StudySpace: Western Civilizations, 16 e.

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1. Introduction
1. The primacy of religion
2. Religion and politics
3. Religious wars
2. Economic, Religious, and Political Tests
1. The Price Revolution
1. Dizzying inflation
2. Causes
1. Rising population: 50-90 million (1450-1600)
2. Food supplies remain constant
3. Influx of New World silver
3. Effects
1. Large-scale farmers, landlords, and some merchants profited
2. For laborers, wages rose more slowly than prices
3. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer
4. Governments respond by raising taxes
2. Religious conflicts
1. The inevitability of religious wars
2. The mutual support of "crown and altar"
3. State-imposed religious authority
1. The impossibility of religious pluralism
3. Political instability
1. General weakness of major European kingdoms
2. Dynasticism
3. Constant threat of civil wars (and foreign wars)
3. A Century of Religious Wars
1. The German wars of religion (c. 15402-1555)
1. Charles V
1. Attempts to reestablish Catholic unity failed
2. Catholic princes fear Charles may curb their independence
2. Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555
1. Cuius regio, eius religio ("as the ruler, so the religion")
1. Catholic princes rule Catholic territories
2. Protestant princes rule Protestant territories
2. The French wars of religion (1562-1598)
1. By 1562, Calvinists comprised 10-20% of the population of France
1. Conversion of aristocratic women
1. Won over their husbands who usually controlled large private armies
2. Condé as leader of the Huguenots
3. 1562: struggle between Condé and the ultra-Catholic duke of of Guise
1. A political and religious struggle
2. Warfare dragged on until 1572
4. Henry of Navarre (Protestant) to marry the Catholic sister of the king
1. Catherine de Medici panicked
2. Plotted with Catholic Guise faction to kill all Huguenot leaders
5. St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (August 24, 1572
1. 2-3000 Parisian Protestants slaughtered (10,000 more across France)
6. Henry IV (r. 1589-1610)
1. Initiated the Bourbon dynasty
2. 1598: the Edict of Nantes
1. Catholicism established as the official religion
2. Huguenots allowed to worship, attend universities, and serve as public officials
3. Divided France into religious "spheres of influence"
3. The revolt of the Netherlands (1566-1609)
1. Southern Netherlands -- grew prosperous from trade and manufacture
2. 1560: Charles V cedes all territories to his son, Philip
3. Philip II (r. 1556-1598)
1. Used the Netherlands as a source of income to pursue Spanish affairs
2. French Calvinists spread to Antwerp, converting others along the way
4. William the Silent
1. Leader of the Catholic nobility
2. Appeals to Philip to allow toleration for Calvinists
5. Radical Protestant mobs ransack Catholic churches
6. Philip dispatches an army under the duke of Alva
1. The "Council of Blood" (reign of terror)
7. The 1609 truce
1. Implicit recognition of the northern Dutch Republic
4. England and the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1618-1648)
1. Sources of antagonism
1. The English under Elizabeth
2. English economic interests opposed to Spanish interests
3. England determined to resist any Spanish attempt to block England's trade with the Low Countries
4. Naval contests in the Atlantic
2. The "Invincible Armada"
3. English naval victory -- Spanish defeat
1. Protestant enthusiasm
2. "Good Queen Bess"
3. The Elizabethan Age
5. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)
1. Began as a was between Catholics and Protestants
2. Ended as an international struggle transcending religion
3. Causes
1. Religious conflict
2. Ferdinand (Catholic Hapsburg) elected king of Protestant Bohemia
3. Protestantism suppressed in Bohemia
4. Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632)
1. Lutheran king of Sweden
2. Marched into Germany (1630), championed the Protestants
3. Earned the support of Catholic princes
1. Wished to see religious balance restored
2. Did not want to submit to Ferdinand II
4. Subsidized by France
5. 1632: Adolphus killed in battle
5. 1635-1648: war pits France and Sweden against Austria and Spain
6. The Peace of Westphalia (1648)
1. Marked the emergence of France as a predominant continental power
2. The Germans and Austrian Hapsburgs as greatest losers
4. Divergent Paths: Spain, France, and England, 1600-1660
1. The decline of Spain
1. By 1600, the Spanish empire was the mightiest European and global power
2. Primary weakness was economic
1. Lacked agricultural and mineral resources
2. Needed to develop industries and a balanced trading pattern
3. The nobility lived in splendor and dedicated itself to military exploits
4. Huge military expenditure
3. The question of Castile
1. A dominant power after taking over Portugal (1580)
