Download Notes Chapter 15

Chapter 15
The Age of Religious Wars and
Overseas Expansion
General Notes
 The Reformation and the overseas expansion changed dramatically the life of people
between 1560 and 1648
 Renaissance and Reformation inspired literature, art and music
 The overseas expansion connected Europe with Africa, Asian and both Americas
Politics, Religion and War
 France and Spain ended the Habsburg-Valois Wars in 1559 with the Treaty of CateauCambrèsis
 Spain won Sicily, Naples and Milan, and a lot of influence in the Papal States and
Tuscany
 The wars stopped being dynastic, leaving politics and religion to motivate people
 The wars in 16th and 17th century differed from Medieval ones – larger armies, cheaper
equipment and support, and gunpowder made war more deadly
 The Peace of Westphalia, signed in 1648 marked the end of the medieval era
 The Medieval ideal of a single ruler and church was recognized as dead – many
countries had several councilors next to their ruler, and the Protestantism kept
opposing the Catholicism. Very few people that their lives had been changed
The Origins of Difficulties in France (1515-1559)
 The first half of 16th century was time for recovery for France
 Peasants’ status improved and nobles’ declined
 Francis I (r. 1515-1547) made a big step into centralizing the country, placing the
whole of France under the jurisdiction of the royal courts, with French, as official
language
 Taxes were rough
 The Concordat of Bologna gave French rulers the power to appoint church officials,
which kept France Catholic later on
 Clergy education was poor as anywhere else
 Lutheran and Calvinist ideas found a receptive audience
 Protestants were slowly growing in numbers
Religious Riots and Civil War in France (1559-1598)
 French monarchy was weak in the end of 16th century
 Many French nobles adopted Calvinism to oppose the monarchy
 The Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre, caused by the Catholic Henry of Guise
attacking Admiral Gaspard de Colgny, leader of the French Calvinists (Huguenots),
led to the War of Three Henrys
 The civil conflict lasted 15 years and tried to eliminate Calvinism, throwing France
into domestic anarchy
 Politiques, or moderates, saved France and established peace between the two
churches, putting Henry of Navarre on the throne as king Henry IV (r. 1589-1610)
 Henry converted to Catholicism to save France
 The Edict of Nantes from 1598 gave Huguenots rights, preparing France for
absolutism in 17th century
The Netherlands under Charles V
 Netherlands were very important trade country
 Lutheranism was easily spread
 Philip, who inherited the Netherlands from Charles, caused tension because of his
Spanish blood
 Charles, being a Flemish, was a lot more popular
The Revolt of the Netherlands (1566-1587)
 Calvinism was far more dangerous for the Netherlands than Lutheranism
 Calvinists ruled the middle and the working classes
 In 1566 Calvinists from the poor classes rebelled against the “illegal” civil authorities
and false church ideas
 The first target was Notre Dame, a great monument in Antwerp, after which the
attackers turned against Brussels and Ghent, and north to Holland and Zeeland
 Philip II sent Spanish soldiers under the duke of Alva, to “pacify”, or eliminate as it
was interpreted, the opposition
 The Council of Blood was created in Spain, similar to the Inquisition
 On March, 3, 1568, fifteen thousand men were executed
 The civil war between Catholics and Protestants and between Spain the seventeen
provinces of the Netherlands, lasted between 1568 and 1578
 In 1576 Prince William of Orange “the Silent” united the provinces
 The southern provinces, including Antwerp, fell under Spain’s rule, conquered by
Philip’s nephew Alexander Farnese
 Calvinism was forbidden in the South
 The northern provinces united as the Union of Utrecht, proclaiming themselves
independent from Spain, in 1581
 The north was Protestant, and commercial aristocracy ruled, while the south remained
Catholic with landowners holding the power
 The Union asked for queen Elizabeth’s help
 Elizabeth had three major reason to help the Low Lands – the English wool trade was
a good source of money, that could stop with Spain’s influence; the murder of William
the Silent was a big wound for the Protestantism and gave Farnese an advantage; the
collapse of Antwerp meant Catholic invasion in English lands
Philip II and the Spanish Armada
 Philip II appeared to be educated and traveling scholar, but a typical young man in his
youth too
 Philip started devoting himself to the church more than the country
 Muslims and personal matters prevented Philip from concentrating on the Netherlands
 Philip, provoked by Pope Sixtus and Farnese, decided to launch an attack on England
 Disregarding the Ottoman danger, Philip commanded the attack, and the battle ended
with a victory for England
 The constant flow of silver gave Spain the opportunity to prolong the war
 Philip III recognized the Union as a free country in the Netherlands after no change in
the borders was made
The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)
 Struggle between Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists endured in Germany during the
17th century
 Lutheran princes formed the Protestant Union in 1608
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The Catholics responded with the foundation of the Catholic League in 1609
Dynastic arguments supported the fight
May, 23, 1618 marked the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War
The war was divided to four phases:
Bohemian (1618-1625), in Bohemia; Ferdinand vs. Frederick, Catholic League vs.
