HIST 1401

Exam 1

Medieval Warm period

Climate experienced a warming period from 950 CE - 1250 CE

• affected North Atlantic region, Europe, and parts of America

Hanseatic league (13th-17th century)

Commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central/Northern Europe that dominated Baltic and North Sea trade

• Established: late 12th century

Little ice age

Regional cooling period

• early 14th century —> mid-19th century

• How did this affect Europe? Think trade, governance, economies of scale, etc.

Three Estates

Traditional social hierarchy, divided society into 3 orders:

1) Clergy

• pray for the spiritual well0being of society

• members of the roman catholic church, wealthy high-ranking bishops and cardinals to priests

2) Nobility

• Fight and protect society as ruling military and political class

• aristocrats and titled nobles

3) Commoners

• worked and supported the other two orders through labor

  • vast majority of population (90%)

Holy Roman Empire

Collection of territories in Central and Western Europe

• lasted for over a thousand years (800/962 AD —> 1806)

  • Confederation of hundreds of smaller kingdoms, city-states, etc.

• Modern-day Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Low Countries, and northern Italy

Town charters (1500-1800)

Legal documents issued by monarchs, emperors, or local lords

• gave a town the right to govern itself, be free from local feudal rules

• Self-goverance, economic freedom, personal liberty, protection of the king

Rise of the vernacular (1400-1800)

Local languages, English, French, German, and Italian, replaced latin as the dominant medium for culture, literature, religion, science, and government

• Drivers of change: the printing press, the Reformation, the Renaissance, and state-building

• Impact: expansion of genres, rise in literacy

The Great European Plain

Plain spans from the Atlantic coast of France to the mountains of Russia

• served as a vital agricultural, commercial, and geopolitical highway

  • enabled the rise of centralized nation-states

  • expanded trade networks

Individuality

Grew as people shifted away from strict group identities and began to value self-expression

• The Renaissance (14th-17th century): thinkers and artists focused on human potential and achievement

• The Reformation (16th century religous movement): protestant leaders, ie. Luther, taught that faith was a personal choice

• The Enlightenment (18th century intellectual movement): philosophers wrote about natural rights and power of human mind

Sumptuary laws

Historical regulations that restricted spending on luxury items: clothing, food, jewlery, to maintain rigid social hierarchies

Vesalius (1514-1564)

The founder of modern human anatomy

• Wrote: De humani corporis fabrica (1543) (a textbook that discussed the human body and revolutionized medical science)

Foundling hospitals (1739)

Britains first home for abandoned children

• Founded by Captain Thomas Coram

Mariage contracts

Legal and fiscal unions of property rather than romantic agreements

• DOWRY: cash, goods, land, provided by the bride’s family to the groom

• DOWER: Given to the bride by the groom to ensure her financial security

Partible inheritance

Legal system where a deceased person’s property is divided equally among multiple heirs

Primogeniture

Legal right that gives the firstborn child exclusive inheritance of their parents’ property, titles, or throne

In Mediterranean Europe, what was the role of marriage contracts

Gave husbands complete control of women’s property

How common were unwed mothers in Renaissance Europe?

Less than 10%

Cannons (early 14th century)

• Rendered medieval castles obsolete, destroyed high walls

• To counter cannons, Europeans established the star fort to absorb impact and provide multiple fields of defense

Swiss pikemen

Revolutionized warfare

• disciplined infantry (soliders who fought on foot) could shatter armored knightly calvary and traditional feudal armies

  • Dominated early modern European warfare (1450-1525)

Standing armies and navies

• 15th-17th century (Established first by King Charles VII, 1430s)

• Allowed monarchs to build centralized, absolutist states

• Involved full-time, professional soliders with loyalty to the crown

Central institutions

Shifted from fragmented feudal networks to centralized state bureaucracies, organized religions, and formalized systems of learning and commerce

• After 1450 the size and scope of central institutions and government activities increased dramatically

Venality

Widespread practice of buying, selling, and inheriting public, judicial, and military offices

• rulers could auction off public administration roles to raise immediate cash without raising traidtional taxes

Conquest of Granada (1492)

Ten-year military campaign from 1482-1492

• ended the Muslim rule in Spain and completed the Reconquista

Charles V’s inheritance

Inherited a massive global empire across Europe and the Americas through strategic dynastic marriages arranged by his Habsburg ancestors

• 1506: Inherited the Netherlands

• 1516: Became king of Spain

• 1519: Inherited the Austrian lands and was elected Holy Roman Emperor

Habsburg-Valois wars (1521-1559)

