Early Modern Europe: Second Serfdom

poland-lithuania

Battle of Grunwald (1410)

Union of Lublin (1549)

Polish-Swedish Wars (1610-1629) – rise of Swedish supremacy in the Baltics

The Deluge (1655)

Russo-Polish Wars (1603-1615) – curtailing

of Polish expansion into Russian territory

Polish-Ottoman Wars (1611-1699) – Ottoman expansion into Western Ukraine, curtailing of Ottoman expansion into Central Europe

Polish-Cossack Wars (1648-1656) – Loss of Central Ukraine to Russia

The Social and Political Structure of Poland- Lithuania - Złota Wolność (“The Golden Liberty”)

inhabited y eastern orthodox slavic people

polish-lithuania expansion in 16-17th century

1655: political/military crisis from sweden against king

• polish decline, destruction of polish-lithuania

• society characterized by polish-catholic gentry

peansantry: ruthian/orthodox, subject to harsh serfdom

• small trading towns, inhabited by jews and polish catholics

tsarist russia

ivan grozyn’s terror 1550s

time of troubles: 1600s

rurkrid-romanov transition 1610s

triumph over the tatar-turkic states of eastern european russia and western siberia 1550s-1698

expansion into ukraine in the 1650s after the khmelnistky uprising 1648-1656

unde peter the great:

• weapons manufacturing

• mobilization: noble and merchants created a rebellion army, drove the polish from moscow

Ivan Grozny’s Terror (1550s)

Time of Troubles (Smutnoye Vremya)

1600s

Rurikid-Romanov Transition (1610s)

“Boyars” and “Pomeshniks”

Triumph over the Tatar-Turkic states of

southern Russia and Siberia (1550s-1698)

Expansion in Ukraine in the 1650s after

the Khmelnitsky Uprising (1648-1656)

Siberian Colonization under Mikhail and

Alexei Romanov

Era of “Peter the Great” (1685-1720),

Russian “Westernization”, “Military Revolution”

sweden

swedish intervention in the 30 years war

• has huge military

  • from french subsidies to sweden

  • acquisition of german territories

polish-swedish war

• claims to the polish throne

• acquisitions of livonia

resso-swedish war

• contest over ingria and livonia

great northern war: 1700-1720

• swedish invasion of russia, battle of poltava 1718, death of charles XII 1720

• social and economic basis of swedish imperial expansion

  • noble impoverishment

  • mediation of muscovy-west europe trade in timer, hemp, grain

second serfdom

slavery vs serfdom: serfdom has ties of personal dependence which are socially decapitating but serfs have legal rights (marriage, inheritance)

grundherrschaft and gutsherrschaft: two forms of manorial labour organized by george friedrich Knapp 1887

early medieval antecedents: problem of peasant surplus extraction and solution by extra-economic coercion

• lordly competition for peasant labour

lord collaboration and peasant solidarity: importance of hte arragement of class forces in the development of unfree labour

• serfs can move to another serf place

emergence of serfdom in early medieval period, decline in western europe in 13-14th century, stronger reemergence in eastern europe in the 15th century

unique features of second serfdom

relatively late development of feudalistic social-property relations

• persistance of autonomous communal social-property relations into the 13th century

  • cooptation by lords in the case of the russian obshchina (responsible for taxes)

lordly dependence on german colonists for urban and rural economic development

expansion of the era of new colonization into southern ukraine and serbia

• peasants able to escape lordly domination and economic exploitation

• serbian peasants able to escape serfdom

peasant population subject to strict legal categorization

• peasants in most eastern europe are unfree, even if not bound to a particular lord or estate

economic inefficiency of serfdom and corvee labour arragements

• problem of supervision labour on demesne land

forms of labour exploitation

western european lords shift from extraction of labour-rents to extraction of money rents (rents paid in king) in response to increased food prices

western european serfs gradually become tenant farmers or maintain allodial holdings

fall in grain prices, abandonement of land, demogrpahic decline does not result in the reimposition of serfdom in west

• east in the same period: lords manage to impose a highly centralized serfdom on the mass of the peasantry

  • rise of the lesser nobility

economic integration

blum: eastern europe

• lords response to increased export opportunities to western europe by imposing new restrictions on the movement and legal rights of peasants

  • lords are market producers rather than rent receivers

    • lordly supremacy over weakened cities, weak growth of the urban money economy

    • eastern europe lords are sensitive to peasant mobility and price change

    • high social cohesion among eastern european lords, able to trade service to the state in exchange for legal recognition of serfdom.

brenner: central state endorsement, lordly collaboration

• states which formalize lordly collaboration 16th century

baltic sea trade routes to sell east grain on west market

• rising prices and production problems in west incentivize east lords to become producer

• economic inefficency of serfdom and corvee labour arrangements → origins of backwardness