Download (Frank)

(Frank)
Ch. 12 Timeline:
1479-Unification of the crowns of Castile and Aragon
1487-Dias enters the Indian Ocean for the first time
1494-Treaty of Tordesillas
(Chen)
1519 Cortes begins conquest of Aztecs
1533 Beginning of reign of Ivan IV, the Terrible
1559 Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis
(Robert)
Prince Henry the Navigator- Portuguese leader whose systematic programs for southwest expansion brought
new techniques, accumulated accounts of voyages, and maps to Portugal. He maintained a laboratory at
Sagres (extreme sw tip of Portugal) and was an avid collector of maps including Arabic ones.
Alfonso de Albuquerque- Portuguese nobleman and admiral whose military and administrative activities as
second governor of Portuguese India helped establish the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean.
What did he advocate that would be Portugal’s pattern of exploitation?
Vladislav II- a ruler of the principality of Wallachia, from 1447 to 1448, and again from 1448 to 1456. Why is
he important? Does Dracula come into this picture?
Muscovy- Europe’s easternmost areas, where the heritage of the West mingled with Russia’s eastern culture.
This is inadequate. During this period Muscovy is the term referring to the growing power of the Russian state
under the princes of Moscow. The old world of the Ukranian-based Kievan Rus has been in decline even before
the Mongols arrive and the latter would choose Moscow and their base. The Princes of Moscow get a boost
from the Mongols (not without danger to themselves – had to collect the tribute.)
Boyar- Member of the upper stratum of medieval Russian society and state administration.
(Spencer)
Jagiellon dynasty- dynasty that had gained control over Poland-Lithuania at the end of the fourteenth
century, and the dynasty histories were also tied up with Bohemia and Hungary. Important buffer zone of
Europe with the Ottomans to the south and Russian to the east. Poles (Catholic) like to think of themselves
as guarding the ramparts of western civ. against the hordes from the East. (Russians have a few issues
with this viewpoint.) However, neither has particularly clean hands. Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible, part 2
does a particularly good job showing this.
Louis XI- French king most associated with the consolidation of France. After inheriting an estate
exhausted by warfare (with Burgundy and the Hundred Years War) and civil strife, he vastly extended the
territories under the dominion of the French crown and subdued the nobility, who had held much of the
power of the divided areas of France.
Aide- French tax on a variety of commodities, including meat and wine. Long years of war had established
the principle of royal taxation that was so essential to the process of state building in France.
Reconquista- from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, recapture and re-Christianization of territories in
Spain, especially the southern portion, that had been overrun by North African Muslims, whom the Spanish
called Moors during the Middle Ages. The reconquest was finally completed in 1492, when the Moors were
pushed out of Grenada and the Jews expelled from Spain.
Francis I of France- king of France from 1515-1547 who is considered the first Renaissance monarch of
France. He was a patron of the arts, and attempted to bring culture and bureaucratic reform to the French
nation, which was most heavily influenced by war. He also started a persecution of French Protestants,
which started a religious civil war. His involvement in the Wars of Italy following the reign of Charles VIII
would pit him and France against Charles V and the holdings of the Habsburgs over hegemony in Europe, in
which Henry VII of England would also become involved.
(carter)
Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis - End the so called Habsburg Valois War which began in conflict over control of
Italy. This was one of the first major show downs between the great dynasties of Europe. While some territory
was returned to the original possessors Spain gained major control over the majority of Italy.
Aide was the Basque numenistic deity of the air. She could manifest herself in both good (gentle breeze) and
evil (storm wind) forms (I think this is right but not sure, I could not find anything else.) This doesn’t make
sense given the context of this chapter. See page 369 on French royal taxation.
(Tahey)
Columbus - 15th century explorer who believed that the shortest route to Asia for spices by going
Westward, instead of around Africa like Portugal. However, he miscalculated the distance and eventually
landed in the Bahamas. It soon became apparent he had discovered a new world, but he still continued to
focus on finding a westward route to the Indies to break up Portugal’s monopoly of the spice trade.
New Monarchies – More centralized forms of European government formed in the 15 th and 16th centuries,
forged by dynasties who gained power through diplomacy, marriage and war. They consolidated smaller
states and had to deal with the differences in local customs, distance which made travel and
communication difficult. However despite these and other challenges, states such as France, England,
Spain, Muscovy, and Poland-Lithuania had at least partially succeeded in forming a national identity.
