Universal History mid-term test content

The Crusades

By the time of the First Crusade, Islam had made alarming gains throughout the Middle East,
North Africa, and even into the Europe itself. Moslems had occupied the Holy Lands by the end of
the 7th century, and had built the Dome of the Rock in c. 700 A.D. on top of one of the most sacred
sites in Judaism. In the 8th century, Moslem armies had gotten as far into the heart of Europe as
Tours, in modern day France, when they were finally checked in 732 A.D. by Charles Martel at the
battle of Tours.

Egyptian caliph Al-Hakim ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Islam
began chipping away at the Byzantine Empire, too. In 1071, Byzantine emperor Romanus IV
Diogenes was defeated and captured by the Turks at the Battle of Man-zikert. It was against this
backdrop that Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus appealed for help against the Seljuk
Turks to Pope Urban II in 1095 A.D.

Theological background

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) promulgated the idea of a “just war”, and indicated that it
was right for Christians to use violence in certain circumstances. Augustine mentioned that it is valid
to use violence against enemies of Christianity, as long as the motive isn’t revenge.

First Crusade (1095-1099)

In November of 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II gave a public speech calling
on Western Christians to give aid to their Eastern Christian brethren, who were under attack from
Moslem Turks. He also called for the liberation of Jerusalem, which had been under Moslem control
for 400 years. It is said that when Urban II finished his speech, the crowd as one shouted “God wills
it!” Many in the crowd vowed to “take up the cross” on the spot, and had pieces of red cloth pinned
to their shirts in the shape of the cross (the red-cross would later be a symbol of many of the
crusader knights, including the Knights Templar).

Peasant’s Crusade

Sometime previous to pope proclamation, Peter became fanatical about seizing back the
Holy Lands for Christendom when he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands two years before the first
Crusade, and observed the poor conditions under which Christians lived. Peter called simple people
to join the crusade called by the pope, so he formed a ragtag pious army of 20,000 people to regain
the Holly Land. When they finally arrived at Constantinople, the emperor recommended that they
wait for the crusader army to follow, but they refused, and struck out for the Holy Land. In short
order, they were decimated by the Turks near Nicaea. Peter the Hermit escaped prison or death by
Muslims.

First Crusade (1095-1099)

 In August 1096, a vast Crusader army began the long trek from Europe to Constantinople.
All of them took the overland route, except for Raymond of Toulouse, who crossed the Adriatic Sea
with his army. The vast armies of 30,000 to 150,000 people used Constantinople as a staging area.
Byzantine emperor Alexius I promised them his support in return for a pledge from the Crusaders
that any heretofore Byzantium land seized back from the Moslems would be returned to Byzantine
control.

In 1097, a Crusader army, 43,000 strong, captured Nicaea, capital of Seljuk sultan, and
dutifully returned it to the control of the Byzantine emperor. In 1098, though, Baldwin of Boulogne
occupied Edessa, and created the first Latin kingdom in the Holy Lands. Antioch fell soon after to
the Crusader army, and became the second Frankish kingdom. On June 1099, the Crusader army
encamped before the greatest prize of all, Jerusalem.

In the five-week siege, the Crusader army suffered severe losses, and was short of just about
everything needed to be successful – water, food, and wood for building siege engines. Repeated
attacks against the well-defended walls of Jerusalem failed. Then Peter the Hermint made a
courageous speech to raise crusader moral to defeat Muslims exhorting the Crusaders to put aside
their differences and work together to take Jerusalem based on a dream he had and the crusader
with the cry rising up from the Crusader army, “God wills it!” conquered the city in two more days.

A pair of quotes of the moment described: ‘Soon our army overran the whole city, seizing gold and
silver, horses and mules, and houses full of riches of all kinds. All our men came rejoicing and weeping for joy,
to worship at the church of the Holy Sepulcher’ and ‘our men rode in the blood of the Saracens up to the
knees of their horses’.

After the huge Crusader victories, most of the crusaders returned home to Europe, leaving
Godfrey and other leaders to defend the Holy Lands with just a few thousand troops. Among the
defenders that stayed were the military orders.

The military orders

The military orders were compound of a new order of men, they were warrior monk. Three
important groups existed, the Knight Templars, the Knights Hospitalers, and the Teutonic Knights.

