AP European history Test II

Economic Renewal, The Wars of Religion, The Triumph Over

Parliament, and Absolutism in France

Navigation, etc.

A bunch of people sailing around places and stabbing other people, giving them diseases, and returning with buckets of money and a

bunch of glory.

The Opening of the Atlantic• Around 1500, the Atlantic becomes “a

bridge, a starting place.” • Improvements in shipbuilding, sail rigging,

new compasses, and new maps with grids!• The results are favorable for the Europeans

and not so favorable for the various Native Americans who subsequently contracted small pox and died. Think Pocahontas—not the Disney version.

• Despite the fact that many indigenous peoples suffered horribly at the hands of European expansion, there were undeniable advancements for European culture. Europe encountered other religions and cultures, built up a decisive naval power, a new coastal commercial class sprung forth, and the American potato fortified the working class! Irish anyone? There was also a new race consciousness.

Discovery and Destruction• For a very long time, Europe had looked to Asia for

its luxury goods: silks, spices, etc. Europe had never really taken action and been the go-getters.

• HOWEVER, in 1498, Portuguese Vasco da Gama, after sailing around the tip of Africa, landed on the southwest coast of India (MALABAR COAST). The Portuguese wanted in on the trade and in on the money. In 1502, Vasco da Gama returned with an army, who decimated the Arab merchants, Indians, and their cities.

• In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue for reasons you should remember from History 100. He killed people too, which makes you question Columbus Day.

• Cortes killed Aztecs and conquered Mexico, Pizarro killed Incas and ruined an Empire. Magellan sails in 1520. You have to consider that while they brought glory and gold to their homelands, they completely destroyed someone else’s.

• Massive forced migrations of slaves from Africa, spurred by Portuguese Africa footholds. Imposed their way of life, religion, culture on others.

That gold was cursed for a reason.

SPAIN!• Spain conquered its way around South

America, Mexico, and the Carribean. They kind of tried to moderate the exploitation of Native Americans and indigenous peoples, kind of.

• So basically, in 1545, the Spanish struck gold (and by gold, I mean silver) when they discovered the silver deposits at Potosi in Peru.

• 1565, established a trade route between their Mexican colonies and the Philippines. This equals a lot of money for Spain, because there were spices and silks and porcelain and all sorts of expensive things coming through on Spanish ships. Also, shipped European goods (all they wanted was silver) over to Asia.

WWDQD: What would Dr. Q do?

• Well, Dr. Q would probably ask you a question about the definition of the word “discovery.”

• Let’s quote page 101, shall we?

• “Discovery means the bringing of newly found countries within the habitual knowledge or permanent commercial activity of the society from which the discoverer comes.”

• So while America was already there, Columbus discovered it, because Spain (he was from Portugal, sailing for Spain because of that darn da Gama) didn’t know about it yet.

In Summary• Europe profited from finally getting their act together in ship technology and

crossing the Atlantic. They gained a new source of income, a new work force (slavery), a new commercial class evolved, and they could feed the workforce with the Great American Potato.

• HOWEVER, they completely annihilated other cultures—the Aztecs, the Incas, the Native Americans—and instead forced their ways of life on them. They enslaved them and stripped their land for economic profit.

• “In an age of oceanic communications Europe became a center from which America, Africa, and Asia could all be reached.” So Europe is practically the center of the universe.

• Dates: Roughly 1498, the whole thing starts with da Gama. People continue to sail around (like Magellan in 1520), discovering things. By the 1560s, you have more slaves in America than colonists. 1545, Potosi. 1565, Spanish trade route to the Philippines.

The commercial revolution

People eat potatoes and multiply like bunnies, inflation takes over, entrepreneurs get busy with banking, new industries make certain

people very rich, and mercantilism takes hold!

Population boom

• During the 16th century, the European population rose by about 20 million people. The rise in population was most visible in rural regions.

• Because of the rise in population, there was an increasing demand for food. This led to more cultivated land and farmers working more land that was less fertile. Thus, farming cost more and the price of the product went through the roof.

Rising Prices• Prices rose for the following reasons:

• Farming and agriculture was more expensive, and thus the prices of agricultural products rose.

• Kings debased the value of the currencies in an effort to get more money circulating.

