The Transformation of the West 1450-1750 Lesson

There were dramatic changes in Western Europe during the early modern period. The core areas of Western civilization changed dramatically between 1450 and 1750. While remaining an agricultural society, the West became unusually commercially active and developed a strong manufacturing sector. Governments increased their powers. In intellectual life, science became the centerpiece for the first time in the history of any society. Ideas of the family and personality also altered. The changes resulted from overseas expansion and growing commercial dominance. The internal changes, such as the Renaissance and Enlightenment, were marked by considerable internal conflict, with focal points centered on the state, culture, and commerce, with support from technology.

A New Spirit

The Renaissance brought a new spirit of discovery and achievement to Europe.

The First Big Changes: Culture and Commerce

During the fifteenth century, Europe moved to a new role in world trade. Internally, the developments of the Renaissance continued, to be followed in the sixteenth century by the Protestant Reformation and Catholic response. A new commercial and social structure grew.

The Italian Renaissance

Pieta Image The Renaissance began in Italy during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as individuals challenged medieval intellectual values and styles. Italy's urban, commercial economy and competitive state politics stimulated the new movement. Petrarch and Boccaccio challenged established canons and wrote in Italian instead of Latin. They emphasized secular topics such as love and pride. New realism appeared in painting, and religion declined as a central focus. During the fifteenth century, the Renaissance blossomed further. In a great age of artistic accomplishment, da Vinci and Michelangelo changed styles in art and sculpture. In political theory, Machiavelli advanced ideas similar to those of the Chinese legalists. Historians favored critical thinking over divine intervention for explaining the past. Examples were drawn from Greece and Rome. Humanism, a focus on humanity as the center of endeavor, was a central focus. Renaissance ideas influenced politics and commerce. Merchants and bankers moved into profit-seeking capitalist ways; city-state rulers sought new forms dedicated to advancing well-being.

The Renaissance Moves Northward

By the sixteenth century, Italy declined as the center of the Renaissance. French and Spanish invasion cut political independence, while new Atlantic trade routes hurt the Mediterranean economy. The Northern Renaissance, centered in France, the Low Countries, Germany, and England, spread to eastern Europe. Northern humanists were more religious than the Italians. Writers—Shakespeare, Rabelais, and Cervantes—mixed classical themes with elements of medieval popular culture. Northern rulers became patrons of the arts, tried to control the church, and sponsored trading companies and colonial ventures. Interest in military conquest increased. In cultural life, classical styles replaced Gothic. Education changed to favor Greek and Roman classics, plus Christian morality. A spirit of individual excellence and defiance of tradition was widespread. Renaissance influence can be overstated. Feudal political forms remained strong. Ordinary people were little touched by the new values, and general economic life was not much altered.

Changes in Technology and Family

By 1500, fundamental changes were under way in Western society. Contacts with Asia led to improvements in technology. Printing helped to expand religious and technological thinking. A European-style family emerged. Ordinary people married at a later age, and a primary emphasis on the nuclear family developed. The changes influenced husband-wife relations and intensified links between families and individual property holdings. Later marriage was a form of birth control and helped to control population expansion.

The Protestant and Catholic Reformations

Holbein's Henry the 8th Image The Catholic Church faced serious challenges. In 1517, Luther taught that only faith could gain salvation, and he challenged many Catholic beliefs, including papal authority, monasticism, and priestly celibacy. He said that the Bible should be translated into the vernacular. Luther resisted papal pressure and gained support in Germany where papal authority and taxes were resented. Princes saw an opportunity to secure power at the expense of the Catholic holy Roman emperor. They seized church lands and became Lutherans. Peasants interpreted Luther's actions—he vehemently disagreed—as a sanction for rebellion against landlords. Urban people thought Luther's views sanctioned money making and other secular pursuits. Other Protestant groups appeared. In England, Henry VIII established the Anglican Church. Frenchman Jean Calvin, based in Geneva, insisted on the principle of predestination of those who would be saved. Calvinists wanted the participation of all believers in church affairs and thus influenced attitudes toward government. They also stressed education to enable believers to read the Bible. The Catholic Church was unable to restore unity, but much of Europe remained under its authority. The Catholic Reformation worked against Protestant ideas, revived doctrine, and attacked popular beliefs. A new order, the Jesuits, spearheaded educational and missionary activity, including work in Asia and the Americas.

The End of Christian Unity in the West

The Protestant and Catholic quarrels caused a series of religious wars during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In France, Calvinists and Catholics disputed until the edict of Nantes in 1598 gave Protestants tolerance. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) pitted German and Swedish Protestants against the Holy Roman Emperor and Spain. German power and prosperity did not recover for a century. The peace settlement allowed rulers and cities to choose their official religion. It also gave the Protestant Netherlands independence from Spain. During the seventeenth century, religion was an important issue in English civil strife; most Protestants, but not Catholics, gained toleration. The long religious wars led to very limited concepts of religious pluralism. The wars also affected the European power balance and political structure. France gained power, the Netherlands and England developed international trade, and Spain lost dominance. Some rulers benefited from the decline of papal authority, but in some states, Protestant theory encouraged parliamentary power. Popular mentalities changed as individuals became less likely to recognize a connection between God and nature. Religion and daily life were regarded as separate. Religious change also gave greater emphasis to family life; love between spouses was encouraged. Women, however, if unmarried, had fewer alternatives when Protestants abolished convents. Finally, literacy became more widespread.

The Commercial Revolution

Western economic structure underwent fundamental redefinition. Greater commercialization was spurred by substantial price inflation during the sixteenth century. New World gold and silver forced prices up, and product demand surpassed availability. Great trading companies formed to take advantage of colonial markets; the increasing commerce stimulated manufacturing. Specialized agricultural regions emerged. All the developments stimulated population and urban growth. The prosperity was shared by all classes in western Europe, but there were victims of the changes. Commercialization created a new rural and urban proletariat that suffered from increased food prices. For the more prosperous, commercialization supported a more elaborate family life and demystification of nature. The many changes stimulated popular protest during the first half of the seventeenth century. Witchcraft hysteria reflected economic and religious uncertainties; women were the most common targets.

Social Protest

The Renaissance, Reformation, and economic change had produced many divisions within Europe by the seventeenth century. The Renaissance created a new wedge between the elite and the masses; the former pulled away from a shared popular culture. Popular rebellions demonstrated the social tension as groups called for a political voice or suppression of landlords and taxes. The risings failed because wealth and literacy had spread widely among classes who became suspicious of the poor.

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