The Knights Templar were founded in 1118 A.D., to protect pilgrim routes to the Holy Lands.
The operated out of what they believed were the ruins of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem
(hence the name, Knights Templar.) they became nominal Cistercians (1128) and answered only to
the pope. Over 20,000 Knight Templars estimated died in the Crusades. In time, the Templars
established local offices (called Temples) throughout Western Christendom. They started what is
considered by many to be the first European banking system, and it was their involvement as
bankers that eventually led to their downfall in 1312 backed by King Philip IV of France who owned
them great sums of money. After the Templars were dissolved, the French crown received
cancellation of all debts owed to the Templars, as well as much of their monetary wealth. At their
peak in the 13th century, it is estimated that the Templars owned 9000 castles and manor houses,
and had 20,000 members.

The Knights of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, or the Knights Hospitalers
meant to man hospital in the Holy Land. The Hospitalers started out in Jerusalem, then moved to
Acre (1187), Cyprus (1291), Rhodes (1310) and finally Malta (1530). They were forced out of Malta
in 1798 by Napoleon I, but still exist today as the Knights of Malta.

The Teutonic Knights of Saint Mary's Hospital at Jerusalem, made up of German nobles,
were a third military order formed during the Crusades, founded at Acre in 1190. The Teutonic
Knights wore distinctive white tunics with black crosses.

Second Crusade (1145-1148)

On December 24, 1144, the Turks seized the city of Edessa, and murdered all of the
inhabitants. It was the first major loss of a territory won by the Crusader armies in the First Crusade.
In 1145, the Pope issued a bull, authorizing a new Crusade. When the bull was not greeted with
great enthusiasms by either French or German nobles, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), the
greatest churchman of his era, began preaching and writing in favor of the new crusade. Up to
50,000 volunteers responded to the call from France, alone. But Germans also joined it. The two
most significant military leaders of the Second Crusade were the kings of France and of Germany;
the two kings hated each other, but decided to go if the other one would also participate. The
crusaders were defeated. One bright spot from the Second Crusades: a Crusader army helped take
Lisbon from the Moslems in 1147. The driving force behind the Second Crusade was Bernard of
Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk. He was later canonized by the pope.

Third Crusade (1187–1192)

England and France were at war with each other, and not focused on the Holy Lands, where
the Latin Kingdom was losing terrain under Saladin’s attack, the greatest foe of the crusaders. In two
years, Saladin took 50 Crusader castles. The Pope called for help and the kings of England, France
and Germany joined for the crusade. The Crusade got off to an unfortunate start when king of
Germany died in June 1190, drowned in a river on his way to the Holy Lands. The Third Crusade,
while not as effective as the First Crusade, was the first significant gain (or reclamation) of territory
by the Christian Crusaders in 100 years. Richard I of England cemented his place in history as the
greatest of the Crusader kings with previous crusader king Godfrey of Bouillon of France.

Fourth Crusade (1202-1204)

Easily the most shameful of all the Holy Land crusades, the Fourth Crusade ended with no
gains in the Holy Lands, but it captured a small Greek town on the Adriatic Sea, Zara, and twice
sacked Constantinople. In 1198, the Pope called for a new Crusade, and offered a remission of sins,
and “a greater share of eternal salvation”. To help finance the Crusade, the Pope established a
similar tax than the modern income tax. The Fourth Crusade made a contract with the Venetian
Doge for transportation to the Holy Lands by ship (eliminating the painful 2000 mile overland
journey via Constantinople). When the time came to transport the 30,000 man Crusader Army, the
Crusaders had only half of the required fees. The Doge offered to let the Crusaders earn part of their
passage by capturing a rival commercial city, Zara in Dalmatia, a Christian city.

Alexius, son of the former Byzantine emperor Isaac Angelus, asked the Crusaders to help
restore his father to the throne, in return for money and supplies. It was the single greatest mistake
in the long history of Constantinople. The Crusader army took Constantinople in July 1203.
Crusaders were not paid by their new appointed Emperor of Byzantine. The emperor died in a plot
of local rivals and then the Crusader willing to claim their payment stormed for second time
Constantinople and looted it and a count of Flanders was crowned new Byzantine emperor.

Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229)

The Fourth Crusade had established the unfortunate precedent of launching crusades
against fellow Christians. By the early part of the 13th century, much of Southern France had been
heavily influenced by a group of nominal Christians with Gnostic philosophies named the Cathars.
Like their Gnostic forebears, the Ca-thars were dualists – they believed that there were two creator
Gods – a pure God that created the hea-vens and things spiritual, and an Evil God that created all
things physical and temporal. They generally associated the Evil God with the God of the Old
Testament. The Albigensian Crusade (so named, because the French city of Albi was a Cathar
stronghold), lasted for 20 years, from 1209 to 1229, was led primarily by Simon de Montfort. The
suppression of the Cathar heresy established new “standards” for ferocity for the Roman Church in
dealing with its own flock when the city of Beziers was sacked, with over 20,000 men, women and
children killed by crusaders.

