The Transformation of Europe (PDF)

ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 630 24 The Transformation of Europe ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 631 The Fragmentation of Western Christendom...

ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 630 24 The Transformation of Europe ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 631 The Fragmentation of Western Christendom Early Capitalist Society The Protestant Reformation Population Growth and Urbanization The Catholic Reformation Early Capitalism and Protoindustrialization Witch-Hunts and Religious Wars Social Change in Early Modern Europe The Consolidation of Sovereign States Science and Enlightenment The Attempted Revival of Empire The Reconception of the Universe The New Monarchs The Scientific Revolution Constitutional States The Enlightenment Absolute Monarchies The European States System In 1517 an obscure German monk posed a challenge to the Roman Catholic church. Martin Luther of Wittenberg denounced the church’s sale of indulgences, a type of pardon that ex- cused individuals from doing penance for their sins and thus facilitated their entry into heaven. Indulgences had been available since the eleventh century, but to raise funds for the reconstruction of St. Peter’s basilica in Rome, church authorities began to market indulgences aggressively in the early sixteenth century. From their point of view, indulgences were splen- did devices: they encouraged individuals to reflect piously on their behavior while also bring- ing large sums of money into the church’s treasury. To Martin Luther, however, indulgences were signs of greed, hypocrisy, and moral rot in the Roman Catholic church. Luther despised the pretentiousness of church authorities who arrogated to themselves powers that belonged properly to God alone: no human being had the power to absolve individuals of their sins and grant them admission to heaven, Luther believed, so the sale of indulgences constituted a huge fraud perpetrated on an unsuspecting public. In October 1517, following academic custom of the day, he offered to debate publicly with anyone who wished to dispute his views, and he denounced the sale of indulgences in a document called the Ninety-Five Theses. Luther did not nail his work to the church door in Wittenberg, although a popular legend credited him with that heroic gesture, but news of the Ninety-Five Theses spread instantly: within a few weeks, printed copies were available throughout Europe. Luther’s challenge gal- vanized opinion among many who resented the power of the Roman church. It also drew se- vere criticism from religious and political authorities seeking to maintain the established order. Church officials subjected Luther’s views to examination and judged them erroneous, and in 1520 Pope Leo X excommunicated the unrepentant monk. In 1521 the Holy Roman emperor Charles V, a devout Roman Catholic, summoned Luther to an assembly of imperial authorities and demanded that he recant his views. Luther’s response: “I cannot and will not recant any- thing, for it is neither safe nor right to act against one’s conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” Martin Luther’s challenge held enormous religious and political implications. Though ex- pelled from the church, Luther still considered himself Christian—indeed, he considered his own faith true Christianity—and he held religious services for a community of devoted follow- ers. Wittenberg became a center of religious dissent, which by the late 1520s had spread through much of Germany and Switzerland. During the 1530s dissidents known as Protes- tants—because of their protest against the established order—organized movements also in OPPOSITE: Martin Luther at age forty-two, depicted as a conscientious and determined man by the German painter Lucas Cranach in 1525. 631 ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 632 632 PART V | The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 France, England, the Low Countries, and even Italy and Spain. By midcentury Luther’s act of individual rebellion had mushroomed into the Protestant Reformation, which shattered the religious unity of western Christendom. For all its unsettling effects, the Protestant Reformation was only one of several powerful movements that transformed European society during the early modern era. Another was the consolidation of strong centralized states, which took shape partly because of the Reforma- tion. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, monarchs in western Europe took ad- vantage of religious quarrels to tighten control over their societies. By curbing the power of the nobility, expanding royal authority, and increasing control over their subjects, they built states much more powerful than the regional monarchies of the middle ages. By the mid- eighteenth century, some rulers had concentrated so much power in their own hands that his- torians refer to them as absolute monarchs. Alongside religious conflict and the building of powerful states, capitalism and early mod- ern science also profoundly influenced western European society in early modern times. Early capitalism pushed European merchants and manufacturers into unrelenting competition with one another and encouraged them to reorganize their businesses in search of maximum effi- ciency. Early modern science challenged traditional ways of understanding the world and the universe. Under the influence of scientific discoveries, European intellectuals sought an entirely rational understanding of human society as well as the natural world, and some sought to base European moral, ethical, and social thought on science and reason rather than Christianity. Thus between 1500 and 1800, western Europe underwent a thorough transformation. Al- though the combination of religious, political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural change was unsettling and often disruptive, it also strengthened European society. The states of early modern Europe competed vigorously and mobilized their human and natural re- sources in effective fashion. By 1800 several of them had become especially powerful, wealthy, and dynamic. They stood poised to play major roles in world affairs during the nine- teenth and twentieth centuries. The Fragmentation of Western Christendom In the third century C.E., Christian missionaries began to spread their faith from the Mediterranean basin throughout Europe, and by 1000 C.E. Christianity had estab- lished a foothold as far north as Scandinavia and Iceland. Although the peoples of western Europe spoke different languages, ate different foods, and observed differ- ent customs, the church of Rome provided them with a common religious and cul- tural heritage. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however, revolts against the Roman Catholic church shattered the religious unity of western Europe. Followers of Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers established a series of churches independent of Rome, and Roman Catholic leaders strengthened their own church against the challengers. Throughout early modern times, religious controver- sies fueled social tensions. The Protestant Reformation Martin Luther Martin Luther (1483–1546) attacked the sale of indulgences as an individual, but he soon attracted enthusiastic support from others who resented the policies of the Roman church. Luther was a prolific and talented writer, and he published scores of works condemning the Roman church. His cause benefited enormously from the printing press, which had first appeared in Europe in the mid-fifteenth century. A ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 633 CHAPTER 24 | The Transformation of Europe 633 sizable literate public inhabited European cities and towns, and readers eagerly con- sumed printed works on religious as well as secular themes. Printed editions of Luther’s writings appeared throughout Europe and sparked spirited debates on in- dulgences