7. Increasing State Power. Geopolitics and Warfare between 1650 and 1800

European expansion after 1650

• From the 17th c. onwards

• European conflicts exported worldwide => GLOBAL WARS

• e.g. during the Eighty Years’s War:

  - Latin America: Admiral Piet Hein captured the Silver Fleet in 1628; the battle for Dutch Brazil between 1630 and 1654

  -Asia: Battle for the Moluccas between Portugal and the Dutch Republic

• in the 18th c.:

  → The War of the Spanish Succession (1702- 1713)

  → The Seven Years’ War (1756- 1763

  => Both included fighting in the Americas

European Colonisation and Slavery in the Americas (1650-1800)

• from around 1600 onward, Europeans began permanent settlements in North America, expanding beyond earlier Caribbean and South American colonies

• Europeans used enslaved Africans to exploit the Americas’ resources

• The transatlantic slave trade increased sharply from mid-17th century

• Between 1520- 1829, over 5 million enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas

Island of Gorée

The island of Gorée lies off the coast of Senegal, opposite Dakar. From the 15th to the 19th century, it was the largest slave-trading centre on the African coast.

Ruled in succession by the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French, its architecture is characterized by the contrast between the grim slave-quarters and the elegant houses of the slave traders. Today it continues to serve as a reminder of human exploitation and as a sanctuary for reconciliation.

Economies of the Caribbean, Brazil and parts of North America

→ dependant on the use of enslaved people

→their forced labour => invaluable for the economic development of Europe itself

→ slave ships had to be built, goods exchanged for their purchase and the silver that slaves mined or the sugar they grew eventually ended up on European market

→ slaves were brought in from the Atlantic African Coasts

→ various European powers established posts there

→ for now → the Arfican interior was largely spared from the European expeditions

in Asia (1650-1800)

→ European presence remained largely limited to a series of trading posts around the coast

→ since the second half of 16th c. the Spaniards had colonising the Philippines; this colony was intended as a bridgehead for Spanish expansion in Asia

=> in the 18th c. - Europeans will bring Oceania in their sphere of influence

17th c. Russia

• expedition from Siberia to the coasts of the Pacific Ocean, on the behalf of the tsar

• under Peter the Great, the Russian elites would mainly focus on the West

The Rise of the Pentarchy (18th Century Europe) (5 countries)

• around 1700s, France remained the dominant European power

• in the 18th c., new powers rose, forming Pentarchy (5 great powers)

  → UK (West)

  → Russia, Prussia, Habsburg Austria (East/ Southeast)

  → France (now relatively declining)

• While Eastern powers had less efficient tax system, they advanced by: → implementing military conscription, strengthening their armies

→ already at the end of the 17th c. and certainly in the course of the 18th c., the pentarchy that would dominate European politics during the first half of the 19th c became clearly visible. It was then that the seeds were planted that eventually would lead to 19th c. nationalism

=> this development also implied that the religious cleavage no longer determined the course of successive conflicts between the European powers

the decline of Sweden

• emerged victorious from the Thirty Years’ War

• lost prestige in the 18th c.

• Charles XII (1682-1718) - talented monarch and initially achieved succession in the Great Northern War (1700-1721)

• Sweden lost out again against Russia and it had to relinquish its empire along the Baltic coasts

→ during the following decades, in Stockholm a parliamentary regime dominated by aristocrats took root

The Dutch Republic after 1715

• after 1715 the Dutch republic declined as a military power

  → Struggled to maintain barrier cities in the Souther Netherlands

  → Lost its former role as a key buffer against Louis XIV’s ambitions

• The United Provinces remained very wealthy

  → Amsterdam stayed the top European financial centre for a time

  →In the late 18th c. London replaced Amsterdam in financial dominance

Venice

→ similar developments as the one in the Dutch republic

→ After the loss of Crete to the Ottomans in 1669 => the Venetian republic was no longer considered as a great Mediterranean power.

→ from then on → the city lived its wealth and it became a magnet for tourists visiting it on their Grand Tour

France

• Louis XIV traumatised by the revolts of the Frondes

• Absolutism = his answer (and that of his followers) to the chaos of the central decades of the 17th c.

• but even in France, institutions continued to limit princely power

France’s Dominance and Louis XIV’s Rule (1650 -1800)

• France emerged as a major victor of the Thirty Years’ War

• Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) confirmed France’s position as Europe’s main continental power

• In 1661, after cardinal Mazarin’s death, Louis XIV surprised the court by choosing to rule personally

• Led an aggressive foreign policy = aimed at French expansion

• Faced opposition from a European coalition led by William III, Stadholder of the Dutch Republic (from 1672) and King of England, Scotland, Ireland (from 1689)

The Wars of Louis XIV

• 1667 - 1668 The War of Devolution; French conquests in Walloon Flanders (in particular the capture of Lille)

• 1672-1678: The Dutch War; advent of William III as stadholder; ended by the Treaty of Nijmagen = compromise, France acquired the Franche- Comte

• 1681-1685: Politique des reunions, further territorial expansion of France in Lorraine and in Alsace

