First Big Changes In Culture And Commerce Essay

I. The First Big Changes: Culture and Commerce
A. The Italian Renaissance
1. The Renaissance moves Northward- Renaissance faded in Italy and moved north. Which began the Northern Renaissance.
2. Changes in technology and family- New technology was introduced and family structure started to change.
a. Northern humanists were more religious, they tried to mix secular with Christian devotion. This also caused political change. Yet it was not that impactful. The poor were barely affected, the economic life stayed mostly the same.
b. Due to new contacts in trading they improved pulleys, pumps in mines. As well as the introduction of printing. As for the families it changed to European style families. People got married later which emphasized the importance of the relationship. Along with most people not being able to

marry until they had access to land.

B. The Protestant and Catholic Reformations
1. The End of Christian Unity in the West- This was a time of religious wars between the Protestant and Catholic Reformations.
2. The commercial revolution- European trade increased, which allowed for more goods to be available.
a. This was a time of many religious wars such as the war in France solved by the edict of Nantes, the Thirty Years’ War, which was settled by the Treaty of Westphalia, and the English Civil War. This made it so that religious issues took over European politics. This affected later on the popular beliefs of the people.
b. Inflation and colonial opportunities allowed for there to be great trading companies. Even though this was happening people still made food just for themselves. This increased prosperity for the merchants and other people as well. And by the end of the century the people were mostly well in terms of finance.

C. Social Protest
1. Science and Politics: The Next Phase of Change and Copernicus- New scientific discoveries and political forms took place. This also showed the impact that reformation and commercialization had.
2. Science: The new authority- This was an important time where scientific discoveries and theories took place.
a. This was the time of the Scientific Revolution where science was affecting intellectual life. The first person to really start this off was Copernicus who discovered that the planets moved around the sun rather than the earth. So ever since his discovery and others during this time it helped for science to take an important role in Western intellectual life.
b. This was a time of discoverers such as Galileo (laws of gravity and the movement of the planets), John Harvey (movement of blood), Rene Descartes (human reason), and Isaac Newtown (motion). This was where people started to explain the natural world with simple laws. Which in turn caused a cultural transformation for Western Europe. Who was now leading in scientific advances.

D. Absolute and Parliamentary Monarchies
1. The Nation-State- The absolute and parliamentary monarchies shared characteristics with nation-states.
2. Political Patterns- Political changes seemed to be very insignificant.
a. They ruled over people who shared a common culture and language. This helped for them to have some kind of link with their cultural and political bonds. This in turn led to the people believing that the government had a responsibility to help them out when they needed it.
b. English politics was parliamentary, France was an absolute monarchy they did change but it ended up making them less effective. Europe had more political development. Prussia had Frederick the Great who introduced the idea of an even more unrestricted form of religion, expanding economic functions as well as better agricultural methods.

E.

Enlightenment Thought and popular culture
1. Ongoing Change in commerce and manufacturing- This was a time of changes in popular cultural and intellectual life.
2. Innovation and instability- Various changes occurring during this time came together in the Western civilization.
a. Westerners started to buy processed foods, there was an increase in paid professional entertainment. Agriculture also started to change. They left behind the Middle Age way of farming and they were now draining swamps to add more land, along with spreading the potato. Now enlightened leaders were promoting the potato. This helped increased manufacturing and capitalism began to spread. This was the start of the Industrial Revolution. These changes helped the population and changed their way of life.
b. They started to have stronger governments who supported agricultural changes. This helped the population to grow. The changes in popular beliefs were replaced with economic structures. Such as changes in the family and roles of the children. Now children had less restraint from adults and were shown worth as an individual, they had parental love, and careful

education.