Europe in the Early Modern Times (Late Middle Ages). Economic development of European countries in early modern times

The Late Middle Ages in Western Europe is the period of the 16th-first half of the 17th centuries. Now this period is called the early modern time and is distinguished as a separate period of study. In pre-revolutionary domestic and foreign historiography, this period was designated as the new time. This period is a transitional epoch from the Middle Ages proper to capitalism and is characterized by the disintegration of feudal relations and the emergence of capitalist ones. These processes developed most intensively in such countries as England and the Netherlands.

Genesis of capitalism has its own chronology, acting on two levels: pan-European (that is, tending to become world-historical) and local-historical (more precisely, national). Although the dating of its beginning at these levels may differ significantly (delay at the last level), nonetheless, none of the national economic organisms remained aloof from one form or another of interaction with this process. In the same way, the scatter of individual regions is significant in terms of the forms and rhythms of the process that logically and to a large extent historically preceded the genesis of capitalism - the so-called primitive accumulation.

The main prerequisite for the emergence of capitalist forms of production was the development of productive forces, the improvement of tools of labor. By the beginning of the XVI century. shifts have taken place in a number of branches of handicraft production. In industry, the water wheel was increasingly used. Significant progress was observed in the textile craft, in cloth making. They began to produce thin woolen taki, dyed in different colors. In the XIII century. the spinning wheel was invented, and in the XV century. self-spinning wheel, performing 2 operations - twisting and winding the thread. This made it possible to increase the productivity of spinners. There were also shifts in weaving - the vertical loom was replaced by a horizontal one. Great successes were achieved in mining and metallurgy. In the XV century. they began to make deep mines with drifts - branches diverging in different directions and adits - horizontal and inclined exits for mining ore in the mountains. They began to build houses. In the cold working of metals, turning, drilling, rolling, drawing and other machines were used. In Western European languages, the term "engineer" is found in the XIII-XIV centuries. (from Latin - ingenium - “innate abilities, intelligence, wit, ingenuity.” Through French and German, the word “engineer” entered Russia in the 17th century. With the invention of printing, a new branch of production began to develop - printing. In the XIII-XIV centuries clocks with a spring and a pendulum were known.In the 15th century, pocket watches appeared.Charcoal was used as fuel, from the 15th century, coal began to be used.Great successes were achieved in the 14th-15th centuries in shipbuilding and navigation.The size increased ships, technical equipment, which led to the expansion of world trade, shipping.But still, the 16th century, despite numerous technical discoveries and innovations, was not yet marked by a genuine technical and technological revolution.In addition to the spread of pumps for pumping water from mines, which allowed them to deepen, blowing bellows in metallurgy, which made it possible to proceed to the smelting of iron ore, and mechanical machines (drawing, nailing, hosiery), productive labor in industry remained largely manual.

The development of industry and the increase in demand for agricultural products contributed to the growth of agricultural production. But there was no drastic change in agricultural implements, they were the same - a plow, a harrow, a scythe, a sickle, but they were also improved - they became lighter, made of the best metal. In the second half of the XV century. a light plow appeared, where 1-2 horses were harnessed, and which was controlled by 1 person. The areas of cultivated lands have increased due to the melioration of arid and wetlands. Improved agricultural practices. Fertilization of the soil with manure, peat, ash, marl, etc. was practiced. Along with the three-field, multi-field and grass sowing appeared. The expansion of commodity economy in the city and in the countryside created the prerequisites for the replacement of small-scale individual production by large-scale capitalist production.

Finally, the nature of the genesis of the capitalist structure also depended on the geographical position of a given country in relation to the new direction of international trade routes - to the Atlantic. After the discovery of the New World and the sea route to India, the transformation of the Mediterranean Sea into the far periphery of the new, northwestern hub of international maritime communications played an important role in the backward movement - the withering and gradual disappearance of the sprouts of early capitalism in the economy of Italy and Southwest Germany.

Capitalist production requires money and labor. These prerequisites were created in the process of primitive accumulation of capital. Of course, the existence of a market for "free" labor power is a necessary condition for the emergence of capitalist forms of social production. However, the forms of forcible separation of the worker from the means of production that actually or legally belonged to him differ from one country to another to the same extent as the forms and rates of formation of the capitalist order itself. The intensity of the process of primitive accumulation is not in itself an indication of the intensity of the capitalist development of a given country.

Large cash fortunes accumulated earlier as trade and TAR developed. In the XVI-XVII centuries. the money savings of merchants, usurers, "financiers" increased significantly. This was facilitated by the development of the practice of tax repayments, the provision of loans to crowned persons at high interest rates, profits from loans to nobles, peasants, and artisans. To a greater extent, the growth of savings was facilitated by the policy of mercantilism pursued by the feudal state (the era of mercantilism - to accumulate as much money as possible in the country (the theoretical justification for mercantilism was obtained in England) Thomas Maine - “he who has goods, he has money, and whoever has money, he can gain a lot” and protectionism (encouraging the development of national industry and the establishment of protective duties on imports from abroad);

Colonial robbery was a significant source of money savings. Spanish conquistadors captured treasures in the New World. Following the Spaniards and the Portuguese, the Dutch and English conquerors and merchants entered the path of colonial robbery. Merchants, speculators, entrepreneurs benefited greatly from the so-called. price revolution.

Based on a combination of traditional and new (capitalist) socio-economic structures in countries involved in intensive trade exchange, the international division of labor makes it possible to isolate in Europe the 16th century. three areas, each of which, precisely due to the specifics of regional conditions, becomes a component of a single economic system. In the last third of the XVI century. this system included:

A). the northwestern region (England, the Netherlands), in which the capitalist way of life was already leading in terms of economic dynamics;

b). the central region (including, on the one hand, the Christian Mediterranean, and above all the Iberian Peninsula, and on the other, Scandinavia), which delivered certain types of industrial raw materials and precious metals flowing from the New World to the European market;

V). the eastern region (including the Balkan countries and Hungary in the southeast, Poland and the Baltic states in the east), which delivered grain, livestock, timber, etc. to the same market.

As for the general European situation in its leading trends, the problem of the so-called price revolution. Period 1480-1620 characterized by high food prices in Europe. But if this starting fact of the economic history of the XVI century. is not questioned, then the answers to the question about the causes of the “price revolution” in the 16th century. sparked a long scientific discussion that continues to this day. From the Middle Ages, Europe inherited a large discrepancy in synchronous prices between different economic regions. So, in 1500 the gap between prices in the markets of northern Italian cities and Eastern Europe was 6:1, in 1600 - 4:1; only by the middle of the 18th century. prices gradually leveled off. This meant that the formation of a common European market was completed. The explanation of this phenomenon, which initiated such a long discussion, belongs to the American historian E. Hamilton, who saw a direct connection between the intensity of price growth and the volume of precious metals delivered to Europe from the New World. Swedish researcher I. Hammarström adhered to a different point of view, believing that the growth of business activity led to an increase in prices, which in turn led to an increase in the supply of precious metals to the European market.

Further discussion led, on the one hand, to limiting the chronological framework of the money supply growth factor to the 20s of the 16th century. (when the influx of precious metals from overseas has reached a sufficient level to affect price movements); on the other hand, the influence of this factor was made dependent on the increase in employment, that is, on whether the influx of precious metals led to an expansion in the volume of production of the product. The “price revolution” was determined not by the influx of precious metals itself, but by the context of socio-economic and political conditions in which this factor manifested itself - such is the objective way of analyzing the thesis put forward by Hamilton.

The whole problem of the consequences of the influx of precious metals into Europe from across the ocean should be considered not globally, but purely regionally, i.e. in connection with the specifics of the political, economic and social conditions characteristic of this area.

