Discovery and Crisis in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
The religious division between the Catholics and the Protestants created a series of wars that dominated most of European history between 1560 and 1650. The Thirty Years’ War was especially brutal. Citizens suffered during these wars as well, as evident from the contemporary description by Otto von Guericke of the sack of Magdeburg. After the city had been captured, Tilly’s forces burned, plundered, and murdered the civilians. In one day, the city went up in fire, and the remaining citizens were taken prisoner.
Europeans also began to discovery new worlds, but it wasn’t until the 16th and 17th centuries that they began to understand their importance and exploit them for their material gain.
An Age of Discovery and Expansion
The Atlantic seaboard had become the center of a commercial activity by the 16th century. The age of expansion was important for the European transition from the agrarian economy of the Middle Ages to a commercial and industrial capitalistic system.
The Motives
Catholic Europe had been confined to one geographical area for almost a millennium, and the crusades, its one major attempt to expand, was mainly a failure. Contact with non-Europeans was limited until the end of the 15th century.
A lot of fantasy literature about “other worlds” came out in the Middle Ages. For example, in The Travels of John Mandeville, there were other lands filled with stones and gold. Other fantasy lands were scary, with monsters that ate people.
Muslim control of central Asia cut off Europeans from the countries further east. However, the Mongol conquests in the 13th century had reopened the doors. Polos of Vince were the most famous travels to the East in the medieval times. Niccolo and Maffeo went with Nicolo’s son, Marco, on a long journey to the court of the great Mongol ruler Khubilai Khan (1259-1294) in 1271. Marco also went on missions and didn’t return to Italy until 1295. He wrote the Travels, an account of his journey, and it was one of the most informative of all the descriptions of Asia by medieval European travels. In the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks and then the breakup of the Mongol Empire reduced Western traffic to the East. Many became interested in a possible sea route to Asia. Christopher Columbus had a copy of Marco Polo’s Travels with him when he began to envision his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
Many European explorers and conquers didn’t hide their desire for material gain. One Spanish conquistador said he went to the New World to “serve God and His Majesty, to give light to those who were in darkness, and grow rich, as all men desire to do.” This statement brings up another reason for the exploration: the desire to spread religion. Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, believed it was his duty to convert the native Mexicans to the Catholic faith. The expansion of Europe was connected to the growth of centralized monarchies during the Renaissance. By the second half of the 15th century, European monarchs had increased their authority and their resources and were able to turn their attention beyond their boarders. France invaded Italy, but Portugal, which wasn’t strong enough to take on power in Europe, decide to go abroad. By the end of the 15th century, Europeans had enough money and technology to make regular voyages beyond Europe. The portolani were detailed charts, but they were drawn of a flat scale and took no account on how the earth curved, making them almost useless for long oversea journeys. By the end of the 15th century, cartography had developed to the point that Europeans had fairly accurate maps of the known world. There were also technological advances in ship making and navigational techniques. Europeans had mastered the use of the axial rudder and learned to combine the use of lateen sails with a square rig. With these new developments, they could make ships mobile enough to sail against the wind and engage in naval warfare and also big enough to mount heavy cannons and carry a substantial amount of goods over long distances. Before, sailors had used their knowledge of the Pole Star to figure out their latitude, but this was useless below the equator. Yet another spur to exploration was the growing knowledge of wind patters in the Atlantic Ocean; the first European fleets sailing towards the coast of West Africa had to fight the strong winds. But by the late 15th century, sailors had learned to tack out into the ocean, where the winds worked to their advantage.
The Development of a Portuguese Maritime Empire
Under the sponsorship of Prince Henry (1394-1460), Portugal took the lead in exploring the coast of Africa. Prince Henry’s motives were a combination of trying to find a Christian kingdom to be an ally against the Muslims, finding trade opportunities for Portugal, and extending Christianity. He founded a school for navigators in 1419, and shortly after, Portuguese fleets began probing southward along the coast of Africa, looking of gold. Portuguese ships reached the Senegal River in 1441, and brought home a cargo of Africans who had been sold as slaves. In 1471, they discovered a source of gold along the southern coast of West Africa, which would soon be known as the Gold Coast. A few years later, they achieved contact with the state of Bakongo. To facilitate trade in gold, ivory, and slaves, the Portuguese leased land from the local rulers and built stone forts.
After hearing about a route to India around the southern tip of Africa, the Portuguese continued their probing. In 1488, Bartholomeu Dias (c. 1450-1500) rounded the Cape of Good Hope, but he was afraid of a mutiny from his crew and returned home. Ten years after, a fleet under the command of Vasco da Gama (c. 1460-1524) rounded the cape and stopped at ports controlled by Muslim merchants along the coast of East Africa. He reached the port of Calicut (which is in India) on May 18, 1498. While he didn’t find Christians, as he had hoped, he did find spices. Despite losing two ships on the way, his remaining vessels returned to Europe to gain a profit of several thousand percent. Portuguese fleets returned annually to the area for the next several years, trying to destroy Arabic shipping and create a monopoly on the spice trade. In 1509, a Portuguese armada imposed a blockade on the entrance to the Read Sea to cut off the flow of spices to Muslim rulers in Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. The next year, due to a need for a land base in the area, Admiral Alfonso de Albuqerque (c. 1462-1515) set up port facilities at Goa. Goa then became the headquarters for Portuguese operations.
Albuquerque sailed into the harbor of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula in 1511, which had become a thriving point and major stopping point for the spice trade. He wanted to control Malacca for two reasons: it could help destroy the Arab spice trade, and it could also provide the Portuguese with a way station on the route to the Moluccas (Spice Islands). The Portuguese seized the city and massacred the local Arab population after a short but bloody battle. This began a fierce struggle between the Portuguese and the Arabs. After Malacca, the Portuguese went east to Asia and the Spice Islands. There they signed a treaty with a local ruler for the purchase and export of cloves to the European market. This completed the Portuguese trading empire; they weren’t strong enough to colonize the Asian regions.
