UNIT 6

THE EARLY MODERN

PERIOD
THE MODERN STATE, HUMANISM
AND THE RENAISSANCE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD ........................................................................................................... 2
2 POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS ................................... 2
2.1 The birth of the modern state: the authoritarian monarchies. ..............................................................................2
2.2 Demographic, social and economic transformations .................................................................................................3
3 THE GREAT GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES ........................................................................... 3
3.1 Causes of the discoveries .....................................................................................................................................................................3
3.2 Portuguese expeditions ...........................................................................................................................................................................4
3.3 Castilla discovers a new continent: the discovery of America ..........................................................................4
3.4 The distribution of the world between Castilla and Portugal and further explorations .............4
4 HUMANISM: A NEW WAY OF THINKING ................................................................................... 4
5 RELIGIOUS CHANGES: REFORMATION AND COUNTER-REFORMATION. ........ 5
5.1 Causes of the Protestant Reformation .......................................................................................................................................5
5.2 Martin Luther’s rupture.................................................................................................................................................................................5
5.3 Other protestant movements: Calvinism and Anglicanism ......................................................................................6
5.4 The Counter-Reformation: the Catholic Reformation ..................................................................................................6
6 THE ART OF THE RENAISSANCE...................................................................................................... 6
6.1 Architecture ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................7
6.2 Sculpture .................................................................................................................................................................................................................7
6.3 Painting ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................7

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From mid-15th century  Great transformations across Europe.
- Geographical discoveries  Greater known world for the Europeans. Exploration of Africa, America
and Asia. Spain (Castilla) and Portugal begin great empires.
- Political changes:
o End of Byzantine Empire (1453)
o Authoritarian monarchies  End of feudal monarchies.
- Economic changes  Birth of commercial capitalism (based on the accumulation of capital through
trade and exploitation of colonies), instead of feudal economy (based on possession of land).
- Social changes  Increasing importance of the bourgeoisie, even though the privileged estates
remain.
- Religious changes  Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation.
- Cultural changes  Humanism. Re-discovery of Classical antiquity. New philosophical and scientific
perspectives. Anthropocentrism.
- Artistic changes  Renaissance.

 NEW HISTORICAL PERIOD  MODERN AGE (1453/92-1789)

Late 15th-early 16th centuries  Age of discoveries (Renaissance, Early Modern Period, etc.)
17th century  Baroque period.
18th century  Absolutism and Enlightenment.

From medieval to authoritarian monarchies  Concentration of powers in the king.

- Reinforcement of his power over his reign.
- Imposition over the nobility.
- Limitation of the autonomy of municipalities.
 Modern State.

Mostly in France, England and the Iberian Peninsula. Germany and Italy, on the other hands, were split into
many different entities (unified only in the 19 th century).

Different instruments for securing power:

- Unification of territories:
o Unification and expansion through wars and marriage allegiances.
o Then, standardisation of the laws throughout the kingdom.
- All powers under its authority: over the nobility, less autonomy to municipalities (appointing
representatives), little use of the Parliaments, etc.
- Improvement of the administration and the army:
o Permanent court  Capital of the state.
o Bureaucracy: civil servants for executing orders.
o Ordinary taxes: regular income for the state.
o Permanent army.
o Diplomacy: new diplomacy, foreign policy and permanent ambassadors.

THE GREAT STATES:

- Western Europe:
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 o France: Valois dynasty. With Louis XI, end of influence of the Dukes of Aquitaine, Brittany and
Burgundy after the end of the Hundred-Year War in 1453.
o England: Civil war (War of the Roses) after the defeat in the Hundred-Year War between the
house of York and house of Lancaster for the throne of the Plantagenet dynasty. Henry VII
(Lancastrian) put the end to the conflict in 1485 and the beginning to the Tudor dynasty.
- Iberian Peninsula.
o Aragón and Castilla  1479  Dynastic union (Reyes Católicos). 1512: Navarra annexed.
o Portugal (Avis dynasty).
- Eastern Europe: Ottoman expansion in the Balkans. Principality of Moscow.