So, for example, in Spain, the influx of overseas treasures affected primarily the military-political sphere - the treasures turned into an instrument of war, which diverted the energy and resources of the nation from their productive use, and led to the neglect of the interests of national industry. The result was the economic impoverishment of the country among the wealth that flowed to other countries, supplying the Spanish market, and thus to the Spanish possessions overseas, goods that could be successfully produced domestically.

At the same time, countries like Holland and England, with a growing urban population (against a general population growth) and a redistribution of labor resources in favor of industry, transport, crafts, reached the limit - for that level of agriculture - in grain production. Hence the growth of grain imports from Poland and the Baltic States. For these countries, the rise in prices had a beneficial effect on business activity in both the city and the countryside.

The inclusion in the sphere of the European economic system of overseas sources of raw materials and precious metals, as well as markets for European goods, radically changed the passive trade balance that was so characteristic of medieval European trade with the countries of the East. And from this point of view, the decisive factor in the socio-economic history of Europe in the 16th century, which makes it possible to date the beginning of a new world-historical era, was, of course, not the “price revolution”, but the emergence of the capitalist system and the world market associated with it, which has since become a key factor in the evolution of European, and not only European, society.

Considering the “price revolution” in connection with this key factor, it is easy to see that in some countries the inflationary conjuncture contributed to the process of primitive accumulation, elevating the bearers of the capitalist mode of production (primarily in the countryside) at the expense of the recipients of feudal rent, the feudal-dependent peasantry and early capitalist elements. in cities. As for the stratum of hired workers, then, admittedly, wages in the 16th century. clearly lagged behind the rise in grain prices, i.e., real wages fell compared with the previous period.

Here is how the dynamics of the real wages of an English carpenter looks like in a region with an intensive process of primary accumulation, a harbinger of the genesis of capitalism of the corresponding intensity (in kilograms of wheat): 1501-1550. - 122.0; 1551-1600 - 83.0; 1601-1650 - 48.3. But here are examples of a different, if not opposite, dynamics. In the northern Italian cities, as well as in the Flanders, in the same XVI century. the level of wages of employees almost sharply adjusted with the dynamics of wheat prices. The reasons and essence of such dynamics are quite clear: we are talking about traditional centers where medieval structures were strong enough to resist the tendencies of primitive accumulation, which in itself served as evidence of the decline of these centers, which ceded their former leadership to new ones.

Forms and methods of expropriation could be different depending on the situation in each individual country, and only in England did they take the form of a direct forcible drive of holders by feudal lords, followed by the organization of large sheep breeding, and then agricultural farms. In other countries, the fiscal system has become the main lever for the gradual expropriation of peasants. State. taxes increased greatly with the growth of military spending associated with the transition from the feudal militias to the pro army with the constant improvement of weapons. The capital accumulated in the sphere of trade and usury allowed the treasury to quickly mobilize financial resources, but the only way to pay off creditors is by tightening the tax pressure.

In the XVI century. historians distinguish 7 types of categories of the main direct producer of Europe, the peasant, who made up 90-95% of its population. 1. Personally free holders of land for cash (rent in kind); 2. Free holders (tenants) of the land for half - "shareholders"; 3. Personally dependent land holders with a small share of corvée in rent; 4. serfs with a predominance of corvee in the composition of the rent; 5. Unprivileged (personally free and serfs) hired workers or in the position of domestic servants; 6. Personally free peasants - the owners of their allotments; 7. Peasants-tenants.

The distribution of these types of peasants across the regions of Europe as a whole reflected the three regions known to us: the irreversible genesis of capitalism; the reversible genesis of capitalism (Southwestern and Rhineland Germany); second edition of serfdom. Naturally, types 1, b, 7 absolutely prevailed in the first of the listed regions, type 2 in the sub-region of Southwestern Europe, type 3 - in the second region, type -4 - in the third region. As for the peasants of type 5, in the position of personally free they are characteristic of the countries of North-Western Europe - here their role was especially great as workers in handicrafts, manufactory, in the position of dependents - for the third of the listed regions. In general, in regions where it was impossible to create - with the help of enclosures - estates of a new type, as well as estates based on the corvée labor of serfs, i.e. in the south of France and in the north of Italy, the system of polovnichestvo was a kind of middle way of reaction of the senior class for the commercialization of agriculture. An important factor in the spread of this practice was the existence of developed shopping centers and economically influential merchants: in these conditions, many land holdings ended up in the hands of urban money people: considering them as a commercial and secure investment of money, they resorted to the "reasonable" system of doing business. As for Northern France, the very blurring of the system of large estates by the 16th century. in a number of provinces, it forced the lords to seek an increase in their income on the path of lord reaction, that is, the aggravation of feudal forms of power over the farmer. The picture of the shifts in the social structure of the population in Western Europe would be incomplete if we did not pay attention to the growth in the number of people ousted from the countryside, who constituted the pre-proletariat stratum. Since their labor could not yet find application in centralized manufactories, they filled the cities, in search of odd jobs they made up the crews of merchant ships, nourished vagrancy, mercenary armies. The cheapness of labor was an important prerequisite for the formation of the capitalist system, both in industry and in agriculture.

The result of a.s.c. there was the appearance of owners of large capitals and paupers, who turned into hired workers of capitalist enterprises.

Such enterprises arose only as a result of the combination of capital and wage labor, which created surplus value in the production process.

Manufactory production, based on the use of hired labor, originates in the XIII-XIV centuries. in the city-states of Italy (Florence, Siena, Venice, Genoa), the Iberian Peninsula, Flanders and other areas of Western Europe. As a characteristic form of cap. the production of manufactory has dominated since the middle of the 16th century. to the second third of the 18th century. Manufactory is a cooperation based on the division of labor, although at an early stage in the development of manufacturing production, there are remnants of simple cooperation in it. There were 2 (3) forms of manufactory - centralized, scattered (mixed). Scattered manufactory arose from the house. crafts, for example, the cloth industry of Flanders, England; but in some branches of production - shipbuilding, mining, metallurgy - manufacturing enterprises were immediately centralized. All operations were carried out in one room, under the supervision of the owner or his managers. Each operation becomes the exclusive function of a particular worker. Since the various operations of manufacturing could be simpler and more complex, workers form a whole hierarchy of specialties that require different skills and have different pay. The lowest level is occupied by untrained workers - there were no such workers at all in the craft. Never and nowhere did manufactories arise as voluntary artels of artisans. The poor were driven by the most cruel methods to the first cap. manufactory.

The rural bourgeois are primarily capital farmers and wealthy peasants. As a rule, their large farms were found only in the most favorable economic areas. Medium farms were more common. However, even in large farms, along with hired labor, there was a family one. The middle peasants evolved into the petty bourgeoisie. This stratum was characterized by a combination of agriculture with handicraft labor for an urban merchant-buyer. Formally, the village poor can also be included in the category of small farmers, because they, having lost arable land, continued to own some kind of household - a house, a garden, a garden, livestock, a bird.

