Early modern Europe

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Abraham Ortelius: Map of Europe, 1595

Early modern Europe, also referred to as the post-medieval period, is the period of

Protestant Reformation in 1517. The precise dates of its end point also vary and are usually linked with either the start of the French Revolution in 1789 or with the more vaguely defined beginning of the Industrial Revolution in late 18th century England
.

Some of the more notable trends and events of the early modern period included the Reformation and the religious conflicts it provoked (including the French Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years' War), the rise of capitalism and modern nation states, widespread witch hunts and European colonization of the Americas.

Characteristics

The modern period was characterized by profound changes in many realms of human endeavor. Among the most important include the development of

serfdom. The Protestant Reformation greatly altered the religious balance of Christendom, creating a formidable new opposition to the dominance of the Catholic Church, especially in Northern Europe. The early modern period also witnessed the circumnavigation of the Earth and the establishment of regular European contact with the Americas and South and East Asia. The ensuing rise of global systems of international economic, cultural and intellectual exchange played an important role in the development of capitalism and represents an identifiable early phase of globalization
.

Periodization

Europe about 1560, as in the 1923 William Shepherd Atlas

Regardless of the precise dates used to define its beginning and end points, the early modern period is generally agreed to have comprised the

Roman Catholic Church as well as the lessening of the influence of all faiths upon national governments. Many historians have identified the early modern period as the epoch in which individuals began to think of themselves as belonging to a national polity—a notable break from medieval modes of self-identification, which had been largely based upon religion (belonging to a universal Christendom), language, or feudal allegiance (belonging to the manor or extended household of a particular magnate or lord
).

The beginning of the early modern period is not clear-cut, but is generally accepted to be in the late 15th century or early 16th century. Significant dates in this transitional phase from medieval to early modern Europe can be noted:

  • 1513: First formulation of modern
    Machiavelli's The Prince
    .
  • 1545: The
    Roman Catholic Church.[1][2]

The end date of the early modern period is variously associated with the

Napoleonic Era
and modern Europe.

The role of nobles in the

Reformation, the notion of Christendom as a unified political entity was destroyed. Many kings and rulers used this radical shift in the understanding of the world to further consolidate their sovereignty over their territories. For instance, many of the Germanic states (as well as English Reformation) converted to Protestantism in an attempt to slip out of the grasp of the Pope
.

The intellectual developments of the period included the creation of the economic theory of

Utopia
(1515).

Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a reform-oriented

merits of the saints had no foundation in the gospel. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura and sola fide
.

The Reformation ended in division and the establishment of new church movements. The four most important traditions to emerge directly from the Reformation were

Anabaptists. Subsequent Protestant churches generally trace their roots back to these initial four schools of the Reformation. It also led to the Catholic or Counter Reformation within the Roman Catholic Church through a variety of new spiritual movements, reforms of religious communities, the founding of seminaries, the clarification of Catholic theology as well as structural changes in the institution of the Church.[3]

The largest Protestant groups were the Lutherans and Calvinists. Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, while the Reformed ones were founded in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Scotland.[4]

The initial movement within Germany diversified, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The availability of the

Papacy, the perceived corruption of the Roman Curia, the impact of humanism, and the new learning of the Renaissance that questioned much traditional thought.[5]

There were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as the

Anabaptist, Moravian and other Pietistic movements.[6]

The Roman Catholic Church responded with a

Jesuits. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, came under the influence of Protestantism. Southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years' War, which left it devastated.[7]

Church of England

Henry VIII
broke England's ties with the Catholic Church, becoming the sole head of the English Church.

The Reformation reshaped the

Henry VIII, beginning in 1529 and completed in 1537, brought England alongside this broad Reformation movement; however, religious changes in the English national church proceeded more conservatively than elsewhere in Europe. Reformers in the Church of England alternated, for decades, between sympathies for ancient Catholic tradition and more Reformed principles, gradually developing, within the context of robustly Protestant doctrine, a tradition considered a middle way (via media) between the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions.[8]

Consequences of the Protestant Reformation

The following outcomes of the Protestant Reformation regarding human capital formation, the Protestant ethic, economic development, governance, and "dark" outcomes have been identified by scholars.[9]

Historiography

Margaret C. Jacob argues that there has been a dramatic shift in the historiography of the Reformation. Until the 1960s, historians focused their attention largely on the great leaders and also the theologians of the 16th century, especially Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. Their ideas were studied in depth. However, the rise of the new social history in the 1960s look at history from the bottom up, not from the top down. Historians began to concentrate on the values, beliefs and behavior of the people at large. She finds, "in contemporary scholarship, the Reformation was then seen as a vast cultural upheaval, a social and popular movement and textured and rich because of its diversity."[10]

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment refers to the 18th century in

Constitution of May 3, and also led to the rise of liberalism and the birth of socialism and communism.[11] It is matched by the high baroque and classical eras in music, and the neo-classical period in the arts, and receives contemporary application in the unity of science movement which includes logical positivism
.

