European State-Building, Warfare, and Culture (1589–1715)

Economic challenges in seventeenth-century Europe

Agricultural and manufacturing slumps, high food prices, stagnant wages, and soaring unemployment led to widespread struggles for survival, exacerbated by a colder, wetter climate known as the 'little ice age.'

Impact of climate changes on agriculture

A colder and wetter climate, termed the 'little ice age,' shortened farming seasons, leading to recurrent famines that weakened populations and increased vulnerability to diseases like the bubonic plague.

Family pig slaughter significance

It was a major annual festival providing a rare abundance of meat, shared with neighbors and preserved as lard, reflecting the precarious subsistence of rural life.

Peasant response to rising bread prices

In towns, they invaded bakers' shops to seize and resell bread at a 'just price'; in rural areas, they attacked grain convoys, often led by women, reflecting a 'moral economy' prioritizing community needs.

Role of women in food riots

Women often led bread riots, leveraging their roles as mothers to gain some impunity from authorities, demanding affordable food and reduced taxes.

Effect of the 'little ice age' on population levels

Recurrent famines from bad harvests, worsened by the 'little ice age,' led to malnutrition and disease, causing high burial rates and low birth and marriage rates, significantly impacting population levels.

Forms of government in Europe (1589-1715)

Absolute monarchy and the constitutional state.

Obstacles to power consolidation

Material limitations like poor communication, cultural and linguistic diversity, and resistance from privileged groups such as nobles, clergy, and local councils.

Key achievements in state-building

Greater taxation, growth in armed forces, larger and more efficient bureaucracies, and increased ability to compel obedience from subjects.

Warfare's role in state-building

It necessitated larger, permanent armies controlled by monarchs, requiring increased taxation and bureaucratic expansion to support them, enhancing state sovereignty.

Louis XIV's military control

He required army officers to be loyal to him, professionalized the army with standardized training and equipment, and expanded its size significantly, exemplifying absolutist control.

Growth of the French army under Louis XIV

It grew from 125,000 men during the Thirty Years' War to 340,000 by the War of the League of Augsburg, enabling France to dominate European affairs but straining resources.

Financing military roles under Louis XIV

Noble officers purchased their positions and supplied horses, food, uniforms, and weapons, incurring debts that were not covered by royal stipends until the 1760s.

Little Ice Age

Recurrent famines from bad harvests, worsened by the 'little ice age,' led to malnutrition and disease, causing high burial rates and low birth and marriage rates, significantly impacting population levels.

Absolute monarchy

One of the two main forms of government that emerged in Europe between 1589 and 1715.

Constitutional state

One of the two main forms of government that emerged in Europe between 1589 and 1715.

Obstacles faced by rulers

Material limitations like poor communication, cultural and linguistic diversity, and resistance from privileged groups such as nobles, clergy, and local councils.

Warfare and state-building

It necessitated larger, permanent armies controlled by monarchs, requiring increased taxation and bureaucratic expansion to support them, enhancing state sovereignty.

French army growth under Louis XIV

It grew from 125,000 men during the Thirty Years' War to 340,000 by the War of the League of Augsburg, enabling France to dominate European affairs but straining resources.

Noble officers' financing

They purchased their positions and supplied horses, food, uniforms, and weapons, incurring debts that were not covered by royal stipends until the 1760s.

Moral economy of revolts

It prioritized community needs over profit, with peasants and urban poor redistributing food at a 'just price' to combat high prices and taxes.

Spanish fiscal crises management

They devalued currency and declared bankruptcy multiple times (1596, 1607, 1627, 1647, 1680), leading to plummeting national credit.

Morisco expulsion impact

It resulted in the loss of about 300,000 skilled workers and merchants, weakening the Spanish economy and society.

Henry IV's contribution to absolutism

He restored stability post-civil wars, reduced peasant taxes, improved infrastructure, and issued the Edict of Nantes, fostering religious compromise and economic recovery.

Paulette

It was an annual fee paid by royal officials to ensure hereditary officeholding, increasing revenue but reducing royal control over officials in the long term.

Cardinal Richelieu's strengthening of monarchy

He curbed noble power by reshuffling the royal council, extended the use of intendants to centralize administration, and suppressed Huguenot political autonomy.

Role of intendants in Richelieu's administration

They collected information, enforced royal orders, and undermined regional nobility in thirty-two districts, enhancing centralized state power.

Louis XIII's target La Rochelle in 1628

It was a major Protestant stronghold seen as a 'state within a state,' and its siege ended Huguenot political independence, reinforcing Catholic dominance.

Richelieu's raison d'état

It justified actions in the state's interest, even if morally questionable, arguing that God absolves such acts when they serve state goals.

The Fronde

The Fronde (1648-1653) was a series of uprisings against tax increases, revealing the need for compromise with nobles, eliminating key opponents, and fostering a public desire for strong royal rule.

Louis XIV's control over administration

He used middle-class bureaucrats, avoided a first minister, never called the Estates General, and employed spying and a secret police to eliminate threats.

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685

He sought religious unity for state security, viewing division as a threat, and the revocation was popular among Catholics but led to the exodus of skilled Huguenots.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert's mercantilism

He promoted self-sufficiency through industry support, high foreign tariffs, and a merchant marine, aiming to accumulate gold and reduce unemployment.

Colbert's colonial ambitions for France

He aimed to make Canada a key part of the French empire, settling Quebec and claiming Louisiana to exploit its agricultural and mineral potential.

Impact of Louis XIV's wars on France's economy

They strained resources, leading to currency devaluation, new taxes on nobles, and widespread suffering from bad harvests (1688-1694), pushing France toward bankruptcy by 1714.

