The hoped-for miracle never materialized. The Spanish fleet, battered by a number of encounters with the English, sailed back to Spain by a northward route around Scotland and Ireland, where it was further battered by storms. Although the English and Spanish would continue their war for another sixteen years, the defeat of the Spanish armada guaranteed for the time being that England would remain a Protestant country. Although Spain made up for its losses within a year and a half, the defeat was a psychological blow to the Spaniards.
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
When the Augustinian monk Martin Luther burst onto the scene with a series of theses on indulgences, few people suspected that his observations would eventually split all of Europe along religious lines. But the yearning for reform of the church and meaningful religious experiences caused a seemingly simple dispute to escalate into a powerful movement.
Martin Luther established the twin pillars of the Protestant Reformation: the doctrine of justification by faith alone and the Bible as the sole authority in religious affairs. Although Luther felt that his revival of Christianity based on his interpretation of the Bible should be acceptable to all, others soon appeared who also read the Bible but interpreted it in different ways. Protestantism fragmented into different sects—Zwinglianism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, Anabaptism—which, though united in their dislike of Catholicism, were themselves divided over the interpretation of the sacraments and religious practices. As reform ideas spread, religion and politics became ever more intertwined.
Although Lutheranism was legally acknowledged in the Holy Roman Empire by the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, it had lost much of its momentum and outside of Scandinavia had scant ability to attract new supporters. Its energy was largely replaced by the new Protestant form of Calvinism, which had a clarity of doctrine and a fervor that made it attractive to a whole new generation of Europeans. But while Calvinism’s activism enabled it to spread across Europe, Catholicism was also experiencing its own revival. New religious orders based on reform, a revived and reformed papacy, and the Council of Trent, which reaffirmed traditional Catholic doctrine, gave the Catholic Church a renewed vitality.
By the middle of the sixteenth century, it was apparent that the religious passions of the Reformation era had brought an end to the religious unity of medieval Europe. The religious division (Catholics versus Protestant) was instrumental in beginning a series of religious wars that were complicated by economic, social, and political forces that also played a role. The French Wars of Religion, the revolt of the Netherlands against Philip II of Spain, and the conflict between Philip II and Elizabeth of England, which led to the failed attempt of the Spanish armada to invade England, were the major struggles in the sixteenth-century religious wars.
That people who were disciples of the Apostle of Peace would kill each other over their beliefs aroused skepticism about Christianity itself. As one German writer put it, “Lutheran, popish, and Calvinistic, we’ve got all these beliefs here, but there is some doubt about where Christianity has got.”20 It is surely no accident that the search for a stable, secular order of politics and for order in the universe through natural laws soon came to play important roles. Before we look at this search for order in the seventeenth century, however, we need first to look at the adventures that plunged Europe into its new role in the world.
CHAPTER TIMELINE
CHAPTER REVIEW
Upon Reflection
If attempts at reform of the Catholic Church were unsuccessful in the fifteenth century, why did they succeed during the sixteenth-century Reformation?
What role did politics play in the establishment of Lutheranism and Anglicanism?
Elizabeth of England and Philip II of Spain were two of Europe’s most famous monarchs in the second half of the sixteenth century. Compare and contrast their methods of ruling and their foreign policy. Which was a more successful ruler? Why?
Key Terms
Christian (northern Renaissance) humanism
pluralism
confession
justification
transubstantiation
millenarianism
predestination
Huguenots
politiques
Puritans
Suggestions for Further Reading
THE REFORMATION Basic surveys of the Reformation period include J. D. Tracy, Europe’s Reformations, 1450–1650 (Oxford, 1999); D. MacCulloch, The Reformation (New York, 2003); and E. Cameron, The European Reformation (New York, 1991). See also the brief works by U. Rublack, Reformation Europe (Cambridge, 2005), and P. Collinson, The Reformation: A History (New York, 2006). A brief but very useful introduction to the theology of the Reformation can be found in A. McGrath, Reformation Thought: An Introduction, 3rd rev. ed. (Oxford, 2001).
NORTHERN RENAISSANCE HUMANISM The development of humanism outside Italy is examined in C. G. Nauert Jr., Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2006).
LUTHER AND LUTHERANISM The classic account of Martin Luther’s life is R. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (New York, 1950). More recent works include H. A. Oberman, Luther (New York, 1992), and the brief biography by M. Marty, Martin Luther (New York, 2004). The spread of Luther’s ideas in Germany can be examined in C. S. Dixon, The Reformation and Rural Society (Cambridge, 2004), on the impact of the Reformation on the countryside in Germany, and R. W. Scribner, For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation (Oxford, 1994), on the impact of popular culture in the spread of the Reformation. On the role of Charles V, see W. Maltby, The Reign of Charles V (New York, 2002).