Difference between 'early modern' and the Renaissance

The expression "early modern" is sometimes used as a substitute for the term

Medieval
civilization and the opening of the early modern period.

The term early modern is most often applied to Europe, and its overseas empire. However, it has also been employed in the history of the Ottoman Empire. In the historiography of Japan, the Edo period from 1590 to 1868 is also sometimes referred to as the early modern period.

Diplomacy and warfare

After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Europe's borders were largely stable. 1708 map by Herman Moll

The 17th century saw very little peace in Europe – major wars were fought in 95 years (every year except 1610, 1669 to 1671, and 1680 to 1682.)[12] The wars were unusually ugly. Europe in the late 17th century, 1648 to 1700, was an age of great intellectual, scientific, artistic and cultural achievement. Historian Frederick Nussbaum says it was:

"prolific in genius, in common sense, and in organizing ability. It could properly have been expected that intelligence, comprehension and high purpose would be applied to the control of human relations in general and to the relations between states and peoples in particular. The fact was almost completely opposite. It was a period of marked unintelligence, immorality and frivolity in the conduct of international relations, marked by wars undertaken for dimly conceived purposes, waged with the utmost brutality and conducted by reckless betrayals of allies."[13]

The worst came during the Thirty Years' War, 1618–1648, which had an extremely negative impact on the civilian population of Germany and surrounding areas, with massive loss of life and disruption of the economy and society.

Thirty Years' War: 1618–1648

Treaty of Westphalia allowed Calvinism
to be freely exercised.

The Reformation led to a

Germany, killing between 25% and 40% of its entire population.[14] Roman Catholic House of Habsburg and its allies fought against the Protestant princes of Germany, supported at various times by Denmark, Sweden and France. The Habsburgs, who ruled Spain, Austria, the Crown of Bohemia, Hungary, Slovene Lands, the Spanish Netherlands
and much of Germany and Italy, were staunch defenders of the Roman Catholic Church. Some historians believe that the era of the Reformation came to a close when Roman Catholic France allied itself with Protestant states against the Habsburg dynasty. For the first time since the days of Martin Luther, political and national convictions again outweighed religious convictions in Europe.

Two main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War, were:

  • All parties would now recognise the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, by which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state, the options being Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and now Calvinism (the principle of cuius regio, eius religio).
  • Christians living in principalities where their denomination was not the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will.

The treaty also effectively ended the Papacy's pan-European political power. Pope Innocent X declared the treaty "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all times" in his bull Zelo Domus Dei. European sovereigns, Roman Catholic and Protestant alike, ignored his verdict.[15]

Scholars taking a

Thirty Years War (1618–1648), where religion and ideology had been powerful motivating forces for warfare. Westphalia, in the realist view, ushered in a new international system of sovereign states of roughly equal strength, dedicated not to ideology or religion but to enhance status, and territorial gains. The Catholic Church, for example, no longer devoted its energies to the very difficult task of reclaiming dioceses lost to Protestantism, but to build large-scale missions in overseas colonial possessions that could convert the natives by the thousands Using devoted members of society such as the Jesuits.[16] According to Hamish Scott, the realist model assumes that "foreign policies were guided entirely by "Realpolitik," by the resulting struggle for resources and, eventually, by the search for what became known as a 'balance of power.'[17]