• New sources of income from new lands, such as the silver coming from Peru and the gold coming from America, also contributed to the decrease in the value of currency.

• Note: all prices rose, but the value of wages rose the least.

Entrepreneurs• The widening of the trade market meant

that there was an increase in long-distance trading. This is where new entrepreneurs came in! They started as merchants working far and wide, who had a good knowledge of what people wanted, and generally rose to be bankers.

• Fuggers! 1386, started out in woolens and gradually expanded their wares. They invested their profits in other industries, made more money, lent money to prominent people (Holy Roman Emperors and Popes!), and became bankers to the Habsburgs.

• Also, think Medici.

Christopher Fugger

New Industries and practices• Mining!

• Printing and book trade!

• Shipbuilding!

• Weapons manufacturing!

• These couldn’t be done on a local level, so it brought lots of work to cities!

• New banking practices included: interest!

Mercantilism

• According to Microsoft’s Encarta Encyclopedia, mercantilism was:

• “An early modern European economic theory and system that actively supported the establishment of colonies that would supply materials and markets and relieve home nations of dependence on other nations.”

• True that. It also involved an opposition to guilds (which were like unions), because they were localistic.

• Mercantilists believed that the government must steer and regulate prices and trade!

• Example: British imperialism profits from selling raw material products to the colonies from which and by whom these materials were extracted.

In Summary

• “In the great economic readjustment that was taking place in Europe… two other [factors] were the growth of population and a long, gradual rise in prices, or a slow inflation.”

• Blah, blah, blah. Economics. Basically, all you need to care about is mercantilism—the support of colonies overseas that were rich in resources, so countries wouldn’t have to spend money buying things from other people. It was a good idea. We should try it sometime.

Changing social structures

Middle class expands!

Does anyone really care?

No.

BLAH.• This entire section is out of this world

boring and pointless.

• “The middle class became more numerous in the sixteenth century.”

• “The mass of the population in all countries was composed of the working poor,” which would be people who couldn’t read or write, laborers, the unemployed, maids, etc.

• “The poor…gained the least from the great commercial developments…” The poor stayed screwed.

• Education became more important, demand for more educated clergy (from the reforms at the Council of Trent, remember that?).

Wars! Spain Style.

King Philip II, The Escorial, ass-kicking in Amsterdam, nosy England, Spanish decline…

Philip the second• Phillip II thought he was pretty amazing,

because he had power over Portugal, Spain, had England for five years, and had a claim on the French throne.

• Thought Spain should be the Catholic Crusaders of Europe. Wanted to enhance power in Italy, and other things like that, relying on money coming in from new territories. Spain was in a Golden Age at the time—with Don Quixote, etc.

• Built himself a new castle, The Escorial, but was also “a center… for the efficient management of a vast empire.”

• It was a good time for a religious war, since people didn’t have a grand sense of unity just because they lived in the same country. It was a time of division—between Calvinists and Catholics, etc.

Things Fall Apart for Spain • 1567, Philip sends a governor general to the Netherlands

with twenty-thousand troops. There were several small victories over the next five years, but none of them lasted—Philip was beaten back by the Turks, the English defeated Catholicism, and the Huguenots and Dutch Calvinists were still protesting!

• The people of the Netherlands revolt. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is imprisoning Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, and is a little busy to help out the Dutch. However, once she figures out that the Spanish want to depose her—especially that Don Juan fellow in 1576—she allies with the Dutch.

• Union of Utrecht in 1579 = provinces of Netherlands are independent from Spain and a line is drawn.

• Queen Elizabeth has obviously made England this uber-Protestant power.

• Spanish Armada gets dragged into this nasty situation, read in 1588, but never makes it to Spain. Oops.

• So how do things end? The Netherlands are divided—Protestant North, Catholic South. Spain begins to decline after all this money-wasting war and defeat. Spain is lacking unity, everything has basically fallen apart from religious suspicion.

The Disintegration and Reconstruction of France

Disunity, Religious Wars, and Cardinal Richelieu

Political and Religious Disunity• Wars of religion in France were no more religious than

they were political—continuation of feudal rebellion against nobility. Caused by a conflict of feudal elements and royal authority.

• New Monarchy = forcing unity, king alone makes decisions.

