Dec. 2: Early modern Europe
As you may have noticed, title is this course: "western ideas and institutions up to the 17th century".
What happened in the 17th century, to make it the logical dividing line between "modern" western civilization and premodern?
One the one hand, the 17th century witnessed the peak of "medieval" culture - worst wars of religion, witchcraft trials, belief in magic and astrology, intolerance to minorities.
On "modern" side,
1. Beginning of modern warfare - both in techniques and motives
2. increasing middle-class participation – in politics and culture as well as warfare
I. THIRTY YEARS’ WAR: END OF RELIGIOUS WARS AND
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN WARFARE
30 Years' War was war between most of states of western Europe.
Both the last war of religion, and first modern war
Cause of War:
Cause of war was religion:
Around 1600 AD, roughly half of western Europe was
Protestant, the other half Catholic..
The Habsburg king Ferdinand initially sparked the 30 Years' War, by trying to force Protestants to convert to Catholicism.
The Peace of Augsburg (1555) had allowed each prince within the Holy Roman Empire to decide the religion of his subjects – whether they would be Catholic or Lutheran.
Well, Ferdinand wasn't willing to respect this Peace - he was the supreme "ruler" and so his subjects should be Catholic like him.
The Czechs (Bohemians) were first to rebel - "Defenestration of Prague" in 1618 was when Czech Protestants threw Ferdinand's officials out windows.
The Protestant German princes soon afterwards rebelled (after F. had been elected emperor).
So you have war between the Protestants of the Holy Roman Empire and Ferdinand.
Then the Protestant states of Europe – Sweden and the Dutch Netherlands (United Provinces) joined the war on side of Protestants.
So you had the Catholic emperor of the Holy Roman empire, the Catholic king of Spain fighting the Protestant Germans, Sweden, and Netherlands.
So far, this would seem to be a war of religion – Catholics versus Protestants.
But then Catholic France intervened on the side of the Protestants. (REPEAT)
With the help of France, the Protestant rulers eventually defeated the Holy Roman Emperor – leading to a peace in 1648 which allowed diversity of religion, and empowered the German princes above the emperor.
The question for us: why did Catholic France help out the Protestants?
Cardinal Richelieu and "reason of state"
Controlled the French monarchy at the time (under Louis XIII and Louis XIV)
Richelieu was no friend of Catholics:
He was a Catholic Cardinal himself.
Richelieu was the one who restarted persecution of Protestants in France (Huguenots) again.
But as he argued (rather like Machiavelli) that “The public interest ought to be the sole objective of the prince.”
France had a boundary quarrel with the Habsburg emperors: part of northern France was under Habsburg control, and Richelieu wanted to bring it back to France (Burgundy).
Richelieu also wanted to prevent the Habsburgs from becoming too powerful – the Habsburgs, who controlled both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire were in fact the dominant European power until they lost the Thirty Years’ War.
This French desire to weaken the Habsburgs was enough to justify an alliance with Protestant heretics during the Thirty Years’ War.
C. END OF WAR FOR GOD’S SAKE
The intervention of France made the Thirty Years’ War – the first modern war, as well as the last war of religion.
The war may have started for religious reasons, but it ended because European states were fighting fore "reason of state" - competing for territory, balance of power, their own national interest – i.e. those rational goals we still fight for today.
During 30 Years' War - Catholic France had allied with the Protestants.
(Shortly afterwards, France will ally with the Ottoman Turks - Moslems - against its fellow Europeans)
After 17th century, Europeans kings no longer fought for God.
Instead they fight for the “public interest”, reasons of state - for their independence, for territory or trading rights, to keep some other state (like Russia or in our time, Iraq) from becoming too powerful, to gain or maintain spheres of influence.
When you take your next history Core, you will study wars of this sort.
Yet these wars are just as “culturally” determined going on Crusade during the Middle Ages:
Wars justified by reason of state make sense to us – because that is how we fight, but they have no more absolute justification than killing Moslems to get to heaven.
And these modern wars have the potential to do a lot more damage.
So one big change in European warfare after mid 17th century - is that religion no longer determined who the enemy would be.
