Week 2 - A Wider World and a Social History of Death

Chapters 1, 2, and 7

How did most people in 1450 Europe live?

• Lived in small villages in households organised around a marital couple

• Supported themselves and paid obligations through agriculture

• Did not travel far unless trading luxury goods over land/sea routes or on pilgrimiges

How did cities change through 1450s Europe?

They began to grow throughout Europe especially in the Low Countries where dwellers ranged a broad socio-economic spectrum

What was the dominant group of European society?

The nobility

What were the Lower Countries?

What is now Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands

What significant event occurred for the Ottoman Empire in 1450s Europe?

In 1453 they captured Constantinople and continued expansion into south-eastern Europe

What significant event occurred for England and France in 1450s Europe?

They ended the Hundred Years War in 1453 in which England lost almost all holdings on the continent

What major invention occurred in the 1450s?

The printing press with movable metal type

What was the result of the invention of the printing press?

Spurred the expansion of literacy despite only a small portion of the population being able to read

What was higher education like in 1450s Europe?

All advanced education was in Latin and either at universities training men in law, medicine, theology, or newer humanist academies

What did humanist academies teach?

They prepared men for careers in business or politics

What was Christianity like in 1450s central and western Europe?

• Wealthy, hierarchical, and bureaucratic

• Led by the pope

• Bishops hold large amounts of power

• Most Europeans are Christian

• Christians attend various religious rituals throughout the year

How was the production of most commodities organised in 1450s Europe?

Through urban craft guilds

How were clothmaking and mining organised in 1450s Europe?

Along capitalist lines with investors financially backing machinery, tools, and raw materials and then paying wages to workers

Aside from printing, what was another significant technological development in 1450s Europe?

Gunpowder invented in China and then spread westward by the Mongols

What were some of the most dramatic changes in Europe from 1450-1600?

• The growth of a global network

• Expansion of literacy, mainly among urban, middle-class men in western Europe

• Literacy of some artisans and middle-class women by 1600

What was the relationship between literacy and religion?

They shaped and were shaped by each other:

• Protestant and Catholic Reformations were aided by the spread of religious ideas

• Religious controversy made for an audience for books and pamphlets

How did exploration and colonialism change Europe from 1450 to 1600?

• Establishment of firmer national boundaries

• Smaller states combined/are absorbed by larger neighbours

• Aragon and Castile become a unified Spain

• Brittany and some of Burgundy become parts of France

What factors aided in the change of borders in Europe from 1450-1600?

• Military campaigns with newer weapons and tactics

• Political marital strategies to enlarge territories

• Development of expanded government systems/taxation systems

• More trade routes between eastern and western Europe → grain goes west and manufactured goods go east

What aspects of life remained similar from 1450s to 1600s Europe?

• Most continued to live in small villages and support themselves through agriculture

• Land transport remains difficult

• Local and widespread famines continue

• Infant and child mortality remain high → only half of people born make it to 10

• High mortality rates contribute to continued importance of religion

• Family remained primary source of identity and support

• Although expanding wealth could increase social stature, nobility still best assurance of power

• Hierarchies of gender continue

What the principle view on how health worked in early modern Europe?

They thought of their bodies as containing fluids that influenced health and caused illness if improperly balanced

What was the most common treatment for illness in early modern Europe?

Bloodletting

What was seen as more important than medicine in terms of maintaining health in early modern Europe?

Food people ate → determined by social class and religious teachings

What was society like for children/young people in early modern Europe?

• Many children died young

• Those who survived began training for adulthood at an early age

• Drinking and wild behaviour was tolerated for young men

• Young women were expected to maintain their honour → would be punished for sexual misconduct and pregnancy out of wedlock

What was marriage like in early modern Europe?

• Most married → married earlier in eastern/southern Europe than northern/western Europe

• Divorce rare when allowed

• Women often marry older men making widows more common than widowers

What was death like in early modern Europe?

Death came at all stages and living cared for dying and memorialised the dead with many rituals

What systems of power existed in early modern Europe?

• Membership, families, guilds, and religious organisations provided people with their most intimate experiences of relationships of power

• Even in egalitarian systems hierarchical structures of authority and leadership exist → monks and nuns

• These local groups formed the basis for broader hierarchies of power such as cities, territories, states, and nations