In the XVI-XVIII centuries. not only peasant, but also noble lands acquired mobility. The lower nobility could not hold on to their lands by mortgaging and then selling them to the townspeople. The estates created by the new nobles often became the organizational basis for maintaining a large capital. farms, so there were farms that were rented out to the rural elite or urban “money people”. For a wealthy peasant, the opportunity to expand his farm, i.e. to conduct it over large areas with the use of hired labor and the sale of almost all products on the market, was associated not so much with the purchase of land, but with a lease that did not require an immediate and large expenditure on the purchase of land, while the initial movable capital was invested in living and dead inventory and in hiring workers. The tenant started his business on such enlarged areas that he was not able to buy either because of the high price or because of formal prohibitions (the church did not have the right to sell its land). Large rent was almost entirely commodity. The number of large farmers was small. It is characteristic that the large farmer's own land - if it existed - was often very small and did not play a role in his economy. He rented it out to fellow villagers. In some areas of England, Northern France and other countries, capital rent acquired the features of such an agricultural enterprise, in which the labor of the tenant (or his manager) was expressed only in the organization of work and in control over employees. The marketability of a medium-sized farm was lower. This lease was of a consumer nature, and family labor prevailed under it. Day laborers were hired for the time of harvesting or for any specialized work. Small rent was different - winemakers and gardeners sold their products in their entirety, and the tenant of an arable plot worked to get bread for himself and his family, and sold piglets, lambs, poultry, etc., the cash rent paid by him was obtained on his own, not leased land. Den. the form of rent coexisted with share-cropping (use), which can be regarded as transitional to capitalist rent. Share-cropping is based on co-ownership of the movable capital of the owner of the land and the tenant. The owner gives the land, the tenant - his labor and the labor of his family. The resulting product is divided in half, or in any proportion. In the overwhelming majority of cases, sharecropping was a stagnant form of lease, leaving almost no opportunity for the tenant to break out into real entrepreneurs. Large scale cap. perestroika in agriculture was associated with the forcible breaking of share-cropping. The result of the lease was the stratification of the village. The lease was a kind of anti-holding. At the same time, all forms of rent existed in a feudal environment. It turned out that the peasant tenant was at the same time the payer of capital. (or polukap.) and feudal rent.

The advent of capitalism brought to life new classes- the bourgeoisie and hired workers, which were formed on the basis of the decomposition of the social structure of feudal society.

Along with the formation of new classes, the new forms of ideology reflecting their needs, in the form of religious movements. The 16th century was marked by a major crisis in the Roman Catholic Church, which manifested itself in the state of its doctrine, cult, institutions, its role in society, in the nature of education and the morals of the clergy. Diverse attempts to eliminate "corruption" through internal church transformations were not successful.

Under the influence of the innovative theological ideas of Martin Luther, which gave a powerful impetus to various opposition actions against the Catholic Church, a movement began in Germany reformation from the Latin "reformation" - transformation), which rejected the power of the papacy, the Reformation processes, leading to a split in the Roman church to the creation of new creeds, manifested themselves with varying degrees of intensity in almost all countries of the Catholic world, affected the position of the church as the largest landowner and an organic component of the feudal systems that affected the role of Catholicism as an ideological force that defended the medieval system for centuries.

The Reformation took on the character of broad religious and socio-political movements in Europe in the 16th century, putting forward demands for the reform of the Catholic Church and the transformation of the orders sanctioned by its teaching.

Reflecting the sentiments of the socially heterogeneous opposition, the Reformation played an important role in the formation of early bourgeois social thought and led to the emergence of new forms of ideology in the form of the religious teachings of Protestantism.

Against the widely ramified system of institutions and the diversified teachings of the Catholic Church, the Reformation brought together the diverse forms of criticism of Catholicism that arose throughout the history of the Middle Ages. The ideologists of the Reformation made extensive use of the rich legacy of their predecessors in the fight against the Catholic Church - John Wycliffe, Jan Hus and other thinkers, as well as the experience of mass heretical movements, the traditions of unorthodox mysticism.

In the ideological preparation of the Reformation, the humanist movement of the Renaissance played an important role in its struggle against scholasticism as the theoretical basis of Catholicism, criticism of church rituals, magnificent cult, and ignorance of the clergy. Humanism prepared the Reformation by developing rationalistic methods for studying the Holy Scriptures, striving to give a new solution to fundamental socio-ethical and political issues, ridiculing class prejudices, and propagating patriotic ideas. Humanism, however, cannot be regarded merely as a prelude to the Reformation. Both of these major phenomena were caused by common causes associated with the disintegration of the feudal order and the emergence of elements of early capitalism. Both were associated with the growing self-awareness of the individual, freeing himself from the dominance of corporate institutions and ideas. But if humanism, as a movement for a new secular culture, appealed to the most educated part of society, then the Reformation, which aimed to renew the life of every Christian on the basis of the Gospel, appealed to the broad. the masses. The major theorists of the Reformation created systems of religious beliefs that corresponded to the new trends in social development of the 16th-17th centuries. The Reformation rejected the dogma of the Catholic Church about the obligatory mediation of the clergy between man and God. For the "salvation" of the believer, the Church recognized it necessary to communicate through the sacraments the grace lacking to the believers, through the clergy, separated from the laity by the acceptance of a special sacrament - the priesthood. The central principle of the new religious doctrines of the Reformation was the doctrine of the direct connection of man with God, of "justification by faith", that is, the "salvation" of a person not with the help of strict observance of rituals, not "by good deeds", but on the basis of God's inner gift - faith. The meaning of the doctrine of "justification by faith" was the denial of the privileged position of the clergy, the rejection of the church hierarchy and the supremacy of the papacy. This doctrine made it possible to implement the demand for a "cheap church", which had long been put forward by the burghers and picked up and developed by the ideologists of the Reformation. In addition, since it was recognized that inner communion with God is carried out in the course of worldly life itself, with the help of a properly arranged secular order, then this order, primarily the state system, from now on received a religious sanction for autonomous development. Reformation teachings thus strengthened the position of secular power and the emerging nation-states in the struggle against the claims of the papacy.

With the thesis of "justification by faith", the ideologists of the Reformation closely linked their second main position, which was fundamentally different from the Catholic dogma - the recognition of Holy Scripture as the only authority in the field of religious truth: this entailed the rejection of the authority of "sacred tradition" (decisions of the Roman popes and church cathedrals) and opened up the possibility for a freer and more rationalistic interpretation of religious issues.

The Reformation contrasted the autocratic structure of the Catholic church organization with a model that existed in the past and was "obscured" by subsequent establishments - the early Christian community of believers. The consistent application of the new principles served to substantiate a more democratic structure of church communities, their right to choose their own spiritual pastors.

The degree of criticism of the Catholic Church, as well as the programs of reforms in the ecclesiastical and secular areas, despite the commonality of the basic starting points, differed significantly among different strata of the public opposition. Each of them invested in reformative formulas content that corresponded to his social interests. The specific historical conditions of its development in different countries of Europe also left a strong imprint on the various manifestations of the Reformation.

The most radical sentiments of the peasantry and the plebeian masses of the city were expressed by the theorists of the popular direction of the Reformation, Thomas Müntzer, Michael Gaismair, and others. They interpreted it as the beginning of a radical revolution not only in church affairs, but also in social relations. Referring to the Gospel, they proclaimed the need to eliminate class privileges, demanded the transfer of power to the entire Christian community, the people, that is. essentially advocated a social revolution. This understanding of the Reformation played an important role in the movement of the masses from local and sectarian forms of struggle to broad programs of action, which were supplemented locally by the participants in the movements with specific demands. As a result of this process, the people's reformation, giving a rationale for various forms of anti-feudal struggle, contributed to overcoming its fragmentation and thus acquired important political significance.

The most common demands of the burgher opposition, which, as a rule, found support among a significant part of the nobility, were the secularization of church land ownership, the abolition of the Catholic hierarchy and monasticism, the rejection of magnificent rituals, the veneration of saints, icons, relics, and the observance of numerous religious holidays. The demands of a "cheap church" and adherence to the principle of frugality met the interests not only of the burghers, but also of the emerging entrepreneurs of a new type. The national-political aspects of this direction of reformation thought were expressed in the desire for the independence of church organizations from Rome, for worship in national languages.

The degree of maturity of the burgher opposition in different countries determined different interpretations of the fundamental problems of public life, based on the ethical and religious teachings of the Reformation. Lutheranism was characterized by the idea of ​​combining the "spiritual freedom" of a Christian with his obligatory loyalty to the powers that be - princely and city, and the existing legal order. The teachings of Zwingli and especially Calvin admitted the right of the community to resist the authorities if they act unrighteously, tyrannically. Similar features of these Protestant movements, which were at enmity with each other and equally fighting both against Catholicism and against the popular reformation, manifested themselves in their common fate: they retained the ritual side of religion, over time dogmatic elements intensified in these teachings, and intolerance towards dissidents increased.