(on more positive side - states are admitting that they can coexist with states with different religions, though not yet tolerating difference of religion within a state)
D. Musketeers
Second big change is warfare was new style of armies - gun-toting infantry or "musketeers"
Remember, that gunpowder had been used since the Hundred Years' War (in 15th c) - but in cannons, not guns.
Guns - muskets - only come into use in late 16th century, during the religious wars.
During 30 Years' War, the standard military formation became long narrow lines of foot soldiers firing muskets - musketeers.
Muskets are guns – using gunpowder, and capable of penetrating right through armor.
(though unlike modern guns, they took a long time to reload)
IMAGE
Still possible for cavalry to trample the musketeers before they had time to reload.
So musketeers combined with pike-men:
Pikes are long poles with sharp point – intended to skewer horses if a cavalry charged.
Advantages of new style warfare:
- Musketeers much better at killing the enemy than any previous type of soldier
- anybody could learn to shoot a gun: you didn’t need long training as a knight or as an archer to become an effective soldier.
Because anyone could fight now, armies could be made larger.
European armies grew enormously in size during the Thirty Years War.
The Swedish king had led 100,000 soldiers during the war (even in 16th century, armies had almost never numbered more than 50,000).
And as the Romans had found out long ago, armies this large were very expensive.
Taxes were raised again and again in the 17th century.
Soldiers had to plunder villages to support themselves - as you'll in your readings in Kishlanksy this week.
To sum up military change in 17th century:
Goals change: War for "reason" of state instead of religion
(also idea that Protestant and Catholic states could coexist and even ally; it will be longer before Europeans think that Protestant and Catholic individuals could coexist within a state)
Techniques of war change: New use of guns - both deadlier and able to used by larger segment of population.
Social class of soldiers changes along with this – more middle and even lower class recruitment, resulting eventually in more political power for these segments of the population.
II. MIDDLE-CLASS CULTURE
In a second area, the 17th century was a positive era - in the formation of national middle-class culture.
The English civil war took place in the middle of the 17th century (1642), beginning at same time as 30 Years' War was drawing to close.
Causes of civil war
By 17th century, what religion were most English people? - Protestant or Catholic?
(Protestant - Remember that Henry VIII had made the church of England - the Anglican church - independent from Rome and under royal authority
What sort of government did England have?
(hereditary king - and Parliament with House of Lords (aristocrats) and House of Commons (elected gentry) Like our own House of Representatives (which is modeled on it), the English Parliament was supposed to approve all new taxes.
Civil war in England began because the Parliament feared that their king (Charles I) was trying to become an absolute monarch and return England to Catholicism.
King Charles' attempt at absolute rule IMAGE
Charles was basically a nice guy - a good family man (no beheading of wives like Henry), and a great patron of the arts.
But he was a terrible politician.
In religion he leaned towards Catholicism and persecuted the Puritans (English Calvinists) and Scottish Presbyterians.
In politics - he believed that the king (not Parliament) should decide state policy.
When the Parliament wouldn't agree to support some of Charles' wars (with Spain, later Scotland), he simply dissolved it, and ruled alone.
So for about 10 years, Charles ruled without Parliament - raising revenue by forced loans, and supporting his armies by quartering troops in people's homes without their consent (taxation without representation)
But then in 1641 - he was faced with a war on multiple fronts;
Both the Irish and the Scots were rebelling at same time.
Charles desperately need money to fight them - so he calls a Parliament (the "Long Parliament")
This Parliament refuses to pay, unless Charles will revoke his church reforms, illegal taxes, and so on.
Charles won't - so the king of England and Parliament go to war.
Charles is supported by strong Anglicans (religious conservatives) and most of the nobility.
Parliament has the support of the new Middle Class and new type of army: the New Model Army
Like the European armies, this was an army of musketeers and pikemen, recruited from ordinary Englishmen.
They were "new model' in that these soldiers didn't drink, or rape, or pillage, or gamble - they tried to be good Christians.
Their officer core were not aristocrats – but middle class officers, recruited because of their skill, not their birth.