Later fleets began to arrive with regularity in the early 16th century, and were more heavily armed and therefore more able to intimidate and inflict severe defeats on local naval and land forces. However, the Portuguese didn’t have a monopoly on the use of firearms and explosives; it was their effective use of naval technology—their guns could be mounted on the hulls of their vessels, and their tactics gave them a military superiority over the lightly armed rivals. They were able to exploit the people of New Worlds until the arrival of other European forces several decades later.
Voyages to the New World
The Spanish were trying to get access to the spice trade of the Indies by sailing westward across the Atlantic. The Spanish had better resources than the Portuguese, and were enabled to establish a far bigger overseas empire. One important figure of the history of Spanish exploration was the Italian Christopher Columbus (1451-1506). Although Europeans knew that the world was round, they didn’t understand its circumference or the size of the content of Asia. Columbus felt that Asia could be reached by sailing west instead of around Africa. Columbus set sail on August 3, 1492. He reached the Bahamas on October 12, and then went on to explore the coastline of Cuba and the northern shores of Hispaniola. He believed that he had reached Asia, and he assured Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand that he not only would find gold but he had the opportunity to convert the locals to Christianity. Columbus sought in vain to find a route though the outer lands to the Asian mainland in three subsequent voyages (1493, 1498, 1502). In his four voyages, he had reached all the major islands of the Caribbean and the mainland of Central America. While Columbus himself never realized what he had found, other explores soon noticed that he had discovered a new frontier altogether. Explores joined the race to the New World. John Cabot, a Venetian seaman, explored the New England coastline of the Americas under King Henry VII of England. South America was found accidentally by the Portuguese sea captain Pedro Cabral in 1500. Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, went on several voyages and wrote a series of letters describing the geography of the New World. The publication of these letters began the use of the name “America” for the new lands.
The first 20 years of the 16th century saw numerous overseas voyages that explored the eastern coasts of North and South America. One Spanish explorer, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, led an expedition across the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean in 1513. Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) reached the Philippines, where the natives killed him. Only one of his original fleet of five ships made it back to Spain.
The Spanish Empire in the New World
The Castilian crown sanctioned the Spanish conquistadors, even though they were already financed and outfitted privately. They had superior weapons, organizational skills, and determination, which brought them incredible success. They also managed to benefit from rivalries among the natives.
A Spanish expedition under the command of Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) landed at Veracruz in 1519. He marched to the city of Tenochtitlan, and as he went he made alliances with city-states that were sick of the oppressive rule of the Aztecs. The most important state was Tlaxcala, which the Aztecs weren’t able to conquer. He arrived at Tenochtitlan in November, where the Aztec ruler Moctezuma (commonly called Montezuma) believed he was the god Quetzalcoatl, who had left his homeland centuries before, promising his return. Terrified, Moctezuma offered him and his crew gifts of gold and gave them a place to stay. Moctezuma realized his mistake when the Spaniards took him hostage and began to pillage the city. In 1520, the locals revolted and drove the invaders out of the city. But the Aztecs now had bigger problems: disease. Because they had no natural immunity to European diseases, many fell sick and died. Meanwhile, Cortes got more soldiers from his allies, and after four months, the city capitulated, and the destruction began. The Spanish gained control of northern Mexico between 1531 and 1550.
The Inca Empire was still flourishing when the Spanish arrived in the area. In December 1530, Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475-1541) landed on South America with a small group of men, but like Cortes, he had steel weapons, gunpowder, and horses, none of which the Inca’s had ever seen. The Incas were also trying to fight off an epidemic of smallpox, because like the Aztecs, they had no immunity to European diseases. Even the Inca Emperor was a victim. When he died, his two sons took the throne, leading to a civil war. Pizarro seized Atahualpa, whose forces had just defeated his brother’s. The Incan soldiers, with their stones, arrows, and light spears, didn’t stand a chance against the Spanish. They executed Atahualpa and captured the Incan capital. Pizarro had established a capital at Lima for a new colony of the Spanish Empire by 1535.
Administration of the Spanish Empire
Confusion, misguided paternalism, and cruel exploitation composed the Spanish policy toward the Indians of the New World. Queen Isabella declared the natives to be subjects of Castile and instituted a system that permitted the conquering Spaniards to collect tribute from the natives and use them as laborers. In return, they were supposed to protect the Indians, pay them, and supervise their spiritual needs. This also meant that the settlers could implement the paternalistic system of the government as they pleased. They ignored the native’s governments and used the Indians as slaves. Forced labor, starvation, and diseases such as smallpox, measles, and typhus killed off many of the natives.
In response to the publications of Bartolme de Las Casas, a Dominican friar who championed the Indians the government abolished the encomienda system and provided more protection for the natives.
The Spanish developed an administrative system based on viceroys. A viceroy in Lima governed New Spain.
The Catholic monarchs of Spain were given extensive rights over the religious affairs in the New World. They could appoint all bishops and clergy, build churches, collect fees, and supervise the affairs of the various religious orders that were meant to Christianize the heathens. Catholic missionaries fanned out across the Spanish Empire where they converted and baptized hundreds of thousands of Indians in the early years of the conquest. The missionaries also brought the Indians together into villages where they could be converted, taught trades, and grow crops. Their work helped the Spanish gain control over the natives, but also ensure that they would be docile subjects of the empire. Soon dioceses, parishes, cathedrals, schools, and hospitals began to show up in the New World. The Spanish Inquisition showed up in Peru in 1570 and then in Mexico in 1571.