• 1688-1697: League of Augsburg; by then William III had become king of Great Britain, the French advance was halted, ended with the Treaty of Rijswijk

• 1702- 1713: war of the Spanish Succession; Louis XIV grandson came to Spanish throne as Philip V. But France lost ground;

• Great Britain maintained the balance of power on the European continent

The British Isles (From Civil War to Global Power)

• Civil War (1642- 1651) → execution of Charles I (1649)

• Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector (Commonwealth)

• Restoration (1660): Charles II returned but ruled under Parliament’s constraints

• Anglican Church weakened, especially under his Catholic brother James II

• Glorious Revolution (1688/89): James II replaced by Mary and William III→ START of parliament monarchy

• Big winner of the War of the Spanish Succession (1702- 1713)

  • gained territories in North America

  • Secured Gibraltar → control of Meditarranean access

  • Became top colonial power and guardian of Europe’s balancing power

Ottoman power in Central and Eastern Europe

• after 166, the Ottomans concentrated for four decades mainly on fighting the Persian rulers on their eastern borders

• 1640s shifted their attention back to the Mediterranean

• the longest siege in Europe (1645-49) concrete the island of Crete from Venetians

• their advance seemed unstoppable

• 1683, a Catholic coalition succeeded to lift the Ottoman siege of Vienna

• the Ottomans had come up against the limits of their possibilities

The expansion of the Habsburgs

• the Austrian Habsburgs acquired the whole of Hungary and Northern Serbia

• focus on the Balkans

• the Ottomans lost out in Central and South-West Eastern Europe

• Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the Austrian Habsburgs were also granted the Southern Netherlands and Lombardy (= dominant position in Italy)

• Their capital city (Vienna), underwent a transformation =>from fortress into an international metropolis; construction of numerous palaces, churches, and government buildings; aroud 1680 - 80 000 inhabitants, by 1750 - almost doubled to around 175 000

The rise of Russia

• since the second half of the 16th c., some Russian tsars, Ivan the Terrible, and Alexis had exerted pressure on the West - especially in the Baltic countries

• Peter the Great (1682- 1725 =) transformed Russia inro a permanent European power

• He modernised the country, implemented army and naval reforms, promoted industrialisation and mining in the Urals, had the capital moved to the newly founded city of Saint Betersnurh

• ‘westernisation’ of the country, the already the gap between the elites and large swaths of society deepened further, moreover the administration remained weak

Peter the Great

• achieved important military successes,

  • against Sweden → so- called Great Northern War, 1700 -21

    → defeated Sweden →Russia → dominant in the Baltic

    • Occupied Finland, Latvia, Estonia

    • At Sweden & divided Poland’s expense

• Less success vs Ottomans → Captured Azov (1696) → failed to reach the Mediterranean

• Founded Saint Petersburg → New, Western- oriented capital

• Built a modern bureucracy:

  • created 12 colleges (ministries)

  • Divided empire into gubrenii (provinces)

  • introduced military conscription (village-based quotas)

• Known for pushing modernization and reform, though not uniformly successful

Southern Europe: Reforms and Resurgence in the 18th c.

• Spain under Philip V (1700-1746)

  → First Bourbon king of Spain → brought French reformers

  → Centralised the administration

  • introduced intendants

  • abolished old regional privileges (e.g. Aragon, Catalonia)

  • Imposed Castilian as the sole administrative language

• Piemont- Savoy (Italy) (dukes

  → Dukes moved capital to Turin (from Chambéry) → closer to Italian affairs

  → Turin transformed in baroque, planned city

  → Victor Amadeus II (1675-1730) became King of Sardinia → rise as regional power in Italy

The Rise of Prussia- Brandenburg in 18th c

• Fredrick William I (1713- 1740)

  → known as ‘Soldier King’

  → built a strong, disciplined army and efficient bureaucracy

• Fredrick II (Fredrick the Great) (1740-1786)

  → expanded Prussia’s power through military victories

  → War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

  • Conquered Silesia

  → Seven Years’ War (1756-1763)

  • despite early setbacks, retained Silesia and elevated Prussia’s prestige

  => By late 18th century, Prussia replaced France as the model of enlightened absolutism and military power on the European continent

The Austrian Habsburgs during the 18th c.

• rationalised their administrative practices, but still less successful than the Prussian kings

• success of government = the personal involvement of the ruler

• the 18th c. monarchy = personal affair

• without obtaining some form of consensus and luring traditional elites (the aristocracy) into cooperation => a ruler could not achieve anything

Impact of the Enlightenment on the administration; and the measures

• governments all over Europe set up large- scale reform programs

• monarchs who carried such developments = ‘enlightened despots’

  → enhancing the knowledge of the territories (Ferraris map in Southern Netherlands)

  → administrative redistricting

  →forms of more rational taxation

  → forms of conscription for staffing their armies

  → codification of the law and the introduction of a more humane criminal law (Cesare Beccaria)

  →more active participation education and poor relief

  →reduction of the power of the church (1773, abolition of the Jesuits)