Following the European Renaissance a New Type of Government Emerged

© Lorri Mealey Jun 16, 2007

Absolutism, or an Absolute Monarchy is based on the idea that monarchs have divine rights, and do not need to answer to parliament or their nobility.Following the Renaissance in Western Europe, two new types of governments evolved: Constitutional State and Absolute Monarchy. These two forms of government would become the model for emerging nations in both North and South America.

Power of the Absolute MonarchAbsolutism, or an absolute state, is based on the idea that kings (or queens, as the case may be) have divine rights and answer only to God. They do not need to heed advice of parliament, the estates general or the nobility. This ultimate political power gave monarchs jurisdiction over every aspect of the lives of their citizens. An absolute monarch regulated taxation and national spending, government, and religious sects. Absolute rulers also maintained standing armies, something that was impossible during the Middle Ages and much of the Renaissance, due to lack of hard coin. In many areas, absolute rulers began limiting personal freedoms of certain groups, such as the Jews. They also limited the power existing legislative bodies, such as the English Parliament or the French Estates General.

Alliance is the Key to PowerOne main reason absolute monarchs were able to gain such unprecedented power was through mutual alliances with either the middle class, as was the case in France, or with the nobility, as they did in Spain. Absolute monarchs established bureaucracies to help run the day-to-day business of government. They selected loyal subjects to act as bureaucrats and these men reported directly to the monarch. French kings selected middle class men to run the government business, while Spain, having driven out most of the Jewish and Muslim middle class during the Inquisition, appointed nobles.

France & SpainFrance has long been touted as the perfect example of Absolutism. During the very end of the sixteenth century, under the reign of Henry IV (Henry Navarre) and later Cardinal Richelieu, the power of the French throne lasted up until the French Revolution.While France’s monarchy was strengthened during the seventeenth century, Spain’s political dominance began to wane. During the end of the Renaissance, beginning in the mid sixteenth century, the powerful Hapsburg family rose to power, dominating European politics. Fueled in large party by massive amounts of gold and silver from their new colonies in the Americas, Spanish monarchs were able to maintain a standing army, (recall the “invisible” Spanish Armada) establish a well regulated government bureaucracy and collect national taxes.

Absolutism in Other Parts of Western EuropeIn England, the English Civil War was brought on, in part, by the fear that King Charles I was attempting to establish an absolute monarchy. The same fears resurfaced following the civil war, when King Charles II attempted to rule without Parliament. In Denmark-Norway, absolutism was a firmly entrenched idea, as it was in Russia, where it was upheld until the twentieth century, far outlasting every other Absolute Monarchy.Sources: A History of World Societies Third Edition 1992

© Susan Harrison May 8, 2006

The Columbian Exchange--the exchange of European products to the Americas and vice-versa--invites discussion and evokes controversy to this day.

The Columbian Exchange is one of the most significant results of the Age of Exploration and the First Global Age. Food products, livestock and diseases are but three elements of the Columbian

Exchange.As Columbus "discovered America" and Western Europe discovered the various economic

opportunities available in the New World, agricultural exchanges between the two regions led to exchanges of other items. Within decades of Columbus' voyages, the trans Atlantic slave trade had

begun and hundreds of thousands of native Americans died of diseases brought to America by Europeans and Africans.

The early Spanish conquistadors brought gunpowder and the horse to America as well as the Catholic Christian Church. Indeed, the conquistadors brought priests with them and established missions such as St. Augustine, San Diego and San Antonio. The Spanish also brought African

slaves to work on sugar plantations.New foods for both Europe and the Americas was a major part of the Columbian Exchange. The Americas provided such new foods as corn, the potato, the tomato, peppers, pumpkins, squash,

pineapples, cacao beans (for chocolate) and the sweet potato. Also, such animals as turkeys, provided a new food source for Europeans. Tobacco, an American product, was also carried to

Europe.From Europe, the Americas were introduced to such livestock as cattle, pig and sheep as well as grains such as wheat. African products introduced to the Americas included items originally from Asia were brought to the west by European traders and African slaves. These items included the

onion, citrus fruits, bananas, coffee beans, olives, grapes, rice and sugar cane.More negative items introduced to the Americas were diseases. Smallpox, influenza, malaria,

measles, typhus and syphilis were brought to the Americas as a part of the Columbian Exchange. Also, African slavery was introduced by the Spanish as native Americans were decimated by these

diseases.While many elements of the Columbian Exchange can be considered positive--new food supplies,

livestock and better diets--negative aspects include diseases which wiped out American populations, the African slave trade and eventual conquest of the Americas by Western European

nations.Western European History Home

http://weuropeanhistory.suite101.com/articles.cfm

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels edited by Robert Kerr

Suspicious Behavior of the Natives on our Return to Kfira kakooa Bay Theft on Board the Discovery and its Consequences The Pinnace attacked and the Crew obliged to quit her Captain Cook's Observations on the Occasion Attempt at the Observatory The Cutter of the Discovery stolen Measures taken by Captain Cook for its Recovery Goes on Shore to invite the King on Board The King being stopped by his Wife and the Chiefs a Contest arises News arrives of one of the Chiefs being killed by one of our People Ferment on this Occasion One of the Chiefi threatens Captain Cook and is shot by him General Attack by the Natives Death of Captain Cook Account of the Captain's Services and a Sketch of his Character

Early Colonies During the Age of Exploration

Jamestown

How did the colonists take over so easily?Native populations of the Americas lacked immunity to the infectious

diseases that had ravaged Europe and Asia for centuries. Sparse populations on the Plains, and in the pristine valleys of the Rocky Mountains, prevented a

buildup of communicable diseases. The "white man" diseases…measles, chicken pox, typhus, typhoid fever, dysentery, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and

after 1832, cholera…were devastating to the American Indian. Lumped together, these diseases did not equal the havoc of smallpox in terms

of number of deaths, realignment of tribal alliances, and subsequent changes in Canadian and American Indian Cultures.  African slaves were used on the

sugar plantation of the West Indies, and with them came smallpox. The first of these

slaves were brought by Columbus. In 1495, fifty-seven to eighty percent of the native population of Santa Domingo and in 1515, two-thirds of the Indians of Puerto Rico were wiped out by smallpox. Ten years after Cortez arrived in

Mexico, the native population had been reduced from twenty-

five million to six million five hundred thousand a reduction of seventy-four percent. Even

the most conservative estimates place the deaths from smallpox above sixty-five percent (Bray).

What was the reason and result of the rebellion of natives against the Explorers. What did the explorers do about it and how did the result of this affect future events…

Brainstorm:

Make a cartoon/poster that outlines an affect of

the age of exploration.