The Impact of Expansion
The Native American civilizations were virtually destroyed. Ancient social and political structures were ripped up and replaced by European culture. European men flocked to the New World in hopes of land, riches, and social advancement. Some wives went with their husbands to the New World, however, most women went to the New World because of the lack of white women. One man said, even “a whore, if handsome, [can] make a wife for some rich planter.” A few women found themselves rich after their husbands were killed unexpectedly.
Europeans looked for gold and silver in the New World. When the mines at Potosi in Peru were opened in 1545, the value of precious metals imported into Europe quadrupled. But gold and silver weren’t the only products that became a part of the exchange between the New World and the Old; Europeans brought over horses, sheep, and wheat. From the New World came sugar, dyes, cotton, vanilla, and hides. Products such as potatoes, coffee, corn, and tobacco were also imported. This exchange marked the first step towards the world economy that has characterized the modern historical era.
European expansion deepened rivalries between the European states.
Politics and the Wars of Religion in the 16th Century
The wars of religion were because of the Reformation ideologies that didn’t allow for any compromise of opinions. By the middle of the 16th century, Calvinism and Catholicism had become militant religions dedicated to spread the word of God. Economic, social, and political forces also played an important role in these conflicts, including the momentous French civil wars known as the French Wars of Religion.
The French Wars of Religion (1562-159 cool
No one was suspecting war in France. The Valois monarchs Francis I (1515-1547) and Henry II (1547-1559) had been strong rulers. But when Henry II was accidentally killed in a tournament in 1559, he was succeeded by a series of weak, feeble, and neurotic sons, two of whom were dominated by their mother, Catherine de’ Medici (1519-1589). Because of this, the forces that had been kept in check by the strong monarchy broke loose, starting a series of civil wars. Religious, political, economic, and social forces all contributed to these wars. Religion was the most important factor. The French kings were concerned by the growth of Calvinism, and tried to stop its spread by persecuting Calvinists. They had little success. French Calvinists, (called Huguenots) came from all levels of society, and could hurt the economy in several ways. Around 40% to 50% of the French nobility were Huguenots, including the house of Bourbon, which stood next to the Valois in the royal line of succession and ruled southern the French kingdom of Navarre. While they made up only about 7% of the overall population, they were strong-willed and well organized.
The Volairs monarchy was staunchly Catholic, and it didn’t have much of a reason to look favorably upon Protestantism. As a regent for her sons, the Catholic Catherine de’ Medici tried to compromise, but found both sides unwilling to make concessions. The ultra-Catholics favored strict opposition to the Huguenots and were led by the Guise family. They had the loyalty of Paris and large sections of northern and northwestern France though their client-patronage system, which made it so they could recruit and pay for large armies and receive support from abroad from the papacy and Jesuits. Ironically, the allegiance of the Catholic Guises to their own dynasty and international Catholicism posed a strong threat to the Catholic Valois monarchy.
Twos and provinces had resisted the growing power of monarchial centralization, and were completely willing to join a revolt against the monarchy.
The French Wars of Religion constituted a major constitutional crisis for the French and temporarily halted the development of the French centralized territorial state. The claim of the state’s ruling dynasty to a person’s loyalties was temporarily superseded by loyalty to one’s religion. Some people believed that the unity of France was more important than religious truth. But there was also a group of politiques who placed politics before religion and believed that no religious truth was worth the ravages of civil war. The politiques prevailed, but only after both sides were exhausted by bloodshed.
When the powerful duke of Guise massacred a peaceful congregation of Huguenots at Vassy in 1562, the wars erupted. The Huguenots managed to hold their own in the 1560s; while too small a group to conquer France, their armies were excellent at defensive campaigns that they couldn’t be defeated either, even with the infamous Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre. The massacre of Huguenots in August 1572 took place at a time when the Catholic and Calvinist parties had been reconciled though the marriage of the sister of the reigning Valois king Charles IX (1560-1574) and Henry of Navarre, the Bourbon ruler of Navarre. Jeanne d’Albret, the queen of Navarre, was Henry’s mom, who had been responsible for introducing Calvinist ideas into her kingdom. Henry was also the political ruler of the Calvinists. Many Calvinists traveled to Paris for the wedding. The Guise family convicted the king and his mother, Catherine de’ Medici, that the gathering of Huguenots was a threat tot hem, so Charles and his advisers decided to take out the Huguenot leaders in one swift blow. They believed that civil war would break out soon anyway, so it was better for them to win the first battle. The massacre took place early on August 24 when the kings guard found and killed some prominent Huguenot leaders. These murders unleashed a wave of violence that gripped the city of Paris. For three days, Catholic mobs roamed the streets of Paris, killing 3,000 Huguenots. Henry of Navarre saved his life by promising to turn Catholic. While the ultra-Catholics had killed a lot of Huguenots, the massacre boomeranged as it discredited the Valois dynasty without ending the conflict. Thus, the fighting continued. The Huguenots regained their strength, and in 1576 the ultra-Catholics formed a Holy League. They vowed to get a true Catholic champion--Henry, duke of Guise—on the French throne in place of the ruling king, Henry III (1574-1589) who had succeeded his brother Charles IX in 1574.
The turning point in the conflict came in the War of the Three Henries in 1588-1589. Henry, duke of Guise, seized Paris and forced King Henry III to make him his chief minister. Henry III assassinated the duke of guise and then joined with Henry of Navarre (who, despite his promise, returned to Calvinism) who was next in line for the throne, to destroy the Holy League and take back the city of Paris. While successful, Henry III was assassinated in 1589 by a monk. Henry of Navarre now had the throne. He knew he would never be accepted by Catholic France, and decided to convert once again to Catholicism. In 1594, the French Wars of Religion came to an end.
