III (r. 1574-89).
• All, including Catherine, were unable to cope effectively with the
intensifying Catholic-Huguenot conflict.
• Open warfare broke out in 1562.
• The Guise family led the Catholic cause. The Bourbon family led
the Huguenots.
French Wars of Religion
• The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
• Alarmed by the growing power of the Huguenots,
Catherine de’ Medici decided they must be
exterminated.
• Midnight, 8/24/1572 (St. Bartholomew’s Day),
Catherine gave a signal from a Paris church tower
which began the massacre of the Huguenots in Paris.
• Spread to the provinces, resulting in the death of
thousands of Huguenots.
French Wars of Religion
• The War of the Three Henrys (1585-89)
• Following the massacre, Henry of Navarre, a Bourbon,
emerged as the Huguenot’s leader.
• Catholic-Huguenot conflict continued, culminating in
the War of the Three Henrys involving King Henry III,
Henry of Navarre, and Henry, the Duke of Guise.
• Henry III had the Duke of Guise assassinated in
December 1588.
• The Guise faction retaliated with the assassination of
Henry III in July 1589.
• Henry of Navarre became King Henry IV (r. 15891610), the first Bourbon king of France.
French Wars of Religion
• Henry IV (r. 15891610)
• Huguenot prince
• Survived the St.
Bartholomew’s Day
Massacre.
• Upon taking the throne,
Henry converted to
Catholicism (!) to
appease his opponents—
an attempt at national
reconciliation.
French Wars of Religion
• Achievements:
• 1. Saved France from all out religious war by issuing
the Edict of Nantes (1598). Provisions?
– Allowed Protestant worship to continue in areas where the
Protestants were a majority.
– Barred Protestant worship in Paris and other Catholic
strongholds.
• 2. With his visionary finance minister, the Duc de Sully,
restored the treasury, repaired French infrastructure,
and supported trade and industry.
French Wars of Religion
• Sounds like everyone was happy, right?
• Wrong!
– Assassinated by a religious fanatic in 1610.
• Ultimately, his actions, including ignoring
the Estates-General, led to the foundation
of the absolute rule of later Bourbons.
The Thirty Years’ War
• Background (3 views):
• The 1555 Peace of Augsburg brought a temporary
truce in the religious conflict in the German states.
– Lutherans and Catholics wary of one other.
– HRE effectively powerless vs princes.
– Calvinism on the rise in Germany as well.
• Lutherans formed the Protestant Union in 1608.
• Catholics formed the Catholic League in 1609.
• So, one view could be that the war was an extension of
the international wars of religion between Catholics
and Protestants.
The Thirty Years’ War
• When the Holy Roman Emperor (Matthias) died, seven
leading German princes, called electors, met to choose a
new emperor.
– Since 1400, the emperor had always been a Hapsburg.
• Other princes went along, but didn’t recognize the
Hapsburg’s right to rule over them.
– So there was constant friction between the emperor and the princes.
• These political divisions deepened during the
Reformation, as German Catholic princes were upset
by conversions of other princes to Protestantism,
especially Calvinism.
– So, another view could be that the war was an episode in the longstanding German conflict between HRE and the princes.
The Thirty Years’ War
• The war took place at a time of instability in the
balance of power in Europe.
– So a third view could be that the war was a stage in a
continental power struggle involving most of the states and
rulers of Europe, fought mainly on German soil.
• Ultimately, the war grew from a confrontation in the
Czech kingdom of Bohemia between supporters and
opponents of Archduke Ferdinand II, the HRE, and
mushroomed in 4 distinct phases:
• Bohemian phase, Danish phase, Swedish phase, and
French phase.
The Thirty Years’ War
• 1. Bohemian Phase
(1618-23):
• Ferdinand II, HRE,
(Catholic), an ardent enemy
of Protestantism, wanted to
strengthen Hapsburg
authority.
• Czech kingdom of Bohemia
(Protestant) was ruled by
Ferdinand who had assumed
the Bohemian throne without
an election.
• Many Bohemians were
Calvinist.
The Thirty Years’ War
• Fearing the loss of their religious rights, these
Calvinists revolted.
• The Defenestration of Prague:
– Rebels threw 2 Catholic members of the Bohemian
royal council from a window 70 feet from the
ground into a dung pile.