Bartolemeu Dias – Portuguese navigator during the reign of Prince Henry who rounded the tip of Africa and
opened the eastern shores to Portuguese traders, though his aim was access to Asia because trade had
been cut off by the Muslim advance.
Hernando Cortes – a conquistador who after participating in the conquest of Cuba, led an expedition into
Central America to for the riches of an empire that was rumored to exist. Cortes conquered the Aztecs after
a year of fighting with help from the local Indian tribes, and had reduced the local populations from 25
million to 2 million, mostly through disease. This caused gold and silver to pour into Spain, and a plantation
system to develop in the conquered areas. In what way did he serve as a model for Spanish exploitation of
the new world?
(Emma)
Ivan III, the Great (1462-1505): ruler of Muscovy who expanded it to the north and the west, annexing
Novgorod and parts of Livonia and Lithuania. Diplomatically, Ivan preferred pacifism. Ivan married Sophia,
niece of the last emperor of Byzantium, allowing Muscovy to be the heir to Eastern Christendom.
War of the Roses (1445-1485): a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between the
houses of Lancaster (red) and York (white) centered around the dukes of York trying to wrest the crown
form Henry VI. After other failed kings, Henry Tudor put an end to the dynastic conflicts.
Henry (VII) Tudor: English monarch who secured the throne after the War of the Roses. He created new
nobility who were loyal to the Tudors. He sent ministers to view and value royal lands. He had a reputation
for greed and rapacity. His financial problems limited both domestic and foreign policy.
Taille: a direct tax on property from which the nobility and clergy were exempt
Ferdinand of Aragon: king of Aragon who married Isabella of Castile to unify Spain. He recovered the lands
conquered by the Moors. He instated the Spanish inquisition to examine the conversos dedication to
Catholicism. He also sent Christopher Columbus to explore a western passage to spice routes.
(Frank)
Conversos: These are Muslims and Jews who converted to Christianity in Spain, largely during the 14th-15th
centuries. This conversion was particularly enforced during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs (Ferdinand II of
Aragon and Isabella I of Castile) at the time of the unification of Spain and the need for a united Spanish
nation to drive out the last remaining Moorish and Jewish influences in Spain. Despite their conversion, they
faced discrimination by both the Christian Spanish population as well as the practitioners of the religion they
converted from. Muslim converts were known as Moriscos, and Jewish converts were called Marranos. What
about conversos?
Valois dynasty: The Valois dynasty was a branch of the Capetian dynasty that ruled France from 1328 to 1589.
The first king of the Valois dynasty was Philip VI. The Valois dynast also had some of its descendants as the
dukes of Burgundy from 1363 to 1482.
Bartolome de las Casas (1482-1566): He was a Spanish historian and a noted friar and monk of the Dominican
order. He travelled to the New World during the period of Spanish colonization, but he was devastated by the
abuse and maltreatment of the local indigenous population at the hands of the Spanish colonizers, which he
documented in “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.” As a result, he devoted his life to advocated
human rights and the equality of all people regardless of skin, gender, or religion.
Caravels: These were ships that were designed by the Portuguese during the 15th century when they began to
sail the Atlantic Ocean and explore western Africa. Its design was very well structured and allowed the
Portuguese to initially remain ahead in the early colonization era despite their relative lack of manpower when
compared to the Spanish, English, and French.
Provincialism: This describes limited regionalist thought and subdivision of organization so that the people
who are part of a particular or region have hardly any interaction with others. This invariably leads to
regionalism.
Vasco da Gama (1460-1524): Da Gama was one of the most significant Portuguese explorers of the colonial
era. He was the first to sail to India directly from Europe. He was responsible for beginning the Portuguese, as
well as the greater European, colonial rule and imperialism of the developing world. His travels also resulted in
the discovery of new trade routes that allowed Europe to gain access to the luxury goods of the Far East
without having to initially trade with the Arabs in northern Africa and the Middle East.
(chen)
Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), a Portuguese explorer, 1519-1522 became the first expedition to sail from
the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean, first to cross the Pacific, completed the first circumnavigation of the
Earth; been killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines.