Children’s Crusade (1212-1213)

In the summer of 1212, thousands (close to 30,000) of children (ages 10-18), mostly from
France and Germany, left for the Holy Lands to recapture Jerusalem. Most of the “crusaders” never
reached the Holy Llands. Many died crossing the Alps. Others were cap-tured and sold as slaves.
Some girls ended up in Roman brothels. Few of the crusaders ever returned home. While the
Children’s Crusade was an unmitigated disaster, Pope Innocent III used it as a positive example when
calling for a new Crusade in 1215.

Fifth Crusade (1217-1221)

The goal of the Fifth Crusade: strike a blow against the Moslem power centers in Egypt, and
eventually reclaim Jerusalem.
300 German ships took the Crusaders to the Holy Lands in 1218. After a long siege, the
Crusaders captured the Egyptian port of Damietta, in the mouth of the Nile. In 1221, the Crusaders
headed up the Nile, but the invasion failed when the sultan flooded the low-lying lands of the Nile,
threatening the Crusaders position. St. Francis of Assisi crossed enemy lines to preach to the Moslem
sultan. The preaching was not successful, but the sultan returned Francis safely to Crusader lines.

Sixth Crusade (1228-1229)

Frederick, king of Germany, although excommunicated for not coming in Crusade before,
sailed for the Holy Lands with a crusader army in 1228. Instead of fighting the Moslems, he went
into Treaty negotiations with the Sultan of Egypt and, astonishingly, was granted Jerusalem, Jaffa,
Bethlehem, and Nazareth (Treaty of Jaffe, February 1229). On March 17, 1229, Frederick II marched
into Jerusalem, and soon claimed the title King of Jerusalem.

Seventh Crusade (1248-1250)

The last two Crusades would be led by Louis IX, later Saint Louis. Like Saladin before him, St.
Louis was a leader honored by both sides in the Crusades. St. Louis may have been the most honestly
pious of all the Crusader kings.

In 1249, Louis IX led his forces against Damietta, Egypt, a port on the Nile. Like in the Fifth
Crusade, the Crusader armies captured the port, and then moved into the interior of Egypt, with
Cairo their target. In 1250, after initial successes, Louis IX and his forces were defeated at the Battle
of Mansourah, and surrendered.

Eighth Crusade (1267-1272)

In 1260, a new Moslem power arose in Egypt, when the Mamelukes, Turkish bodyguards of
the sultan, revolted and seized power. One of their number, Baibars, became the new sultan.

Louis IX gathered an army to, once again, recapture the lost parts of the Holy Lands. His army
never reached the Holy Lands, though – it was sidetracked into Tunis (1270), when Louis heard an
(erroneous) report that the Moslem leader was willing to convert to Christianity if the Crusading
army would help protect him from his subjects.
The stillborn Crusade was trapped in Carthage, and soon was decimated by typhus,
dysentery, and plague. In August 1270, Louis himself died. In 1297, Louis IX was canonized by the
Pope.

The fall

By the late 13th century, the crusading spirit had waned, and no new major efforts were
made after the failure of the Eighth Crusade. Baibars died in 1271, but his successors continued his
aggressive strategy to reclaim the Holy Lands for the Moslems. The Crusading dream was over in
1291. Among the reasons for the fall are those:

1. The Christians fought each other and the Muslims

2. France against England (multiple times)
3. The papacy against the power of the Holy Roman Empire
4. Western Christianity vs. Eastern Christianity
5. There was never a “central command” of the Crusades, decisions were made by committee
among several powerful nobles
6. 2,100 miles from Paris to Jerusalem by land
7. 1,450 nautical miles from Genoa to Antioch
8. The Crusader were not used to the parched landscape of the Levant (lack of water)
9. Crusaders that choose to stay in the Holy Lands often became complacent and developed
lucrative relationships with Moslem neighbors.
10. XIII century, the last thing that they wanted to do was joining in a new Crusade.
11. The papacy could order Crusades, but couldn’t order European nobles to “take the cross”.
12. The Crusaders started out with the belief that they couldn’t lose, that “God was on their
side”.
13. After the disaster of the Second Crusade (and the Fifth, Seventh and Eight Crusades), many
people became disillusioned with the whole crusading concept, and refused to support new
efforts.
14. Various diseases – including dysentery, plague, typhoid – would decimate Crusader armies
at inopportune moments
15. The papacy couldn’t completely finance the crusades (even though the papacy several times
levied an income tax).
16. There was no economic reason to take and hold the Holy Lands
17. At a particularly low ebb for the Crusaders, after the failed Seventh and Eight Crusades in
the 13th century, a particularly energetic and virulent foe arose – the Mameluke Turks

