The document provides an overview of the transformation of Western Europe between 1450-1750. It discusses key developments including the Italian Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther, and the growing power of monarchs like Louis XIV of France. The Renaissance challenged medieval values and emphasized humanism. The Printing Press helped spread new ideas. The Reformation led to religious wars and the establishment of new Protestant faiths. Absolute monarchies consolidated power while Parliament gained strength in England.

1. Chapter 17
The Transformation of the West
1450 - 1750

2. Italian Renaissance
Challenge of medieval values and styles
Boccaccio and Petrarch promote values in their
writing that is contrary to medieval logic and
theology
Niccolo Machiavelli – The Prince – political theory,
discussed realistic ways to seize and maintain power.
Humanism – focus on human kind as the center of
intellectual and artistic endeavor
 Religion isn’t attacked, but is no longer the dominant focus

3. Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince
Published in 1513
Combined personal experience of politics with his
knowledge of the past to offer a guide to rulers on
how to gain and maintain power
“The end justifies the means” (do what you gotta
do)
Ruthless power politics, use whatever methods
necessary to achieve goals
Controversy? - some see this as an excuse to be
corrupt and deceitful politicians

4. Influence?
Commerce – merchants improve banking
techniques, b/m more openly profit-seeking
Political – leaders rule with emphasis on what they
could do to advance the well-being and glory of their
city
 Develop professional armies
 Sponsored cultural activities

5. Italian City-States
 Florence, Milan, Venice,
Genoa, Rome, Naples, etc.
 Because Italy was the
center of the Roman
Empire, Italy was a
natural place for the birth
of the Renaissance.
 Merchant class – wealthy
and powerful, promoted
cultural revival. Stressed
education, individual
achievement, and lavishly
supported the arts.

6. Patrons
Merchant class -

7. Northern Renaissance
 Albrecht Durer – “German Leonardo”
 Studied in Italy
 Wide-range of interests, painted and created engravings
 Engravings – artists etches a design on a metal plate with acid and uses the plate to
make prints
 Flemish painters – develop oil paint, which survives time more
successfully
 Hubert van Eyck
 Paintings of townspeople and religious scenes, realistic details
 Pieter Bruegel
 Vibrant colors to portrayal lively scenes of peasant life
 Peter Paul Rubens
 Enormous paintings of pagan figures from the classical past

8. Albrecht Durer – Praying Hands

9. The Rhinoceros

11. Jan van Eyck – The Arnolfini Marriage

12. The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin

13. Books from Alibris

14. Pieter Bruegel – Peasant Wedding

15. The Peasants’ Dance

16. Children’s Games

17. Northern
Humanists
 Erasmus –(Desiderius)
 Thought Bible should be translated to vernacular
 The Praise of Folly – uses humor to expose ignorant and
immoral behavior
by limiting church to Latin it is as if “the strength of the
Christian religion consisted in the ignorance of it”
 Thomas More’s Utopia
 Ideas society in which men and women live in peace and
harmony, no one is idle, all are educated, justice is used to end
crime
 Utopian “ideal society”

19. Writers for a New Audience
 Shakespeare – England
 Renaissance playwright and poet
 1590-1613 – wrote 37 plays
 Increases vocab of the English
language – over 1,700 words
(bedroom, lonely, generous,
gloomy, heartsick, etc)

20. Printing
Revolution
 1456- Johann Gutenberg,
Mainz, Germany
 Developed movable type
 Created first printing press
and the first complete
edition of the Bible
 By 1500 over 20 million
volumes were printed
 Cheaper and easier to
produce
 Literacy rates increase
 Broad range of knowledge

21. Martin Luther
 Was a devout Catholic, served as a monk, tried to
continually bring himself closer to God
 Nails his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the Castle
Church in Wittenberg, Germany on All Hallows Eve,
1517
 Protests sale of indulgences (“Heaven Insurance” for you and
your loved ones – dead or alive!)
 Salvation by faith alone; he opposed the Catholic Church’s beliefs
in penance and good works
 Bible is the only authority for Christian life; Pope is a false
authority
 Priesthood of all believers – each person should have an
individual relationship with God and should read/interpret the
Bible for him/herself
 All people are equal in the eyes of God