SPREAD OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION W. P. Stephens’s Zwingli (Oxford, 1994) is an important study of the man’s ideas. The most comprehensive account of the various groups and individuals who are called Anabaptists is G. H. Williams, The Radical Reformation, 2nd ed. (Kirksville, Mo., 1992). Worthwhile surveys of the English Reformation are C. Haigh, English Reformations: Religion, Politics, and Society Under the Tudors (Oxford, 1993); N. L. Jones, English Reformation: Religion and Cultural Adaptation (London, 2002); and E. Duffy, Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400–1580, 2nd ed. (New Haven, Conn., 2005), on the vibrancy of Catholicism in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. On John Calvin, see A. McGrath, A Life of John Calvin: A Study in the Shaping of Western Culture (Cambridge, Mass., 1990). On Calvinism, see W. G. Naphy, Calvin and the Consolidation of the Genevan Reformation (Philadelphia, 2003).
SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE REFORMATION On the impact of the Reformation on the family,see J. F. Harrington, Reordering Marriage and Society in Reformation Germany (New York, 1995). On the impact of the Reformation on women, see L. Roper, Women and Morals in Reformation Augsburg (Oxford, 1997).
CATHOLIC REFORMATION A good introduction to the Catholic Reformation can be found in M. A. Mullett, The Catholic Reformation (London, 1999). Also valuable is R. P. Hsia, The World of Catholic Renewal, 1540–1770 (Cambridge, 1998). For new perspectives, see R. Bireley, The Refashioning of Catholicism, 1450–1700 (Washington, D.C., 1999), and J. O’Malley, Trent and All That: Renaming Catholicism in the Early Modern Era (Cambridge, Mass., 2002).
WARS OF RELIGION For good introductions to the French Wars of Religion, see M. P. Holt, The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629 (Cambridge, 1995), and R. J. Knecht, The French Wars of Religion, 1559–1598, 2nd ed. (New York, 1996). On Philip II, see G. Parker, Philip II, 3rd ed. (Chicago, 1995). On the revolt of the Netherlands, see G. Parker, The Dutch Revolt, rev. ed. (London, 1990). Elizabeth’s reign can be examined in C. Haigh, Elizabeth I, 2nd ed. (New York, 1998).
Visit the CourseMate website at www.cengagebrain.com for additional study tools and review materials for this chapter.
CHAPTER 14
Europe and the World: New Encounters, 1500–1800
A 1536 Mercator projection map showing the route of Ferdinand Magellan’s first circumnavigation of the world
© Everett
Collection
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CHAPTER OUTLINE AND FOCUS QUESTIONS
On the Brink of a New World
Why did Europeans begin to embark on voyages of discovery and expansion at the end of the fifteenth century?
New Horizons: The Portuguese and Spanish Empires
How did Portugal and Spain acquire their overseas empires, and how did their empires differ?
New Rivals on the World Stage
How did the arrival of the Dutch, British, and French on the world scene in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries affect Africa, India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan? What were the main features of the African slave trade, and what effects did it have on Africa?
The Impact of European Expansion
How did European expansion affect both the conquerors and the conquered?
Toward a World Economy
What was mercantilism, and what was its relationship to colonial empires?
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CRITICAL THINKING
What was the relationship between European overseas expansion and political, economic, and social developments in Europe?
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WHILE MANY EUROPEANS were occupied with the problems of dynastic expansion and religious reform, others were taking voyages that propelled Europeans far beyond the medieval walls in which they had been enclosed for almost a thousand years. One of these adventurers was the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Convinced that he could find a sea passage to Asia through America, Magellan persuaded the king of Spain to finance an exploratory voyage. On August 10, 1519, Magellan set sail on the Atlantic with five ships and a Spanish crew of 277 men. After a stormy and difficult crossing of the Atlantic, Magellan’s fleet moved down the coast of South America, searching for the elusive strait that would take him through. His Spanish ship captains thought he was crazy: “The fool is obsessed with his search for a strait,” one remarked. “On the flame of his ambition he will crucify us all.” At last, in October 1520, he found it, passing through a narrow waterway (later named the Strait of Magellan) and emerging into an unknown ocean that he called the Pacific Sea. Magellan reckoned that it would then be a short distance to the Spice Islands of the East, but he was badly mistaken. Week after week, he and his crew sailed on across the Pacific as their food supplies dwindled. According to one account, “When their last biscuit had gone, they scraped the maggots out of the casks, mashed them and served them as gruel. They made cakes out of sawdust soaked with the urine of rats—the rats themselves, as delicacies, had long since been hunted to extinction.” At last they reached the islands that would later be called the Philippines (after King Philip II of Spain), where Magellan met his death at the hands of the natives. Although only one of his original fleet of five ships survived and returned to Spain, Magellan is still remembered as the first person to circumnavigate the world.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, European adventurers like Magellan had begun launching small fleets into the vast reaches of the Atlantic Ocean. They were hardly aware that they were beginning a new era, not only for Europe, but for the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Americas as well. Nevertheless, the voyages of these Europeans marked the beginning of a process that led to radical changes in the political, economic, and cultural life of the entire world.
