Chapter 7 Recovery and Expansion, 1300-1600
Chapter 8 The Renaissance, 1350-1550
Chapter 9 The Reformation, 1500-1600
Chapter 10 The Rise of Sovereignty, 1600-1715
Chapter 11 The Scientific Revolution during the Seventeenth Century
Chapter 12 The Enlightenment: A Cultural Movement during the Eighteenth Century
Chapter 13 Social Transformation and Statebuilding in the Eighteenth Century
Chapter 14 The French Revolution and the Rise of Napoleon, 1789-1799
IN THIS CHAPTER
Summary: Beginning in the mid-fifteenth century, Europe recovered from a series of calamities and, under stronger, more secular monarchies, expanded its reach to Africa, the Americas, and the East.
Key Ideas
• By the middle of the fifteenth century, Europe had recovered socially and economically from the effects of the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, and a divided Church.
• Secular monarchs took advantage of the weakness of the Church and the nobility to consolidate and centralize power.
• The desire for precious metals and competition for the spice trade combined to produce an unprecedented era of exploration and discovery.
• Spain became the most powerful economic and military force in Europe.
Key Terms Hundred Years |
Court of the Star |
Inquisition |
War |
Chamber |
spice trade |
Black Death |
Holy Roman Emperor |
New Spain |
Conciliar Movement |
Reichstag |
haciendas |
War of the Roses |
city-states |
plantations |
Introduction
Around the middle of the fifteenth century, European civilization began to recover from a series of calamities that had destroyed much of the culture that characterized the High Middle Ages. What emerged was a more secular, ambitious culture that began to explore and exploit new areas of the globe, including Africa, the Americas, and the East. The influx of trade, wealth, and new cultural influences put severe stress on the traditional economic and social organization of Europe.
Effects of The Hundred Years War
The dynastic conflict known as the Hundred Years War had begun in 1337, pitting the armies and resources of the Norman kings of England and the Capetian kings of France against one another. By 1453, the re-organized French had managed to push the English out of all of France except for the coastal town of Calais, and both sides agreed to end the conflict.
The Hundred Years War had several transformative effects on the kingdoms of England and France:
• It disrupted agriculture, causing famine, disease, and a significant decrease in the population.
• It created an enormous tax burden that led to a series of peasant rebellions.
• It left France an economically devastated but more politically unified kingdom.
• It weakened England economically, but (due to the difficulty of keeping trade lines open) it also led to the beginning of a textile industry upon which it would rebuild its economic strength.
Disappearance of the Black Death
The plague known as the Black Death had first appeared in Europe in 1347. Numerous outbreaks occurred in the following decades. In 1352, it disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared. It is estimated that between one-quarter and one-third of the population of Europe died during the plague years. The virulence and unpredictability of the Black Death had several lasting effects on European society:
• The isolation that resulted from the fear of contagion weakened the traditional social bonds of society.
• The inability of the traditional authorities like the Church and the nobility to do anything about the plague weakened respect for them among the lower classes.
• The shortage of labor in some areas helped to spur the creation of a textile industry as some land owners abandoned agricultural production in favor of sheep farming, thus producing greatly increased quantities of wool.
A Weakened Papacy
The fourteenth-century Church was a deeply divided one. During the Avignon Papacy (1309—1377), the papacy had been under French influence. Attempts to break that influence led to the Great Schism (1378—1417), in which there were competing popes. In the fifteenth century, there were considerable attempts to reform, reunite, and reinvigorate the Church.
The movement, which came to be known as the Conciliar Movement, was led by various councils of cardinals and peaked in 1449 with the collapse of the Council of Basel. Although it failed to accomplish its reformist goals, the Conciliar Movement had two lasting consequences:
• It articulated and spread a belief that the Church must not neglect the needs of the faithful in pursuit of worldly power.
• It allowed secular governments—kings in England and France and local magistrates in Italian, German, and Swiss cities—to gain some measure of control over the churches in their lands.
The Revival of Monarchy
The weakened papacy coincided with the revival, after 1450, of unified national monarchies. In the early part of the fifteenth century, European monarchs shared power with their noble vassals in the countryside and with local magistrates in the urban towns and cities. After 1450, the monarchs began to award royal administrative offices to high-ranking town officials rather than nobles. This marked the beginnings of an alliance between the monarchs and an emerging middle class of merchants and professionals that would make the creation of a modern, sovereign nation state possible.
European monarchs also began to create national armies in the fifteenth century. These new armies differed from their predecessors in several ways:
• Monarchs hired mercenary soldiers rather than relying on the nobility to raise troops.