This gave
the New Model Army great military leadership.
But also a radical ideology – the soldiers and officers of the New Model Army thought they were fighting for God and for the disenfranchised - the common man.
They were never defeated - not in England, Scotland, Ireland, or Flanders.
New Model Army won the English Civil War.
And then they did something unheard of in Europe – they executed the king.
And they didn’t just assassinate him (Europeans had done this before) – they tried and convicted him of treason - treason against his own people.
The charge:
1. “Charles Stuart, … trusted with limited power to govern by the laws of the land and not otherwise, and being charged to use his power for the good of the people and for their rights and liberties, nevertheless is charged with a desire to govern according to his will”
For a king to attempt to rule absolutely, was now considered treason.
Charles was found guilty, and lost his head (decapitation), a humane sort of execution for the time.
We see here the roots of our own notion that an executive who fails to govern by the laws, deserves to lose his power (though we favor impeachment rather than decapitation)
ENGLISH REPUBLIC 1650’s
("republic" is form of government modeled on ancient Rome)
This is time when English have more freedom of religion and freedom of the press than any previous time of their history
(1640-1650: more books and pamphlets were published in England than had been published since invention of printing (200 years vs. 10 years)
(IMAGE - newspaper announcing Charles' execution)
The New Model Army put down rebellions in Ireland and Scotland, and even won battles abroad.
But this Republic wasn't going to last
It failed to keep loyalty of the English gentry
Mainly because religious and social radicals, esp. those in army – played too great a role.
Some groups – like the Levellers – were preaching horrible ideas –
The Levellers demanded an end to King, Lords and Commons, and rule solely by Parliament.
The new Parliament would be elected annually.
.And the right to vote was to be extended to the working classes of England.
The Levellers also demanded also reduction of tithes, more free trade, and freedom of religion.
Some levellers even talked about
extending political rights and education to women:
Most of these Leveller ideas are things we firmly support to today - but in 17th century, these people were extremists.
(think of it as though a group of radical vegetarians took over the government today, and started to demand that animals not be killed for food - and even might be given the vote)
The men with power in England – the merchants, the landlords – would not support a regime which allowed such radicals to exist.
They work for the restoration of monarchy - and by 1660 (after death of Oliver Cromwell - the leader of New Model Army ) they succeed.
Restoration of monarchy in 1660
The son of Charles I, Charles II, had been hiding out in France.
In 1660, he was asked by Parliament to return to England and become king.
England will never be a Republic again – not even today.
However, even though it lasted little more than 10 years, the English republic was enormously important for the history of western civilization, especially for American political ideas..
IMPACT OF ENGLISH CIVIL WAR Idea of Government by consent of the governed:
English civil war important because it popularized the idea of government by the consent of the governed.
It became accepted in England that the king ruled according to law and with consent of Parliament - not according to his own will.
And among the radicals, the notion spread that Parliament should be elected by all the people (at least all the men) - not just by the rich.
You can see this in your readings for this week:
In Putney Debates: debates between common soldiers and officers of the New Model Army
One ordinary soldier:
“I thinke that the poorest hee that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest hee; and therefore… that every man that is to live under a Government ought first by his owne consent to putt himself under that Government.” (REPEAT)
He was demanding democracy, and appealed to the law of nature, the law of nations, and law of God
Now, in this course, we have seen how rare it has been for humans to have the right of choosing their government - or even ask for it.
Democracy had existed in classical Athens (for Athenian men) - but no where after this.
the Middle Ages, privileged groups - the nobility, had forced kings to agree to respect their rights (Magna Carta), but not farmers and craftsmen.
So in the Putney Debates, we see ordinary soldiers drawing on both classical and medieval ideas to claim their right to "by their own consent put themselves under a government."
We see rebirth of notions of democracy.
(and it is important to note that advocates of democracy only listened to at all because they had guns in their hands)
Ok, so the English Civil War demonstrated a positive side of the 17th century - a temporary success for those who demand the right to participate in their government.
Growing literacy
In part because of cheaper books thanks to the printing press,
In part because of the Protestant focus on reading the Bible
And in part because of the new emphasis on education by Counterreformation Catholics like the Jesuits,
European literacy was growing.