and theological issues. His supporters and critics took their own works to the printers, and religious controversies kept the presses busy churning out pam- phlets and treatises for a century and more. Luther soon moved beyond the issue of indulgences: he attacked the Roman church for a wide range of abuses and called for thorough reform of Christendom. He advocated the closure of monasteries, translation of the Bible from Latin into vernacular languages, and an end to priestly authority, including the authority of the pope himself. When opponents pointed out that his reform program ran counter to church policy, he rejected the authority of the church hierarchy and proclaimed that the Bible was the only source of Christian religious authority. Luther’s works drew an enthusiastic popular response, and in Germany they fu- eled a movement to reform the church along the lines of Luther’s teachings. Lay Christians flocked to hear Luther preach in Wittenberg, and several princes of the Holy Roman Empire warmed to Luther’s views—partly because of personal convic- tion but partly also because religious controversy offered opportunities for them to build their own power bases. During the 1520s and 1530s many of the most impor- tant German cities—Strasbourg, Nuremberg, and Augsburg, among others—passed laws prohibiting Roman Catholic observances and requiring all religious services to follow Protestant doctrine and procedures. By the mid-sixteenth century about half the German population had adopted Reform outside Lutheran Christianity, and reformers had launched Protestant movements and estab- Germany lished alternative churches in other lands as well. By the late 1520s the prosperous cities of Switzerland—Zurich, Basel, and Geneva—had fledgling Protestant churches. The heavily urbanized Low Countries also responded enthusiastically to Protestant appeals. Protestants appeared even in Italy and Spain, although authorities in those lands handily suppressed their challenge to the Roman church. In England a Reformation took place for frankly political as well as religious rea- sons. Lutherans and other Protestants worked to build a following in England from the 1520s, but they faced stout government resistance until King Henry VIII (reigned 1509–1547) came into conflict with the pope. Henry wanted to divorce his wife, who had not borne a male heir, but the pope refused to allow him to do so. Henry’s response was to sever relations with the Roman church and make himself Supreme Head of the Anglican church—an English pope, as it were. While Henry reigned, the theology of the English church changed little, but under pressure of re- formers, his successors replaced Roman Catholic with Protestant doctrines and ritu- als. By 1560 England had permanently left the Roman Catholic community. Meanwhile, an even more influential Reformation was taking shape in France and John Calvin the French-speaking parts of Switzerland. The initiator was a French lawyer, John Calvin (1509–1564), who in the 1530s converted to Protestant Christianity. Because the French monarchy sought to suppress Protestants, Calvin slipped across the border to French-speaking Geneva in Switzerland. There he organized a Protestant commu- nity and worked with local officials to impose a strict code of morality and discipline on the city. Calvin also composed an influential treatise, Institutes of the Christian Re- ligion (first published in 1536 and frequently reprinted with revisions), that codified Protestant teachings and presented them as a coherent and organized package. Calvin’s Geneva was not only a model Protestant community but also a missionary center. Calvinist missionaries were most active in France, where they attracted strong interest in the cities, but they ventured also to Germany, the Low Countries, England, ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 634 634 PART V | The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 Scotland, and even distant Hun- gary. They established churches in all these lands and worked for reform along Protestant lines. They were most successful in the Netherlands and Scotland. By the late sixteenth century, Luther- ans, Anglicans, and Calvinists to- gether had built communities large enough that a return to re- ligious unity in western Chris- tendom was inconceivable. The Catholic Reformation Partly in response to the Protes- tant Reformation, Roman Cath- olic authorities undertook an enormous reform effort within their own church. To some ex- tent their efforts represented a reaction to Protestant success. Yet Roman Catholic authorities also sought to define points of doctrine so as to clarify differ- ences between Roman and Prot- Under inspiration of the Catholic Reformation, many estant churches, to persuade devout individuals sought mystic union with God. One Protestants to return to the Ro- of the most famous of the mystics was St. Teresa of man church, and to deepen the Avila (in Spain), who founded a strict order of nuns and sense of spirituality and religious often experienced religious visions. A famous sculpture commitment in their own com- by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini depicts St. munity. Taken together, their Teresa in an ecstatic trance accompanied by an angel. efforts constituted the Catholic Reformation. The Council of Trent Two institutions were especially important for defining the Catholic Reformation and advancing its goals—the Council of Trent and the Society of Jesus. The Council of Trent was an assembly of bishops, cardinals, and other high church officials who met intermittently between 1545 and 1563 to address matters of doctrine and re- form. Drawing heavily on the works of the thirteenth-century scholastic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas, the council defined the elements of Roman Catholic theology in detail. The council acknowledged that abuses had alienated many people from the Roman church, and it took steps to reform the church. The council demanded that church authorities observe strict standards of morality, and it required them to estab- lish schools and seminaries in their districts to prepare priests properly for their roles. St. Ignatius Loyola While the Council of Trent dealt with doctrine and reform, the Society of Jesus went on the offensive and sought to extend the boundaries of the reformed Roman church. The society’s founder was St. Ignatius Loyola (1491–1556), a Basque noble- man and soldier who in 1521 suffered a devastating leg wound that ended his mili- tary career. While recuperating he read spiritual works and popular accounts of saints’ lives, and he resolved to put his energy into religious work. In 1540, together with a small band of disciples, he founded the Society of Jesus. ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 635 CHAPTER 24 | The Transformation of Europe 635 Ignatius required that members of the society, known as Jesuits, complete a rig- The Society of Jesus orous and advanced education. They received instruction not only in theology and philosophy but also in classical languages, literature, history, and science. As a result of that preparation—and their unswerving dedication to the Roman Catholic church— the Jesuits made extraordinarily effective missionaries. They were able to outargue most of their opponents and acquired a reputation for discipline and determina- tion. They often served as counselors to kings and rulers and used their influence to promote policies that benefited the Roman church. They also were the most promi- nent of the early Christian missionaries outside Europe: in the wake of the European reconnaissance of the world’s oceans, Jesuits attracted converts in India, China, Japan, the Philippines, and the Americas, thus making Christianity a genuinely global religion. Witch-Hunts and Religious Wars Europeans took religion seriously in the sixteenth century, and religious divisions helped to fuel social and political conflict. Apart from wars, the most destructive