Francisco Pizarro (1475-1541), a Spanish conquistador, conquered the Peruvian Empire of the Incas; that
conquest became the true source of profit for the crown when a huge silver mine was discovered in 1545 at
Potosi in what is now southern Bolivia; the first colonist from Spain.
Ivan IV, the Terrible (1533-1584), defeated the Mongols on his southeastern border and incorporated the
entire Volga river basin into Muscovy; breakdown of local networks of influence and power and to a disruption
of local governance; forcibly relocated boyar families, stripping them of their lands in one place but granting
them new lands elsewhere; created departments of state to deal with the various tasks of administration;
Poland-Lithuania- the growth of an enlarged and centralized Muscovy stands in contrast to the experiences of
Poland-Lithuania during the same period. A union had the four states been permanently consolidated they
could have become an effective barrier to Ottoman expansion. Kept peace among the four neighbors but they
kept any one of them from becoming a dominant partner. Rework second sentence – not clear.
Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540), the chief minister of Henry, accelerated the process of centralizing
government that had begun under Edward IV. He divided administration according to its functions by creating
separate departments of state, modeled upon courts, expanding the power of the Privy Council; one of the
strongest advocates of the English Reformation; Supremacy over the Church of England.
Gabelle-a consumption tax on the purchase of salt in most parts of kingdom.
(keith)
isabella of castile - Isabella I (1451-1504), queen of Castile sponsored of the voyages of Christopher
Columbus. In 1469 Princess Isabella married Ferdinand of Aragon. On the death of her brother, Henry IV,
Isabella and Ferdinand jointly succeeded (1474) to the throne of Castile and León. Isabella's succession was
contested, however, by Alfonso V of Portugal, who supported the claim of Henry's daughter Juana la
Beltraneja. Alfonso attacked Castile and León but was defeated by the Castilian army in 1476. Three years
later Ferdinand succeeded to the throne of Aragón. This union of the two main Spanish kingdoms laid the
foundation of Spain's future greatness.
Emperor Charles V- (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519
and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his
younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.
Habsburg Empire - multi-national empire in Central Europe under the rule of the Hapsburg dynasty from 1273
until 1918; from 1867 known as Austro-Hungary.
Lusiads - is a Portuguese epic poem. Written in Homeric fashion, the poem focuses mainly on a fantastical
interpretation of the Portuguese voyages of discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries.
Conquistadores - were Spanish and Portuguese soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the
Americas under the control of Spain and Portugal in the 15th to 16th centuries.
Treaty of Tordesillas - The Treaty of Tordesillas was agreed upon by the Spanish and the Portuguese to clear
up confusion on newly claimed land in the New World. in 1493 Pope Alexander VI took action to clear up any
confusion that may have arisen over territorial claims. He issued a decree which established an imaginary line
running north and south through the mid-Atlantic from the Cape Verde islands. Spain would have possession
of any unclaimed territories to the west of the line and Portugal would have possession of any unclaimed
territory to the east of the line. After further exploration, the Portuguese grew dissatisfied with the agreement
when they realized how much more land Spain had been given. In June of 1494 the line was re-negotiated and
the agreement was officially ratified during a meeting in the Spanish town of Tordesillas
Map (keith)
1. Most of the Portuguese colonies were located in the southern hemisphere. With many colonies located on
the coasts of Africa and South America with many ports. Spain controlled much of the coast line of South
America that was not already controlled by Portugal. They also controlled Central America, Cuba, and Florida.
As for Asia Spain controlled the Philippine Islands.
Making connections.
(Robert)
1. A desire to spread the Christian faith against growing Eastern threats, a lust for gold and trade, and a
gambit for personal glory all led explorers and countries to expand their explorations in the sixteenth
century. With the Ottoman Turks bearing down on Europe, countries wanted to spread Christianity along
other avenues of the world. Similarly, economic theories of the time posited that the country with the most
gold would be the wealthiest, and so kings and queens established empires to gather larger amounts of
gold than was possible on their homelands alone. Also, famous explorers looked for personal glory when
they set off on expeditions, wanting to be remembered in the same way that Renaissance artists and
humanists of the time were. Portugal, with Prince Henry the Navigator, led this expansion, first in Africa
and then all the way to India. The Europeans’ technology, namely that of gunpowder, made them virtually
unstoppable when fighting natives, and allowed them to gobble up gigantic sections of continents such as
Africa. This land-grab led to a few discoveries about the European psyche itself: Europeans were constantly
looking to find some evidence of the God they purported, they believed now that life was worth living and
was to be enjoyed, and they blatantly disregarded the humanity of anyone technologically or (to them)
morally inferior than themselves. This last aspect would later fuel the slave trade.