• Local influence very strong though, since no religious unity (Huguenots, Gallican Church = disconnected from Rome), had own tariffs, individual provinces had a sense of identity, had corporate rights

• Lutheranism/Protestantism spread, unsupported by government

• French nobility = largely protestant; were allowed to have Protestant services in own homes

• Francis I / Henry II opposed Calvinism, Henry II killed in 1559, so Catherine de Medici (widow) takes over for young sons. No firm hand on monarchy = disrepair, many people trying to manipulate their way into power, including factions of Huguenots and Catholics.

The Civil and Religious Wars

• The civil wars in 16th century France were caused by anarchy, various leaders banding together with rebels, etc.

• The Guises (a Catholic party, headed by Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Lorraine) were trying through careful manipulation to govern France and cut down on heresy.

• 1572, Catherine de’ Medici had Coligny (a prominent Huguenot leader) and thousands of Huguenots killed in St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Henry of Navarre (Protestant) temporarily converts to save his own life.

• Jean Bodin (1530 – 1596) was a politique, “invented” sovereignty, circa 1576 height of influence divine right

• The ideas of politiques absolutism and the sovereign state, religion is 2nd and effective government comes first.

The End of Wars• 1589, Henry III of France and Henry of Guise were both

assassinated! Throne passes to the Huguenot Henry of Navarre. • He did not end wars, Catholics wouldn’t accept him, and the

Spaniards opposed him as well. In 1593, Henry legitimately converts to Catholicism, sensing unpopularity and political disadvantage of being Protestant. Had politique sensibility.

• EDICT OF NANTES: 1598 = every noble can hold Protestant services in household, but bars Protestant churches from Catholic towns = no discrimination against Protestants, “mixed courts,” etc. In response to this edict, the Huguenots become less rebellious.

• French are mostly still suspicious of the Edict of Nantes and Henry’s motives, but tolerance was forced. Henry, satisfied, then attempts to restored France’s government, economy, and societal peace.

• Henry IV was murdered 1610 by madman who saw him as threat to the Catholic Church

• Marie de’ Medici opened the Estates General (a council which presided over national legislature filled with power-hungry nobles, feudal element) in 1613 and dismissed in 1615 under Richelieu’s pressure and to everyone’s relief.

Cardinal Richelieu

• Cardinal Richelieu was an ecclesiastic who gained power during Marie de’ Medici and Louis XIII’s time. He was a politique who was responsible for various mercantilist edicts.

• There was a renewed threat of civil war, nobles feuding, so Richelieu outlawed dueling, etc.

• In 1627, there was Huguenot rebellion led by Duke of Rohan in La Rochelle with English assistance. The rebellion was suppressed by 1629 with Peace of Alais.

• Peace of Alais: the Huguenots lost armies, fortified cities, territorial rights, but retained religious and civil rights for 50 more years.

• Richelieu returned France to opposing foreign powers in Spain and Habsburgs, etc.

• parlements: law court consisting of landed nobility, a feudal element.

The Thirty Years’ War and the Disintegration of Germany

1618 – 1648

Overview of the WarThe Preconditions:

• There as an economic slowdown in Germany, and the population was evenly split between Lutherans and Catholics and polarized by religion. The Calvinists were angered by the fact that the Peace of Augsburg did not include them.

• The Peace of Augsburg had stated that one’s conversion to Lutheranism meant a loss of all Catholic assets and properties. This was being violated—some Lutherans were retaining Catholic property—and was a source of extreme tension between Catholics and Lutherans.

The Catalyst

• The defenestration of Prague, which occurred in May 1618, is the common name of an event in which enraged Bohemian citizens fearing the loss of their liberties threw Holy Roman Empire emissaries out of a window.

• The Bohemians eventually succeeded in electing their own king, and the Habsburgs immediately set out on re-conquering Bohemia with aid from: the Dutch, the English, and the private fighters of Albert of Wallenstein.

Who Got Involved

• The French and the Swedes got involved in the war because of Richelieu’s little vendetta against the Habsburgs. Because the French were busy suppressing the Huguenots, they sent diplomats to get the Swedes out of Poland and financed them to fight the Habsburgs.

Changes in the War

• In 1618, the war was a local and religious issue.

• By 1648, the war was an international issue involving France, Spain, and many other countries. The war had become much more political than it was religious.