Among the hypothesis concerning fruitful results for the Europeans are these:

1. it prevented Islam from further forays into the European heartland, as they tried in the 8th
century when they got as far as Tours
2. it strategic sense to take the battle to the home turf of the Moslem invaders of Europe
3. Even though Crusader armies twice sacked Constantinople, Islam didn’t take Constantinople
until 1453. It is unlikely that the Byzantine Empire, already creaky at the time of the First
Crusade, would have lasted that long without the Crusades.

The impact of the Crusades in Europe could be summarizing as:

1. Ended feudalism
2. Many serf died
3. Other serf did not return to Europe
4. Kings gained more power because many noblemen died (lost properties)
5. Increased East-West trade
6. Crusader wanted spices, new foods and products discovered in the Middle East
7. Many merchants became very rich
8. Money and banks became very important
9. By the end of the Crusades, the Pope was the clear ruler of Christendom, not the Holy
Roman Emperor, or another secular leader
10. An “income tax” concept was introduced and established.
11. The Crusades helped cause the rise of a middle class in Europe, as many non-nobles did well
supplying and transporting the Crusader armies
12. The Inquisition would be a “logical” outgrowth of the Albigensian Crusade in Languedoc,
France
 13. Cities became important
14. The trade with the East was made thru Mediterranean Sea
15. Cities along the trade route became very rich
16. Genoa and Venice developed very well financially as merchants made frequent trade.
17. Civilization advanced
18. Merchants brought Muslim discoveries, compass algebra, new ways to build ships, and
medicine knowledge, numbering system, poetry and literature
19. Opened the East and gave an opportunity to Italian traders (promoted the accumulation of
capital and furthered the early economic development of Italian republics)

The impact of the Crusades in the East could be summarizing as:

1. Increased slavery
2. Eventually cut East-West trade (Constantinople fall)

The impact of the Crusades in Africa could be summarizing as:

1. Increased slavery
2. The traditional city Medina got fortified
3. The warehouse got fortified, Qsar,

Capitalism

The feudal regime and the progress of capitalism

The word capital was first employed to designate a sum designed to be invested to bring in
an interest.
This is comparisons in space and in time of the accumulation of capital (the necessary
condition of capitalism), which in the Middle Ages was still sporadic and embryonic, and had to wait
to reach a proper organization levels in the in XIX and XX centuries.

The present day union of all these factors constitutes modern capitalism:

1. The expansion of international commerce

2. Flowering of a large scale industry
3. the triumph of machinery
4. Growing power of the great financial houses

It needed the condition of transformation in the whole organization of labor and in there
relations between employers and employees.
Between the V and the XIII centuries the economic life was almost solely rural and the towns
became fortresses and places of refuge, places where people escaped after the fall of the Roman
Empire and the subsequent invasion of Europe by eastern tribes. Town life fell away almost to
nothing. Industry and commerce were greatly restricted.
In the VIII century landed property alone survived Roman Empire. In the XIII century
capitalism was mainly, and almost solely, commercial capitalism. It was beginning to reach out and
to assume control over industrial activity. The places where it developed were Italy and the Low
Countries. The Land and the instruments of production are, like transferable securities, the source
of wealth (capital). The accumulation of capital became more and more accentuated with the
opening of the XVI century.
Arab conquests led to almost complete interrupt commercial activity. The constitution of
military nobility did break down some of the more rigid regulations of the old system (relative
triumph of individualism). Early XII century the rural areas were transformed partially because:
1. Clearings of land became more and more numerous.
2. The rural population no longer formed a compact and uniform mass.
3. Lay and ecclesiastical lords invited the occupants to cultivate them.
4. More liberal conditions of living were offered in order to hold their own serfs on the estates.