Recovery in the 15th century after the crisis of the 14th century:
- Agrarian and demographic growth:
o Improved harvests, eradication of the plague (Black Death), relative peace  45 to 70 million
inhabitants during the 15th century.
o Agriculture: still the base of economy.
o Urban growth  Agrarian and commercial growth.
- Commercial growth: land trade, sea routes (Mediterranean, Baltic, North Sea, etc.)
o Growth with the geographical discoveries, and new products (tobacco, coffee, etc.). Also,
slave trade from Africa to the Caribbean.
o Banking: development of banking practices, circulation of currencies, etc.
o Stimulus for the higher bourgeoisie  Commercial (merchant) capitalism.
 Power  Capital, not land.
- Social changes: society was still based on the estates of the realm, but reflecting the economic
changes.
o Privileged estates (nobility and clergy)  Kept privileges, but lost political power.
o Non-privileged estates:
 High bourgeoisie: greater economic power (trading and banking) and higher status.
They imitated the nobility (customs, uses, etc.).
 Other urban groups: minor artisans, merchants, wage workers, etc.
 Peasants:
 West: freed from serfdom  Work their own land, wage-earners or to cities.
 East: Still serfdom.

- Political  Post-Reconquest in the Iberian Peninsula  Expansionism.

o Kings: expansion as way of demonstrating their glory and power over the medieval
institutions.
- Economic  New trade routes to Sudan, India and China, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 in
the hands of the Ottoman Turks (important presence in the Eastern Mediterranean).
- Scientific and geographic  Diffusion ideas of spherical Earth, from Classical antiquity  Belief in
the possibility of reaching Asia going westwards.
- Technical  Improvements in cartography, sailing tools (compass, astrolabe) and ships (caravel,
carracks, etc.).
- Religious Expansion of Christianity.
- Ideological  More adventurous mentality  Travellers’ narrations.
o Scientific perspective: demonstrating the accuracy of ancient texts.

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Middle 15th century  Price Henry the Navigator  Promoted expeditions.
Purpose: gain access to Sudan (gold supplies) and reach India circumnavigating Africa.

Madeira, Azores and Cape Verde

1460  Gulf of Guinea.
1479  Treaty of Alcaçovas: Castilla gains the right of conquering the Canary Islands, while Portugal could
explore the African coast.
1488  Bartolomeu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope.
1498  Vasco da Gama reached India.
Control over African and Asian coasts  Gold and slaves from Sudan, spices from India and silk from China.

Christopher Columbus: Genovese sailor.

Convince of the possibility of reaching Asia going towards the West, but shorter radius of the Earth
(Toscanelli map)  Round Earth.
He presented the project to Portugal (rejected) and then to Isabel I de Castilla  April 1492:
Capitulations of Santa Fe (recognising Columbus’s privileges in case of success).
3 August 1492  Puerto de Palos (Huelva). Stopped in the Canary Islands.
12 October 1492  Guanahaní (San Salvador, Bahamas). He explored the Caribbean (Cuba, Hispaniola, etc.).
He did three more voyages around the Caribbean, but he always thought he was in India.

Rivalry Castilla Vs Portugal  Need of avoiding conflicts  Treaty of Tordesillas (1494).

Division of the newly discovered territories along a meridian 370 degrees west of Cape Verde  Portugal
East, Castilla West.
Main consequence: Brazil was Portuguese.

16th century: the Hispanic monarchs granted ‘licenses to explore’ to other sailors:
- 1513: Vasco Núñez de Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean after crossing the Isthmus of Panama.
- 1519-21: Fernando de Magallanes (Magellan) and Juan Sebastián Elcano looked for the access
between the Atlantic and the Pacific. After Magallanes’s death, Elcano completed the first
circumnavigation of the Earth and demonstrated that the Earth was round.

DEFINITION: Humanism was a cultural or intellectual movement

- began in Italy in the 15th century.
- based on
o admiration of Classical antiquity.
o anthropocentrism.
 Classical antiquity: admiration of Greece and Rome.
o Greek and Roman texts  Re-discovered, studied and followed.
o Inspiration for philosophy, literature, art, science, etc.
 Anthropocentrism:
o Reaction against the theocentric (God as centre) model of the Middle Ages.
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 o Humankind as centre, and human values  knowledge of the world from experience,
reason and individualism  Scientific and technical progress.
 Also, search for earthly honour, fame, prestige and power.