• The armies became “professional,” in that they fought for pay and spoils rather than honor and feudal obligation.
• The cavalry, usually composed of nobles, became less important than artillery and infantry.
• Larger professional armies increased costs, creating an even greater need for taxes.
The degree to which fifteenth-century European monarchs were able to consolidate power varied.
Power Struggles within the English Monarchy
In the aftermath of the Hundred Years War, the English monarchy was subject to an internal power struggle between two rival branches of the royal family, the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The open warfare between the two houses has come to be known as the War of the Roses (1455—1485). Accordingly, the process of centralizing power did not begin in England until the reign of the House of Tudor, which began when Henry Tudor defeated the forces of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in August of 1485. Henry Tudor, who reigned as Henry VII, began to curb the power of the nobility, whose wealth and influence had put them above the law, by creating the Court of the Star Chamber, where the King’s councillors judged cases brought against nobles.
A More Powerful Monarchy in France
In France, the cornerstones of a more powerful monarchy were built during the Hundred Years War. The English invasion of France did the work of curbing the power of French nobles, allowing the ministers of Charles VII to create a professional army and a strong governmental bureaucracy loyal to the King. Charles’s successor, Louis XI, used that army and bureaucracy to defeat the last of rivals, the Duke of Burgundy, in 1477. Once free of rivals, Louis brought the nobility into line, and he used the bureaucracy to further cultivate trade and industry, particularly silk production based in the city of Lyon.
Decentralized Power in Germany
The process of centralization was less successful in Germany and Italy. The German principalities were nominally ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor who, since 1356, had been elected by a seven-member council consisting of the archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the Count Palatine, and the King of Bohemia. Under this setup, the ability of the Emperor to centralize authority and power was severely limited. In the fifteenth century, further limits on the executive power of the Emperor were instituted with the creation of a Reichstag, a kind of legislative body that included the seven electors, the remaining princes, and representatives of 65 important free cities.
Fragmented Power in Italy
On the Italian peninsula, which was organized into independent city-states, political power was even more decentralized as the traditional nobility gave way in power and importance to merchants made wealthy by the revival of trade in the Mediterranean. This unique political organization would be a crucial factor in the advent of the Renaissance.
The Rise of Spain
The most successful example of the rise of the monarchy and the centralization of power occurred in Spain in the second half of the fifteenth century. The marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469 united two previously unruly kingdoms. With the resources of the joint kingdoms at their disposal, Isabella and Ferdinand were able to subdue aristocratic opposition from within, conquer the Moors in Grenada, and annex Naples. Asserting complete control over the Church in their kingdom, they used the Church as an instrument to consolidate power and build national unity. They ended a period of toleration of Muslims and Jews, establishing the Inquisition in 1479 to enforce their conversion to Christianity. In 1492, Spanish Jews were exiled and their properties were seized. In 1502, Muslims who had failed to convert to Christianity were driven out of Grenada.
Isabella and Ferdinand increased Spain’s power by promoting overseas exploration. They sponsored the voyages of the Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus who, sailing west in 1492 in search of a shorter route to the spice markets of the Far East, reached the Caribbean, thereby “discovering” a “New World” for Europeans, and setting in motion a chain of events that would lead to the establishment of a Spanish Empire in Mexico and Peru.
Exploration and Expansion
Spain was not alone in the fifteenth century in sponsoring seafaring exploration. The Portuguese Prince, Henry the Navigator, sponsored Portuguese exploration of the African coast. By the end of the fifteenth century, Portuguese trading ships were bringing in gold from Guinea. Soon, European powers came to understand that there was also gold to be had in the selling of spices imported from India that were used to both preserve and flavor food. The search for gold and competition for the spice trade combined to inspire an era of daring exploration and discovery:
• In 1487, Bartholomew Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, thereby opening Portuguese trade routes in the East.
• In 1498, Vasco da Gama extended Portuguese trade by reaching the coast of India and returning with a cargo that earned his investors a 60 percent profit.
• The Portuguese formed the trading colonies in Goa and Calcutta on India’s Malabar Coast.
• Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian sailing for Spain in 1499 and for Portugal in 1501, helped to show that the land discovered by Columbus was not in the Far East, but rather was a new continent that the German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller dubbed “America” in his honor.
• In 1519, a Spanish expedition led by the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan sailed west in search of a new route to the Spice Islands of the East. Rounding the tip of South America in 1520, the expedition sailed into the Pacific Ocean and arrived at the Spice Islands in 1521. In 1522, the expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the globe, returning to Spain without Magellan, who had been killed in the Philippines.
