When it comes to history, historians often find it easiest to break the past up into smaller sections, and even smaller subsections within them. That makes understanding the past much easier to manage. In this way history works much like a puzzle, with historians putting all the pieces together to form the larger picture. When it comes to understanding the history of Europe, the best place to start is with the period of history known as the Early Modern Period. The Early Modern Period refers to the centuries between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (roughly the 15th Century to the 18th). It was during this period that the Europe of the Middle Ages began resembling the world we see today. It was a period of great social and political change and set the gears in motion which would carry the world on its path to the present.
New Terms
Early Modern Period: The period of European history beginning after the Middle Ages encompassing the centuries between around 1450 to 1750
Middle Ages: The Middle Ages or Medieval Period refers to the period of European history which spanned from roughly the 5th century to the 15th century
Industrial Revolution: The Industrial Revolution refers to the period rapid technological innovation and mechanization which occurred between 1760 and 1840. During these years European cultures underwent significant amounts of social change including the restructuring of societies around factory work instead of agriculture, a rapid increase in the population and living standards and the mechanization of manufacturing and industry. For more information on the Industrial Revolution see the Industrial Revolution section. (Coming Soon)
During the Middle Ages the continent of Europe had been ravaged by one of the worst pandemics known in history – the Black Death. During its peak years in Europe between 1348 and 1350 the plague is estimated to have killed some 75 to 200 million people. By the time the plague was finally brought under control historians believe it caused the deaths of 30 to 60 percent of the European population. As such by the 1500's the population of Europe is estimated to have been only about 61 million. Of that population the average life expectancy was around 40 years, provided you survived past the age of 10. Infant mortality rates at the time were at an excess of 30% and the fertility rate was extremely low.
One of the reasons for low fertility rates was that marriage during the 1500's was an extremely formal process with certain requirements being made on both husbands and wives. If a woman was to get married it was generally expected that her parents would provide her new husband with a dowry. A dowry was the goods, monies or estates which the woman brought to a marriage. A woman with a higher dowry was seen to be more desirable, a woman with a small dowry or no dowry was unlikely to find a husband. It’s important to note however that the importance of financial incentives for marriage applied to both men and women. Just as women were expected to provide a dowry, men were expected to have mastered a trade and achieved a certain level of financial stability before they were considered viable husbands. As a result many people living in 16th Century Europe either married very late or not at all. Remarriage however was a common occurrence due to the high percentage of widows and widowers, and it was not uncommon for two families to be merged through marriage.
New Terms
Black Death: A devastating pandemic which broke out in the 14th Century and traveled across Europe and Asia. Believed to have been a case of the Bubonic Plague spread by rats and fleas, the plague ravaged the population killing between 75 to 200 million people in the 14th Century.
Dowry: The property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage. A woman's family was expected to provide a dowry when she got married, and the size of the dowry affected her desirability. The purpose of the dowry was to provide the wife with something to fall back on should anything happen to her husband, but often the dowry was used to pay ordinary expenses.
For the most part Europe was dominated by rural agrarian societies (societies made up of peasants, landowners and farmers), but there were also a number of prominent European cities and some, including historian Christopher Friedrichs estimate that between 100 and 200 million people lived in cities between 1450 and 1750. By the early 16th Century the largest cities in Europe were Naples, Paris and Venice each of which had populations between 100,000 and 200,000. Within most of these cities both the rich and poor lived together, although the wealthier inhabitants of the city tended to migrate towards city centers and busy markets, whereas poorer citizens tended to live out of the way in back allies and side streets (Friedrichs, 6).
Despite their close proximity, the European cities of the Early Modern period kept a rigid class structure. At the top were royalty. Kings and Queens were the primary rulers of Early Modern Europe and it was taken as a given that their authority was final. Their authority was backed up by the most powerful political force at the time, the Catholic Church. Kings and Queens aligned themselves with the Catholic Church and claimed their rule was ordained by God.
The remaining non-royal European peoples were divided into three estates. The First Estate was comprised of the clergy, "those who pray." The Second Estate was made up of the nobility, "those who fight." And the Third Estate was comprised of everyone else, "those who work." Mobility between the estates was impossible, and so, individuals born into the Third Estate, were unable to improve their social condition.