First of all, be sure to begin your answer with a well-crafted thesis statement. With regard to motivations
for exploration, you take the God, Gold, Glory point of view. Looking at the first of the three – wasn’t the
Catholic Counter-Reformation aimed at the Protestants not another aspect? The second must also include
the efforts to side step the Muslim middlemen in pursuit of spices, silks, etc. With regard to glory, consider
who these conquistadores were. For the second question, you stress gunpowder. What about horses; what
effect did they have on native people? (Be sure to consider multiple ideas, rather than fix on just one.) I’m
not sure what your first sentence about European identity in the face of New World experience means. On
the one hand the New World was the source of inspiration, opportunity, excitement which fired European’s
imagination. But their ability to take in these worlds was hampered by provincialism (new word) at best
and as you point out cruel ethnocentrism at worst.
(Spencer)
2. What defined the boundaries of Europe in 1500? Europe is a continuation of the larger Eurasian landmass –
so Europe, per se, is pretty much an arbitrary construct. In that case, we could look at “Europe" as an idea,
a mental construct where culture and identity become important. In 1500 wasn’t Christianity (as opposed
to Islam) a key determining point?
What could be called the boundaries of Europe by 1500 were formed by important naval trading routes and
non-European empires. By the end of 1492, the Moors had been pushed out of Spain. To the North, the
border of Europe centered around the Baltic Sea, which was to become one of the most important trading
routes of the early modern era. This is true but incomplete (your answe - The Hanseatic League was an
important late medieval development, but by 1500 with the voyages of Columbus etc. the center of
economic opportunity was turning to the Atlantic The states of the Baltic lands didn’t have the means for
greater development that states such as England, later (after its civil war) France and the Netherlands had.
This is one of the themes of the chapter – the emergence of increasingly powerful nation states, which had
the will and means to accomplish big political and economic ventures. The union of Spain (Ferdinand and
Isabella) along with the Reconquista put Spain in that category. For the same reason, Portugal will lose
out. The settlement of Eastern Europe was largely facilitated by the Teutonic Knights, German crusaders
who had settled it in the 13th century. Not true. The Teutonic Knights received a mandate to Christianize
Lithuania (last pagan stronghold in Europe) in the 13 th century. The issue was that they exceeded their
mandate and went after the Orthodox Rus of Novgorod. (See Alexander Nevsky) By 1500, Poland,
Brandenburg have largely taken advantage of the Teutonic Order’s waning power. By 1525, the Knights’
power had been neutralized, the Grand Master had become a Lutheran and Prussia, for example, had
become a fief of Poland. So what is important here and why the previous sentence is a misstatement is
that it doesn’t put emphasis on indigenous, ie. Slavic settlements and development. The next statement
should be reworked to mention two key worlds – Poland-Lithuania and Muscovy. The story here is these
two groups’ interaction with their neighbors (include Sweden) and especially with one with one-another.
This settlement area was divided only by the kingdom of Poland-Lithuania. The Eastern border was defined
by the ends of the territory of the Russians, who gained control once the Mongols began to withdraw. The
south-eastern border was defined by the Ottoman Empire, who was continually encroaching into Europe,
and would at one point control southern Hungary. (Correct)
(Carter)
Making connections 3- there were many factors that slowed the development of centralized states. The first
was the feudal system even though the nobles were subservient to the king they act largely autonomously.
The second was the fact the church was the supreme power in Europe until it after the avignon papacy, golden
bull, and reformation. (These events unfolded over a period of several hundred years – did political factors
enter into the pace at which the Church’s power waned – Did monarchs and key nobles play the Church card
for their own interests and in turn did the Church play on the ambitions of the great nobles?) The third factor
was that large dynastic families controlled much of Europe and wanted to expand their holdings not that of
their countries. Another reason is the lack of nationalism. Many people especially the Italians saw themselves
as members of their town or area not their country. (What forces encouraged cultural and political
particularlism? Consider remnants of feudalism, local customs and dialects etc.) until royal power finally
began to reign supreme because the kings seized more power, centralized states did not develop. one of the
deciding factors that as armies and weapons became more modern and expensive the nobles simply could not
afford to maintain large forces. Were there other factors?