vio- lence that afflicted early modern Europe was the hunt for witches, which was espe- cially prominent in regions such as the Rhineland where tensions between Protestants and Roman Catholics ran high. Like many other peoples, Europeans had long believed that certain individuals possessed unusual powers to influence human affairs or discover secret information such as the identity of a thief. During the late fifteenth century, theologians developed a theory that witches derived their powers from the devil. According to that theory, witches made agreements to worship the devil in exchange for supernatural powers, including the ability to fly through the night on brooms, pitchforks, or animals. Theo- rists believed that the witches regularly flew off to distant places to attend the “witches’ sabbath,” a gathering that featured devil worship, lewd behavior, and the concoction of secret potions, culminating in sexual relations with the devil himself. Although the witches’ sabbath was sheer fantasy, fears that individuals were making Witch-Hunting alliances with the devil sparked an intensive hunt for witches. Witchcraft became a con- venient explanation for any unpleasant turn of events—failure of a crop, outbreak of a fire, an unexpected death, or inability to conceive a child. About 110,000 individuals underwent trial as suspected witches during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and about 60,000 of them died either by hanging or by burning at the stake. Although men were among the victims, most convicted witches were women. In- deed, women may have accounted for 95 percent or more of the condemned. Many of the women were poor, old, single, or widowed—individuals who lived on the margins of their societies and were easy targets for accusers, since they had few protectors. Witch-hunting was mostly a European affair, but it also spread to European colonies in the Americas. The most intense witch-hunt in the Americas took place in seventeenth- century New England, where a population of about 100,000 colonists tried 234 indi- viduals for witchcraft and executed 36 of them by hanging. By 1700 the fear of witches had largely diminished. Accusations, trials, and exe- cutions occurred only sporadically thereafter. The last legal execution for witchcraft in Europe took place in Switzerland in 1782. For the better part of two centuries, however, the intermittent pursuit of witches revealed clearly the stresses and strains that afflicted European society during early modern times. Religious tensions even led to outright war between Protestant and Roman Catholic Religious Wars communities. Religious wars racked France for thirty-six years (1562–1598), for exam- ple, and they also complicated relations between Protestant and Roman Catholic states. In 1588 King Philip II of Spain (reigned 1556–1598) attempted to force England to ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 636 636 PART V | The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 An eighteenth-century painting offers a dramatic depiction of three witches. return to the Roman Catholic church by sending the Spanish Armada—a huge flotilla consisting of 130 ships and 30,000 men—to dethrone the Protestant Queen Eliza- beth. The effort collapsed, however, when English forces disrupted the Spanish fleet by sending blazing, unmanned ships into its midst. Then a ferocious gale scattered Spanish vessels throughout the North Sea. Religious convictions also aggravated relations between the Netherlands and Spain by fueling the revolt of the Dutch provinces from their overlord, the king of Spain. In 1567 Philip sent an army to tighten his control over the provinces and to suppress the Calvinist movement there. Resistance escalated into a full-scale rebel- lion. By 1610 the seven northern provinces (the modern Netherlands) had won their independence and formed a republic known as the United Provinces, leaving ten southern provinces (modern Belgium) under Spanish and later Austrian rule until the late eighteenth century. The Thirty Years’ War The religious wars culminated in a massive continental conflict known as the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). The war opened after the Holy Roman emperor attempted to force his Bohemian subjects to return to the Roman Catholic church, and the main battleground was the emperor’s territory in Germany. Other parties soon entered the fray, however, and by the time the war ended Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Bohemian, and Russian forces had taken part in the conflict. The motives that prompted these states to enter the war were sometimes political or economic, but religious differences complicated the other issues and made them more difficult to resolve. Regardless of the motives, the Thirty Years’ War was the most destructive European conflict before the twentieth century. Quite apart from violence ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 637 CHAPTER 24 | The Transformation of Europe 637 The Thirty Years’ War offered abundant opportunity for undisciplined mercenary soldiers to prey on civilian populations. Only rarely, as in the mass hanging depicted in this engraving of 1633, did soldiers receive punishment for their criminal acts. and brutalities committed by undisciplined soldiers, the war damaged economies and societies throughout Europe and led to the deaths of about one-third of the German population. The destructiveness of the Thirty Years’ War raised questions about the viability of Europe as a region of strong, independent, well-armed, and intensely com- petitive states. The Consolidation of Sovereign States Although fundamentally a religious movement, the Reformation had strong political implications, and centralizing monarchs readily made use of religious issues in their efforts to strengthen their states and enhance their authority. Ruling elites had their own religious preferences, and they often promoted a Protestant or Roman Catholic cause out of personal conviction. Religious controversies also offered splendid oppor- tunities for ambitious subordinates who built power bases by appealing to particular religious communities. Over the long run, centralizing monarchs profited most from religious controversy generated by the Reformation. While the Holy Roman Empire fell into disarray because of political and religious quarrels, monarchs in other lands augmented their revenues, enhanced their authority, and created powerful sovereign states. After the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War, rulers of these states devised a diplomatic system that sought to maintain order among the many independent and competitive European states. The Attempted Revival of Empire After the dissolution of the Carolingian empire in the ninth century C.E., there was no effective imperial government in western Europe. The so-called Holy Roman Empire emerged in the tenth century, but its authority extended only to Germany and north- ern Italy, and even there the emperors encountered stiff opposition from powerful ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 638 638 PART V | The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 princes and thriving cities. During the early sixteenth century, it seemed that Emperor Charles V (reigned 1519–1556) might establish the Holy Roman Empire as the pre- eminent political authority in Europe, but by midcentury it was clear that there would be no revival of empire. Thus, unlike China, India, and Ottoman lands in southwest Asia and north Africa, early modern Europe developed as a region of independent states. Charles V After 1438 the Habsburg family, with extensive dynastic holdings in Austria, dominated the Holy Roman Empire. Through marriage alliances with princely and royal families, the Habsburgs accumulated rights and titles to lands throughout Eu- rope and beyond. Charles V inherited authority over the Habsburgs’ Austrian do- mains as well as the duchy of Burgundy (including the wealthy