Protestant Union
Danish (1625-1629), named after Kind Christian IV of Denmark, whose poor
leadership led to many victories for the Catholic opponents.
*In 1629, the Habsburg emperor passed the Edict of Restitution, which let only
Catholics and Lutherans to practice their religion, recovering any lost Catholic
property since 1552
Swedish (1630-1635) – the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus aided the Protestants,
winning two great battles, but receiving a mortal wound
Adolphus’s death led to France joining on the side of Protestants, which marked the
French phase (1635-1648)
The war dragged French, Dutch and Swedes, supported by Scots, Finns and German
mercenaries
October 1648 was the end of the war
The Peace of Westphalia marked the end of wars fought over religious conflicts
The treaty reduced the emperor’s power greatly, but he remained with higher authority
than the princes
France gained land and prestige
Sweden received German lands along the Baltic Sea
The church role reduced greatly too, and the Pope no longer had rights over the
German church
North Germany remained Protestant, while the Southern states were Catholic
Germany after the Thirty Years’ War
 The Thirty Years’ War was a disaster for Germany
 Late 16th and early 17th century brought an economic crisis to whole Europe, caused
by the influx of silver
 The wars in the south blocked the Mediterranean trade
 Germany’s economy suffered a great deal from the war
Discovery, Renaissance and Expansion
 The period 1450-1650 has been called the Age of Discovery, the Age of Expansion
and Age of Reconnaissance
 For two centuries, the Europeans discovered more about the world than they did in the
last thousand years
Overseas Exploration and Conquest
 Viking voyages in the 9th and 10th centuries, up to Greenland and North America
 The Crusades in 11th-13th centuries led Europe east
 Turks threatened Europe
 Spain, France and England, centralizing their governments, were better prepared for
the expansion
 Portugal’s taking of Ceuta marked the beginning of European exploration
 Prince Henry the Navigator played a leading role
 Portugal was taking land and gold in Africa, controlling the flow of gold to Europe
 Bartholomew Diaz reached Cape of Good Hope in 1487
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Vasco da Gama reached India in his trip (1497-1499)
King Manuel (r. 1495-1521) assisted Diaz to set up trading posts in India
On April, 22, 1500, Portugal claimed Brazil
By tradition, Portugal sent ships to India every March
Portugal had to fight the Muslims for trade control
Technological Stimuli to Exploration
 In 1350 the canon was fully developed
 Sultan Mohammed II proved the might of the canon against Constantinople
 Canons’ bad accuracy made them less useful for land warfare, but they were perfect
for sea battles
 Old wind power-using galleys became hard to use
 Portuguese developed the caravel in 15th century
 Substitution wind with man power and solders with artillery was a big improvement
for Portugal
 Magnetic compass, astrolabe and maps helped sailors travel further
The Explorer’s Motives
 Not population overgrowth
 Old crusading beliefs – Spain, and Queen Isabella in particular, wanted to bring
Muslims to Christianity. It was a part of the national ideal
 After Europeans realized they don’t have the resources to come to a victory over the
Islam, they redirected their effort to the pagan people of Africa and America
 Ambition to increase economic and political power sent Spanish people to America
 The Government sponsored many voyages
 The Dutch dominated in European economy in 1650
 Natural curiosity from the Renaissance pushed Europe even more
 Spices were a major factor
 Marco Polo stimulated the trade of spices between Asian and Italy, Venice most of all
 The rise of the Ming dynasty and the Ottoman empire blocked the trade with India and
Chine in 14th century
 Spain and Portugal spread Catholicism, but their main goal was material profit
The Problem of Christopher Columbus
 Historians claim Columbus had many flaws – he was cruel, ineffective governor of the
Caribbeans, not the first to step on the American coast, and many more
 Spanish people considered the retaking of Granada from the Muslims, by Isabella and
Ferdinand, one of the greatest achievements for the Christianity
 Columbus was driven by both secular and religious reasons
 Not able to find the spice markets of Asia, Columbus was looking for, he decided to
establish a colony, enslaving the Native Americans
Later Explorers
 News about Columbus’s discovery spread quickly over Europe
 Amerigo Vespucci was the first to define America as a New World
 In 1519 Charles V gave Ferdinand Magellan the task to find a direct route to the Asian
source of spices, Moluccas, in the southeast
 Magellan’s trip was the first to prove that the world is round, sailing to the west
 In 1519 Hernando Cortès landed in Mexico
 Within 10 years, Cortès had taken over the rich Aztec Empire, and proclaimed Mexico
City the capital of New Spain
 Spain controlled the many silver veins in Mexico
 Francisco Pizzaro repeated Cortès’s feat, in Peru, crushing the Incan Empire
 Antwerp became the biggest Spanish trade center
 The Dutch controlled India and the African and American trade, by the end of 16th
century
 England and France didn’t establish in the New World until 17th century
