HI 112 A Survey of Modern Europe

1. HI 112A Survey of Modern Europe Raffael ScheckColby College

2. Myself • Miller 250 • rmscheck@colby.edu • Tel. 859-5331 • Office hours: MWF, 11-12, or by appt.

3. Course Content and Mechanics What is Modernity? Introduction

5. Society and Everyday Life 1600-1750

6. Religion and Mentalities • Religiosity dominated by fear of eternal damnation. Example: Walpurgisnacht 1702 • Communal mindset: salvation possible only through the group • Hence: religious intolerance • Wars of religion in the 16th century • The Thirty Years War 1618-1648

7. Cities and the Countryside • The vast majority (over 90%) live in the countryside • Cities still resemble the medieval city • Urbanization (density of cities) is higher in western Europe than in eastern Europe

8. The Social Order • The vast majority are born to work and serve and will always be poor • Very little social mobility, except in cities • Aristocracy in possession of the land • Feudalism in the West: peasants owe services to the lords and the king • Serfdom in the East: peasants belong to the lord like cattle

9. The Economy • Subsistence farming • No machines, only tools • Barter, and local trading; but some money economy, too • Small climate changes produce famines • “Lord, protect us from plague, famine, and war” • Trade centered on cities, but still small (mostly transportable goods such as precious metals, spices, silk, wine, lumber)

10. Western Family Nuclear Family Late Marriage Young people work in other household to save for their own Communal control High Child Mortality Eastern Family Extended family Serfdom Early marriage Extremely high child mortality Control of the lord The Family before 1750: Western and Eastern Variations

11. State-Building and Absolutism

12. The State Before 1618 • Poor communications • Weak administrative structure • Much local difference; sometimes overlapping patchwork of different legal and administrative spaces (taxation; laws; weights and measures) • No state services (such as schools, police, welfare) • Kings are „primus inter pares“; conflict with lords over taxation, service, and religion • Parliaments • The Catholic Church: A state within the state?

13. What Changes after 1600? • Efforts by kings to centralize authority • Struggle of kings with regional and local lords, parliaments, cities, and the church • Attempts by kings to secure revenue, build up a state administration for collecting revenue, and to undermine the money-granting power of parliaments and lords

14. Why Does This Occur? • Need for greater income, fueled by growing economic opportunity and military expenses • Spirit of the age: rationalization, modernization • International competition

15. Absolutism • Differentiation between state-building and absolutism • „Rex legibus absolutus est“ • French theorists: Bodin and Bossuet • Motivation: strong ruler seen as safeguard against the chaos and anarchy of the religious wars

16. How Does One Build an Absolutist State? • Central aim: undermine the power of the lords (aristocracy) • Co-optation and pressure (carrot and the stick) • Formation of a new (royal) nobility - often as an administrative elite (noblesse de robe) • Potential alliance with the peasants • Problems with religion

17. Some Successful Examples of Absolutism • Spain under Charles V and Phillip II (sixteenth century) • France (seventeenth century) • Russia, Austria, Brandenburg-Prussia (eighteenth century)

18. Successful Examples of State-Building without Absolutism • England • The United Provinces (Netherlands)

19. Some Major Snafus • The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation • Poland

20. The Holy Roman Empire and Poland (1618)

21. Absolutism in France

22. Main policies: Raising money through government monopolies, trading companies, investment in canals etc. Expansion Assault on the nobility Buildup of a royal administration (intendants, noblesse de robe) Cardinal Richelieu Louis XIII Mercantilism Corvée (labor tax) Huguenots The Foundations of Absolutism in France (1598-1643)

23. Fronde uprising, 1649-52 Louis XIV’s Absolutism Wooing the nobles Ideological justification of his rule Court War on the Huguenots Struggle for European Hegemony (1667-1714) Mazarin “L’état c’est moi” War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) Absolutism under Louis XIV

24. Sophia Scheck in Versailles

25. Louis XIV‘s Legacy • Strong monarchy but weak finances • Strong European but weak overseas position • France as the model for absolutist Europe (military, aristocratic culture, language, literature, architecture)

26. Constitutionalism in England

27. Principal Motives • Similar struggle as in France, but different outcome • Crown needs revenue and clashes with Parliament • Assertive upper nobility (gentry) dominating Parliament • Unresolved religious situation • Anglican Church • Pressure for theological reform of the Anglican Church (Puritans) • Pressure for re-Catholicization • International complications through marriage alliances (Spain, France, the Netherlands)