provinces of the Low Countries) and the kingdom of Spain (including its possessions in Italy and the Americas). When he became emperor in 1519, he acquired authority over Germany, Bohemia, Switzerland, and parts of northern Italy. His empire stretched from Vienna in Austria to Cuzco in Peru. Imperial In spite of his far-flung holdings, Charles did not extend his authority throughout Fragmentation Europe or even establish a lasting imperial legacy. Throughout his reign Charles had to devote much of his attention and energy to the Lutheran movement and to impe- rial princes who took advantage of religious controversy to assert their independence. Moreover, Charles did not build an administrative structure for his empire but, in- stead, ruled each of his lands according to its own laws and customs. He was able to draw on the financial resources of wealthy lands such as the Low Countries and Spain to maintain a powerful army. Yet Charles did not have the ambition to extend his au- thority by military force, but used his army mostly to put down rebellions. Foreign Challenges Foreign difficulties also prevented Charles from establishing his empire as the ar- biter of Europe. The prospect of a powerful Holy Roman Empire struck fear in the kings of France, and it caused concern among the sultans of the Ottoman empire as well. Charles’s holdings surrounded France, and the French kings suspected that the emperor wanted to absorb their realm and extend his authority throughout Europe. To forestall that possibility, the French kings created every obstacle they could for Charles. Even though they were staunch Roman Catholics, they aided German Lutherans and encouraged them to rebel. The French kings even allied with the Mus- lim Ottoman Turks against the emperor. For their part the Ottoman sultans did not want to see a powerful Christian em- pire threaten their holdings in eastern Europe and their position in the Mediter- ranean basin. With the encouragement of the French king, Turkish forces conquered Hungary in 1526, and three years later they even laid siege briefly to Vienna. More- over, during the early sixteenth century Ottoman forces imposed their rule beyond Egypt and embraced almost all of north Africa. By midcentury, Turkish holdings posed a serious threat to Italian and Spanish shipping in the Mediterranean. Thus numerous domestic and foreign problems prevented Charles V from establish- ing his vast empire as the supreme political authority in Europe. His inability to sup- press the Lutherans was especially disappointing to Charles, and in 1556, after agreeing that imperial princes and cities could determine the religious faith observed in their ju- risdictions, the emperor abdicated his throne and retired to a monastery in Spain. His empire did not survive intact. Charles bestowed his holdings in Spain, Italy, the Low Countries, and the Americas on his son, King Philip II of Spain, while his brother Ferdi- nand inherited the Habsburg family lands in Austria and the imperial throne. The New Monarchs In the absence of effective imperial power, guidance of public affairs fell to the vari- ous regional states that had emerged during the middle ages. The city-states of Italy ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 639 CHAPTER 24 | The Transformation of Europe 639 NORWAY SWEDEN Oslo Stockholm RUSSIA North Sea SCOTLAND Sea Moscow tic al B IRELAND Copenhagen SPANISH DENMARK Dublin ENGLAND NETHERLANDS London Warsaw Amsterdam Wittenberg POLAND Rh in e GERMAN Prague ein S AT L A N T I C e Paris BOHEMIA STATES OCEAN Y AR Basel Vienna G N SWISS HU CONFEDERATION AUSTRIA Geneva FRANCE VE ITALIAN N R h o ne R E ETI STATES PU AN BL IC Da nub e ea ac kS Florence PAPAL Bl TUSCANY STATESA dr AL Madrid CORSICA iat OT ic TO Istanbul TU G Lisbon Rome Se MA a N S PA I N NAPLES EM POR SARDINIA PI RE SICILY Spanish Habsburg possessions Mediterranean Sea Austrian Habsburg possessions 0 500 mi Holy Roman Empire 0 500 1000 km Map 24.1 Sixteenth- century Europe. Note the were prominent because of their economic power: since the eleventh century they extent of Habsburg territories had been Europe’s most important centers of trade, manufacturing, and finance. The and the wide boundaries of the most powerful European states, however, were the kingdoms of England, France, Holy Roman Empire. With such and Spain. During the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, rulers of these lands, powerful territories, what pre- known as the “new monarchs,” marshaled their resources, curbed the nobility, and vented the Habsburgs from im- built strong centralized regimes. posing imperial rule on most The new monarchs included Henry VIII of England, Louis XI and Francis I of of Europe? France, and Fernando and Isabel of Spain. All the new monarchs sought to enhance their treasuries by developing new sources of finance. The French kings levied direct taxes on sales, households, and the salt trade. A new sales tax dramatically boosted Finance Spanish royal income in the sixteenth century. For fear of provoking rebellion, the English kings did not introduce new taxes, but they increased revenues by raising fines and fees for royal services. Moreover, after Henry VIII severed ties between the English and Roman churches, he dissolved the monasteries and confiscated church wealth in England. This financial windfall enabled Henry to enhance royal power by ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 640 640 PART V | The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 increasing the size of the state and adding to its responsibilities. After the English Reformation, for example, the state provided poor relief and support for orphans, which previously had been responsibilities of churches and monasteries. State Power With their increased income the new monarchs enlarged their administrative staffs, which enabled them to collect taxes and implement royal policies more reli- ably than before. The French and Spanish monarchs also maintained standing armies that vastly increased their power with respect to the nobility. Their armies with thou- sands of infantrymen were too large for individual nobles to match, and they equipped their forces with cannons that were too expensive for nobles to purchase. The English kings did not need a standing army to put down the occasional rebel- lion that flared in their island realm and so did not go to the expense of supporting one. Yet they too increased their power with respect to the nobles by subjecting them to royal justice and forcing them to comply with royal policy. The debates and disputes launched by the Protestant Reformation helped mon- archs increase their power. In lands that adopted Protestant faiths—including En- gland, much of Germany, Denmark, and Sweden—rulers expropriated the monasteries and used church wealth to expand their powers. That option was not open to Roman Catholic kings, but Protestant movements provided them with a justification to mo- bilize resources, which they used against political as well as religious adversaries. The Spanish The Spanish Inquisition was the most distinctive institution that relied on reli- Inquisition gious justifications to advance state ends. Fernando and Isabel founded the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, and they obtained papal license to operate the institution as a royal agency. Its original task was to ferret out those who secretly practiced Judaism or Islam, but Charles V charged it with responsibility also for detecting Protestant heresy in Spain. Throughout the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, however, the Spanish Inquisition served political as well as religious purposes. Moreover, its reach extended well beyond the Iberian peninsula. Just as the fear of witchcraft crossed the Atlantic Ocean and inspired witch-hunts in England’s North American colonies, con- cerns about heresy also made their way to the western hemisphere, where inquisitors worked to protect Spanish colonies from