Series of conflicts against the French House of Valois vs. Habsburg rulers of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire

Ottoman Empire (1299-1922)

Transcontinental state that lasted from 1299-1922 (about 600-ish years)

• Began in modern-day Turkey

• Increased in power and size during the 15th-16th centuries

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Mercenary Captains (1303)

Professional military leader who commans a band of paid soliders for hire

• established 1303

• 14th-15th century: Domestic italian mercenary companies rise, and captains begin seizing pinrcely states

Condottieri

Professional military leaders in Italy, from 14th-16th century

Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (1559)

Peace impacts that ended the 65-year-long Italian Wars between France, Spain, and England

• Permanently shifted the balance of power in Europe towards Habsburg Spain

French Invasian of Italy (1494)

King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy in 1494 to claim the Kingdom of Naples, triggering the Italian Wars

• altered the balance of power

• Italy transformed from a self-governing cultural hub into a battleground for major European monarchies

Marriage of Ferdiand and Isabella (1469)

Laid the foundation for the unification of the modern Spanish state

• Isabella (heiress to Castile) & Ferdinand (heir to Aragon)

  • Second cousins who needed a papal dispensation to marry legally under church law

  • Goal was to bind two powerful Iberian crowns to defy King Henry IV

Military Revolution (16th-17th century)

The radical changes in military strategies, tactics, and technology between the 16th and 17th centuries transformed European governments and societies

Vasari (1511-1574)

Father of art history

• Wrote a book documenting the lives of Italian Renaissance artists

• Framed art history as a three-stage rebirth

Rural poor least literate (16th century)

Southeastern Europe: the rural poor possessed no written literature, and faced the highest levels of illiteracy

• Western Europe experienced a print revolution, and vernacular literacy spread, driven by the Reformation

Latin Grammar Schools (14th-19th century Europe)

Elite educational institutions focused on mastering Latin

• prepared young men for university, church administration, law, medicine, and public leadership

Located in Western and Central Europe

Philppe Duplessis de Mornay, Defense of Liberty against Tyrants (1579)

Protestant political tract that justifies lawful resistance against rulers who violate divine law, or oppress the commonwealth

Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499)

Italian scholar and Catholic priest

• most influential humanist philosophers of early Italian Renaissance

• first translator of Plato’s complete extant works into LATIN

Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494)

Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher

• wrote the “Manifesto of the Renaissance”

  • argued that humans have no fixed place in the universe and that God gave humans the unique ability to shape their own destinies

• wrote “Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486).”

  • argues for human free will and potential

Erasmus (1467-1536)

Dutch Renaissance humanist and Catholic priest

• shaped modern education

• created new, accurate Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament

• Major figure in Renaissance philology

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Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (1508-16)

Renaissance guide for aristocratic behavior, courtly etiquette, and the art of advising rulers

• The well-rounded warrior

• The court lady

• Duty to the ruler

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605-1615)

Created the first modern novel or Western literature

Marguerite d'Angouleme (Marguerite de Navarre), Heptameron (1558)

• 72 short stories

• Impacted Renaissance literature, gender discourse, and early modern thought

• Uses storytelling among travelers to moderate discrimination

• Challenges gender roles

• Advocates for women’s strengths

Michelangelo (1475-1564)

Italian, sculptor, painter, and architect

• Painted the ceilings of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1541)

• Constructed the marble sculptures: David and Pietà

El Greco (1541-1614)

Greek painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance

• prioritized emotional intensity and spirituality

Mannerism (1520-1600)

European art movement that rejected High Renaissance harmony

• favored artificiality, tension, and elongated human figures

Movable-type printing press (1450)

Invented by Johannes Gutenberg

• revolutionaized human communication by making book production fast, affordable, and widely accessible (think of how Luther spread his beliefs)

Masaccio, Trinity (1427-1428)

First major painting to systemically use one-point linear perspective

• transformed how artists represented three-dimensional space on flat surfaces

Utopia (1516)

Published by Thomas More

• Coined a new literary genre and foundational concept that critiqued 16th-century European politics

  • Introduced radical ideas: communal property and religious tolerance

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1591-1595) (published 1596)

Tragic play about two young lovers from feuding families whos deaths ultimately unite their households

Protestant (16th-century movement)

Religious and political movement that broke the monopoly of the Roman Catholic Church and created new Christian denominations

• Established by Martin Luther

Ghettos (began in Venice, 1516)

Jewish ghettos were enclosed, segregated city quarters created by authorities to seperate Jews from Christian populations

John Wycliffe and Jan Hus (14th-15th century)