Although the wars were over, the religious problem still lingered in France until the Edict of Nantes was issued in 1598. It acknowledged Catholicism as the official religion of France, but guaranteed the Huguenots the right to worship in selected place in every district and allowed them to retain a number of towns for their protection. As well, the Huguenots were allowed all political privileges.
Philip II and the Cause of Militant Catholicism
King Philip II of Spain (1556-159 cool was the greatest advocate of militant Catholicism and the most important political figure in the second half of the 16th century. His reign created a new age of greatness in Spain, both politically and culturally. A large price was paid, however, for the political and military commitments that Philip made. The golden age of Spain was also the period in which Spain’s decline began.
Philip II’s main goal was to consolidate and secure the lands he had inherited from his father, Charles V, which included Spain, the Netherlands, and the possessions in Italy and the New World. This meant that Philip had to strictly conform to Catholicism, enforced by the aggressive use of the Inquisition, and the establishment of a strong, monarchical authority. He had inherited a governmental structure in which each of the various states and territories of his empire stood in an individual relationship to the king. Philip managed to expand royal power in Spain by making the monarchy less dependent on the traditional landed aristocracy. He enlarged the system of administrative councils first developed by Ferdinand and Isabella. His ability to enforce his will was restricted by local legal traditions, a lack of communications, and an inadequate bureaucracy; he tried to be the center of the whole system and supervised the work of all departments. He was careful and paid attention to little details, so much so that it took him forever to get anything done.
One of Philip’s goals was to make Spain a dominating power in Europe. Spain’s status was highly depended on a prosperous economy fueled by its importation of gold and silver from the New World, its agriculture, commerce, and industry. The importation of silver had negative effects, however, as it helped set off inflation that disrupted the Spanish economy, hurting both textile production and agriculture. The cost of war, especially after 1580, also proved to be detrimental to the Spanish economy. This led the government to impose heavy direct and indirect taxes, even after which the government wanted to borrow money. Two-thirds of the money the state made went to pay interest on the debt by the end of Philip’s reign. The attempt to make Spain a great power led to the decline of Spain after Philip’s reign.
Philip II, the “Most Catholic King,” became the champion of Catholicism throughout Europe, which led to spectacular victories and equally spectacular defeats. He defeated the Turkish fleet in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, but was to experience few other successes. For example, his intervention in France on behalf of the ultra-Catholics at the end of the 1580s and the beginning of the 1590s was an utter failure. His attempt to crush the revolt in the Netherlands and his bad relationship with the English queen Elizabeth led to his greatest misfortunes.
The Revolt of the Netherlands
The Spanish Netherlands was one of the richest parts of Philip’s empire; it became prosperous though commerce and a flourishing textile industry. Because of its location, the Netherlands was open to the religious influences of the age. While some inhabitants had adopted Lutheranism or Anabaptism, by the time of Philip II, Calvinism was also emerging. It consisted of 17 provinces, which had no real political bond holding them together except the common ruler, Philip II, a foreigner who was out of touch with the situation in the Netherlands. Despite this, Philip II hoped to strengthen his control over them, which was strongly opposed by the nobles, towns, and provincial states, which stood to lose politically should Philip achieve his goal. Resentment against Philip was deepened when the residents of the Netherlands realized that their tax money was going towards Spanish interests instead of their own. Religion became the breaking point when Philip attempted to reorganize the ecclesiastical structure of the Dutch Catholic Church and eliminate heresy. Calvinism continued to spread; Philip’s policy of repression alienated the Calvinists without stopping the spread of the movement.
Aristocrats led by William of Nassau, the prince of Orange (also called William the Silent) resisted the king’s policies. Violence broke out in 1566 when Calvinists began to destroy statues and stained glass windows in Catholic churches. Phillip then sent the duke of Alva with 10,000 troops to crush the rebellion.
The policies of the duke were counteractive. The permanent sales tax alienated merchants and commoners who now joined the nobles and Calvinists in the struggle against Spanish rule. A tribunal known as the Council of Troubles (nicknamed the Council of Blood by the Dutch) inaugurated a reign of terror in which even powerful aristocrats were killed. As a result, the revolt was now organized especially where William of Orange and Dutch pirates known as the “Sea Beggars” mounted growing resistance. Philip removed the duke of Alva in 1573 and shifted to a more conciliatory policy to bring an end to the expensive revolt.
William of Orange wanted to unify all the 17 provinces, which was achieved in 1576 with the Pacification of Ghent. This stated that all the provinces would stand together under William, respect religious difference, and demand that Spanish troops be withdrawn. However, the religious conflicts proved to be too much for any lasting union. When the duke of Parma, the next Spanish leader, arrived in the Netherlands, he played on the religious differences of the provinces and slit the union apart. In the south there was the Catholic union, the Union of Arras, which accepted Spanish control in 1579. William of Orange then organized the northern, Dutch-speaking states into a Protestant union, called the Union of Utrecht, which opposed Spanish rule. The Netherlands was now divided among religious, geographical, and political lines. Not wanting to rule themselves, the north wanted to be placed under control of the French king and then Queen Elizabeth of England. Both refused, however, Queen Elizabeth continued to send military assistance. This went on for several years after Philip and Elizabeth had died. In 1609, the war ended with a 12-year truce that recognized the independence of the northern provinces. The Spanish didn’t formally recognize them as independent until 1648.
The England of Elizabeth
After Queen Mary died in 1558, her half-sister Elizabeth became queen. During Elizabeth’s reign, England rose to prominence as it became the leader of the Protestant nations in Europe, laid the foundations for a world empire, and experienced a cultural renaissance.
