European Background

Introduction and Summary

Europe in Termoil

• Number of social issues being dealt with and handled badly

• “Push/Pull Factors”- What would cause people to want to move half way around the world?

• Also cultural “baggage” brought with them will determine their relationship with the First Nations people

• “Baggage” will also determine what type of settlements will be formed.

Witch Hunts

• 1669, courts in Normandy, France began a massive witch hunt.

• Number of deaths following epidemic• 500 people, mostly women, were accused of

witchcraft.• Got so bad the French king intervened

European Social Order

• Transition from Feudal System in Europe.• Focus was turning to trade • Powerful merchants Started siding with The king.• Undermine the Nobles

Feudal System

Serfs

• Most were legally subordinate to these elite• In return to paying tribute (money or food) to

the lord, they received military protection and a small plot of land

• Gradually it turned to forced labour. • As this evolved, the land that they were being

provided was too small to provide what needed, so they became more reliant.

Europe’s New Social Order

• By 1600s, Huge population increase• Decline in food available• Decline in wages• Placed great hardship on the poorer class

Population

• By the 1600s, (Age of exploration)- huge population increase

• Population of Europe 100 million.

• FAMINE, EPIDEMICS, WAR Cycle

The Cycle

• Drought, brought famine• Famine brought unsanitary conditions• Famine brought starvation• Famine brought Epidemics• War brought famine

• Diphtheria, Typhoid Fever, Small pox, Whooping Couch, Tuberculosis, “Black Death” ( Bubonic Plague)

• Killed 25 million people (1/4 of the population

War

• War brought plundering soldiers• Provisions were not provided so they were

forced to find their own food/ supplies• Often resulted in attacks of peasants• If it coincided with a famine year, devastating

• Thirty Year War (1618-1648) claimed 350 000 soldiers but 13.5- 21 million civilians

Rebellion

• Peasants reacted violently.• Hated Heavy taxes, rents, church dues

especially in famine year.• Limited communication made full scale

rebellion unlikely, though it still frightened the European elites.

• They just asked for “just prices” and lower rents and taxes.

Life Expectency

• Short, 45 Years for those who survived first year of life.

• 1/3 all children died before 1st year• Even in the 17th century, ½ were dead before their first

birthday• This included wealthy parents• Social Norms, among wealthy, they hired women to

breastfeed their young. • Poor women hired often had to choose between their

own children and their lord’s

Women and the Economy• Patriarchal society• Women in the country had more freedom• As time went on men started pushing for

limited sphere of activities for women.• Witchcraft was normal charges for women

who did not fit into the norms.

• Until late 1400s, most women were fully involved in guilds (Trade unions)

• Journeymen kept finding themselves under competition and encouraged that they get kicked out of guilds.

• It removed competition• At this same time they also exlcuded men of

illegitimate birth and sons of serfs

What women turned to

• Women then had no options.– Hospitals– Orphanages– Midwives– Domestic Servents

Role of Government

• Beginning monarchs had little power• Solidification of power into the monarch over

time (Divine Right)• Limited the power of the aristocracy• Court Appointed ministers set up prisons,

workhouses and asylums to penalize those who fell outside norms

• Increasing power meant the countries moved to expand their territories

• Nation-state was emerging as a conscious and powerful entity.

• Kings and Queens worked for three things.– Expand their territories – Convert heathens– Obtain more wealth

Religion

• Catholic Church was dominant throughout most of Europe, ruthlessly suppressing heretics.

• Led by the Pope, church received royal support to dictate religious beliefs of all monarchs’ subjects, to dictate religious beliefs, collect church taxes (tithes) and to build and maintain grand cathedrals.

Corruption in the church

• Corruption in the church• Ancient laws and customs• Going against the wealthy class and producing

laws against money lending. (Interestingly enough Jews were allowed to do this… Stay tuned to Anti-Semitism in Europe)

• Refusing to allow Henry VIII to divorce and remarry

Reformation

• Started by Martin Luther, a priest who posted the reforms necessary to make the church better

• 1517, created the “Protestant” church- protesting against the catholic church when Luther was excommunicated (Kicked out)

Counter Reformation

• Catholic’s church answered to try to stop the problems in the church and stop the reformation

• Jews were expelled from England and France• Spain expelled Jews and Muslims (1942)• Religious intollerance

New Religious Orders

• The militant Society of Jesus (The Jesuits) were fanatical with the devotion and belief that absolute obedience to the pope

• Founded schools and universities• Active in foreign missions to rekindle the

Catholic flame

New Religious Orders

• The Ursulines, like the Jesuits were focused on teaching girls

• Girls teach their own children and build back the catholic church

• Want girls educated in Catholic faith so they would not become protestants

• They moved them into convents

• Both groups would move to the new world to convert the “heathens”