Diplomacy before 1700 was not well developed, and chances to avoid wars were too often squandered. In England, for example, King Charles II paid little attention to diplomacy, which proved disastrous. During the Dutch war of 1665–67, England had no diplomats stationed in Denmark or Sweden. When King Charles realized he needed them as allies, he sent special missions that were uninformed about local political, military, and diplomatic situations, and were ignorant of personalities and political factionalism. Ignorance produced a series of blunders that ruined their efforts to find allies.[18] King Louis XIV of France, by contrast, developed the most sophisticated diplomatic service, with permanent ambassadors and lesser ministers in major and minor capitals, all preparing steady streams of information and advice to Paris. Diplomacy became a career that proved highly attractive to rich senior aristocrats who enjoyed very high society at royal courts, especially because they carried the status of the most powerful nation in Europe. Increasingly, other nations copied the French model; French became the language of diplomacy, replacing Latin.[19] By 1700, the British and the Dutch, with small land armies, large navies, and large treasuries, used astute diplomacy to build alliances, subsidizing as needed land powers to fight on their side, or as in the case of the Hessians, hiring regiments of soldiers from mercenary princes in small countries.[20] The balance of power was very delicately calculated, so that winning a battle here was worth the slice of territory there, with no regard to the wishes of the inhabitants. Important peacemaking conferences at Utrecht (1713), Vienna (1738), Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) and Paris (1763) had a cheerful, cynical, game-like atmosphere in which professional diplomats cashed in victories like casino chips in exchange for territory.[21]

Major states

Holy Roman Empire

Since 1512, the

House of Austria held the position of Holy Roman Emperors since the mid-1400s and for the entire Early modern period. Despite the lack of a centralized political structure in a period in which national monarchies were emerging, the Habsburg Emperors of the Early modern period came close to form a universal monarchy
in Western Europe.

The Habsburgs expanded their control within and outside the Holy Roman Empire as a result of the dynastic policy pursued by

Isabella of Castile). Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (son of Philip and Joanna) inherited the Habsburg Netherlands in 1506, Habsburg Spain and its territories in 1516, and Habsburg Austria
in 1519.

The main opponents of the Habsburg Empire were the

Emperor Ferdinand I completed the Council of Trent and maintained Germany at peace until the Thirty Years' War
(1618–1648). The Habsburgs controlled the elective monarchies of Hungary and Bohemia as well, and eventually turned these states into hereditary domains.

Spain

In 1492 the

new world, the Americas. To prevent conflict between Portugal and Castile (the crown under which Columbus made the voyage), the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed dividing the world into two regions of exploration, where each had exclusive rights to claim newly discovered lands.[22]

The structure of the Spanish Empire was established under the

powers of patronage, giving it power in the religious sphere.[25][26][27]

Under

Spanish Philippines
), Europe and some territories in Africa and Oceania.

France

The

Ancien Régime (French for "old regime") was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France from about 1450 until the French Revolution that started in 1789.[28] The Ancien Régime was ruled by the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties. Much of the medieval political centralization of France had been lost in the Hundred Years' War, and the Valois Dynasty's attempts at re-establishing control over the scattered political centres of the country were hindered by the Wars of Religion). Much of the reigns of Henry IV, Louis XIII and the early years of Louis XIV were focused on administrative centralisation. Despite, however, the notion of "absolute monarchy" (typified by the king's right to issue lettres de cachet) and the efforts by the kings to create a centralized state, Ancien Régime France remained a country of systemic irregularities: administrative (including taxation), legal, judicial, and ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives frequently overlapped, while the French nobility struggled to maintain their own rights in the matters of local government and justice, and powerful internal conflicts (like the Fronde) protested against this centralization.[29]

The need for centralization in this period was directly linked to the question of royal finances and the ability to wage war. The internal conflicts and dynastic crises of the 16th and 17th centuries (the wars between Catholics and Protestants and the

Habsburg's internal family conflict) and the territorial expansion of France in the 17th century demanded great sums which needed to be raised through taxes, such as the land tax (taille) and the tax on salt (gabelle) and by contributions of men and service from the nobility. The key to this centralization was the replacing of personal patronage systems organized around the king and other nobles by institutional systems around the state.[30] The creation of intendants—representatives of royal power in the provinces—did much to undermine local control by regional nobles. The same was true of the greater reliance shown by the royal court on the "noblesse de robe" as judges and royal counselors. The creation of regional parlements had initially the same goal of facilitating the introduction of royal power into newly assimilated territories, but as the parlements gained in self-assurance, they began to be sources of disunity.[31]

England

Henry VIII: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession, c. 1572, attributed to Lucas de Heere
.

