• Revival of Monarchy in Northern Europe• after 1450 the emergence of truly sovereign rulers set into

motion a shift from divided feudal monarchy to unified national monarchies– the Hundred Years War, Black Plague and Great Schism weakened the

nobility and church; new between king and town broke the bonds of feudal society

– powers of taxation, war making, and law enforcement were concentrated with the monarch; these matters were no longer just regional

– only as monarchs became able to act independently of the nobility and representative assemblies could they overcome the decentralization that impeded nation building

• although the many were never totally subjugated to the one the rulers demonstrated that the law was their creature

– civil servants enforced laws for the ruler

• monarchs also began to create standing national armies full of paid soldiers; infantry and artillery became the backbone of the royal armies

– in order to raise money the monarch would tax rents on royal lands, have a sales tax, tax goods, directly tax peasants, sell public offices, and sell government bonds

• privileged classes remained the

monarchs creditors and competitors

• The Northern Renaissance• was stimulated by the importation

of Italian learning; had its own distinct culture separate from Italy– came from more diverse social

backgrounds and was more devoted to religious reform; wrote for lay audiences as well as strict intellectuals

• The Printing Press– Johann Gutenberg invented printing

with movable type in mid 15th century in the German city of Mainz – became the center of printing for Western Europe

– increased literacy created a less credulous and less docile laity; tool of political and religious propaganda

• Erasmus– Colloquies – dialogues that

were anticlerical and satires on religious dogma and superstition

– Adages – book of Proverbs– philosophia Christi – change

the individual and society with a simple ethical piety in imitation of Christ

– he was an idealist who expected more from the people than the age’s theologians believed them capable of doing; “Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched”

• Humanism and Reform• Germany

– Rudolf Agricola – “father of German Humanism”

– Conrad Celtics and Ulrich von Hutten united humanism, German nationalism and Luther’s religious reforms

– Reuchlin affair – Johann Reuchlin led a fight against Pfefferkorn who tried to suppress Jewish writings• Letters of Obscure Men –

attack on scholastics and monks

• England– Thomas More –

best known English humanist

– Utopia – conservative criticism of contemporary society

– Henry VIII’s most trusted diplomat; repudiated the Act of Supremacy

• France– Guillaume Bude and Jacques

Lefevre d’Etaples were leaders of French humanism – influenced Martin Luther

– Guillaume Briconnet and Marguerite d’Angouleme influenced John Calvin

• Spain– German, English and French

humanists prepared the way for the Reformation; Spanish humanists served the Catholic Church

– Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros was the “Grand Inquisitor”

• completed the Computensian Polygot Bible – put Hebew, Greek and Latin versions of the bible in parallel columns

• Voyages of Discovery and the New Empires in the East and West

• The Portuguese Chart the Course– Prince Henry “the navigator” began

the Portuguese exploration of the African coast; first for gold and slaves then to connect Europe to Asia’s spice market

– Bartholomew Dias pioneered the eastern Portuguese empire

– Vasco de Gama pushed the eastern empire to India allowing Portugal to challenge the Muslim/Venetian spice trade

• The Spanish Voyages of Columbus

• Christopher Columbus landed in San Salvador in the Eastern Bahamas; he met friendly native peoples known as the Taino Indians

• Amergio Vespucci and Ferdinand Magellan explored the coastline of South America and onto the Pacific Ocean

• Magellan’s crew was the first to circumnavigate the globe

• intended and unintended consequences

• Spanish had a zeal for conquering and converting non-Christian peoples

• the trading bloc created enriched Spain and gave them a commanding role in the religious and political wars of the 16th and 17th centuries along with fueling a Europe wide economic expansion

• Columbian Exchange – movement of food, animals, disease, goods, and slaves from the Old World to the New World and back

• The Spanish Empire in the New World– the Aztec Empire dominated Mesoamerica

• from their capital at Tenochtitlan they ruled a vast wealthy empire; policies of demanding heavy tribute from subservient people led to butter resentment

• Hernan Cortes ended the Aztec empire and declared it New Spain

– Inca Empire in Peru – second largest empire in the Americas; conquered by Francisco Pizarro

• a small organized military force with advanced weapons were able to destroy two great empires

– new European diseases (especially smallpox) also helped Europeans conquer and dominate South America

• besides the conquest of the Incas and Aztecs being two of the most brutal events in human history it marked a fundamental turning point in the New World in which South America became Latin America

• The Church in Spanish America

– early clergy sought to not only convert native peoples but to bring them European learning an civilization• Bartolome de la Casas

spoke out against Spanish conquest of native peoples

• “Black Legend” – exaggerated the harsh treatment of native peoples by the Spanish; romanticized native peoples

• The Economy of Exploitation

– forced labor was needed to profit from mining, agriculture, and shipping• mining focused on gold and

silver; the Spanish crown received 1/5 of all mining revenues

• agriculture built around the hacienda – large landed estate owned by Peninsulares or Creoles and worked on by laborers– subordinate to mining– large plantations existed on the

islands of the Caribbean

• labor servitude– encomienda – right to

the labor of native peoples

– repartimiendo – a labor tax requiring native peoples to work so many days annually

– debt peonage – “free workers” were required to purchase all materials from mine owners

– black slavery – used on sugar plantations in the West Indies and Brazil

• the Impact on Europe– Columbus’s discovery

demonstrated the folly of relying on any fixed body of presumed authoritative knowledge; opened a new age of communication and globalization

– influx of bullion into European economies led to inflation

– new government wealth led to sponsoring research and expansion in printing, shipping, mining, textiles, and the weapons industry

– rise in capitalism – intended to permit the free and efficient accumulation of wealth

• new wealth aggravated the traditional social divisions between varying social groups paving the way for the Reformation