22. Wrote many books, essays, and letters – which are
quickly printed and spread throughout
Luther was not easily silenced – he ideas shake
Europe

23. Pope Leo X issues a Papal Bull June 15,1520 and
threatens to excommunicate Luther unless he
recanted
Luther and his students at the University of
Witten berg burned the Papal Bull in a bonfire
Pope excommunicates Luther

24.  Charles V – HRE
 1521 – summons Luther to the Imperial Diet at Worms to
stand trial
 Refuses to recant his ideas,
 “Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason…my
conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not
recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.
Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. Amen.”
 Charles V replies –
 “A single friar who goes counter to all Christianity for a thousand
years must be wrong…I will proceed against him as a notorious
heretic”
 Charles V issues Edict of Worms – declaring Luther an
outlaw and heretic

25.  Frederick the Wise – German prince of Saxony,
protects Luther in his castle for the first year after
the Diet of Worms
 Spends the year translating the New Testament into
German
 Luther’s ideas were practiced – priests began
leading worship in German, calling themselves
“ministers”
 People give up on trying to reform the Catholic
Church and become a group known as Lutherans

26. Changing Views of the Universe
 Copernicus
 Heliocentric theory – sun is center
of universe, Earth revolves around
sun
 On the Revolutions of the
Heavenly Spheres
 Tycho Brahe
 Evidence to support Copernicus’s
theory
 Galileo
 Assembled astronomical telescope
 Sees Jupiter with moons rotating
around it, like Copernicus’s claim of
the Earth around the sun
 Condemned for challenging
Christian teachings that the
heavens are fixed, unmoving and
perfect
 Tried before the Inquisition, was
threatened death if he didn’t
rescind his claims (he gives in)

27. Absolute monarchies
“Reality checkers” –
Parliament/Estates
General

28. Extending Spanish Power
 Charles V and the Hapsburg
Empire
 Inherits huge empire – Spain
and the Austrian Hapsburg
Empire
 Reign of continual conflict
 Protestant Reformation
 Ottoman empire and Suleiman –
up to Vienna
 Charles V divides his empire,
gives up his titles, and enters a
monastery in 1556
 HRE lands to bro- Ferdinand
 Spain and Netherlands to his son,
Philip (Philip II)

29. King Philip II of Spain
 1556-1598
 Hard-working
 Devout and ambitious
 42 year reign
 Made his own power absolute
 Claimed divine right
 Saw himself as guardian of the
Catholic Church and worked to
strengthen it
 Enforced religious unity
 Spanish Inquisition against
Protestants and heretics

30. Netherlands viciously revolted for freedom from
Spain’s reign
 Revolts in the 1560’s, 1581 – Dutch Netherlands (they’re
Protestant btw), not official til 1648
Queen Elizabeth I of England is the archenemy
(she and England are Protestant)
 Queen Elizabeth secretly, then openly supported the
Netherlands efforts for freedom
 Encouraged Sea Dogs (English privateers) to plunder
Spanish treasure ships
 British navy defeats the Spanish Armada
 Spanish had 130 ships 20,000 men and 2,400 artillery
 Long term effects of this event!!!

32. 1600s Spain’s power and prosperity begin to
decline
Lack of strong leadership
Economic issues
 Overseas wars drain wealth
 Treasure from the Americas caused imbalance – Spain
neglected their agriculture and commerce
 Expulsion of Muslims and Jews caused a deficit of skilled
artisans and merchants
 American gold and silver caused soaring inflation

33. France under Louis XIV
 Huguenots – French Protestants
 Catholicism is majority in France
 St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24, 1572 –
 Huguenot and Catholic nobles gather to celebrate a royal wedding
 Violence erupts and 3,000 Huguenots are massacred
 Many more Huguenots are slaughtered during the next few days
 St. Bart’s Day Massacre becomes a symbol of a complete deterioration of order in
France

34. Henry IV
 Huguenot prince who inherits the
French throne in 1589
 “Paris is well worth a Mass”
 Edict of Nantes – 1598
 Officially tolerated Huguenots,
allowed them to fortify their
own towns and cities
 “a chicken in every pot”
 Attempt to mend peasant life
 Improves roads, builds bridges,
revives agriculture
**by reducing role of nobles, he
lays groundwork for absolutism