In a number of European states (England, part of the principalities of Germany, the Scandinavian countries), the feudal authorities managed to take advantage of the reform movement in their own interests and confiscated monastic or even all church lands in favor of secular rulers. The church here has become an instrument of state power, strengthening its position. Such is the "royal reformation" in England, where the king subjugated a little changed ecclesiastical organization on a national scale. The separatist-minded nobility of other European countries (some principalities of Germany, France, Hungary, Scotland), in turn, tried to adapt the organization and tyrannical ideas of Calvinism to combat absolutist claims.

The European reform movement went through several stages in its development. Its beginning is considered to be 1517, when Luther's speech with 95 theses against the sale of indulgences was a signal for an open manifestation of popular dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church in Germany. With the growth of the opposition movement in the country, various directions of the Reformation developed, expressing the socio-political interests of different classes. The final split of the Reformation was revealed in the course of the anti-feudal struggle of the masses during the Peasant War of 1525. Speaking out with a sharp condemnation of the peasants, Luther narrowed the social support of the movement that followed him and, reflecting the political mood of the German burghers, moved to a position of compromise with the princely petty power. Lutheranism was used as an instrument of princely separatism and the secularization of church lands in favor of the princes.

Having begun in Germany, the Reformation quickly spread beyond its borders, became widespread and developed in other European countries, primarily in Switzerland and the Netherlands. Along with the reformation teachings of Zwingli, which enjoyed great influence in the economically developed cantons of Switzerland and the cities of Southwestern Germany, the teachings of the Anabaptists became popular in the anti-feudal peasant-plebeian movement, whose rebellious actions culminated in the creation of the Münster commune of 1535. Later, Zwinglianism degenerated into a narrowly provincial a kind of burgher reformation, and sectarian tendencies intensified in Anabaptism.

The Reformation achieved its greatest success at the next stage in the development of the all-European opposition movement, when, after Lutheranism, Zwinglianism and Anabaptism, which enjoyed the greatest influence in the 20s and 30s of the 16th century, Calvinism came in the 40s and 50s; later it became the ideological shell of the demands of the early bourgeois revolutions in the Netherlands and England.

From the second half of the XVI century. the banner of the Reformation was used by movements that were heterogeneous in socio-political content, from the liberation anti-Habsburg and anti-feudal struggle of the masses in Hungary and the Czech Republic (from the 60s of the 16th century) to the reactionary separatist uprisings of the feudal aristocracy against the centralizing or absolutist policy of the state (“ political Huguenots" during the civil wars in France, the performances of large feudal lords in the Central European possessions of the Habsburgs, etc.). The most striking expression of the so-called "noble reformation" was taken in Poland, where the magnates and the gentry took advantage of the Reformation to seize church lands and fight for the "noble republic".

The powerful scope of the Reformation and the social movements that took place in its channel and against its background, which together were an expression of the process of revolutionary changes, caused resistance and a general offensive of the forces of feudal Catholic reaction in Europe in the middle of the 16th century, which became known as the Counter-Reformation. Based on the decisions of the Council of Trent, which in its own way partially used the practical experience of the Reformation, the Catholic Church was rebuilt and strengthened with the help of the Inquisition and the new Jesuit Order. International associations of reactionary forces were created against the anti-feudal and national liberation movements of the masses, in order to suppress progressive ideas. The counter-reformation won in Spain, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, and part of Germany. Later, the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 legally consolidated the peace proclaimed in the 16th century. principle: “Whose power, that is faith”, and confessional boundaries were fixed as of 1624.

The main results of the Reformation, which on the whole played an important progressive role, were expressed in the fact that the spiritual dictatorship of the Catholic Church was broken, the economic basis of its power was undermined by the secularization of its possessions, new Christian denominations, religious communities and churches independent of Rome, which were in in some cases by national churches. Conditions were created that contributed to the strengthening of secular power and the development of nation-states. The Reformation contributed to the development of new approaches to the problems of politics and law, which eventually became the school of bourgeois-democratic freedoms. The church and religion were adapted to the conditions of the emerging bourgeois society and had an impact on its economic and work ethic. The Reformation also contributed to a certain modernization of the Catholic Church. Under the conditions of religious polycentrism, secular science and culture received a great opportunity for its free development, rationalistic teachings spread, including those that substantiated the principles of religious tolerance and prepared the subsequent spread of deism. The ideological disputes of the Reformation era grew into the 17th century. in the discussion of rationalists and sensualists, clearing the way for the enlightenment thought of the 18th century.

In the countries of Western and part of Central Europe, the development politiical structures in the 16th - early 17th centuries. took place in the conditions of the emergence and growth within the framework of feudalism of the new capitalist order, which was the main content of the socio-economic processes that took place in this region, and in the east of the continent - in the conditions of the restoration and legal consolidation of the most severe forms of feudal dependence of the peasantry (“the second edition of serfdom "). In contrast to the socio-economic sphere, the trends in the development of European statehood were of a more general nature, which is explained, on the one hand, by the fact that the forms of state power develop relatively independently, without an absolutely “rigid” conditionality of the state of socio-economic relations, and on the other hand, by the fact that they, to a greater extent than socio-economic structures, are subject to external influence, have a greater ability to assimilate the experience and practice of neighboring, more developed states.

In the evolution of the forms of government, the dialectic of the general and the particular in the European historical process was clearly manifested - the growing awareness of Europe as a certain geographical and cultural-historical community and the further growth of the independence of individual national and multinational state formations, accompanied by the rise of national self-consciousness and the rupture of the universalistic ties of the medieval type, embodied in the west of the continent in the spiritual and political power of the papacy. The elimination of the ideological motivation of its existence external to the state through belonging to a single Catholic world, characteristic of the 16th century, led to the formation of the idea of ​​the “self-sufficiency” of the state as a subject of history, to the search for new ideological justifications for the state, to the emergence of various kinds of doctrines about the essence and appointment of the state and the sovereign.

Throughout the 16th century The political map of Europe has changed significantly. At the turn of the XV and XVI centuries. the process of unification of the English and French lands was basically completed, a single Spanish state was formed, which in 1580 also included Portugal (until 1640). The concept of the Empire, called from the end of the XV century. The "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" was increasingly associated with purely German lands. In Eastern Europe, a new state appeared - the Commonwealth, uniting the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

At the same time, under the blows of the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary collapsed. Other Central European monarchies, united under the rule of the Austrian Habsburgs, lost their political independence. Most of the territories of South-Eastern Europe were under foreign domination.

Common to the development of most European states in the period under review was a sharp increase in centralization tendencies, which manifested itself in the acceleration of the processes of unification of state territories around a single center, in the formation of government bodies different from the Middle Ages, in a change in the role and functions of the supreme power.

Europe in the 16th century states of various types coexisted and were in complex interconnections - from monarchies going through different stages of development to feudal, and at the end of the century, early bourgeois republics. However, the dominant form of government is absolute monarchy. In Soviet historiography, the point of view was established, according to which the transition from estate-representative monarchies to absolutist-type monarchies is associated with the entry into the historical arena of new social forces in the person of the emerging bourgeoisie, creating a certain counterbalance to the feudal nobility; according to F. Engels, a situation arises when “state power temporarily acquires a certain independence in relation to both classes, as an apparent mediator between them) .