Queen Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She had a rough early life. During Mary’s reign, she had been imprisoned for a while and learned early on to hide her true feelings. While she avoided confrontation as long as possible, she was capable of decisive action when it was forced on her. She quickly worked to solve the religious problems she had inherited from Mary, who had become extremely unpopular when she tried to make England Catholic. Elizabeth’s religious policy was based on moderation and compromise; the changes she had experienced taught her caution and tolerance. She wanted to make sure that England wouldn’t be torn apart over religious issues. She didn’t care what her subjects believed privately as long as they didn’t threaten the state’s power.
Elizabeth had Parliament’s cooperation in initiating the Elizabethan religious settlement in 1559. Mary’s Catholic legislation was repealed; the new Act of Supremacy designed Elizabeth as “the only supreme governor of this realm, as well in spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal.” An Act of Uniformity restored the church service of the Book of Common Prayer from Edward VI’s reign, though it had been revised to make it more acceptable to Catholics. The new religious settlement worked, however, the Catholics and Puritans continued to oppose it.
One of Elizabeth’s biggest problems was her Catholic cousin, Mary, queen of Scots. She was next in line for the English throne. Rebellious Calvinist nobles drove Mary out of Scotland in 1568. She then went to England, where Elizabeth placed her under house arrest. For 14 years, Elizabeth put up with her involvement in a bunch of badly planned plots to kill her, but in 1587, Mary became embroiled in a much more serious plot, and Elizabeth had her beheaded.
Possibly more dangerous to Anglicanism in the long run were the Puritans, who wanted to remove any trace of Catholicism from the Church of England. Elizabeth contained the Puritans during her reign, but they would dominate England by the middle of the 17th century.
Elizabeth was as good with government and foreign policy as she was religious affairs. She had Sir William Cecil and Sir Francis Walsingham working for her, and they ensured much of her success in foreign and domestic business. Elizabeth handled Parliament with skill; it only met 13 times during her reign.
Caution, moderation, and expediency dictated Elizabeth’s foreign policy. While she knew that war could devastate her kingdom, she unofficially encouraged English seamen to raid Spanish ships and colonies. Francis Drake was particularly good at plundering Spanish fleets loaded with gold and silver from Spain’s New World empire. Elizabeth pretended to have nothing to do with the piracy, and although she was providing clandestine aid to French Huguenots and Dutch Calvinists, she avoided alliances that could cause war. However, she was drawn into a more active involvement in the Netherlands and by 1585 she reluctantly settled on a policy of military intervention there. This added more friction between the already conflicting Spain and England. After years of avoiding an invasion of England, Philip II of Spain was finally persuaded to do so by his advisers, who told him that the English would revolt against their queen when the Spaniard arrived. As well, Philip believed that the revolt of the Netherlands wouldn’t be over as long as England provided support for it. A successful invasion of England would mean getting rid of heresy and the return of Catholicism in England. The execution of Mary, queen of Scots, in 1587, caused the pope to offer finical support for the Spanish should they invade.
The Armada was a disaster. The Spanish fleet that finally set sail didn’t have enough sips or men. It would take a miracle for the Spanish to win—a miracle that never came. After taking a number of beatings from the English, the Spanish fleet sailed back to Spain. The defeat of the Armada guaranteed that for the time being, England would remain a Protestant country. The war would continue for another 16 years.
Economic and Social Crises
From 1560 to 1650, Europe witnessed severe economic and social crises as well as political upheaval. Economic uncertainty was increased by wildly fluctuating boom and bust cycles, which were accompanied by social uncertainties and increasing contrast between the rich and the poor. There is much historical controversy about this period.
Inflation and Economic Stagnation
Inflation was a major problem in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Although low, the inflation was noticeable in Europe, which had become accustomed to stable prices. Foodstuffs were most subject to price increase.
Although proper data are lacking, economic historians believe that wages failed to keep up with price increase as a result of the price revolution. Wage earners in urban areas began to experience a lower standard of living. At the same time, aristocrats managed to prosper. Commercial and industrial entrepreneurs also benefited because of rising princes, expanding markets, and cheaper labor costs. Governments were also affected by the inflation; they borrowed from bankers and imposed new taxes on their subjects, causing more discontent.
The reasons for the price revolution cause a lot of historical debate. In the 1560s, European intellectuals had already associated the rise in prices with the influx of precious metals from the New World. While this was the accepted view for a long time, economic historians now believe that an increase in population in the 16th century played an important role in creating inflationary pressures.
Any inflation-fueled prosperity of the 16th century showed signs of weakening by the beginning of the 17th century. As imports of silver died down, economic recession increased. Italy was now becoming backwater, and Spain’s economy was seriously failing by the 1640s.
Trade, Industry, Baking, and Agriculture
In the 16th century, European trade revolved around three major areas: the Mediterranean, the Low Countries and the Baltic region, and central Europe. However, as overseas trade expanded, the Atlantic seaboard began to play a more important role. The Dutch came to monopolize both European and world trade, with their cheaper and faster ships. The English and French increasingly challenged them in the 17th century.
Commercial expansion in the 16th and 17th centuries was made easier by new forms of organization, especially the joint-stock trading company. People bought shares in a company and received dividends on their investment while a board of directions ran the company. The joint-stock company made it easier to raise large amounts of capital for world trading ventures.
Huge profits were also to be made in shipbuilding and in mining and metallurgy, where technological innovations proved to be highly successful. Jacob Furgger was given a monopoly over silver, copper, and mercury mines in the Habsburg possessions that produced profits in excess of 50% a year in exchange for arranging large loans to Charles V. While these ties between governments and entrepreneurs could lead to enormous success, they could also be devastating; the House of Furgger went bankrupt when the Habsburgs defaulted on their loans.
Traditional family banking firms were no longer able to provide the services needed for the commercial capitalism of the 17th century by the 17th century. New institutions emerged to take their place. By the first half of the 17th century, the Amsterdam Exchanged had become the hub of the European business world.