Significance of the Peace of Utrecht (1713)

It ended the War of the Spanish Succession, limited French expansion, confirmed Spain's decline, expanded the British Empire, and established the balance-of-power principle.

Factors contributing to Spain's decline by 1715

Agricultural crises, population decline, loss of artisans, failure to invest in productive enterprises, intellectual isolation, and reliance on dwindling colonial silver.

Foreign competition's effect on Spanish colonial trade

Dutch and English trade with Spanish colonies reduced Spain's revenue by 60 percent between 1610 and 1650, as colonies developed local industries.

Cultural impact of Don Quixote

It portrayed a society chasing outdated ideals of military glory, with the term 'quixotic' reflecting Spain's idealistic but impractical mindset.

Administration of Spain's American empire

It was divided into four viceroyalties (New Spain, Peru, New Granada, La Plata), each led by a viceroy with broad authority, supported by audiencias and later intendants.

Quinto in Spanish colonial policy

It was a tax claiming one-fifth of all precious metals mined in South America, providing 25 percent of the Spanish monarchy's income.

Portuguese colonial administration in Brazil

It used corregidores with judicial and military powers and restricted local industries, but fostered a unique cultural mix of Indigenous, white, and Black populations through slave-based agriculture.

French classicism under Louis XIV

It imitated classical antiquity and Renaissance Italy, emphasizing discipline, balance, and restraint, moving away from baroque excesses.

Louis XIV's use of arts

He patronized composers like Lully, Couperin, and Charpentier, and playwrights like Molière and Racine, using their works to glorify his court and reinforce royal authority.

Themes of Molière's comedies

They satirized social hypocrisies, targeting religious hypocrites (Tartuffe), social climbers (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme), and pretentious elites (Les Précieuses ridicules).

Jean Racine's plays and French classicism

His tragedies, like Phèdre, based on Greek and Roman legends, explored good versus evil with simple language, symmetrical structure, and calm restraint.

International impact of French culture under Louis XIV

French became the language of diplomacy and scholarship, dominating European courts and shaping a cosmopolitan culture centered on Versailles.

Baroque art and absolutist monarchs

It glorified monarchs through dramatic, emotional works, as seen in Rubens' paintings and Versailles' architecture, reinforcing state power and Catholic fervor.

Constitutionalism

Constitutionalism limits government by law, balancing state authority with subjects' rights, unlike absolutism, where monarchs held unchecked power.

James I's absolutist claims

His divine-right theory, asserting total royal authority, clashed with English traditions of legal property protections and the Commons' desire for policy influence.

Social changes and the House of Commons

Wealth from monastic land sales, enclosure, and commerce created a richer, better-educated gentry, increasing the Commons' assertiveness and legal knowledge.

Long Parliament's role

It passed the Triennial Act, impeached Archbishop Laud, abolished the Court of High Commission, and threatened to abolish bishops, curbing Charles I's authority.

Religious tensions and the English Civil War

Puritan demands to purify the Anglican Church, Charles I's pro-Catholic policies, and Laud's enforcement of ritual uniformity fueled distrust, leading to conflict.

New Model Army significance

Led by Fairfax and Cromwell, it defeated royalist forces at Naseby and Langport (1645), securing parliamentary victory and enabling Charles I's trial and execution.

Cromwell's Protectorate

It was a military dictatorship with Cromwell as lord protector, enforcing mercantilist policies, censoring the press, and imposing regional military rule, but allowing some religious toleration.

Consequences of Cromwell's policies in Ireland

Brutal massacres at Drogheda and elsewhere, bans on Catholicism, and land confiscations led to over 600,000 deaths or exiles, fostering lasting Irish resentment.

Unresolved issues after the Restoration of 1660

The state's attitude toward religious dissenters and the relationship between king and Parliament, with tensions over the Test Act and Charles II's financial reliance on France.

Trigger of the Glorious Revolution

James II's pro-Catholic policies, violation of the Test Act, declaration of indulgence, and the birth of a Catholic heir prompted elites to invite William and Mary to take the throne.

Bill of Rights (1689)

It established parliamentary supremacy, limited royal power, ensured regular parliaments, judicial independence, and Protestant rights to bear arms, forming the basis of England's constitution.

John Locke's justification of the Glorious Revolution

In his Second Treatise of Civil Government, he argued that governments protect natural rights (life, liberty, property) and that tyranny justifies rebellion, linking economic and political freedom.

Glorious Revolution's lack of democracy

It placed sovereignty in Parliament, representing the upper classes, with voting restricted to property owners, excluding the majority until the 19th century.

Power structure in the Dutch Republic

Provincial Estates, led by merchant regents, held power, with the States General handling foreign affairs but requiring local approval, and stadholders managing defense.

Role of Holland in the Dutch Republic

As the wealthiest province with the largest navy, it dominated the States General, which met in its capital, The Hague.

Religious toleration's contribution to Dutch prosperity

It attracted diverse merchants and capital, with the Bank of Amsterdam offering cheap credit, making the city a global trade hub.

Cultural significance of the Dutch 'golden age'

It was a period of scientific, artistic, and literary achievement, driven by a republican, mercantile society that valued thrift and toleration.

Dutch Republic's government vs. absolutist monarchies

It was a confederation of provinces with no monarchy, controlled by merchants, emphasizing local autonomy and republican values over centralized royal power.

Benedict Spinoza's significance in Amsterdam

A philosopher and lens grinder of Jewish descent, his life in Amsterdam reflected the Dutch Republic's rare religious toleration, allowing intellectual freedom and cultural assimilation.