The first manifestations of capitalism in the city republics of Italy and in the Low Countries were:

1. maritime commerce with the Orient, following the Crusades, where they became middle
ports in the European commerce.
2. European fairs, Brie and Champagne, where traded directly with French, Flemish and English
cloths
3. exchanged and shipment of precious metals
4. supplied funds for enterprises
5. insured ships
6. received deposits
7. made loans secured by pledges and mortgages

The financial power of the Italian banker-capitalists was extended over the whole of
Western
Christendom to:

1. France
2. Spain
3. Portugal
4. England.

In that commercial capitalism:

1. the bankers got rich

2. the revenues accrued to the Holy See in all the countries of Christendom (Church was
everywhere receiving legacies and donations)
3. Through their branches, the banking houses were in position to collect these revenues; and
they were able to make advances of money
4. Holy See utilized many banks in its financial transactions
5. In 1263 (under the pontificate of Urban IV) the Florentines managed to supplant the Sienese
in this business
6. Noblemen borrowed large sums from them, granted certain important commercial
privileges and state monopolies

A so called domestic industry was developed in which:

 1. wool was bought abroad
2. numerous artisans participated in the process, among them were
1. weavers
2. fullers
3. dyers

And the cloth manufacturers were completely dependent on the first capitalist and woolen
industry engaged in producing for the export market on a large scale.
When merchant trading fell into decadence during XIV century, it was supplanted by the
manufacture of cloth. Cloth in turn flourished until the middle of the XV century.
In Italy in XVI century the silk industry came to the forefront and held that position until
close to the end of the XVI century, when France began to offer formidable competition. The
maritime powers of the West had already achieved first place in commercial affairs in this period.

The origins of capitalism

The origins of the capitalism the money-lending establishments were so numerous in the
Low Countries and did not confine their operations solely to financial affairs. The accumulation of
considerable capitals in the hands of the moneyed merchants was furthered by the growing practice
of borrowing on:

1. princes
2. cities (city halls)
3. ecclesiastical establishments
4. mere lords
5. middle class (bourgeois).

The high rates of interest were seldom less than 20-25% - 50-60%.

And the class of financiers, those who made money, was:

1. recruited from the financial functionaries of the princes (secular and ecclesiastical)
2. of Italian origin, at functionaries level, as the Italians had a great grasp of the technical
aspects of financial affairs.

Another great stimulus back then were the variety of specie which circulated and the
consequent necessity for creating means of changing and transferring money, even in a small area.
Subsequently, everywhere a great number of money changers appeared particularly in places where
international commerce was carried on; a system for money changing was nowhere more important
than in the great fairs of Champagne, where merchants congregated from all over Europe.
It was at these fairs (around the XIII century) that the practice developed of using the lettre
de foire and bill of exchange appeared, at first, accounts were settled in cash, but subsequently a
credit system developed, first developed at the Lyons fairs, but It was further perfected at the
Spanish fairs and the fairs at Genoa. Thus it was at the fairs that merchandise and money ceased to
be objects of consumption and became capital. Those engaged in financial operations did not
constitute a wholly independent group during the Middle Ages.
The maritime commerce played a role analogous to that of the fairs. In the XIII century,
foreign exchange operations were carried on at Bruges on a smaller scale than at the fairs of
Champagne. Antwerp became the great center of international trade and exchange at the end of
the XV century and in the XVI and the Antwerp Bourse came to constitute a permanent fair. In the
Low Countries at least, the system of public borrowing was not favorable to the development of a
financial group in the community. The case in most countries; for, beginning, the progress of the
princely states contributed in high degree to the development of financial capitalism. Princes were
forced to turn to the men of wealth for funds to finance:

1. their administrative operations

2. their political undertakings
3. and, above, all their wars.

In return the princes conceded monopoly privileges the right to lend money against pledges
(the original Lombard-houses or pawnshops).
Fairly close relations can be traced between the evolution of the state and that of capitalism.
The mechanism of the exchanges and borrowings of the princely states involved lending at interest,
for instance.
The force of circumstances would bring recognition of the practice in the legislation of the
various states. The commercial societies developed in Italy, these were the forerunners of the
corporation which has played such a great part in the genesis and evolution of modern capitalism.
Joint stock companies, as we know them, did not really develop until the XVII century.
Those commercial societies took two forms:
1. the société en commandite (limited joint stock company, undertaking of commercial
operations on a larger scale)
2. the société en nom collectif (company under a collective name, common interests of a
family)

They were formed in Italy and in Portugal later. They created sea loans and maritime
insurance (end of the middle Ages), the practice of insurance spread to the other maritime countries
of Europe.
The elaboration of commercial law started with “private” insurance alone existed at first, but
insurance companies did not originate until the XVII century, when greater risks were very obvious
to war and long distance journeys. The financial transactions were:
1. exchange operations
2. speculation in ground rents
3. the advancing of sums to individuals (princes)

Those persons saw also the marriages of families (politic-money) to ensure economical
grow. The most important financial organizations developed during the Middle Ages were those
with connections in various countries, like the Italian banks that had branches in numerous countries
who money exchanged articles and Lombards who were found throughout the Christian world and
in the principal cities throughout northwest Europe of the Hanseatic League.