28. England under James I (1603-1625) • Believes in the divine right of kings; does not want to share power with Parliament • Badly needs money (debt from Elizabeth I). Raises revenue through customs (to bypass Parliament) • Frustrates Puritan demands for church reform (refuses to dismantle the episcopal system); allows games on Sundays (to reconcile Catholics) • Puritans do not trust him because his mother was a Catholic (Mary Stuart) • Avoids war (expenses), but Parliament forces him into war with Spain in 1624 (partly religious motivation)

29. Toward Revolution: Charles I (1625-49) • Inherits financial crisis and war with Spain; even bigger need for revenue • Has to call Parliament in 1629; furious confrontation • Decides to do without Parliament in 1630; creates new nobility (through selling titles) • Fatal mistake: tries to impose the Anglican Church on Calvinist Scotland; triggers rebellion and has to call Parliament for funds (1640). Parliament takes control • Chaos and civil war 1642 (rebellion also in Ireland). Charles I is defeated in 1645 and executed in 1649

30. Dictatorship and Restoration • Oliver Cromwell - dictator based on a fanatical and well-organized radical Puritan army • Abolishes the monarchy and represses the Anglican Church and even the moderate Protestants • Becomes increasingly unpopular. After his death (1658): call for restoration of the monarchy

31. The Pragmatism of Charles II (1660-85) • Restores the Anglican Church and the situation of 1642 • Favors religious tolerance but has ministers who want to repress Puritans and Catholics • Conducts trade wars with the Netherlands (revenue) • Makes tricky secret agreement with France: subsidies for conversion to Catholicism; Parliament reacts by tightening repression of Catholics • Subdues Parliament through repression: execution and expulsion of some of his enemies • Careful and pragmatic leader

32. James II (1685-88) and the Glorious Revolution (1688-89) • James II forfeits everything by promoting devout Catholics. Wants to combine the buildup of absolutism with a re-Catholicization of England • Birth of a male heir in 1688 triggers new revolution by Parliament, which invites William of Orange (a Dutch lord married to James‘ Protestant daughter Mary) to take the throne • William and Mary expel James II and agree to a bill of rights limiting monarchic power and excluding Catholics from the throne. Contractual theory on relations between monarch and „people“

33. The Outcome • Permanently weak monarchy (Act of Settlement, 1701, giving the throne to the Elector of Hannover - 1714) • But: successful state-building centered on Parliament, with elites willing to work together and to pay taxes • Outlines of a constitutional system built around civil liberties, security of property, and restrictions on the king (who is an arbiter or chairman rather than absolutist ruler); stability

34. International Politics and Warfare before 1789

35. The Military Revolution (ca. 1500-1700) • Firearms - cannon, hand guns - trump the infantry armies with pikes and crossbows (which had earlier defeated the horse-mounted knight armies) • Much larger, more professionalized armies. Longer training. More peasants serve in the armies, fewer mercenaries. Desertion and supply remain large problems, however • Revolution in naval warfare. From the galley to the frigate. Battle in line. Broadsides • Global consequences: Europeans dominate 35% of the world’s regions by 1750 (the Americas, the African coast, South Asia). Exception: East Asia

36. Cannon

37. Portable Firearms

38. Defended City (Dunkirk, after Vauban)

39. Second Siege of Vienna (1683)

40. Spanish Galleon, ca. 1500

41. Mediterranean Galleon, 1550

42. Battle of Lepanto, 1571

43. The Mary Rose, 1545

44. The Vasa, 1628

45. The Frigate, ca. 1770

46. Fundamentals of Warfare • War and foreign policy are matters of kings, not the people. No mass nationalism. Provinces change hands without consideration for the will of the inhabitants • Wars are fought between rulers, not nations. Ideology does not matter; religion matters less after 1600. Wars usually are fought for limited aims, not total destruction • War is a frequent occurrence. Wars happen for all but 15-20 years every century

47. Principles of International Relations • Balance of Power • Dynastic legitimacy • Reason of state

48. The Power Struggles in Eastern Europe • The Swedish challenge; gamble to conquer a huge Baltic empire fails 1700-1721 (defeat against Russia) • Poland and the Ottoman Empire loose • Russian expansion • Austria: wins Spanish Netherlands (Belgium) and strong position in Italy and the Balkans • Prussia wins Silesia from Austria and some territory from Poland (Polish partitions with Russia and Austria, 1772, 1793, 1795)

49. The Power Struggles in Western Europe • Spain, France, and England as colonial rivals. Mercantilism • Traditional rivalry between France and the Habsburgs (Austria and Spain) • Revamping of alliances during the Seven Years War (1756-63): France allies with Austria and Russia, Britain with Prussia • Britian becomes the world power by 1763 • But: cost of war triggers demand for more revenue and, indirectly, revolution (America, France)

50. Europe in 1600