• Rebels took control of Prague and declared
Ferdinand deposed.
• Ferdinand authorized attacks on Protestant
churches and curtailed the freedoms of the
Bohemian Protestants.
The Thirty Years’ War
• Ferdinand’s army crushed the Czechs and the German
Protestant princes who had supported them.
• Czech nobility were executed or imprisoned.
• Czechs were forcefully and systematically
“germanized” and reconverted to Catholicism.
The Thirty Years’ War
• 2. Danish Phase (1625-29):
• Christian IV of Denmark
(Lutheran) entered his army
into the fray in defense of his
hard-pressed Protestant
allies.
• Goal was to gain territory in
Germany.
• Subsidized by the English,
Dutch, and French, but no
troop support.
• Defeated. Agreed to retire
from the field (Treaty of
Lubeck).
The Thirty Years’ War
• 3. Swedish Phase (1628-35):
• Experienced, disciplined
Swedish army, under King
Gustavus Adolphus, entered
the war as a defender of the
Protestant cause.
• Drove the Catholic forces out
of Germany, but Gustavus
was killed at the Battle of
Lutzen near Leipzig in 1632.
• Gustavus was found with “a
bullet hole in his head, a
dagger in his side, and
another bullet, ominously, in
his back.”
The Thirty Years’ War
• 4. French Phase (1635-48):
• Under Cardinal Richelieu, Catholic France took up
arms against the Catholic Hapsburgs. Why?
• Feared their growing power. Saw them as a threat.
• As the Hapsburgs also sat on the throne of Spain, the
French declared war on them too.
• Ferdinand II died in 1637, raising hopes for peace.
• The war ended in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia.
The Thirty Years’ War
• The Treaty of Westphalia (1648):
• Results:
• 1. Recognized France as the principal power on the continent and
ceded to them some German lands.
• 2. Subordinated the Hapsburgs to the German princes. How?
• Gave the princes the right to sign foreign treaties.
• Made all imperial legislation subject to the Diet’s approval.
• 3. Granted the same rights to Calvinists as to Catholics and
Lutherans.
• Pope was outraged. Hopes for united “christendom” were dead.
• 4. Granted independence to Switzerland and the United Provinces.
The Thirty Years’ War
• Impact of the war:
• Europe was seen as a group of independent states, each essentially
equal to the others. Began the modern state system.
• Germany was devastated. Why?
• 1. Population had fallen from 21 million to 13 million.
• 2. Whole cities stood in ruins. Infrastructure destroyed.
• 3. Trade virtually came to a halt.
• 4. Changes in racial composition took place.
• So Germans were not only destitute, they were humiliated.
Consequence?
• Historians see this humiliation as the basis for the virulent
German pride that sprouted in later years.
Europeans Explore the East
• Introduction:
• Age of exploration brought the people of
Europe, Asia, the Americas, and sub-Saharan
Africa into direct contact for the first time.
• In many cases, it was the first meeting with
people of different races.
Europeans Explore the East
• Results:
• Knowledge of the size and
dimensions of the world and
of the world’s oceans.
• Europeans gained control
over the Americas, beginning
the process of colonization.
• Western civilization spread
throughout the world by
means of competitive trade
networks.
• Begins the modern era, in
which all peoples of the world
are linked, at least
economically.
Europeans Explore the East
• Consequences:
• Colonization’s permanent, often negative,
imprint on cultures conquered.
• Relative economic stability and prosperity to a
few European nations, but competitive trade
networks devastated many older cultures and
empires.
• Economic linking of all peoples of the world
contributed to a borrowing and blending of
ideas from many cultures.
Factors Encouraging Exploration
• 1. PROFIT
• Europeans were dependent on spices. Uses?
• Asian overland trade routes were unsafe,
forcing Europeans to consider the sea as a
possible route to Asia.
• Result if Italian traders who acted as
middlemen in East/West trade were cut out?
• Increased profits for European traders.
Factors Encouraging Exploration
• 2. Spread Christianity
• Carrying over from the Crusades, Europeans
believed they had a sacred duty to convert nonChristians.
• Christian religious leaders sought to halt the
expansion of Islamic empires.
Factors Encouraging Exploration
• 3. Expanded world view
• Carrying over from the Renaissance, the
European view of the world had expanded to
include new possibilities for exploration and
discovery.