heretical teachings. Inquisitors had broad powers to investigate suspected cases of heresy. Popular legends have created an erroneous impression of the Spanish Inquisition as an insti- tution running amok, framing innocent victims and routinely subjecting them to torture. In fact, inquisitors usually observed rules of evidence, and they released many suspects after investigations turned up no sign of heresy. Yet, when they de- tected the scent of heresy, inquisitors could be ruthless. They sentenced hundreds of victims to hang from the gallows or burn at the stake and imprisoned many others in dank cells for extended periods of time. Fear of the inquisition intimidated many into silence, and a strict Roman Catholic orthodoxy prevailed in Spain. The inquisi- tion deterred nobles from adopting Protestant views out of political ambition, and it used its influence on behalf of the Spanish monarchy. From 1559 to 1576, for exam- ple, inquisitors imprisoned the archbishop of Toledo—the highest Roman Catholic church official in all of Spain—because of his political independence. Constitutional States During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as they sought to restore order after the Thirty Years’ War, European states developed along two lines. Rulers in England and the Netherlands shared authority with representative institutions and created constitutional states, whereas monarchs in France, Spain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia concentrated power in their own hands and created a form of state known as absolute monarchy. ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 641 CHAPTER 24 | The Transformation of Europe 641 When the Spanish Inquisition detected traces of Protestant heresy, the punishment could be swift and brutal. In this engraving of about 1560, a large crowd observes the execution of heretics (top right) by burning at the stake. The island kingdom of England and the maritime Dutch republic did not have Constitutional States written constitutions specifying the powers of the state, but during the seventeenth century they evolved governments that claimed limited powers and recognized rights pertaining to individuals and representative institutions. Their constitutional states took different forms: in England a constitutional monarchy emerged, whereas the Netherlands produced a republic based on representative government. In neither land did constitutional government come easily into being: in England it followed a civil war, and in the Netherlands it emerged after a long struggle for independence. In both lands, however, constitutional government strengthened the state and pro- vided a political framework that enabled merchants to flourish as never before in Eu- ropean experience. Constitutional government came to England after political and religious disputes The English Civil War led to the English civil war (1642–1649). From the early seventeenth century, the English kings had tried to institute new taxes without approval of the parliament, which for more than three centuries had traditionally approved new levies. While royal financial policies generated political tensions, religious disagreements aggra- vated matters further. As Anglicans, the kings supported a church with relatively or- nate ceremonies and a hierarchy of bishops working under authority of the monarchs themselves. Meanwhile, however, many of the boldest and most insistent voices within parliament belonged to zealous Calvinists known as Puritans because they sought to purify the English church of any lingering elements, such as ornate ceremonies ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 642 642 PART V | The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 In this contemporary painting, the executioner holds up the just-severed head of King Charles I of England. The spectacle of a royal execution overcomes one woman, who faints (at bottom). and a hierarchy of bishops, suggestive of Roman Catholic Christianity. By 1641, King Charles I and parliament were at loggerheads, unable to cooperate or even commu- nicate effectively with each other. Both sides raised armies. In the conflicts that fol- lowed, parliamentary forces under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) captured Charles, tried him for tyranny, and in an act that shocked all of Europe, marched him up on a platform and beheaded him in 1649. The Glorious In the absence of a king, Cromwell’s Puritan regime took power but soon degen- Revolution erated into a disagreeable dictatorship, prompting parliament to restore the monar- chy in 1660. King and parliament, however, soon resumed their conflicts. The issue came to a head in a bloodless change of power known as the Glorious Revolution (1688–1689), when parliament deposed King James II and invited his daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange, to assume the throne. The result- ing arrangement provided that kings would rule in cooperation with parliament, thus guaranteeing that nobles, merchants, and other constituencies would enjoy represen- tation in government affairs. The Dutch Republic As in England, a potent combination of political and religious tensions led to conflict from which constitutional government emerged in the Netherlands. In the mid-sixteenth century, authority over the Low Countries, including modern-day Belgium as well as the Netherlands, rested with King Philip II of Spain. In 1567 Philip, a devout Roman Catholic, moved to suppress an increasingly popular Calvin- ist movement in the Netherlands—a measure that provoked large-scale rebellion against Spanish rule. In 1579 a group of Dutch provinces formed an anti-Spanish al- liance, and in 1581 they proclaimed themselves the independent United Provinces. Representative assemblies organized local affairs in each of the provinces, and on this foundation political leaders built a Dutch republic. Spain did not officially recognize the independence of the United Provinces until the end of the Thirty Years’ War in ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 643 CHAPTER 24 | The Transformation of Europe 643 1648, but the Dutch republic was effectively organizing affairs in the northern Low Countries by the early seventeenth century. In many ways, the constitutional governments of England and the Dutch repub- lic represented historical experiments. Apart from the Roman republic in classical times and a few Italian city-states of the medieval and Renaissance eras, European peoples had little experience with representative government. In their responses to political crises, popular leaders in both England and the Netherlands found it pos- sible to mobilize support by appealing to the political and religious interests of broad constituencies and making a place for them in the government. The result was a pair of states that effectively harnassed popular support and used it to magnify state power. In both England and the Dutch republic, merchants were especially prominent in political affairs, and state policy in both lands favored maritime trade and the build- ing of commercial empires overseas. The constitutional states allowed entrepreneurs to pursue their economic interests with minimal interference from public authorities, and during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries both states experienced ex- traordinary prosperity as a result of those policies. Indeed, in many ways the English and Dutch states represented an alliance between merchants and rulers that worked to the benefit of both. Merchants supported the state with the wealth that they gen- erated through trade—especially overseas trade—while rulers followed policies that looked after the interests of their merchants. Absolute Monarchies While constitutional states devised ways to share power and authority, absolute monar- chies found other ways to increase state power. Absolutism stood on a theoretical foundation known as the divine right of kings. This theory held that kings derived their