This period refers to England 1558–1603. The

Protestant Reformation was established and successfully defended against the Catholic powers of Spain and France.[32]

The

Newfoundland in 1610, and at Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620. One king now ruled England and Scotland; the latter was fully absorbed by the Acts of Union 1707.[33]

The tumultuous

Puritan opposition that evolved in response to particular aspects of Charles' rule. The colonization of North America continued apace, with new colonies in Maryland (1634), Connecticut (1635), and Rhode Island (1636).[34]

Poland

In early modern Europe, the

Polish military
routinely beat other respectable opponents such as the Ottomans, the Swedes and the Russians.

Papacy

The papacy continued to exercise significant diplomatic influence during the Early modern period. The Popes were frequently assembling Holy Leagues to assert Catholic supremacy in Europe. During the Renaissance,

nation-states
, Papal claims to universal authority came effectively to an end.

Other political powers

See also

References

  1. ).
  2. ^ Quoted in Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church Archived August 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Kenneth G. Appold, The Reformation: A Brief History (2011) online
  4. ^ Andrew Johnston, The protestant reformation in Europe (Routledge, 2014).
  5. ^ For a wide range of causes see G.R. Elton, ed. The New Cambridge Modern History, Vol. 2: The Reformation, 1520–1559 (1st ed. 1958) online
  6. ^ George Huntston Williams, The Radical Reformation (3rd ed, 2000).
  7. ^ A.D. Wright, The Counter-Reformation: Catholic Europe and the Non-Christian World (Ashgate, 2005).
  8. ^ A.G. Dickens, The English Reformation (1991).
  9. ^ Patrick Collinson, The Reformation: A History (2006)
  10. .
  11. ^ Bax, Ernest Belfort. "Gracchus Babeuf and the Conspiracy of the Equals", 1911 [1], accessed June 12, 2011.
  12. ^ John A. Mears, "The Emergence Of The Standing Professional Army In Seventeenth-Century Europe," Social Science Quarterly (1969) 50#1 pp. 106–115 in JSTOR
  13. ^ Frederick L. Nussbaum, The triumph of science and reason, 1660–1685 (1953) pp. 147–48.
  14. ^ "History of Europe – Demographics". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  15. ^ Cross, (ed.) "Westphalia, Peace of" Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
  16. ^ Norman Davies, Europe: A History (1996) pp. 593–94.
  17. ^ Hamish Scott, book review in English Historical Review (Oct 2013) pp. 1239–1241.
  18. ^ J.R. Jones, Britain and the World: 1649–1815 (1980), pp. 38–39.
  19. ^ Gaston Zeller, "French diplomacy and foreign policy in their European setting." in Carsten, ed., The New Cambridge Modern History vol. 5 (1961) pp. 198–99, 206.
  20. ^ Charles W. Ingrao, The Hessian mercenary state: ideas, institutions, and reform under Frederick II, 1760–1785 (2003).
  21. ^ Davies, Europe (1996) pp. 581–82.
  22. ^ Edward Gaylord Bourne, The History and Determination of the Line of Demarcation Established by Pope Alexander VI Between the Spanish and Portuguese Fields of Discovery and Colonization (1892) online in Gutenberg.org.
  23. .
  24. ^ Lynch, John. Bourbon Spain, 1700–1808. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers 1989, p. 21.
  25. ^ Schwaller, John F., "Patronato Real" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture vol. 4, pp. 323–24.
  26. ^ Mecham, J. Lloyd, Church and State in Latin America: A History of Politico-Ecclesiastical Relations, revised edition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1966, pp. 4–6.
  27. Haring, Clarence
    , The Spanish Empire in America. New York: Oxford University Press 1947, pp. 181–82.
  28. ^ "Ancien Regime", Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, The Gale Group Inc., 2004, retrieved 26 February 2017 – via Encyclopedia.com
  29. ^ See William Doyle, ed. The Oxford Handbook of the Ancien Régime (2012) 656 pp. excerpt and text search.
  30. ^ Major 1994, pp. xx–xxi
  31. ^ Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, The Ancien Regime: A History of France 1610–1774 (1999), political survey excerpt and text search.
  32. ^ D. M. Palliser, The Age of Elizabeth: England Under the Later Tudors, 1547–1603 (1983)
  33. ^ Barry Coward, and Peter Gaunt. The Stuart Age: England, 1603–1714 (5th ed. 2017), excerpt
  34. ^ Godfrey Davies, The Early Stuarts, 1603–1660 (Oxford UP, 1959).