SPREAD:
 Printing press  1448, Gutenberg. It allowed mechanical means of reproducing texts, and in
series through moveable metallic types for each letter. It implied an increase in book production
and the diffusion of ideas.
 Academies and schools  “Studia Humanitatis”
o Literature, History, Rethoric, Natural Philosophy, Arithmetic, Modern Languages.

MOVEMENTS:
 Philological and philosophical: translation and analysis of Classical texts. Machiavelli and
Petrarca (ITA)
 Religious: Erasmus of Rotterdam (HOL) and Thomas More (UK)
 Science: observation of reality and independent reasoning.
o Copernicus  Heliocentrism (Sun centre of our Galaxy).
o Paracelsus  first modern doctor.
o Vesalius  father of modern anatomy.

End of religious union in Western Europe  Protestant Reformation.

Catholic Counter-Reformation  Catholic Church Vs protestant churches.

Reformation:
Religious movement.
in Europe.
in the 16th century.
which resulted in the division of Christendom  Appearance of protestant Christian churches.

CAUSES:
Loss of prestige of Papacy and clergy: lack of ethical behaviour.
- Luxury.
- Selling and buying positions (and nepotism).
- Indulgences.
- Abuses of power by the Church.

1517  Martin Luther (German monk)  “95 Theses”  Against:

 Authority of the Pope
 Corruption in the Church
 Indulgences (Money given to the Church in exchange of redemption)
 Abuses of power of the clergy

Lutheran doctrine:
- Salvation: faith in Christ (no need of good works).
- Individual interpretation of the Bible  He translated the Bible into German.

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 - No Pope’s infallibility.
- Simplification of sacraments (only Baptism and Eucharist).
- No cult of Virgin and saints.
It spread thanks to the printing press and because of political motifs (German princes against the emperor
Charles V).

 Calvinism  John Calvin (1536, Switzerland)

o Predestination: God determines before birth. No matter what you do for salvation or
condemnation.
o Work dignifies humanity, so being successful in business is sign of predestination.
 Anglicanism  King Henry VIII of England (1534)
o He rejected the Pope’s authority because he did not recognise his divorce  He
proclaimed himself head of the Church of England.

Catholic Reformation  For improving the situation of the Catholic Church.

Council of Trent (1545-63)  Measures

- Authority of the Pope and the Church (infallibility of the Pope over doctrinal matters).
- Church  Only possible interpretation of the Bible
- Good works were necessary for salvation, not just faith.
- Measuring for making the clergy more ‘professional’:
o No indulgences.
o Seminaries for education of the clergy.
o Promotion of exemplary lives.

Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

Founded in 1540 by saint Ignatius of Loyola.
Special observance of the obedience to the Pope
Devoted to education  Spread of the ideas of the Counter-Reformation

Definition: The Renaissance is an artistic style that appeared in Italy in the 15th century and then spread in
Europe, being the predominant style during the 16 th century. It is inspired by Classical art (Greek and Roman
art) and the changes of the Early Modern Period.
The Italian Renaissance is divided in two:
- 15th century (Quattrocento)  Florence
- 16th century (Cinquecento)  Rome

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS:
- Influence of classical models: works, themes, etc.
- Importance of the human figure and the proportion  Anthropocentrism.
- Ideals of beauty, harmony and balance
- Artists  Greater fame and prestige.
 From “artisans” (manual work) to “artists” (intellectual work)
 Importance of the patrons (wealthy people who protected the artists)
- New themes: not only religion and portraits, but also mythology.

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Characteristics:
- Use of Greco-Roman elements: domes, columns, lintels, semi-circular arches, etc.
- Symmetry, simplicity, proportion and balance as representation of beauty.
- Typologies:
o Churches: Latin-cross or central plans.
o Palaces: horizontal structure.

 Brunelleschi
o Dome of Florence Cathedral
(Santa Maria dei Fiori).
o Palazzo Pitti
o Hospital of the Innocents.
o Basilica of San Lorenzo.
 Alberti
o Santa Maria Novella 
Geometry.
 Michelozzo
o Palazzo Medici-Ricardi.
 Bramante
o San Pietro in Montorio (Roma)
o Project for Saint Peter Basilica
(Vatican).
 Michelangelo Buonarroti
o Dome Saint Peter Basilica
(Vatican).
 Palladio
o Villa Capra (Vicenza)

Characteristics:
- Material: marble and bronze.
- Themes: religion, mythologies, portraits.
- Idea of beauty  Idealization.
o Human body as model  Nude representations.
o Depth  Several levels.