The economic effects of Spain’s Discoveries in the New World
 Spanish army, Catholicism and wealth influenced the whole Europe in the 16th,
Golden Century of Spain
 Mexico and Peru supplied Spain with expensive metals
 Port Seville was the main trade center
 With the population increase and rising prices, Spanish people had a harder life
 Inflation
 Between 1560 and 1600, most of Europe experienced high prices, caused by the
foreign silver and gold
 Middle class prospered, nobles were hurt, but the poor suffered the most
The Columbian Exchange
 Relations became worldwide
 Migration of people led to exchange of flora, fauna and diseases
 White potatoes became very well spread in Europe
 Corn (maize) was the most favorable discovery
 Diseases brought to America declined its population very dramatically
 Europeans brought small pox to America, but took syphilis back home
Colonial Administration
 Spain divided the new lands to 4 viceroyalties
 Audiencia was a court of 12 judges that was introduced to New Spain
 The intendatns were another group of people, whose task was to “supervise” the
government of Spanish lands in America, and report directly to the kind in Madrid
 About 25% of Spain’s income came from America
Changing Attitudes
 The new discoveries brought uncertainties among the Europeans, shaking the basics of
the world they believed in
 Sexism, racism and skepticism grew
The Status of Women
 Catholics and Protestants believed that the women should be subordinate to men
 People scorned unmarried women
 The ideal wife was obedient, silent and pious
 Same-sex marriages were not to occur
 A husband had to protect and supply the family
 A wife had to take care of the household
 Catholics did not see divorce as an option, but Protestants did
 Elizabeth Hardwick managed to elevate herself in the social ladder, after her 4
marriages
 Although the society accepted the prostitution, moralists were against it
 Marriage was the only option for upper-class women
The Great European Witch-hunt
 Witches were associated with the Devil
 Educated, as well as ignorant men believed in witches
 Reformers’ extreme notions of the Devil’s power, and the religious wars contributed
to the overall fear of witches
 Witchcraft was considered heresy
 Between 50,000 and 100,000 women were executed in the period 1560-1660, for
witchcraft
 Writers have found religious (result of Renaissance, nobles wanting to fight the
Devil), demographic (increasing number of single women, not under men’s
supervision) and socioeconomic (famine, plague, starvation, inflation) reasons for the
witchcraft
 Witch-hunts declined in the 18th century, as the fear of Devil’s power grew bigger
European Slavery and the Origins of American Racism
 Italian merchants traded slaves
 The plague opened a great market for field hands
 Italy established slave trade in Africa, after the Ottoman empire blocked the Balkans
as a source
 The population growth demanded more sugar, and soon after – Africans to work at the
sugar plantations
 Europeans began enslaving Amerindians (or Native Americans) too
 Bartolomè de las Casas proposed Africans to replace the native Americans, because
the latter died too fast
 Blacks in England were declared savage barbarians and heathens
 Islam was the largest world religion
 Arabic literature described blacks as primitive, and to a certain point, Christians
agreed
Literature and Art
 Literature, the visual arts, music and the drama developed and mirrored the social and
cultural conditions that caused them
The Essay: Michel de Montaigne
 Poor conditions made both Catholics and Protestants doubt that any one religion
contained the absolute faith
 Skepticism was born of that
 The most famous and finest skeptic was the Frenchman Michel de Montaigne
 Montaigne received classical education, studied law and became judge
 When he was 38, Montaigne devoted his life to study
 Montaigne claimed to listed to everybody’s opinion, but gave them no more than the
little he gave to his own
 Michel tolerated every nation and rejected the idea of barbarism
Elizabethan and Jacobean Literature
 Latter part of Elizabeth’s reign and the first years of her successor James I, marked an
improvement in literature, music, poetry, prose and drama, bring the Golden Age of
England to the stage
 Several great works were considered leading to Shakespeare era
 Astrophel and Stella, by sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
 Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
 Tamburlaine and the Jew of Malta, by Christopher Marlouse (1564-1593)
 Shakespeare plays covered many genres, some of which were classical, historical and
tragedy
 The Authorized Bible was another masterpiece, also knows as King James Bible, after
the king who ordered and sponsored its creation
Baroque Art and Music
 Baroque was considered unbalanced style by the critics
 The papacy wanted baroque artists to focus on small wealthy elite
 Catholic countries were more fond to baroque style, but it wasn’t entirely “Catholic
style”
 Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) lead the baroque visual arts to their peak, studying and
applying old masters’ ideas and techniques in his paintings
 Rubens had his own studio with many hired assistants
 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was one of the best baroque composers
 Middle class prospered in the 17th century more than anyone else