(Tahey)
4) Eastern Europe was the region with the most centralized government by the 16 th century, and Muscovy
was the most successful example. By the reign of Ivan the Great, external threats such as the Mongols had
diminished, and he was the only candidate for the throne, so he started expanding and centralizing power.
This continued under the reign of his descendants, the most notable being Ivan the Terrible. Though
expansion was halted during his reign he was successful in further centralizing power by pursuing harsh
policies against the boyars(the old aristocrats), separating them from their traditional holdings and
pushing them down among the military service class. This allowed for him to easily consolidate his power
and create administrative offices under him to deal with local government. Poland-Lithuania was not so
lucky, they experienced outside pressures and their rulers’ power was gained through diplomacy, not
conquest, so it was weaker, and the regional aristocracy was still powerful.
Looking at the chapter, I think it should be 1550. Even so, in Moscovy, you will be starting with the young
Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584,) who confronts the Boyar class who had been running things when Ivan was
a minor. Ivan has to break out of this. By the 1560s he plays a game of saying he’s had enough (It’s a
bluff) and says he’s going to pack it up and leave; the nobles then plead with him to come back. (They
don’t have any other alternatives) He agrees but on his terms and then he cleans house. He raises certain
individuals “from the dirt” and creates (like the Tudors) a service gentry. He establishes his secret police,
the Oprichnina. He also gets bogged down in wars. He’s successful against the weak khanates in the south
and east (the free-standing Cathedral in Red Square with those iconic onion domes is built to
commemorate victory over the Muslims – and supposedly had the architect’s eyes gouged out so that
nowhere else could it be duplicated) but he is less successful against the Livonian knights and so doesn’t
have permanent access to the Baltic.
Is Ivan a Renaissance prince? This is an interesting point of debate among historians. I’d suggest steering
a middle ground. He is medieval in that he is still quite pious and after one of his really horrific acts he gets
all contrite (was it all just an act?) but it is known that some of his advisors had traveled to the West on
diplomatic missions and one in particular had exposure to Machiavelli. The historian Michael Cherniavsky
suggested that some of Ivan’s behavior was pure “The Prince.” After all Machiavelli claimed that his book
was simply based on what he observed. (Chicken and egg argument.) We can at least say that like M’s
advice, Ivan was willing to “do what it took” to bring under his control the Church and the nobility.
Historians disagree on whether he was crazy (He did murder his son in a fit of anger – one theory is that it
was syphilis but Soviet medical experts exhumed his cadaver and found that he suffered from a fusion of
the spine which would have given him great pain) or was Ivan simply crazy like a fox?
Very Interesting Side Story: Richard Chancellor who in 1552 was in search of the North-East passage and
got marooned in the White Sea. He is hauled overland by Russian fishermen to Moscow and Ivan is thrilled
– he has a means now to sidestep the Baltic powers - Poland-Lithuania, Sweden, the Hanseatic League and
the Livonians. The Muscovy Trading (a merchants’) Co. is formed and both England and Russia get what
they want. (Tall trees, ship stores, furs for finished woolen goods, metal tools, weapons)
Final point: “Ivan the Terrible” is to be understood correctly as “Ivan the Awe-inspiring” You know a bit
like the great and terrible Oz.
Poland meanwhile still has strength and resources but it is also entering a period of weakness. You have
kings with designs on Sweden and you will have the Jesuits beginning to be active. Two key aspects
underline weakness for centralizing the state – the elected nature of the monarchy and the veto that each
noble wielded, which easily led to gridlock. However, don’t count it out: it will intervene in Russian affairs
during the upcoming Time of Troubles (starting in 1598 with the extinction of the Rurik dynasty –
remember the “false dimitri who got canonized”) and have a last gasp of heroic effort on the West’s behalf
when it lifts the siege of Vienna in 1683 (remember coffee and croissants)
lords who had more power than the kings or emperors, but by the mid-15th century, strong national
leaders had begun to centralize power. In England the War of the Roses destroyed the main houses which
laid claim to the throne, and a distant relative of the Lancastrians, Henry Tudor.. He needed to limit the
powers of the aristocracy and be able to remain solvent. He instituted a new aristocracy of state service
and started administrative reform for taxes, which included confiscated the Church’s holdings. France
became a centralized state through war, after the 100 Year’s war, Burgundy remained a threat, so with the
help of a Swiss revolt, France crushed Burgundy and annexed most of the area. Under Louis XI the French
nobility was reduced in influence and the French had a strong, professional military after years of constant
war. Spain was technically unified under the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, but they still had the
Reconquista, which tried to rid Spain of North African Muslims. Charles V eventually inherited Spain and
created a centralized administrative system of councils, allowing him to be absent for long periods
territories under Spanish control.