authority from God and served as “God’s lieutenants upon earth.” There was no role in divine-right theory for common subjects or even nobles in public affairs: the king made law and determined policy. Noncompliance or disobedience merited punishment, and rebellion was a despicable act tantamount to blasphemy. In fact, ab- solute monarchs always relied on support from nobles and other social groups as well, but the claims of divine-right theory clearly reflected efforts at royal centralization. The most conspicuous absolutist state was the French monarchy. The architect of French absolutism was a prominent church official, Cardinal Richelieu, who served as chief minister to King Louis XIII from 1624 to 1642. Richelieu worked systemat- ically to undermine the power of the nobility and enhance the authority of the king. He destroyed nobles’ castles and ruthlessly crushed aristocratic conspiracies. As a counterweight to the nobility, Richelieu built a large bureaucracy staffed by com- moners loyal to the king. He also appointed officials to supervise the implementation of royal policy in the provinces. Finally, Richelieu attacked French Calvinists, who often allied with independent nobles, and destroyed their political and military power, although he allowed them to continue observing their faith. By midcentury France was under control of a tightly centralized absolute monarchy. The ruler who best epitomized royal absolutism was King Louis XIV (reigned The Sun King 1643–1715), who once reportedly declared that he was himself the state: “l’état, c’est moi.” Known as le roi soleil (“the sun king”) Louis surrounded himself with splendor befitting one who ruled by divine right. During the 1670s he built a mag- nificent residence at Versailles, a royal hunting lodge near Paris, and in the 1680s he moved his court there. Louis’s palace at Versailles was the largest building in Europe, with 230 acres of formal gardens and 1,400 fountains. Because Louis did not want Versailles (vehr-SEYE) ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 644 644 PART V | The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 King Louis XIV and his entourage (bottom right) approach the main gate of Versailles. Though only partially constructed at the time of this painting (1668), Versailles was already a spacious and luxurious retreat for Louis and his court. to wait years for saplings to grow, he ordered laborers to dig up 25,000 fully grown trees and haul them to Versailles for transplanting. The sun king was the center of attention at Versailles. Court officials hovered around him and tended to his every need. All prominent nobles established residences at Versailles for their families and entourages. Louis strongly encouraged them to live at court, where he and his staff could keep an eye on them, and ambitious nobles gravitated there anyway in hopes of winning influence with the king. Louis himself was the arbiter of taste and style at Versailles, where he lavishly patronized painters, sculptors, architects, and writers whose creations met with his approval. While nobles living at Versailles mastered the intricacies of court ritual and attended banquets, concerts, operas, balls, and theatrical performances, Louis and his ministers ran the state. In effect, Louis provided the nobility with luxurious accommodations and endless entertainment in exchange for absolute rule. From Versailles Louis and his advisors promulgated laws and controlled a large standing army that kept order throughout the land. They also promoted economic development by supporting the establishment of new industries, building roads and canals, abolishing internal tariffs, and encouraging exports. Finally, they waged a series of wars designed to enlarge French boundaries and establish France as the preeminent power in Europe. ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 645 CHAPTER 24 | The Transformation of Europe 645 Tsar Peter the Great with a pair of shears, about to remove the beard of a conservative subject. Louis XIV was not the only absolute monarch of early modern Europe: Spanish, Absolutism in Russia Austrian, and Prussian rulers embraced similar policies. The potential of absolutism to increase state power was particularly conspicuous in the case of Russia, where tsars of the Romanov dynasty (1613–1917) tightly centralized government functions. (Tsar, sometimes spelled czar, is a Russianized form of the term caesar, which Russian rulers borrowed from Byzantine emperors, who in turn had borrowed it from the classical Roman empire to signify their imperial status.) The Romanovs inherited a state that had rapidly expanded its boundaries since the mid-fourteenth century. Building on the foun- dation of a small principality around the trading city of Moscow, by 1600 Russia had become a vast empire extending from the Arctic seas in the north to the Caspian Sea in the south, with an increasing presence in the tundra and forests of Siberia as well. ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 646 646 PART V | The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 Peter I Most important of the Romanov tsars was Peter I (reigned 1682–1725), widely known as Peter the Great, who inaugurated a thoroughgoing process of state trans- formation. Peter had a burning desire to make Russia, a huge but underpopulated land, into a great military power like those that had recently emerged in western Eu- rope. In pursuit of that goal, he worked to transform Russia on the model of western European lands. In 1697–1698 he led a large party of Russian observers on a tour of Germany, the Netherlands, and England to learn about western European adminis- trative methods and military technology. His traveling companions often behaved crudely by western European standards: they consumed beer, wine, and brandy in quantities that astonished their hosts, and King William III sent Peter a bill for dam- ages done by his entourage at the country house where they lodged in England. (Among other things, Peter had ruined the gardens by having his men march through them in military formation.) Upon return to Moscow, Peter set Russia spinning. He reformed the army by of- fering better pay and drafting peasants who served for life as professional soldiers. He provided his forces with extensive training and equipped them with modern weapons. He ordered aristocrats to study mathematics and geometry so that they could calcu- late how to aim cannons accurately, and he began the construction of a navy with an eye toward domination of the Baltic and other northern seas. He also overhauled the government bureaucracy to facilitate tax collection and improve administrative effi- ciency. His transformation of Russia even involved a cosmetic makeover, as he com- manded his aristocratic subjects to wear western European fashions and ordered men to shave their traditional beards. These measures, which were extremely unpopular among conservative Russians, provoked spirited protest among those who resented the influence of western European ways. Yet Peter insisted on observance of his poli- cies—to the point that he reportedly went into the streets and personally hacked the beards off recalcitrants’ faces. Perhaps the best symbol of his policies was St. Peters- burg, a newly built seaport that Peter opened in 1703 to serve as a magnificent capi- tal city and haven for Russia’s fledgling navy. Catherine II and The most able of Peter’s successors was Catherine II (reigned 1762–1796), also the Limits of Reform known as Catherine the Great. Like Peter, Catherine sought to make Russia a great power. She worked to improve governmental efficiency by dividing her vast empire into fifty administrative provinces, and she promoted economic development in Rus- sia’s towns. For a while, she even worked to improve the conditions of Russia’s op- pressed peasantry by restricting the punishments that noble landowners could inflict on the serfs who worked their lands. She sought to eliminate common