For members of the Third Estate, occupation provided a second level of class standing, and provided some with the ability to exercise political power. Society within cities was divided by Guilds, groups of craftsmen and artisans who controlled the industries within their city. Each occupation had its own guild, and these guilds in turn controlled the people working in the trade. Membership within a guild was extremely selective and followed a rigid process of training. Individuals began as apprentices working under a given master. If they proved successful they were advanced to the level of journeymen and began production of their own masterpiece. Finally, upon successful completion of a masterpiece, the guild would consider the maker a master of the trade. It wasn't until this point that men were allowed to marry.
New Terms
The Three Estates: The Three Estates were the class system commonly adopted during the Early Modern Period in Europe. The Estate you were in determined your social standing.
The First Estate: The First Estate was the highest of the Early Modern social groups, and was made up of members of the Clergy. During the Early Modern Period the Catholic Church had a tremendous amount of power and influence, and clergymen had the greatest political power and social standing.
The Second Estate: The second highest social group was comprised of the nobility. These were the rich land owners who controlled most of the land and wealth but comprised a minority of the population.
The Third Estate: Those who were not members of the first or second estates were members of the Third Estate. Members of this group ran from rich merchants to the poorest of peasants. Although they were the largest of all the estates, they held the least power and typically owned little property.
Guilds: groups of craftsmen and artisans who controlled the industries within their city.
Perhaps the greatest challenge to the rigid Estate System came in the form of the Gutenberg Press, which was one of the first printing presses able to mass produce printed texts which were then distributed around the world. Beginning in the mid-15th Century, cities began to boast their own presses. The earliest known press was developed in 1455 in Mainz, Germany. The next major press was established in Italy in 1465 and three more presses were established in 1469 in the cities of Basel, Paris and Rome. By the 1500s there were over 250 presses in cities all across the European continent and literacy was beginning to improve. Soon the bible became one of the most commonly printed and translated texts. The advent of the printing press brought with it an unprecedented dedication to scholarship which in turn sparked a number of movements committed to better understanding the world. Now that they were able to read important texts for themselves as opposed to simply hearing them dictated, many Europeans felt that time and others' misinterpretations had corrupted them. Particularly, many scholars felt that such corruptions had led to corruption in society and as such wished to remove those corruptions.
Their efforts began the Renaissance (translated from the French to mean 'rebirth') which was a cultural and artistic movement aimed at restoring society to what many believed was its former glory in the Roman and Greek Empires. Scholars in particular focused on the idea of Renaissance Humanism which changed to focus of education to secular ideas such as grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy. These scholars hoped to better understand their world by looking to the resources of the past and reexamining old truths. Their mantra soon became that of Ad fontes or "back to the sources." Unfortunately their attempts to look backward simply resulted in the questioning of the world they lived in and a general questioning of authority.
The rise in education was not simply centered around the elite, and indeed there were soon Universities devoted to teaching ordinary people. The combination of Universities and printing presses allowed for information to be disseminated further and faster than ever before. Literacy among Europeans rose steadily and even though reading and writing were generally taught separately, by the 1800's about half of all Europeans were able to sign their own names. The printing press made literature a mass commodity, and many of what we now regard as the 'classics' were popular reads for people across Europe. The dissemination of ideas made possible by the printing press, combined with the dedication of scholars soon lead many people of all walks of life to being thinking critically about their society. Before long the questioning of authority became common place and sparked a number of movements including the Reformation the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.
New Terms
Gutenberg Press: The printing press designed by Johannes Gutenberg. Regarded as one of the first and most important printing presses, the Gutenberg Press was the first press able to print using high quality lettering and inks producing durable books. His press was also the first to attempt to use color in printing. The Gutenberg Press is also famous for being on of the first mass publishers of the Bible which had been translated from the original Latin to German for the first time.
Renaissance: The Renaissance, French for 'rebirth', was a cultural and artistic movement which began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe during the beginning of the Early Modern Period.
Renaissance Humanism: A school of thought and teaching popularized during the Renaissance which focused on secular teaching and the importance of the fields of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, science and moral philosophy.
Ad fontes: A Latin word meaning back to the sources. It became the mantra of Renaissance scholars who wished to study original source materials in order to gain a purer untainted understanding of them.