This is good background but doesn’t focus on the text’s emphasis of the important changes taking place
between 1500 and 1550. Only in your last sentence do you get to one of the key players.
To discuss 1550 for the West you have to focus on the creation of 3 strong states – England, France and
especially Spain. It’s the last that should be for this period of greatest study for both its power and yet
essential long-term weakness. (Think imperial overstretch here as well as the inherent impossibility of
consolidation of power in the HRE) Besides the personalities of the New Monarchs, you must be sure to
look at institutional aspects of consolidation of power like bureaucracies.
(Emma)
5. The formation of large states led to inevitable conflicts. Long chains of marriages created nations claiming
the same territories. The inevitability of war created great violence because of improved technology. Artillery
on the cavalry and increased army sizes led to more deaths. The reason for these conflicts was also because
monarchs wanted to defend their heritage. Lastly, the personality of the monarchs desired combat and glory.
This was highlighted by jealousies vis a vis other monarchs. What about the role of certain values, e.g.
chivalric pursuit of “valor”?
Putting Larger concepts Together
(Eni)
1. Centralization was a slow process stretching from the fifteenth into the sixteenth century, which required
great monetary as well as temporal resources. The New Monarchies in Western, Eastern and Central Europe
consolidated at different paces and in different ways. Portugal, the first unified nation state in Europe, did not
have to deal with internal problems other European nations faced. Gifted with favorable geographical position
and domestic tranquility, it lead (led) the way into the Age of Expansion. Centralization came first to Portugal
because its population shared one language and one religion, as well as (;moreover,) the principality did not
face the ruthless aristocratic competition which haunted the other parts of Europe. Lack of natural resources,
a great dependency on Eastern trade, navigational knowledge and technology developed by sailing the
Atlantic Ocean to reach the islands Azores and Madeira, compelled Portugal to invest in financial ventures of
exploration. Centralization was not the only necessity for European expansion. Britain matched Portugal’s
favoring (favorable) geographical position, but it lacked the economic (drop –al) resources to experiment with
expansion outside of Europe. After a thirty year draining (awkward) civil war, Henry VIII (you mean VII) and
his chief minister were able to consolidate power in Britain (England) by organizing the administration, and
establishing a new peerage which supported the king. Britain’s centralized governing body was well
organized, but the crown lacked the funds to implement uncertain foreign policy such as exploration. The
opposite happened in the Iberian Peninsula. There unification was a slow process even though Ferdinand of
Aragon married Isabella of Castile. Castilians, skeptical of Ferdinand, maintained their local identity even
while Castilian became the official language of Aragon and Castilian were appointed in official posts. The
borders between the two kingdoms started to blur as pride of the success of the reconquista spread through
the peninsula, but it was not till Charles V that expansion and exploration supported the centralization of
Spain by creating a common nationalism of Spanish identity between the two kingdoms. France’s
centralization was not due to the skills or plans of a leader as much as to a series of events which weakened
the nobility and consolidated the power of the monarchy. France, split by provincialism and language barriers,
consolidated due to constant warfare with foreigners and itself. (?) French laws preventing women from
inheriting estates, allowed King Louis XI to absorb the lands of those nobles fallen in war into the royal
domain. Royal territories slowly expanded into including Burgundy after the local Duke fell in battle against
the Swiss. Constant warfare established ideas of royal taxation- something refuted (rejected) by the Britishas well as the formation of a national army with a royal artillery reserve. Warfare proved beneficial to French
consolidation, but the monarchy, which lacked the designs of a great leader, was not yet ready to embark
upon a journey into the New World even though taxation could provide the funds. The Holy Roman Empire was
syncopated (fragmented) into confederations, large states, municipalities, rich estates and held together by a
powerless Emperor. The lack of unification as well as its landlocked position disfavored (hindered) its direct
participation into the exploration, but German bankers started funding voyages for (in search of) new trade
routes and to the New World. Moscovy princes started unifying the East through military and diplomatic
action. The disintegration of the Mongolian Empire helped Moscovy increase its influence over the area and it
continued to expand west into Lithuania and south towards the Black Sea. The new territories allowed for
(omit) the formation of a new landholding class made up of military officials who were loyal to the crown,
unlike the aristocratic Boyars, who inherited land and were independent of tsar. Attempts of consolidation
include the Zemsky Sobor, the Parliament (Assembly of the Land) with representatives from both landholding
classes and towns, but the empire remained rural and lacking a strong merchant class. The existence of serfs,
which weakened the economy, a society based on agriculture and lacking the foundation in trade, as well as
its land locked position made (put) Russia disfavored (at a disadvantage) in the expansion competition.