The European economy was still dependent on an agricultural system that had experienced little change since the 13th century. While almost all of the peasants of Western Europe were free of serfdom, most owed feudal dues to the nobility. European peasants saw very little improvement as they faced higher rents, fees, and taxes imposed by the state. In Eastern Europe, the peasants faced even worse conditions, as they were still tied to the land in a new serfdom enforced by powerful landowners.
Population and the Growth of Cities
The population expanded in the 16th century; it was the first major recovery of the European population since the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century. Cities along the coasts and well-traveled trade routs grew the most. However, war, famine, and plague still affected the population. For example, in 1630, northern Italy was hit by a reoccurrence of the bubonic plague. Europe also entered another “little ice age” after the middle of the 16th century, when the average temperatures fell and glaciers even engulfed small Alpine villages. It affected harvested and gave rise to famines.
17th century cities reflected the differing of wealth during the 17th century: beautiful houses and palaces of the rich nobles and wealthy merchants sharply contrasted the crowded tenements and dirty hovels of the lower classes. Crime, pollution, fifth, and a lack of sanitation, fresh water, and food accompanied the social tension between nobles who moved into the cities and wealthy merchants who resented their presence.
Seventeenth-Century Crises: War and Rebellions
The first 50 years of the 17th century was a period of crisis. The war and rebellions that seemed to happen all over Europe caused for an atmosphere of chaos.
The Thirty Years’ War (1618-164 cool
Religion played an important role in the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War, commonly called the “last of the religious wars.” It became increasingly clear as the war progressed, however, that secular, dynastic-nationalist considerations were much more important. While most of the fighting took place in the Holy Roman Empire, the war became a Europeanwide conflict.
It’s necessary to look at the movies of the European states and the situation in the Holy Roman Empire to understand the background of the war. France had worked since the beginning of the 16th century to break out of what it believed to be its encirclement by the house of Habsburg. The situation eased in 1556 when Charles V abdicated and divided his empire; his sons Philip and Fredinand split it. France felt threatened by the Spanish Habsburgs and was afraid of the consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire by the Habsburg emperor. Spain viewed the 12-year truce negotiated with the Dutch in 1609 as temporary, and was determined to regain its control of the Netherlands. The English and Dutch control of the seas, however, forced the Spanish to find an alternative route for shipping supplies and men to the Dutch provinces.
The Austrian Habsburgs wanted to consolidate their holdings in Austria and Bohemia by getting rid of Protestantism and creating stronger central authority; they were frustrated by their lack of power over the lands of Germany where individual states still had their own political power. It was among these German states that the Thirty Years’ War began.
While the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 had brought an end to the religious warfare between German Catholics and Lutherans, religion continued to play a large role in German life. While the treaty hadn’t recognized the rights of Calvinists, many Germany states had adopted Calvinism as their state church. The Elector Palatine Fredrick IV assumed leadership in forming a league of German Protestant states called the Protestant Union. In response, Duke Maximilian organized a Catholic League of German states. This divided Germany into two armed groups by 1609, which was made more dangerous by the involvement of foreign states. The Protestant Union had the support of the Dutch, English, and French, while Spain and the Holy Roman Empire supported the Catholic League.
The religious issue was made more severe by a constitutional issue. The Habsburg emperor’s wish to consolidate their authority was resisted by the princes. The Habsburg emperors then looked to Spain for help while the princes turned to the enemies of the Spanish, especially France, for help. The division of the Holy Roman Empire made it almost impossible for war not to come, and when it did, everyone was sure it would be widespread and hard to stop. Events in Bohemia in 1617 and in 1618 finally brought the outbreak of war.
The Thirty Years’ War is divided into four major phases. The Bohemian phase (1618-1625) was the first. In 1617, the Bohemian Estates accepted the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand as the king but quickly found themselves unhappy with their choice. While many nobles were Calvinists, Ferdinand was a Catholic who began re-Catholicizing Bohemia and strengthening royal power. The Protestant nobles rebelled against Ferdinand in May 1618 by throwing two of the Habsburg governors and a secretary out the window of the royal castle in Prague. The Catholic side declared it a miracle that they survived the 70-foot fall, one that only God’s true people could manage. The Protestants pointed out that they fell into a manure pile. The rebels now seized Bohemia, deposed Ferdinand, and elected the Protestant ruler of the Palatine, Elector Fredric V, who was also head of the Protestant Union. Ferdinand, who had been elected as Holy Roman Emperor, refused to accept his despositon. With the help of the forces of Maximilian of Bavaria and the Catholic League, the imperial forces defeated Fredrick and the Bohemian nobles at the Battle of White Mountain on November 8, 1620. Spanish troops then invaded the Palatinate and conquered it by the end of 1622. Fredrick, who had lost two crowns, fled to exile in Holland. The Spanish then took control of the western part of the Palatinate and Duke Maximilian of Bavaria took the rest of the territory. Once again the King of Bohemia, Emperor Ferdinand declared Bohemia a hereditary Habsburg possession, confiscated the land of the Protestant nobles, and established Catholicism as the sole religion. The Spanish renewed their attack on the Dutch, and it seemed like the Catholics would win.
The second phase of the war was the Danish phase (1625-1629). It began when King Christian IV of Denmark (1588-164 cool , who was a Lutheran, intervened for the Protestants by leading an army into northern Germany. He probably wanted to annex territories. His campaign turned out to be a complete failure.
Albrecht von Wallenstein, a Bohemian nobleman who took advantage of Ferdinand’s victory and became the country’s wealthiest landowner, now led the imperial forces. He defeated the Danes and occupied parts of northern Germany. Christian VI’s defeat ended Danish involvement in the Thirty Years’ War and even meant the end of Danish supremacy in the Baltic.