2. The revolt in Catalunya (1640)
3. Italian revolts
4. Spain abandons its ambition of dominating Europe
2. The growing power of France
1. Adding territories (Languedoc, Dauphiné, Provence, Burgundy, and Brittany)
2. Henry IV sets out to restore the prosperity of France
1. Manual for proper farming technique
2. Rebuilds roads, bridges, and canals
3. Constructs royal factories
4. The exploration of Canada
3. Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642)
1. Major goals
1. Enhance central power at home
2. Expand French influence across Europe
2. 1629: deprived Huguenots of all political and military rights
3. Abolished the semi-autonomy of Burgundy, Dauphiné, and Provence
4. Introduced a new system of local government by the "intendants"
4. The Fronde (1648-1653)
1. A reaction against French governmental centralization
2. "The slingshot tumults" (Fronde)
3. Louis XIV, Anne of Austria, and Cardinal Mazarin
4. Popular and aristocratic resentments reach boiling point
5. Aristocrats join with commoners against the corruption and mismanagement of Mazarin
6. Louis implements new taxation
7. The absolutism of Louis XIV
3. The English Civil War
1. General causes
1. Constitutional hostilities
2. Religious animosities
3. Power struggles between competing aristocratic factions at court
4. Outdated fiscal system
5. Rebellion in Ireland
6. Widespread crop failures
2. The origins of the English Civil War
1. James I (r. 1603-1625)
1. A Scottish king disliked by the English
2. The prerogatives of kingship
3. Raised taxes without parliamentary approval
2. The Puritans
3. James "plants" 8,000 Scottish Calvinists in Ulster
4. Charles I (r. 1625-1649)
1. Launches a new war with Spain
2. Further financial problems
3. marries the Catholic daughter of Louis XIII of France
4. With William Laud, begins to favor anti-Calvinist elements in the English church
5. 1640: a Scottish army marches into England demanding the withdrawal of Charles's religious reforms
5. Charles summons Parliament
6. 1628: Parliament forced Charles to accept the Petition of Right
1. Declared all taxes not voted by Parliament to be illegal
2. Condemned quartering of soldiers in private homes
3. Prohibiting arbitrary imprisonment and martial law in times of peace
7. Charles rules without Parliament
8. 1642: Charles tries to arrest five leaders in the House of Commons
1. Charles raises his own army
2. Parliament votes itself taxation to fight Charles and his army
3. Civil War and Commonwealth
1. King's supporters ("Cavaliers")
1. Aristocrats and large landowners
2. Loyal to the Church of England
2. Parliamentary supporters ("Roundheads")
1. Small landholders, tradesmen, and artisans
2. Most were Puritans
3. Quarrel within the parliamentary party
1. Most were ready to restore Charles as a limited monarch
2. A radical minority of Puritans ("Independents") distrusted Charles
3. Insisted on religious toleration
4. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)
4. Charles renews the war (1648) but is forced to surrender
5. The "Rump" Parliament
6. Charles is beheaded (January 30, 1649)
7. The Commonwealth (Republic)
1. 1653: Cromwell marches troops into Parliament
2. The "Protectorate" -- thinly disguised autocracy
3. The Instrument of Government
4. Cromwell as "lord protector"
4. The restoration of the monarchy
1. The Puritans had been discredited
2. Charles II (r. 1660-1685)
1. Agreed to respect Parliament
2. Agreed to observe the Petition of Right
3. Agreed to summon Parliament every three years
5. The Problem of Doubt and the Quest for Certainty
1. From certainty to doubt
1. The New World
2. The destruction of religious uniformity
3. Political allegiances were threatened
4. The search for new foundations
2. Witchcraft accusations and the power of the state
1. The mortal threat of witchcraft
2. 1494: Pope Innocent VIII orders papal inquisitors to detect and eliminate witchcraft
3. Torture increased the number of accused witches who confessed to alleged crimes
4. Witchcraft trials a European phenomena -- not confined to Catholic countries
5. Fear of witchcraft most intense where secular and religious powers wre close
6. 1660 and after: witchcraft accusations die down
7. Conclusions
1. Witch mania reflects the fears European held about the devil
2. Reflects the growing conviction that only the state had the power to protect people
3. The search for authority
1. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
1. A searching skepticism
2. The Essays (essai -- trial, experiment)
1. Que sais je? ("what do I know?") -- very little for certain
2. What is true to one nation may be false to another
3. Moderation -- no government or religion is really perfect/no belief is worth fighting for
3. Helped combat fanaticism and religious intolerance
2. Jean Bodin (1530-1596)
