Changing Social Structures

1. Changing Social Structures Taylor Edwards 1st Hr AP European History

2. Social Structure - the composition, functions, and interrelations of social class

3. Causes of Changing Social Structure • Commercial Revolution • Population Growth • Falling Value of Money • Agricultural prices rose • Caused inflation • Drove land and rental prices up

4. Social Class • 3 Parts • Nobility • Bourgeois • Poor

5. Those who lost money sought positions in the King’s court or high offices in the Church • Became more concerned with civil pursuits- eg. the education of their children • Became more diverse- some lived in leisure, others worked hard in government • Began to place more importance on ancestry and high birth Nobility

6. Bourgeois • French word referring to the middle levels of society between the aristocracy and the poor • Increased greatly in the 16th Century • The size, occupation, and importance of the Middle Class varied between countries • Composed of three levels • Urban Elite • Clergy • Lower Middle Class

7. Urban Elite • Governed towns • Made money from rural property, commerce, or government work • Might intermarry with low nobility • Common professions: merchants, bankers, shipowners, lawyers, doctors, and judges • Aristocratic children who were not heirs to an estate were often lawyers, doctors, or judges

8. Clergy • Drawn from all social classes • Some poor parish priests • Noblemen in the position of Bishop or Abbot • Mostly drawn from the Middle Class • Children of Protestant priests were important contributors to the middle class

9. Lower Middle Class • Small retail shopkeepers • Innkeepers • Owners of simple workshops • Lesser tradespeople

10. Poor • Included • Unskilled wage laborers • Unemployed • Unemployable • Paupers • Beggars • Largely Illiterate • Mercantilist governments had failed in an effort to put all the poor to work • Common Occupations- tending livestock, digging mines, fisherman, casual labor, domestic service of nobility

11. Charitable Relief • The idea of mass charity appeared in the end of the 16th century • English Poor Law of 1601 • Believed that begging was a public nuisance • Poor should be segregated into workhouses or hospices for the good of society • Most of the poor did not receive this relief

12. Social Role of Education • Education took on a new social importance • The Catholic and Protestant Reformations created a demand for educated clergy • The growth of commerce made it necessary to have literate clerks and agents • Governments wanted employees from both the nobility and middle class who could cooperate, understand finance, draft proposals, and keep records • There was a widespread need for lawyers

13. Founding of Schools • Philanthropy helped meet the need for education in England and France • Scholarships were established • Grammar schools (secondary education) were established in England • The Ursuline Sisters founded 350 convents by 1700 for the purpose of educating women

14. France • 92 colléges were founded between the years 1560 and 1650 • Mme. de Maintenon, wife of Louis XIV, founded a school for the daughters of French nobility

15. Universities • Dutch and Swiss Protestants founded the universities of Leyden and Geneva • By the 17th Century Spain had ten times the number of universities they had in the Middle Ages • 5 universities existed in Spanish America • Oxford and Cambridge Universities were founded in England and gained a substantial amount of wealth

16. Students • Mostly still made up of the nobility, but many middle class boys were being given organized educations • Groups like the hidalgos (lesser nobles) in Spain made up the largest group of people getting educations • Intelligent poor boys had more opportunity for education in Europe than any time previously • Wealthy girls were offered less organized schooling

17. Social Role of Government • Government could boost economic growth (England) or inhibit it (Spain) • Kings encouraged the rise of capitalism and a business class by granting monopolies, borrowing from bankers, and issuing charters to trading companies • Many people were advanced to the middle class by obtaining government positions

18. Monarchs Establish Social Distinctions • Heavily taxed the peasantry, but exempted nobility • King could grant titles of nobility • Those who were in society of the king were seen as more honorable

19. Social Changes in Eastern Europe • Commercial Revolution benefited the middle class in West and nobility in East • East had a more intense feudal system due to lack of strong central monarchy • Peasants served their wealthy landowner as subjects of a king • Peasants were not allowed to leave the land, marry, or work for anyone else • Prevented the growth of a strong middle class and weakened Prussia, Poland, Austria, and Russia.

20. Works Cited A 19th century tour of the University of Cambridge. (2005). Retrieved October 8, 2013, from New Boston Fine and Rare Books website: http://www.newbostonfineandrarebooks.com/?page=shop/disp&pid=page_Cambridge1&CLSN_1291=132698937012912a313e3d14cf968d0e Antique prints. (n.d.). Retrieved October 8, 2013, from Art Source International website: http://www.rare-maps.com/details.cfm?type=prints&rid=251318 Grady, M., Sr. (2011, June 7). Prayer in the words of Andrea Merici. Retrieved October 8, 2013, from Ursuline Sisters website: http://www.ursulinesisters.org/praywithus24 Kimball, W. (n.d.). Trombone history: 16th century. Retrieved October 8, 2013, from Kimball Trombone website: http://kimballtrombone.com/trombone-history-timeline/trombone-history-16th-century-2/

21. Works Cited Louis XIV. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 12:31, Oct 09, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/louis-xiv-9386885. Madame de Maintenon. (n.d.). Retrieved October 8, 2013, from Liternaute website: http://www.linternaute.com/histoire/magazine/dossier/06/elles-ont-regne/maintenon.shtml Palmer, R.R., Colton, J., & Kramer, L. (2002). Changing social structures. In L. Uhl (Ed.), A history of the modern world (Ninth ed., pp. 112-117). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Companies.