Ferdinand II was at the height of his power after the success of the imperial armies. He took this opportunity to issue the Edict of Restitution in March 1629. This proclamation prohibited Calvinist worship and gave the Catholic Church back all the property that had been taken from it by Protestant princes or cities during the past 75 years. This sudden growth of power in the Habsburg emperor’s hands scared the German princes, so they forced the emperor to dismiss Wallenstien. Ferdinand was faced with another intervention by foreign powers as the war entered its third phase.
The Swedish phase (1630-1635) marked the entrance of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden (1611-1635) into the war. He was responsible for reviving Sweden and making it into a great Baltic power. The French provided financial support to Gustavus, who had no desire to see the Habsburgs in northern Germany. He was a devout Lutheran who felt to compelled to help his coreligionists in Germany. His army swept the imperial forces out of the north and moved into the heart of Germany. The imperial side called to Wallenstien, who was given command of the imperial army that met Adolphus’s troops near Leipzig. At the Battle of Lutzen (1632), the Swedish forces paid a high price for their victory as the Swedish king was killed in battle. While the Swedish forces stayed in Germany, they were much less effective. Wallenstein was assassinated in 1634 by one of his own captains. Even without him, his imperial army defeated the Swiss at the Battle of Nordlingen at the end of 1634 and drove them out of southern Germany. The emperor used this chance to make peace with the Germany princes by agreeing to annul the Edict of Restitution in 1629. Peace failed to come, however. The Swedes wanted to as the French, under the command of Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister of King Louis XIII, entered the war. This began the fourth and last phase of the war, the Franco-Swedish phase (1635-164 cool .
By now, the religious issues weren’t as important as they had been as dynastic power politics came to the fore. The Catholic French were supporting the Protestant Swedes against the Catholic Habsburgs of Germany and Spain.
The Battle of Rocroi in 1643 was decisive as the French defeated the Spanish and brought an end to Spanish military greatness. The French moved on to victories over the imperialist-Bavarian armies in southern Germany. By this time, all parties were ready for peace, and after five years of negations, the war in Germany was officially ended by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. However, the war between the French and the Spanish went on until the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659. By then, Spain had become a second-class power, and France had become the dominant nation in Europe. The Peace of Westphalia ensured that all German states, including Calvinists ones, were free to decide their own religion. Also, France gained parts of western Germany, part of Alsace and the three cities of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. The Austrian Habsburgs lost more of their authority as rulers over Germany. The over 300 states that composed the Holy Roman Empire were now considered independent, which brought an end to the Holy Roman Empire as a political entity. The Peace of Westphalia also made it certain that religion and politics were separate worlds. The pope ignored these decisions. While some areas of Germany were completely destroyed, others remained untouched and even experienced economic growth.
A Military Revolution?
War played an increasingly important role in European affairs by the 17th century; between 1562 and 1721, there were only four years when all of Europe was at peace. Military power was now essential to a ruler’s reputation and power, making the pressure to build an effective military intense. Some historians believe that the changes that occurred in the science of warfare between 1560 and 1650 warrant the title of military revolution.
Medieval warfare had been transformed in the Renaissance. The utilization of firearms required adjustments to the size and shape of the massed infantry and made the cavalry less effective.
Gustavus Adolphus, the king of Sweden, was the one developed the first standing army of conscripts, notable for the flexibility of its tactics. The infantry brigades of Gustavus Adolphus’s army were composed of equal numbers musketeers and pikemen, standing six men deep. They lined up in rows; all roles of the infantry fired at once instead of row by row.
Gustavus also used the cavalry in a more mobile way. After shooting, they charged the enemy with their swords. More flexibility was gained by utilizing lighter weapons that were more easily moved during battle. These changes required coordination, careful training, and better discipline.
Probably the best example of the New Model Army was of Oliver Cromwell. His army consisted of infantry, cavalry, and artillery units. It was known for its mobility and flexibility.
Rebellions
A series of rebellions and civil wars rocked the domestic stability of many European governments. Monarchs attempted to extend their authority at the expense of traditional powerful elements that fought the rulers’ efforts. At the same time, the governments raised taxes and created hardships, making the common people oppose their rule as well. Between 1590 and 1640, peasant and lower-class revolts erupted. In the 1640s and 1650s, even more unrest occurred. Portugal and Catalonia rebelled against the Spanish in 1640. By far the most famous struggle was the civil war and rebellion in England, commonly known as the English Revolution.
The Witchcraft Craze
The hysteria over witchcraft affected the lives of many Europeans during the 16th and 17th centuries. Witchcraft trials took place in England, Scotland, Switzerland, Germany, some parts of France and the Low Countries, and even New England in America; they affected both Catholic and Protestant countries.
While witchcraft itself wasn’t new at this time, it had only become considered evil during the medieval times. After the Inquisition was created in the 13th century, some people were accused of a variety of witchcraft practices and turned over to secular authorities to be burned at the stake or, in England, hung.
The Black Death in the 14th century led people on a frantic search for scapegoats—they decided that it must be because of witches. In a papal bull of 1484, Pope Innocent VIII made the connection between witchcraft and the devil an official belief. Innocent sent two Dominican friars, Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, to Germany to find the witches. They wrote the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of the Witches) based on what they found in 1486. It remained one the standard handbooks on witches until the 18th century.
More than 100,00 people were prosecuted throughout Europe on charges of witchcraft. The more people that were brought to trial, the more the fear of witches as well as the fear of being accused of witchcraft grew. Even city officeholders weren’t immune from persecution, although most of those accused of witchcraft were lower class women, most often milkmaids, peasant women, and servant girls. Most of them were single or widowed, and many over the age of the age of 50. Women were believed to be morally weaker than men, making them easier prey for the devil.