Crucial proto-reformers whose teachings and resistane to papal authority directly influenced Luther’s 16th-century protestant reformation

• both argued that the bible is the supreme authority of Christian belief and practice, susperseeding church tradition

Luther became a reformer after reading Paul's letters

• Luther’s breakthrough came when he was reading Paul’s Epistle to the Romans

  • Salvation is a gift from god

  • Transformed his view of God into a savior

95 Theses (1517)

List of academic discussion points that criticized the Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences and sparked the Protestant Reformation

Catherine of Aragon

• Queen of England

• First wife of Henry VIII, 1509- 1533, before they divorced

  • Caused the English Reformation and permanently changed the religious and political landscape of England

Anabaptists (16th century)

Members of the Radical Reformation Christian movement who believe baptism is valid only for consenting adults who confess their faith

German Peasants' War (1524-1525)

Massive revolt across Central Europe

• Peasants faced heavy taxes, rising rents, and the expansion of serfdom

• Lords restricted access to traditional common lands like forests and streams

John Calvin (1509-1564)

French theologian and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation

• developed the system of Christian theology known as Calvinism

  • Major branch of Protestant Christian theology that emphasizes the absolute sovereignty of God under the authority of the Bible

Council of Trent (1545-1563)

Goal: officially define Catholic doctrines against Protestant teachings

Jesuits (1540)

Largest male religous order in the Roman Catholic Church

• founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola

Saint Bartholomew's Massacre (1572)

Catholic mob violence and assassinations against French Calvanist Protestants (began on August 24-25th)

Henri IV of France (1553-1610)

1572: King of Navarre

1589-1610: King of France

Ended decades of civil war, established religous tolerance, and restored economic stability

Edict of Nantes (1598)

Landmark law that granted the French Calvanist Protestants (Huguenots) substantial religious tolerance and civil rights

Europe had a population of 80 million in 1300

90% of the population lived in rural areas, working on manors and small farming villages

5% lived in cities and towns

Strained available agriculture

The Great Famine (1315-17): caused widespread starvation and weakened the population

The Black Death (1347-1351): killed 30-60% of Europe’s population

Europe had a population of 80 million in 1500

Plauge outbreaks dropped the population to 50-60 million by 1400

• By 1500, population had recovered

Europe had a population of 100 million in 1600

Agricultural and economic adjustments, high fertility rates

What happened to prices during the 16th-century?

Rised significantly

• Price Revolution

Influx of Silver and Gold: massive amounts of precious metals imported from the Americas flooded European markets

• lowered the value of money

Growing population after the Middle Ages increased the demand for basic commodities, outpacing supply

Price Revolution (16th century)

Prices rose rougly sixfold (6x) over a 150-year span

• driven by surplus of gold and silver from Americas

Mercantilism (16th-18th century)

Governments regulated trade to increase state power by maximizing exports and hoarding precious metals

• Bullionism: national wealth is measured by the amount of gold and silver a country owns

• Zero-sum

• Nations must export more goods than they import

Transhumant shepherding in Spain

Practice of moving livestock seasonally between cool mountain pastures in the summer, and lowland vallyes in the winter

• drove the Castilian economy and shaped European textile markets with WOOL

Real wages halved in England between 1500 and 1650

Dropped by 40-50% driven by population growth and inflation

Criminals sentenced to the galleys

Judicial punishment where criminals were sent to the navy to become rowers

Apprentice artisans

A learner who works closely with a skilled master to master hands-on trade: woodworking, metalwork, ceramics, or textiles

Journeymen artisans

• skilled wage-earning craftsmen who occupied the middle tier of the urban guild system

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Master artisans

Elite, self-employed craftsmen who headed urban workshops, trained apprentices, and controlled the production of goods through powerful trade guilds

Currency debasement

Deliberate reduction of precious metal content in coins while keeping their nominal face value the same

• lowered the amount of precious metal used

Debt slavery

A person is legally owned as property to pay off a debt

Role of coal?

Coal was the primary domestic and early industrial heating substitute for scarce wood

• Cheaper and easily accessible

What city grew its commerce fastest in 16th century?

Antwerp became the commercial and financial heart of Europe

Royal Exchange (London) (1565-1571)

Center for commerce, international trade, and financial exchange

Spain declares bankruptcy

1627, 1647, 1656, 1662

• Fugger had a huge net worth from loaning money to states, but Spain’s bankruptcy ruined him and his wealth

Grain prices quadruple to septuple (1450-1650)

Grain prices increased due to increased demand