Factors Encouraging Exploration
• 4. Technological
Advances
• Astrolabe
• Invented by the Muslims.
Allowed sailors to determine
their position relative to the
equator.
• Magnetic compass
• Invented by the Chinese.
Allowed sailors to determine
their geographical direction.
Factors Encouraging Exploration
• System of latitude
and longitude led to
improved
mapmaking.
• Introduced by the
Egyptian Ptolemy. A
grid system of map
references based on
coordinates.
Factors Encouraging Exploration
• Triangular sails
• Allowed ships to sail into
the wind, not just with it.
• Multiple masts with
several small sails
• Speed.
• Movement of the
ship’s rudder to the
stern
• Increased
maneuverability.
Factors Encouraging Exploration
• Development of
caravel ships
• Shallow draught
allowed for use in
shallow inlets.
• Armed with cannon.
The Portuguese: The First
European Overseas Explorers
• Why the Portuguese?
• Location
• On the Atlantic at the SW
corner of Europe.
• Government support
• Prince Henry the Navigator
• Son of the Portuguese king.
• Established the first
European school for
navigation.
• Organized expeditions along
the west coast of Africa.
• Origin of the slave trade.
The Portuguese: The First
European Overseas Explorers
• Portuguese Sailors
Reach Asia
• Bartolomeu Dias
• 1488 expedition reached
the southern tip of
Africa, rounding the
Cabo Tormentoso
(renamed Cape of Good
Hope).
• Proved that ships could
reach East Asia by
sailing around Africa.
The Portuguese: The First
European Overseas Explorers
• Vasco Da Gama
• 1497 expedition from
Lisbon bound for India
rounded Good Hope,
made stops on the east
coast of Africa, landed at
Calicut on India’s
southwest coast, and
returned to Portugal in
1499.
• Pioneered the direct sea
route to India.
The Spanish: Envy Spurs
Initiative
• Cristoforo Colombo (aka
Cristobal Colon; aka
Christopher Columbus)
• Plan?
• Reach India by sailing
west across the Atlantic.
• Pope had barred violation of
Portugal’s eastern sea route.
• Landed in the Bahamas
and thinking he was off
the coast of India, called
the islanders “Indians.”
The Spanish: Envy Spurs
Initiative
• Made 3 more trips.
Why??
• Trying to prove he’d
found a new route to
Asia.
• Hard to disprove
Columbus. Why?
• Because maps of the
time showed no
landmass west between
Europe and Asia.
• New landmass theory?
• Vespucci.
The Spanish: Envy Spurs
Initiative
• The Line of Demarcation
• The Portugal/Spain
rivalry heated up.
• Each wanted protection
of their claims.
• 1493, Pope Alexander VI
stepped in as
peacemaker. His
solution?
• An imaginary line down
the middle of the
Atlantic from the North
Pole to the South Pole!!
The Spanish: Envy Spurs
Initiative
• Spain: control of all lands west of the
line.
• Portugal: control of all lands east of the
line.
• Result?
• World divided neatly in half on the sole
authority of a pope!!
The Spanish: Envy Spurs
Initiative
• The Treaty of
Tordesillas
• Portugal complained. Why?
(see the red dot!)
• Believed the line favored
Spain. Did it? Why?
• Pope moved the line farther
west.
• 1494, Spain and Portugal
signed the Treaty of
Tordesillas, agreeing to honor
the revised line.
Trading Empires
• The Portuguese
•
•
•
•
•
Portugal’s main interest? Trade or colonization?
Trade!!
Principal area of focus?
The Indian Ocean. Why?
Spices! Portugal broke the old trade network from the
East by forcing out Muslim merchants, establishing a
base on the southwest coast of India, and taking control
of the East Indies .
• Result for Europeans?
• Asian goods at about 1/5 the former price!!
Trading Empires
• The Spanish
• Seeing Portuguese success in Asia, the Spanish
envisioned inroads in the area.
• Spain’s main interest? Trade or colonization?
• Conquest and colonization!
Trading Empires
• Magellan
• Sailed in 1519. Goal?
• Find a western route to Asia.
• Sailed around the southern
tip of South America to a
series of straits, which he
named after himself.
• Passed through the straits
into the “South Sea,” which
he renamed the Pacific
Ocean.