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Black, Jeremy. European International Relations, 1648–1815 (2002)
  • Blanning, T. C. W. The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: Old Regime Europe 1660–1789 (2003)
  • Cameron, Euan. Early Modern Europe: An Oxford History (2001)
  • de Gouges, Linnea. Witch Hunts and State Building in Early Modern Europe Nisus Publications, 2017.
  • de Vries, Jan. The Economy of Europe in an Age of Crisis, 1600–1750 (1976)
  • de Vries, Jan. European Urbanization, 1500–1800 (1984)
  • Dewald, Jonathan. "The Early Modern Period." in Encyclopedia of European Social History, edited by Peter N. Stearns, (vol. 1: 2001), pp. 165–177. online
  • Dorn, Walter L. Competition For Empire 1740–1763 (1940) online
  • DuPlessis, Robert S. Transitions to capitalism in early modern Europe (2019).
  • Flinn, Michael W. The European Demographic System, 1500–1820 (1981)
  • Gatti, Hilary. Ideas of Liberty in Early Modern Europe (2015).
  • Gershoy, Leo. From Despotism To Revolution: 1763–1789 (1944) online
  • Grafton, Anthony. Inky Fingers: The Making of Books in Early Modern Europe (2020).
  • Gribben, Crawford, and Graeme Murdock, eds. Cultures of Calvinism in Early Modern Europe (Oxford UP, 2019).
  • Gutmann, Myron P. Toward the Modern Economy: Early Industry in Europe, 1500–1800 (1988)
  • Hesmyr, Atle: Scandinavia in the Early Modern Era(2017).
  • Hill, David Jayne. A history of diplomacy in the international development of Europe (3 vol. 1914) online
  • Jacob, Margaret C. Strangers nowhere in the world: the rise of cosmopolitanism in early modern Europe (2017).
  • Kennedy, Paul. The rise and fall of the great powers (2010).
  • Klein, Alexander, and Jelle Van Lottum. "The Determinants of International Migration in Early Modern Europe: Evidence from the Maritime Sector, c. 1700–1800." Social Science History 44.1 (2020): 143–167 online.
  • Langer, William. An Encyclopedia of World History (5th ed. 1973), very detailed outline
  • Levine, David. "The Population of Europe: Early Modern Demographic Patterns." in Encyclopedia of European Social History, edited by Peter N. Stearns, (vol. 2, 2001), pp. 145–157. online
  • Lindsay, J. O. ed. New Cambridge Modern History: The Old Regime, 1713–1763 (1957) online
  • Merriman, John. A History of Modern Europe: From the Renaissance to the Present (3rd ed. 2009, 2 vol), 1412 pp.
  • Mowat, R. B. History of European Diplomacy, 1451–1789 (1928) 324 pp. online free
  • Nussbaum, Frederick L. The triumph of science and reason, 1660–1685 (1953), Despite the narrow title is a general survey of European history.
  • Parker, Geoffrey. The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500–1800 (1996)
  • Petrie, Charles. Earlier diplomatic history, 1492–1713 (1949), covers all of Europe; online
    • Petrie, Charles. Diplomatic History, 1713–1933 (1946), broad summary online
  • Pollmann, Judith. Memory in early modern Europe, 1500–1800 (Oxford UP, 2017).
  • Rice, Eugene F. The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460–1559 (2nd ed. 1994) 240 pp.
  • Schroeder, Paul. The Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848 (1994) online; advanced diplomatic history
  • Scott, Hamish, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350–1750: Volume I: Peoples and Place (2015); Volume II: Cultures and Power (2015).
  • "The State Church in Early-Modern Europe." in Arts and Humanities Through the Eras, edited by Edward I. Bleiberg, et al., (vol. 5: The Age of the Baroque and Enlightenment 1600–1800, Gale, 2005), pp. 336–341. online
  • Stearns, Peter N., ed. Encyclopedia of European Social History (6 vol 2000), 3000 pp; overview vol. 1 pp. 165–77, plus hundreds of articles
  • Tallett, Frank. War and Society in Early Modern Europe: 1495–1715 (2016).
  • Wiesner, Merry E. Early Modern Europe, 1450–1789 (3rd ed. 2022)
  • Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. Women and gender in early modern Europe (Cambridge UP, 2019).
  • Wolf, John B. The Emergence of the Great Powers, 1685–1715 (1951) online

External links