35. Richelieu
 Henry IV killed by an assassin
 Louis XIII (his son) becomes king
and appoints Cardinal Armand
Richeleiu as his chief minister
 Richelieu – cunning, capable
leader, spends his time
strengthening the central
government
 Tries to destroy nobles’ power
 Smashes the walls of Huguenot
cities and bans formation of
Huguenot armies
 Defeated private armies of
nobles and destroyed their
fortified castles
 Handpicks his successor –
Cardinal Jules Mazarin

36. Louis XIV,
the Sun King
 Became king at very young age (5 yrs
old), Mazarin essentially rules for him
 The Fronde – uprising of nobles,
merchants, peasants, and urban poor
rebel, rioters even drive Louis out of the
palace (even as a young boy)
 Mazarin dies 1661
 “L’etat, c’est moi” – I am the State –
Louis XIV takes responsibility for his
reign and becomes an absolute
monarch.
 The Sun – becomes his symbol of
absolute power
 Sun is the center of the universe and
I am the center of the nation “I am
the State”
 Doesn’t call up the Estates General
during his reign (so his power isn’t
checked)
 From 1614-1789 The Estates General
isn’t called up

37. Colbert
 Intendant system – royal officials
who collect taxes, recruit soldiers,
and carry out king’s policies in
each province
 Army becomes Europe’s best –
state paid, fed, trained and
supplied up to 300,000 soldiers
 Jean Baptiste Colbert – brilliant
finance minister
 High tariffs on imports,
encouraged overseas colonies,
export to colonies
 Becomes wealthiest state in
Europe

38.  Built in the countryside near Paris
 Spared no expense
 Became the king’s home and seat of government
Versailles  Housed 10,000 people from nobles and officials to
servants
 Elaborate ceremonies and rituals “levee”
 **Controlling the nobles by luring them to Versailles**

39. Triumph of Parliament in England
 Tudors Line of Successors –
 While the Tudor rulers believe in divine right, they also gave
Parliament consideration
 King Henry VIII
 Asked Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy – when they do, the
monarch of England becomes the head of the Church of England
 Parliament becomes used to being consulted
 Edward VI
 Mary I
 Queen Elizabeth I – 1559-1603
 Consulted Parliament when needed, made her a very popular ruler
 Forbade Parliament to meddle with the concept of her marriage (or
lack of)

40.  When Elizabeth dies in 1603, no direct heir
 Stuarts – ruling family of Scotland, closest
relative
 King James I
 Butted heads with Parliament
 Actually dissolves Parliament and
collects the taxes he wants on his own
 Dissenters – Puritans wanted to “purify”
the Church of England of Catholic
practices
 Call for simpler services and a more
democratic church (no bishops)
 K. James tells them to leave or he’ll
“do worse”
 King James version of the Bible emerged
in 1611

41.  Charles I – inherits throne in 1625
 Behaved like an absolute monarch
 Imprisoned people without trial and squeezed
nation for money
 1628 needed to raise taxes again and has to
summon Parliament
 Won’t approve taxation til K. Charles signs the
Petition of Right (prohibits king from taxing
without Parliament’s approval, and prohibits
imprisonment for unjust cause)
 Signs it, but dissolved Parliament in 1629
 Rules for 11 years without them
 Creates bitter enemies – especially the Puritans
 1637 – tries to impose the Book of Common Prayer
on the Scottish Calvinists
 They revolt, Charles summons Parl. To pay for the
army needed to take care of the revolt

42. The Long Parliament
Met on and off from 1640-1653
Parliament tried and executed the King’s chief
ministers
Declare Parliament can’t be dissolved without their
own consent
Charles I lashes back
Leads troops into the House of Commons to arrest
its most radical leaders
 They escape through the back door and flee to form their
own armies

43. English Civil War
 1642-1649
 Cavaliers v. Roundheads
 Charles I and supporters v.
Parliament and supporters –
country gentry, town-dwelling
manufacturers, and Puritan clergy
 Roundheads led by Oliver
Cromwell
 Skilled general
 New Model Army
 By 1647 the king was in the
hands of Parliamentary forces