• Arrived in the Philippines in
1521. Died in a skirmish on
Guam.
Trading Empires
• 1522, one ship and 18 survivors landed at Seville.
What had they done?
• Completed the first circumnavigation of the globe.
• What did this voyage prove?
• World was round and larger than believed.
• Pacific and Atlantic were separate but connected.
• Lands reached by Columbus were not part of Asia.
Trading Empires--Conquest & Colonization
Trading Empires-- Conquest and
Colonization
• Spanish
Conquistadors
• Hernando Cortes: 1519 to
1522.
• Conquered Cuba and Mexico
and subdued the Aztecs.
• Introduced European diseases
that killed hundreds of
thousands.
• Francisco Pizarro: in the
1530s.
• Conquered Peru and
destroyed the Inca empire.
Trading Empires-- Conquest and
Colonization
• Title of Spanish colonial
rulers?
• Viceroys, or “little
kings”.
• Spanish settlers to the
Americas were known
as?
• Peninsulares.
• Children of peninsulares
and native women were
known as?
• Mestizos.
Trading Empires-- Conquest and
Colonization
• Spain had 2 goals for its American
empire:
• Exploitation of wealth--gold, silver, sugar
and tobacco.
• Conversion of the natives.
Trading Empires-- Conquest and
Colonization
• Spain (cont’d.)
• Spain’s empire was built on the backs of Native
Americans and imported African slaves.
• Native Americans were forced to labor under Spanish
landlords in the encomienda system.
• Natives were wiped out by smallpox, measles, and the
flu.
• Who was to harvest the sugar and tobacco crops??
• Enslaved African laborers.
Trading Empires
• The Netherlands
• The Dutch became independent of Spain in 1581.
• Few natural resources and limited farmland.
• By 1600, the Dutch had the largest fleet of ships in the
world.
• Focused first on the Indian Ocean.
• Together with the English, they broke the Portuguese
hold on Asia.
• The key to Dutch expansion and colonization?
• The efficiency of their ships.
• Larger cargoes with smaller crews.
Trading Empires
• The Dutch East India Company
• Chartered by the Dutch government to expand trade
and maintain close relations between the government
and enterprises in Asia.
• Asian headquarters set up in Batavia on Java.
• Powers?
• Minted money, made treaties, and even had private
armies.
• Pushed the Portuguese and then the English out of
their Asian outposts.
• Amsterdam became the world’s largest commercial
city.
Trading Empires
• Dutch Explorers
• Abel Tasman:
• Dutch navigator, who in
1642-43, charted the
outlines of Zuidland or
“Southland.”
• Known today as
Australia and New
Zealand.
Trading Empires
• Henry Hudson:
• Claimed territory along the Atlantic coast of North
America for the Netherlands.
• 1621, the Dutch West India Company was chartered by
the government to establish colonies in the Americas.
• Founded?
• New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island at the mouth of
the Hudson River.
• (Next slide = Hudson’s voyages).
Trading Empires
• The Dutch also
established an
African colony.
• 1652, Dutch farmers
(Boers) settled at the
Cape of Good Hope.
MORE TO COME!!
Trading Empires
• The French and English
• Why so late to the game?
• Restrained by religious conflicts and civil wars.
• Neither France nor England entered the colonial period
until the 1600s.
• France
• Goal? Trade or colonization?
• Quick trade profits.
• Little interest in the long term investment of
colonization.
Trading Empires
• France
• Jacques Cartier: 1536.
• Landed at Montreal.
• Claimed much of eastern
Canada for France.
• Samuel de Champlain:
1608.
• Founded Quebec.
• First permanent French
settlement in the
Americas.
Trading Empires
• England
• Goal? Trade or colonies?
• Colonies. Why?
• To provide raw materials they
would otherwise have to
purchase from other countries.
• First settled in the West Indies,
claiming Jamaica, the Bahamas,
and Barbados.
• English planters introduced
sugarcane in 1640.
• Sugar plantations, worked by
slave labor, proved much more
profitable than tobacco.
Trading Empires
• 1607: the Virginia
Company of London
founded the 1st
permanent English
settlement in North
America. Where?
• Jamestown.
Trading Empires
• The Fight for
North America
• Dutch presence in New
Netherland a big problem.
Why?
• Separated England’s northern
and southern colonies.