The degree of development of the bourgeois strata, as well as the characteristics of the previous development of political structures, to a certain extent determine the specific nature of absolutist power, the degree of its maturity in a particular country. At the same time, absolutism, as a historically transient form of feudal monarchy, may also have external similarities with other forms of “autocratic” government based on a different social base and ascending to fundamentally different political traditions. In other words, absolutism is seen as a form of state corresponding to the final stage of the development of feudalism and characterized by a sharply increasing power of the monarch and the highest degree of centralization. In the transitional period, the form of political domination of the feudal lords is an absolute monarchy, i.e. when the bourgeoisie strengthens its positions, but cannot yet come to power. The backbone of absolutism is the middle and small strata of the nobility, the core of the army. The power of the monarch is unlimited and independent (in a certain sense) in relation to both estates as a whole. An absolute monarch relies on a standing army, a bureaucracy (an apparatus personally subject to him), a system of permanent taxes, and a church. Absolutism was a very effective form of state, using bourgeois development in the interests and to maintain the positions of the ruling class of feudal lords. In the interests of the latter, he ensured the receipt of feudal rent, suppressing the anti-feudal struggle of the masses, spent a significant part of tax revenues on the court nobility, waged wars. At the same time, absolutism also supported the bourgeoisie - pursuing a policy of mercantilism and (trade wars, tax farming, loans from the king) and protectionism. The royal bureaucracy was created at the expense of the bourgeoisie. There are features of absolutism in different countries.

The lower chronological limit of absolutism can conditionally be attributed to the end of the 15th-beginning of the 16th century. The idea of ​​the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries is widespread. as a period of "early absolutism", although English absolutism (the existence of which, however, some schools and trends in foreign historiography deny) passed during the 16th century. the stage of maturity and entered a period of protracted crisis, which was resolved by the bourgeois revolution of the middle of the 17th century.

Absolutism continues the earlier annexation of the outlying territories, sharply restrains the centrifugal, separatist aspirations of the feudal nobility, limits urban liberties, destroys or changes the functions of the old local governments, forms a powerful central authority that puts all spheres of economic and social life under its control, secularizes the church and monastic landownership, subordinates the church organization to its influence.

The organs of class representation (the Estates General in France, the Cortes in Spain, etc.) are losing the significance that they had in the previous period, although in a number of cases they continue to exist, forming a bizarre symbiosis with the new bureaucratic apparatus of absolutism.

In England, the Parliament, created in the XIII century. as an organ of estate representation, it becomes an integral part of the absolutist system, and the king, according to the ideas widespread in English political literature, acquires full power only in cooperation with Parliament. Specificity English absolutetizma, and subsequently the nature of its crisis, were largely due to the peculiarities of the social structure of English society, the proximity of the economic positions and class interests of the emerging bourgeoisie and a significant part of the middle and petty nobility.

Relatively slow development French absolutism was largely due to the continued social predominance of the nobility and the underdevelopment of capitalist elements, as well as a number of other factors of a socio-economic, political, geographical nature that feed centrifugal tendencies to the detriment of centripetal ones. The powerful bureaucratic machine created by French absolutism, the presence of which is often regarded as the most characteristic feature of the absolutist state in general, in the 16th-early 17th centuries. still retained many archaic elements. The reforms of the 20-30s of the 17th century, which limited the positions of the feudal aristocracy and bureaucracy, became a kind of prelude to the entry of French absolutism into the “classical” stage of development, which began in the second half of the 17th century.

Peculiarities Spanish absolutism can be explained to a certain extent by the extreme narrowness of its social base, limited exclusively by the nobility, which occupied a dominant position in the class structure of the Spanish monarchy, pushing the middle entrepreneurial strata into the background. The weak interest of the Spanish nobility, whose important source of income was precious metals from the colonies, in the development of the national economy was combined with the predominant orientation of the policy of the ruling Austrian Habsburg dynasty in the country towards external goals in relation to Spain (achieving Habsburg hegemony in Western and Central Europe, fighting reformation movements, the expansion of the colonial empire in America). The aggressive foreign policy of Spanish absolutism found strong support among all strata of the nobility, which in the 16th century constituted. the basis of the Spanish army and who saw in the implementation of this policy an additional source of income.

The establishment of absolutist forms of government in Germany, representing in the period under review a conglomerate of states and political entities within the Empire. The emperors, elected by the college of electors, continued to maintain unrealistic claims to the political leadership of "Christendom", although in the Empire itself their power was sharply limited by the old imperial aristocracy and the new territorial-seigneurial nobility, the "imperial ranks" represented since the end of the 15th century. in the general imperial meetings (Reichstags). The national imperial tradition, embodied in the specific policy of the Habsburgs, contributed to the development of regional-particularist tendencies, the strengthening of territorial statehood, and ultimately led to the formation of petty-state absolutism in certain lands, which flourished in the second half of the 17th century. In contrast to the absolutism of the large Western European states, regional, small-power absolutism in Germany not only did not play a centralizing role, but, on the contrary, contributed to the strengthening of the political isolation of individual German lands. The Reformation, the Peasant War of 1524-1526, and subsequent intra-imperial conflicts also contributed to the consolidation of the territorial and political fragmentation of the German lands, which received an additional confessional coloring. The reliance of each of the confessional-political German camps - Catholic and Protestant - on external forces gradually turned Germany into a sphere of clashes of interests of other European states, which led to the pan-European Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648. The Peace of Westphalia formalized the fragmentation of Germany, which persisted for the next two centuries.

The regional type of absolutism developed during the 16th century and on the territory Italy, where he replaced the regional estate monarchies and city-republics. At the same time, the structures of the Duchy of Savoy were close to the French type of absolute monarchy, and the structures of the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States were close to the Spanish type. Actually, the Italian version of absolutism was embodied in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and other state-political formations that developed on the basis of signories. unchanged until the 18th century. the state system of the Venetian Republic remained, the class base of which was mainly the patriciate, as well as partly the urban aristocracy and the nobility of the subordinate territory, which allowed it to carry out the same class functions as monarchies of the absolutist type.

A kind of reduced copy of the political structures of the Empire was Switzerland, which, even by the end of the period under review, having received the rights of a sovereign state as a result of the Thirty Years' War, remained essentially a rather amorphous association of political entities of the medieval type, although the cantons included in it pursued a very active economic policy, characteristic of the early stage of development of capitalism.

IN Central European region during the 16th century. basically, the political structures characteristic of medieval estate-representative monarchies were preserved, with the only difference being that in Poland, for example, against the background of the weakening of the central royal power, which unsuccessfully tried to use some elements and methods of absolutist politics, a regime of magnate oligarchy was taking shape, and in the Czech Republic and Austria, the evolution of forms of state power towards Spanish-type absolutism was outlined.

Elements of absolutist rule (the creation of central state institutions, attempts to maneuver between competing social strata) arose from the beginning of the 16th century. and in countries Scandinavia, however, they did not find stable forms here. Brief periods of increased royal power were followed by periods of political dominance by individual feudal groups.

Political development was fundamentally new for Europe NeitherNetherlands. The absolutist-bureaucratic system implanted by the Habsburgs, aimed at including the country in the structure of the Empire, the forced coexistence of absolutist institutions with local representative bodies and institutions harbored the germ of an inevitable conflict, which ultimately resulted in an anti-feudal national liberation movement that had the character of an early bourgeois revolution and culminating in the formation of the Republic of the United Provinces, in which the place of the sovereign-king was taken by the States General.

New time is the period of development of European states from the 17th to the 18th century. Sometimes scholars also include the Renaissance, in addition, some include the 19th century. The twentieth century is always considered separately, and is defined as "modernity".

periodization

The era of the New Age is based on the bourgeoisie and spiritual guidelines, making them a single whole. Since this period includes as many as three centuries, each of them has its own historical "face" and cultural characteristics. This:

• XVII century - the century of the era of the birth and formation of rationalism;
• XVIII century - the century of Enlightenment and the "third estate";
• XIX century - the century of the classics, the heyday of the bourgeoisie and at the same time its crisis.

New time covers two stages. In the 17th century, the domination of France and Spain progressed, the endless revolutions of the bourgeoisie in England. This is the beginning of the formation of a modern picture of the world and philosophy.

The stage of formation of manufactories was completed, a free economy and a liberal political system were formed. In addition, people began to strive for freedom and the right to choose an ideology. All this contributed to the development of the ideology of the Enlightenment.