The XVI century commerce and colonial expansion

The most fruitful sources of modern capitalism have been the great maritime discoveries
- Portuguese into the Indian Ocean:
- Java
 - Sumatra
- Moluccas
The New World was part of a trade of:
- cotton - silk
- spices - sugar
- dye - woods
- cabinet woods - indigo
- coffee - tobacco

The first European traders realized enormous profits, sometimes in excess of 200 or 300 %;
flood of wealth poured into Europe, but it was based on forced labor in their colonies. The colonial
commerce lived enormously on the exploitation of the native populations.
This lucrative commerce led to:
- perfecting of established commercial practices
- the development of new trade methods
- the creation of an elaborate maritime code

The commercial and colonial expansion

The manufacturing industry (woolen industry) contributed much less to the expansion of
capitalism than did maritime and colonial commerce. The end of the XVII century, great numbers of
new companies were springing up:
- metallurgical industries
- textile industry
- paper manufacture

The XVII century: England

England made island occupations in:

- Barbados in 1605
- Bermudas in 1612
- Saint Christophern in 1622–24
- Jamaica in 1655.

The need for laborers in the sugar islands led to establishment of slavery. In 1618 the Guinea
Company was organized to carry on the slave trade.
In 1606 King James I issued the patent under the great seal, generally called the first Virginia
Charter, granting privileges to two groups, the London and Plymouth Companies. Later came the
New England settlements.
- The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620
- Boston was founded ten years later.
- in 1667, Holland ceded New Amsterdam, which was renamed New York.

The English also made a vigorous drive toward the East Indies in the first half of the XVII
century.
- In 1600 the first East India Company was founded
- in 1622 this was transformed into a corporation
- Several settlements were established in India:
 - Surate, in 1609
- Madras in 1639
- Hougly in 1650
- Bombay, in 1665.

The English were not able to dislodge the Dutch either from the islands of the Indian Ocean
or the Moluccas.
The political troubles which marked the reign of Charles I and the period of the
Commonwealth retarded the rate of England’s maritime and colonial expansion

The progress of capitalism in the XIX century

It would be a grave error to think that capitalism held a predominant place in the economic
organization at the beginning of the XIX century, even in those countries where the economic
evolution had progressed fastest.

The character of industrial capitalism

It was not in the industries in the XVIII where the machine had been farthest developed that
the enterprises tended to take on a capitalistic form. On the contrary, it was in those which, by their
very nature, called for heavy expenditures for equipment and operations, the mining industry, and
especially the coal industry. Only companies possessing considerable resources were able to
introduce the necessary technical improvements such as the making of borings, the opening of
galleries and air shafts for ventilation, the pumping of water from the pits, improvements which
required large capital if they were to be carried out scientifically. The use of steam engines was also
spreading in the mining industry.
The development of industry and the introduction of machinery did lead to the growth of
specialization; and the different operations of manufacturing gave rise to specialized
establishments.
Commercial activities came to be subordinated to those of manufacturing at this point, as a result
of the development of large scale operations in industry. The important industrialist reached out to
find new outlets for his products and to become an important trader on his own account.

The triumph of capitalism prepared by the transformation of means of communication

It was the transformation in the means of communication during the first half of the XIX
century which opened the way for the triumph of capitalism during the second half of the century.
The economic consequences of the revolution occasioned by the development of steam navigation
and the railroad did not make themselves felt until the latter half of the century. The influence of
the new means of communication was still more marked in Germany than in France. The changes
created by improved transportation proved even tardier in Russia and in all Eastern Europe.

Capitalism and the abolition of slavery

The abolition of slavery was a product of the philanthropic sentiments and liberal ideas so
strongly manifested during the French Revolution.
 Yet it appears also that the abolition movement was more or less directly related to the
progress of capitalism. The influence of the principles of the Revolution and the action of certain
English protestant sects were important. But did not the progress of large scale industry also
demand the growth of a labor force freed from all servile obligations. Also, a person who can acquire
no property can have no other interest but to eat as much and to labor as little as possible.