• Threatened by the Duke of
York’s fleet, the Dutch
surrendered without a shot
being fired.
• New Netherland renamed New
York. GB dominated the east
coast of America.
Trading Empires
• British colonial population began to outgrow its territory.
What to do??
• Expand territory. Where??
• Sure couldn’t go east.
• Only direction of expansion was west. Any problem?
• That’s where the French held North American territories.
• Result?
• Next slide.
Trading Empires
• The French and Indian
War (1754-63)
• Part of the Seven Years’ War
fought in Europe.
• British colonists, with help
from the British army, defeated
the French.
• The French surrendered nearly
all of their North American
holdings, thus expanding
British colonial possessions into
the Ohio Valley.
The Atlantic Slave Trade
• Background
• Basis of American colonial economies in the 1600s??
• Agricultural products.
• Somebody had to do the planting/harvesting. Do you think
Mr. Jefferson’s or Mr. Washington’s grandfathers were
going to do it??
• Slaves constituted a “unit of labor.”
• Could be exploited for profit.
• Initiated by the Spanish and Portuguese.
• Beginning in 1690, England dominated the slave trade.
The Atlantic Slave Trade
• Slave Trade = Triangular.
• Leg 1: Euro ships sailed for Africa carrying manufactured
goods, e.g., ammunition, arms, etc...
• In W. Africa, goods were traded for slaves (often captured
by other Africans).
• Leg 2: Euro ships sailed for the Americas carrying slaves
(the “middle passage”).
• In the Americas, slaves were sold and sugar and tobacco
were purchased.
• Leg 3: Euro ships sailed for Europe to sell goods
purchased in America.
Global Trade and the
Commercial Revolution
• Background
• Result of European colonial expansion??
• The occurrence of a commercial revolution.
• New business methods were instituted for investing
money, speeding the flow of wealth, and reducing risk
in commercial ventures.
Global Trade and the
Commercial Revolution
• The Commercial Revolution
• By the 1600s, the nation had replaced the city and
village as the basic economic unit.
• Banking families were replaced by governmentchartered banks.
• Joint-stock companies were created. What were they?
– Organizations that sold stock, or shares, in a venture.
Consequence??
– Enabled large and small investors to share profits and risks of
a trading voyage. What if the ship didn’t return?
• If a loss occurred, investors would lose only the amount
they had invested in shares.
Global Trade and the
Commercial Revolution
• Wider availability of money led to changes in
the nature and goals of business. What system
was developed?
• The entrepreneurial system. Goal??
• Based on the belief that the goal of business was
to make a profit.
• What’s an entrepreneur?
• Entrepreneurs combined money, ideas, raw
materials, and labor to make goods, and
especially, profits.
Global Trade and the
Commercial Revolution
• What new theory of
national economic policy
evolved??
• Mercantilism.
• A theory that held that a
state’s power depended on its
wealth.
• Thus every nation’s goal was
to become as wealthy as
possible.
• The European measure of
wealth was the accumulation
of bullion (gold and silver).
Global Trade and the
Commercial Revolution
• Consequences of this
new theory?
• Role of the
conquistadors.
• Seize the gold and silver
mines of the Aztecs and Incas.
• Role of the English
pirates.
• Seize the gold and silver coins
from Spanish and Portuguese
ships.
Global Trade and the
Commercial Revolution
• Any other way for
nations to accumulate
wealth?
• Favorable balance of trade.
What’s that??
• Exporting more goods than
are imported. So what??
• Means that gold and silver
received as payment for
exports would exceed that
paid for imports.
Global Trade and the
Commercial Revolution
• Role of the colonies
in the mercantile
system?
• Sources of raw materials.
• Markets for finished goods
produced in the parent
country.
• Primary reason for having
colonies?
• To help make the parent
country self-sufficient.
Global Trade and the
Commercial Revolution
• Resulting Social and Religious Trends
• Merchants began to surpass the nobility in wealth and
power. Why?
– Rents vs Prices.
• Entrepreneurs used their new influence to change
society. Who was looked down on?
– The unemployed. Stigma of “idleness.” States’ response?
• Work Laws. Criminal not to work. Other solutions?
– Colonies and “surplus” population.
– Just dump the poor, the criminals, and religious/social outcasts
in the colonies!