The Spanish Empire in the New World
Spain led the way in exploiting the economic opportunities of the New World. The process of exploitation got under way in 1519, when Hernan Cortes landed on the coast of what is now Mexico with 600 troops. Soon thereafter, Cortes marched on the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and imprisoned their leader Montezuma. By 1521, the Aztecs were defeated and the Aztec Empire was proclaimed New Spain.
In 1531, Francisco Pizarro landed on the western coast of South America with 200 wellarmed men and proceeded into the highlands of what is now Peru to engage the Inca civilization. By 1533, the Incas were subdued. Internal divisions with the conquering force initially made it difficult, but by the late 1560s effective control by the Spanish Crown was established.
The major economic components of the Spanish Empire in the New World were:
• mining, primarily silver from Peru and northern Mexico that was exported to Spain
• agriculture, through large landed estates called haciendas, which produced food and leather goods for the mining areas and urban centers of the New World, and plantations in the West Indies, which produced sugar for export
In both the mining and the agriculture sectors, ownership was in the hands of Spanish- born or -descended overlords, while labor was coerced from the native population.
The establishment of an exploitative foreign empire in the New World had several lasting results on the civilizations of the New World, particularly in Central and South America, including:
• the establishment of Roman Catholicism in the New World
• the establishment of economic dependence between the New World and Europe
• the establishment of a hierarchical social structure in the cultures of the New World
It also had lasting effects on Spain and, eventually, the rest of Europe, including:
• a steady rise in prices, eventually producing inflation, due to the increase in available wealth and coinage
• an eventual rise of a wealthy merchant class that sat uneasily in the traditional feudal social structure of Europe
• raised expectations for quality of life throughout the social structure of Europe.
• Rapid Review
As Europe recovered from the effects of the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, and internal divisions within the Church, its monarchs attempted to consolidate and centralize political power. The most successful was the newly united monarchy of Spain, where Isabella and Ferdinand used the national Church and a strong bureaucracy to institute Catholicism as a state religion, sponsor an unprecedented era of exploration and discovery, and build a Spanish empire in the New World.
• Chapter Review Questions
1. Which of the following was NOT an effect of the Hundred Years War?
(A) a significant decrease in the population
(B) a series of peasant rebellions
(C) the unification of Castile and Aragon
(D) a more politically unified France
(E) an economically weaker England
2. The Black Death
(A) refers to the ruthlessness of the Norman Kings of England
(B) refers to the outbreak of plague in Europe that killed between one-quarter and one- third of the population between 1347 and 1352
(C) refers to the Spanish Inquisition
(D) was a fifteenth-century phenomenon
(E) increased the authority of traditional European institutions like the Church and the nobility
3. Fifteenth-century attempts by the cardinals to reform, reunite, and reinvigorate the Church are known collectively as
(A) the Reformation
(B) the Counter-Reformation
(C) the Inquisition
(D) the Conciliar Movement
(E) the Court of the Star Chamber
4. Which of the following is NOT a way in which fifteenth-century armies differed from their predecessors?
(A) They were commanded by officers of noble birth.
(B) They were composed of mercenary soldiers.
(C) They fought for pay and spoils rather than honor and feudal obligation.
(D) They relied on artillery and infantry more than on cavalry.
(E) They created a greater need for taxes.
5. Of the fifteenth-century attempts by monarchs to consolidate and centralize power, the most successful was in
(A) England
(B) France
(C) Germany
(D) Italy
(E) Spain
6. In the fifteenth century, the Holy Roman Emperor
(A) was another name for the pope
(B) was dethroned in the Hundred Years War
(C) was elected by a seven-member council of German archbishops and nobles
(D) was Ferdinand of Aragon
(E) sponsored the voyages of Christopher Columbus
7. The era of daring exploration and discovery at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries was inspired by
(A) the Reformation
(B) the invention of the steam engine
(C) the need to escape the Black Death
(D) the search for gold and competition for the spice trade
(E) the successful circumnavigation of the globe by the Magellan expedition
8. Which of the following was NOT an effect of the creation of a Spanish Empire in the New World?
(A) inflation in the economy of Europe
(B) the establishment of Roman Catholicism in the New World
(C) the rise of a wealthy merchant class in Europe
(D) the establishment of a hierarchical social structure in Europe
(E) the establishment of a system of economic dependence between Europe and the New World
• Answers and Explanations
1. C. The unification of the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon had nothing to do with the Hundred Years War: Castile and Aragon were unified by the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand in l469.The other four choices are incorrect because they were effects of the Hundred Years War.