Character traits

The era of the New Age is a period of contradictions, as people needed to change the old way of life for a more relevant one, rethink values, accept technological progress and become part of it. It is characterized by the following features:

• The main role began to be played by an individual. All attention was directed to the spirituality of a person, a sense of sharpening of one's own "I" was awakened, which contributed to the discovery of self-consciousness as a different reality.
• The personality began to reach out for elitist humanism, which glorified the freedom of creativity. Its main feature was universality, that is, each person received the right to freedom, life, wealth, etc.
• The consciousness of people began to form, which was directed to the development of technological progress, to change the daily way of life and to the formation of an economic order.
• The struggle between the church and the state became more intense, but ended with the fact that the authorities could not subdue religion.

On the one hand, a person, due to the constant pressure of the material condition, turned into an economic tool. But on the other hand, it entered into a confrontation with total technogenic and economic dependence.

The periodization of the New Time is extremely interesting and peculiar, it should be noted. After all, it combines and develops two epochs at once - the New and the Enlightenment. The second is dominated by equality and justice of the late 17th - 18th century.

At this time, more stylistic genres of art appeared than in any other. At the end of the 19th century, cinema appeared and began to develop. And in the period of the 17th-19th centuries, the subway and underground tunnels were first built.

Social aspect

If we talk about the culture of the New Age, it should be noted that this was a period when society woke up and decided to change its not very pleasant environment in order to see themselves and the world around them with a fresh look.

Scientists have dubbed this period of history "New" because it really became one. Especially when compared with the Middle Ages. For the first time, an individual and his personality became the most significant figure, and a legal community began to take shape. In addition, the pressure in the field of culture and science has disappeared.

Conditions were created to ensure freedom and emancipation from slavery. As a result of all of the above, a person has developed the concept and awareness of his own "I".

Thanks to this, conservative social relations were replaced by a fast and impetuous bourgeois hostel, in which harsh market relations were established in conditions of enormous competition.

While the bourgeoisie was trying to improve the economy, human consciousness began to strive to understand the nature and spirituality of man. At this time, interest in philosophy and natural sciences increased very sharply.

As Protestantism spread to northern and central Europe, the level of education rose sharply. This was facilitated by familiarity with the Bible. But also her reading influenced the development of religious fanaticism. We can say that there was a rethinking and reassessment of the role of man, people came to understand that for a long time they were limited in education, that is, they were deprived of cultural, creative, scientific education. The era became an omen of happiness, people began to understand what can be done and what is not.

In modern times, the formation of the bourgeoisie and industrial society took place. But it also brought many revolutions: the Dutch (1566-1609), English (1640-1688), Great French (1789-1794). These events involved the broad masses of the population, all this was aggravated by culture and discoveries.

scientific progress

Due to the development of production, there was an urgent need for research. The leader was mechanics and its discoveries in the field of motion of bodies. The scientific culture of modern times developed rapidly. Mathematical achievements played a huge role. The universe began to be seen no longer as a living being, but as a faceless phenomenon that governs natural laws that can be studied and understood. And religion began to be seen as a secondary or even non-existent factor.

The main features of culture

Returning to the periodization of the New Age, it should be noted that the dominance of science began with the scientific revolution, which is associated with the heliocentric theory of Copernicus. It provoked a protest in the religious community. Fanatics have associated it with the theory of Giordano Bruno, who was condemned by the Inquisition. It wasn't until the 20th century that Catholics recognized them as being right. And Kepler proved that the motion of the planets occurs in a continuous ellipse.

Galileo Galilei invented the telescope and with its help he was able to prove that the planets are homogeneous. After these discoveries, a division of natural and human sciences was formed in science.

In modern times, God began to be perceived as an architect and mathematician, who once launched the mechanism of the planet's movement, but does not interfere in its existence. This is a significant moment in the history of the culture of the New Age, because this is how the formation of philosophy - deism - happened. Rationalism has become the main tool for studying the universe.

Philosophy almost always outstrips science in development, and sometimes turns into a mechanism for its movement. The problem of the formation of science was that society was divided into two opposing camps. Some were for rationality, others were sensualists. The second argued that the sensual and empirical way of knowledge is the most reliable. The first believed that a person does not have enough feelings for knowledge. The only way to understand the world around us is the mind.

During the formation of the culture of the New Age, interest in sexual differences increased, the cult of the woman's body appeared and developed. And in the 19th century, ladies began to fight for freedom of speech and social liberation. The bourgeoisie began to regard the house as a fortress. And love has become the primary reason for marriage. The age at its entry for men was 30 years, and for girls - 25. Children began to be brought up taking into account their behavior and aspirations. Education spread to the whole society, and boys and girls began to be taught separately.

Art

This is an inseparable part of the culture of modern times. In art, one of the main styles was the baroque, characterized by dynamics and expression. It originated in Italy, and in this era began to be called "new art". If you translate the name of the style into Russian, then it will take on the meaning "fancy".

Baroque began to appear in all spheres of life, both in clothing and in architecture. Women's dresses in this style supplanted all the narrowed lace French clothes. Architecture tried to balance forms, that is, combine light and airy with massive elements. The influence of this style is most noticeable in the decoration of French buildings. In England, the style became more conservative and acquired the features of classicism.

But later, the Baroque in France began to replace classicism. Its main feature is the predominance of ancient forms. It combines rigor and conciseness. The style is based on rationalism, it carries the symbolism of personal interests, central power and unification under it.

Music in classicism manifested itself in the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Gluck, Salieri.

In the New Age, another style was formed - rococo. Some take it for a kind of baroque, and its occurrence is usually associated with a person's desire to leave the familiar world and plunge into the world of illusions and fantasies. The rococo style is focused on creating something new, graceful and airy. In it one can see the ethnic elements of the East, especially in artistic culture. In the literature there was a direction "sentimentalism".

great figures

They should also be noted with attention, talking about the features of the culture of the New Age. During this era, science developed very actively. It was during this period that the basic principles of natural science were laid. All the information that was acquired by doctors, healers, alchemists, acquired a structured form. Thanks to this, new norms and ideals of the structure of science were formed. They were associated with mathematics and experimental verification of not only natural processes, but also religious dogmas.

The main difference of the New Age was a sharp drop in the authority of the church and the rise of science. Galileo began to study the methodology of science, and Newton mastered mechanics and its principles. Thanks to the efforts of Bacon, Hobbes, Spinoza, philosophy was freed from scholasticism. And its basis was not faith, but reason. Society became increasingly independent of religion.

This is the age of the birth of people with new actions and thoughts. Science was formed not from the knowledge of one particular person, but based on facts and verification.

Discoveries

The era of the New Age is symbolized not only by great changes in art and science, but also by geographical discoveries. It is impossible not to note the progress in the field of mathematics, medicine, philosophy, astronomy.

This is the period of the reformation, when the attitude towards religion and faith as such has completely changed. It was just a huge upheaval in culture.

New time was based on the principle of humanism and human creativity and development. The image of a man who created himself became the ideal of the era.

At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, great geographical discoveries were made, and travels were made that were previously impossible. Cultural figures of the New Age gave impetus to incredible progress. To a greater extent, this happened because of the need of the capitalists to expand their well-being. And they decided that it was time to find a mythical country - India. The two most powerful maritime powers at that time (Spain and Portugal) set off in search.

In 1492, the Spanish navigator H. Columbus set sail from his native shores, and after exactly 33 days he ran into the Colombian shores, mistaking them for India. He died without knowing that America was discovered. But later, A. Vespucci proved the discovery of a new side of the world.

The way to India was opened in 1498 by another navigator - Vasco da Gama. This discovery provided new trading opportunities with the countries of the Indian Ocean coast.