Centralization favored expansion, but economical and geographical positions played a great role in the
European engagement in exploration.
God, gold and glory were the three Gs inspiring the expansion into the New World. Two hundred years after
the last Crusade, Europeans found another holy reason to venture into forgotten parts of the world and exploit
the local culture and resources. Many missionaries and conquistadors traveled to the New World with the goal
of saving Christian souls, just like their ancestors had traveled to the Byzantine Empire to save the Holy lands
from Muslim control. The Crusades were an effort of recapturing lost territory, while the colonization was
about exploration and expansion into the unknown world. In both times, young man looking for glory and
fame embarked on these dangerous trips claiming to have holy intentions in mind. Yet, neither during the
Crusades nor the Age of Exploration, did piety serve as the only incentive. The Crusades were secular, not just
religious, wars intended to preserve European control over the silk and spice routes. The difference stands in
that the first venture was a cooperation of European powers, while the second created tough competition
between (among) the nations. Economic reasons convinced monarchs and the merchant laity of the
importance of such travels. Both experiences were highly militarized and resulted in massacres of the native
populations, destruction of cities, and theft of artifacts and resources. Sadly, the second one proved more
devastating and lasting than the first. Both resulted in the creating of racist ideals; the Crusades inspired hate
for Jews and Muslims and the colonization developed a superiority complex responsible for the enslavement
and death of millions of Native Americans and African slaves.
(Julia)
3. The concept of the empire had become less popular in the sense of reestablishing the Roman Empire. The
cause for this was the development of separate towns due to split cultural identities and languages. Each
city had its own economic interests depending on its location, such as landlocked towns depended more on
agriculture and trade routes, while seaside towns had the advantage of received goods from across
Europe.
***This process of state formation depended on factors such as geography, population, and natural
resources. The European states began to take shape through the wealth distribution, customs in
communities, and the manner in which social groups formed. However, the distance between cities made it
difficult for a several states to be ruled by the same people; therefore most became their separate city
states. Cultural factors, such as languages and customs created a central community in separate towns and
isolated other groups of people, giving reason to the dominance of political particularism. State
government was largely inherited, passed down through generations and kept within the towns. Rulers
struggled to defend themselves from powerful subjects as well. This was the reason for the formation of
alliances, to prevent warfare among the states, which was common in the sixteenth century. Although
rulers used their children to form marriages and create a bond between two ruling families, dynastic
struggles continued. These marriages sometimes caused conflict as several people would claim the
inheritance and then use force to achieve it. The Renaissance virtue of valor had remained engrained in
society, therefore being another attribute for princes to do great deeds and become famous through their
wars. In general, the focus of rulers in the sixteenth century was to expand their territory and bring
prosperity to themselves and their subjects; however, the building of an empire proved difficult as the
regions varied in their political alliance, cultural formation, and economic interests.
Your answer lacks a clear thesis statement that addresses the question – you want to analyze the factors
relating to regionalism that hindered the creation of empires. Then, were these factors related to state
formation. The second sentence regarding the development of chartered, independent towns is just one of
quite a number of factors – particularly in the HRE. The way you have organized and worded the sentence
suggests that it was the main factor. Did you list the reasons first and then organize them logically? The most
promising beginning for your answer is at the point ****. Your answer would also be enhanced by specific
examples of your main factors.