By the end of the 17th century, about a third of French men could sign their names; about the same as in Protestant England.
This is an astonishingly high rate of literacy when compared to Middle Ages, or indeed to classical antiquity.
To meet new demand, new types of popular literature were created:
Novels: fictitious narratives about ordinary people, with realistic setting: you read some early examples of novels in Kishlansky (Lazarillo de Tormes; this week: Hans von Grimmelshausen)
Newspapers invented in 17th century
Origins of the newspaper lie in the "News-sheets" of sixteenth century Germany.
News-sheets were being sold in cities and towns but were very local in nature.
But the establishment of a postal communications system in the early 17th century made possible more wide-spread publication.
By mid 17th century - newspapers had reached England.
As I'll talk about next class, newspapers and pamphlets made communication of political ideas and events more easier to a wider portion of population.
C. National cuisines introduction of products from new world help create the modern European cuisines
Sugar, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes and so on are adopted in Europe by 17th century.
Italy gets its pasta and tomato sauce;
Spain its chorizo (from American paprika)
England its meat, potatoes, and tea
And in each European country, there is a common national diet – middle class and upper class eat same sort of food.
In addition to the food, come the drugs - caffeine, tobacoo, and hard alcohol
Caffeine:
chocolate, coffee, and tea all introduced in 17th century
Chocolate was a product of the Americas:
By the mid-1600s, the chocolate drink had gained widespread popularity in France.
One enterprising Frenchman opened the first hot chocolate shop in London
But Coffee will soon take over as main caffeinated beverage.
Coffee was first cultivated in Africa - Ethiopia.
By 1000 AD, Arab traders had brought it to parts of the Middle East (qahwa).
The Ottomans invent the first coffee shops.
It's from the Ottomans that the Europeans get the habit:
They capture the first coffee beans from a defeated Ottoman army in 1529.
By 1600, merchants are bringing the stuff into Europe - now through the Indian Ocean trade.
By the middle of the 17th
century - the first coffee shops open in Italy and England.
Why is coffee important?
Coffeehouses
become political meeting houses - "penny universities" where people
who can't afford to go to a real university come to talk and learn.
Tobacco:
A product of the Americans (native Americans' revenge?).
Introduced into Europe, Africa, and Asia by the Spanish and smoked initially with pipes (or snorted as snuff).
Also begins to become popular only in 17th century.
And last of all,
Hard Alcohol:
Europeans invented hard alcohol for themselves.
Now people had been drinking wine and beer since the agricultural revolution - but the technology for making hard alcohol was more difficult.
In late medieval period, some alchemists learned distillation - the method of evaporating and concentrating alcohol.
But they kept the process a secret and used it for medicines. IMAGE
In late 16th century, brewers found out the new technology:
Then there is an explosion of hard alcohol throughout Europe - various countries specialize in their own type.
Vodka in Poland/Lithuania by end of 16th century.
University professor of Holland - invents gin 1650.
Whisky from barley malt is being made in Scotland by 1640.
Rum - produced from sugar of Bahamas
So in the 17th century, many of the foods and drugs we still consume today became part of western civilization.
3. Popular sports – games like golf, hockey, football (soccer) begin to take their modern form in the 17th century.
Don't have time to go into detail, but as with the national cuisines, these sports not just enjoyed by the upper classes (as medieval tournaments had been) but by a broad segment of the population.
Common theme – beginnings of a middle class culture.
In the Middle Ages, writing and high culture had been dominated by the church
The knightly aristocracy had determined the sort of sport (tournaments), secular music, and romance which is known is medieval.
By the 17th century, ordinary middle class people began to play a role in their societies.
On the military front, they are the ones fighting for their kings as musketeers
On a cultural front, they read (and write) the literature, create the recipes, and play the sports which we consider “modern" European, and by derivation, modern American.
And on a political front, they begin to rebel from their kings, or demand some sort of representation in return for their taxes - more about this on Thursday.
TO SUM UP:
DISCUSSION: Grimmelshausen
Ricci