Unit 1: Renaissance and exploration

Topic 1: Italian Renaissance

Italian Renaissance: a movement of rebirth of antiquity especially Greco-Roman

• Petrarch: Father of Renaissance and Humanism

• Humanism: The idea that god’s greatest creation is humans and value the accomplishments of human beings and their unlimited potential

• Philology: Search of the history and development of languages. Questioning authority of church

• Renaissance education: studia humanities (liberal studies)

• Secularism Believing more secular and a shift away from the church

• Individualism: Idea of individual accomplishments separated from community

• Civic Humanism: idea that people needed to be educated and participate in government and political behavior

  • Caused by: Admiration of Humanism and Renaissance ideas

  • Baldassare Castiglione: wrote the book of courtier and described how a gentleman and a lady should act in society. Believed that educated man should have many talents

• Renaissance art: Style that portrayed the world as natural, not symbolic. Aspects: Geometric, linear perspective, naturalism, humane, individualism.

Topic 2: Northern Renaissance

Northern Renaissance: Spread from Italian Renaissance and obtained a more religious frame, naturalistic but more human centered

• Christian Humanist: development from Northern Renaissance. More religious form of humanism that wanted a more humane form of the church due to church corruptions.

• Erasmus: Christian humanist that wrote Praise the Folly (a ruler should be kind and loved) and criticized aspects of church

• Northern Renaissance art: Depictions of more religious, drama, distortion, realism, and everyday life.

Topic 3: Printing press

Printing press: Developed by Guttenberg that spread ideas of the Renaissance and education

• Rapid spread of education and shifted away from religion

• Increased literacy rates in Europe

• Caused Vernacular language (Language of the land)

Topic 4: Absolute monarchies

Absolute monarchies: Monarchies that were sovereign to a great extent and were above the state

• Divine right of kings: a justification for absolutism and said that god granted kings the right to rule

• Aspects of Absolute monarchies: Undermined aristocracy, religion, peasants, have a standing army

England Absolutism

• Henry VIII: Broke from the Church bc pope didn’t grant a annulment for him to remarry and get a heir. Established the Anglican Church

  • Established Book of Common Prayer: affirmed Anglicanism

  • Treason Act: It is a crime to not recognize the church of England

  • Court of star Chamber: eliminate religious dissents

  • Act of Uniformity: Attendance of Anglican Church or pay a fine

• Mary Tudor: Aka Bloody Mary bc she was anti-Anglican and eliminated them (succeeded Henry)

• Elizabeth I: Succeeded Tudor and Steered England from Catholic to Anglican

France

• French Absolutism: Goal of stabilizing and strengthening France but needed a absolute monarch

• Louis XIV: Absolute monarch of France

  • Fronde Rebellion cause:

  • Used Intendants to run the country and manage taxes.

  • Creation of Noble of robes to offset the old nobilities Noble of sword that threatened the king’s power

  • Fronde Rebellion: Revolts of peasants and aristocracy that didn’t want to pay taxes and were put down

  • Revoke Edict of Nantes: No more religious toleration for Huguenots and Catholic as main religion.

  • Jean-Baptise Colbert: Finance minister of Louis XIV that used mercantilist policies to strengthen state economy but were undone by his wars

HRE

• Charles V: King of HRE

  • Busy fighting France. Schmalkalden league and Catholic states fighting got to him

  • Peace of Augsburg: temporary solution to religious quarrels that allowed German states to select their religion

Russia

• Peter the Great: focused on strengthening, westernizing Russia, Baltics

  • Great Embassy: A trip to Europe incognito to explore new technologies and culture

    • Westernized Russia

    • Brought back foreigners and other cultures to Russia

    • Dress code for nobles (Boyars)

    • Architecture, art, and education shifted

  • Table of Ranks: Nobles to work harder and grind for status

  • Great Northern War: Fought Swedish off of the Baltics and established St. Petersburg

  • St. Petersburg: capital of Russia that had access to the sea for trade. It was built that reflected European fashion

Prussia

• Fredrick William: Creation of absolute Prussia by expanding Brandenburg and military

  • Junkers: Prussian aristocracy that commanded army for more control over serfs and taxation

  • Military: disciplined and trained, commanded by Junkers

Topic 5: Age of exploration

New technology:

• Cartography: map making

• Caravel

• Lateen Sail

• Compass

• Rudder

• Guns and gunpowder

Motivation for exploration: Mercantilism, wanted to create markets for trade, desire for wealth and raw material, fund wars, demand for luxury goods, spread of religion (Jesuits)

Mercantilism: idea of a balance of trade through more exports than imports

Topic 6: Rivals on world stage

Maritime Empires:

Portugal

• Prince Henry: Laid foundations for oversea empire and sponsored exploration to coast of Africa

Spain

• Columbus landed in Bahamas and went to claim a lot of land in Caribbean, NA, SA

• Conquistadors: sent to conquer these empires

• Used diseases to kill

France

• Focused more on trade and less on colonies

Dutch

• Established colonies mainly focused on trade

• Competition with Portuguese in Indian ocean

England

• Focused on colonies where people can move and settle

Tension between Maritime Empires:

• War of Spanish Succession

• 7 years War

• Treaty of Tordesillas: Tension between old pope’s order of colonies south of equator belonging to Portugal and an island in the Caribbean

• Asiento: Contract signed by Spanish crown that granted private companies right to sell African slaves in their colonies

Topic 7: Columbian exchange

Columbian Exchange: The discovery of the New world that propelled trade of goods, diseases, slaves, culture, and religion

• European Dominance

• Diseases spread: Small pox and measles

• Food

• Minerals

Encomienda System: Economic system where enslaved indigenous people will receive religious teachings in exchange for labor (basically slavery)

Topic 8: Atlantic slave trade

Slave Trade: Caused by mercantilist desires and desire for free labor in plantations.

• Realized that the Indigenous people had no immunity to European diseases and looked towards Africa

• Africans had immunity to those diseases

• Middle passage: Tight, harsh, and unsanitary conditions in the slave ships that carried slaves. Some revolted and killed their selves

• Triangle trade: A system of trade from slave trading from Africa to America, then sent goods to Europe.

Topic 9: Commercial revolution

Commercial revolution: money instead of land became the most desirable thing in Europe. Wealth became new social advancement

• Innovations to banking: massive shift into money economy

  • Ex: Amsterdam, Genova, London

• Price revolution: Inflating prices caused by unequal distribution

• Commercial Companies: Dutch East Indie Company

  • Joint stock company created by wealthy elites that did trade over Indian Ocean

  • Joint stock: Private enterprise that had investors buy shares

• British East Indie Company

  • Also dominated maritime trade and beefed with Dutch East Indie Comp

• Agricultural revolution: new methods of agriculture + Enclosure movement caused mass production of agriculture that benefited economy and shifted subsistent agriculture to Commercial agriculture

  • New methods of farming: 2 field and 3 field system to prevent soil exhaustion

  • Enclosure movement: passed by the parliament that allowed gentry to buy private land from farmers to conduct experiments for agriculture.

    • Caused Urbanization, farmers now work in cottage industries (beginning of capitalism)