Between 1500 and 1800, European power engulfed the world. In the Americas, Europeans established colonies that spread their laws, religions, and cultures. In the island regions of Southeast Asia, Europeans firmly established their rule. In other parts of Asia and in Africa, their activities ranged from trading goods to trafficking in humans, permanently altering the lives of the local peoples. In all regions touched by European expansion, the indigenous peoples faced exposure to new diseases, alteration of their religions and customs, and the imposition of new laws.
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On the Brink of a New World
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FOCUS QUESTION: Why did Europeans begin to embark on voyages of discovery and expansion at the end of the fifteenth century?
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Nowhere has the dynamic and even ruthless energy of Western civilization been more apparent than in its expansion into the rest of the world. By the late sixteenth century, the Atlantic seaboard had become the center of a commercial activity that raised Portugal and Spain and later the Dutch Republic, England, and France to prominence. The age of expansion was a crucial factor in the European transition from the agrarian economy of the Middle Ages to a commercial and industrial capitalistic system. Expansion also led Europeans into new and lasting contacts with non-European peoples that inaugurated a new age of world history in the sixteenth century.
The Motives for Expansion
For almost a millennium, Catholic Europe had been confined to one geographic area. Its one major attempt to expand beyond those frontiers, the Crusades, had largely failed. Of course, Europe had never completely lost touch with the outside world: the goods of Asia and Africa made their way into medieval castles, the works of Muslim philosophers were read in medieval universities, and in the ninth and tenth centuries, the Vikings had even made their way to the eastern fringes of North America. But in all cases, contacts with non-European civilizations remained limited until the end of the fifteenth century, when Europeans embarked on a remarkable series of overseas journeys. What caused Europeans to undertake such dangerous voyages to the ends of the earth?
FANTASTIC LANDS Europeans had long been attracted to lands outside Europe as a result of a large body of fantasy literature about “other worlds” that blossomed in the Middle Ages. In the fourteenth century, the author of The Travels of John Mandeville spoke of realms (which he had never seen) filled with precious stones and gold. Other lands were more frightening and considerably less appealing. In one country, “the folk be great giants of twenty-eight foot long, or thirty foot long…. And they eat more gladly man’s flesh than any other flesh.” Farther north was a land inhabited by “full cruel and evil women. And they have precious stones in their eyes. And they be of that kind that if they behold any man with wrath they slay him at once with the beholding.”1 Other writers, however, attracted Europeans to the lure of foreign lands with descriptions of mysterious Christian kingdoms: the magical kingdom of Prester John in Africa and a Christian community in southern India that was supposedly founded by Thomas, an apostle of Jesus.
ECONOMIC MOTIVES Although Muslim control of Central Asia cut Europe off from the countries farther east, the Mongol conquests in the thirteenth century had reopened the doors. The most famous medieval travelers to the East were the Polos of Venice. Niccolò and Maffeo, merchants from Venice, accompanied by Niccolò’s son Marco, undertook the lengthy journey to the court of the great Mongol ruler Khubilai Khan (1259–1294) in 1271. An account of Marco’s experiences, the Travels, was the most informative of all the descriptions of Asia by medieval European travelers. Others followed the Polos, but in the fourteenth century, the conquests of the Ottoman Turks and then the breakup of the Mongol Empire reduced Western traffic to the East. With the closing of the overland routes, a number of people in Europe became interested in the possibility of reaching Asia by sea to gain access to the spices and other precious items of the region. Christopher Columbus had a copy of Marco Polo’s Travels in his possession when he began to envision his epoch-making voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
An economic motive thus looms large in European expansion in the Renaissance. Merchants, adventurers, and government officials had high hopes of finding new areas of trade, especially more direct access to the spices of the East. These continued to come to Europe via Arab intermediaries but were outrageously expensive. In addition to the potential profits to be made from the spice trade, many European explorers and conquerors did not hesitate to express their desire for material gain in the form of gold and other precious metals. One Spanish conquistador explained the dual purpose of their mission to the New World: to “serve God and His Majesty, to give light to
those who were in darkness, and to grow rich, as all men desire to do.”2
RELIGIOUS ZEAL The conquistador’s statement expressed another major reason for the overseas voyages—religious zeal. A crusading mentality was particularly strong in Portugal and Spain, where the Muslims had largely been driven out in the Middle Ages. Contemporaries of Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (see “The Development of a Portuguese Maritime Empire” later in this chapter) said that he was motivated by “his great desire to make increase in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and to bring him all the souls that should be saved.” Although most scholars believe that the religious motive was secondary to economic considerations, it would be foolish to overlook the genuine desire on the part of both explorers and conquistadors, let alone missionaries, to convert the heathen to Christianity. Hernán Cortés (hayr-NAHN kor-TAYSS or kor-TEZ), the conqueror of Mexico, asked his Spanish rulers if it was not their duty to ensure that the native Mexicans “are introduced into and instructed in the holy Catholic faith” and predicted that if “the devotion, trust and hope which they now have in their idols turned so as to repose with the divine power of the true God… they would work many miracles.”3 Spiritual and secular affairs were closely intertwined in the sixteenth century. No doubt, the desire for grandeur and glory as well as plain intellectual curiosity and a spirit of adventure also played some role in European expansion.
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