2. B. The Black Death refers to the outbreak of plague in Europe that killed between one-quarter and one-third of the population between 1347 and 1352. Choices A and C are incorrect because the phrase Black Death refers specifically to the plague and, in spite of its severe name, it has nothing to do with the ruthlessness of either the Norman Kings or the Spanish Inquisition. Choice D is incorrect because the Black Death was a fourteenth-century (not a fifteenth- century) phenomenon. Choice E is incorrect because the phrase Black Death refers to the plague and because the plague did not increase but actually weakened the power of the Church and the nobility.
3. D. The fifteenth-century attempts by councils of cardinals to reform, reunite, and reinvigorate the Church are known collectively as the Conciliar Movement. Choice A is incorrect because, although the leaders of the movement that came to be known as the Reformation did originally have as their goal reforming and reinvigorating the Church, they were not cardinals in the Church and their movement was not one of reunification. Choice B is incorrect because, although the so- called Counter-Reformation also had reform as one of its goals, it increasingly came to be concerned with stamping out Protestantism and was also not a movement particular to the cardinals. Choice C is incorrect because the Inquisition was an instrument of the Church invented in Spain to enforce the conversion of Muslims and Jews, and later used to root out Protestants. Finally, choice E is incorrect because the Court of the Star Chamber was an instrument used by the early Tudor kings of England to curb the power of the nobility and had nothing to do with Church reform.
4. A. The commanding of armies by men of noble birth was a continuous aspect of European armies that did not change until the nineteenth century. Choices B—E are incorrect because these are all ways in which fifteenth-century armies did differ from their predecessors.
5. E. Spain’s Isabella and Ferdinand were most successful at consolidating and centralizing political power in the fifteenth century, as they were able to use their control of the Church and the combined wealth of Castile and Aragon to curb the power of the nobility and enforce uniform loyalty to the crown. Choice A is incorrect because in England the process of centralization was delayed by an internal power struggle between two rival branches of the royal family known as the War of the Roses, though some progress was made after Henry Tudor came to power in 1485. Choice B is incorrect because France did make progress in consolidating and centralizing power, second only to Spain, but French progress was delayed by the need to subdue the powerful Duke of Burgundy, which was not accomplished until 1477. Choice C is incorrect because German nobles were able to retain considerable autonomy from the Holy Roman Emperor who was an elected ruler, which obviously impeded the consolidation of power. And choice D is incorrect because the Italian peninsula still consisted of independent city-states that were ruled by powerful merchant-princes.
6. C. The Holy Roman Emperor was elected by a seven-member council consisting of the archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the Count Palatine, and the King of Bohemia. Choice A is incorrect because the Holy Roman Emperor was a specific title which did not refer to the pope. Choice B is incorrect because the Hundred Years War was an English dynastic struggle that did not involve or affect the Holy Roman Emperor. Choice D is incorrect because Ferdinand of Aragon was never Holy Roman Emperor. Choice E is incorrect because the voyages of Columbus were sponsored by the Portuguese monarchy.
7. D. It was the search for gold and competition for the spice trade between Spain and Portugal that provided the inspiration for the era of daring exploration and discovery at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. Choice A is incorrect because the Reformation’s focus was internal to Europe and had nothing to do with exploration outside European borders. Choice B is incorrect because the steam engine was not widely used to power ships until the nineteenth century, not in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Choice C is also incorrect not only because the timing is wrong—the Black Death was a fourteenth-century phenomenon that had ended by the fifteenth to sixteenth century time period mentioned in the question— but also because it was a sickness that killed much of the population of Europe and crippled Europe’s economy and had nothing to do with exploring the rest of the world beyond Europe. Finally, choice E is incorrect because the successful circumnavigation of the globe by the Magellan expedition was an example and, in some ways, a culmination of the era of exploration and discovery, but it was not its inspiration.
8. D. The hierarchical social structure of Europe was not a result of the creation of a Spanish Empire in the New World; that social structure dates back to the early medieval period. Choice A is incorrect because the influx of new wealth from Spain’s New World Empire did cause inflation in Europe. Choice B is incorrect because the creation of Spain’s New World Empire also involved missionaries who firmly established Christianity there. Choice C is incorrect because the wealth gained in trade with the New World Empire did lead to the rise of a wealthy merchant class. Choice E is incorrect because it did foster economic dependence between Europe and the New World.