44.  Parliament puts King Charles on trial
 Condemned to death as a “tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy”
 January 1649 “I am a martyr of the people”
 Says a prayer and then signals the executioner
 ***Implications in Europe?***

45. Shockwave through Europe
Kings had been assassinated or killed in battle but
never tried and executed by their own people
In England – no ruler can claim absolute power and
ignore the rule of law

46. The Commonwealth
The House of Commons abolishes the monarchy, the
House of Lords, and the Church of England
Declares England a republic, called the
Commonwealth
Oliver Cromwell will serve as their leader

48. Puritan Influence
 “rule of saints” – social revolution
 Sunday set aside for religious
observance
 Anyone 14 or older caught
“profaning” the Lord’s Day could be
fined
 Theatres, lewd dancing, taverns, and
gambling are all restricted/closed
down
 Education is highly encouraged so
both boys and girls can read the Bible
 Encourage marriage to be based on
love to encourage fidelity
 Cromwell allowed religious freedom
to other Protestants, and even
welcomed Jews back into England
(after 350+ yrs of exile)

49. Lord protector
Oliver can’t get along with the Rump
Parliament either
 House of Commons wants to disband Cromwell’s
50,000 man army
 So he disbands Parliament
1653 – Declares himself Lord Protector
 Imposes Puritan prohibitions
 Creates the first written constitution for his
“republic”…de facto dictatorship
 Dies 1658, son Richard succeeds him, but England has
had enough

50.  Cromwell dies 1658
 Puritans lose grip on England
 1660 – Parliament invites Charles II to take his rightful place as King
 Monarchy is restored and the people warmly welcome him
 Reopened taverns and theatres
 Restored Church of England, tolerated other Protestants

51.  James II inherits throne 1685
 Flaunts his Catholic faith –
even appoints Catholics in
high office positions
 English Protestants really
worried James II will
reinstate Catholicism
 Parliamentary leaders ask
James II’s daughter, Mary
and her husband William to
become the rulers of the
throne

52. Glorious Revolution
 William and Mary come over from the Netherlands
 James II flees to France
 Bloodless overthrow of leadership called a “glorious
revolution”
 King William III and Queen Mary II are not crowned until
they recognize SEVERAL of Parliament’s conditions
 English Bill of Rights – requires monarch to summon
Parliament regularly and gives the House of Commons
“power of the purse”
 Bars Catholic monarchs
 Restates traditional rights of English citizens (trial by
jury)
 Abolishes excess fines, cruel or unjust punishment
 Habeas corpus – no person can be held in prison without
first being charged a specific crime
 Toleration Act 1689 – limits religious freedom to
Puritans, Quakers and other dissenters (not Catholics
yet); but, only CofE can hold gvt positions

53. Enlightenment
Early Philosopher –
Thomas Hobbes
 Humans are flawed and need strong, harsh leadership
John Locke
 Natural rights
 Tabula rasa
 Social contract
Enlightenment Philosophers
 Rousseau – “Social Contract”
 Montesquieu – checks and balances

54. Status Check
Spain
France
England
HRE
Italy
The Church

55. Chapter 18 – Russia!
Russia: the third Rome?
Ivan III
Ivan IV
 Time of Troubles
 oprichniki
Michael Romanov

56. Peter the Great
His Focus (the 3 W’s)
Westernization
Window to the West
 Building St. Petersburg
Warm water ports
 Needs to acquire them

57. Selective Borrowing
Toured all over Europe incognito
Shipbuilding from Holland
Ballet from France
Christmas trees from Germany

58. St. Petersburg
“Window to the West”
Built in 1703
Built on a marsh
Capital from 1703-1918

59. Organizes military in
Western style
First navy for Russia
Establishes secret police
Continually extended
territory
Builds up industry
 Some serfs sent to mines
and the industrial jobs

61. Forcing Westernization
Forced on aristocracy
Beards
Wedding whips (p. 408
Stearns)
Western clothes
Speaking French

62.  Marries Peter III
Catherine the  Prussian princess, converted to
Great Orthodoxy once her marriage is
arranged
 Becomes main ruler and helps
develop a strong central state
 Pugachev Rebellion
 Claims Alaska
 Fights Ottomans, wins Crimean Sea
 Partition of Poland – split between
Austria, Russia, and Prussia