penalties such as torture, beating, and the mutilation of individuals by cutting off their noses, ears, or tongues. Yet her interest in social reform cooled rapidly when it seemed to inspire chal- lenges to her rule. She faced a particularly unsettling trial in 1773 and 1774, when a disgruntled former soldier named Yemelian Pugachev mounted a rebellion in the steppe lands north of the Caspian Sea. Pugachev raised a motley army of adventur- ers, exiles, peasants, and serfs who killed thousands of noble landowners and govern- ment officials before imperial forces crushed the uprising. Government authorities took the captured Pugachev to Moscow in chains, beheaded him, quartered his body, and displayed his parts throughout the city as a warning against rebellion. There- after, Catherine’s first concern was the preservation of autocratic rule rather than the transformation of Russia according to western European models. Thus, in Russia as in other European lands, absolutist policies resulted in tight centralization and considerable strengthening of the state. The enhanced power that flowed from absolutism became dramatically clear in the period 1772 to 1797, when ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 647 CHAPTER 24 | The Transformation of Europe 647 Austria, Prussia, and Catherine II’s Russia picked the weak kingdom of Poland apart. In a series of three “partitions,” the predatory absolutist states seized Polish territory and absorbed it into their own realms, ultimately wiping Poland entirely off the map. The lesson of the partitions was clear: any European state that hoped to survive needed to construct an effective government that could respond promptly to chal- lenges and opportunities. The European States System Whether they relied on absolutist or constitutional principles, European govern- ments of early modern times built states much more powerful than those of their medieval predecessors. This round of state development led to difficulties within Eu- rope, since conflicting interests fueled interstate competition and war. In the absence of an imperial authority capable of imposing and maintaining order in Europe, sover- eign states had to find ways to resolve conflicts by themselves. The Thirty Years’ War demonstrated the chaos and devastation that conflict could The Peace of bring. In an effort to avoid tearing their society apart, European states ended the Westphalia Thirty Years’ War with the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which laid the foundations for a system of independent, competing states. Almost all the European states partici- pated in drafting the Peace of Westphalia, and by the treaty’s terms they regarded one another as sovereign and equal. They also mutually recognized their rights to orga- nize their own domestic affairs, including religious affairs. Rather than envisioning imperial or papal or some other sort of supreme authority, the Peace of Westphalia en- trusted political and diplomatic affairs to states acting in their own interests. Euro- pean religious unity had disappeared, and the era of the sovereign state had arrived. The Peace of Westphalia did not bring an end to war. Indeed, war was almost constant in early modern Europe. Most conflicts were minor affairs inaugurated by monarchs seeking to extend their authority to new lands or to reclaim territories seized by others, but they nevertheless disrupted local economies and drained re- sources. A few wars, however, grew to sizable proportions. Most notable among them were the wars of Louis XIV and the Seven Years’ War. Between 1668 and 1713, the sun king sought to expand his borders east into Germany and to absorb Spain and the Spanish Netherlands into his kingdom. That prospect prompted England, the United Provinces, and Austria to mount a coalition against Louis. Later the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) pitted France, Austria, and Russia against Britain and Prus- sia, and it merged with conflicts between France and Britain in India and North America to become a global war for imperial supremacy. These shifting alliances illustrate the principal foundation of European diplomacy The Balance of Power in early modern times—the balance of power. No ruler wanted to see another state dominate all the others. Thus, when any particular state began to wax strong, others formed coalitions against it. Balance-of-power diplomacy was risky business: it was always possible that a coalition might repress one strong state only to open the door for another. Yet, in playing balance-of-power politics, statesmen prevented the build- ing of empires and ensured that Europe would be a land of independent, sovereign, competing states. Frequent wars and balance-of-power diplomacy drained the resources of individual Military Development states but strengthened European society as a whole. European states competed vigor- ously and sought to develop the most expert military leadership and the most effective weapons for their arsenals. States organized military academies where officers received advanced education in strategy and tactics and learned how to maintain disciplined forces. Demand for powerful weapons stimulated the development of a sophisticated ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 648 648 PART V | The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 NORWAY SWEDEN Oslo Stockholm RUSSIA North Sea SCOTLAND Sea Moscow tic al IRELAND Copenhagen B DENMARK Dublin NETHERLANDS ENGLAND London Warsaw Amsterdam POLAND Rh SPANISH NETHERLANDS in e GERMAN Prague ein S AT L A N T I C e Paris BOHEMIA STATES OCEAN Y AR Vienna G N HU Zurich AUSTRIA TRANSYLVANIA F R A N C E Geneva VE ITALIAN N R h o ne R E ETI STATES PU AN BL IC Da nub e ea Florence PAPAL ac kS Bl TUSCANY STATES A dr AL Madrid CORSICA iat OT ic TO TU G Lisbon Rome Se MA Istanbul a N S PA I N NAPLES POR EM SARDINIA PI RE SICILY Spanish Habsburg possessions Mediterranean Sea Austrian Habsburg possessions 0 500 mi Holy Roman Empire 0 500 1000 km Map 24.2 Europe after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648. Compare this map with map 24.1 How have the bound- aries of the Holy Roman Empire changed, and why? armaments industry that turned out ever more lethal products. Gun foundries manu- factured cannons of increasing size, range, power, and accuracy as well as small arms that allowed infantry to unleash withering volleys against their enemies. In China, India, and Islamic lands, imperial states had little or no incentive to en- courage similar technological innovation in the armaments industry. These states possessed the forces and weapons they needed to maintain order within their bound- aries, and they rarely encountered foreign threats backed up with superior arma- ments. In Europe, however, failure to keep up with the latest improvements in arms technology could lead to defeat on the battlefield and decline in state power. Thus Europeans continuously sought to improve their military arsenals, and as a result, by the eighteenth century European armaments outperformed all others. ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 649 CHAPTER 24 | The Transformation of Europe 649 Early Capitalist Society While the Protestant Reformation and the emergence of sovereign states brought reli- gious and political change, a rapidly expanding population and economy encouraged the development of capitalism, which in turn led to a restructuring of European econ- omy and society. Technologies of communication and transportation enabled busi- nessmen to profit from distant markets, and merchants and manufacturers increasingly organized their affairs with the market rather than local communities in mind. Capitalism generated considerable wealth, but its effects were uneven and some- times unsettling. Economic development and increasing prosperity were noticeable in western Europe, particularly England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Yet eastern Europe experienced much less economic ferment, as Poland and Russia in- creasingly became suppliers of grain and raw materials rather than centers of trade or production. Even in western Europe, early capitalism encouraged social change that sometimes required painful adjustments to new conditions. Population Growth and Urbanization The foundation of European economic expansion in early modern times was a rapidly American Food Crops growing population, which reflected improved nutrition and decreasing mortality. The Columbian exchange enriched European diets by introducing new food crops to European fields and tables. Most notable of the introductions was the potato, which during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries enjoyed the reputation of being an aphrodisiac. Although potatoes probably did not inspire much romantic ardor, they provided a welcome source of carbohydrates for peasants and laborers who were hav- ing trouble keeping up with the rising price of bread. From Ireland to Russia and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, cultivators planted potatoes and harvested crops that added calories to European diets. American maize also made its way to Eu- rope. Maize, however, served mostly as feed for livestock rather than a food for human consumption, although peasants sometimes used cornmeal to make bread or por- ridges like polenta. Other American crops, such as tomatoes and peppers, added vita- mins and tangy flavor to European diets. While recently introduced American crops improved European diets, old diseases lost some of their ferocity. Smallpox continued to carry off about 10 percent of Eu- rope’s infants, and dysentery, influenza, tuberculosis, and typhus claimed victims among young and old, rich and poor alike. Yet better nourished populations were better able to resist those maladies. Bubonic plague, a virulent epidemic killer during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, receded from European society. After its initial onslaught in the mid-fourteenth century, plague made periodic appearances through- out the early modern era. After the mid-seventeenth century, however, epidemics were rare and isolated events. The last major outbreaks of plague in Europe occurred in London in 1660 and Marseilles in 1720. By the mid-seventeenth century, epidemic disease was almost negligible as an influence on European population. Although European birthrates did not rise dramatically in early modern times, de- Population Growth creasing mortality resulted in rapid population growth. In 1500 the population of Europe, including Russia, was about 81 million. During the sixteenth century, as Eu- rope recovered from epidemic plague, the population rose to 100 million. The Thirty Years’ War—along with the famine and disease that the war touched off—led to pop- ulation decline from about 1620 to 1650, but by 1700 European population had rallied and risen to 120 million. During the next century it grew by an additional 50 percent to 180 million. ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 650 650 PART V | The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 Urbanization Rapid population growth drove a process of equally rapid urbanization. Some cities grew because rulers chose them as sites of government. Madrid, for example, was a minor town with a few thousand inhabitants until 1561 when King Philip II decided to locate his capital there. By 1600 the population of Madrid had risen to 65,000, and by 1630 it had reached 170,000. Other cities were commercial and in- dustrial as well as government centers, and their numbers expanded along with the European economy. In the mid-sixteenth century, for example, the population of Paris was about 130,000, and London had about 60,000 inhabitants. A century later the population of both cities had risen to 500,000. Other European cities also expe- rienced growth, even if it was not so dramatic as in Madrid, Paris, and London: Amster- dam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, Stockholm, Vienna, and others became prominent European cities during the early modern era. Early Capitalism and Protoindustrialization The Nature Population growth and rapid urbanization helped spur a round of remarkable eco- of Capitalism nomic development. This economic growth coincided with the emergence of capi- talism—an economic system in which private parties make their goods and services available on a free market and seek to take advantage of market conditions to profit from their activities. Whether they are single individuals or large companies, private parties own the land, machinery, tools, equipment, buildings, workshops, and raw materials needed for production. Private parties pursuing their own economic inter- ests hire workers and decide for themselves what to produce: economic decisions are the prerogative of capitalist businessmen, not governments or social superiors. The center of a capitalist system is the market in which businessmen compete with one another, and the forces of supply and demand determine the prices received for goods and services. If businessmen organize their affairs efficiently, they realize handsome profits when they place their goods and services on the market. Otherwise, they incur losses and perhaps even lose their businesses. The desire to accumulate wealth and realize profits was by no means new. Ever since the introduction of agriculture and the production of surplus crops, some indi- viduals and groups had accumulated great wealth. Indeed, for several thousand years before the early modern era, merchants in China, southeast Asia, India, southwest Asia, the Mediterranean basin, and sub-Saharan Africa had pursued commercial ven- tures in hopes of realizing profits. Banks, investors, and insurance underwriters had supported privately organized commercial ventures throughout much of the eastern hemisphere since the postclassical era (500–1500 C.E.). Supply and Demand During early modern times, however, European merchants and entrepreneurs transformed their society in a way that none of their predecessors had done. The cap- italist economic order developed as businessmen learned to take advantage of market conditions by building efficient networks of transportation and communication. Dutch merchants might purchase cheap grain from Baltic lands such as Poland or Russia, for example, store it in Amsterdam until they learned about a famine in the Mediterranean, and then transport it and sell it in southern France or Spain. Their enormous profits fueled suspicions that they took advantage of those in difficulty, but their activities also supplied hungry communities with the necessities of life, even if the price was high. Private parties organized an array of institutions and services to support early capi- talism. Banks, for example, appeared in all the major commercial cities of Europe: they held funds on account for safekeeping and granted loans to merchants or entrepre- neurs launching new business ventures. Banks also published business newsletters— ben06937.Ch24_630-663.qxd 7/13/07 10:58 AM Page 651 CHAPTER 24 | The Transformation of Europe 651 The Old Stock Exchange of Amsterdam, depicted here in a painting of the mid-seventeenth century, attracted merchants, investors, entrepreneurs, and businessmen from all over Europe. There they bought and sold shares in joint-stock companies such as the VOC and dealt in all manner of commodities traded in Amsterdam. forerunners of the Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine—that provided readers with reports on prices, information about demand for commodities in distant markets, and political news that could have an impact on business. Insurance companies miti- gated financial losses from risky undertakings such as transoceanic voyages. Stock ex- changes arose in the major European cities and provided markets where investors could buy and sell shares in joint-stock companies and trade in other commodities as well. Joint-stock companies were especially important institu