 Ghiberti  Michelangelo Buonarrotti

o Gates of Paradise (Florence Marble. Emotions.
Baptistery) o Pietá
 Relieves in bronze. o David.
 Donatello o Moses.
o David o Medici Chapel: tombs for
o Condottiero Gattamelata – Giuliano and Lorenzo de Medici.
equestrian statue. Model   Cellini
Roman emperors. o Perseus
 Giambologna
o Mercury

Characteristics:
- Techniques: fresco (wall painting), oil and tempera on wood or canvas.
- Themes: religion, mythology, portraits, history.
- Realist figures, looking for nature.
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 - Use of linear perspective.

 Fra Angelico
o Annunciation
 Masaccio
o Brancacci Chapel.
 Mantegna
o Death of the Virgin.
 Piero della Francesca
o Madonna Brera
o Portrait of the Duke of Urbino
 Botticelli
o The birth of Venus.
o Allegory of Spring.

 Leonardo da Vinci  Sfumatto (contours are diffuse as the figures are far away).
o Gioconda.
o Virgin with Child and Saint Anne.
o The Last Supper.
 Raphael
o Sistine Madonna.
o The Marriage of the Virgin.
o The School of Athens.
 Michelangelo Buonarroti
o The Sixtine Chapel.
 Vault  Creation, fall, promise of salvation through the prophets, and Christ’s
genealogy.
 Front  The Final Judgement.

GLOSSARY
Modern Age Treaty of Tordesillas Calvinism
Authoritarian Monarchies Juan Sebastián Elcano Anglicanism
Prince Henry the Navigator Humanism Catholic Reformation
Treaty of Alcaçovas Printing press Council of Trent
Christopher Columbus Protestant Reformation Society of Jesus
Capitulations of Santa Fe Martin Luther Renaissance

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 VIDEO - The Renaissance: Was it a Thing? - Crash Course World
History #22
1. What are supposed to be the principles of the Renaissance?
2. What is the Renaissance, according to the video?
3. Which were the areas of study of humanists?
4. What factors made Italy the birthplace of the Renaissance?
5. What was the role of the Ottomans and the Muslim world in the Renaissance?
6. Why does John Green argue that the Renaissance did not even happen?

REVISE
1. Draw a mind map including the main changes in the Early Modern Period.

2. Mark the following as causes or consequences of the geographical explorations and discoveries.
Compass
Invention of the caravel
Cultural enrichment
Advances in cartography
European hegemony
Fall of Constantinople
Exploitation of conquered territories
Increase of international trade
Deeper knowledge of the world
Rivalry between Portugal and Castilla
Spice trade.

3. Draw a mind map with the causes of the geographical discoveries of the 15th century.

4. Complete the table about the Protestant Reformation

LUTHERANISM CALVINISM ANGLICANISM

Main
character
Starting date
Geographical
origin

Main
characteristics

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 5. Comment the following historical source:

DESCRIPTION OF THE SOURCE:

a. What type of source is it?
b. What does it show?
c. Is it a primary or a secondary source? (new information, corresponding to the times, or it
corresponds to a posterior time, and reorganising original information)
INTERPRETATION OF THE SOURCE:
1. What historical event is this source showing?
2. What were the causes of this event?
3. What were the consequences?
CONCLUSION: why is this map relevant? And the event?

