ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY I THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND OF EARLY AMERICA The study of American history may very well begin with taking a glance at that Europe which was the parent of early America. What kind of place was the Old World at the time the New World was discovered? What was the character of European civilization when the people of Europe first began to go out to the wilds of America? THE NATIONS AND THEIR GOVERNMENTS The leading countries of Europe at the time the history of America begins-that is, at the end of the fifteenth century— were Italy, France, England, Spain, Russia, Germany, and Austria. Of these the last three were prevented, either by the backwardness of their civilization or by an unfavorable geographical position, from taking a part in the affairs of the newly discovered world. So it is to Italy, France, Spain, and England that we must look for the European background of early American history. Not one of these countries was a great compact sovereign state, such as we know to-day. Italy, which made no pretense of being a nation, consisted for the most part of free cities-republics they were called-such as Venice, Florence, Siena, Genoa. Italy These little states, independent and extremely jealous of each other, kept the Italian peninsula in a turmoil with their rivalries and made it impossible for Italy to become a great united country. France, Spain, and England, however, could fittingly be France called nations, albeit not very powerful ones. France, after many centuries of disunion and discord, had by the end of the fifteenth century been consolidated into something like a national I Spain England Monarchy The Classes power. This century saw likewise the consolidation of Spain. For in 1479, by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, Aragon and Castile were united, and in the very year in which America was discovered Spain spread her power over Granada and forthwith took a foremost place among the states of Europe. England, too, could be called a nation, for by 1485 the king (Henry VII) had put down rebellious nobles and had established a central government which was receiving the obedience of all his subjects. The prevailing type of government was the monarchy, the king being assisted in his tasks by the nobles-dukes, earls, counts, barons. In England there was an elected Parliament and the semblance at least of representative government. In most of the countries, however, the monarch was absolute; such power as the king could wield he wielded as a despot. In the cities and towns the people were usually allowed to manage their own affairs in their own way, but in the management of the affairs of the country at large they had no voice. The larger affairs of government, whether of a legislative, executive, or judicial nature, were in the hands of privileged classes-kings, nobles, clergy. Popular government, as we understand the term, had no existence whatever. SOCIAL CONDITIONS In every country society was divided into three classes by lines of cleavage that were clear and distinct. At the top of the social scale was a land-holding class consisting of nobles who for the most part lived in the open country on great estates called manors. Below the nobles was a middle class which lived in the towns and cities. To this class belonged artisans, merchants, lawyers, doctors, priests. At the bottom of the scale was a lower class composed of serfs and peasants. To this lower class belonged more than half of the entire population. The serfs and peasants tilled the fields of the land-holding class. The serf was almost a slave, for he was fixed to the spot where he was born and was compelled to work for his landlord, receiving no pay for his labor except a portion of the crops which he grew. But serfdom at the end of the fifteenth century was fast dying out in western Europe, and the lower class consisted chiefly of the peasantry. The lot of the peasant was hard, but he was a freeman, for he could move from place to place and work for the lord of his choosing. Catholic In every grade of society religion was a powerful force. The The Catholic faith was universal. The Greek Catholic Church with Church its head at Constantinople prevailed in southeastern Europe and throughout "all the Russias." Throughout western EuropeGermany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, England—the supreme and all-pervasive religious and spiritual force was the Roman Catholic Church with the pope (the bishop of Rome) at its head. Protestantism as a religious movement or as a distinct form of religious belief had not yet appeared. With the exception of a few Jews and skeptics the entire population was Catholic. So in the fifteenth century Europe was Catholic to the core, and the strongest of social forces was the Catholic Church. sities and The schools were under the control and direction of the church. Education was confined almost wholly to the clergy and to the wealthy and favored classes. There were universities Univer-about fifty in all Europe-at which students were trained in Schools grammar, rhetoric, logic, law, theology, philosophy, and medicine. Below the universities there were in all the larger towns church schools in which pupils were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and the rudiments of Latin. The number of pupils who received the benefits of education was but an insignificant portion of the whole population. In every country the vast majority of the people were illiterate and ignorant. INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS Compared with the crowded conditions of to-day the population was strangely small. No complete official census had as yet been taken, but it is safe to say that the inhabitants of Europe at the end of the fifteenth century numbered hardly more. than a tenth of what they number to-day. And the population A Small was strangely sparse. People for the most part lived on farms Sparse or in villages. There were many towns, but no great cities. tion and Popula The two largest places were Paris and Venice, but Paris was not as large as our Indianapolis, while Venice was scarcely larger than our Toledo. London was still a town, Berlin was only a fishing-village, while Petrograd did not exist at all. So, when thinking of the Europe of the fifteenth century, we must dismiss from our minds the teeming populations and crowded centers of to-day and picture a very thinly populated continent where there were no great cities and where urban life on a large scale was unknown.1 Where the masses were so ignorant and the population so sparse there could be of course only a very simple industrial life. Everywhere the chief occupation of the people was agriculture. All classes from the king to the serfs were engaged in tilling the soil. Even the artisans in the towns tilled little plots of land. But agriculture was still in a very rude state. Plows were constructed chiefly of wood, and the reaping of grain was done with a sickle. In the towns spinning, weaving, tanning, shoemaking, and other trades flourished. Manufacturing was extremely simple, both in its organization and in its methods. The typical industrial establishment was a little shop-usually one of the rooms of a dwelling-in which the entire working force consisted of three persons: the master, one skilled workman known as a journeyman, and an apprentice learning his Manufac- trade. Mechanical devices were few. The use of steam as a Industries motive power had not yet been discovered, and almost all kinds of work were performed by hand. Agriculture turing Fairs Simple also was the organization of commerce. Most of the buying and selling was done in the little shops where tradesmen disposed of the very articles which their handicraft had fashioned. For the tradesman then was both a manufacturer and a merchant. In the larger towns there were held fairs which 1 The estimated population of Europe in the year 1500 is as follows: 3,700.000 12,600,000 800,000 2,000,000 9,500,000 9,200,000 8,500,000 46,300,000 |