Magellan made the first trip around the world, which lasted 1081 days. But, unfortunately, only 18 people survived from the whole team, so people did not dare to repeat his feat for a long time.

The culture and science of modern times developed very rapidly, all views on these areas were rethought in principle. Copernicus studied not only astronomy and mathematics, but also paid great attention to medicine and legal education.

D. Bruno became a revolutionary, but he had to say goodbye to life, proving that there are many planets in the world. And also that the Sun is a star, and besides it, there are millions of them. But G. Galileo, having made a telescope, proved the theory of Bruno and Copernicus.

I. Gutenberg invented printing, which contributed to the growth of education. And the intellectually developed person, who later became a model of the culture of the New Age, began to be considered the standard.

However, this is not all. If we talk about literary and artistic culture, then the poet F. Petrarch has been read for almost seven hundred years, and the Italian D. Boccaccio wrote a collection that said that a person has the right to joy. M. de Cervantes wrote the famous novel "Don Quixote", he expressed ideas that are still relevant today. W. Shakespeare's dramaturgy became the pinnacle of literature.

Peculiarities

A little more is worth talking about the features of the culture of the New Age. Here's how it differs:

• the ideals of humanity and the equality of people before the law, regardless of class and clan;
• the development of rational thinking and the rejection of metaphysics;
• the development of natural science used for development and progress.

This ideology became the basis of the transformation that took place in the process of revolutions.

The formation of Russian culture

About this in the end. The 17th century was a turning point not only in Europe, but also in Russia. Petersburg becomes the capital, and as a result of the reforms, the formation of a bureaucratic state begins. There is an expansion of the territory, the country gets access to the Baltic and Black Seas, this contributes to the establishment of ties with Europe.

Peter I actively took up the development and formation of the state and the departure from the Middle Ages. As a result, the formation of the Russian national culture of the New Age began to take place.

The economy and social life began to develop dynamically. This also affects culture. Religion again finds itself under political power, and when you try to evaluate the action of Peter, it is quickly eradicated.

New cities with a fairly developed infrastructure are being intensively built, and education is being brought to the fore.

In the middle of the 18th century, the monarchy flourished, at this time social thinking and self-awareness grew. Freedom becomes its center, which contributes to the formation of a new layer of society - the intelligentsia.

The second half of the century is the most significant in the development of art. There is a development of all possible genres and types, and the creative process is not limited by anything. Beauty and nobility, as well as patriotism, come forward.

Characteristic features of the early modern period

The early modern time includes the $XVI-XVII$ centuries, when the transition from the feudal to the capitalist way of life took place. This rather complex process gradually covered more and more European countries. The characteristic features of the development of society were manifested in the following trends:

1. the introduction into wide consumption of the inventions of the Middle Ages: gunpowder, compass, printing;
2. the invention of new mechanisms that convert the energy of water and wind into useful energy that replaces human power;
3. improvement of firearms and methods of metal processing;
4. progress in manufacturing, as a result of which handicraft workshops die off;
5. the evolution of commodity-money relations and the flourishing of trade;
6. the growth of large cities that retain the role of centers of trade operations;
7. the emergence of new social strata: the bourgeoisie, hired workers, the intelligentsia;
8. attracting nobles and personally free peasants to entrepreneurial activities.

Remark 1

The Early Modern Age is the time of the establishment of a new order (later called capitalist) in the states of Europe.

Demographic processes in European countries

The first period of modern history is characterized by the transition from agricultural to industrial production. Although the predominance of agriculture and manual labor persists, new features appear in the development of the economy. Of great importance are such factors as the labor force and the size of the labor market, the professionalism of the worker and the differentiation of labor operations.

For two centuries - from the middle of $XV$ to the middle of $XVII$ - the demographic growth of the population became more active. The number of Europeans has grown from 5-80 million to approximately 180 million. The most populous countries were Italy, the Netherlands and some principalities of Germany. Migration processes are spreading, growing from local to pan-European. Reasons for migration:

• birth rate growth and overpopulation;
• religious conflicts (especially in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation);
• economic changes (industrial revolution);
• political conflicts (Thirty Years' War and other wars);
• development of newly discovered lands (America).

The mass movement of the population accelerated the exchange of innovations - industrial experience, skills in industry and agriculture. It also brought numerous troubles for people, pushing them out of their usual rhythm of life and forcing them to adapt to new living conditions.

Transition to manufacturing

The development of trade stimulated the search for more cost-effective ways to manufacture goods. Manufactory appears at the stage of early capitalism.

Initially, scattered manufactories appear.

Definition 2

Scattered manufactory is a type of production when workers work at home, processing raw materials received from the entrepreneur - the owner of the manufactory - with their tools.

Such production saved the merchant-manufactory from spending on the construction of premises, and workers from the need to leave the household.

Gradually, scattered manufactory was replaced by centralized

Definition 3

Centralized manufacturing is a type of production in which workers process raw materials in one room.

Typically, centralized manufactory appeared where expensive and complex equipment was required. The great demand for these products was also important.

new time

New time(or new story) - a period in the history of mankind, located between the Middle Ages and modern times.

The concept of "new history" appeared in European historical and philosophical thought in the Renaissance as an element of the three-term division of history proposed by humanists into ancient, middle and new. From the point of view of humanists, the flourishing of secular science and culture during the Renaissance, that is, not a socio-economic, but a spiritual and cultural factor, was the criterion for determining the "new time", its "novelty" in comparison with the previous era. However, this period is rather contradictory in its content: the High Renaissance, the Reformation and humanism coexisted with a massive surge of irrationalism, the development of demonology, a phenomenon that received the name "witch hunt" in the literature.

The concept of "new time" was perceived by historians and established itself in scientific use, but its meaning remains conditional in many respects - not all peoples entered this period at the same time. One thing is certain: in this period of time, a new civilization is emerging, a new system of relations, a Eurocentric world, a “European miracle” and the expansion of European civilization to other regions of the world.

periodization

As a rule, in Soviet historiography, within the framework of formational theory, its beginning was associated with the English revolution of the middle of the 17th century, which began in 1640. Among other events that are accepted as the starting point of the New Age, events related to the Reformation (), the discovery of the New World by the Spaniards in 1492, the fall of Constantinople () or even the beginning of the Great French Revolution () are called.

It is even more difficult to determine the end time of this period. In Soviet historiography, the point of view was undividedly dominated, according to which the period of modern history ended in 1917, when the socialist revolution took place in Russia. According to the most common modern point of view, consideration of the events associated with the New Age should be completed with the First World War (-).

The discussion on the periodization of modern history continues today.

At the same time, two sub-stages are usually distinguished within the era of the New Age, the Napoleonic Wars serve as their border - from the Great French Revolution to the Congress of Vienna.

Changes

Political changes

The end of the Middle Ages was marked by the growing importance of centralized state administration. Striking examples of this growth are the completion of feudal civil strife - such as the War of the Scarlet and White Roses in England, the unification of the regions - Aragon and Castile in Spain.

cultural change

Great geographical discoveries

One of the most important changes was the expansion of the territory of the cultural ecumene known to Europeans. In a very short period (the end of the 15th century - the beginning of the 16th century), European navigators circled Africa, laid a sea route to India, discovered a new continent - America and circumnavigated the world. It is noteworthy that it was the discovery of America by Columbus (1492) that is considered to be the symbolic end of the Middle Ages.

These travels would have been impossible without the prerequisites, the main of which are: the invention of the compass and the creation of a vessel capable of covering vast distances on the high seas. Interestingly, the first of these inventions was made long before the advent of the New Age.

The ship on which the discoverers set off on long voyages was the caravel. These ships, small by modern standards (for example, the Santa Maria, the flagship of Columbus on his first voyage, had a displacement of 130 tons) literally changed the map of the world. The whole era of great geographical discoveries is firmly connected with caravels. Quite characteristic is the name that the caravel received in the Dutch language, - oceaanvaarder, literally - " ship for the ocean».

