European Social History

Key Concept: 17th-century European society and the experiences of everyday life were increasingly shaped by commercial and agricultural capitalism, notwithstanding the persistence of medieval social and economic structures.

Economics

Economic change produced new social patterns, while traditions of hierarchy and status persisted.
  • Innovations in banking and finance promoted the growth of urban financial centers and a money economy.
    • Dutch East India Company (471, 578)
    • English East India Company (578, 623, 657, 804)
  • The growth of commerce produced a new economic elite, which related to traditional elites in different ways in Europe’s various geographic regions.
    • Gentry in England
    • Nobles of the robe in France
    • Town elites (bankers and merchants)

Agricultural Revolution

 Most Europeans derived their livelihood from agriculture and oriented their lives around the seasons, the village, or the manor, although economic changes began to alter rural production and power. (554-558)
  • Agricultural problems and crises that Europeans faced in the 16th and 17th centuries.
    • What were the disadvantages of the open-field system?
  • Causes and consequences of the agricultural revolution?
    • In which countries did the agricultural revolution originate? Explain the factors that granted these countries their leadership.
  • Subsistence agriculture was the rule in most areas, with three-crop field rotation in the north and two-crop rotation in the Mediterranean; in many cases, farmers paid rent and labor services for their lands.
  • The price revolution contributed to the accumulation of capital and the expansion of the market economy through the commercialization of agriculture, which benefited large landowners in western Europe.
    • Enclosure movement
    • Restricted use of the village common

Eastern European Serfdom

Nobles in Eastern Europe continued to control the common people, especially in comparison to Western Europe.
  • As western Europe moved toward a free peasantry and commercial agriculture, serfdom was codified in the east, where nobles continued to dominate economic life on large estates. (482, 555)
  • The attempts of landlords to increase their revenues by restricting or abolishing the traditional rights of peasants led to revolt.
  • A German Account of Russian Life (500-501)

Population Shifts

Population shifts and growing commerce caused the expansion of cities, which often found their traditional political and social structures stressed by the growth. (558-560)
  • What was the overall pattern of population growth before the 18th century?
    • Trace the history of population changes from the 14th century up to the 18th – succinctly note patterns of growth and decline, as well as reasons for these changes.
    • Explain the factors that caused the population explosion of the 18th century.
  • Population recovered to its pre-Great Plague level in the 16th century, and continuing population pressures contributed to uneven price increases; agricultural commodities increased more sharply that wages, reducing living standards for some.
    • Migrants to the cities challenged the ability of merchant elites and craft guilds to govern and strained resources.
      • sanitation problems caused by overpopulation
      • employment
      • poverty
      • crime
    • Social dislocation, coupled with the weakening of religious institutions during the Reformation, left city governments with the task of regulating public morals.
      • new secular laws regulating private life
      • stricter codes on prostitution and begging
      • abolishing or restricting Carnival
      • Calvin’s Geneva

Marriage & the Family

The family remained the primary social and economic institution of early modern Europe and took several forms, including the nuclear family. (586-591)
  • What changes occurred in marriage and the family in the course of the 18th century? What factors account for these changes?
  • Describe patterns of employment for young people. What did (a) boys and (b) girls do for employment, and how were they treated?
  • The number of illegitimate births decline while the rate of premarital sex increased in the first half of the 18th century. Explain why this occurred.
  • Explain what is meant by the illegitimacy explosion that occurred between 1750 and 1850. According to historians, what are two interpretations of why this explosion occurred?
  • Rural and urban households worked as units, with men and women engaged separate but complementary tasks.

Leisure

Popular culture, leisure activities, and rituals reflecting the persistence of folk ideas reinforced and sometimes challenged communal ties and norms. (595-598)
  • Leisure activities continued to be organized according to the religious calendar and the agricultural cycle and remained communal in nature.
    • Saint’s day festivities
    • Carnival
    • Blood sports
  • Local and church authorities continued to enforce communal norms through rituals of public humiliation.
    • Charivari
    • Stockades
    • Public whipping and branding

Medical Practice

Describe how the practice of medicine evolved in the eighteenth century. (609-614)
  • Identify five different groups of medical practitioners and describe the healing methods and services of each.
  • Describe the condition of 18th-century hospitals.
  • What was the greatest medical advancement of the 18th century? Who was responsible for this advancement?
  • Living in the past: Improvements in Childbirth (612-613)

Food & Fashion

Ordinary folks depended on grain as the staff of life. However, as a consumer revolution spread, eating and buying habits changed. (598-603)
  • What was the diet of the poor? Of the upper classes? Of the urban lower middle/middle classes?
  • What was the impact of diet on the health of the poor? On the health of the rich? Which group of people had the healthiest diet, and why was this the case?
  • How did patterns of food consumption change during the course of the 18th century?
  • What was the new “Consumer Society” (601)
  • Picturing the Past - The Fashion Merchant (602)

Children & Education

Explain what life was like for children and how attitudes toward childhood evolved. (591-595)
  • Describe childcare and nursing practices of the lower classes vs. the upper classes. Include the term following terms: wet-nurse and killing nurse.
  • Why did the number of foundlings (orphanages) increase in 18th century Europe? What was the charitable response to the increased number of foundlings? Was this response effective or not?
  • How were children in 18th century Europe viewed and treated? What factors influenced this attitude?
    • How did Rousseau attack existing attitudes toward children in Emile?
    • How did attitudes toward and treatment of children change at the end of the 18th century?
  • How did education and literacy evolve in the period 1500-1800?
    • Identify four types of popular literature.
    • Differentiate between the reading of the common people vs. the educated elite.

Witchcraft

What were the causes and consequences of witch-hunts? (435-437)
  • Reflecting folk ideas and social and economic upheaval, accusations of witchcraft peaked between 1580-1650. (Spielvogel 435-437)
  • Current event: Woman convicted of witchcraft to get retrial 300 years later (goo.gl/Dx3A9h)