1. Looked to resolve the disorder of his own day
2. Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576)
1. Absolute governmental sovereignty
2. Once a state is constituted it should brook no opposition
3. Nation-states can in no way be limited governments
4. Resistance to the state leads to anarchy
3. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
1. The doctrine of political absolutism
2. Leviathan (1651)
1. Any form of government that protects subject and property might act as sovereign
2. The state exists to rule over atomistic individuals
3. Pessimistic view of human nature
4. The sovereign can tyrannize as he likes
3. A new science of politics
1. Political obligation grounded in empirical observation, not tradition or divine right
4. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
1. Began as a mathematician and scientific rationalist
2. Abandoned science as a result of a conversion experience
3. Became a Jansenist (puritanical faction within Catholicism)
4. Pensées ("Thoughts")
1. Faith alone can show the way to salvation
2. Terror, anguish, and awe in the face of evil and eternity
6. Literature and the Arts
1. Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
1. Don Quixote
2. The "knight-errant" (Quixote) and the practical man (Sancho Panza)
3. Human nature -- idealism and realism
2. Elizabethan and Jacobean drama
1. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
1. Tamburlaine and Doctor Faustus
2. Larger-than-life heroes
3. His heroes meet unhappy ends because there are limits to human striving
2. Ben Jonson (c. 1572-1637)
1. Wrote corrosive comedies exposing human vice and foibles
2. Volpone
1. Shows people behaving like deceitful and lustful animals
3. Alchemist
1. An attack on quackery and gullibility
3. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
1. His reputation as an author
1. Forty plays, 150 sonnets, and two long narrative poems
2. The gift of expression and profound analysis of human character
3. First period
1. The world is orderly and just
2. Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, and Much Ado About Nothing
4. Second period
1. Bitterness, pathos, and the search for the meaning of existence
2. Hamlet, Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well, Macbeth, and King Lear
5. Third period
1. The spirit of reconciliation and peace
2. The Tempest
4. John Milton (1608-1674)
1. Wrote the official defense of the beheading of Charles I
2. Justified Puritan positions in contemporary affairs
3. Loved the Greek and Roman classics (Lycidas)
4. Paradise Lost
1. Epic poem based on Genesis
2. The creation and the fall of man
3. Creates the character of Satan
3. Mannerism
1. Italian and Spanish painting, 1540-1600
1. Fascinating the viewer with special effects
2. A blending of two styles
1. Raphael
1. Pontormo (1494-1557) and Bronzino (1503-1572)
2. Bordering on the bizarre and surreal
2. Michelangelo
1. Tintoretto (1518-1594) -- large canvases devoted to religious subjects
2. El Greco (c. 1541-1614) -- a deeply mystical Catholic art
4. Baroque art and architecture
1. A school of painting, sculpture, and architecture
1. Retained the dramatic and irregular
2. Avoided the bizarre
3. Aimed to instill a sense of the affirmative
4. Originated in Rome
5. Expressed the ideals of the Counter-Reformation papacy and the Jesuits
2. Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)
1. Architect and sculptor
2. Combined classical elements to express aggressive relentlessness and great power
3. Experimented with church facades built "in depth"
4. Incites response rather than passive observation
3. Diego Velázquez (1599-1660)
1. Southern European Baroque
2. Court painter in Madrid
3. More restrained thoughtfulness
4. The Maids of Honor
5. Dutch painting in the golden age
1. The greatness and wretchedness of man
2. Peter Brueghel (c. 1525-1569)
1. Portrayed the busy life of the peasantry
2. Peasant Wedding, Peasant Wedding Dance and Harvesters
3. Appalled by the intolerance he witnessed during Calvinist riots and Spanish repression in the Netherlands
4. The Blind Leading the Blind
5. Massacre of the Innocents
3. Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
1. Painted thousands of canvases glorifying resurgent Catholicism
2. Reveled in the sumptuous extravagance of the Baroque
3. The Horrors of War
4. Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
1. Lived in staunchly Calvinist Holland
2. An active portrait painter who knew ho to flatter his subjects
3. A life of personal tragedy
4. Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer and The Polish Rider
7. Conclusion
1. Undermined confidence in traditional social, religious, and political structures
2. Skepticism and the search for meaning
3. The new power of the state

 

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