However, the prerequisites alone are not enough, so there must be a motive that forced you to go on long and dangerous journeys. This motive was the following fact. In the second half of the 15th century, the Turks, having conquered the weakened Byzantine Empire, blocked the caravan routes to the east, along which spices were delivered to Europe. Thus, trade that brought super-profits was interrupted. It was the desire to find an alternative access to the riches of the East that became the incentive for navigators of the late 15th - early 16th centuries. Therefore, the point of view that considers the date of the end of the Middle Ages to be 1453 - the capture of Constantinople by the Turks looks reasonable.

It is interesting to note that in this way it was the expansion of Muslim civilization that served as the catalyst that caused the accelerated development of European civilization.

The science

Not only the ideas of Europeans about the Earth have undergone significant changes, but the place of the Earth itself in the Universe has undergone a revision - even more radical. In 1543, the book of Nicolaus Copernicus “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres” came out from under the printing press, in which the rejection of the Ptolemaic geocentric system that had prevailed for almost one and a half thousand years was proclaimed. It is interesting that, starting his astronomical work, Copernicus was by no means going to create something fundamentally new. Like his medieval predecessors, he considered it his task to clarify the data from the Almagest, the main work of Ptolemy, without affecting the foundations. Although the discrepancies between the data from the Almagest and the results of observations were known even before him, only Copernicus had the courage to abandon the inertia of thinking and engage not in “correcting” the work of the ancient astronomer, but to propose something fundamentally new.

First page of Copernicus' On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres

Technique and production

The development of technology at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries had an even greater impact on the daily life of people. One of the most important innovations of the time proved to be printing. The invention and implementation of a seemingly simple technology had a revolutionary impact on the speed of replication and dissemination of information, as well as its availability (printed books were much cheaper than handwritten ones). Johannes Gutenberg is considered to be the inventor of printing. Around 1440 he built his printing press. As is often the case with inventions, certain elements of printing technology were known before Gutenberg. Thus, book scribes began to reproduce illustrations and curly capital letters with the help of stamps two hundred years before Gutenberg. However, then it was possible to develop a technology for making stamps (letters) not from wood, but from metal. And it was he who introduced the most important idea - typing from individual letters instead of making a board - a stamp for the entire page. Even in those areas of production where technical progress was not very noticeable (or did not exist at all) compared to the Middle Ages, cardinal changes took place, this time due to a new type of labor organization. With the onset of the New Age, the handicraft production of the Middle Ages was replaced by a manufactory type of production. At manufactories, labor remained manual, but unlike medieval workshops, a division of labor was introduced, due to which labor productivity increased significantly. At manufactories, craftsmen worked not for themselves, but for the owner of the manufactory.

The development of mining and metallurgy was of great importance. However, the most important improvement in the process of iron smelting - the replacement of the cheese-blast furnace with the so-called shtukofen (the ancestor of the modern blast furnace) occurred back in the heyday of the Middle Ages, approximately in the XIII century. By the beginning of the 15th century, such furnaces had been significantly improved. Water wheels were used to drive the bellows. By the 16th century, such wheels, sometimes reaching enormous sizes (up to ten meters in diameter), were used to lift ore from mines and for other operations. A kind of encyclopedia of mining and metallurgy was the book " De re metallica libri xii"(" The Book of Metals "). This twelve-volume treatise was published in 1550. Its author was Professor Georg Agricola (Bauer) (-).

The main events of the New Age

Peace of Westphalia

English revolution

American Revolutionary War

French revolution

Russian-Turkish war 1787-1792

Russo-Swedish war 1788-1790

Napoleonic Wars

Greek revolution

Decembrist revolt

Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829

July Revolution of 1830

First Opium War

Revolutions of 1848-1849

Crimean War

American Civil War

The American Civil War (the war of the North and the South; English American Civil War) of 1861-1865 was a war between the abolitionist states of the North and the 11 slave states of the South.

The fighting began with the shelling of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and ended with the surrender of the remnants of the army of the southerners under the command of General C. Smith on May 26, 1865. During the war, about 2 thousand battles took place. More US citizens died in this war than in any other war in which the United States of America participated.

Mexican–American War

Revolution -1907 in Russia

World War I

• On July 28, Austria-Hungary, in response to the assassination of the Archduke by a Serbian terrorist, declared war on Serbia.
• On July 30, Russia began mobilizing the army in response, in response to which Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia demanding that the mobilization be stopped within 12 hours.
• On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia.
• On August 2, Germany occupied Luxembourg and presented an ultimatum to Belgium to allow troops to pass through its territory to France.
• On August 3, Germany declared war on France.
• On August 4, Germany invaded Belgium. On the same day, Great Britain, fulfilling allied obligations to Russia and France, declared war on Germany.

Notes

Links

• Kareev, A general course in the history of the 19th and 20th centuries before the start of the World War on the Runivers website
• Panchenko D.V. When did the New Age end? . Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
• Hobsbaum E. Age of Revolution. Europe 1789-1848 = The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848 / Per. from English. L. D. Yakunina. - Rostov n / a: Phoenix, 1999. - 480 p. - 5000 copies. - ISBN 5-222-00614-X

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

The period from the end of the fifteenth century to the beginning of the eighteenth century. in historiography one can find a different name - late Middle Ages, early modern times; the era of proto-industrial civilization, if we are talking about the early stage of the genesis of industrial society; time of the Renaissance in culture and the Reformation. At this time, new behavioral stereotypes, ethical norms, worldview ideas, stereotypes appear, which differ sharply from the traditional society that we meet in the Middle Ages. Early modern time covers about 250 years. This is the period from the end of the 15th to the middle of the 18th century.

The period from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 18th century is the time of the crisis of traditional society, the birth and development of capitalism, and the disintegration of feudal foundations. Capitalist production appeared in the large cities of Italy and the Netherlands at the end of the 14th-15th centuries, but K. Marx attributed the emergence of the capitalist way of life only to the 16th century. Since not all European countries were equally affected by the emergence of capitalist production. In some of them, capitalist forms did not have noticeable success, and in connection with this, the growth of commodity-money relations and trade was used by the nobility to enrich themselves, in these countries there is a return to gross forms of feudal exploitation of the peasantry - serfdom and corvee (for example, the Czech Hussite wars).

The 16th century was the century of the formation of a new thinking in Europe, a new Man, the historians of the liberal school spoke out. A similar point of view belongs to our domestic historian, Timofey Nikolaevich Granovsky. Timofei Nikolaevich Granovsky gave a brilliant definition of the era: “The Middle Ages had their own geography, their own state, their own church and science. In the 15th century, Columbus appears and pushes the boundaries that existed in the Middle Ages. At the beginning of the 16th century, Machiavelli appears, a sharper rejection of medieval theories could not be imagined... The unity of the church was broken by the Reformation... Medieval science, scholasticism, once so brilliant and bold... is broken by the efforts of the humanists.

Consider the development of the progressive states of Western Europe?

1.In the economic sphere there was a progressive decomposition of feudal forms of economy, there was a process of PNK, the emergence of a new economic order.

2.In the social sphere – the class stratification of traditional society was eroded, new professional-class groups, classes of the bourgeoisie and hired workers arose. Gradually emerging bourgeois.

3. Arise new forms of ideology: such were humanism, reformation creeds (Lutheranism, Zwinglianism, Calvinism) and radical sectarian teachings with their leveling ideas. Renewal of Catholic Christianity.

4. Significant changes have also taken place in the political structure of society. Early modern times - the time of new forms of the state - were replaced by class-representative absolute monarchies.

5. The 16th century is also famous for the first acts bourgeois revolutions. This is the Reformation and the Peasant War in Germany in 1525, and the Dutch bourgeois revolution, the result of which was the formation of the first bourgeois republic in Europe - the Republic of the United Provinces. All these events are of world-historical significance.