1300 - 1648

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Western Civilization I, HIS 101
Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

bulletLate Middle Age or the Ending of the Middle Ages:  1300 - 1500

The Middle Ages are a 1000 year period of time from the end of the Roman Empire to the end of Christian unity in the West.  This period can be divided into five segments of two hundred years each.  The High Middle Ages, which can be roughly dated from 1100 to 1300 entered into an abrupt tailspin during the first fifty years of the fourteenth century.

During the High Middle Ages, there was what has been called the medieval synthesis.  Four pillars of medieval society competed with each other for dominance:  1.  The Roman Catholic Church with the Pope at its head; 2.  The emerging national monarchies, particularly in France, England, and Spain, and the declining feudal monarchies of the Holy Roman Empire, Burgundy, and Poland; The Feudal nobility seeking to maintain their local dominance; and the townspeople in the Imperial Cities, self-governing republics, and towns with royal charters.  At the bottom of society, as always, were the peasants.  Many continued to be serfs working on the manors of their lords.

This medieval synthesis broke down when the Papacy of Boniface VII confronted Philip IV, the Fair, of France.  The result of that clash, which resulted in a massive defeat for the Papacy, is the Avignon Papacy.  But within a generation (23 years to be exact) after Philip the Fair's death, the French monarchy became embroiled in the Hundred Years War with the kings of England.  Both countries descended into war, civil war, and chaos.  Both countries and their kings declined in power and prosperity during this period of feudal warfare.

And in 1347, the Bubonic Plague broke out in Europe.  One third to one half the population of Europe died of the Plague within the next few years.   More than the political events, it is this pandemic which brought the Middle Ages to an end.  The culture of the High Middle Ages was shaken by the massive death toll brought on by the plague.  Faith in God, the effectiveness of prayer, and the mission of the Church was shaken.  Those who survive the plague were glad to be alive.  They became this worldly in their orientation rather than other worldly.  The rebirth after the black death gives rise to the Renaissance.

Philip IV the Fair  of France (1285 - 1314) and Pope Boniface VII (1294 - 1303)
bulletAvignon Papacy:  1309 - 1377
bulletHundred Years War:  1337 - 1453
bulletBlack Death 1347

bulletFormation of National States--From Feudal Monarchies to Absolute Monarchies.  The Black Death, the Hundred Years War, and the Decline of Papal Authority brought an end to the medieval synthesis.  Strong national monarchies emerged.  After eight hundred years of struggle against the Muslims in Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella unified most of the Iberian Peninsula under their joint rule.  During the sixteenth century, Spain is the most powerful country in Europe.  But strong centralized government re-emerges as well in France and England after the Hundred Years War.  The Wars of Religion brought a renewal of anarchy, but by 1648, strong national monarchies have become dominant.  The modern state and the modern state system have been born.
bulletVoyages of Discovery.  When Byzantium falls to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Voyages of Discovery begin.  The Atlantic Ocean replaces the Mediterranean Sea as the new highway of trade and commerce.  The Portuguese navigators were the first to explore the coast of East Africa down to the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean.  An Italian from Genoa named Christopher Columbus hired himself out to Queen Isabella of Spain and discovered, in 1492, a continent unknown to Europeans which came to be called America.  Europeans began the exploration of the world.  Wherever their ships would take them, soldiers, missionaries, and traders followed.  Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands, England, France, Sweden began the colonization of the Americas and the world.
bulletRenaissance.  The Renaissance started in the city-states Northern Italy after the Black Death.  It can be dated broadly between 1350 to 1600.  There was an Italian Renaissance and a Northern [European] Renaissance.  The writings of William Shakespeare in England belong to the Northern Renaissance.  The growing fervor of the Reformation, the hostility between Catholics and Protestants, and the ensuing wars of religion brought the Renaissance to an end.
bulletReformation  The Reformation began when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the Church door in Wittenberg, Saxony, Holy Roman Empire on October 31, 1517.  The Reformation shattered the unity of Western Christendom.  It helped to bring about national churches.  It leds to the wars of religion.  The most destructive of those wars was the Thirty Years War within Germany, then called the Holy Roman Empire,  from 1618 to 1648.  The Reformation period is generally dated from 1517 to 1648.
bulletWars of Religion.  The Reformers wanted initially to reform the Holy Roman Catholic Church from what they considered its abuses and superstitions.  The Bible and the individual conscience replaced the authority of the Pope and the bishops.  The Reformers disagreed not only with the Pope but with each other.  Several reform movements developed led by Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and others.  When the Catholic Church sought to restore Christian Unity using the Inquisition and the might of the armies of the Spanish Habsburgs, the reformers protested.  They became the Protestants.  Four main branches of Protestantism developed during the sixteenth century.  They were Lutheranism in Germany and the Scandinavian countries; Calvinism in the Netherlands, parts of Switzerland, Scotland, and England; Anglicanism in England; and Anabaptism.  Religious differences led to war.  Most of these wars pitted Catholics against Protestants and most of the wars of religion were within countries.  They were what we might call civil wars.  The French Calvinists, the Huguenots, fought against the French monarchy until Henry of Navarre became Henry IV of France.  Henry IV issued the Edict of Toleration which remained in place until revoked by Louis XIV.  Calvinists fought against Philip II of Spain until they gained their independence by forming the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands.  In the seventeenth century, Calvinists fought against Anglicans in England.  Oliver Cromwell briefly established Calvinist dominance until, after his death, the Stuarts were restored in 1660.  But, the bloodiest war took place between Lutherans and Catholics within the Holy Roman Empire.  The Thirty Years War killed about half the people in Germany.  It lasted from 1618 to 1648. 

Western Civilization I, HIS 101, comes to an end in 1648.  The Early Modern Period which is dated from 1500 to 1648 ended.  The Age of Absolutism had begun.  Louis XIV of France dominated European politics during the second half of the seventeenth century.