Those accused with witchcraft usually confessed to a number of practices. Their confessions were extracted by torture, which of course added to the number of practices that were confessed to. Many said that they had sworn allegiance to the devil and attended nighttime gatherings were they feasted, danced, and even copulated with the devil in sexual orgies. However, more common admissions were of using evil incantations and special ointments and powders to cause chaos on the neighbors by killing their livestock, hurting their children, or causing storms to destroy their crops.
Religious uncertainties played a role in the witch-hunts. Many trials took place in areas were Protestantism had been recently victorious or in regions where Protestant-Catholic controversies still raged. Historians have recently realized the importance of social conditions in explaining the hysteria. At the time, old communal values that emphasized working together for the good of the community were being eliminated in favor of a more every-man-for-himself mindset. Many poor people of this time, due to the sudden lack of charities available, may have tried to sell herbs and potions.
By the mid-seventeenth century, the hysteria died down. The devastation from the religious wars forced people to accept at least a bitter tolerance, and governments began to stabilize. Also, by the end of the 17th century, more and more educated people were questioning their old attitudes towards religion.
Culture in a Turbulent World
Between the Renaissance and 1650, art and literature went though two major stylistic states. These changes are closely linked to the religious, political, and intellectual developments of the period.
Art: Mannerism and the Baroque
The artistic Renaissance ended in the 1520s and 1530s when a new movement called Mannerism emerged in Italy. The worldly enthusiasm of the Renaissance gave way to anxiety, uncertainty, suffering, and a craving for spiritual experience. Mannerism attempted to break down the High Renaissance principals of balance, harmony, and moderation by distorting the rules of proportion and creating elongated figures meant to show a sense of suffering and a strong emotional atmosphere filled with anxiety and confusion.
El Greco (1541-1614) was a Mannerist painter. His real name was Domenikos Theotopolus, but he was called “the Greek.” He painted elongated and contorted figures, in colors like yellow and green against an eerie background of grays, showing a world of intense emotion.
Eventually, a new movement called the Baroque replaced Mannerism. It dominated the artistic world for 150 years. The Baroque artists wanted to combine the classical traditions of the Renaissance with the intense religious feelings of the Reformation. Although Protestants were also affected, the Catholic reform movement embraced it.
Baroque art and architecture reflected the search for power that characterized the 17th century. Baroque churches and palaces were made as elegantly as possible to impress people. Kings and princes wanted other kings and princes as well as their subjects to be in awe of their power; the Catholic Church wanted people to see the triumphant power of the Catholic faith.
Its dramatic effects used to increase the emotional intensity characterize Baroque painting. This style was shown in the works of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Rubens was a prolific artist and an important figure in the spread of the Baroque from Italy to the rest of Europe. In his paintings are bodies are shown in violent motion, heavily fleshed n***s, dramatic use of light, and rich sensuous pigments coverage are used to show intense emotions.
The greatest figure of the Baroque was the Italian architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). He completed Saint Peter’s Basilica and designed the vast colonnade enclosing the pizza in front of it.
Also prominent was Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653). In 1616, she moved to Florence to begin her successful career as a painter. At the age of 23, she had become the first woman to be elected to the Florentine Academy of Design. She painted a series of heroines from the Old Testament, including Judith, Esther, and Bathsheba.
Thought: The World of Montaigne
Writers and intellectuals began to come up with new approaches in criticizing tradition and authority. The concept of positive skepticism is tied to the work of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). Montaigne was educated in the classical educational style of the Renaissance humanists. He had been a lawyer and magistrate in the Parliament of Bordeaux, but he was so disgusted by the religious wars that he withdrew to his country estate to think and write his Essays, the first two books of which were published in 1580. He wanted to use self-knowledge as an instrument to understand the world. He questioned tradition and authority and attacked moral absolutists. He preached moderation and toleration. He wondered whether the “civilized” Europeans were superior to the “savages” of the New World. Montaigne was secular minded and discussed moral issues without referring to Christian truths. Many Europeans would accept his ideas once Europe passed though its stage of intolerance.
A Golden Age of Literature: England and Spain
Periods of crisis often create great writing, and this age was no exception. In England and Spain, writing for the stage reached new heights between 1580 and 1640, and all this literature was written in the vernacular; Latin was no longer the universal literary language.
The golden age of English literature is often called the Elizabethan era. Of all the Elizabethan literature, none better expressed the energy and intellectual versatility better than William Shakespeare (1564-1616) did. When he came to London in 1592, Elizabethans were already hooked on the stage; in some places, even the lower class could afford to attend the theater.
While best known for his plays, William Shakespeare was also an actor and shareholder inn the chief company of the time, the Lord Chamberlain’s Company. He has long been recognized as a universal genius; he had an incredible insight into human nature and psychology.
Starting in the 1580s, the agenda for playwrights was set by Lope de Vega (1562-1635). He was an incredible prolific writer, and almost 500 of his 1500 plays survive. They’re witty, charming, action-packed, and realizing. In a treatise on drama written in 1609, he stated that he wrote his plays to satisfy public demand.
One of the greatest moments of the golden age of Spanish literature was the work of Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). His Don Quixote has been considered one of the greatest works of all time. He believed that idealism and realism, visionary dreams and the hard work of reality, are both necessary to the human condition.
Conclusion
From 1560 to 1650, Europe attempted to adjust to a whole range of change-laden forces. Population gave way to economic recession. The new discovery of trade routs and the accidental discovery of the Americas led the Europeans to finally go outside their own boarders. In the 16th century, the discoveries didn’t matter too much to Europeans who were preoccupied with the problems of dynastic expansion and religious division.
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