TEXT – The authoritarian monarchy: The Prince. Niccolò Machiavelli

(1513)
XII – “[…] The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good
arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are
well armed they have good laws.”
XV – “[…] And I know that everyone will confess that it would be most praiseworthy in a prince to exhibit
all the above qualities that are considered good; but because they can neither be entirely possessed nor
observed, for human conditions do not permit it, it is necessary for him to be sufficiently prudent that he
may know how to avoid the reproach of those vices which would lose him his state; and also to keep
himself, if it be possible, from those which would not lose him it; but this not being possible, he may with
less hesitation abandon himself to them. And again, he need not make himself uneasy at incurring a
reproach for those vices without which the state can only be saved with difficulty, for if everything is
considered carefully, it will be found that something which looks like virtue, if followed, would be his ruin;
whilst something else, which looks like vice, yet followed brings him security and prosperity.”
XVII – “[…] Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved?
It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one
person, it is much safer to be feared than loved […] Men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved
than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of
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men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment
which never fails.
Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred;
because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he
abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women. But when it is necessary for
him to proceed against the life of someone, he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause,
but above all things he must keep his hands off the property of others, because men more quickly forget
the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony […] But when a prince is with his army, and has
under control a multitude of soldiers, then it is quite necessary for him to disregard the reputation of
cruelty, for without it he would never hold his army united or disposed to its duties.
[…] Returning to the question of being feared or loved, I come to the conclusion that, men loving according
to their own will and fearing according to that of the prince, a wise prince should establish himself on that
which is in his own control and not in that of others; he must endeavour only to avoid hatred, as is noted.”
XVIII – “[…] And you have to understand this, that a prince cannot observe all those things for which men
are esteemed, being often forced, in order to maintain the state, to act contrary to fidelity, friendship,
humanity, and religion. Therefore it is necessary for him to have a mind ready to turn itself accordingly as
the winds and variations of fortune force it, yet, as I have said above, not to diverge from the good if he
can avoid doing so, but, if compelled, then to know how to set about it.
[…] He may appear merciful, faithful, humane, upright, and religious. […] Everyone sees what you appear
to be, few really know what you are. For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding
his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody.”

TEXT – Christopher Columbus

“Primeramente, que Vuestras Altezas, como señores que son de las dichas mares Océanas, hacen desde
ahora al dicho D. Cristóbal Colón su Almirante en todas aquellas islas y tierras firmes que por su mano o
industria se descubrieren o ganaren en las dichas mares Océanas, para durante su vida, y, después de él
muerto, a sus herederos o sucesores, de uno en otro perpetuamente, con todas aquellas preeminencias
y prerrogativas pertenecientes al tal oficio.” (Capitulaciones de Santa Fe. 1492)

“Los cuales después venían a las barcas de los navíos a donde nos estábamos, nadando. Y nos traían
papagayos y hilo de algodón en ovillos y azagayas y otras cosas muchas, y nos las trocaban por otras cosas
que nos les dábamos, como cuentecillas de vidrio y cascabeles. En fin, todo tomaban y daban de aquello
que tenían de buena voluntad. Mas me pareció que era gente muy pobre de todo. Ellos andan todos
desnudos como su madre los parió, y también las mujeres. Y todos los que yo vi eran todos mancebos,
que ninguno vi de edad de más de 30 años. Muy bien hechos, de muy hermosos cuerpos y muy buenas
caras. Los cabellos gruesos casi como sedas de cola de caballos, y cortos. Los cabellos traen por encima
de las cejas, salvo unos pocos detrás que traen largos, que jamás cortan. […] Ellos no traen armas ni las
conocen, porque les mostré espadas y las tomaban por el filo, y se cortaban con ignorancia. No tienen
algún hierro. […] Y creo que ligeramente se harían cristianos, que me pareció que ninguna secta tenían.
Yo, placiendo a Nuestro Señor, llevaré de aquí al tiempo de mi partida seis a Vuestra Alteza para que
aprendan a hablar.” (Diario de Cristóbal Colón, 13 de octubre de 1492)

TEXT – Martin Luther: The Ninety-Five Theses on the power and

efficacy of Indulgences (1517)
- 20 Therefore by “full remission of all penalties” the pope means not actually “of all,” but only of
those imposed by himself.
- 21 Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who say that by the pope’s indulgences
a man is freed from every penalty, and saved;

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 - 36 Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without
letters of pardon.
- 37 Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has part in all the blessings of Christ and the
Church; and this is granted him by God, even without letters of pardon.
- 45 Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in need, and passes him by, and gives [his
money] for pardons, purchases not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation of God.
- 82 Questions such as: “why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of
the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of
miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is
most trivial.”
- 86 Again: “Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day greater than the riches of the richest,
build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor
believers?”
- 89 Since the pope, by his pardons, seeks the salvation of souls rather than money, why does he
suspend the indulgences and pardons granted heretofore, since these have equal efficacy?
- 92 Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Peace, peace,” and there
is no peace! (Jer. 6:14)
- 94 Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through
penalties, deaths, and hell;
- 95 And thus be confident of entering into heaven rather through many tribulations, than through
the assurance of peace”.
Martin Luther, The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (1517)
Source: Wikisource (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ninety-Five_Theses)

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